Right. So the 2009 - 2010 Isaac Asimov Award for Artistic Excellence etc. was presented on Sunday, October 4. Why the award couldn't be given at our annual New Year's Eve concert or one of the City Center performances in January and have it be the much simpler and catchier 2010 Isaac Asimov Award for Artistic Excellence etc., I just don't know. The award is presented as the highlight of one of those free special events for NYGASP contributors. They love these event/shows. They get to eat and drink Sunday afternoon-type stuff (but no Bloody Marys???) and actually interact with the STARS OF NYGASP, and, like most semi-celebrities, we love our fans. Al's favorite part of the program is that he gets to use a microphone. He just loves those things. It has become a tradition at these presentations (because every year Al suddenly announces, over the microphone, that we are going to do it) for each of the past Asimov winners to get up and tell a NYGASP anecdote! At least one or two of us always says how NYGASP is a family, we all really care about and learn from each other, etc. - all absolutely true of course and I am the last to deny it - but that ain't no anecdote.
The only trouble with NYGASP anecdotes is that all the best ones are ALL ABOUT AL. There just isn't anybody in the company who's as interesting as him. And the trouble with the stories being all about Al is that people outside the company don't really know him, and might be a little confused? Appalled? Or just not get it. So this year when Al introduced me and I pried the microphone from his iron grasp I decided to tell a fictitious Al anecdote which nevertheless could seem kind of trueish:
"I'd like to tell you the story of the drunkest I've ever seen Al."
[At this point Al crossed his arms and legs and sat back in his seat. He's not that much of a drinker and it's impossible to guess what he thought was coming...]
"We were on tour and were in a crappy bar attached to a crappy motel somewhere down south. We had done a 7:00 Pinafore so it was an early evening and the entire cast was there. Louis talked Al into doing shots with him. Al got staggeringly drunk on Crystal Light and vodka. Quickly became loud and belligerent. Started harassing rednecks - "Hey, we're an opera company! Yankees! From up north! Want to make something of it?" The bartender asked Al to quiet down and stop bullying the murderous types, but Al responded by making us all stand up and sing "Hail Poetry." The bartender closed the bar and threw everyone out. The rednecks were pissed. Al was scared and wouldn't go back to his room. We blamed the whole affair on 2005 - 2006 Isaac Asimov Award for Artistic Excellence etc. winner Louis Dall'Ava, so Al spent the night snoring in Louis' room. When he left at dawn he found that his Ryder truck had been washed by a secret admirer."
The 2009 - 2010 Isaac Asimov Award Winner for Artistic Excellence etc. is . . .
ANGELA SMITH
Your Al drinking story was...a...lie???? I'm devastated! Also, I see that your Starship Pinafore is going to be performed once again at VLOC. I enjoyed it the last time, but it puts strange notions in my head, like imagining "Silvered is the raven hair" as performed (emoted? body slammed?) by William Shatner:
STOUTER ... than I ... used ... to ... BE!
Still more ... corpulent ... grow ... I
There WILL ... ... ... BE ... too MUCH ... of ... ME!
in the ...coming ... by and ... ... ... by?
Ah, Star Trek and Gilbert & Sullivan! Perfect together!
Posted by: Brian | October 14, 2009 at 11:39 PM
Shatner could play the Mikado. I think he could even get away with interpreting "See how the fates." The only problem I can foresee is that I wouldn't be able to survive the rapture.
Posted by: mrbigsteve | October 15, 2009 at 06:08 PM
Not VLOC (a Washington, DC group) but VLOG, the Village Light Opera Group in New York City.
Posted by: Sam Silvers | November 09, 2009 at 02:51 PM