Sunday, June 15, 2008

The Final Performance

... and you missed it. My last live performance of I HATE THIS was Friday, June 22, 2007 in Plymouth, England. A large hall, an intimate crowd, an anti-climactic end to this important work.

I have been in negotiations with certain people about presenting it one more time in Cleveland Heights. This would have been nice if only because there has not been a public performance of the show in four years. And oddly enough, in the last week two different individuals have asked if there are any upcoming performances, or if the show is available on video (it's not, it won't be.)

But when I think of putting it all together one more time, I can't imagine it. It makes me tired. It fills me with dread. I don't want Calvin's play to fill me with dread. It's not the fear of plunging back into these feelings, of ripping open scabs, but rather the horror of playing, of impersonating, of not keeping it real. I have never done that before, and I don't want to risk it ever happening, ever.

I'm done. It took a year to make that decision, but it's made. The show still exists as a radio drama. The WCPN link is down, but WBEZ still has it archived here. And you can buy the script from SANDS UK.

I'm leaving the blog up, there's too much history here, but I won't be posting on it anymore. If you must must must know what's going on in Dave's head, you'll just have to check out my running blog and my cartoon blog.

Thank you. For everything.

P.S. Happy Father's Day.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, end of an era. I check this blog a lot mor regularly than the running one - maybe because it deals with more intimate parts of your well being than I'm up for first thing in the A.M. I'll learn to cross over more often. It's was a unique show and I know your descion was well considered. I shall observe your future endeavors with great interest.

Oh, and I love you.

pengo said...

Funny how the "oh, ands" are always the most important part.

Rosepetal said...

I don't know if you are still checking here, but I always wanted to see your play. I didn't know that it had been made into a radio show as well and that I could listen to it online.

I just did - it sounded so familiar. Thank you for writing it.

Thinking of Calvin.

pengo said...

As long as people are commenting, I will keep checking. Thanks for listening.

Catherine said...

This is an old post and I haven't visited in a long time, so I hope it's not inappropriate to comment now. I know I speak for Steve as well when I say say thank you for...well...everything.

I hope we can stay in touch (however irregularly).