DOPE: "No Assistance" from "For Colored Girls..." by Ntozake Shange

without any assistance or guidance from you
i have loved you assiduously for 8 months 2 wks & a day
i have been stood up four times
i've left 7 packages on yr doorstep
forty poems 2 plants & 3 handmade notecards i left
town so i cd send to you

you have been no help to me
on my job
you call at 3:00 in the mornin on weekdays
so i cd drive 27 1/2 miles cross the bay before i go to work
charmin charmin
but you are of no assistance

i want you to know
this waz an experiment
to see how selfish i cd be
if i wd really carry on to snare a possible lover
if i waz capable of debasin my self for the love of another
if i cd stand not being wanted
when i wanted to be wanted
& i cannot
so
with no further assistance & no guidance from you
i am endin this affair

this note is attached to a plant
i've been watering since the day i met you
you may water it
yr damn self

From "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf"
- Ntozake Shange

DOPE: "Take Me To The Water" Section Two of Alvin Ailey's Revelations

Just wanted to start this post with a very special shout out to all of my followers... new (Welcome!) and old (Thanks for sticking with me! lol)... I am constantly in awe that others may find this blog entertaining and perhaps even ::gasps:: useful. I am such a huge Blog lover, and its great to see it reciprocated by all of you. So thank you, bless you (Tell your friends.. Share the love!) and please let me know how you think Miss Moon's Musings can improve.

Now... that being said, I know that my DOPE post are generally reserved for poetry, but any of you who have been fortune to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater perform live will back me up when I say it's Poetry in Motion (Corny, but true!).



From Wikipedia -

The second section features an enactment of a ceremonial baptism. A large group of dancers clad in white sweep onto the stage as baptismal agents—a tree branch to sweep the earth and a white cloth to cleanse the sky—lead a processional to the stream of purification. To the strains of "Wade in the Water" a devotional leader bearing a large umbrella baptizes a young couple at a river, represented by yards of billowing blue silk stretched across the stage. A raucous ceremony is followed by the meditative solo "I Wanna Be Ready", which communicates a devout man's preparations for death. Created by Ailey in collaborations with its original dancer James Truitte, the solo builds on exercises derived from the Horton modern dance technique.

I wish I could say that my favorite selection wasn't the most widely known and iconic routine, but alas.... I hope you all will enjoy "Take Me to the Water".

Miss Moons' Musing About: Hedwig's Triumphant Return to the Stage in NYC

'Hedwig' inches to B'way stage

By Michael Riedel, NY Post

Before there was Lady Gaga, there was Hedwig.

The (fictitious) transgender rock singer from East Germany first gained notoriety in 1998 in the hit off-Broadway musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."

Since then, she's become a cult figure, appearing in the 2001 movie -- which vies with "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" as the favorite midnight flick on college campuses -- and in stage productions around the world.

This fall, she's returning to New York to make her Broadway debut.

John Cameron Mitchell, who wrote the musical with composer and lyricist Stephen Trask, will reprise the role he created so memorably 12 years ago at the gloriously rundown Jane Street Theatre in the West Village.

"Hedwig is ageless," says Mitchell. "But I'm almost 47, which means I'm at the gym every day, trying to get my old body back, my paunch down and my stamina up.

"I haven't acted since I did the movie," he adds. "The role is so hard and so challenging that it made me give up acting and concentrate on writing and directing. It's like Hamlet. Except that Hamlet doesn't have to sing 15 great songs. In a dress."

David Binder, who produced the musical off-Broadway, is heading up the revival. Peter Askin, the original director, is also on board.

But this "Hedwig" won't be a carbon copy of the first.

"The main thing we've learned about this show," says Binder, "is that it has to take place in the theater it's in at the moment. If it's a dive, the show has to be set in a dive. If it's in a Broadway theater, it's going to be set in a Broadway theater."

One thought is to fashion a story line that has Hedwig playing a one-night-only gig at a Broadway house. The previous show hasn't moved out yet, so Hedwig is scrambling around an old set.

"Before the recession started, when 'Rent' was closing, we thought it would fun to do the show at the Nederlander, using whatever remained of the 'Rent' set," says Mitchell. "Hedwig is a hermit crab. Wherever we end up, we'll adapt the design of the show to the theater."

(I'd love to see Hedwig strung out on Michael Feinstein's white piano at "All About Me," which is closing Sunday. Or perhaps she'll dance with whatever remains of the giant squid in "The Addams Family," which may be history at the Lunt-Fontanne by fall.)

Trask, whose music remains as potent and beautiful as ever, says he'll write a few new songs, incorporating musical ideas he's come across in productions around the world.

"The Danes did a spectacular 'Sugar Daddy,' " he says, adding that the background vocal included the Danish slang for oral sex. "We rarely disapprove of any production. Our favorite thing is to let things happen organically."

"In Texas, the show was set in a Black Angus Steakhouse," adds Mitchell. "We loved that."

The popularity of rock musicals "Spring Awakening," "Passing Strange" and the upcoming "American Idiot" convinced the "Hedwig" team that Broadway is the best place for their show.

"Back in 1998, Broadway was unthinkable," says Trask. "That's no longer the case."

Adds Mitchell: "The music is less scary, the drag is less scary."

"Hedwig" has had a huge influence on the creators of the current crop of rock musicals.

Duncan Sheik has said it encouraged him to write "Spring Awakening." Stew, who created "Passing Strange," says that when it comes to rock musicals, "Hedwig" is "the real thing."

As for Lady Gaga, although they've never met her, Mitchell and Trask have a hunch she was among the young would-be rockers who saw "Hedwig" again and again down on Jane Street.

"There's no question," says Mitchell, "that Lady Gaga and Hedwig are from the same clan."