Olive Garden Restaurant – Analog Artist Digital World

I have been helping Stella Arbelaez with several large art projects. After a day of working in the studio, we went for dinner and a sketch at Olive Garden (10027 US Highway 441 Leesburg Fl). She had a coupon for a free dinner from years ago. She wasn’t sure it would work, but it was still valid. We ordered a big salad and pasta and then we both started to sketch while we waited for the food to come out. The menus on the tables were electronic. The displays flickered with adds constantly. I am amazed at how digital displays are invading even the simple act of going out to eat.

I focused on the group of diners seated next to us, while Stella did a sketch of me. Her sketch turned out rather good. It is one of the better sketches of me with my 75th Infantry cap and my beard. There must have been about 5 different servers who stopped by the table. One was an artist himself who was attending college. The fellow who brought out the food would respond with “I got you” for any request. He said it to everyone in our section of the restaurant. I find myself saying it now in a joking way anytime someone makes a request.

There is something truly rewarding and relaxing about sketching with another artist. being around another artist you know they understand the struggle to create. A sketch isn’t easy, It is often a compilation of mistakes which hopefully is believable in the end. There might be two steps forward and then a step back. It is simply reassuring that sketching around another artist there is no expectation of perfection. As she put it, there is no need to act like a “normie’. We could just relax and be ourselves as we created. For me there is always a feeling that I need to capture the moment with a sketch. In a restaurant there is a certain rush to try and block in the sketch before the food comes out. In Europe, especially Paris, many people will linger over a meal and watch the world go by, but in America there is a rush to get people served and out the door as quickly as possible.

I have gotten used to eating out alone, because that way I can always get a sketch done. It is a rare pleasure to share the experience with someone else.

Play in a Day involved 12 plays written, rehearsed, and then performed in front of a live audience in less than 24 hours! At 6PM on Friday November 9th playwrights met at Lake Howell where themes are announced and logistics discussed. Producer Beth Marshall announced that the five minute theme would be “High School” and the one minute theme would be “The Aftermath”. Then all the playwrights left to start writing. They needed to finish a one minute and five minute play by 6:30AM the following morning.
Then all the directors and actors would meet up Saturday Novovember10th at Lake Howell for solid day of rehearsal. In the past, Play in a Day was produced at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, but this year it would use the much larger stage of Lake Howell High School‘s auditorium. Since authors are often the unsung heroes in this 24 hour production marathon, I asked Beth if I could sketch a writer at work and I was assigned to sketch Aradhana Tiwari.

I was late to the writers meeting on November 9th. Aradhana texted to let me know she was doing research for her high school themed piece. The parking lot at Lake Howell High School was jammed. I thought to myself, “There can’t be that many playwrights in Orlando.” Then I heard the piercing screech of a whistle. Aradhana was getting her research and inspiration from a high school football game. After several texts, I found her in the home team bleachers. She was eaves dropping on a group of four teenagers seated in the bleachers behind her. Then she interviewed the kids, asking them about their teachers, friends and relationships. It was a cold night for Orlando and she had on sandals so at half time she let me know she was ready to start writing. Actually the one minute piece was written in her head as soon as Beth announced the “Aftermath” theme. A character sat at a table devouring Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets as another character glowered at him. This piece turned into a political debate the next morning because Beth refused to allow Chick-fil-A chicken on her stage. She is boycotting the restaurant chain because of their anti-gay stance. Aradhana had to scramble for some other processed chicken sandwiches the morning of the show.

Five minutes may seem like a short time, but for a writer, it is an eternity until the pieces all fall in place. I met Aradhana at a Olive Garden Restaurant on Colonial Drive which is where she began to write. She ordered a bowl of black olives and a red wine. She put ear buds in her ears so she could listen to music as she worked, drowning out the clatter of all the bustling tables around her. At times she smiled and laughed to herself as she wrote. Shattered fragments of dialogue began to form. Most authors write comedy for Play in a Day, but her work tends to be more dramatic. She read to me some of what she had written. “This is either really good or really bad.” She said. As in viewpoints, there would be no safe middle ground. The title of the play took me by surprise. A high school girl stretched for a dance performance, she was very uncomfortable in her leotards. She was rehearsing with a flamboyant boyfriend who teased her until she admitted she had shaved. He teased her about her prickly situation.

Aradhana left to continue writing at home. I lingered, continuing to work on the sketch. I always need to finish what I start, even as life rushes by. At 2AM in the morning, Aradhana panicked and threw out everything she had written. The deadline was just four hours away and she began all over again from scratch. She finished the play with just minutes to spare and rushed the script to the theater. She was awake for 37 or so hours straight. As a student said in the bleachers, “We are fire breathing dragons!“