AmySimon

Amy Simon is a mother, actress, playwright, improviser, published writer, producer, and self-proclaimed Cultural Herstorian. She has been acting in and producing theater for most of her adult life. Her first play Cheerios In My Underwear (And Other True Tales Of Motherhood) holds the record as the longest running solo show in Los Angeles. SHE’S HISTORY! plays in theaters, schools, libraries, military bases, museums, for conferences, women’s groups, fundraisers, political and social justice organizations and retirement communities. SHE”S HISTORY! is fiscally sponsored by the Women’s Museum of California (http://www.womensmuseumca.org/). Always interested in hearing and presenting what women have to say, Amy directed, co-produced and performed in Los Angeles with GAL-O-RAMA and OVARYACTION at The Improv, The Laugh Factory and The Upfront Comedy Theatre. As the creative force and co-producer behind HEROINE ADDICTS, the four-year hit all-girl variety show, Amy worked with and was inspired by many of the most talented female writer/performers in Los Angeles (including Jane Lynch) at Hollywood’s bang Studio. She created and produced Motherhood Unplugged and Moms Who Write, a mom written and performed story and music salon and stage show (to benefit Beyond Shelter) with LA Parent Magazine and Mamapalooza (Moms In The Arts). It inaugurated and is featured on Los Angeles’s KPFK Radio’s Pacifica Performance Showcase. Working as a consultant on the 2008 launch of the Broad Stage Theater in Santa Monica, Amy performed a variety of duties, including stage-managing the thirteen member cast of American Voices: Spirit of the Revolution, Stephanie Glass Solomon’s original play based on The Federalist Papers, directed by and starring Dustin Hoffman, a truly wonderful man, whom she assisted. As the cast understudy she actually got to play Abigail Adams going in for Annette Bening in dress rehearsal. A frequent guest on local and national radio, Amy was a guest commentator for American Woman In Fact And Fiction, a three part series that aired on Pacifica Radio Archives FromTheVault.org series. She is also a regular guest on the Nicole Sandler Show Radioornot.com. Amy plays California Pioneer Maude Younger in California Women Win The Vote, the documentary/film produced by Wild West Women, Inc. (www.wildwestwomen.org). Her work in the classroom, as an educational specialist teaching improvisation and theater games inspired her to create a curriculum related interactive presentation of SHE’S HISTORY! for Middle School. As a “Herstorical” humorist, Amy writes, blogs, performs and entertains on the radio, online, and onstage furthering her mission to turn the world on to all the fabulous females no one knows anything about. She is a single mother of two glorious and "challenging" teenage daughters who can tell you all about the first woman to run for President.

Jan 132011
 

“The Joy – The Oy – Of Motherhood”.

Amy Simon

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men AND WOMEN are created equal”.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (and Lucretia Mott) Declaration of Sentiments First Women’s Convention 1848 Seneca Falls, New York

“When you’re at work, you think of the children you’ve left at home.  When you’re at home, you think of the work you’ve left unfinished.  Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself, your heart is rent”.

Golda Meir, Israel’s First Female Prime Minister 1948

“Any woman who understands the problems of running a home is that much nearer to understanding the problems of running a country”.

Margaret Thatcher – First Female Prime Minster of England 1980s

“The real obstacle to equality is not the vote but the division of lifestyles between men and women…”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton – 1800s

“Oh, if only you were born a boy”.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s father, Judge Daniel Cady  1826

“Female Suffrage causes a sexual state of war”.

Wendell Phillips 1850s Abolitionist – 1850s

I come before you to declare that my sex are entitled to the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Victoria Woodhull – Mother and The First Woman To Run For President in 1872

“…women had to be organized to gain an equal share of political power if they were to improve their economic and social status”.

Congresswoman Bella Abzug 1970s

“Government sponsored childcare is a communistic subversion of the traditional family.”

President Nixon vetoing Bella Abzug and Shirley Chilshom’s  Childcare Act of 1971

“A wife in the workforce threatens the very structure of family life itself”.

