Art, Dance, and Improve in Puerto Vallarta
My dear friend, writer Sandra Bradley, and I, could hardly squeeze into Patricia Gawle’s Gallery over the weekend to see new and exciting art exhibits. This large space can barely enclose the explosive energy of a number of painters, sculptors, and sewers. Here’s a problem. That word s-e-w-e-r means two different things, but pronounced like s-o-w-e-r is what I’m talking about. Patti Gallardo has reinvented herself through craft again. She takes meters of fine linen and creates patterns simply with needle and thread, thousands and thousands of stitches per garment. The results are stunningly beautiful, unique clothes for your body or your house. No two pieces are the same. Incredibly meticulous work. We also met Bruno Vargas, a Brazillian transplant who describes himself as a ‘handcrafter.’ You must pass by the gallery on Basilio Badillo and see his work. Many art gallery owners, including Gary Thompson of Galeria Pacifica, were in the crowd sipping wine and discussing the eclectic mix of art displayed everywhere. It was lovely catching up with Patti, Wendy, Bruno, and dear Patricia Gawle, who rarely leaves her home in El Tuito anymore.
Yesterday’s penultimate NIA dance class at the International Friendship Club – IFC Clubhouse was an emotional rollercoaster for some of us. Our dance created a very vulnerable, soft space full of excitement and longing. Maybe the change of seasons? Most of those people will be gone soon, back to other climates, other lives, other countries. It baffles me how they can leave.
The last stop on the weekend was the tiny theater at Arte Vallarta up on Pilitas. Diana Frances had completed her two-day, intensive Improv workshop and her five students put on a show that left us helpless with laughter.
Diana ran her students through a series of exercises that were familiar from class, but the audience determined the subject matter, so nothing was scripted and moved at lightning speed with hilarious results. For example, “Sex with me is like —-” slip in a word from the audience, try y-o-g-u-r-t, and you get, “Sex with me is like yogurt – raw and uncultured!” Five answers were out of the student’s mouths before I could even think of a plausible sentence. Great brain work!
Tonight is the last show of Gouda Gabor/Diana Frances’s Match That Snatch game show at Nacho Daddy at 7:30. This mashup of The Match Game TV show from the 70s and RuPaul’s latest drag race is so funny. It was painful last week; my cheeks hurt for a couple of days. Diana Frances is in drag as host Gene Gayburn. Get your tickets fast; this is the last show – Diana is on a plane back to Toronto on Wednesday. I hope something like this will return next season. We need an Improv space. A place where stand-up comedians can work regularly! Laughter has never been more important in our lives, and we need to encourage and support those writers and actors who can make us smile, chuckle, and laugh out loud so hard it makes us cry, creating laughing jags that move like ocean currents through an audience.