Sunday, December 25, 2016

Saving Mr. Jordan

Another Clarence the Angel adventure.

It is Christmas Day, but in Heaven, jolly it is not. Not one normally given to seasonal despair, our dear Head Angel, Mr. Jordan, could not help but succumb to a remembrance of remorse past. He sat in his own little corner of the way station, on his own little chair, and placed a pointy white dunce cap upon his own head, forgoing the good old jaunty tilt.

Returning from Belle and Ebenezer's wedding party, Clarence cha-cha'd merrily to his side.

"Ah, darling Mr. Jordan, I am happy to report another resounding success! Woo-hoo!" Baffled by Mr. Jordan's indifference, Clarence repeated, "Woo-hoo, I say! Um, nice hat. A little too pointy for this day and age, though, if you get my drift. If you don't mind my saying so."

Jordan removed the pointy white dunce cap and tossed it testily to the floor. He sighed heavily and turned sullenly to his former student.

"You are quite right, First Angel Clarence, my friend. Quite right. Oh, and congratulations on the Fezziwig correction. Well done."

"Oh, thank you, Sir! But whatever is the matter? You seem out of sorts."

"Again, quite right. Clarence, I've failed. I must confess it. I ... I have left a soul behind."

Clarence gasped audibly. "No! That's not possible!"

A tear dribbled down Mr. Jordan's cheek and splashed into a cloud below, unleashing a Winter Wonderland over an unsuspecting Los Angeles.

"Oops."

Clarence pulled a silk hanky from the bodice of his ruched angel garb and dabbed Mr. Jordan's cheek. "There, there."

In a rush to relieve his burdened heart, Mr. Jordan told Clarence that sad story of Max Corkle, a trainer for the Los Angeles Rams (as they were then). Max was the good and true friend of star athlete Joe Pendleton, whose body was prematurely removed from active duty. While Heaven waited, Joe's soul was placed into the body of another athlete, but his memory of his life as Joe was then erased, along with his friendship with Max.



"I managed to keep the girlfriend for Joe, but how could I have left the friend behind?"

"There, there," Clarence repeated, to little effect. He then gave his masterful angel-wing a whoosh and a swish, activating the high-def big-picture plate. Swishing left and swishing right, swirling all around, Clarence found what he had hoped to see: An alternative universe.

"Ah ha, oh lookie!" Clarence pointed to a minor character in one of his favorite Christmas scenarios, popularly called While You Were Sleeping. "This one must have happened while you were sleeping, Mr. Jordan!"


"You see? The soul of Max was reborn in another role, named Saul, and became a friend to another lonely soul, named Lucy."

"Not that football-stealing sham psychologist 'Lucy'? That's one soul even I'm afraid to tackle."

Clarence reassured his mentor that this Lucy was a good and true friend to the Saul that Max had become. Mr. Jordan's eyes twinkled brightly, but only for a moment.

"My dear sweet Clarence, my heart remains full of woe. For the first time in my career, I feel that The Powers That Be did not use their powers for the best possible good."

Clarence shuffled his feet a bit, not just for the pleasure of watching the wisps of pink-frosted clouds waltzing about his satin slippers.

"You no doubt are referring to the new Scut Farkus administration down on Earth." Clarence scratched his fuzzy chin and waltzed up a few more pink wisps.

Mr. Jordan nodded sadly. Waving his own majestic wing across the plate, he drew up the picture of the meanest bully in town, the yellow-eyed Scut.


"I just don't know how the forces of good could have let this happen. Imagine, a man like Scut in the White House, in charge of the freest part of the free world, with the most free will to do free ill. I am so disappointed."



Clarence furrowed a frown and pushed the sleeves up on his AngelWear gown. He knew this would require his most concerted efforts of imagination and resourcefulness. If only, if only he could imagine an alternative outcome. At what critical moment could the Scut Farkus history be diverted to another course of direction?

Determined to make right what once went wrong, Clarence clashed his wings together in cymbalic fashion and projected himself into a small town in Indiana at a crucial point in the pre-Christmas Story unfolding.

