The Playwright
so it turns out that this whole time I’ve been mispelling it as playwrite. rather than feel foolish or get upset, I’ve decided that they’re just going to have to change the dictionary. in the meanwhile, here is an article “day in the life of” from City Weekend.
Elyse Ribbons, producer, director and writer of “I Heart Beijing”; creator of Cheeky Monkey Theater, shares the scenes from her day.
Jianwai SOHO Apt.
7:45 a.m. Wake up in the rouge-tinted light filtering through my red velvet curtains to my cat, Mafan, licking my nose and purring for food.
8:00 Stumble to kitchen to boil water for tea. Pull out the bag and add milk. Bring a cup to my boyfriend (who is still asleep).
8:10 Make a bowl of xiaomi zhou (with zao) and sit down to do a Chinese lesson. Write down 40 vocabulary words knowing full well that I will forget half of them by the end of the day.
9:00 Check e-mail. Respond to Mom’s e-mail about remembering some family member’s birthday. Don’t respond to my friend’s e-mail about her bridesmaid dress colors, as I’m planning on showing up in the States with a tacky Cheongsam anyway.
9:40 Read online versions of New York Times and The London Times, as well as my e-mailer from China Digital Times (thank ye gods for proxy servers!).
Starbucks
10:30 Meeting with independent film producer about a project for later this summer involving contemporary Chinese art … and murder (insert dramatic music here).
11:05 Get call from beer distributor who wants to argue about the delivery time before the show. I do my best too-important-to-argue-and-just-do-what-I-tell-you-to-do Chinese. He agrees to deliver on time.
11:30 Lunch date with a female journalist friend who I am trying to convince to write a story about the play.
Bakery
1:00 p.m. Meet with a Chinese theater directory friend at a French bakery for chocorgasmic éclairs and coffee to bitch about the theater scene in China.
Home
2:00 Make further scene changes to the “girl talk scene” and e-mail them out to the poor actresses who have had to relearn this scene twice this week already.
2:25 Get call from Khaki Design company reminding me to send over high quality versions of the photo that Carl Mclarty took of the cast at the last artWALK.
2:30 After bumbling through the mess of documents on my Mac’s desktop, find the correct photo and e-mail it on to Nod and MCK.
2:35 Take a break and play with Mafan, am again amazed at how high this cat can jump and flip, contemplate taping it and posting it onto YouTube.
3:00 Meet with European chocolate distributor to discuss prices and chocolates for the next ChocoJing (Beijing’s Chocolate Appreciation Society) meet up.
4:00 Go to the gym and work out on the elliptical while watching “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show” on my video iPod.
4:45 Shower and dress up in something fun, yet attractive (hello, photo shoot!).
5:15 Pick up photographer and take him to the theater.
Theater
5:30 Prep him on the staging of the play.
6:00 Rehearsals: This usually involves most of the cast, including myself, curled up on the floor laughing at some point or another. Fortunately, the photographer is not annoyed and finds himself laughing as well.
8:00 Dinner with boyfriend for tapas and rioja.
Hou Hai
9:30 Hop in taxi and head out for some live jazz at a café.
Nanlouguxiang
10:30 Friend’s birthday party at Sandglass where I ingest some cardboard cleverly disguised as cake and sing the Polish birthday song (Stol Lot) much to everyone’s chagrin. Participate in discussion on oil reserves, a Chinese soap opera about female kung fu fighters, the benefits of ginger, etc.
Sanlitun Nan Jie
12:00 a.m. Head over to Rickshaw for late-night burrito and pool with some friends, reminisce about puppet shows and proceed to cover everyone with Cheeky Monkey stickers to promote “I Heart Beijing.”
Taxi
1:30 Direct driver back to my apartment, finding my Beijing accent more pleasantly slurred after that last pint of Yanjing.
Jianwai SOHO Apt.
2:00 Work on a sudoku and then drift off to sleep perchance to dream.
8. June, 2007 at 11:28
hahaha your cat is called Mafan. priceless.
