Listen to Your Mother in NYC today!!!!!

It's here!!! It's today!!!!!

The third annual NYC Listen to Your Mother show will be presented TODAY at Symphony Space (on Manhattan's Upper West Side) at 5 PM. All info HERE.

Don't have your tickets yet? What are you waiting for?  Ok, yes, you CAN just walk up to the box office at showtime and buy them (it's a BIG theater).

And it's going to be a GREAT SHOW again this year - more wonderful stories, more wonderful storytellers. And I can say that without sounding too self-serving because this year I'm "just" a producer, not also a reader.

I read two years in a row. It was a moving and fulfilling experience, but time to make room for new faces.

The best part about not reading?  No angst over what to wear, the spanx or breathe dilemma. Also, as I am working the front of the house - box office and business issues - I can sit IN the house and watch the show with the audience, which is a fabulous experience I am looking forward to.

And, as always, part of our box office goes to a charity that helps women and families. This year it's the wonderful Women's Prison Association, represented by Alysia Reiner of our 2012 cast and the TV show Orange is the New Black.

I hope you can come see our show, or, if you're not local here, that there is a show near you to go to -- because we're in 32 cities around the country this year!!!!

Thanks for all the well wishes and leg breaking already received. And now... lets DO this thing!

Time to Listen to Your Mother again!

Yes! It's true! 

New York City's Listen to Your Mother show will be back this May.

I will once again be producing, and working with a great team: returning Director Amy Wilson, and Associate Producer Holly Rosen Fink, and joined this year by two more wonderful writer/blogger/media gurus: Associate Producer Nancy Friedman and Assistant Director Shari Simpson.

Last year’s show was such a resounding success (selling out weeks before the performance) that we needed a bigger venue for this year’s show – much, MUCH bigger…

And thus we are thrilled to announce that in 2013, New York City’s Listen to Your Mother show will be performed at:

Symphony Space

on Sunday, May 12th (Mother’s Day)

at 5 PM

So this year on Mother’s Day… spend the DAY with your family but the EVENING with your friends and us!

(Tickets are even already on sale, here!)

If you don't know what the Listen to Your Mother show is? It's a national series of original live readings by local writers in celebration of Mother's Day.

If you don’t know Symphony Space? Located at 2537 Broadway (at 95th St.) it is a pre-eminent multi-disciplinary performing arts center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, renowned for world-class music, film, stage, dance and literary productions and events.

We are thrilled to be bringing LTYM:NYC to a whole new level – and larger audience – here this May.

And if you’re interested in being in the show, come visit the LTYM:NYC website next week… where we’ll be announcing the call for auditions!

Also if you are not in the New York City tri-state area* and want to either BE in or SEE a Listen to Your Mother show, and you live in or near these other 23 places?

Austin . Boulder . Chicago . Denver . Eastern Iowa . Indianapolis . Kansas City . Madison . Milwaukee . New York City . Northern Utah . NW Arkansas . NW Indiana . Oklahoma City . Plumas County, CA . Providence . Raleigh-Durham . Sacramento . San Francisco . Spokane . St. Louis . Twin Cities, MN . Washington, DC . Wilmington

You're in luck! LTYM is coming to your town! So go to the LTYM national site, then find and click over to your city's site on the "Local Shows" pull-down list to see what's happening there. Many cities are already setting up auditions - so exciting!

*If you are like me you can nevermore read those words: "Tri-State Area" without hearing them in a funny-fakey German accent - thanks to Phineas & Ferb.

Listen To Your Mother is back and badder than ever!

I've been sitting on this for a while, so it is with a great sigh of relief that I can finally shout out to the world: Listen to Your Mother is returning to NYC in 2013!

That's right, once again, this May, I will have the honor and privilege of producing the Listen to Your Mother show, here in New York City. I will again be working with the killer team of Director Amy Wilson and Associate Producer Holly Fink. And this year we will be joined by the lovely and talented Shari Simpson AKA Dusty of the blog Earth Mother just means I'm dusty.

If you're one of those really organized types, you'll want to save the date. This year we'll be performing the show on Mothers Day itself: May 12th, 2013, in the early evening.

If you don't know what all this is about? Here it is (in the words of Ann Imig who started this whole thing):

LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER (LTYM) is a national series of live readings by local writers in celebration of Mother's Day. Born of the creative work of mothers who publish online, each production is directed, produced, and performed by local communities, for local communities.

LTYM began with one show of local writers reading in Madison Wisconsin on Mother’s Day 2010.  The video of the show was posted online in its entirety, and so LTYM reached a global audience and garnered a huge response.

Bloggers across the country began asking to host LTYM in their home towns, and so in 2011 Ann took the project national with shows in 5 cities across the country. And then in 2012 it expanded to 10 cities - including New York City!

