OPRAH AT RUINED

I’ve been writing this over the course of today. Here’s how it started:

It was fun having Oprah sitting right next to us-Samantha Mathis, Susan Kellerman and me. Gayle King and her daughter were with Oprah. Both of us were sobbing at the end and I had to pass her tissues. It’s a truly powerful and important play about the war in the Congo and what it has done/is doing to women. This is what Eve Ensler’s organization, V-Day: Until the Violence Stops, is focusing on. In fact, Eve is in east Congo now, at the hospital where Dr. Mugwege receives the raped and brutalized women and sews them up. V-Day has recently broken ground on the ‘village’ we are erecting to house 100 women. There are so many women flooding into the hospital they aren’t able to stay and completely heal, so the village will provide a safe place next to the hospital for further physical and emotional healing. They will receive therapy and learn microentreprenurial skills. Some of the actors in “Ruined” saw Eve when she testified about the Congo in Washington D.C. recently.

Phylicia Rashad’s daughter is in the play, her Broadway debut. She is brilliant-beautiful and talented (as is her mother). She can sing like a dream, too. This is a must see play! Derek McLane, who did sets for “33 Variations” and is nominated for a Tony for them also did “Ruined”-again, brilliantly

I asked Oprah to follow my tweets and she said she would. I follow her. I was the second person she interviewed for her “O” magazine. It was during that interview that I realized I had to write my memoirs. I told Oprah that last night.

img00275webOprah and fabulous actor in “Ruined” Simon Shabantu Kashama
img00272webBack stage after “Ruined” with the cast, Samantha, Susan, Oprah, and I am there, behind somewhere.

Samatha, Susan and I had dinner after at Trattoria del Arte and closed the place down.

dontwelookhappy-webDon’t we look happy?

I am discombobulated today. Partly because I took a pain pill last night cause my knee hurts so bad. The pill has thrown me for a loop. Went to see “Reasons to Be Pretty” by myself this afternoon. Unfortunately Thomas Sadoski, who was nominated for a Tony, was replaced by his (very good) understudy. I was hoping to see him but I was told his wife fell and cut her head and he was with her in the emergency room. Good priorities. Still, I found the play riveting. Strange. Not easy. But riveting.

I took pictures of people taking pictures of me in front of my Times Square hotel as I waited for my friend, Lisa Birnbach to arrive and pick me up. It’s funny cause normally I go around anonymously. Then I went with Lisa to the Tony cocktail party at which Phyllis Newman was honored. The Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Care Center is one of the beneficiaries of Broadway Cares. I’ve known Phyllis from decades ago. She and Adolph Greene were close friends of my fathers. Zach Grenier (my beloved Beethoven, also a Tony nominee) was there, and Moises Kaufman, our writer/director, and Roger Friedman and Michelle Lee and Lucy Arnez and Oscar Eustis, Director of the Joe Papp Public Theatre and many other friends. It was fun and, once again, I felt embraced by this wonderful Broadway community.

After that, Lisa and I saw “The Norman Conquests: Round and Round the Garden,” the third in the trilogy. I loved it and wished I had seen all three. Scott Peacock and Alice Waters sat right behind us. Scott’s going to be at the Tonys tomorrow. A cheering section.

To end the day we had dinner with Jeff Daniels, his wife Kathleen whom I had not met before and who is smart and lovely as I would have expected and Jeff’s manager and friend, Paul Martino. We’re all looking forward to the swag tomorrow at the Tony rehearsal. It was Jeff who first told me about swag. Jeff and the others in “God of Carnage” have all re-upped for continuing the play in the fall after a 6 week break. I wasn’t sure they would but, clearly, having a good, reliable and fun job to count on till the year’s end is not to be sneezed at-not in these times.

Rehearsal is fairly early so I’m off to bed. I still dream about the play and still feel the Galapagos ship rolling under me. I’ve probably forgotten a lot of stuff from today but too bad. I’m pooped.

See you next time.

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23 Comments

  1. There’s someone important in the group photo from backstage at Ruined – Lynn Nottage, the playwright. Hope you might add her name and identify her (I’m admittedly biased because I got to work on another of her plays “Intimate Apparel” with Viola Davis) because she’s a great writer and person.