A young boy named Ralphie is being punished by his mother for saying a dirty word. The punishment being a mouthful of Lifebuoy soap, young Ralphie had a little trouble answering his mother's interrogations.

"Where did you hear that word? Tell me! Who said that word to you?" She removed the Lifebuoy so the boy could answer.

Ralphie could not tell his mother the truth, that it was the dear old man himself who'd uttered the word many times while changing tires, fixing fuses, and fighting furnaces. So, instead, he would name one of his friends, the first name that came to his mind,

"Schw...."

"Shhhh," Clarence interrupted in the boy's ear. "No, don't rat out a friend for this, me boy. Say, um, yes this should do the trick: Say 'Scut Farkus'!"

"Scuuuuut Farkuuuuuus!"

Mother shrieked in horror, replacing the Lifebuoy in Ralphie's mouth while she went to the phone to call Mrs. Farkus.

Clarence swooshed his wings to fast-forward the slightly revised Story, in which it is now Scut Farkus and not Schwartz who is punished: a far more just outcome, all things considered.

The grown-up Scut would become a model of kindness, not unlike other souls who have been shown the errors of their ways, such as our legendary Marleys and Scrooges. Satisfied that he had saved the world from a Scut Farkus administration in the White House, Clarence fled to Mr. Jordan's side.

"Mr. Jordan, Mr. Jordan, I have good news!" Clarence sang.

Mr. Jordan stood with his arms folded, a glower darkening his brow. "Do you, Clarence? Do you, indeed? Well, I'm afraid to say I have some bad news."

Mr. Jordan swooshed his left wing over the high-def plate to show Clarence the outcome of the events he'd unleashed. Clarence looked in horror at what he had done. He reached for the pointy white dunce cap and dutifully donned it.

"I'm gonna need a bigger Lifebuoy," he said.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Saving Miss Bennet

No, this is not my (becoming) annual Clarence the Angel adventure in redemption. Previously we have saved Mr. Potter (from It's a Wonderful Life), Miss Fezziwig (A Christmas Carol), and Mr. Sawyer (Miracle on 34th Street). This post's title is inspired by the new "rolling world premiere" of some delightful Jane Austen fan fiction now gracing the stage of the Round House Theatre, titled Miss Bennet, Christmas at Pemberley.

To be fair, Jane Austen has inspired a lot of fan fiction (there's even something to do with zombies, I hear), but I will say the Miss Bennet piece, focusing on the Jan Brady of all Bennet sisters, righteous and scholarly Mary, is true to Jane's wit and writing style (more so in the first act than the second). Two years have passed since the marriages of her older sisters, and Mary has had the chance to mature and develop her musical abilities and her scholarly pursuits. Yet she retains a smug superiority and crankiness that keep her relateable as a flawed human, unlike her perfectly perfect older sisters. (The play brings back younger married sister Lydia but omits the penultimate of the five, Kitty, with even less to distinguish herself than Mary.)

The problem with Mary, and perhaps for the actress who plays her in this production, Katie Kleiger, is that she inevitably disappears when her two older, far more interesting sisters are in the same room with her. Maybe that's my problem, since the two older sisters are played by two of my favorite local actresses, Erin Weaver as Elizabeth and Katie deBuys as Jane. (And speaking of favorites, it's always a pleasure to feast on the chiseled features of Danny Gavigan, this production's Mr. Darcy.)

I will credit the authors, Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, with a surprising but appropriate love interest for Mary in the form of Darcy's distant cousin Arthur (William Vaughan) and a complication in the form of Anne de Bourgh (Kathryn Tkel), the daughter of the recently expired Lady Catherine. The twist is that sickly Anne has inherited her late mother's imperious self-importance, complicating matters for the protagonists.

I'll also credit the authors for doing something even Jane Austen never quite succumbed to, which was to create happy endings for characters we'd been accustomed to dismissing as unworthy of either attention or affection. This is what I've been trying to do in my own "Saving So-and-So" series here. They just do it better than I do!

