i moved to the city from the sticks of small town ohio way back when to take an internship with a theatre company that was quite well respected but has since disappeared. with a background in production they put me in as an assistant stage manager on a show that was already running. the psm was younger than me and had weeks earlier been in my role when the then-psm fell ill. they spoke about him in alternately jovial and hushed tones and never said the word
aids as if that would somehow change anything. i'd heard of it, but that was about it.
when the next production came up i was slated to be this man's asm. they told me he was feeling better, but to make sure he didn't have to exert himself too much. he sure seemed to be, the crusty little bugger that he was. i found myself constantly wondering whether he was serious or not when he made proclamations that caused the director's jaw to drop. for some reason he took a shine to me and welcomed me into his world, regaling me with stories of the shows he'd worked on, the people he knew, passing on a lifetime of theatrical knowledge along with details like where to get the best cheesecake in the city (veniero's) over several months in the rehearsal room and then in the theatre.
then he was gone. one day he was next to me in the theatre and the next he was on an i.v. i used to go see him at lennox hill in the afternoons and he'd have me try the candy that he'd been brought and make me describe each one. then he'd always say, "oh good i hate those," as i ate it. this from a man who'd once opined at a production meeting that any problem we had with bugs in the theatre could be handled by interns because, "they're always hungry." he'd survived the holocaust, learned to play piano in the camps, and died looking like he'd never left there. but we told jokes at his memorial, jokes he'd taught us.
r.i.p. marco, my guardian angel.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