The mission of each LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER production is to take the audience on a well-crafted journey that celebrates and validates mothering through giving voice to motherhood–in all of its complexity, diversity, and humor.

Last year's show was amazing. I loved every minute of putting it on, from the auditions, to the rehearsals, to maintaining the local website, and all the hard work that went into making it happen. Working with Holly and Amy and Betsy was a dream. Our cast was an incredibly talented group of wonderful women (and one man) and I can't imagine a better one. And then of course there was the show itself, a highlight of my year.

And this year? (Drum roll, please) ... TWENTY-FOUR cities around the country! Yes, 24! Watch this lovely announcement video to see them all listed: Introducing Listen To Your Mother 2013!

And if there's one near you? You should definitely consider coming out to audition (it's a wonderful experience, whether you get cast or not) and most certainly go see the show, come May!

The production teams in each of these 24 cities will be announced soon (with 9 out of last year's 10 cities returning this year too), and I have to say I am bubbling over with excitement about how many of my dear blogging friends around the country are coming on board. This is some mad crazy talent pool here, and you will be thrilled when you read that list, too.

Watch for that announcement on the main Listen to Your Mother site next week. And in the days and weeks to come, more information about the shows around the country and right here in NYC will appear there too. Also please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for timely announcements.

And if you want to see what we were up to last year? Here's my post linking to the VIDEOS of both the NYC show and all the others as well: The LTYM Videos have Launched!

And also, because hey, it's MY blog, in case you haven't seen it yet, here's the video of me reading "Holding Hands" at the 2012 LTYM-NYC:

Stay tuned for more soon!

The LTYM Videos have Launched!

LTYM-NYC, the most amazing group, EVER!

Remember all the way back to last spring? (Early May, in matter of fact.) I certainly do. It was a happier time. Before my mother's (down)fall.

I was SO busy, all wrapped up in New York City's premiere of the Listen to Your Mother Show (LTYM) - a national event in 10 cities. I was producing as well as reading, so I really didn't have time to be nervous about my performance.

It was an amazing a experience. A highlight of both my blogging and theater life.

And today, FINALLY, the videos are up on YouTube.

Gulp.

Please watch the whole show if you can, because EVERYONE in our NYC cast was amazing.

And then watch EVERYONE in Washington, DC; Austin, Texas; Northwest Arkansas; and Spokane, Washington as well.

An now EVERYONE in Chicago; Madison, Wisconsin; Northwest Indiana; Philadelphia; and San Fransisco, too! 

Hours of top notch entertainment, folks. And free!

And if you particularly want to watch me? Here I am, live on tape:

Gulp.

This is Not a Post

This is not a real blog post.

I just don't have time for that right now. Neither the time nor the energy. So I'll just sketch things out. You can fill in the details.

I thought things would slow down after Listen to Your Mother had come and gone.

Not hardly. There's always something. All the little things I didn't do in those last frantic weeks of preparing for the show? Still needed to be done.

Mountains of laundry. Sinkloads of dishes. A living room that looks like a toystore threw up in it. The house elves did not come in and magically take care of all that shit.

And in the midst of it all I decamped for an overnight to Philly to hear THEIR own LTYM.  A one day road trip with my producing partner Holly, the Culture Mom, which couldn't have been more fun.

The wonderful LTYM - Philly Producing Team

But I returned to the same workload I had left, and then some. (Dad in charge. Need I say more?)

And then there was Mothers Day. More work. A brunch in New Jersey with the in-laws.

If this were a post I would tell you how tough it was this year on Mothers Day, being with my mother, who is a mere ghost of herself. She has forgotten who nearly everybody is. She could barely walk, gets less steady on her feet each passing week, yet won't use the rollator walker - of which she has THREE - out of stubborn pride.

Mothers Day

It makes me really sad to be around her. I want my Mommy back. Even the befuddled, filter-less mom I've been taking care of these past few years was still feisty, funny. I'll take her.

This subdued old woman who just sits and vaguely smiles with nothing to say and no idea where she is or why she's there? Just breaks my heart.

She appreciated the sunshine and greenery on the backyard deck. She smiled at our niece's toddler twin boys who so remind us all of toddler Ethan & Jake, simultaneously so long ago and just a blink away.

But she no longer plays with my boys. Doesn't know how to talk to them, their interests incomprehensible to her now limited comprehension.

If this were a post I would tell you about how Jacob has developed a whole new panoply of annoying habits this spring, including a frequent maniacal loud giggling laugh that we call "the silly laugh" because calling it "the maniacal creepy laugh" is just too... creepy.

I would tell you how the medicine that was helping Ethan to focus all year started to make him paranoid and angry so we had to stop it, and now we're back to square one.

I would tell you.

