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![\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/fe-logo-13-feb-09-250-px1.jpg?resize=250%2C133&ssl=1\" "\\"fe-logo-13-feb-09-250-px1\\"")
<\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\nI’ve been an actor and writer for years here in the San Francisco Bay Area, working mostly in women’s theater projects. Most of my writing work is as a dramaturge – someone who takes words and stories and makes them work for the stage. If you were wondering where my writing style comes from, its from a\u0412\u00a0tradition\u0412\u00a0where every word written needs to be spoken out loud.<\/p>\n
I’m going south, literally. I’m driving\u0412\u00a0Interstate 5\u0412\u00a0\u0412\u00a0for a 400-mile\u0412\u00a0road trip\u0412\u00a0down to the coast\u0412\u00a0of Santa Monica, also known as Los Angeles, to present a play that I’ve been helping develop this last year.\u0412\u00a0 Its called “The Unsung Diva”<\/em> on the life of Sissieretta Joyner Jones, America’s first \u0412\u00a0black opera singer. Its going up at Highways Performance Space as part of the Los Angeles Women’s Theater Festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n
As an actor, it may seem strange that I haven’t gone down south to live and try to practice my craft. But I’m more of an art nurturer, or Art Mom, as my nephew calls me. I tend to go for more innovation in theater work, and I like to make and develop new work. San Francisco seems to support that.<\/p>\n
Now for those unfamiliar or who think California is Los Angeles and that’s it, there are two cities that have direct claim to the economic and cultural life of the state:\u0412\u00a0 San Francisco and\u0412\u00a0LA. \u0412\u00a0LA has a very very powerful energy charge, very different from the north. Like San Francisco, the Los Angeles metropolitan area also sits by the Pacific Ocean, but\u0412\u00a0its ten times\u0412\u00a0its size. The\u0412\u00a0bulk\u0412\u00a0of the city is inland, a basin divided by a mountain range. That basin is a huge collector of energy.<\/p>\n
Setting aside the film and television industry – also known as “the community” in localese and already a formidable global economic force,\u0412\u00a0 Los Angeles is one of the world’s centers of business, international trade, science, technology, and education.\u0412\u00a0With 12.9 million souls speaking over 200 different languages, its population is double the size\u0412\u00a0of\u0412\u00a0the \u0412\u00a0San Francisco Bay\u0412\u00a0region’s population.\u0412\u00a0For me,\u0412\u00a0any stay in LA is plugging into a huge energy grid. If you’re not grounded, you can fry your circuitry. Many have. Just look at the tabloids.<\/p>\n
Springtime almost anywhere in the world is a poem. I’m looking forward to this road trip not just for the creative process I’m about to undergo at its destination, but also the change of\u0412\u00a0internal landscape. Sometimes, even a cozy Berkeley cottage\u0412\u00a0can be a bit of a cage, particularly if you’ve made coming and going into your own home a robotic waltz of habits and routine. I need to feel what home is being away from it a short while, and take a look at what the rains have produced.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Besides, I’ve got Neptune, Chiron, Pallas, and Juno sextile my natal Venus\u0412\u00a0in Sagittarius exact\u0412\u00a0by a degree or two. \u0412\u00a0I’m making a break to do the art I love and a road trip through California’s meadows and green hills is\u0412\u00a0as perfect a brain floss\u0412\u00a0a doctor could prescribe. Especially when spring in California is calling like a siren.<\/p>\n
In anticipation and right on time, I have a small case of stage fright. Even though I’m not on stage, this show feels alot like my baby. I helped develop it and so I feel like a midwife at a birth each time it goes up. I feel responsible for its life. Such is the existence of one who’s perpetually pregnant with possibility.<\/p>\n
More about that later.<\/p>\n
Yours & truly,<\/p>\n
Fe Bongolan<\/strong>
\nSan Francisco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Friend and Reader: Unlike our editor-publisher Eric Francis, whose artistic expression is evidenced throughout the pages of Planet Waves, the Book of Blue and elsewhere across the web, I haven’t yet shared the other part of my creative life here at Planet Waves. Today, I break that silence. I’ve been an actor and writer … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[237,1],"tags":[29,1786,1788,52],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}