So, Mary Bennet having been saved by worthy writers, I'm still obliged to rescue some of my own favorite egregiously left-behind characters. Will give it some more thought. My candidates right now are Susan from the MacMillan Toy Company (Big), who lost the love of her life when Josh (Tom Hanks) went back to being 13, and Heaven Can Wait's Max Corkle, the trainer for the Rams who lost his friend Joe Pendelton once our dear Mr. Jordan found a suitable football player for Joe to reincarnate into. Joe walked off with the girl but left poor Max behind. I always hated that.

Love, hosaa
No character left behind

Saturday, June 18, 2016

(Not the usual) Father's Day Movie List

Probably most people's list of favorite Father's Day movies has some version of Father of the Bride on it. I never even saw the Spencer Tracy/Elizabeth Taylor version until a few months ago, and I'm all like, Whatever, dude. Better Spencer Tracy Father's Day choices, to me, are Boys Town and Captains Courageous.

But the best Father's Day movies simply do a good job of explaining fatherhood to me.

The World According to Garp gives us a memorable, controlled Robin Williams performance as a man who adores being a father. Whenever things go wrong in his marriage, all is made well by going in and looking at the kids in their innocent sleep. Garp, a writer, says he will never create anything as lovely as that.

Little Miss Sunshine offers a good case study of the father first getting it wrong about what fatherhood means. Providing for the family and teaching children how to be successful? Um, not really. Let's start with seeing the kids for who they really are, loving them, and always having their back. Lesson learned for the father played by Greg Kinnear.

That's also what Dustin Hoffman discovers in Kramer vs. Kramer, who learns, among other things, that patience is a big part of the parental skill set.

There are also more heartbreaking Father's Day movies on my list, like Ordinary People, and the movie's end with Donald Sutherland breaking down in tears, embracing his surviving son.

The father's missing embrace is precisely what made Love Story the heartbreaking Father's Day tragedy about which I have written previously. The book version got it right: Barretts old and young finally embrace, literally and figuratively. Somehow Ray Milland and Ryan O'Neal were too macho to make the attempt, damn it. On the other hand, John Marley and Ali MacGraw give a crazy sweet father-daughter turn as Phil and Jenny.

Great moments in movie fatherhood are also found in Roberto Begnini's heartbreaking Life Is Beautiful, with the dad's diversionary tactics to conceal from his young son the horrific reality of their concentration camp imprisonment.

In the opposite way, the greatest-father-of-all-time, To Kill a Mockingbird's Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck), reveals harsh reality to his children in the gentlest but most effective way possible: the lessons of empathy.

Okay, for dudes reading this blog, I'll give you Field of Dreams. No one can avoid tears when "he" at last appears at the magical field Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) has unknowingly built for his father in the heaven that is Iowa.

More great moments in fatherhood include the revelations of love in Mary Poppins and Sound of Music--those heart-swelling moments when fathers seem to recognize their love for their own flesh and blood for the very first time.

And don't miss Brian Keith's recognition of his new-found twin daughter, Haley Mills as Sharon, in The Parent Trap. (For Mother's Day, you can focus on that same scene played by Maureen O'Hara with Haley's Susan character.)

Then there is the heartbreaking moment when a son realizes his father's pride in him will be more than disappointed, as Ralph Fiennes must confess to Paul Scofield that the Van Doren name will be dragged through the mud on a Quiz Show.


(l-r) Gérard Depardieu, Stéphane Bierry, Pierre Richard, in Les Compères

Those are just a few of my favorite movie moments in fatherhood. But if I only watch one movie for Father's Day, it will be Les Compères, the story of two very different bachelors commissioned to retrieve the runaway teenage son of a woman each had had a fling with in their youth. Thinking he's escaping his own unreasonable father, the boy winds up with two more would-be parents who have no clue what fatherhood is all about. Through their adventures in the underworld of Nice gambling and narcotics rings and police corruption, they all find a way to figure out what the father-son relationship is all about.

