Thank you for your part in making HOMELAND a success

Thank you to everyone who came out to see the premiere of HOMELAND last weekend (especially if you braved the slush and sleet on Thursday night – you count double!).

Something happened last weekend that I wasn’t prepared for - I fell in love with the show. The dance that Kaoru, Kourtney, Rachel and I had worked so long and hard on came together with David’s costumes; Tim’s lighting; and, finally, Michael’s music (performed by him, Ben, Ian and Karen) in a way that was absolutely magical. As I write that, it sounds incredibly cheesy, but magic is the only way I have to describe it. HOMELAND took on its own life. It was no longer “my” show, but belonged to everyone who was performing and everyone who was watching.

I got so many thoughtful and insightful comments about HOMELAND – comments that made me know that people were really engaged and truly thinking about the work and its relation to the world we live in. For once, I have no doubt that I am where I need to be, doing what I need to do.

Instead of jumping off to the next thing, we are now figuring out how HOMELAND can have a life beyond last weekend, whether at far-flung festivals or here in NYC. That is an exciting place to be.

Even if you didn’t make it last weekend, thanks for your kind words of support throughout the process. I send you a lot of emails and I appreciate that you read them.
Last, but certainly not least, thank you to everyone who made a financial contribution to HOMELAND. We raised well over $10,000 from 119 individual contributors. I think that’s amazing. Thanks to that, we have come very close to meeting our budget.

We are, of course, still a bit shy of meeting our budget – by about $3,000. If you meant to contribute but thought it was too late, it’s not. If you meant to come to the show but couldn’t make it, your contribution now will help us get back to even footing so that we can bring you an encore performance of HOMELAND.

To make a contribution, visit catscratchtheatre.org and click on “donate.” (Come on, you’d miss my fundraising plea if I didn’t include it.)

Catch me next at Marina Abromovic: The Artist is Present at MoMA.

Hugs and kisses,
jz

Welcome to the Homeland Blog!

Hello blogosphere!

If you're reading this, you probably care about modern dance. Or at least about CatScratch Theatre. Or at least about me. Or perhaps, all of the above. Many of you have been telling me for quite some time that I need a better website. I've always agreed with you. Now I've finally done something about it. I'm working with a real, live web designer. She's fantastically talented and I think she "gets" us. She'll have something up for us by the end of the year. I'm so excited. I'm so excited that I'm starting a blog.

I know that you spend a lot of time looking at your computer screen. I know that, once in a great while, you get tired of facebook and think to yourself "if only I could see into the creative process of CatScratch Theatre. I'd love to see what they worked on last night in rehearsal for Homeland. Then my day would be complete." Well, get ready to have a few more complete days every week. Visit us when cyberspace gets tiresome, or when the tubes of the internet seem to be sucking more from you than they're delivering. Here, you can take a moment, read a note from me or one of the other dancers, look at a short video or see some photos of rehearsal. Maybe even hear Kaoru say something in Japanese. Then, you can get on with your day with a renewed sense of purpose.

Here are some photos to get you started...I'm working on learning how to upload the videos...

xo
jz