  2. Looks as though you are enjoying your time in NYC. I bet it’s relaxing to be able to not work and spend your time seeing other plays and getting together with friends.

    Tony’s tomorrow! *is excited*

    Best,
    Amanda

  3. You do look happy. I know you don’t like doing revivals, but maybe the three of you could do The Sisters Rosensweig.
    B

  4. It is clear that they meet happy and your, Jane, radiant and splendid. I knew that the Reem Acra was going to still have her. That tomorrow the wind and the tide you are favorable and the gods you smile. From Uruguay with love

  5. Hi, so happy you are glad to be back in NYC !!!! How’s your knee?
    Best of luck for the Tony!! You’ll be a knock out in that dress !!!

  6. Two of my favorite people! Jane and Oprah!

  7. Oprah is fabulous! You’re so lucky to see all these shows. Each one sounds unique, and amazing!

  8. Pingback: New blog post: OPRAH AT RUINED http://janefonda.com/ruined/ | Celebrity News Feed

  9. Thank you for your blogs. They are entertaining and informative and I learn a little more about Jane Fonda each time I read them.

  10. You have no idea how happy I am with how you have embraced social media and sharing so much of yourself and your adventures.

    I love the pictures!!

    Phylica Rashad’s daughter is ACTING? I remember when she was born! Wow!!

    I’m so excited that you have been nominated for a Tony!! I have my fingers crossed for you!

    May God continue to grant you joy in all your journeys!

  11. Dear Jane,

    I know it’s a tremendous honor just to be nominated
    for a Tony– AND EVERYONE I know wants you
    to win!!!!!

    From our collective lips to God’s ears!!

    We will be watching and rooting!!

    PS: I thought that O magazine interview of you
    was fantastic all those years ago!!

    Love
    Bradley

  12. Thanks Jane so much for allowing me to take your photo yesterday when you went to see “Reasons to be Pretty” yesterday. It’s always exciting for me to photograph a legend like you.

  13. Glad you monitor your comments because I wouldn’t have ever written this statement on your blog, Just want to tell you I didn’t submit the photo I took of you (at Reasons…) to my agency as you had a wardrobe malfunction and I’m not the type of “paparazzi” that ever wants to embarrass anyone. I look forward to photographing you again tonight at the Tony Awards. Could you come down to Philadelphia some day for a book signing, there are many fans there that would love to see you. I have a blog there that focuses on many charitable events.

  14. Wow, what a day! Of course, as a loyal reader of your blog and tweets, I’d like to see you win tonight. But here’s what I’m ultimately wishing for you…that you truly enjoy the evening…presenting, watching the show, hearing your name read in the nominations, all of it. Have fun! And thanks for tweeting it!

  15. Wonderful to hear that you are part of an organization that is helping the women of Congo. It is so sad in this part of the world that we are still battling the concept that women are “non-persons”. Here in Malawi, men have told me that they think of their wife the same as a table or chair – they didn’t realize that she could think or have feelings. She was bought for the price of a cow or two and is there to serve the husband’s needs. That mentality is part of the reason that it is so easy for them to abuse and mistreat the women. Thanks for all you are doing to make the world a better place for all!

  16. Dear Ms. Fonda,

    Good luck at the Tony’s. I will be routing for you. Your performance was poignant and so memorable.

    Good luck.
    Louis

  17. HI Jane
    You’re having such a great time in New York.Well,in an hour the Tonys begin,and i know it will be spectacular.Cant wait for your photos and tweets.
    It would be fun to see Rosie O’Donnell there—she is Broadway’s biggest fan.

  18. Thank you for the shout-out to the great Derek McLane, whose extraordinary set designs have graced many a production at the American Repertory Theatre up here in Cambridge, MA. I’ve heard that his Tony for “33 Variations” was well-deserved, and that his design of “Ruined” is also quite special.

    Jane, I hear from last night’s back-stage buzz that there might be a London production of “33 Variations.” If so, will you go with it?

