I went to Paris to relax but I owe the impetus for the trip to Tenzig who was there to work. He occasionally works with a theater company that participates in festivals all around the world and although I much prefer it when we go someplace just for the sake of going, sometimes I just can't resist tagging along. Traveling with someone who has to do a show every night can really put a kink in your dinner plans (you have to eat REALLY early or REALLY late), but it does come with the perk of a free hotel room. The company he works with is called the New York City Players, and as the name implies they are a New York City based group that is part of the vibrant down-town theater scene. In Paris they were scheduled to do a show at the Pompidou Center as part of the fall theater festival.
They got as far as installing the set before the whole thing was brought to a screeching halt: the security guards at the museum went on strike.
So the set was inside and the company was outside. On the first night they held out hope that the issue would be resolved and they could go on with the show but at seven thirty they officially canceled the performance and turned away the people who had gathered at the door. The same thing happened again the second night, and finally the director resolved to put on the show somewhere else so at least a few people could see it. In the end it was staged in a blank room in the lobby of the hotel that they set up to look as much like the set as possible.
Even in the improvised setting, the show was great and it was much appreciated by the 25 or so people who could fit in the room. I had been skeptical at first about putting the play on this way but in the end I liked it better since you really felt the intensity of the performance. It was a strange counterpoint to my sightseeing excursions to have this behind the scenes (literally!) struggle going on throughout the week.