But I'm too tired to write that post. You'll have to fill in the blanks. I'm sure you can.

Now, sit down here and take a little nap with me. There, that's nice. And when we wake up we can fold some laundry. And I will tell you...
 

I am linking this up with Just Write, because this was ... just written.

Still Aware and Still Accepting

Today is the last day of April, now the official month of Autism Awareness and Autism Acceptance.

But of course, for those of us either with, or in intimate relationships with someone on the autism spectrum? It's not a month. It's a life.

A good life. But different.

I am still, more than ever, swamped by my duties as producer of the Listen to Your Mother Show, which is happening THIS upcoming Sunday. So I barely have time to type even another sentence about anything else, let alone the meaningful post about autism I should be writing today.

So even though yesterday's post was stream of consciousness (to the max) and I usually try to follow that with something well thought out and structured. Not possible to happen today. It's just another brain-dump people, with apologies.

Jacob has spring fever or spring mania or something and is bouncy and happy but also bouncy and LOUD, with his all-the-time talking at a new high. It's probably time for a visit to the psycho-pharmacologist for adjustments, and that is time and money I don't have. (Putting that call on my already floor-length to-do list for tomorrow.)

Listen to Your Mother is going to be amazing and our rehearsal yesterday truly inspiring. But it has definitely taken a toll on my family, with Ethan once again declaring that "You love your computer more than your kids, your computer is more important than ME." Sigh. I hope some day he'll understand.

Yesterday I actually said to him "I am more than just your mother, you know." And I kinda, sorta meant it.

I have to assume some of Jacob's over-the-top-ness is his needing more from me than I have been giving lately. He wants to play, to talk, to show me everything he is doing, which is truly, truly wonderful, but the timing couldn't have been worse.

So I am juggling three full time jobs - LTYM, Special Needs Mom, Elder Caregiver - and well, it ain't pretty.

There is an important conversation going on right now, that you should be reading if you care about autism. It's over here:

It's an answer to someone finding their blog using the search words "I wish I didn't have Asperger's." They want everyone typing those words into a search engine to find THIS site - and hear words of positivity and encouragement.

How utterly awesome. I wish I could have participated, but Asperger's is not the flavor of autism I have any real intimacy with, Jacob being of a different stripe altogether. 

But it's wonderful stuff, a lot of great posts by a lot of my autism-mom friends written and linked up there. You should go and read!

And that's really all I have time for today. Almost not a post, but better than nothing. (At least I'm sending you somewhere full of the wonderful.)

Now I have to go do another hour or three worth of work on Listen to your mother, and then plan the kids' weekend.  Do some paperwork for my mother.

And sleep, oh, yeah that "sleep" stuff. I think I vaguely remember what that feels like.

SOC Sunday: reallyreallystreamofconsciousness

This one is really really stream of consciousness, folks, not those fake SOC posts that I;ve been thinking about for hours and planning in my head so only the actual monkey-typing part is real. Let's pretend it's really Sunday and not wee early in the morning Monday and I'm going to back-date this sucker, okay, just pretend with me. I am flat out flat out right now between producing Listen to Your Mother - show goes up on SUNDAY - yikes! - and then trying to actually BE a mother, and a care-taking daughter. and feeling like I'm failing miserably at BOTH right now - haven't seen my mother in a week too busy busy busy. Got a call from my aunt Marilyn's nursing home yesterday morning that she'd had another toe infection - nothing to be alarmed, just keeping me in the loop - and I'm all stabbed with guilt because I haven;t brought my Mom to see her sister in over a MONTH now but it always makes her so sad to see her sis so far gone, but then she feels guilty when she doesn't go, dilemma, dilemma.

Jake acting up a lot lately repeating "Timmy is a Stupid Kid" over & over (his own lovely take-off on the cartoon show Fairly Odd Parents theme song). I think he KNOWS it annoys me - because he's looking right at me and smiling his "I got you" smile while he does it - & is doing it because he's not getting enough positive attention from me as I am balls to the walls (yes metaphoric ones) with this LTYM show which is way more work than I had bargained for in the beginning but it feels so good to be working and being more than just mom but I know I am not being a quite good enough mom while I am so busy and mostly just DISTRACTED.

And thank GOD for wonderful neighbors who actually took Jake for 3 hours yesterday when my sitter had to leave early and my rehearsal was still going on and my husband was working at a convention and couldn't leave early because he was on a late panel. They're actually the most amazing people on the planet, kind and generous and smart and funny and fun to hang out with and I don;t know what I did to deserve them but whatever it is THANK GOODNESS. and then I feel guilty because I don;t know what i can ever do to repay them for all the slack they pick up for me other than occasionally picking their boys up at school.

