So this is a theatre blog. I know that, you know that. BUT I am a lover of all things narrative, regardless of form. I prefer some forms to others (and in college did play fuck/marry/kill where the options were theatre, film, and television), but it is important to me that, as a theatre practitioner, I stay abreast of what's going on in literature, television, and film as well. Good storytelling is good storytelling, and of course the best playwrights and actors work across stage and screen, so I like to keep up. That being said, there are only so many hours in a day! I have other stuff to do! I spend so many hours consuming content and I simply cannot see everything. I'm doing my best to prioritize (spreadsheets are involved) and not just rewatch my favorite episodes of Friends and New Girl over and over again. So I've decided that once a month on my blog I will recap the non-theatrical content I've been enjoying. I know you've all been wondering what I, a taste-maker, have been watching, reading, and listening to this month. So here goes nothing! Books Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty I know what you're thinking- 'what is this, 2014?' Well we all get to be late to the party about some things, and I'm sorry I wasn't in your mom's book club during my freshman year of college when I was busy reading other things. Anyway, this month I finally read Big Little Lies, mostly because everyone is obsessed with the TV show and I don't have HBO (though if anyone wants to hook me up with the password that would be great) and now when people ask me about it I get to have a brief moment of superiority where I say, "Oh, no, I haven't seen it, but I've read the book." See also: why I am currently reading The Handmaid's Tale. Anyway, I really enjoyed Big Little Lies! I don't usually read mysteries and I really enjoy that this one centered around a group of women with a diversity of life experiences. I also genuinely didn't see the ending coming, which was great. ALSO did you know this book takes place in the suburbs of Sydney? I assumed it took place in the States because of the TV show. I also learned that I do not have a diversity of Australian accents in my imagination so it was really hard for me to give the characters different voices in my head. Beloved by Toni Morrison I know, another instance of Stephanie being WAY late to the party, but I'm sorry my high school reading curriculum involved, as far as I can remember, zero (0) books by women of color*, so I'm playing catch up on a lot of seminal texts at the moment! I went into this book relatively blind, knowing only that it deals with the aftermath of slavery and won the Pulitzer Prize, so I was prepared to be wrecked. Little did I know that this is a ghost story??? I don't really think that's a spoiler, I just think I'm a dummy. It was a really incredible read and put me in a slightly spooky (important: not scary) mood. It also takes place in the after math of the Civil War, which is a period of time I have not read much about and shed light on the harrowing realties of an entire community learning to exist in a nation that was founded on the principle that they are not actually human beings. All in all, a very heavy read with a huge touch of ghostiness. *Just remembered that we read The Joy Luck Club as our pre-9th grade summer reading assignment. That's all I got though. Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza And now we confront one of my ongoing problems with reading as an adult- grown-up books are about grown-up problems. Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win is the story of the titular Charlotte, a Silicon Valley exec, who decides to return to her home state of Pennsylvania to run for Senate in the 2018 midterm elections. Unlike the other books I read this month, this book is solidly grounded in the very recent past and definitely did not provide a sense of escapism that I so often look for in a good book. The book begins with Charlotte hiring a campaign manager and ends on election night and takes so many twists and turns along the way as she and her opponent, the cartoonishly villainous Republican Senator Ted Slaughter, come after each other with personal jabs through out the election cycle. I enjoyed some of the wild revelations, but at the end of the day, I didn't love reading a book about a female politician being publicly humiliated. There's a reason I don't go on twitter anymore. Additionally, the book was really more about Charlotte's challenging relationship with her husband Max. You find out early on in the book that Max has cheated on Charlotte in the past, and one of the reasons he is putting his whole life on hold to be a stay-at-home dad to their three daughters and support the campaign is because, essentially, he owes her. This brings me back to my ongoing problem about grown-up books being about grown-up problems. I'm too old for the YA books that filled my shelves in middle and high school (although tbh I still have The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Fault in Our Stars in my room), but so much of literary fiction is about proper adults. Not beginner adults, like yours truly. Oh