There are also probably too many father-figure movies to go into, but I do love Fagin in Oliver! Really, why is that character described as evil? He took in orphans and fed them by whatever means he could. Anyway, Ron Moody begging his young charges to "Be Back Soon" is just one of that musical's many delights.

The list:

Les Compères
To Kill a Mockingbird
The World According to Garp
Kramer vs. Kramer
Little Miss Sunshine
Mary Poppins
Sound of Music
Field of Dreams
Life Is Beautiful
Ordinary People
The Parent Trap
Quiz Show
Love Story (though truthfully I usually watch this at Christmas time. I love the scenes in the snow and where Jenny is leading the boys choir in church).

love, hosaa
missing dad (1920-2007)

Friday, June 17, 2016

Edward Duke, Author


For Edward Duke (1953-1994)

Edward Duke as Bertie Wooster, 'Jeeves Takes Charge'


Thank you for the gift of authoring a very unexpected chapter in my life.

Love, hosaa
remembering joy

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Levon, Taylor Hicks 4 -23-2016

A fun evening at Easton, Maryland's, historic Avalon Theatre last night, courtesy of the Claritin-D enabled (or disabled?) Taylor Hicks. He joked that Spring (and allergy season) was over in the South, but had only just sprung here in Maryland. "Trees, 1; Taylor, 0."

As a consequence, the soulfully growly voice was more strained than perhaps is usual, but Taylor and his accompanist Brian Less did a leisurely paced story-filled 90 minute set that ended with an encore, what became a signature cover of "Levon" during Taylor's American Idol career.





Standouts for me were the lonely-angsty love songs like "Six Strings Are Hard on Diamond Rings," "What's Right Is Right" ("what's wrong with you is what's wrong with me, and what's right is right"), and Taylor's own "Maybe You Should" ("If you can leave here tonight, baby maybe you should").

love, hosaa
a little angsty

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Visions of Grace at Ford's (The Glass Menagerie)

Dear Edward Duke,

It's been 30 years since I first saw you at Ford's Theatre in your "cheap little show"--then as today the Sunday matinee closer. I still disagree with you that Sunday matinees are the worst houses, for we gave a heartfelt standing ovation to the cast of The Glass Menagerie: Tom Story as Tom Wingfield, Madeleine Potter as Amanda, Jenna Sokolowski as Laura, and Thomas Keegan as Jim O'Connor (aka the gentleman caller).

As proof of this cast's worth (and a concession to your insistence that Sunday audiences are bad), when a cell phone went off twice (yes, the caller called the same phone twice) during a particularly poignant speech of Laura's near the end of the show, Sokolowski held her breath and held the moment and the magic until it was safe for her to continue her speech. GoodNESS! I imagine they all--as you and I would have--wanted to go all Patti LuPone on that "I'm too important to turn my cell phone off" audience member's ass, but they didn't.

Tom, was that one of the tricks up your sleeve? The magic act that actors and poets and playwrights and other dear things rely on to keep us on the edges of our seats, breathless?

Edward, you would have loved Tom Story. Edward, meet Tom; Tom, Edward. As much as I love Tom's comedic roles, there is power in his drama. I'll confess I was tempted to wiggle my way backstage to gush, but my Laura side demurred.

I also wanted to tell Laura that it gets better. I cried when they danced: The gentleman caller sweeps the "crippled" girl up in a sweet waltz and she is suddenly transformed. He gives her a vision of herself as graceful and alive. I want her (and me) to not let disappointment turn into discouragement. It's a delicate balance (oh, wait--that's Albee).

And even if my happy memories of Edward Duke are no more substantial than a glass unicorn, they are a treasure of infinite worth for the joy they brought--and bring.

Happy Anniversary, dear old thing.
love,
hosaa

Sunday, January 31, 2016

An Unheroic Return

Back from the Round House Theatre production of Suzan-Lori Parks's epic Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, and 3) (and hoping that parts 4, 5, and 6 aren't all prequels). What a great production--certainly among the best offerings from RHT.


This Civil War recasting of the Ulysses tale humanizes the myth through characters that are flawed, loyal to (or betraying) all the wrong people, with the hero of the story, Hero (JaBen Early), carrying the weight of the most flaws and weaknesses.

