In pursuit of pleasure
By Tim Hazell, Jan 26, 2007

Reading & book signing by Xaviera Hollander, with John Peterson Friday & Saturday, January 26 & 27, 8pm  Sunday, January 28, 2pm Posada de San Francisco salon, Plaza Principal 2 100 pesos

“Let your meditation walk no further than the pleasure, and even a little behind.”

—Marsilio Ficino, (1433–1499), Renaissance philosopher 

In focusing on sexuality, we may read the myriad of androgynous images we find in erotic art and mythology into the symbolism and motifs present in our own anatomies. Eroticism also stands for organ eroticism and the premise that our vitals can transcend the work of merely functioning, actually deriving pleasurable sensations from what they do. Traditionally, we have been taught to suppress our desires as frivolous and immoral, fighting off natural yearnings that express an enjoyment of life itself. Shifting our concepts of body language and eloquence from mere performance to pleasure does not refer to a frenzied pursuit of new experiences, obsessions or compulsions. By emphasizing fantasy and imagination we begin to engage in the pursuit of experiencing the world and the senses as a living interface. Adding seasonings to a banquet of temperament, Bajío Repertory Company is pleased to present two of the most original thinkers and activists in their fields to San Miguel audiences.

Xaviera Hollander has written with frankness and humor about her unabashed pursuit of personal satisfaction and financial rewards through her talents as a New York prostitute of reputation and a madam with business acumen and an exclusive list of clientele. She has always viewed her role in society as that of an important member of a human resource pool, frequently sharing her insights and counseling with those who needed more than just casual sex. In her 1972 classic, The Happy Hooker: My Story, the underbelly of corruption in New York’s police department and political maneuvering share the spotlight with her own frank depictions of life as a prostitute and high-class madam. Hollander’s outspoken validation of her profession made the best-selling personal account an instant classic of the sexual revolution.

Her latest book, Child No More, is laced with touching anecdotes about her family and coming of age. Xaviera’s uncanny gift for observation gives this passage about her mother, Germaine’s, death in a hospital the quality of a hallucination: 

“The last rays of sunshine through the half-opened curtains shone into her eyes and for the first time I saw the lenses inserted after removal of cataracts and their color changed from blue through grey and green to a shade of purple. As her pupils dilated like a cat, I knew that she was following my own dream road, seeing the same colors, symbiotic and psychic as we were.”

In pursuit of pleasures of the palate, “Farmer John” Peterson’s new book, Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables, is a companion piece to the critically acclaimed documentary film The Real Dirt on Farmer John, which has won awards at major film festivals worldwide. This resource on growing, cooking and storing real food—a guidebook to artfulness in organics—is a serious look at alternative choices for better nutrition as eclectic as John Peterson himself. The volume features recipes grouped by season and by vegetable, provides cooking tips, serving suggestions and evocative descriptions of each dish, teaching readers new ways to use seasonal vegetables and legumes. The book’s illustrated vegetable identification guide contains valuable information on long-term vegetable preservation techniques and storage. The manual is one of the new generation of thoughtful and environmentally focused works by leading exponents of alternative cookery. 

We have had modern writers of erotica with us since Freud, and we continue to enjoy immersing ourselves in erotic novels such as Couples, the famous early-sixties exploration of repressed sexuality in a small seaside town, by John Updike. Passions articulated in the ripples of novels that deal with fetishes, hunger, desire and usury are mirrors of emotive currents that affect our lives in general. Anaïs Nin, Anne Rice and Henry Miller steeped their explorations of human essence in the elixir of sensation, lulling us with the tempting melodies of sirens. 

Philosophers who were part of the Epicurean movement in ancient Greece and visionaries of the early Renaissance such as Marsilio Ficino knew that the practice of earthly enjoyment is never wanton or separate from restraint. Intimacy can mean engaging in a relationship with another person or the greater body of the community that surrounds us, walking through ambient spaces and feeling them sensually, setting the tone for more fanciful relationships with the world. Intimacy can invoke aspects of health and balance as we nourish and rejuvenate our senses. 

Tickets for all performances are available at the entrance to the Salon of the Posada Hotel de San Francisco, Plaza Principal 2, as well as at La Conexión and Border Crossings. Come and experience the pleasures of the world and artistry of living to the fullest.

A Valentine celebration
By Joan Strouse

Theater Prelude to a Kiss February 14–18 Teatro Santa Ana 50/100 pesos

Twenty-five years and ninety-nine productions later, the Players Workshop of San Miguel is ready to celebrate, and everyone is invited to celebrate with them. The year 2007 marks the Workshop’s 25th anniversary. In keeping with this occasion, they are presenting the delightful romantic comedy Prelude to a Kiss by Craig Lucas. This very special play will be the Workshop’s 100th production. 

In true celebratory fashion, the production will open on Valentine’s Day and run through February 18, with two performances on Sunday, at 2pm and 6pm.

