Livin' On Credit

These things seem to happen more and more to the struggling writer in Chicago whose day job it is to keep a website up-to-date for a medium sized law firm downtown. He gets paid well and enjoys the company of associates he inhabits office space with nine to five Monday through Friday. Developing a marketing strategy to keep the firm afloat and the team employed. The times being what they are though Josh continues to squander his money away towing the line and encountering days where he can only afford what his credit card will allow. So when a homeless man walks up to him and ask for change, the exchange goes something like this...

HOMELESS MAN: hey, man, you got change?

JOSH: no.

HM: i just got change from a white guy. he gave me fries. tried to give me his sandwich, but he was with his girl, you know?

J: uh huh.

HM: why is it that black man don't give no money to black man? i got to get money from a white man? a white man gives money to a white man. why can't a black man give no money to a black man?

J: i don't know.

HM: that hurts me.

J: that sucks.

HM: i got really trully hurt. why is that? I don't understand. come on, man. you got some change. get me on the bus? I got to get to 69th and Ashland. you know where that is? i can get on from there. I just need two dollars to get me there. four dollars, man. you got money.

J: i don't have anything.

HM: you lying, man, but you're all right. come on, man. why don't no black man give black man money? i don't get it. i couldn't do nothing when I thought about that.

J: it's fucked up.

HM: you got two dollars, I can get to 69th and Ashland. you get me there. come on, man. i'll show you I get on the bus. i ain't fuckin' with you.

J: and i'm not fuckin' with you.

HM: you lying, man.

J: i'm not lying.

HM: yeah you are, but you're all right. let me tell you. look me in the eye. why does the white man give the white man money and the black man don't give the black man money? that's fucked up.

J: i agree.

HM: come on, man. i know you're lying. get me on the bus.

J: i can't get you on the bus.

HM: whatever.

[At this point Glenn Proud an actor and director friend of Josh approaches.]

GLENN: how's it going?

JOSH: good.

HOMELESS MAN: come on, man. you got two dollars get me on the bus.

G: all i got it change. i don't have two dollars.

HM: all right, all right. give me what you got.

G: here you go.

HM: thanks. come on, man. you got some change?

J: no.

HM: you lying, but you're all right with me.

J: i'm not a liar.

HM: whatever.

The Homeless Man walks away. His attempt is what they call futile. Though Josh got to thinking long after his meeting with Glenn about the fate of LiveWire Chicago Theatre, the not-for-profit theatre company they run, and going to work another full day, twenty-four hours later, Josh got to thinking... "I should have swiped my CTA Pass."<sup>1

1</sup>Because there may be a lot of homeless or stranded people out there I want to impart a wisdom. Ask the guy in the button down shirt and long black coat, slacks, nice shoes and a latte in his hand, "Can you swipe your card so I can ride the bus to see my girl."

Mission Accomplished

Soldiers: The Desert Stand closed this afternoon. On the ride to the airport, my parents ask me, "How does it feel after a show closes." Instinctively, I respond, "sad," but that is brief. Work lives on and the folks who work with you and work with you well are the ones you miss and there in lies the sadness, however, you know, and again, those that work with you and work with you well are the ones that will live on, in the work and in life. Such good company, collaboration and collective thinking went on in this show, this production. Like a spider web or a world wide web, the chain reaction of positive union and future development occurred. This is what builds. And we are building it in America. Chicago. The shock waves ripple in the air though and air is universal. We've all got to breathe. Take a breath. Can you taste it?

CS Weekly is a great source of inspiration and that inspiration is visible in the area of my e-mails using Google Mail or Yahoo! or Hotmail that requires no scrolling...quotes. and sometimes it is beautiful even because sometimes both quotes speak to me...

Benjamin Franklin says, "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Yes, and some of us do both, wouldn't you say, Benny?

Jack Lemmon says, "It's hard enough to write a good drama, it's much harder to write a good comedy, and it's hardest of all to write a drama with comedy. Which is what life is." As we sit in traffic to the airport which we will arrive in time for the parents to depart from their whirlwind visit to Chicago. to see the World Premiere of Soldiers: The Desert Stand, a serious play on war...written by their son...They ask, "got anything new on fire?" In fact, I'm writing an adaptation of Gorky's The Lower Depths. I aim to set it in America. Today. A play about poverty. Economics. Drama. Comedy. Life.

In lieu of award acceptance speech, I mention the folks who made this play happen are Glenn Proud, Madeline Long, Cory Conrad, Allison McNeela, Chris Zdenek, Becca Coren, Danielle O'Farrell, Erin Barlow, Liz Larsen-Silva, Vanessa Hughes, Tresa Makosky, Amber Hilgenkamp, Anders Jacobson, Erin Fast, Eric Branson, Maya Kuper, Sebastian Aguirre, Deborah Proud, Suzanne Bracken, Parisa Leduc, the Side Project Theatre and LiveWire Chicago Theatre