The Darks and Lights of Winter

The Winter's Tale at Shakespeare Theatre Company is a rocky rollercoaster ride of emotions, beginning with the king's irrational jealousy.

In my opinion, the production relied a little too heavily on the lighting to show Leontes's (Mark Harelik) inner turmoil--the actor could convey it just fine. But unlike Othello, Leontes has no one feeding him bad information about his divinely warm (and very pregnant) wife, Hermione (Hannah Yelland). So Harelik's fiercely uncompromising passion in throwing away this wife (along with her son and the daughter to come) made the character almost wholly unlikable.

Hannah Yelland as Hermione, Mark Harelik as Leontes and Sean Arbuckle as Polixenes in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of 'The Winter’s Tale', directed by Rebecca Taichman. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

The darkness of Act I is a stark contrast to the lightness of pastoral Act II--and in this production, the transition between those contrasts is eased at the end of the first act with the abrupt and very funny image of the gloriously goofy Clown (Tom Story) crossing upstage, running and screaming like a frightened child.

If you've been here before, you already know about my obsession fascination with Tom Story. 

Tom Story via About the Artists

I realize I haven't seen all he's done, but I love his ability to mold that serene moon face into a range of expressions. From the first act seriousness of a palace aid (Cleomenes) without much to do except look serious, he transmogrified into the happily clueless son-of-a-shepherd, oblivious to the pickpocketing rogue Autolycus (the other half of Harelik dual-role assignment).

Actually, a very funny bit between them ensued during the IDR (invited dress rehearsal) when the zipper on Tom's turned-around fanny-pack wouldn't close after Autolycus stole the money in it. As Autolycus pulled and pulled on the stubborn zipper, the young shepherd's obliviousness grew increasingly implausible, and the smile just kept blossoming on his giddy face. At last, Tom moved the plot along with a sweet "You must abandon it, sir." Snort! I hate to say it was my favorite part of the play, but the moment called to mind the best crackups with Harvey Korman and Tim Conway from the Carol Burnett Show. (And it happened again when Tom as clown was imitating the rogue's wildly ridiculous lisp.)

This levity, this lightness, was all in keeping with the pastoral Act II. Sets, costumes, lighting all conveyed such contrasting warmth against Act I's frosty shadowy harshness. But the seamlessness of the transitions were as magical as the Queen's rebirth at the end, from discarded wife to treasured love.

Overall the production is as good as it gets at Shakespeare Theatre Company, which is pretty damn good. It did run long, but I imagine an earlier start time than the IDR had will keep people from dropping dead at 11. (Us old people, that is.) 

I thought it was interesting that the staging of this production, with actors not in the scene simply sitting to the side but not going off stage, was so similar to the Wandering Souls' engaging (and economical) 2009 production of The Winter's Tale. The Wanderers' 90-minute production remains one of my favorite Shakespearean experiences ever.

The only thing I would have liked would have been a longer why-I'm-forgiving-you speech from the queen Hermione, but Shakespeare apparently didn't provide one. 

Heather Wood as Perdita, Mark Harelik as Leontes, Hannah Yelland as Hermione and Todd Bartels as Florizel (background) in the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of 'The Winter’s Tale', directed by Rebecca Taichman. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

Just another one of those irrational emotions the Bard gives his characters and expects the audience to accept. But as I said, Harelik's Leontes was so thoroughly irrationally enraged with jealousy that I personally couldn't have loved him after such abuse. Just me?

The Winter's Tale, Lansburgh Theatre, opens May 14, 2013

Director: Rebecca Taichman

Set Designer: Christine Jones

Costume Designer: David Zinn

Lighting Designer: Christopher Akerlind

Cast:

Mark Harelik (Leontes, King of Sicilia; Autolycus, a rogue)

Hannah Yelland (Hermione, Queen of Sicilia)

Sean Arbuckle (Polixenes, King of Bohemia)

Heather Wood (Mamillius, Prince of Sicilia; Perdita, Princess of Sicilia)

Brent Carver (Camillo)

Ted van Griethuysen (Antigonus; old shepherd)

Nancy Robinette (Paulina; drunken shepherdess)

Tom Story (Cleomenes; young shepherd, a clown)

Todd Bartels (Dion; Florizel, Prince of Bohemia)

Next Fall and 1776: Fear and Foresight

I'm now officially a resident of Ford's Theatre: I'm receiving mail there. Hee! Thanks to my buying my ticket for 1776 at the box office instead of TicketBastard, they had my membership information handy. So when I got to my seat yesterday for the matinee, there was an envelope taped to the arm rest. Inside was a very sweet note thanking me for my support, along with a tiny box of mints.