“This is our Valentine to San Miguel,” says Lola Smith, co-producer of this production and current president of Players Workshop. As she says, “This is our way of saying ‘thank you and we love you’ to all the loyal fans who have supported us for a quarter of a century.”

On opening night, following that evening’s performace, Players Workshop is hosting a gala party in the Café Santa Ana. Your opening-night ticket to the play is also a ticket for the party. 

Following each performance, roses and chocolates will be presented by the cast to two lucky ticketholders. “This is the perfect choice for Valentine’s Day,” says Lola. “Married, single, or anywhere in between, this is a great way to share an evening with friends and loved ones.”

Twenty-five years ago, Players Workshop began its first season with a production of Guys and Dolls at El Ring disco. After productions in the disco and one in a hotel dining room, Players moved to a lecture hall at the Instituto Allende, a site made available through the kindness of Nell Harris Fernández. Over the years, the group produced 70 shows on its tiny platform stage.

The company’s reputation spread. Productions were invited to Mexico City, Cuernavaca, and the University of the Americas. Soon, there was no doubt that Players Workshop had become one of Mexico’s outstanding English-language dramatic companies.

Eventually, Players and the Biblioteca joined forces in the development of what is now the Teatro Santa Ana, providing the Players Workshop with a home and the Biblioteca with a badly needed auditorium for concerts, films, lectures, and other theatrical events.

Prelude to a Kiss was a huge success on Broadway and on the silver screen, the latter starring Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin. An extraordinary journey that takes us through many layers of fantasy and reality, Prelude is a work of tremendous impact that haunts us long after we’ve left the theater. Commenting in the New York Times, Frank Rich called it “a wonderful play… a comic and affecting fairy tale for and about adults.”

“We are fortunate to have some of San Miguel’s finest talent involved in this production,” says Lola, referring to the likes of John Wharton, Nancy Kandal, Tom King, Tim Johnson and Megan Pearson. 

“All of these actors bring professional credits from the US, and all have been seen in compelling roles in recent Playreaders productions.” Other roles will be played by Nick Beles, Mary Sullivan, Roland Torikian, Christian Baumgartner and Lola Smith herself.

The play is directed by Rudy Hornish, whose 40-year professional career in the US included acting on Broadway and Off-Broadway and in regional theaters, television and films, directing and writing for stage and TV, and a 12-year stint at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, where he developed and produced several prime-time shows and movies, including the TV hit Girlfriends, now in its seventh year on US network TV.

“I am flattered and delighted to be a part of the ‘new age’ of theater in San Miguel,” says Rudy. “There’s a wonderful spirit and energy in this town. This winter season seems especially busy for theatergoers. Musicals, dramas and now the first big comedy of the season.” He adds, “Something for everybody is good for everyone.”

Tickets go on sale at the Biblioteca Pública on February 6. 

“Start making your Prelude plans now ,” says Lola. “This is one you won’t want to miss. Happy Valentine’s Day to one and all,” she adds with a wink and a smile.


Joan Strouse, now a San Miguel resident, is a Professor Emerita at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

San Miguel then and now: a conversation with Billie Bremer
By Crisman Cooley

Theater

Love Letters

Thursday, February 8– Sunday, February 25 Villa Jacaranda,  Aldama 53 125/250 pesos

A little over two years ago, I moved to San Miguel with my wife and two children to complete a book-length poem. Now the book is done, so I’ve emerged from my poet’s haze to find out what’s happening around town. Naturally, I thought of the theater, and this is how I met actress Billie Bremer, co-star of the upcoming play Love Letters. 

Chrisman Cooley: What brought you to San Miguel? 

Billie Bremer: A family member told me about San Miguel when I was 19-years-old. He described it as a magical place, and I’d always wanted to come. Some years later, a personal accident forced me and my husband (I’m unmarried now) to sell the sailboat we had been living on. We bought a funky old motor home and came down here in January 1983. We lived behind the La Siesta Hotel. 

CC: What city did you travel from? 

BB: On our first visit, we came down from Chicago and stayed for three months. 

CC: When you got here, what did it look like? What did you see? 

BB: Well, cobblestone streets—which I’d never seen before in my life. My most vivid memories are of the burros carrying tierra de hoja on their backs, walking slowly in front of my car on the cobblestones. There weren’t many cars. For me, it seemed magical and very serene. But very alive, with sounds and smells and bells! 

CC: That is a charming picture. 

BB: There were no buses. There were very few taxicabs. Of course we didn’t have a telephone because we lived in a motor home. Very few people had telephones. People communicated by sending notes with the maid—those who had a maid. 

CC: When you came here you had been involved in theater in the States? 

BB: I had not acted onstage. I started out as a dancer. I was teaching a course in musical comedy at a junior high school. One of the girls got sick before a performance on a Saturday night, so I put my hair in pigtails and went out and took her place. An agent was in the audience and she came backstage afterwards and said, “I’ve gotta meet the third girl from the left!” And I said, “I think that’s me—but I’m not a student, I’m the teacher.” She told me that if I cut my hair I could do really well. 