Ronald Reagan 1980s

“The Price Of Motherhood, Why The Most Important Job In The World Is Still The Least Valued”  2001

Anne Crittenden – (who is a New York Times Reporter and Pulitzer Prize Nominee) after leaving the “paid” workforce to become a mother, wrote this book in response to being asked at a dinner party – “Didn’t you used to be Anne Crittenden?”

Jan 122011
 

“Your Mom Has A Rockin’ Bod”.

That’s what the handsome surfer looking dude told my eleven- and seven- year old daughters about me – their forty-eight year old mother.

It was December 2004.

Seven months after my husband said he wanted a divorce.

Five Months After He Moved Out.

Four months after a Palm Springs Hotel offered me an irresistible package deal for a Christmas stay.

Three months after I looked up an old boyfriend David… who happened to be living in Palm Springs.

Ten minutes after being in the hotel hot tub in an unusually cold California December.

The night before the Tsunami hit.

Yes.  2004 was the year the earth shifted – and life as I knew it changed forever.  I never could have imagined then that I would be the woman I am today; smarter, stronger, happier.  A better me.

Yes, my husband of fourteen years had been living one of those double lives you read about in People Magazine or hear about on Oprah.  I was one of those smart, together trusting women who were duped and about whom people ask, “How could she not have known”?

So in September, when the offer came in the mail: “Spend two nights at Christmas in our luxurious hotel for this amazing discounted rate and all we ask is two hours of your time to look at our time share program” – I jumped on it.

I could not bear the thought of spending this Christmas holiday in the house where we’d spent so many holidays as a family of four, so I packed up the three of us and took off in the family car for the two hour trip from Los Angeles to Palm Springs.  We were shattered, fragile, and raw.

On a whim, I had looked up an old boyfriend who I’d heard was living somewhere in Southern California.  We met when we were both actors living in New York – my hometown.  We fell in love and had traveled from New York to California when I was thirty years old, a month long cross-country journey that was just fabulous.  We lived together for a while in San Diego – his hometown.  He was the only other man I had ever lived with.  It didn’t work out though, because he did not want to get married.  We parted on good terms.  The last time we spoke was when I called to tell him I was pregnant.  Always into astrology, he told me I would have two girls, and that my marriage and motherhood would be the biggest challenge I had ever known.  Freaky.  When I called him out of the blue and said guess who this is – he went through several women’s names before I cut him off with  “no it’s Amy” – which was met with a shocked but happy “really! Told him about the divorce, asked him where he was (he had never married) and when he said Palm Springs, I said “Gosh, what a coincidence, I’m gonna be there in December”.

When my girls and I got to the hotel, the “luxurious” room was teeny tiny and the weather was unseasonably cold for California and by the time we got settled it was getting dark but the whole drive I had promised we would go into the pool.  So we did.  I had ordered a glass of wine for me, and hot chocolate for the girls – poolside – when we were joined by this cute guy.  It was just the four of us.  A very different four of us then we were used to.   I chatted politely, feeling so completely out of my element – discombobulated from the entire “new normal” I was forced to accept so I didn’t even notice that he was hitting on me until his comment to the girls about my “rockin’ bod”.  “Is this guy actually hitting on ME??  In front of my girls??”  I was incredulous, not only that I was getting hit on but in front of my girls?  Then we learned that his girlfriend was upstairs.  Ugh.

“Well, nice chatting with you I said”, self-consciously climbing out of the pool, ushering the girls away while he leered at my “rockin’ bod”.

From that moment on, the rest of the weekend became the “Your Mom Has A Rockin’ Bod” weekend.  My eleven year old – who always kept her feelings inside – seemed to enjoy it all.  But my seven year old – who always wore her heart on her sleeve – did not.  She was just sad.  So so sad.

The plan was to meet David in the Hotel Lobby and have dinner together in the Hotel Restaurant. We had not seen each other in seventeen years.  He looked different but he was – and is – still the same sweet man.  A man who would never – as my mother told me in her dementia – never hurt me.  She was right.