  19. Pingback: Congo:Africa Oprah and Jane Fonda tweet and blog on play about Congo: http://janefonda.com/ruined/ | Celebrity News Feed

  20. Jane, This is fabulous. I love that you are a votary of the theatre, and I absolutely adore RUINED. What a fabulous blog. I have no idea how I found it.

    Best
    David

  21. Thank you, Jane, for speaking on this topic. I hope they take “Ruined” on the road so that a broad base of the American public can wake up to the situation in Congo and we can mount a movement for meaningful intervention in the holocaust that continues in DR Congo.

    I have been volunteering for Run for Congo Women since my daughter founded it in Sept. 2005. There are so many dimensions of the Congo crisis that go completely ignored by the press, our governments, & NGOs that it is heartbreaking.

    We have a Congolese woman on our Portland RFCW organizing team whose family is in the far NE corner of DR Congo…where an intense crisis has been going on since last fall. The whole area has been overrun, whole villages being burned to he ground — by the Lord’s Resistance Army, sending a hundred thousand of refugees into the town of Dungu. Dungu itself then emptied out (55,000 + refugees left for the bush, leaving 50 people in the town when LRA started attacking around Dungu). My friend’s mother (age 69), spent 4 miserable months in the bush last year, 2 of them with all the family children before returning to Dungu, sick and in utter despair. Today the entire population of Dungu (55,000+30,000 refugees), is hungry…chronically hungry. This is the second season no one was been able to harvest or plant crops in their fields, their source of survival. There is no seed available to even plant an in-town garden.

    3 family children had been abducted by the LRA last fall. One was recently “rescued” and returned, but the 12 yr old returned home scarred where he had been cut and had black powder drugs, who knows what drugs, inserted. His personality is completely changed. He was utterly unashamed when telling his mother about what pleasure it gave him to beat people in the head until they were dead. He had been forced to rape…and his mother has young girls she is caring for so she had to send him away to protect them.

    But no one wants to cover the story of Dungu. We sit on our hands, while these people suffer a long, slow, inevitable and ignominious death of starvation and disease surrounded by new & constant horrors.

  22. MJPC blames the Congolese Government for Deteriorating Situation in East Congo

    “There is no excuse for missing to pay salaries to soldiers in lawless eastern Congo for six months”

    Following the deteriorating situation in east Congo, the MJPC called for the Congolese Government to pay the salaries of thousands of soldiers who have not been paid for over six months in east Congo, take swift action to enforce the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) warrant against Bosco Ntaganda and to hold accountable perpetrators of sexual violence against women for their acts.

    “Faillng to hold accountable individuals who commit war crimes and crimes against humunity continues to be the leading cause of widespread and systematic sexual violence acts against girls and women in the easten Congo” said Makuba Sekombo, Community Affairs Director of
    the Mobilization for Justice and Peace in the DR Congo (MJPC). Mr. Sekombo again criticized the government of Congo for not only the continuing failure to protect women and young girls from sexual violence, but also for “encouraging conditions that create opportunities for sexual violence to occur”. “There is no excuse for missing to pay salaries to soldiers in lawless eastern Congo for six months” said Sekombo.

    The MJPC has also renewed its call for the Congolese government to take urgent needed action to end human rights abuses in east Congo, hold perpetrators accountable and ensure reparation for the victims of sexual violence. The MJPC has been urging the Congolese government to compensate the victims of sexual violence in order to also help combat impunity in eastern part of Congo where sexual violence against women and children has been widely used as weapon of war for more than decade.MJPC online petition calling for for help to put pressure on Congolese Government to compensate victims of sexual siolence in Eastern DRC can be signed at http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/26180.html

    MJPC is a nonprofit organization dedicated to working to add a voice in the promotion of justice and peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular in the East where thousands of innocent civilians, including children and women continue to be victims of massive human rights violations while the armed groups responsible for these crimes remain unpunished.

    For more information on MJPC and the activities, visit the web site http://www.mjpcongo.org. E-mail: [email protected] or call Makuba Sekombo at 1 408 806 3644.

  23. http://www.v-girls.org/home.php

    Jane, You made a link to an Eve Ensler site which led to this link and site:

    http://www.v-girls.org/home.php

    And it is beautiful what she says here. Utterly Beautiful !!!

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