Modesty is Dangerous

Melanie Rios’ 50th birthday was an A grade event on a funological scale – it changed my life.

The Emerald Valley Playback Theatre troupe was to do a performance at this event and one of their group could not make it. I had been flirting with Abigail for a while when she got this news and turned to me and said:

“Have you ever done theater?”
I quickly replied “Yes.”
Then she asked, “Have you ever done Playback Theater?”
“No,” i said “And i could learn it,” i offered.

Forty minutes later i was up on stage.  Abigail gave me a crash course in playback. I played Network for New Culture organizer Michael Rios, Melanie’s ex husband and Abigail played Melanie. I know Michael, he is an amazing man and i have my friendly critique of his style which i played up in the playback vignette. Abigail was brilliant, as we might expect. And the audience (which included both Michael and Melanie) loved our rendition. Abigail and i promptly then fell in love. Despite friends reminding her that she was monogamous and i probably was not.

Abigail and i have a glorious holiday romance. She lives absurdly far from Twin Oaks in Eugene, Oregon where she does righteous work with applied theater. We only see each other a few times a year breaking into conferences and doing honest seduction workshops as we go. The last few days we have been at the Playback Theater first North American conference. It was magical overall and our workshop was the best part.

About 1/3 of the people who came to the 80-minute session came to it because of the name.  “Modesty is Dangerous” was a coining of mine which Abigail picked up as a call for us to be bold.  And asking playback actors to be bold is like asking fish to submerge.  Abigail and i cobbled together a clever combination of playback tools and new culture tools and people walked away entranced.  The agenda is here.

[Edited by Judy Youngquest]