me kissing you: July 2012

Monday, July 9, 2012

me kissing Martine

Here's another theater person from my weekend with the Landing Theatre Company. This is Dr. Martine Kei Green-Rogers. She's a dramaturg and teacher and she moderated all the talk-backs after the play readings.

Dang, she was fun. Lively and smart with a format for talk-backs that I'm totally stealing if/when I conduct one. I've already told her this. It's brilliant in it's simplicity.

As you might guess from that smile, she pretty well embodies the very idea of joie de vivre. I'd say how I hope to cross paths with her again, but she's leaving Houston soon to pursue a post-doc opportunity up in Utah. But the conversation at the bar stimulated some thought and clarified some aims as I make my way back into performing and performance-making and she vowed to return to Houston now and then. I hope this wasn't my one and only chance to visit with her. I need more smart, joyful people in my life.

me kissing Jennifer

This past weekend, I participated as a production assistant in the the Landing Theatre Company's first New American Voices Play Reading Series. This evening, after the fourth and final fabulous play reading (really, all four plays in the series were quite good), several of us went out to celebrate the series and just sit and visit with each other. You know, see, be seen, talk about whoever wasn't present. Theater stuff.

One of the Landing's partners in this venture was Mildred's Umbrella Theater Company. Perhaps you've read about them in American Theater Magazine. (Well, I have.) Anyway, Jennifer Decker, Artistic Director of the company, was there.

And as you can see, I kissed her.

I've known of Jennifer for some time and I have friends who have worked with her, but this is the first time I've actually met her. I found her to be smart, quick-witted and in general a pretty cool person to hang out with in a bar. I look forward to crossing paths with her again.

about this blog . . .

So 2011 saw me dealing with a bad 2010 by posting a picture of myself, taken first thing every morning, as some kind of conceptual art project. You can see all 365 blurry, bleary photos here.

As it was, at it's core, a response to loneliness, I knew it was not something I could or should sustain beyond the one year boundary I initially set for it. But I sort of liked this photo blogging thing . . .

So I decided the next logical step was to reach out to other people. Not just reach out, but cross some of my own comfort zones and kiss them. Not on the mouth, not in a romantic or sexual way, just a kiss on the cheek.

So, this year, I plan on kissing as many people as I can. I won't even try to kiss someone everyday, but in various situations, I may just ask someone, "hey, can I kiss you and photographically document the event?" If they say no, no worries, I'll move on. If they say yes, I'll say, "I have this tiny release form granting me permission." (It is a tiny release form, postcard size.)

It's a small way to get me out of a rut I'm in and also to spread a little love. In the ancient Christian church, there was the custom of the "kiss of peace" (which survives in liturgical churches today as "passing the peace," usually signified by a handshake). I think of this exercise as something of passing the peace, too, of offering a kiss of peace to whoever will let me do it. And document it.

Wait---there's more! You can be kissed, too! If you're in the Houston area and would like to be kissed by me, let me know. Or if you're coming to Houston. Or even if you're not in Houston or coming to Houston, but want to be on a list of potential kissees, in the event that I might be traveling to where you are (I get up Austin a few times a year, I hope to get to Chicago this year, etc.), let me know that, too. you never know where I might pop up. Email me at neilellisorts (at) yahoo dot com.