One of the other benefits of membership besides a permanent address) is being able to get tickets to the new education center across the street. Still, as I looked out at the huge long line to get into the center, I thought I'd wait a bit longer before making the attempt. The mission to support "preserving the past for the future" is one I can certainly get behind.

As an official resident of at least two theaters (the other being the Round House in Bethesda), I'm getting used to seeing familiar faces, so if there is any connection to be made between this production of 1776 and the last production I saw at RHT--Next Fall--it runs through actor Tom Story (link to year-old WaPo interview).

Tom Story ("Congressional Secretary"), with cast of the Continental Congress, 1776. Photo by Carol Rosegg for Ford's Theatre

Tom Story ("Adam") and Kathryn Kelley ("Arlene"), in Next Fall. Photo by Danisha Crosby for Round House Theatre

Other than one actor, you'd think these two plays had nothing in common. But they do in fact have much in common. Next Fall focused on the relationship between a gay Christian man ("Luke," played by Chris Dinolfo) and the parents (played by Kathryn Kelley and Kevin Cutts) whom he was unable to come out to, as well as between him and his atheist lover ("Adam," played by our Tom Story).

The fear of "otherness" is a strong theme in Next Fall--the otherness of sexual orientation and the otherness of religious belief. Fear of rejection, fear of differences, all lead to self-fulfilling prophecies.

In 1776, the differences between the property owners and the idealists were made more marked when the true issue came down to the otherness of the black slaves themselves. To the property owners (and it's not just a Southern thing--the leading "Cool Conservative" was Ben Franklin's fellow Pennsylvanian, Dickinson), it was about preserving wealth and status, which they argued encouraged the pursuit of wealth for all. (I'm pretty sure that's still a major argument for conservatives' tenets.)

The "Cool Conservatives," 1776. Photo by Carol Rosegg

Ultimately, in order for the Declaration of Independence to be accepted by the conservatives, the passage declaring freedom for black slaves had to be removed.

Which eventually led, of course, to the Civil War. And a century later, it could be argued, to the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black kid, by a white "neighborhood watch" coordinator. Similarly, it is the fear of the otherness of sexual orientation that has led to the bullying of, and subsequent suicides by, young gay kids like Tyler Clementi.

Fear of otherness continues to divide the United States of America. Unity must come from within our own hearts and minds. And that means keeping both wide open, regardless of our fears.

I'm probably as much a coward as any other white suburban matron. But I don't want to live in a world where middle-aged white ladies should automatically be fearful of young black men. Two episodes:

Sometime last year I was coming home by subway from a play. It was probably something at Shakespeare Theater, as it was a Sunday night. The evening before that, I'd just seen the bio-drama I Wish You Love about Nat King Cole at the Kennedy Center, which touched on the very same issues. So the issues of racism and distrust were very much on my mind as I headed for the elevator up from the Bethesda Metro platform that night.

I was alone on the elevator as the doors began to close, but then a young black guy (not wearing a hoodie, but still ...) got on the elevator with me. I had no time to even think about getting off, but I had already made up my mind not to fear a young black guy getting on a lonely elevator with me late at night. I didn't want to live in a world where a young black guy automatically frightens middle-aged white women. And I didn't want him to think we lived in that world, either.

So the dude stood near the front of the elevator, busy with whatever was on his phone, and kept his back to me. Forty-five seconds later, the door opened; he went off his way, and I went mine.

Everyone I told this story to at the time told me I should have gotten off the elevator when he got on. Sigh.

Then a few weeks ago, before going to a show at Shakespeare Theater (which is at the Gallery Place Metro), I killed some time by darting into the McDonald's at Verizon Center to have a quick bite. There was a hockey game that night, too, so the joint was jumping. There was a big group of young black dudes horsing around, not eating much, just there. They were very lively and enjoying themselves. I sat down in the section on the other side of the front door from them, and a (black) security guard came and stood right next to me, apparently blocking the kids' view of me.

