Spin The Bottle

I never played spin the bottle in middle school. I spent my middle school years reading books and wandering around Yamanomachi, the neighborhood in Kobe, Japan, where I lived and home schooled. I have, however, watched enough television to get the concept; you sit in a specific format, there's a beer bottle on the floor, and you don't know who you'll end up kissing before the night is through.

Which makes it a very fitting title for a late night theater variety show.

Annex Theater has been running their eclectic cabaret every first Friday of the month for as long as I can remember. I can only remember back about ten years, but that is a very impressive track record in the theater community, and I  assume it's been even longer than that.

I am not a regular attendee of this event as I have a few issues with it. My main issue is that it is always on Friday night, and the average Saturday morning finds me up and working by six a.m. It's hard to stay out until two in the morning, when you know you're expected to be pouring coffee and offering hang over cures to people who are not you, in only a few short hours.

So, most Friday nights I stay home, watch a couple episodes of 30 Rock (Or Mad Men, or True Blood, or Grey's Anatomy) and go to bed by eleven. There are, however, two surefire way to get me to ignore common sense and drive to Capitol Hill for Spin the Bottle instead:

1) Have one of my close friends or family members perform in it.
2) Have me perform in it.

This never fails, employ one of these two methods, and I will call either commit to the sleep loss, or call in a favor at work. Last night Spin the Bottle went with option one by having one of my best friends, Opal Peachey, perform a song from Modern Luv the show she just closed, I showed up.

And I'm glad I did. As the name implies Spin the Bottle is a crap shoot, sometimes it's brilliant, sometimes it's cringe worthy, but it is always, always, entertaining. Especially if you drink.

Last night's line up was very strong, particularly the first act. After Opal and Mark Siano opened the show (more on them later), we were treated to a few wry, original songs by Dan Hamann, a shy, muscled, girl doing a jerky interpretive dance to the song "what do you get when you fall in love", and Dartanion London, regaling us with a tale of his time working at Public Access television. We also got a puppet show.

Second act was a little shakier: A belly dancer sporting claws and leopord print, Gude and Laurance playing a non original song, and a sweet little comic telling a string of one liners. She kept telling us how nice we were for laughing, but I don't think the audience was that nice, I think we were just really warmed up.
Second act closed strong with Bret Fetzer reading an inspired piece of smut by Kelleen Conway Blanchard.

It was a good night, I had two beers, and two whiskeys, and I dropped one of my whiskeys on the floor in the process of being handed a raffle ticket. I didn't win anything at the raffle. I stayed for the after party and danced, and watched performers and audience alike descend on a tray of tater tots. Most importantly I got to watch Opal sing.

I'm glad Opal has started singing. Since I've known her, she's focused mainly on her talents as a director, stage manager, writer, and actor, but I still remember her singing "Summertime" and talking about her love of jazz in a voice class presentation Freshman year of Cornish, and I'm happy she's been able to put some focus lately on her talent as a singer.

She's had a little help in placing that focus, first from Cafe Nordo and company, who cast her in their cocktails and caberet show Sauced. During that show she met Mark Siano, who invited her to audition for his upcoming production. Modern Luv played one sold out weekend at the tripple door, but it will hopefully have a second outing. It was very well received by both press and peers, and gave Opal the opportunity to rock a power ballad in a silver dress.

You see, there's a good reason I'll show up at Spin the Bottle if I know someone who's performing. It's not just that I'm a supportive friend, although of course I am, and it's its not just that I get a vicarious thrill seeing someone I know on stage, although of course I do, it's also that I have very talented friends.