Dear Friends,
So…we just finished our first week of Patsy’s Block Party, our first virtual production of the season. Each night I get changed into my Patsy outfit in my bathroom then head into what used to be our spare bedroom but is now decorated like a South Philly crafting room. Each night I step over the cords snaking through the stairwells in our house that connect the lighting, sound, and video equipment so that my cameraman (also known as my husband Scott Greer) and I can do a pre-show tech check with the team: my fellow performer, Brian Anthony Wilson, broadcasting from Cherry Hill, NJ; Stage Manager, Tom Shotkin, broadcasting from Ardmore; and 1812’s Production Manager and Video Designer/Producer, Ben Levan, who is running it all from his home in Southwest Philly. It is surreal.
I miss the rituals of being in the theater live every night. I miss arriving in the lobby and checking with the box office manager to see how many are in the audience for that performance. I miss warming up on stage before the show and the backstage camaraderie and inside jokes that inevitably become a part of the shared vocabulary of any production. I miss the electric moment when the lights come up and the show begins. I miss saying something funny and hearing the audience laugh…or not. I miss the audience and the immediacy of our interaction. I miss you.
Every night of Patsy’s Block Party, we interview someone who is doing good work in the community. This past week we talked to Philadelphia public school teacher, Jade Tuff, Philabundance Community Kitchen Chef/Instructor, Samir Hernandez, and President of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Matt Rader, among others. Each of them are figuring out how to adapt and continue their mission through these strange days of pandemic and quarantine. Talking with each of them reminded me that we are all still figuring it out.
As we navigate the new waters of online production, I am so grateful to you for coming on this journey and figuring it out with us. Over this past week of Patsy performances, I have loved seeing your names and reading your comments in the chat. I have loved taking your questions and your suggestions for our improvisations. I have loved being reminded that we are still together…just together sitting in our living rooms instead of in the theater together. And let’s face it, your couch is much more comfortable than our seats ever were.
This week we are talking to Broad Street Ministries Founder, Bill Golderer, Executive Director of Philadelphia Young Playwrights, Lisa Nelson Haynes, and “Yafavtrashman” Terrill Heigler, among others. We are also doing Philly food face-offs between the Tastycake and the cheesesteak, the soft pretzel and Chickie & Pete’s crab fries. We’re crafting and playing charades and making each other laugh. I hope you can join us for this final week of Patsy’s Block Party, because it’s much more fun to figure it out together.
Sending love and laughs your way,
-Jen
Jennifer Childs, Producing Artistic Director
jen@1812productions.org
Jennifer Childs as her character Patsy. Photo by Scott Greer.