Author: Matthew Groff

  • What Is Happening?

    It has been such a strange news week. All of it bad.

    I try to avoid writing about politics as it makes me angry and I feel like not a whole lot gets settled.

    But this week has started me rethinking that decision.

    First of all, the context of this week’s events was clearly framed by John McCain’s funeral. From The New Yorker calling it the “…Biggest Resistance Meeting Yet,” to W. Bush and Obama saying nice things about an adversary while sharing a pew together. (And the two couples did seem to be enjoying each other’s company.)

    Then we get Bob Woodward’s book, “FEAR,” which proposes that things are very bad in the Trump White House. Only to be followed by the anonymous New York Times Op-Ed that pretty much confirms Woodward’s book.

    I agree with most of the late-night comedians, nothing about Woodward’s book or the Op-Ed piece make me feel any better. Trump is surround ideologies encouraging his worst tendencies, and  cowards who have a way to save the Republic, the 25th Amendment, but won’t do anything other than secretly try to thwart their boss when he’s not looking.

    I can’t help but wonder, how will this end? It just keeps getting worse every week. I’m ready to vote in the Blue Wave, but even then, it would only be a check to Trump’s power. What I fear, but know is right, is that we have to get through two more years of this, because I want Trump removed in an election. I want the people of this country to say, “No more,” and elect another person.

    And that is a dangerous gamble. I have a bad feeling that Trump could find a way to win in 2020.

    It’s not that crazy of an idea, because none of us thought he’d win in 2016.

  • Kids are Watching

    I have been keeping an eye on the Judge Kavanaugh’s hearing, and all the news coverage leading up to it. I know the fear is that he will overturn Roe v Wade, or at least be the 5th vote to overturn it. And then when you ask other people, the world will come to an end when he is put on the Supreme Court.

    Amid the protests, and all the other crazy stuff that was happening in the hearing, I noticed that the judge had brought his kids. I have no issue with that, and I think if I were in his shoes, I would have done the same thing.

    What is going through those kid’s minds as people protest their father? When people say that their dad is going to take away rights, and help cause women’s deaths, or when they claim that he is nothing but a tool for big money, what goes through their minds? The judge and his wife must have prepped his kids for what might happen; That people were going to say mean and hateful things about their father.

    But still, to be a kid and sit there and have people insult your father must be a weird and hard thing to hear. How does a kid begin to process that?

    You can still protest against someone, even if they have children. I’m not advocating that the judge gets a pass because his kids are around.

    Just an observation and thought.

  • Before and After Labor Day in NYC

    One of the great events that happens in the City every year is the exodus and return of the masses around Labor Day. It does slowly build over the Summer, that you slowly begin to notice fewer and fewer people around. Subways are a little less crowed, and the lines are just a little shorter at the grocery store.

    Then, like clockwork, or magic, everything changes on the Tuesday morning after Labor Day. People are everywhere again. The subway is packed, lines are long, and the City has returned to frantic full capacity. For me, how naïve I feel, forgetting what that packed feeling is like. This year had a nice bonus; another heat wave with extreme humidity. It’s just gross out.

    This year, I did notice something new. I now work in the Financial District, and this is the first Labor Day down here. This morning when I was walking down Wall Street, I was shocked by the lack of tourists. All summer, I had been navigating tour groups, and errant wanders with their cameras, along with clearly distraught people looking at maps. Nothing this morning.

    This morning, it was just all of us locals who work down there.

  • Rehearsal

    The end of last week, I started rehearsing for another show, and I have been looking forward to working on this production for the past four months. Counting down the days. The best part of this show is that I am working with all of my friends, so rehearsal does feel a little like hanging out. Some of these people I have been working with for 15 years, so we have gone from high energy of our 20’s to mellow confidence of our 40’s.

    As I have spent my time in New York, I have come to several understandings about me and theatre. The first of which is that I love rehearsing; it is my favorite part. An audience and performance are pretty awesome, don’t get me wrong. Oh, but to be in a company of players, is there nothing better? Making new friends, or reacquainting old friendships, learning to work together, watching something abstract become physical and real, and working as a team for a goal.

    I have also learned how I like to work. I like being early in the space, and taking my time to get ready. I can’t walk in the door and just do it. I need to allow myself to get in the mindset, and in a sense, get my game face on. Focus might be the better way to describe it. Also, I’m an observer and I have to take everything internal first, digest it, before I know what I want to do.

    Either way, I have three wonderful weeks of hard work ahead of me, surrounded by my friends.

  • Don’t be a Dick

    A long time ago, I used to work at a theatre school. It was a very small company, and everyone wore many hats. On the first day of classes, the faculty would give new students a tour of the classrooms and the studios. Though I wasn’t a member of the faculty, I offered to give tours, and to my surprise, they directors agreed.

    I wanted to do it for two main reasons; I wanted to see how funny I could be to a bunch of 18 year olds, and two, I remember how nervous I was on the first day of college and I wanted to help everybody relax.

    The staff had a script for the tour, but I never referred to it, except to pick one kid to read the section which suggested that the tour guide should work into the conversation that it is expected for the students to shower each day. (When a student read that out loud, it usually got a nervous laugh, and I would follow up with saying, “Please, don’t stink.”)

    The theme of my tour was, “Don’t be a dick.” Such as be respectful to each other, don’t be a dick. The studio spaces are rented by professional theatre companies, so don’t be a dick around them, coz you might have to audition for them, and they’ll remember you were that dick student. By the end of my short tour, I had the students finishing the punchline as I set up the joke, “Don’t be a dick.”

    I thought it was sage theatre advice. In fact, good advice all around.