The second part of the play deals most directly with the racial issues we still confront today, as Hero follows his master (Tim Getman) into battle on the promise that "boss-master" will free him for his service. It's pretty clear the despicable boss-master won't do it, so Hero's hope and loyalty--and ever-present Hamlet-like indecision about running away--are incomprehensible (at least until Part 3).

In this section Getman delivers a speech that made the largely white suburban audience (her own self included) very uncomfortable--it's the Southern Colonel slave-owner's confession to his Union captain prisoner (Michael Kevin Darnall) that he's thankful he is white. On the surface, it is clearly an assertion of superiority. But Parks's language and Getman's delivery of it is more nuanced: The reason he is thankful, boss-master says without irony, is that the black man's life is so miserable. Well, duh. Who wants to be miserable? He of course takes no responsibility for being the cause of that misery.

(From left) Michael Kevin Darnall, Tim Getman, JaBen Early, in Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3). Image: Round House Theatre via Facebook.

Also in Part 2, the Union captain prisoner tries to convince his Confederate, slave-owning captor that he cannot even imagine owning other humans. But [SPOILER ALERT] the fact that this Yankee is not actually white, but passing as white (and also passing as a captain rather than a private) leaves no opportunity for white redemption. That's a bit disappointing, I'll confess.

Part 3 makes some of Hero's (now Ulysses's) decisions clear, but not all of them. He's a flawed human. To lighten things up, and in true Shakespearean manner, Parks's provides us with a "funny bit with a dog," who turns out to be the story's moral touchstone. Maybe true unquestioning loyalty really is just a dog thing.

And I'll give a shout out to one of the best voices in Washington, Craig Wallace as "Oldest Old Man," Hero's father-figure in Part 1 (and taking a surprising second role in Part 3 I won't spoil).

Craig Wallace. Image: Round House Theatre via Facebook.

Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
Written by Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Timothy Douglas
Round House Theatre, Bethesda, Maryland, through Feb. 21, 2016.

Cast
Hero: JaBen Early 
Penny: Valeka J. Holt
Oldest Old Man, Odysseus: Craig Wallace
Homer: Kenyatta Rogers 
Colonel in the Rebel Army: Tim Getman
Smith, a captive Union soldier: Michael Kevin Darnall
slaves: Jefferson A. Russell, Jon Hudson Odom, Stori Ayers, Ian Anthony Coleman
Musician: Memphis Gold

Friday, January 1, 2016

2015 in Brief

The paucity of posts this past year means on the whole it's probably best left mostly forgotten. The good news was a new career direction for her own self and good connections retained, all of which has left me running to keep caught up.

For the arts interests I normally report on here, I'll keep it brief and start with the closest event in the rear-view mirror. Thanks to the New Year's Eve afternoon off, I stumbled off to the National Gallery of Art to treat myself to a ladylike buffet in the Garden Cafe and a serendipitous wander through the halls and special exhibitions.

The gallery that caught me by surprise was the Hellenistic bronzes in an exhibit titled Power and Pathos. The bronzes from about the age of Alexander the Great are rare, the wall captions explain, because through the ages the pieces became more valued for their scrap prices and were melted down or lost at sea on their way to being exported and then melted down.

The walls further explained the aesthetic choices the lightweight bronze material made possible (as opposed to heavier materials such as marble) for capturing realistic, lifelike human emotions, gestures, and features rather than idealized portraits that connected leading figures of the day to their godly ideals. I like that.

One piece (rather, two seabed-recovered reconstructed pieces) caught my attention. It was called simply "Statue of a Man." I couldn't keep my eyes off its startling familiar face. It was the hairline, the jawline, the noble (if broken) posture. It was John F. Kennedy, no mistake.

Another woman gazing at the piece had what I imagine my same mesmerized expression, so I shared my thoughts with her. She smiled and said she thought it was just her! No, we confirmed each other's impression and chatted momentarily. A nice connection, but we moved on.

