Showing posts with label Tammy the Tummy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tammy the Tummy. Show all posts

Thursday, March 17, 2011

New Hampshire Diary #1


Journal Dearest–

The last few days have been such a frenzy of food and frolicking through the town of Keene in New Hampshire. With each mile away from the polluted New York, I gained a greater understanding of what living in the country means. It was a fairly brief ride up through Conn. and Mass. in our comfy guerrilla girl-mobile – fully equipped with show-tunes and enough sugar snacks to feed a group of baby elephants. The snow kissed trees amid the grounds of the Keene Bed and Breakfast greeted us with silvery smiles. I was promptly offered the Mommy Dearest room, adored with Joan Crawford’s original furniture (who knew she once lived in New Hampshire). I’m still trying to decide if this was meant to serve as a compliment or an insult. But, I must say, I slept like a baby. So, maybe Mommy Dearest was sending me her blessings.

Despite some preliminary technical glitches, the show was a great success! Women and men of all ages seemed happy to be there and ready to participate. With a full belly, my neon yellow guerrilla-fied body was ready to move, talk, dance, and sing about the substances that nourish us all – FOOD! At moments we really seemed to surprise and delight the audience. For example, they definitely got kick out of our Lady Gaga parody of “Size 2 Pants”. Also, the Tammy the Tummy Pie-in-the-Face moment seemed to surprise us all. She never saw it coming! Unfortunately, she didn’t see the floor coming either when she had a tiny slip to the ground during the closing Traditional Feminist Dance. Don’t worry, she was A-OK. Thank you Tammy for being such a great sport! We couldn’t have done it without you!

When performing a show about food, one must eat good food (and drink)! Fortunately for us, the town of Keene had delectable treats that filled out tummies with joy! While the veggie pizza and “layer cake” wine indulged both our savory and sweet sides, the fries at Fritz made me want to dance around like a school girl. The whole process of dipping these darling little fried delights into several different types of sauces was both delicious and fun! However, our dining experiences where definitely brought to a pinnacle during our post show meal at the local Mexican joint. At first, I thought perhaps our server, Steven, had been shipped in from some tropical island because his surfer style of speaking and wave-like liquid motions made me feel as though he were still rocking on some ship. Looking at him and listening to his vaguely sexual tone of speaking, it seemed almost impossible not to giggle at points. But the trusty Sam Adams Winter Ale and black bean taquitos set it all straight.

All in all, the trip was an enjoyable and scrumptious success!

Hasta Luego,

Azucena Villaflor

March 9, 2011

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Julia Child's take on our Ohio tour of "If You Can Stand the Heat...."


March 4, 2010

Dear Deezers,

Ohio. The land of farms and greetings. I am, of course, referring to the "hi" right in the middle of the oooohhh's. There's something so promising about the word Ohio for just those reasons. And Denison certainly delivered. Not just delicious pre-show wraps, chocolate and seltzer, but crackerjack smart students. I was in love with the participants in our poster-making workshop who made intelligent, provocative posters and images around issues they were psyched to tackle: gender identity, capitalism, the (il)legality of marijuana, and sexual violence. Before we worked on posters, we conducted some theatre exercises and made them become human sculptures and tableaux. They obliged willingly and enthusiastically, thus contributing to the collaboratively driven sharpee/newsprint masterpieces. Bravo participants!

Per GGOT style we braved the Bee (Applebees) and the Roo (Ruby Tuesdays) of Heath, Ohio, waking up from the daze of NYC as food paradise. I can't say I miss Ruby Tuesdays when I’m not around one but I can say that I miss the incredibly generous and articulate audience that came to see “If You Can Stand the Heat: The History of Women and Food”. Our student volunteer, (Tara) played Tammy the Tummy and got pied in the face at the end of the show. I was the culprit that had the pleasure of pie-ing her. For her, it was a total surprise. For me, it was completely gratifying. Nothing like a little dessert after some masked activism, I always say.

Another highlight of the tour was our cab driver back to the airport when all was said and done. She delivered brilliant every-five-minute saucy one-liners while we shop-talked about theatre. She was a farm girl by birth, and a cab driver by trade: it was the perfect hybrid of Ohio and NYC and a great way to cap off the trip.

Bon appetit,
Julia Child