Social acupuncture and sex therapy, Amen!
Compiled by Atención Staff January 4, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Theater Live Group Sex Therapy Show w/ Daniel Packard Fri & Sat, Jan 4 & 5, 8pm El Viejo Topo Café-Teatro Stirling Dickinson 28 Plaza Pueblito, Col San Antonio 154 8701

The guru is back! Master life-coach, social acupuncturist and sex therapy sage Daniel Packard returns to the town’s best alternative venue for talking about sex—El Viejo Topo. Acclaimed by the San Francisco Chronicle “As good as Lenny Bruce, he’s using humor, passion and incredible bravery to make us face what we are afraid of.” There’s no where to hide from Packard’s daring questions and no place for denial from his surprising answers, and who wants to?

The award winning Socio-Comedian takes audiences on the ultimate in therapy sessions in his hilarious show as he cleans up the confusion in sexual politics by talking dirty.

Packard explains his work, why it matters and what it’s all about on myspace.com:

Social Acupuncturist—I call myself that because what I talk about is painful truth that many women often avoid hearing. But once they hear it, new channels can open up and everybody is much, much healthier and happier. The Painful Truth?

I tour all over (US, Canada, Europe, Dubai, Latin America) lecturing on the painful truth that there isn’t the nice guy and the horny guy...IT’S THE SAME GUY!!! And when women learn to have more understanding and open up to the horny guy, that is where the good guys are hiding.

Why It Matters—Women are sometimes too guarded and protective towards men. Yeah it, keeps you safe and in control and keeps out the bad guys. But you are also probably keeping out the good men in the process. And it matters because if those walls are too high, people aren’t connecting with you enough and ultimately you won’t find the love you’re looking for. That is why it matters. Love.

Love Is The Best—Love is god’s way of saying, “Sorry about all the other stuff.” Love is religion without all the bullshit. Believe me, men are working hard to find you. But it’s hard out there for a pimp. So we need your help and so I am coming to the women, the selectors, the ones with the sexual power, and I am asking you help us out a bit by dropping the walls a bit. I am asking you to stop the judging and start the loving. I am asking you to stop the hating and start the dating.

Can I get an Amen?

I’m asking you to stop the dissing and start the kissing…

Can I get an Amen?

I am asking you to drop the walls and grab some balls…

Can I get an Amen?

Welcome to the church of “Loving The Monkey.” And when you “Love the Monkey”…Believe me “The monkey love you back.”

Playing for keeps
By Christine Foster

Theater
Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams
Tues–Sat, Jan 15–19, 8pm
Sun, Jan 20, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
Tickets available at Biblioteca

What price are you willing to pay to keep your dreams alive? That is the question Terrence McNally asks in Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams which opens January 15.

This darkly comic tribute to the lives of theater folk was commissioned in 2003 by the Manhattan Theatre Club to celebrate the re-opening of the wonderful old Biltmore Theatre, which had just undergone a US$35 million restoration. But McNally and the MTC board had a falling out, and the play, instead, went on to a successful run off-Broadway in 2004, starring the charismatic Nathan Lane.

To McNally, as to Shakespeare, all the world’s a stage. He confesses to spending part of his lonely childhood building fully functional miniature opera stages. His love of opera was later realized in Master Class (which won a Tony for Best Play in 1996) about the legendary diva Maria Callas. He is the author of over 20 other plays including The Ritz, A Perfect Ganesh, and Frankie and Johnny at the Claire de Lune. In the 1990s he also contributed book and lyrics to new musical adaptations of Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime.

However, McNally bares his very soul in Dedication. The play is an affectionate and infectious celebration of his love of theater. And McNally is not only enthralled with lives lived in theaters, but with the beautiful, historic buildings themselves.

Lou and Jessie Nuncle run a children’s theater in a former Payless Shoe Store in a strip mall in upstate New York. As a birthday gift, Jessie arranges for Lou to explore the decrepit and abandoned former vaudeville house on Main St. The theater’s owner is an eccentric millionaire, dying of cancer. She might agree to give them the theater, but the strings attached are so astonishing they are downright Faustian. How far will Lou go to get what he thinks he wants?

While peeling back the layers of the secret lives and hopes of the main characters, McNally treats the audience to visions of a glorious past full of antique stage machinery, craft and secrets. The Nuncles explore the neglected, hallowed space to the echoes of those who have walked the boards before them—Eleonora Duse, Sophie Tucker, James O’Neill, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens.

McNally even takes a good-natured poke at all things Shakespearean, but in a recent interview admits, “Shakespeare is the writer I most admire and learn from. I revere Shakespeare. He’s God to me. I think he knew more about life than anyone. Shakespeare loved the endless possibilities of an empty stage. I also love open stages to fill with my imagination.”

In Dedication a small group of lost souls fills that bare stage with their own imaginations and discovers that this old vaudeville house encourages all who stand on her boards to dream again. And in those dreams they not only try on different masks, but are forced to strip them away again to realize more about who they really are.

Don’t miss Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams, produced by Player’s Workshop and directed by Michael Gottlieb. Performers David Hunter, Irene Diamant, Chris Davis, Gwenneth Holmes, Seth Sharp, Juan Vincourt and Elena Shoemaker round out a great cast.

The tickets are 150 pesos and all seats are reserved. Opening night with post-show reception is 200 pesos. Tickets are available in the Biblioteca patio 10:30am–1:30pm and at the theater box office 4–8pm.

Playreaders on the flight path

Theater
Here on the Flight Path
Tues–Thur, Jan 8–10, 7pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
Donation 20 pesos

San Miguel Playreaders starts off the new year with the romantic comedy Here on the Flight Path, written by Norm Foster (known as “Canada’s Neil Simon”), the most produced playwright in Canada.

This full-length comedy takes place on adjoining apartment balconies, on the flight path in the big city. John Cummings, played by BJ Abrahamson, makes friends with three next-door neighbors, all played by Joanna Bryne. Full of sparkling dialogue, lovable characters, human situations and lots of laughs, Here on the Flight Path is a delightful comedy, written to lift the spirit.

The play is directed by Marthe Fraser with lights and sound by Dic Simandl. Doors open at 7pm; performance is at 7:30pm.