ANd the LTYM rehearsal was today and so fabulous and the show the show is going to be WONDERFUL and I wish the theater were bigger because we are so sold out and so many of my procrastinator-y friends didn't think to buy tickets until it was too late even though I TOLD them it would sell out a month ago. le sigh.

And my poor neglected blog - I tried to do Momalom's 5 for 5 linky but only got to 3 for 5. even started the last post - "Listening"  - really wanted to write that one & had a lot to say there, but only got four sentences into it when had to put out another LTYM fire. lesson learned for next year - expect very little elsewhere in my life during pre-show month of April. But April April April is Autism Awareness/Acceptance month as I was supposed to be writing writing writing about autism all month long and I so didn't. I stared with a bang and then fizzled out and don;t let me get started on how that's a metaphor for so much in my life. And now I need to go try to get a little more sleep so BAM it's over, stream shut-down. goodnight.

@@@@@@@

 
New to SOCS?  It’s five minutes of your time and a brain dump.  Want to try it?  Here are the rules…

• Set a timer and write for 5 minutes only.
• Write an intro to the post if you want but don’t edit the post. No proofreading or spell-checking. This is writing in the raw.

You can do it, too!  Click on the picture link and let's hear your 5 minutes of brilliance...

Listen To Your Mother!

No, I'm not telling you to do that. (I figure by now you know whether or not your mother is someone it makes sense to listen to.) And I'm not telling your kids (if you ARE a mother) to listen to you - they should be already doing that, like mine always listen to ME. (Yeah, right, and do you want to buy a bridge?)

What I am doing is ANNOUNCING something really IMPORTANT (which is why I am SHOUTING here in ALL CAPS):

The cities and production teams for the ten 2012 Listen To Your Mother shows have just been announced. And... And... YES! I am the producer of the New York City show!

I've been wanting to tell you forever, but couldn't spill the beans, nearly lost my mind waiting for the official announcement.  What a RELIEF!

Click above to see the national announcement on the LTYM official site

I'll be working with a wonderful team: besides me as Producer there's the lovely and amazingly talented Amy Wilson who will be the Director, with Holly Fink and Julie Nemitz joining us as Associate Producers.

Also? The folks taking this on in the other nine sites across the country read like a who's who of fabulous blogger/writers. It's truly going to be an amazing series of events. Go to the LTYM announcement post to see who all is on board.

If you don't know what all this is about? Here it is (liberally stolen cribbed from the LTYM site in the words of Ann Imig who started this whole thing):

LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER (LTYM) is a national series of live readings by local writers in celebration of Mother's Day. Born of the creative work of mothers who publish online, each production is directed, produced, and performed by local communities, for local communities.

LTYM began with one show of local writers reading in Madison Wisconsin on Mother’s Day 2010.  The video of the show was posted online in its entirety, and so LTYM reached a global audience and garnered a huge response.

Bloggers across the country began asking to host LTYM in their home towns, and so in 2011 Ann took the project national with shows in 5 cities across the country.

The mission of each LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER production is to take the audience on a well-crafted journey that celebrates and validates mothering through giving voice to motherhood–in all of its complexity, diversity, and humor.

LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER aims to support motherhood creatively through artistic expression, and also financially – through contributions to non-profit organizations supporting families in need.

So there you have it! A lot of my bloggy friends participated in this year's show (including the incomparable Alexandra of Good Day Regular People) and got me excited about the idea of bringing it to New York City next spring.

This summer at the BlogHer11 conference in San Diego, there was a LTYM open mike event on Friday evening, and, fortunately, my name was drawn out of the hat to read.

I read a sweet, sad post about time spent with my elderly mother (H is for Holding Hands) and the experience was wonderful. The room was packed; overflowing even with women sprawled on the floor as well as the furniture. And I made some of them cry. And then the next reader made them laugh.

(And then Deb Rox of Deb on the Rocks read a piece that was so funny, she made us all laugh so hard there was a mad rush for the bathroom afterward because some of us *might* have peed our pants a little - definite specific hazard in a room full of women who have had our pelvic girdle kicked from the inside one too many times.)

That's what's so wonderful about this show, it's the whole panoply of the mothering experience, both being and having a mother.

And, oh, did I mention yet that BlogHer is actually a national sponsor of this whole shindig again this year (it just keeps getting better and better) so THANK YOU, BlogHer, you wonderful women you!

So stay tuned for upcoming posts in the future about both the audition process (if you want to be in the show) and the ticket sales (if you want to come see the show). Also? I realized I have told very few tales of my history in the theater (bet you didn't even know I HAD one, right?) so this should cue a bunch of those to be forthcoming soon, too.

Just think: New York City in the late 80's and early 90's, Lower East Side, Off-Off Broadway, performance artists, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival... Hmmmm, some tales to tell, indeed...



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