I came back to that room; I couldn't help myself. JFK drew me back. On a somewhat crowded New Year's Eve afternoon, there were a couple of artists wandering among the tourists and office-escapees, so I watched another mesmerized viewer sketching my JFK statue. I peered over his shoulder at his sketch, which was quite taking shape. He nervously peered back over his shoulder at me, so I apologized for peeking.

"How'm I doing?" he asked. I assured him I loved his drawing. Then he asked me if the statue reminded me of anyone. "JFK" I said immediately. He smiled and said he thought it was just him! "It's the hairline," I said. And we chatted momentarily. Another nice connection, but I moved on.

I ducked into the video room to watch the documentary, but if they showed our JFK statue, I missed it. Then I went to the exhibit's mini gift shop, but none of the postcards, T-shirts, or other gewgaws featured our JFK. There's a very expensive exhibition book, though, which includes the statue, but I swore off buying exhibition books a year ago until I got on firmer financial footing (and create more space on my bookshelves). I went back to find my sketch artist to see if I could get him to send me a scan of his sketch when he was done, but I couldn't find him again.

Nor could I find, this morning, any photos of our JFK statue online--not even in the NGA press images for the exhibit. So I may be making another trip back to NGA's gift shop, where I already took advantage of the post-Christmas discounts to pick up next year's "season's greetings" cards.

[Edited to add: Found it! From this page]

Male figure,The 2nd century BCE, bronze, cm 127 x 75 x 49, Brindisi, Museo Archeologico Provinciale "F. Ribezzo” | via Zest Today

On the way out, I got to speak briefly with the chief of retail operations, and I mentioned my "Kennedy" statue. He smiled and said they usually got Edward, not John, comments on the Kennedy resemblance. Too funny. I guess that ages me.

2015 year in review


January
7 - American Art Museum, gallery talk on Richard Estes
12 - Shakespeare Theatre Company, Lansburgh, ReDiscovery Reading: "Big Night"
28 - Round House Theatre, "Rapture, Blister, Burn"

February
15 - Synetic Theatre, "Much Ado About Nothing"

March
8 - Bethesda Christ Lutheran church, free concert
16 - Round House Theatre, reception and new season announcement
21 - U.S. Navy Memorial Heritage Center, U.S.S. Emmons plaque dedication

April
8 - Round House Theatre, "Uncle Vanya"
14 - Ford's Theatre, Lincoln Tribute
23 - Birchmere, Marshall Tucker Band
24 - Carnegie Institution, Earth Policy Institute book release party, The Great Transition

May
7 - Kennedy Center, NSO working rehearsal (Mahler's Fifth Symphony and the ballet that ensued)



May
17 - Synetic Theatre, "Tale of Two Cities"
27 - Round House Theatre, "NSFW"

June
25 - Brookings Institution, book release event, The China Challenge 

July
28 - Round House Theatre, One-Minute Play Festival
31 - Round House Theatre/Adventure Theatre, "Oliver!"

August
23 - Landmark Theatre, Bethesda Row, "Merchant of Venice"

September
9 - Art Institute, Chicago (volunteers handed out postcards of some of the pictures exhibited)
25-26 - National Inclusion Project, Founders Reception and Champions Gala

October
6 - Kennedy Center, members annual meeting
15 - Mazza Gallery, RSC "Hamlet" with Benedict Cumerbatch
19 - Shakespeare Theatre Company, Lansburgh, ReDiscovery Reading, "Bingo"
25 - Round House Theatre, "The Night Alive"
29 - Brookings Institution, book release event, America's Political Dynasties

November
1 - Kennedy Center, Suzanne Farrell Ballet
16 - Shakespeare Theatre Company, Lansburgh, ReDiscovery Reading, "Desdemona"

December
6 - Round House Theatre, "Stage Kiss"
7 - Ford's Theatre, members holiday party

I also saw Ironbound and The Guard, at Round House and Ford's, respectively, but didn't record the dates. Recaps at "Where Is Love" and "The Touch of Art." Good stuff, 2015!

Love, hosaa
looking forward to whatever I'll see...