I told the girls the truth, that we were seeing an old friend who lived in town who happened to be an old boyfriend of mine.  As soon as we sat down to dinner, my eleven year old asked him “Are you gonna marry my mom”?  Oh god.  She then proceeded to tell him all about the “rockin’ bod” incident. I wanted to die.  After dinner we all went up to the teeny tiny room and for about an hour, played games.  I played Scrabble with the eleven year old and David played Go Fish with the seven year old.  It was OK, but so so strange.

The next day I went on the “two hour Time-Share tour”.  What a nightmare that was.  “Where do you see your family vacationing next year?  What does your family look for in a vacation”?  How do you spend your leisure time as a family”.   Stuck in a little office with a stranger whose job it was to get this information out of me, I could barely hold it together as I told him that I could not answer any of those questions as our “family” was in a “transition”.  Those two hours were the hardest part of the entire weekend.

December 2010 is coming and I am ready.  We have been through hell and back.  Their dad, after succumbing to his addictions, losing his job, and attempting suicide, lives in another country. And like anyone who has experienced loss, I am so so so appreciative of what I have; my spirit, the love and respect of my precious children – now thirteen and seventeen and doing remarkably well thanks to therapy and stability and lots of love.  My daughters have learned invaluable life lessons. And unlike so many women who lose themselves in their marriages and motherhood – I have found myself. A self I never would have re-discovered and re-invented if I were still married to that man.   I am remarkably healthy – and  – thanks to years of Pilates (and chardonnay), at the age of fifty-four I still have a Rockin’ Bod!

Jan 012011
 

Annette Bening and Amy Simon

It’s Sunday, August 10th 2008 and I’m in the Green Room with Annette Bening, talking about how Norman Lear’s original copy of The Declaration of Independence got stuck at the airport.  And of course I remember being hyperaware that I was in the green room with Annette Bening talking about how Norman Lear’s original copy of The Declaration of Independence got stuck at the airport.  How did I get here?  Back up a month.

It’s Sunday, July 13th 2008.  THE Sunday before the two weeks I get every summer when my kids stay with their dad. I am divorced – four years now and have come to look forward to those two weeks. When kids are involved, there are very few perks to being divorced.  I can only think of two – closet space, and the two weeks every summer. So I‘m thinking about all my plans for the next two weeks – with getting a job top on the list. And the phone rang. It was Mitch, my good friend Marci’s husband. “I might have an opportunity for you.  Can you come to The Broad Stage Theater in Santa Monica tomorrow at 11AM?  The assistant director needs some administrative help.  We’re opening in a few weeks.”  OHMYGOD.  I couldn’t believe it. I knew all about The Broad, which is spelled like Brawd B.R.O.A.D named after Eli Broad, the philanthropist, because I am a theater junkie, and I am in the theater business – have been my whole  – my nickname in NY was Amy Get A Gig Simon – my show “Cheerios In My Underwear” is the longest running solo show in Los Angeles –I am all about theater –  and I read in the paper that Dustin Hoffman was The Artistic Chair.  And now the possibility of a real theater job. The theater is my favorite place.  The theater is my temple.  I actually am Jewish and have a temple –  but the theater is my home. I love theater people.  They are my people.  You are my people.

