Sunday, September 11, 2011

9/11 A benefit performance 110 Stories a play by Sarah Tuft

On Thursday and Friday night there was a benefit performance at the NYU Skirball Center. 110 Stories. A play by Sarah Tuft and peformed by a marvelous cast of well known actors and actresses.

I'm not sure what happened on Friday night when I went, but the tickets were not ready. Huh? How can a box office not have tickets ready? I heard one possiblity was that trucks and other vehichles coming in and out of NYC were
being held up. Maybe that had something to do with it. I know there are a lot of men in blue out in the city all day.

This line formed outside of the Skirball Center that went around the corner. The Friday night performance began late and I was all set to cry once I began to hear the stories, being the wuss that I am. I did cry but the stories which were first hand accounts by a nurse, K9 handler, chiropractor, photojournalist, doctor, iroworker, chaplain, and many others  released emotions in me that stretched far beyond just sadness.

There was a row of chairs that stretched across the stage. In front of the chairs were stands where they stepped up and told their stories, sat back down, rose again, interacted with other stories, and so on. The huge screen behind them showed pictures from 9/11.

Cynthia Nixon began the play and Kathleen Turner ended it with a story from a regular New Yorker. In between telling these heart felt tales were:
Samuel L Jackson, Ralph Macchio, Stephen Baldwin, Mario Cantone, Billy Crudup, John Doman, Noah Emmerich, Jessica Hecht, Katie Holmes, Ben Vereen, Jeremy Priven, and others.

It reminded me of how beautifully everyone behaved in the days that followed 9/11. People on the roads were kind. Actually kind. No one raced to get in front of you. One of the story tellers brought that up. I was in Florida then so it must have been across the nation. Everyone behaved. How marvelhous. Maybe we could take a moment each day to remember how wonderful it is to feel that inward happiness that comes from truly wanting to be kind to others and actually doing it.

I took this one picture as I headed home. It's Katie Holmes leaving the center.



No comments:

Post a Comment