By now, if you've been chasing my links, you know of "Arden" at Cinephilia due to my blog crush. She currently has the plum gig of friday movie reviews for The Gilded Moose. I had the pleasure of meeting her in the flesh this past week. She asked me to attend the reading of her work in progress ("Cinephilia" natch) so I did.I've no idea if "attending a reading" sounds very glamorous to readers outside of major theater towns but the truth is it's not. Readings are often in unglamorous locations, sparsely attended, and painfully not ready for their closeup. Still, they're are a crucial part of the creative process --you have to see how it plays for an audience. Attending them regularly is a duty for any theater addict with friends in the community. Since the author in question is usually there (and if you're attending you probably know them) you sometimes have to search valiantly for that
Attending this one though? Not the least bit painful. Though I am sometimes a relentlessly critical person I just had a great time watching this. It's a four character piece about cinephiles and messy relationships lived through movies instead of, perhaps, actually lived.
My short review: Hilarious. Forceful. Insightful. (And there's at least a couple of moments about Splendor in the Grass that I feel were written just. for. me.)
I'm still not sure after meeting her if "Arden" is just an elaborate character creation as opposed to merely an author's alter ego but it hardly matters. As a character (yes, Leslye writes and acts the part of "Arden" ...and someone in the crowd told me she played guitar too --is there anything she can't do?) Arden has an infectiously raucous energy with that fascinating sexy and/or terrifying aura of a young Sandra Bernhard (which I mean as a total compliment, btw). If I weren't a big homo that blog crush would morph into a real one.
So next time she does a reading of her work-in-progress, you lucky NYC dwellers ought to hit that.
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