I thought at first it was just because he wanted to be near the door. But later, a young black mother sat at my table (it was crowded, she asked if she could share). She and the security guard exchanged a word or two--the mother didn't feel safe at all with the black kids cutting up in the restaurant. The security guard shrugged his shoulders and said to the mother, "Well, she just sat down here."

Meaning me. Meaning, he came over to guard me because I was too stupid to know that I wasn't supposed to be there, that I wasn't safe.

I tried to reassure the mother that there was nothing to be afraid of--those kids were just "up" and enjoying themselves. They were ogling all the girls who came into the restaurant, calling them "dreamgirls" and what-not.

Anyway, for all of the lack of understanding that the security guard and the mother had about me, and all the lack of understanding that I had about that particular place and its citizens, I didn't want it to be about fear of otherness.

That's what freedom is all about, and if our Founding Fathers had known that, it might have happened for everyone a lot earlier.

Love, hosaa
Free

Three Men in a Book

... not to mention the boat, the dog, and an aggressively polite cat.

I fell a little behind in my recaps, what with work and life and all.

Step into the not-very-way-back machine to June 8: On the final day of the production, I got to see Synetic Theater's nifty little rendition of one of my favorite Wodehouse precursors, Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (subtitled To say nothing of the Dog!). As you can see from searching Amazon, there a few different editions of the 1889 classic; the one I have features a cover illustration by Alan Aldridge (who also seems to have designed the Hard Rock Cafe logo, among other achievements):

But I digress. Of course, the point of the story is digression. The narrator, "J," tells of the dire need he and his friends have to take a vacation from their hard working Victorian lives in the city. They take a boat trip on the Thames, a few days' adventure, the telling of which wouldn't normally last the 184 pages allowed in this Penguin edition with small type and narrow margins. So the narrator casts a line out and fishes in a number of tales from similar adventures in his and his friends' past experience.

It's a wonderful parlor story, told in a parlor; in the Synetic version (with a cast led by my favorite local farcemeister, Tom Story), the parlor furniture served amiably as boat and landscape, with a hint of the outdoors projected delicately onto a screen background. And when the story lay down for the night, the stage darkened under the glow of stars covering the entire audience.

My friend who is a Synetic subscriber and enthusiast was a little put off by all the dialogue of our three men and their dog. Synetic is known as the dance-and-movement company, and even Shakespeare's immortal text is lovingly elbowed aside for the alternative language of gesture. Why was Jerome's language so necessary when Shakespeare's could be abandoned?

It's probably because there wasn't much else to recommend the story itself. It's a series of amusing anecdotes without much in the way of higher passions and tragedies beyond the legends of the transporting of cheese, a prize fish caught by innumerable local fishermen, and of course the good dog Montmorency's encounter with a tom cat.

I was very happy that this latter anecdote was not excised from Synetic's production and that it was our Tom who enacted the part of the tom cat. Here is but a brief excerpt from the book:

I never saw a larger cat, nor a more disreputable-looking cat. It had lost half its tail, one of its ears, and a fairly appreciable proportion of its nose. It was a long, sinewy-looking animal. It had a calm, contended air about it.

Montmorency went for that poor cat at the rate of twenty miles an hour; but the cat did not hurry up--did not seem to have grasped the idea that its life was in danger. It trotted quietly on until its would-be assassin was within a yard of it, and then it turned round and sat down in the middle of the road, and looked at Montmorency with a gentle, inquiring expression that said:

"Yes! You want me?"

Montmorency does not lack pluck; but there was something about the look of that cat that might have chilled the heart of the boldest dog. He stopped abruptly, and looked back at Tom.

Neither spoke; but the conversation that one could imagine was clearly as follows:

The Cat: "Can I do anything for you?"

Montmorency: "No--no, thanks."

The Cat: "Don't you mind speaking, if you really want anything, you know."

Montmorency (backing down the High Street): "Oh, no--not at all--certainly--don't trouble. I--I am afraid I've made a mistake. I thought I knew you. Sorry I disturbed you."

The Cat: "Not at all--quite a pleasure. Sure you don't want anything, now?"

Montmorency (still backing): "Not at all, thanks--not at all--very kind of you. Good morning."

The Cat: "Good morning."

Then the cat rose, and continued his trot; and Montmorency, fitting what he calls his tail carefully into its groove, came back to us, and took up an unimportant position in the rear.

To this day, if you say the word "Cats!" to Montmorency, he will visibly shrink and look up piteously at you, as if to say:

"Please, don't."

