"The Buddha: In His Own Words"

THEATER 79
-fall & winter 2007

I met evan brenner through a Craigslist ad. He was looking for a theater person to run lines with for a one-person show he’d written about the life of the buddha. He’d already had a few performances in Boston. We met in the space where he’d be doing his first NY performance, and did some read-throughs. I gave him feedback, and stayed for the show. I thought it was lovely, and evan delightful. I’d always had a much greater connection with eastern philosophy than western (taoism was my favorite, with buddhism a close second). We met one or two more times, then he asked me to run lights and sound when he moved to his own performance space, a black box theater he and some friends were creating in an ex-lumber store on 25^th St., by 8^th Ave. Soon i was pitching in, and come opening night i was on the boards (light and sound boards, that is). They could barely be called boards, but visually (and in every other way), the show was very moving. Evan had culled the script from the Pali canon, the most authentic available. The first draft had been over six hours long. His wonderful parents, marcia and buzz, were providing much of the funding. Our cast and crew numbered three, with a delightful fellow named andhi jeannot running the lobby. He left, to be replaced by heather massie, an eager actress who also brought nice energy (later, due to budget cuts, i filled both crew roles). I liked heather, and there was even an attraction between us (though her use of makeup offset that). The play had had a director for its earlier incarnations, but i began to fill that role by sharing performance notes with evan, at his urging. He and i continued shaping the show, and at some point he officially named me director. He also introduced me to the only corporate weakness of my life - the Whole Foods buffet bar. To this day, my salivary glands perk up at the mere thought. The original lighting designer took exception to some of our changes, but ev smoothed that over. The most resonant song we used was jeff buckley’s “Hallelujah”…in the darkness, evan used jeff’s barely-audible pre-song breath intake as a stage cue. We did several shows a week, and ran for some months. Audiences ranged from teen-sized to around a hundred. They were some of the most lovely crowds i’d ever been around. A high sense of peace and curiosity permeated the affairs, as many of the attendees were buddhist practitioners. Evan did a lovely Q&A most nights. In all those months, i can’t recall a single overt personality conflict between the four of us, and i’m hard-pressed to recall even a sublimated one. The closest i can recollect is the night i felt a strong energy connection with an audience member who sat near me (my work station wasn’t hidden). There was a sexual element - before we’d even spoken a word, her nearness left me a bit intoxicated. She wasn’t as svelte as my usual tastes, but i knew with certainty that this was going to be the first romance of my life in which that didn’t matter one bit. During the Q&A, she did yoga stretches on the floor nearby. Finally, i was preparing to acknowledge these feelings, and i’m positive she was waiting for me to do so. Just then, heather started talking to me about that very person, and how her yoga activity was “weird”. By the time i extracted myself, she was gone. Years later, this still stands as one of the most profound romantic disappointments of my life. Anyway, the show continued on its beautiful way, and eventually evan invited me to produce one of my own shows in the space. I held auditions for ROHTI SEX and was in rehearsal when the news came – the Lumber Theater was closing. There was a fire code renovation needed which was prohibitively expensive, and evan knew there would be invite performances for the buddha show elsewhere. I joined him for one or two of these – particularly memorable is a performance at a Connecticut college. Evan and i stayed friends. I even lived with him for a week once, when i was between homes. I was able to give him one of the more beautiful gifts of my life – a thirty-pound wooden buddha created by an asian artist, brought to north america by a friend of mine.