Once Upon a Mattress

I am a great fan of the musical comedy Once Upon a Mattress. It is a hilarious, somewhat silly romp in which a princess is authenticated by her ability to detect a pea under twelve layers of mattresses. ArtsWestchester’s own somewhat-silly romp began when someone found a mattress hidden out of sight in our building. While a mattress can be a comfort in most settings, it is a red flag when it is in an artist studio building, in which no sleeping is allowed in the studios. That is to say, artists come here, they paint, they rehearse… but there’s no “night at the museum”… without of course unleashing the mattress police.  We set out to authenticate the owner (or princess) of the mattress. For this task, I consulted my literary friend:  Harriet the Spy. She said with her usual pluck: Hide the mattress and the real culprit / owner will be revealed. Days later, the mystery was solved with a call from Axial Theatre (one of the professional theatre groups that rehearses in our building).  Seems that it was not a lonely artist sleeping it off in a studio; it was actually a torrid love affair going on (acting only) as Axial rehearsed its founder’s new play Maybe Never Fell. The play is about a Jewish man, Max, who agonizes about his intimate relationship with a German woman half his age.  Unbeknownst to us on the third floor, there were apparently love scenes being played (theatrically speaking) above us on the ninth floor.  In retrospect, we regret not being invited to the rehearsals, but we are happy to say the play has an angel or two, and will be seeking more angels at a reading on January 23rd at the Cherry Lane Theater in NYC.  Just a day in the life of ArtsWestchester.