Google Alerts

As years go by I am somewhat interested in how certain things vanish from the Internet. Some things never do, like nude pictures. But articles can, especially when they were published in periodicals that 1) closely guarded their content from the beginning or 2) go out of business.

Perhaps they have seriously revamped their website, and everything before 20xx has been deleted from the server. That seemed to be the case for nytheatre.com, which had deleted the review of I HATE THIS from their database. Google alerts let me know this morning that it has been restored. Huzzah!

I had a very moving, though at the time, somewhat distressing encounter with the reviewer following that particular performances. She asked me, somewhat tremulously, if it gets better. I told her it gets different.

New book

They Were Still Born: Personal Stories about Stillbirth

Product Description
Stillbirth, defined as the death of an infant between 20 weeks gestation and birth, is a tragedy repeated 30,000 times every year in the United States. That means more than 80 mothers a day feel their babies slip silently from their bodies, the only sound in the delivery room their own sobs. Eighty stillborn babies a day means heartbroken families mourn the death of children who will never breathe, gurgle, learn to walk or go to school.

In 2006, Atlas became one of those mothers who left the hospital with empty arms; her second daughter, Beatrice Dianne, was stillborn at 36 weeks. Reaching out for comfort, she realized a dire need shared by so many others like her and so was born a collection of new essays by writers each sharing their firsthand experiences with stillbirth. Not limited to mothers, she has selected mothers, fathers, and grandparents, all of whom have first person narratives to offer readers.

Grieving parents will turn to the book for the comfort of knowing they are not alone on this painful path, for validation of their babies' lives, and for guidance from those who have gone before them. Finally, They Were Still Born will inspire readers to write their own stories, as well as show them how to do so. No parent- or grandparent-to-be sets out planning to purchase They Were Still Born. Unfortunately, there will always be readers-devastated, grieving, and searching for voices to help them through-who need it.

About the Author
Janel C. Atlas is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in various regional and national publications. Since her daughter's stillbirth, Atlas has written extensively about pregnancy and infant loss and spoken with many leading researchers in the field. She studied English Literature at Messiah College (PA), and now lives in Delaware with her husband and daughters.

No sh*t.

Always love to see how people will react when the subject pops up. We were watching Sherlock on PBS last night, a modern interpretation of the Sherlock Holmes myth set in 21st century London. It's brilliant.

I'll cut to the chase ...

SPOILER ALERT

One of the victims tried to scrawl the word "Rachel" into the wooden floor with her fingernails as she was dying. The police do a little research and find that she had a stillborn child fourteen years ago named Rachel. Lestrade, Holmes and Watson are at the crime scene, trying to deduce the significance of this clue, and how it relates to the murder suspect, who has been somehow driving people to kill themselves.

Watson: Maybe he talks to them, maybe he used the death of her daughter somehow....

Sherlock: That was ages ago, why would she still be upset?

(Everyone in the room is shocked into silence, which takes Holmes a brief moment to comprehend. He walks over to Watson.)

Sherlock: (quietly) Not good?

Watson: A bit not good, yeah.

Brilliant.

Whining

Saw Don't Call Me Fat at CPT last weekend, I am looking forward to Kill Will next weekend (it opens this Saturday.) Next Spring I will be presenting IHT and ATYD in the storefront space. There is a lot of work to do.

Josh needs to redesign the video for this show, and brush up the running play video. We have talked over a few things but really, he and Kelly have had their hands full with their own show. I have been happy to make notes and wait for my time. In the meanwhile I have been looking over my journals from 2000 and 2001.

Remember when you kept a journal? Man. So much spare time to sit, reflect and bitch. Children are a blessing, they teach you someone else's problems really are more important than yours. If that sounds snarky, it's not. It is true.

So this blog, my oldest blog, is over seven years old. It used to begin with the Minnesota Fringe, but now you can read edits from when we were pregnant with Calvin.

I have been posting these as they appear in "ten years ago today" increments on my Facebook page. I was surprised to find a comment left from someone (a fan?) in response to one of these:

are you whining? What's the problem? Puh-lease be finally happy- Shit-

It left me a little confused. Did she mean, am I still whining now about what happened then? Or did she think I wrote this now about then? Or is it a response left in ignorance of what was about the happen and why these little notes may be significant?

If they even are, I don't know. Puh-lease.

Looking backward

In April 2011, I HATE THIS will be produced at Cleveland Public Theatre. These will be the first public performances in Cleveland since 2004, and the first time I have performed the show at all since 2007.

The events described in the play occurred ten years ago, and at the time I kept a journal. I will be providing edited version of these journal entries on this blog through next Spring. You can read the first one here.

Cleveland Public Theatre Announces 10-11 Season

I Hate This and And Then You Die in repertory by David Hansen
Directed by Alison Garrigan
Storefront Studio
April 7 - 23

David Hansen performs his two award winning solo shows in rep. One is an exploration of personal loss and recovery, while the other is about obsession and victory. Both shows were developed in CPT's Big [Box] and have gone on to successful runs at the New York Fringe.

CPT's Entire 2010-11 Season

Spring 2011

"Applause" (2006)