I so needed a job.  I had been looking so hard and so fruitlessly for the past two years. Here I am – a 51-year-old divorced mother out of the paid work force for 14 years, with my last “real job” back in the early nineties doing radio promotion for Virgin Records in the now defunct record business.  Yeah, I hung out with rock stars but now I needed a job and I couldn’t for the life of me get one.  I had hit that “maternal wall” I’d read about researching motherhood for “Cheerios” so I started building a brand new career writing about motherhood and family life and stumbled on my real passion – women’s history, and my work has just started getting published but in the meantime I need a job! The Broad Stage is the brainchild of Dale Franzen, former opera star, arts educator and visionary, and Director of the Broad, ten years in the making, and she made it happen. Tenacious, indomitable, awesome woman. I know all about tenacious indomitable awesome women – since I write about them.  I am all about trailblazing, history making women – like Dale – like Victoria Woodhull – the first woman to run for president – like Anne Hutchinson the mother of the first amendment – like Elizabeth Cady Stanton – the original architect of the Women’s Movement and especially Abigail Adams whose ”Remember The Ladies” speech I wrote about for Women’s History Month and was the first women’s history piece I got published and paid for. I love Abigail Adams.  Why do we know more about Paris Hilton than about Abigail Adams?  So wrong! So Monday morning, I show up and meet my boss Denise.  She looks at me as if I am Ed McMahon. I am basically hired on the spot.  I fill out my 1099 (no benefits) and sign on for three months as a part time “administrative consultant” and spend the rest of the day falling in love with Denise who is awesome and brilliant and overloaded. I start answering her phone – getting her coffee – seeing about her lunch – much to her surprise – she is not used to being taken care of.  I am by nature very solicitous – my boyfriend’s love me – I’m a Jewish mother – very very comfortable taking care of people.  So.  There is a lot to do. We are launching a theater. It was like jumping on a speeding train.  Everything is being done by everyone at breakneck speed the whole time, preparing for the first show

Dustin Hoffman and Amy Simon

Sunday August 10th – a “soft opening” of an original piece called American Voices about the creation of our government – the first of three free shows to thank the members and donors, introduce the space to the community and test out the theater.  Starring Dustin Hoffman, reading The Federalist Papers with Kent Nagano – a famous conductor with a 17-piece orchestra playing Charles Ives music.  How cool.

The end of my second week, Dale informs me that Stephanie Solomon, the main writer of American Voices, needed an assistant and I should call her.  We hit it off immediately on the phone. She tells me how she needs someone to help her with the script and be an administrative liaison between her and Dustin and the theater.  I can hardly breathe. “Why don’t you come to the first table read on Monday at Dustin’s production office?”  I am dying.  Just three weeks ago I was at Apple One Temp Service, struggling through a skills set test and now this. Monday comes and I go.  The offices are nice and there is a big lunch spread.  I meet Stephanie and we hug.  We go in to the conference room, and only some of the actors are there.  I don’t know anyone but recognize Richard Schiff. A very sweet young black actor offers to throw away my empty sandwich plate.  He is very handsome and I will inadvertently get to see him in his underwear.  I meet the director, get a script and before I get a chance to look at it – Dustin comes in.  With a plate of cookies, that he tries to pawn off on everyone.  He is adorable and handsome, short, sweet and utterly charming. The atmosphere is immediately charged with electricity.  He proceeds to put everyone at ease. I immediately fall in love with him. We go around the table introducing ourselves  – it’s a mixture of lucky students, and professional actors – Ben is an actor AND the asst. stage manager. I say I work at the Broad Stage and I am also an actor.  Who isn’t?  I get a laugh.

James Cromwell and Amy Simon

The table read begins. I finally look at the script. “American Voices: Spirit of the Revolution, A work For Chamber Orchestra and Thirteen Actors”.  Dustin is the narrator and the cast of characters – which is genderless playing multiple roles – includes James Cromwell playing James Madison, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Richard Schiff as James Otis, John Adams and Thomas Paine, Nate Parker – the handsome young black actor as Patrick Henry (turns out he was in The Debaters and a protégé of Denzel Washington) –

Rosario Dawson as Hoboi-Hili-Miko ofThe Creek Nation and Annette Bening as Thomas Paine and and and  ABIGAIL ADAMS.  Oh my god.  I cannot believe what I am hearing.  The play is brilliant, a sort of Our Town historically re-enacting the formation of our government – the revolutionary war, the colonists, the constitution – right up my historical alley and OHMYGOD – there it is – Abigail Adams’ Remember The Ladies speech. I’m dying I’m dead I’m a corpse.

