Seeing George Washington

It was a perfect fall day today so I changed my original plan of an art exhibit downtown and decided to walk to the other side of Old Town to visit the George Washington Masonic Temple. As you can see above, it is quite a beautiful building. I arrived just as a tour was starting so I joined in. I know very little about the freemasons and I kept thinking that my dad and brother would have gotten a lot more out of this tour than I did. The building was built as a memorial to George Washington who was very prominent in the Alexandria chapter of the freemasons. GW is really big in Alexandria, well in DC too - go figure. There are chairs he sat on, mugs he used, papers he wrote, all over the place.

I asked the very young tour guide (who himself was a mason) if there really were aliens in the basement. This is why Hollywood is filled with Canadian comedians. Americans have no sense of humour. My talents were wasted.

We didn't get to see any of the building that they actually use, but still it was quite a grand structure. I did find it funny that the guide kept stressing how the freemasons were not the same as the knights templar and that was all just pop culture mumbo jumbo, meanwhile, he referred to some rituals and practices that the masons follow that were directly taken from the knights templar. There was also a painting of some important person from the original knights who had sacrificed himself for his beliefs that was in their chapel. But no, the two groups aren't related at all. If he says so...

I asked about women in the masons and he said oh yes, yes they can join. Not the actual group of course but their own one run by women and called something else - and then only if they have a relative (male) who is a mason. Now I'm not saying that women should have to be allowed to join the masons, but if they aren't, just be honest about it.

We did get to go up to the observation level at the top of the tower. The temple sits on top of a hill and so has a wonderful view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately the fall here is not like at home so the colours are quite muted and not the golden yellows and brilliant reds of autumn in Ontario....

Some of the mason brotherhood have very funny hats.

A Streetcar Named Desire

I wonder what it means when I say I think the definitive production of Tennessee Williams' classic piece has been created by an Australian theatre company. Paid for by Americans, but not created by them.

I have only seen two productions of Streetcar before last night. Most recently in Toronto by Soulpepper (a good 10 years ago), in an absolutely horrific self-indulgent version. So perhaps my sample is not large. But what I do know is that too often people play up the obvious. Stanley tries to be Marlon Brando. Stella is just a one dimensional victim. Not so in the Sydney Theatre Co. production.

Cate Blanchett is divine as Blanche. She seems so easy on stage somehow. So at home there. There isn't a false or artificial moment in her work. It's interesting, in her talk earlier in the week, she mentioned accents and the discussion they had had surrounding the southern accents in this piece. She spoke about the rhythms in Williams' writing and how without the accents the dialogue did not flow as he intended it to. The all Australian acting company's accents were of course flawless. But it is the rhythm of this production that they got exactly right. Nothing is forced, every moment is honest. The design is perfect. Dingy enough but allows for some clever staging. Mostly muted colours with a couple of noted exceptions in the costumes.

The other actors kept pace with Cate too. Especially I felt the Stella. Robin McLeavy, an Australian actress with no international credits, plays Stella with many levels and great empathy. She isn't a victim here - she's made choices, maybe not great ones, but she doesn't regret them and that's a take on the character that I'd not seen before. Stanley is complex. You don't like him at all but he's charismatic and has got that thing that some of those bastard guys have (and takes his shirt off a LOT which is just fine).

The play runs 3 hours 15 minutes but it honestly flew by. I'd go see it again if I could get a ticket.

There have been many Cate sightings now around the building - I have yet to have my first one. I think I should take up smoking as it seems to be the smokers who see her up on the terrace sneaking a ciggy. I do have to admit I've been entering and leaving through the Eisenhower stage door more than normal :-)

As seen on 14th Street....

With helpful tips for what you could need an over-sized pink bunny for. Please note the Obama ornament in the first photo...

Theatrical Highs and Lows

High: Cate Blanchett in conversation. "Theatre at its best is a dangerous and impolite medium".

I cannot wait to see her in Streetcar this Thursday night.

Low: The Worst Play Ever Written, the musical (actual title The Adding Machine). Surprisingly well directed for such a piece of crap.

yoga

Many of you know that I coordinated yoga classes one lunch time a week at Canstage. Well the KC has something similar where a class is held on the balcony lobby of the Opera every Monday. Neat space for yoga with chandeliers, high ceilings and red carpet and remarkably private considering it's open to the Grand Foyer.

I went to class today for the first time and I have to say that I miss Jayme (my old teacher) and class! This class was really geared at the people in our dance department (it is coordinated through them) so it is a very advanced class. That shouldn't matter for yoga really as you can adjust and modify your own practice and go at your own pace. Except this teacher doesn't demonstrate the poses, she only says the names and she wasn't always using a name that I knew or remembered (fish pose? I don't know if I'd every done fish pose...). If you had never taken a yoga class, you would be completely lost in this one. I didn't like that - I like yoga classes that really welcome all levels of experience where there is lots of room to work towards improving yourself without feeling self-conscious (this again is Jayme's influence!)

This teacher also used some weird terminology like "Sun Salutes" instead of "salutations". It made me feel like I was in the military. It was an ashtanga class, so much faster than I am accustomed to with the vinyasas (spelling?) in between poses, which I just don't like (that's partly laziness I admit). So it was fast and confusing until I figured out what pose she meant and not the easiest environment for me to focus on the exercise. Also quite exhausting

- especially for mid day on a Monday. Not sure how often I'll go. It felt good to get some exercise in a structured way but I need to look elsewhere. There is a studio down the street from me which I really should check out at least for a weekend class.

Thank god for an extra hour this weekend. I packed too many things in last week and reached today feeling a tad burned out.

Friday night I ventured to Maryland for the first (and perhaps last!) time to see some modern dance. The dance was not good and the journey was far. Blah. We did however pass a string of excellent strip mall dining establishments - Pollo Primo 2, Don Pollo and my favorite where I wish we'd had time to stop - Pollo Wow! (yes, the restaurant had an ! in its title). Pollo is chicken for my non-Spanish speaking friends and I think Pollo Wow! has a lot of promise.

Saturday night I went to the final preview of the new Woolly Mammoth show (for those of you perhaps not involved in theatre - Hallowe'en is a great night to see a play for free or cheap since no one buys tickets and it is typically a very slow night - this was free). It was an interesting piece and certainly the best theatre I've seen in DC so far. The piece, called Full Circle, takes place in multiple locations around their building (very funky building). It was sort of about the fall of the Berlin Wall except that it wasn't really. It was never actually sinister and was quite stylized in how it was presented - inspired by Caucasian Chalk Circle. It felt a bit likely something we would have seen in Toronto in the 90s, but I think for this town, a noble effort. And very neat to see the space and the different things they did with it. It would be wonderful if when the Theatre Centre's renovations are complete, the building could be as versatile as this one.

Today, I went to a fellows brunch out in Eastern Market. Really nice to see people in such a relaxed and normal setting. I think we are all craving something in our life to be normal. As neat and interesting as everything is, it's exhausting having everything new and different all the time (and still). It's nice to find moments that remind us of how we used to live.