04/15/2019
On Saturday, LA was annoyed that we had managed Friday, and cranked up the degree of difficulty in response. Three performances: two at Cal Institute for Men (CIM), with one at CIW sandwiched between. The middle performance for the woman was great, and Len's sister, Alice, joined us, her first time in a correctional facility and first time seeing the play.
The two for the men threw some new challenges at us. The first one, in a chapel on one of the units of the complex, featured a Spanish interpreter who sat upstage and translated into a microphone while we were performing. We managed to ignore that distraction and have a good performance and discussion.
When we returned, the chapel on a different unit was too small for the number of men in attendance, so we relocated at the last minute to "Culinary", a very large, very echo-y cafeteria. There was another Spanish translator, this one near the back of the audience, but his voice carried in that room. But besides slowing down to battle the echoes, we also needed to let the sign language interpreter keep up, while acting around her since she was seated onstage, right at the end of the table. We had to make sure never to stand between her and her client. Oh, did we mention the kitchen staff? They were loudly banging dishes and cookware as they cleaned.
We spent a lot of time shouting slowly. Somehow, the men in attendance really appreciated the performance and discussion. So very thankful that our es**rt intercepted the guards who hadn't gotten the memo about a guy in a robe running with a plastic sword before they could use their pepper spray.
