GI is Dead, Long Live GI

Ok, I just can't bring myself to recap stuff that happened months ago, so on to the current events! My theater company, Rising Sun Performance Company is putting on a One-Act Festival, starting next Thursday and running for three weekends (11 shows). Check it out here: http://horsetrade.info/season10.2/Twisted.html

You can even get discount tix with the code TEDDY.

I'm really excited about the piece I'm in, Teddy Knows Too Much. It's the story of a disaffected pair of parents and their neglected children. Some people would say it;s the story of a boy and his confidant, but I'm playing the mom, so I have a different perspective!

Over generations, parents have become scared of their children. Once upon a time, so the story goes, parents kept their kids in line through corporal punishment and good old-fashioned shame. That may be a bit too general, but I'd bet you dollars to doughnuts your mother didn't drop the f-bomb around your grandmother when she was a kid.

When the boomers started rebelling against the Puritanical mores of a post-war society intent on maintaining the status quo, they started to question their parents' child-rearing techniques. When they had kids, they breast-fed and let them express themselves as human beings. That was pretty good, but they also let them run around naked and watch them have sex (in the case of Shia LeBouf, at least) and didn't put rules in place to give their children structure. Kids need some structure. (My mother was a very early boomer. She was never a hippie; she had her first kid in 1966. We had structure, discipline and spankings. We didn't have talks about sex and drugs the way we should have. I think she had a don't ask, don't tell policy as long as my grades were good.)

So those kids grow up with no concept of discipline. They have heard of "time out" but don't know how to use it. They let the children run the house; their needs are primary. The children are wild without structure, demanding, willful, and disrespectful. The parents think the kids should be their friends, that if they are treated as equals they will automatically have the emotional maturity of adults. And when they don't exhibit that maturity -- maybe they are hyperactive or can't focus, or they throw tantrums or act shy -- they must be diagnosed. "Something is wrong with my child! how can it be, when I've given him everything?" Did you give him exercise, boundaries, rules, your time? Did you think about yourself as a child when analyzing what you perceive as disturbing behavior, or have you forgotten about what it means to be a growing human?

Kids are undercooked. Morality, a sense of purpose, a sense of self and mortality, empathy -- these things aren't fully programmed at birth. The seeds can be there; many youngsters show empathy naturally, but they need nurturing to develop. And by the way, parents, your kids don't owe you shit. They didn't ask to be brought into this world. You owe them. You owe it to them the prepare them to live in the world without your help. You don't owe them Ritalin and a cell phone and a Super Sweet Sixteen. You owe them an education in how to get a job, balance a checkbook, treat a girlfriend, treat a friend, serve others, make a bed, buy a house, choose a career. You owe it to them to teach them what is out there, so they can choose which path to take. You owe it to them to help them decide but ultimately make their own decisions. You owe it to them to keep your own affairs in order so they aren't saddled with cleaning up your mess when you die. Once you do these things, then they will know they owe you a lifetime of gratitude and respect.

So, that's kind of what our fifteen minute play is about. Oh, and a Teddy Bear.