10 things: #1

 

1. New York is a feast. I have never been anywhere where there was so much energy, so much going on. Constantly. You can never hope to take it all in, and you can never complain that you are bored. It can be tempting to throw your hands up in the air - too many choices! Alternatively, maybe you can make a list. (you list maker, you!)

2. I've got a friend back in Wisconsin who has a great project going on. She has written up a list of 52 things she wants to do this year. It's a really neat variety of things: bake bread, go ice skating, give money to an animal shelter. She's blogging about it, and I've been following along. Fun to read, and inspiring.

Taking my cue from her, I've come up with a list of my own. Only it's a little shorter: 10 things to do in New York this year. We're always talking about doing this and that, then time passes and we're still just cleaning the apartment and going to the park. This list should be just the kick in the butt we need. And look, we can already cross off #1!

Thing #1: Go to an Off-Broadway Play


New York (obviously) has a great theater thing going on Broadway, but there is so much more to the theater world than the dozen or so pieces that have made it big. What about the smaller, more experimental stuff?

We went to the Bushwick Starr last night, a Brooklyn performance space carved out of a warehouse. The audience sat in mismatched chairs, some from Ikea. The young playwright filled in for an injured actress. The play was equal parts entertaining and disturbing, and ended with a group of young women, many of whom had been sexually abused, tearing another woman apart and eating her flesh. It was intimate, out there, and thought-provoking. I loved it.

Thing #1.5: have a drink and a conversation before the show