Days Two & Three: Long Tables

TUESDAY - LA LGBT CENTER

Tuesday morning took Lois and Peggy to a rainbow-colored corner of LA: West Hollywood and the LGBT Center. We were joined at a Long Table by a glorious group of queer elders, who shared their buried desires, unexpressed tensions and homemade loveheart cookies - we'd almost forgot about Valentine's Day.

We spoke further about the activities happening at the Skirball Center, and invited anyone who was interested to drop in on us in the Getty Gallery. Lois was on the lookout for potential participants to assist with some parts of the performances on Friday and Saturday.

The Skirball's lovely Elena drove us back through West Hollywood (Hannah hung her head out the window, desperate to see the sign, and definitely caught at least 'LYWOOD').

Back in the Getty Gallery, we were joined by one of the docents from yesterday, Susan, who had dragged her husband Joel along also. We had a great chat about the show, carrying over some of the talking points from Monday's Long Table, and persuaded them both to be involved in the performance on Friday. The brief readthroughs suggested some real show-stealing potential!

WEDNESDAY - UCLA

Once again Jo took off early in the house-sized SUV, to continue making a museum gallery look like a war room (nearly there!). The rest of the team were picked up by the wonderful Debra Miller, a (decades??) old dear friend of Split Britches. She has also been busy setting up an LA Cabaret as a part of next Monday's #NotMyPresidentsDay performance events - an international network of resistive actions coordinated through Bad & Nasty. It's at the Lyric Hyperion Theatre and Lois and Peggy will be doing a turn - you can get tickets HERE.

We wandered around the Pixar picturesqueness of the UCLA campus, before being led upstairs by Prof Sylvan Oswald to this next Long Table space - a dance studio! The Marley flooring necessitated perhaps the first ever barefoot Long Table.

Attendees represented a mixed spread of students and faculty at the school, from undergraduates to professors. The session began by inviting anyone to ask questions of Lois and Peggy, who spoke about their practice and history as a company. They were also asked if in their 67 and 72 years respectiviely they had ever made work in a similar political climate - the rest of the session became couched in reflection upon the election and resistance to its 45th outcome. Following the conversation, Lois invited everyone to offer a 'We could...' creative imaginative response to the issues discussed.

Back at the Skirball for a few hours of trouble-shooting the show: little re-writes, cue changes, sourcing a pair of handcuffs (spoiler alert?). The lights are on, we're starting to feel at home.

(HM)