Dear friend of Flyaway,
I’ve been writing you this month to share about our 2025 production of DOWN ON THE CORNER. But this week, I wanted to share a brief story from our recent run of ODE TO JANE that reminds me of why we do this work:
There is always that moment, usually in a tech rehearsal when the sound, the lights, and the dancing find their magic and the struggle to pull a huge project together becomes worth it. This year, Jack Beuttler (lighting designer), Ari Boostani (stage manager) and I were working through this struggle running a tech rehearsal on the sidewalk across from the Cadillac Hotel.
Right when we hit that perfect moment—the generators were working, the lighting placement sang out to us, and the dancers found the story in every cell of their bodies—we turned around and were shocked to see a line of cops behind us, watching.
Granted, the Cadillac Hotel is on the same block as the Tenderloin police station. So a gathering of cops was not too unusual.
But this was a gathering in a moment of peace, of awe, of wonder. No one was getting arrested for being unhoused or using drugs. The cops were standing in a line, completely still, all looking up at the dance.
I was reminded of Leonard Cohen’s song Anthem, ‘Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.’”
At Flyaway, we don’t aim for perfect. We show up to create art that makes the cracks through which beauty and liberation can get through.
If you have extra this holiday season, please support our creative work for transformative, racial, and gender justice. |
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