well. TV Big Mouth is a show I really should hate, but I absolutely love. I am generally biased against animated TV shows geared towards adults (examples of shows I cannot stand: The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park), but when I saw the cast and creative team for Big Mouth I decided to give it a chance and now, three seasons in, I am still hooked. For those of you who don't know, Big Mouth focuses on 7th graders Nick (Nick Kroll), Andrew (John Mulaney), and Jessi (Jessi Klein) as the navigate the trials and tribulations of puberty, aided by their hormone monsters (Nick Kroll and Maya Rudolph). The first two seasons deal with more of the textbook puberty issues- periods, masturbation, first kisses, etc- so by season three we are delving into some more complicated issues, such as dress codes, cell phone addiction, and coming out. My favorite episodes of the season were Episode 7: Duke, in which we find out the back story of The Ghost of Duke Ellington (Jordan Peele), who lives as a ghost in Nick's attic, alongside a very unique explanation of World War I and Episode 10: Disclosure the Movie: The Musical, in which the gang works on their school musical while Coach Steve (Nick Kroll) gets a makeover from the Queer Eye Fab Five, who were parodied flawlessly. I finally finished Portlandia (only a year and a half late)! Portlandia is a sketch comedy show starring and created by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, who play a series of reoccuring characters who are over the top parodies of Portland residents, including owners of a feminist bookstore, local goths, and overly competitive outdoorsmen types. The final season featured all the old favorite characters and a whole bunch of incredible guest stars, including Tracee Ellis Ross as a photo booth coach, John Mulaney and Nick Kroll as their characters from Oh, Hello!, and John Corbett as himself. Additionally, in the series finale we finally learn the backstory of Portland's beloved mayor, played by Kyle McLachlan, and it involves my fellow CMU grad and Tony and Emmy Award winner Cherry Jones playing a creepy witch who lives under a bridge. In the interest of being perfectly honest, I think it's important you know that I've never been to Portland. I still find the show hilarious because so many of the characters would feel at home in any other hipster neighborhood in America, but I'm sure I am missing out on some Portland specific references. All I know about Portland is that one of my friends who moved there said all the things that made her interesting in other places she's lived were completely normal in Portland, so there's that. Controversial opinion, but I LOVED The Politician. It was like film noir, Wes Anderson, and the camp exhibit at the Met had a baby, put it up for adoption, and had it raised by Ryan Murphy and I was here for every second of it. Is some of the writing clunky? Yes. Was the fact that Ben Platt's character an incredible singer and musician justified or necessary? No. Does the art department deserve every single award? Yes. Honestly, I really enjoyed watching this show because it clearly had a very strong stylistic point of view and it felt like the cast and creative team were all on the same page about what that was. I understand that highly stylized television isn't everyone's thing and can often feel alienating, but I really enjoyed watching it. The first seven episodes focus on a student council election at a fancy Southern California high school where things are taken all together too seriously by presidential candidate Payton (Ben Platt) and his campaign team (Laura Dreyfuss, Julia Schlaepfer, and Theo Germaine). They employ every trick in the book to ensure they win the election, mirroring the questionable moral choices (if not downright evil choices) currently at play in American politics. However, grounding it in a high school eliminates the reality of partisan issues while still asking big questions about identity politics and the ethics of campaigning in this day and age. Additionally, the final episode dangles Judith Light, Bette Middler, and the promise of an amazing season two in front of our faces and I am ready. Podcasts I listen to a lot of podcasts because I can't read on buses (I can read on subways) and I take at least eight crosstown buses a week because I babysit two different kids who go to school on the Upper East Side. I'm not nearly as loyal to podcasts as I am to TV shows so here are a few of the podcasts I've loved this month:
(I do feel bad about not watching movies. One day when I have disposable income I will get AMC Stubs or something but for now I can't add another monthly expense to the list! Unlike literally every other millenial/Gen z-er, I actually pay for all my own streaming services.) Stay tuned for next month! I'm already almost done with The Handmaid's Tale and the Looking for Alaska mini series on Hulu so there's gonna be loads to talk about.
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Stephanie KaneI like reading plays, drinking lots of coffee, and holding other people's Tony Awards. Archives
August 2018
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