I should be writing about Trump's ongoing, repugnant flirtation with his Russian bear, but my outrage about the president-elect's dictatorial bromances is overdetermined, and now Twitter's already in the backlash-to-the-backlash phase of putting down people for using the word "treason" out of hand. So instead, let's talk about saving Betty White.
Frightened that 2016 would claim yet another brilliant artist, Demetrios Hrysikos started a GoFundMe page to protect The Golden Girls star from doom. The initial post read as follows:
Help 2016 catch these hands if it goes anywhere near Betty White! If she's okay with it I will fly to where ever Betty White is and keep her safe till Jan 1 , 2017. Now, assuming she doesn't want a strange Greek standing gaurd outside her door all monies will be donated to the Spartanburg little theater to help craft new stars of stage and screen to carry mantle of the legends that have left is this year.
As is the case with strange things that hit a particular note on the internet, his post went viral, and he raised thousands of dollars within a day. His response to the internet's response:
Thank you SO MUCH!...The idea came to me after news of Carrie fishers passing to try and put a smile Back on some people faces and do some good! Other than liking to support our local arts and having a friend who works at the little theater I don't have any connection to it, I just thought it would be a good place for any money made to go.
As of right now, he's focused on using the rest of the year to raise $10k for the Spartanburg Little Theatre in South Carolina. So far, he's raised $8,750 toward that end.
I know it's facile to malign a year, an abstract concept humans invented in an attempt to order cosmic time. But you know what? 2016 has been a particularly unkind year to artists who challenged norms and expanded their art forms. Betty White is on that list for me. And since 2016 does represent a year, and since a year represents the passage of time, and since the passage of time brings us, moment by moment, closer to death's swinging sickle, I think we're right in blaming the year for being terrible.
ANYWAY. What I propose is this. That little South Carolina theater looks like it'll benefit nicely from its time in the internet's spotlight. If you love Betty White, and if you love this frivolous internet joke that actually turned into a cool way to support a local theater that may produce the next Betty White, then you might be happy to learn we have our own little theaters in Seattle that are doing similar work! Consider donating to one of them. Or resolve to go to a LIVE performance (or seven) at a theater in 2017. You know, the theater. That place where real people sweat and speak and breathe right in front of you as they wrestle with life's present pains and eternal mysteries.
Here's a lil list:
• Spectrum Dance Theatre
• Washington Ensemble Theatre
ACT Theatre
• Seattle Repertory Theatre
Book-It Repertory Theatre
• Intiman Art Theatre
• Seattle Children’s Theatre
• Hugo House (They do books, but I like books. And authors "perform" there, too.)
• 5th Avenue Theatre