Tom Story as Jerome (and the Cat); Alex Mills as Montmorency. Photo by Koko Lanham, ShowBizRadio.com

Sweet gallery of photos from this production by Koko Lanham at ShowBizRadio.com.

Slavery, Identity, Faith, and Redemption

I hadn't planned on seeing 12 Years a Slave, simply because I knew it would be tough to watch. However, since I had just finished reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, I wanted to see how the same subject matter was handled.

[NOTE: Spoilers within.]

Before I go any farther, let me defend the character of Uncle Tom. The name is now commonly used as a racial epithet, but upon reading the book I couldn't understand why. Tom was good, almost too good, and he did defy Simon Legree. He wasn't servile; he survived the situation he was in without compromising his principles. It was apparently after the original Uncle Tom's Cabin was published that subsequent depictions layered demeaning stereotypes onto the character.

Uncle Tom and Simon Legree, in c1885 illustration - via Wikipedia

Critics have said that Uncle Tom was too good, even "foolishly good," while other characters--notably women in the story, like Cassy--believed that being forced to sin would not count against them in the eyes of God.

Back to 12 Years: There were plenty of similarities to Uncle Tom's Cabin in construction and character. Free black man Solomon Northup, reassigned the identity of Platt after his kidnapping into slavery, is the parallel to Uncle Tom. The young girl Patsey is a combination of Emmeline and Cassy on the Legree plantation (with Alfre Woodard as Mistress Shaw playing another side of the "sin to survive" Cassy role), and the two principal slaveholders--merciful Ford and merciless Epps--correlate to Augustine St. Clare and Simon Legree respectively. The wife of Epps is a cross between St. Clare's self-centered wife Marie and Lady Macbeth.

12 Years a Slave movie poster via IMDb.

As it turns out, Stowe was indeed influenced by Northup's story, as told in the newspaper accounts preceding the publication of his book. Her last chapter, "Concluding Remarks," is full of nonspecific references to personal experiences and reliable accounts that authenticate her story and characters, even though they are fictional.

What I wanted to see in the movie was whether Northup made the same choice that Tom did when faced with the same dilemma: whether to abandon their goodness for the sake of survival. And if he did not, if he defied the "Legree" character, what was his motive?

The character of Little Eva does not exist in 12 Years, perhaps because she was an impossible fiction, useful for Stowe's moral message to her audience. Eva, the daughter of merciful slaveholder St. Clare, befriends not only Uncle Tom, but also the untouchable Topsy. Eva was the morsel of Christian perfection that helped to feed Tom's soul.

In his defiance of Legree, refusing to whip another slave, Tom drew on his religious faith that forbade him from doing this evil thing. I guess we can argue that this didn't really save him, since he is ultimately beaten to death. But in a sense, he was saved because of his faith in the glory that his soul was being delivered to. His goodness was uncompromised.

There was little in the way of a Christian redemption for Northup, but he was a good and honorable man. His situation was different from Tom's because he had been kidnapped from freedom and denied his true identity. Northup would remain good and moral as much as he could as long as he could keep hold of his identity and the hope that it would be restored to him.

As Northup is continually betrayed, he loses sight of this true identity: He unthinkingly joins other slaves singing the empty promises of the spiritual "Roll, Jordan, Roll." He breaks apart his violin, in which he had inscribed the names of his family. In a climactic scene, when he is lost in his slave identity, he does the unthinkably evil thing that Tom would not: When so ordered, he whips the slave Patsey. He just doesn't do it with enough gusto to satisfy Epps, and so is relieved from the immoral duty.

What little reference there is to Christianity in this film (and I can't speak to Northup's book, only this adaptation) is ironic and hollow. We hear the Sunday sermons that the more merciful slaveholder Ford delivers to his audience of slaves, but they are underscored first by the taunts of one of his overseers and then by the heartbroken wails of a woman forever separated from her children.

If I posit that, though lacking Tom's Christian faith, Northup was equally noble, what was his salvation? Alike in dignity but dissimilar in education and background, Northup held onto the truth of his identity and was, to his own self, true.

Funny Forum

What better remedy for the dreary November in one's soul than a farcical trip to the Roman Forum?

Catching up now with my excursion to the invited dress for Shakespeare Theatre Company's new production of the classical classic A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. In the Zero Mostel/Nathan Lane role of Pseudolus, we have Bruce Dow deftly maneuvering his girth and mirth with Jackie Gleasonesque ease.

