Painted Toes

This Spring, The Rep has launched a new initiative, Ignite!, a festival, that features commissions of nationally recognized playwrights. It culminates in three public readings. We missed the first one, “Stagger Lee”, which was last week, but caught the second one. Tonight’s offering was “Gidion’s Knot”. Here is The Rep’s synopsis:

Over the course of what is not your ordinary parent/teacher conference, Gidion’s mother and his emotionally overwhelmed teacher have a fraught conversation about Gidion. As his story is slowly uncovered, these two caring women come to terms with their excruciating feelings of culpability. An emotionally charged play by this year’s Princess Grace Award winner, Johnna Adams.

This presentation was only a reading of the play. The world premiere of “Gidion’s Knot”, is scheduled for this summer, near DC. “Knot” is an adult themed play about children. Gideon’s mom and teacher wrestle with each other and with his suicide. A two actress play, it devolves into pin the blame on the donkey. Gidion is portrayed as a poet. Real world student suicide is more prosaic. Unsuccessful attempts allow for meaningful retrospection. Success leaves nothing but questions. This is what “Knot” leaves us with.

In other news, Anne’s regular rotation as substitute teacher/utility player, or everybody’s favorite sub, has skidded to an abrupt stop. She was called in on Monday, the day after Spring Break, to cover for a teacher that had jury duty. Today, Anne learned that this teacher could be out of school, 4-6 weeks. Anne will cover her high school math classes for the time being. Tonight she is grading papers. No telling how long this could last, either side could settle, but until then, Anne has a new challenge.

In case you were wondering, those are her toes. When she was feeling low last week, she gave me a shopping list of things to buy at the grocery store, mostly just drugs. Also, on her list, was pink nail polish. When your down with a cold and feeling low, sometimes NyQuil and your husband’s “Poor Babies” don’t cut it. I painted the big toes. Maybe I should have put on “Sixty Minute Man” and finished them?