Oscars on the teevee! They’re going out of their way to emphasize the personal and the community. This feels more like a large community banquet party than the most lavishly produced spectacle in the west. And I love the Busby Berkeley feel of the orchestra staging. Other things I watched this weekend:

– Itamar Moses’ Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used to It) at the Flea Friday night. Five shorts of a master wordsmith wrestling with the ways words fail love. I was really jolted by the fourth piece, “Szinhaz”; it launches you from a riff on theater stereotypes to the discomfort of a silent heart aching. If you don’t know Itamar’s work, it’s a great introduction. If you do, you’ll fall for him a little more. Runs through Mar. 9; tickets here.

– Sheila Callaghan’s The Pretty Pretty, or the Rape Play last night, in previews at the Rattlestick.  In examining the lens we use to look at women in this culture in this moment, Sheila Callaghan has put together a fierce and funny grab bag of murderous hookers and would-be screenwriters. (Annie McNamara as a leotarded, workout-tape Jane Fonda is particularly great). And it’s good to see someone using the work of other playwrights as a starting point — Callaghan prods at the violence of Adam Rapp, Sarah Kane, and others. Tickets here.