Clearly Dow is the star to be promoted, but you know my eye is always going to seek out Tom Story in any production I attend locally (he'll be in a Round House production early next year). I should have paid more attention when the show was being put together and wormed my way into the meet-the-artists reception.

Tom Story with guest at Meet the Artists reception, Shakespeare Theatre Co. (via Facebook)

And of course Tom's performance as the high-strung ("I'm Calm") head-slave Hysterium (played by Jack Gilford in the Zero Mostel film) hit all the right points of giddy, goofy, poignant, overwrought wackiness. I just love him!

The revelation for me in this show was Lora Lee Gayer as the delightfully dim virgin Philia. She performed this role earlier this season at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY, alongside (coincidentally) Tom Deckman as Hysterium. (Playing my six degrees of Clay Aiken game: Tom Deckman played the Historian and Prince Herbert in Clay's Spamalot run, 2008-2009.)

Lora Lee Gayer as Philia, Bay Street Theatre (via LoraLeeGayer.com)

Lora Lee Gayer (via LoraLeeGayer.com)

Rehearsal at Shakespeare Theatre Company: Lora Lee Gayer (Philia), with Steve Vinovich (Senex). Via Facebook

I wish I had a picture showing Lora Lee's "I'm Lovely" pose--elbows out and the backs of her hands delicately cradling her cheek, with that perfectly deadpanned look of innocence. With a show that's otherwise overflowing with over-the-top performances, this oasis of utter simplicity (in every sense of the term) was probably the funniest part of the night. Stare and pose. I was roaring.

Lora Lee tweeted during the Sag Harbor run:

Lora Lee Gayer ‏@LLcoooolG
Nathan Lane came to see our production of "Funny Thing Happened.." It's like having Thomas Edison watch you screw in a light bulb.

I would guess Mr. Lane thought the performance well "screwed." *g*

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum

Shakespeare Theatre Company, Sidney Harman Hall, Washington, D.C.

Book: Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart

Music and lyrics: Stephen Sondheim

Director: Alan Paul

Cast:

Pseudolus, slave to Hero: Bruce Dow

Senex: Steve Vinovich

Domina, wife of Senex: Julie Johnson

Hysterium, slave to Senex and Domina: Tom Story

Hero, son of Senex, in love with Philia: Nick Verina

Philia, a virgin: Lora Lee Gayer

Marcus Lycus, buyer and seller of courtesans: Danny Tutigliano

Miles Gloriousus, a warrior: Edward Watts

Erronius, an old man in search of his kidnapped children: Harry Winter

Proteans: Matthew Bauman, Nick Flatto, Blakely Slaybaugh

Courtesans: Ashley Marinelli (Tintinabula), Chelsey Arce (Panacea), Ashley Blair Fitzgerald and Sarah Meahl (The Geminae), Lisa Karlin (Vibrata), Jennifer Frankel (Gymnasia)

Performed November 21, 2013 - January 5, 2014

eta 12-14-13: Thanks to STC's e-mail blast, we have a pic of Lora Lee as Philia, in her "I'm Lovely" pose:

hosaa starts practicing this in the mirror...

Writers Get Schooled

Would-be writers have a lot to learn about the realities of writing and publishing and getting read, and a lot of those lessons are up for interpretation, as documented in the Round House Theatre's production of Theresa Rebeck's Seminar.

This is the kind of play that should either be right up my alley or too in-your-face close to home and off-putting. While I certainly could relate to the writing and editing and hoping to be published aspects of the story, I personally lack the ambition that put the would-be writers into the room with their well-paid but dismissive and abusive tutor. At my point in my career, I could relate best to the tutor (hopefully I'm not that dismissive and abusive!), whose promising writing career had been thwarted and redirected to editing and tutoring.

Anyway, it was relatively easy for me to create the distance I needed from my parallelling life and enjoy the language, the actors' interactions, the rhythms, and all that make productions worth producing. It's an adult comedy, hitting many of the same notes as RHT's This earlier this season.

What I was looking forward to most was seeing three of my favorite local actors playing together: The adorably goofy Tom Story (as Douglas), of course, plus Marty Lodge (Leonard), who first captured my attention in the old RHT's round space as the ghetto hotel manager in Problem Child, and the breathtakingly versatile Katie deBuys (Kate), whose previous Shakespearean work (Henry V at Folger and Measure for Measure at STC) I have noted as chameleon-like. It was great to see more of her in a contemporary role.

