Megan Stielstra's Blog

So I’m in Uncommon Ground drinking coffee and memorizing lines for 2nd Story tonight OHMIGOD 2ND STORY! HAVE YOU COME TO 2ND STORY?! PEOPLE TELL STORIES AND DRINK WINE AT 2ND STORY!! AND TONIGHT I’M TELLING A STORY WITH ADAM AND AMANDA ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE PERFECT AND, IN THIS STORY, THE THREE OF US FIGHT A LOT! AND DISCUSS CELLULITE! AND ANUSES! AND AMANDA’S DIRTY DISHES AND THE WOMAN ADAM AND I WOULD GET DOWN WITH WERE HE OR I EVER TO GET DOWN WITH A WOMAN WHICH IS HIGHLY UNLIKELY BUT WHATEVER! AND TOMORROW I’M TELLING A STORY ABOUT HOW I DATED INDIANA JONES FOR A REALLY LONG TIME AND CHRISTOPHER MADE ME BREAK UP WITH HIM BEFORE WE GOT MARREID! I’M SO HEALTHY MENTALLY! FOR REAL! ESPECIALLY WHEN I’M DRINKING WINE! YAAAAAY WINE!!! and there’s this part where Amanda’s saying the “perfect man” doesn’t exist and I say, “I don’t care if it’s true or not, the last thing you say to somebody single ‘cause all we really know about is WHERE THE HELL IS MY PERFECT PERSON I’M GROWING OLD HERE, PEOPLE,” and as I was yelling this line in my head, Amanda called.

“I’m having an argument with you in my brain right now,” I told her instead of hello.

Amanda is the artistic director of 2nd Story, which means she and I spend a GREAT deal of time together juggling all sorts of balls—LOTS of people juggle for 2nd Story, actually. Nick and Heather and Adam and Daria and Misha and Miles and Tamara and everyone at Webster Wine Bar and fifty storytellers and twelve performance directors and seven writing developers and Aimee and Calliope and the entire Serendipity Theater Collective and a couple yummy vineyards and one SUPER-HOT web designer (I totally have the hots for 2nd Story’s web designer) and a super-great graphic design team and I can’t even keep track of it all. Luckily, it’s not my job to keep track of it all. It’s Amanda’s job. And whenever I try to figure out the million other things going on with 2nd Story she tells me to Go Get Your Sweater, which is code for “Please focus on issues of story development and leave the wine sponsorships alone because Nick’s got it covered and you have your own shit to worry about,” which I really like ‘cause I was that girl in class who, when the teacher assigned group projects, always did the whole project all by herself and never let anybody help and then complained that nobody helped and then realized years later, when blogging about it, that no one helped ‘cause she monopolized the whole project and subsequently felt really guilty sitting there in Uncommon Ground until she remembered that’s all in the past and now, in the present, she’s part of this big honking team and has learned to work collaboratively, both delegating and being delegated to (the Delegator and the Delegatee!!!]; IN SHORT: while I’m off getting my sweater there’s lots of really awesome people doing lots of really awesome stuff and WORKING WITH THEM ALL IS SUCH A JOY—and ANYHOW, since Amanda and I talk so much about the juggling we’ve completely ceased with all pleasantries and tend to begin conversations right where we ended the last one. As in:

MONDAY

MEGAN: and blah blah I wrote up text for the submission process
AMANDA: Great does it include the monthly as well as the festival
MEGAN: yes but not the audition—
AMANDA: I have to go. Rehearsal is starting right now for the other five shows I’m directing concurrently with 2nd Story
MEGAN: You are a crack-addicted masochist
AMANDA: Go get your sweater

TUESDAY

MEGAN: But not the performance requirements, just the writing on the page
AMANDA: Oh I need to come up with that stuff, how about—
MEGAN: I have to go to class. Tim O’Brien is coming
AMANDA: Don’t drool on him

WEDNESDAY

AMANDA: how about a performance resume and then we ask if they’re in any shows MEGAN: Sounds good I didn’t drool on him
AMANDA: Good girl did we schedule a post mortem
MEGAN: I KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS! I SPEAK THEATER!
AMANDA: Sometimes you are cute and sometimes you’re an asshat

And THURSDAY.

Today.

MEGAN: I’m having an argument with you in my brain right now
AMANDA: Why are you doing it in your brain instead of out loud? You can come over here and yell at me if you need to

—and I open my mouth to explain that the argument I’m speaking of is the SCRIPTED one I’m memorizing for tonight, but stop when I realize how cool it is that she just invited me over so we could fight. I tend to make such a big deal out of arguments—I’m fairly non-confrontational, I get all stammer-y, usually I bite back what I’m thinking/feeling in the moment and then, later, bitch up a storm, or type very nastily in my journal, or hold it all in for fifteen years until someone forgets to fold the bathroom towels and then I spontaneously combust, but with Amanda—it’s just no big deal. We’re going to duke it out and somewhere during all that we’ll fix whatever we need to fix and just get the hell on with making art.

I’d like to be more like that.

MEGAN: No no no—the argument from the STORY. I’m running lines
AMANDA: Oh, good, I need to do that
MEGAN: I’m at Uncommon Ground
AMANDA: with the chopped salad
MEGAN: and the mimosas
AMANDA: I like mimosas
MEGAN: how’s about a mimosa meeting for the post mortem
AMANDA: how’s about the 29th
MEGAN: mimosas on the 29th, I’m call Nick and tell him
AMANDA: I’ll call Nick, you go get your sweater
MEGAN: I need to go shopping soon. I need clothes of the non-metaphorical persuasion
AMANDA: that’s cute
MEGAN: I'm a cute asshat