At that time I had hair down to the middle of my back, and I said, “No, thank you!” I soon found out how much you could earn with one successful television commercial, and I immediately cut my hair. I went on to have a very successful career in commercials and industrial films in the wonderful acting community of Chicago. 

CC: So when you came to San Miguel how did you discover the theater scene?

BB: My husband put a little note onto a board at the Biblioteca, saying: “Young aspiring actress with good credentials. La Siesta Trailer Park.” There was a very well-known theater woman here, Letitia Echlin. She was Canadian, originally from England, and one of the grandes dames of the theatre. 

One day, I am hanging up my laundry outside my trailer, and a woman comes striding up with a felt hat on, looking ever so elegant, and she says, “Yoo-hoo! Do you know someone named Billie Bremer?” That’s how I met Letitia Echlin and entered the theater community. She became a wonderful friend. 

CC: What was the first play that you did here?

BB: The first play I did was Brecht on Brecht, directed by Bob Somerlott, who was a writer and an important figure in the theater in San Miguel. 

CC: Yes, I saw that play on your résumé, on the website www.loveletters-sma.com.  Can you tell us a little about it? 

BB: It was a play made up of fragments excerpted from the works of Brecht. I was asked to do a monologue called “The Jewish Housewife.” It’s a very heavy piece, a bit dark. And I was thrilled. I had never done stage work. Film work is a different process. But, Bob Somerlott convinced me that I could do the part, saying, ‘Just do it. I think you’ll do it well.’” It’s a beautiful monologue. 

CC: Who was it that produced that play? 

BB: Players Workshop. All English-speaking productions were under the auspices of the Players Workshop at the time, although there were three groups: the Players Workshop, the Shakespeare Readers and the Play Readers. Players Workshop performances were held at the theater at the Instituto, which was like performing in a long train car with no acoustics. The Ángela Peralta existed, but no productions in English had been done there. 

CC: How did the town and your relationship to the theater evolve? 

BB: For the first 10 years I was here, there didn’t seem to be much change at all—certainly not in the theater scene. It was held together by very strong people. San Miguel, too, did not change dramatically. For those living here, we didn’t notice the changes as much as the people who would come back. They’d say, “What are all these cars?” Suddenly, it seemed, people came in droves. The changes in San Miguel have come very quickly—within the last five years, or ten years max. This isn’t necessarily negative—it just is. To a certain extent, in my opinion, I would like for it to have been frozen in time. Yet, I think this experience I’m having now, in this production of Love Letters, is such a positive change. Today, I’m experiencing so much creativity.

CC: Did the theater community suffer difficult changes over the years? 

BB: Yes. People died. Letitia Echlin died. There was another couple for whom, in fact, this room we’re going to perform Love Letters in is named: Linda and John Keogh. They brought such energy to this town. They had been famous puppeteers in Canada. Linda was really a fine actress, but when she became ill they returned to Canada. In making any list of people, I would also have to include the king and queen, Bob and Gerry Wodin. Bob Wodin had a very untimely death, and Gerry carried on until she died. That was two years ago, I think. Without them, we have to continue to strive to bring really good theater to San Miguel. 

CC: Has there been a replenishment of new people with new energy? 

BB: Yes, these are among the positive changes happening now, and we have a better mix of ages. I am talking about the foreign community, of course. 

CC: Perhaps you can wrap up this discussion by telling your current experience of theater in San Miguel and of your own life here. Is it still fun and exciting and interesting to you? 

BB: One year ago, I sold everything I had in San Miguel—everything! I was going back to the States, moving to Austin. I lasted three months. I missed the sounds and the smells and the aliveness, so I came back. I’m not sure I can take Mexico out of my soul. Before I left, I’d taken a class with Alan Jordan. When I returned, I auditioned to do Love Letters and got the part. It’s been such a rich experience. You need a strong leader, someone you can trust as a director, and Kirsten Dehner is so gifted. She has helped me to find all sorts of things out about myself that I’d never explored before. If I were performing this play here or Off-Broadway, it wouldn’t matter to me. As an actress, the exhilaration is the same. I’m doing what I love and, hopefully, I’ll be bringing a roomful of people on that journey with me. If I can do that here in Mexico, in San Miguel, that’s really powerful.

CC: Do you feel that Alan and Kirsten and others are fostering a rejuvenation of theater here with this production of Love Letters? 

BB: Yes. Our previews in August 2006 were really well received. They were quality, and I was proud to be a part of that—that intent, that energy. I also welcome diversification. We should support each other and collectively reach for quality. Let’s make this town proud. When people talk about San Miguel and say, “You’ll love going there!” I want to hear them say, “It has art, music, and great theater!” 


Love Letters by A. R. Gurney, starring Billie Bremer and David Hunter, returns for a three-week engagement at Villa Jacaranda, opening Thursday, February 8. Online reservations and information about this production are available at www.loveletters-sma.com