Adriane Shown

Destination (at Trinity Street Playhouse, 📕by George Ayres,
🎭 David Jarrott) up til end of May. It’s been so lovely to work with these talented folks 🌈 some sold out shows 🎉 nice things said 💐 Only 6 more performances 😿💜🗝 (with Bob Beare, 📸 Steve Rogers)

Stereotype-Busting since I was a tyke, being as independent as any 6yo NYC latchkey kid could be 🔑 The Creative, I wanted to make the things, the art, the books, the theatre & since my folks & their friends were doing just that, through example, it was obvious that I could as well 🎨 then being raised by the GPs, they told me I could do ALL of the sports, climb trees, build, bike, skate, fish 🐟 Tho GMa wanted me to learn to type so one day I could “be a secretary & maybe marry the boss” (I was still a tween!) she laughed when I asked, ‘What if I want to be the boss?’ 📚 7-14yo, playing classical piano & flute, which only began as physical therapy after my hand was run over by a VW bug; the Ps music was 60s 70s rock, folk, B’way shows. My twin uncles played Sabbath, Hendrix, Zeppelin. GPa lived & loved the big bands. My brother’s dad turned me onto The Clash, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits 🦖 While doing my lil jr high, born-too-late-to-be-a-beatnik thing, beatin’ the boys at pinball, my flute was stolen, so I quit classical & the DC performing arts school 📚 17yo, back in TX, while my peers were donning poodle hair & bubblegum pink lipgloss, I gave myself a crew cut, bleached it near white & tattooed my hand w the biology science symbol for ‘dead female’. I already knew I was not then, nor would ever be the typical gal 👽 at 40, I had an 80yo yoga instructor, long white hair, down to her bum. Something I hadn’t yet seen. At my gym now, maybe I’m becoming that gal. Looks like there will always be norms to challenge, stereotypes to break 💜🗝

The tag line tor the play, Destination, which I’m currently in rehearsals… is ‘sometimes you have to lose your way to find your way’ 🚙 💨 💨 sometimes I wonder where that dark haired gal might have ended up had I not taken -this- path. Still pulling pints & pouring shots for DC locals? A cigarette dangling, making myself another iced coffee? 🚬 That was nearly half a lifetime ago, after a few years as a slam poet, when I did my first solo performance, Fire & Ash (📸 by Geoff Johnson for my fifth chapbook which was the script for the show) I had filmed my mother doing a few straight poetry readings & played those videos on a TV in the living room stage set for that show. She said, ‘I get to play Mommy in the Box’ (though I had always just called her by her name…it’s complicated) After a few attempts, this silver-fox quit smoking in 2005. Sugar is the last thing on the done-with-it list. Oof. 💜🗝

Been in rehearsals for, “Destination” (📓by George Ayres, 🎭 dir David Jarrott) which will be at Trinty Street Playhouse next month (link in bio) So pleased to be working with all at 💜🗝

Indeed it’s true, as the saying goes, When One Door Closes, Another Door Opens (note: the engagement ring is not real) I’ve been cast in the upcoming play “Destination” which will open next month at Trinity Street Playhouse 🚙💨💨 and I’m thrilled to be working with Jarrott Productions (🎭 by George Ayres, dir David Jarrott)

My GPa was a 32nd degree Mason. GMa was an Eastern Star. When I was still in elementary school, I got to go to their gatherings (Xmas & the like, not the meetings) I did wander around, investigated podiums, lithographs, stained glass, whatever else was in view 🏆☕️📚 at home I looked through the finely detailed catalogs, for jewelry, trinkets, accoutrements & all the rest. I was allowed to read what I could of the members books (one was only in code) the simple artwork of handshakes & ‘aprons’! 🎖️🥈🏅So many secrets.

Colour coordinated with some outdoor instillation art. This work is meant to have direct interaction. Unless you are invited to do so, climbing art is not okay 🎠 But as a kid & teen in NYC & DC, there were plenty of opps to climb on huge bronzes of lions, horses, dinos (& historical figures) I waded through fountains, water features, reflecting pools. What? I was a latch key kid…& safety of such kids, or art work, was not a societal priority back then. Okay, maybe I was still scaling some buildings, wandering through abandoned warehouses & culverts well into my 20s. Oh the rooftops, the air shafts & rusted fire escapes! Guh. I’m not so keen on heights now as a result 🌱 I always stayed on the path in the Botanical Garden though, I didn’t want to kill a snail or beetle 💜🗝

I sure do miss this lil guy, Merle 💜🗝 (04/05/24 rip) 🎨 by

Did I drive to Port Lavaca to hang with friends a couple of nights & then w/in 12hrs, scatter some of my uncle’s ashes in a prime fishing spot, for his birthday?… then back to Austin for an audition…& on down to San Antonio to do a table tipping workshop & experience my first seance with duo (one of which is an old friend) at the beautiful Villa Finale, in my dad’s old neighborhood? Then back up to Austin to at long last, rest? Umm, yeah 🚙 💨 💨 At 17-20yo, I went to several artists’ gatherings in this King Williams area, when it was still rather run down. Back when it was easier to rent or buy ‘cheaply’, folks were restoring the Victorian houses, revitalizing the area. I certainly felt several echos of my dad, his lovers & friends of that time. Wearing his ring, which he found in our NYC Victorian flat, of my first spirit encounter, as a tiny tyke. He gave me the agate ring then, as a gazing stone🫀The seance was a wonderful experience, a lovely evening; of course no photos of actual dim red light seance, it wouldn’t have translated anyway. You just need to be there. I certainly look forward to the next one. PS: if this is your flavor, get on their mailing list for info on the next ta-do, because it was a sold out event 💜🗝

I got to start the month off by going to MFAH & being spellbound by the work of Frida & some of her models/friends/collaborators 🎨 after sitting in Rothko Chapel park, to enjoy a Turkish coffee & treat from my fave Armenian pastry shop, Suzie’s ☕️ the whole combo of the day was lovely. Went up for the SAG Actor Awards viewing party, but of course had to get in a museum as well 💜🗝