 

When we break I tell Stephanie about my love for her script, and obsession with Abigail Adams – all of it. She seems impressed with my knowledge and passion.  After, Dustin tells a story about working with Schiff on a movie – turns out it was Last Chance Harvey.  Dustin LOVES telling stories and he is a master at it.  Everyone hangs on his every word.  He decides suddenly to take the cast and on a field trip to The Broad as no one knew where it was. I am the only one there from the theater so I stand up tell him “well I am Jewish and have no sense of direction but I will get everyone there” and the next thing I know I am walking down the hallway with Dustin and he is asking me “so Amy what do you think of the script”.  I go off on one of my women’s history rants, which he seems to appreciate.  As we go down in the elevator he tells another story about Abdoulai – the actor walking with us.  As Dustin told the story – he had just moved out to LA, was getting divorced and living in a hotel in Santa Monica – was already a big star and every day he would walk past Abdoulai who was a doorman and Abdoulai would start to recite Shakespeare “Tis the summer of my discontent”.  That was twenty years ago.

The rest of the week I remain high from the reading and continue working with Denise and Stephanie – so much going on – the theater was still being finished.  I so love answering the phone “The Broad Stage Theater this is Amy how can I help you?”  And on the end of the line – theater people – my people.  I am so happy I literally cry all the way home every day that first week.

Rosario Dawson

Rosario Dawson

The next week we have the first rehearsal at the theater with all thirteen actors.  There’s Dustin, there’s James Cromwell.  I introduce myself and point out the food.  I am a vegan he says with a big smile.  Oh! The farmer from babe is a vegan.  Funny.  I immediately offer to go get him sushi. He could not be nicer.  Annette Bening comes in.  She is gorgeous without a drop of makeup.  Everyone is there except the director.  Something happened and now Dustin is the director. All the actors are milling around and I mention to one that I have some books in my car with letters from the period including letters from Abigail Adams and would you like to see them?  “Oh”, she says – “yes and I bet Annette would too”.  So I get my “American Woman Activists Writings” books and I offer them to Annette and say “here, theses are my books if you would like to take a look”.  “Oh” she says, did you write them?”  I pause for a brief second thinking – Hmmmm.  But instead I say “no but I bought them and I read them.”  She laughs.  The rehearsal begins and everyone participates in the interpretation and discussion of the script – what it means to their character, to them personally, as Americans, as patriots, everyone’s opinion is welcome and respected with Dustin setting the tone. He creates and nurtures an atmosphere, which is artistic and creative and open.  When Cromwell reads Thomas Jefferson (and he looks so Jeffersonian) “We hold these truths to be self evident” you can hear a pin drop. The same for Nate Parker who is brilliant reading Patrick Henry’s speech. “I know not what course others may take; but for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Everyone in the room is hyperaware of the meaning and relevance.  It’s August 2008 – Obama is the Democratic nominee – we all are talking about politics and the country and the theater and this play. It’s just like I thought it would be when I was a theater major in college!  I am having one Oprah Aha like moment after another! We take a break and one of the actresses who plays a soldier named James Collins has to leave.  “Oh”, says Dustin.  “Amy will take her place”.  So I take a seat between Cromwell and Rosario and when it’s my turn I read as I think about Iraq and Afghanistan. “The dead and wounded lay scattered in every direction over the field; numbers lay cold and lifeless; some were yet struggling in the agonies of death, while here and there lay others; faint with the loss of blood, almost famished for water, and begging for assistance.  I could not reconcile to my feelings”.

And I could not reconcile to MY feelings.

