October 18, 2011 | Theatre,

Check out these books, music and films related to YOU BETTER SIT DOWN: TALES FROM MY PARENTS’ DIVORCE

BOOKS

The Divorce Express by Paula Danziger (for teens)

Ninth-grader Phoebe has no desire to ride the Divorce Express, hauling back and forth between her mother in New York City and her father in the country, just trying to find a place to belong. An accomplished writer for young adults, Danziger’s sympathetic humor makes Phoebe’s concerns relevant and relatable to teens everywhere.

Ask Me About My Divorce: Women Open Up About Moving Onedited by Candace Walsh (2009) 

 This riveting collection of 29 essays written by women for women explore the big questions that arise when a marriage ends, and also examines how that loss can ultimately be transformative.

 Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies (2009)

Gillies, a television actress with a recurring role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit decides to chuck her life in New York City to follow her poet-professor husband to a tenured teaching position in an Ohio college town. She throws herself into baking, gardening and restoring their country house.  Everything seems idyllic until her husband announces he has fallen in love with a colleague and wants a divorce. While it may sound trite, I found Gillies memoir hard to put down; it is raw, honest, bitterly funny and never self-pitying.

MUSIC

The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown (2001)

Brown’s touching musical, which opened off-Broadway in 2002 and won the Drama Desk Award for best music and lyrics, tells the story of a five-year relationship between Cathy, an actress, and Jamie, a struggling novelist with an unusual narrative twist; Cathy’s story is told in reverse chronological order while Jamie’s starts at the beginning of their relationship. Variety called The Last Five Years “short, bittersweet and nearly perfect.”

Last season The Civilians brought us In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards, a productionthat unravels the story of Brooklyn’s largest development project in history including original songs. Watch them perform “The Neighborhood Song.”