10. June, 2007 at 05:40
You really could try to sound a bit less full of yourself, but it would be difficult.
10. June, 2007 at 09:58
Indeed, Mr. Anonymous, sounding full of oneself is half the fun of being a diva.
11. June, 2007 at 01:38
Haahaa. heavy handed mud sling from Ms. Anonymous
I am imagining a cat fight…. sweet.
Loved the show, by the way.
12. June, 2007 at 00:28
“Diva?” Elyse, Diane Ross is a diva. Aretha Franklin is a diva. Maria Callas is a diva. Faye Wong got called a diva, though then again it was only by Quentin Tarantino. Anyway, a little perspective here plz.
12. June, 2007 at 00:31
(sigh)
how little you understand, Brendan.
12. June, 2007 at 00:37
Also, plz to remove the name of that cafe from the post. I’m trying to keep people from finding out about it. Nan Luogu Xiang is already ruined by gringos, but at least they’ve been mostly staying away from MY place.
12. June, 2007 at 00:53
Yes, but you know they don’t let just any ole guaolou into their place, so you’re safe.
12. June, 2007 at 01:56
I’m trying to stave off the inevitable for just a few months longer here. And they’re less discriminating with honkies than they should be.
12. June, 2007 at 02:14
Things I learned from the comedy show:
We Chinamen are bitter and hostile toward American women because: we are left out and not getting any…… cute
Application of the psychoanalysis:
I’ve decided that Brendan is a bitter Chinese guy who is not getting any
12. June, 2007 at 02:41
agreed, Brendan is obviously a bitter Chinese guy who is not getting any.
12. June, 2007 at 03:33
You’re both so wrong: I’m not Chinese.
12. June, 2007 at 05:07
ah yes, thats right, Brendan, you just wish you were a Chinese guy… born 300 years ago… to a wealthy scholar family… and so on.
12. June, 2007 at 06:21
Review:
I was drooling over this hot ABC actress during the show, although I should have thrown a shoe at her when she claimed “totally not dating local guys”. Damn. Why can’t women be politically correct like men: most of us are totally equal opportunity slots and don’t have any discriminative fetishes…..except the ones driven by instinct, but then that is not our fault. Why should we be reminded by women that “my eyes are up here, not in my breasts” crab…..
Anyway, no wonder we are not getting any. We are even left out by our own kind. On behalf my fellow Chinese brothers, we demand ABC chick to be politically correct: date a Chinaman as a charity work
12. June, 2007 at 07:31
Please. 1200 years ago. It’s all been shit since the High Tang.
12. June, 2007 at 21:45
1300 years ago (edit requested by Brendan)
12. June, 2007 at 21:50
btw, Chinaman, I will let the actresses know… maybe we could do a charity auction or something? Help Chinese guys get laid!
mind you, her lines are about her not being able to date local guys b/c its the *local guys* that are too picky (ie: she isn’t “sweet” enough, so on). so really, is y’all that need to be more equal-opportunity.
13. June, 2007 at 01:33
Ouch. Brendan just went ballistic. I wonder if we will be invaded by mighty foreign power again – only to teach us a lesson about civilization of course. But I guess after plundering our natural resources, including our most valuable one: Chinese girls
, it is only reasonable for the foreign power to invent a bunch of racial slurs in return, and enlighten us with “you’ve been in deep shit for 1300 years”. Man. this is totally educational 
But I forgive you Brendan. Many thinkers who lived in the 1300 years of deep shit will probably forgive you too.
Ok, come back to that saucy ABC chick. Keep me posted if you’d like to auction her off to the highest bidder. It is time to “buy” her off her feet
9. November, 2007 at 20:58
For American, she’s classy. I like her style.
It’s arrogant enough to make me intrigued:
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/3514/vlcsnap1276928at2.png
10. November, 2007 at 01:50
hmm… haven’t seen the movie yet, Joueur, but I do hope that someday my current arrogance will be retroactively deserved
13. December, 2007 at 00:20
Hey!…Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts..what a nice Thursday .