Dustin calls rehearsals for every day, complains that he has no assistant or stage manager so I volunteer and for the next four days I am by his side – his buddy, his sidekick, his sounding board, his navigator because the theater is big and mazelike and he is a Jew with no sense of direction and literally cannot find the bathroom – even though they named one after him – really. I am stage managing thirteen actors, and carry around a big beige canvass bag that I brought from home  – my traveling desk containing my notebook – the ever changing script, rehearsal schedules, water bottles, and the all important contact sheets plus office supplies for the cast – three hole punch, and red pens and yellow highlighters which Dustin requires.  It is heavy and I lug it everywhere and I don’t care because I am happier than I have been in years. There’s me and Dustin and Stephanie on the Broad Stage figuring out the blocking.  He is so happy to be in the theater.  He loves the theater – just like his character Michael Dorsey in Tootsie. He tells another story – “I remember when Anne Bancroft was working on that play – her first – what was that play”?  And I say “oh the William Gibson play Two For The Seesaw – I worked on that in my acting class.”  I have cred. He loves me.  He loves everyone.  He makes friends with a worker pounding nails.  He invites a techie to be in the show – playing a techie as he had scripted an opening about how we were testing out the theater and wanted the techie to just cross the stage. Dustin is very in the moment.  And he tells stories all along the way.  “When I was working with Olivier” and “when I was working with DeNiro” and not showing off – just so happy and humbled to share his lucky life with us and from this point on, everything just morphs and escalates with the opening approaching.  I am everywhere doing everything – scrambling and working my ass off – like everyone else. I love being part of the Broad Stage team.  Everyone is talented, professional, dedicated.  No one has seen their families, done their laundry, slept. And no one works harder than Dustin.  “Amy – call these actors and see if they can come in early I want to work with them separately before rehearsal”. He and I just clicked.  I know what to do, I know my way around the theater, I know and understand the material, how to work with actors and I am not intimidated by his celebrity and am comfortable telling him where to go and how to get there and he likes that – he likes me taking charge of him and I do respectfully. There’s Dustin out on the patio working with Ben on his lines and I am walking by and Dustin calls me over.  “Ben – read it for Amy”. And Ben reads, “The accused shall enjoy the right to be confronted with the witnesses against him, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense”.  “Amy, what does that mean”?  And we discuss it.  There’s me and Dustin and Stephanie, outside the campus grounds discussing the script.  It is hours after Dustin was supposed to have left but he stayed and stayed and I am bringing him food because he is hungry and I know what he likes and when he needs to eat.  We are arguing over a passage in the script about “the people” who debated and Dustin is asking what people and Stephanie who is so smart is saying “the men and the women in the town meetings and taverns” and I pipe in – ‘oh no, the women DID NOT participate in the town hall meetings – they did NOT have say in the government” and we are arguing and I get my books out of my car and make my case and just like that I have script input and they change it.  They recognize my contribution and the next day send out an email acknowledging my contribution as the “feminist historical monitor.” The script is constantly being changed – sometimes hourly and I am the one to get the actors the changes and we have all grown so close now as you do when you are working on a play. We have marathon rehearsals scheduled and oh it’s Dustin’s birthday so I come in with homemade cupcakes.  “Amy” says Annette from across the room – “did you make these?”  “Yes I did”.  “You are so sweet”.  Big hug.  Of course, I never ever would have been able to dedicate myself like this if I had my children to take care of.   Thank God my husband left me four years ago!  Ha!  Never thought I would actually mean that.  The little “soft opening” has so morphed into a big deal with everyone and their mother calling for tickets.  I answer the phone and it’s Denzel Washington’s manager asking for tickets for Denzel and I hand the phone to Denise saying, “I’m wearing my red dress”. The show day itself is ambitiously planned with a 1PM dress rehearsal with an invited audience, a 4PM show for the educators and Santa Monica College, there is a 6PM cocktail reception and art unveiling, the big 7:30 final show which KUSC radio is taping – can it get any more complicated?  Yes. Norman Lear’s private original copy of the Declaration of Independence printed the night of July 4th 1776 – one of two hundred – is being flown in to be displayed in the lobby.  And there’s a big party after with all sorts of celebrities and LA royalty coming but all anyone can talk about is Warren Beatty.   And they are still pounding nails.

