Disturbing Hotel Experience- Page 2

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 8:57am

BTW, you can call this a magenta meltdown, my favorite color!

[artscallion]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 8:57am

There's a Hasidic Synagogue at the end of my block. They mostly ignore us. Even if you wave or say hello, they ignore. So I just shrug and go about my business. That's as mean as they ever get with me. They just go about their business as well. The only problem I have with them is they have some thing about not walking on sidewalks. So the families always walk down the middle of the street and you have to wait for them to get out of the way like cows on a farm road.

I'm fascinated and love to watch them go by. The fathers and sons, no matter how young, always debating/discussing religion. The women, almost always redheads and dressed up in very conservative, but cheery clothes. It's like they stepped out of another century.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:01am

The ones in my hood drive like crazy people. I know they have to be home by sundown on certain days, but they should stop at stop signs and lights.

Oy, indeed!

[artscallion]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:25am

There's a play about that, Diva. Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deveare Smith. A young black boy is run over and killed by a Hasidic man rushing to get home before dark. The black community is outraged because they have been waiting for this to happen and feel the Jews don't value their lives enough to drive with care through their neighborhood. Some members of the black community retaliate by stabbing a young Hasidic rabbinical student. The Crown Heights riots ensue.

[suestorm]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:27am

did the mayor in that play tell the police to ingnore the rioting and looting ? i heard thats what dinkins did.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:29am

God, I love Anna Deveare Smith.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:30am

@artscallion: I've never heard of that play. Is it published? I would love to read it.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:30am

Me too ghostlight. Why hasn't she written/performed in so long?

Or did I just miss her latest work?

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:33am

I haven't heard of anything, tazber - but she, like Reuben Santiago-Hudson (who I also love), are usually all over the place - movies, tv, live theater. Surprised not to have heard anything from either recently.

[artscallion]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:37am

It is published. It's a one woman play. She performed it herself at Trinity Rep when I worked there. It's a series of dozens of character monologues all played by one actress, giving different perspectives of the situation.

She is still writing.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:39am

Thanks artscallion for the info. Sounds great!

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:40am

That play was a huge deal in L.A. in the early '90s (I think?). She followed it with a second play "Twilight: Los Angeles." I remember Anna was cast in "The American President" not long after that.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:42am

They were big plays at the A.R.T., too.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:45am

I know this thread has geard way off topic, but I would like to add that Deavere Smith is so multi-talented. Has anyone here seen her on "Nurse Jackie" with Edie Falco?

Updated On: 8/20/13 at 09:45 AM

[Master Bates]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 9:57am

This is too hilarious to just skip over and not mention again.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 11:18am

Maybe the guy wasn't really a bigot, but just a prude who wanted to be away from the copulating Jews?

Posted: 8/20/13 at 12:09pm

OK I'll quit cracking wise and make a serious observation: The hotel guest said a horrible thing. The hotel manager did his best to quickly placate him and did so in a manner that was discreet and certainly no reward for his boorish behavior. Done.

So what SHOULD have happened? Should the hotel manager further enraged his guest by scolding him for his comments? Thrown him out and faced a lawsuit or at the very least an angry call from the main office?

Really. What is the appropriate, serious, response to this dilemma?

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 12:22pm

Don't worry about Masturbates.... He's just being a dick.

"There's a play about that, Diva. Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deveare Smith. A young black boy is run over and killed by a Hasidic man rushing to get home before dark. The black community is outraged because they have been waiting for this to happen and feel the Jews don't value their lives enough to drive with care through their neighborhood. Some members of the black community retaliate by stabbing a young Hasidic rabbinical student. The Crown Heights riots ensue."

It sounds absolutely fascinating. I need to find that script and give it a read. I've almost been run down by them, and it's scary as hell.

I also feel bad for them on hot days. They are always dressed in layers of black wool from head to toe and it looks rather uncomfortable for them.

[Jon]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 12:28pm

Yes, Jordan, there is an Amish musical called "Plain and Fancy" that played on Broadway in the 1950's.

That's why I suggested "Plan and Fancy-Shmancy" as the title of an Amish-Jewish musical.

BTW, "Plain and Fancy" is performed annually at the dinner theatre in Amish Acres in Indiana.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 12:32pm

shunner on the roof

[Kad]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 12:40pm

I will say that the Hasidic community in Brooklyn is notoriously insular, to the point of bigotry and harassment of any non-Hasids who stray into their neighborhood. There was a very interesting New York Magazine article about how they are essentially driving out the Caribbean (particularly Haitian) community in the area by voting in blocs to pack offices with those in their ranks, especially school board positions- despite the fact most Hasids send their children to privately-run shuls. They then slash budgets and make decisions to cripple the services they themselves do not use or are affected by, in order to encourage non-Hasids to leave.

[Master Bates]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 12:53pm

TheatreDiva,

Literacy. It's a thing. Seriously, look it up.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 1:11pm

I know when someone is acting like a dick.

Thanks.

[Master Bates]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 1:21pm

Really? Because I was just letting JoeKv know that his post was hilarious, as he intended it to be. Read it and you might understand. You can do it. Sound out the words.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 8/20/13 at 1:30pm

I did. You are still a dick.