on sunday i drove to the steppenwolf theater for a staged reading of the bill thomas elizabeth doyle musical “duo: 1 is 1; 2 is math”. i was taking with me f2fb friends #190 and 191, naomi koppelman and nicole kupper.
both naomi and nicole had worked with my sons in theater a few short months ago. okay, maybe a year or two ago. all right, when we added it up, it became clear that six years had gone by. in that time, both women had found long term boyfriends, had had children (naomi one, nicole three) and had wrestled with whether to marry (naomi will do so in october, nicole is not so sure). i thought “wow, if i only keep up with my friends on facebook, i’m not getting the whole story” — like the fact that nicole’s baby daddy is a musician from ghana. or that naomi’s fiance is a boat captain. or that naomi was in tony and tina’s wedding, only the funnest show in chicago theater. or that the economy worried them so much. well, that last part was an easy one, since EVERYBODY is worried about the economy.
nicole kupper
the play duo was about an older, middle class couple looking back on their marriage. there was no dance number, there wasn’t any secondary character who steals the show. there wasn’t much of a plot, as near as i could tell. just a lot of sondheim-y kind of music–the sort that makes me think “are they offkey?”
naomi was briefly retired from the stage but is auditioning again--i wish her luck!
as i was coming home, i was feeling melancholy about my own failed marriage. it failed because of me, because i wasn’t as good of a wife as i could have been. i feel bad about that. and then i had a wonderful surprise: my friend from high school, zeeb peterson, had recently contacted me on facebook. he and his wife beth would be in town. they parked their van outside my house. they live in it when they travel and they are always together, sharing the pagan lifestyle and their artwork. i am very happy for them!
much of the year, the petersons live in this van and drive it around the country promoting their line of fairy furniture and artwork . . . go to feywood.net
i also was quite worried. a facebook friend i had visited with a week and a half ago had left me a phone message sometime while i slept. she was worried that a video we had made of her somehow cast her in a bad light. i wasn’t sure what video she was referring to and i asked her to call me back. i delete anything that people don’t like. one f2fb friend didn’t want it to be mentioned that she had been a man at one point in our relationship. and although i think every single person who knows her knows the whole story, i changed mine so that it never happened. another friend told a funny story about her ex-husband but then decided he might get upset. so far i haven’t figured out what my friend wants to do–she hasn’t called me back. but i worried if i have hurt anyone with this project when all i’ve wanted to do was fulfill my new years resolution.
i think nicole was happy after the theater because the show reminded her that she has the talent to create great musicals. naomi was happy because stephanie hurovitz added her to a general mailing list stephanie sends out with audition notices. stephanie was happy because naomi was going to set her up with some gentlemen callers. zeeb and beth were happy because a woman stopped her car next to their van and wanted to buy some of their artwork. and i was happy because i had seen my friends!
arlynnpresser 
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