Finally, Kent Nagano and the 17-piece orchestra arrive with out first rehearsal on the stage with EVERYONE – actors and musicians slated for the afternoon.  We spend the morning blocking – everyone is getting more comfortable with their lines and characters.  Annette Bening is experimenting and playing around with her lines and speeches –heavy stuff – including also a great scene with Schiff playing John Adams to her Abigail where they argue brilliantly.  Her voice is the most gorgeous instrument. I am busy as a bee finding toilet paper and taking care of the actors, getting Dustin his water and making sure he doesn’t lose his glasses or cell phone and even standing in for him while he directs and generally stage managing and then we break until the actual run through for the first time with Kent Nagano and the orchestra – and Annette reminds Dustin that she can’t be there so he says “OK, Amy will go in for you”.  Yeah.  So there I am with the cast and they are all so happy for me and tell me how I deserve to be up there and Rosario Dawson is so great and remembers all the blocking and cues me when I forget and Dale and all sorts of people I work with are in the audience and I do it.  I read Thomas Paine’s gorgeous words. I AM Abigail Adams arguing with Richard Schiff’s John Adams “If a form of government is to be established here, what one will be assumed?  Will it be left to our assemblies to choose one?  And will not many men have many minds? And shall we not run into dissentions among ourselves?  I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature,” …I love that speech and I feel like I am on acid – it is surreal –  and then and I read the speech – “In the new code of laws I would desire you would Remember The Ladies  and be more favourable and generous to them than your ancestors.  Do not put such unlimited powers into the hands of the husbands.  Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.  If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

Afterwards, Stephanie says “you did great” and Dustin says “Amy, I didn’t know you could act so good.”

I cannot reconcile to my feelings.  But they felt pretty good.

We all stay late blocking and discussing costumes and Dustin tells me I am the cast understudy – come prepared. I cannot help thinking that a few months ago I was in absolute hell, working as a prop girl on the set of a Baby Einstein video, fetching toys that I couldn’t find or put together for well paid hand models that I envied.  Life is so unexpected.

Sunday – show day – arrives.  I fly down the 10 Freeway and there is another revised script.  “No, I tell the writers – we are NOT making new copies.  The actors have all been making notes on their scripts – I will just tell whomever is affected the changes and they can write them in”.  They obey me.  Me.  It is show time and I am right there taking care of my Dustin.  I have two favorite moments from show day.  One  – all week Dustin needs his bananas and gave me a long lecture about the properties and benefits of potassium so I made sure there were always bananas on the hospitality table and it’s 3:45 – places – and I am backstage with my red pens and highlighters and labeled water bottles when one of Dustin’s two assistants comes panting up to me in a panic “Dustin wants a banana and there aren’t any.  Calmly, I tell her.  Go downstairs to Dressing Room A and in my beige canvass bag you will find a banana.  She does and I am a hero.  Great moment. We get through the first two shows and I am in the wings on the floor with my book taking notes and now we have one more show to go and my Dustin is exhausted.  I see it in his eyes.  There are people everywhere and I take his hand and say come.  I know where you can take a nap.  Upstairs in the brand-new green room there is the one and only couch.  Up we go and there is Annette – asleep on the couch.  Nate and Ben on the floor.  Dustin will not disturb them.   I take him downstairs, determined, and on the stage it is quiet and empty.  I see the piano with its big cover and like Scarlett in Gone With The Wind, I dramatically sweep it off the piano, lay it on the floor and make him a bed.  Go to sleep I tell him.  He obediently does and I pull up the piano bench, sit and guard.  He is out like a light.  He is seventy-one years old.  People walk by and I shush them and point.  They are impressed and obediently quiet.

The whole glorious day and night are a big success.  Everyone does great, the party is fabulous.  And let me tell you, when Warren Beatty looks at you – and he looked right at me – everything just fades away like in the movies.  What a night. I drive home delirious.  I cannot help thinking about the last two years and how my divorce and job search have left me feeling  – humiliated and degraded, disgusted, demoralized and so depressed with my questioning every life choice I had made.  Here I am, a not young female stage character actress in a youth obsessed TV and movie town who writes – not  screenplays – not pilots  – but womens’ history and I end up on stage with Dustin Hoffman playing Abigail Adams.   Yes the stars had aligned to offer me some fantastic karmic payback. There was some kind of intense harmonious convergence that happened where every life skill and past experience I had came to serve me so perfectly.

I’m not very religious but I will say, if God were a woman she’d be a Broad.