Tomorrow night I'm doing an event I'm really looking forward to. Reading in front of people -- public speaking/performing of any kind really -- makes me so nervous that these events are hard for me. Everyone I tell this to says incredulously, "But you're a teacher." This is true and a good point, but it's so different somehow. I can't really explain it except to say that writing is an awfully solitary activity to do as performance. I am not self-conscious when I teach, at least not much. I am super, uber, total self-conscious on a stage of any kind at all.
Anyway, tomorrow's event is less me, more performance, more wine, more friends, more Shakespeare -- a good combo. Actors will be performing chapter two of The Atlas of Love, and though I'll be there to help, I won't be the main attraction. There will be other actors, other books and readers, plus music from my fabulously talented husband (signing Hamlet), plus lots of wine, plus Shakespeare's birthday. I defy you to think of a cooler event.
Many cheers to Debut Lit for making this happen and for supporting and celebrating debut authors and for realizing that just because traditional readings are sometimes boring, they needn't be. We're writers and actors and music makers after all -- a little creativity seems in order, no?
Please join us!!!
April 23, 7 -9 p.m. FREE
Bartholomew Winery
3100 Airport Way South, Seattle, WA 98134
(in the old Rainier Brewery building)