Marty Lodge and Katie deBuys. Photo by Danisha Crosby for Round House Theatre 

(L-R): Laura C. Harris, Tom Story, Katie deBuys, Alexander Strain. Round House Theatre via Facebook

A play about writing that doesn't show much of the writing under review--just the characters' reactions to the writing and to each other's reactions--is naturally going to be (as my companion noted, without irony) talky. In the care of such good actors, though, the talk has its own musicality. As the cynical, misogynistic tutor, Marty Lodge tears down the student work in monologues that are positively Homerian.

I've also seen Alexander Strain (Martin) and Laura C. Harris (Izzy) in other productions--Strain was RHT's Asher Lev, for instance, and one of the highlights of Glengarry Glen Ross, and Harris was a delightfully feisty Marian in RHT's Young Robin Hood--so it was nice to see them shine in this tight ensemble.

Speaking of careers evolving from writing to something less glamorous (but no less honorable), I see Lloyd Rose, a former drama critic for the Washington Post, served as dramaturg for this production. She's apparently been doing this sort of thing for a while. I still don't know what dramaturgs do, but I think, like editors, they make other writers' writing better. Well done.

Seminar

Written by Theresa Rebeck

Directed by Jerry Whiddon

Round House Theatre, Bethesda, MD ~ February 5 – March 2, 2014

Cast

Leonard: Marty Lodge

Kate: Katie deBuys

Martin: Alexander Strain

Douglas: Tom Story

Izzy: Laura C. Harris

scenic designer: James Kronzer 

costume designer: Ivania Stack

lighting designer: Daniel MacLean Wagner 

original score/arrangements/sound design: Eric Shimelonis

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

The right stuff for a snowstorm binge

A recent pre-snowmageddon visit to the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum included the Imax 3D film about the Blue Angels and a planetarium show about asteroids, planetoids, comets, and the technology exploring them.

At the museum, I was most inspired by the films and banners paying tribute to women pioneers of air and space, from Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, and Jackie Cochran to Katherine Johnson, Sally Ride, and Amanda Lee (first female Blue Angel demonstration pilot).

Glamorous Glennis, Chuck Yeager's sound-barrier-breaking craft

All this inspired me to compile a playlist for the upcoming hibernation. I didn't realize I had so many air-and-space and problem-solving women DVDs in my collection, but there it is. 

• The Right Stuff, which is, as everyone should know, the best movie ever made. (Right, I'm just supposed to say whether I liked it, leaving out "good" or "bad." What do I know?) You think it's about competition: test pilots competing with each other, Americans competing with Soviets, astronauts competing with each other to be the leader of the group and/or the first to ride the rocket. But really, it's about relationships--among men and among women and among men and women. Anyway, as they all figured out, "we've got to stick together on this." The cooperative model wins.
• Hidden Figures, the story of the brilliant women working behind the scenes for NASA's missions, including Mercury (as in The Right Stuff) and Apollo (as in Apollo 13 and TV's Timeless episode on the attempted sabotage of the Moon landing).
• Apollo 13, which should have been a logical sequel to The Right Stuff, but for various reasons I was a bit disappointed. Great story telling (working the problem of a crippled craft), but the soundtrack full of angel choirs and soaring emotional crescendos annoys me. But: Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon. You know.
• Forever Young, just to jump back in time for more test pilot stuff, plus work toward future space missions via the cryogenics experiment that catapults Mel Gibson 50 years into the future. Also about relationships, Elijah Wood's need to replace his missing father, and some pretty good aerial cinematography. More, please!
• Deep Impact, launching us into a planet-rescuing space mission to thwart an extinction-level event--a comet discovered by Elijah Wood. Téa Leoni stars as an ambitious cable-news reporter who inadvertently discovers the meaning of E.L.E. Great cast in this film, led by Morgan Freeman as a pre-Barack Obama president and Robert Duvall as the aging astronaut bringing his real-world experience to bear on a younger crew trained on video games. (Competition, again, before cooperation takes over.)
• An Officer and a Gentleman, again a film about manly competition giving way to the cooperative/supportive leadership model. Great training sequences, including the female officer candidate struggling with physical inadequacy (vis-a-vis the males) but asserting her mental resilience. Really more of a relationship movie (men and men, women and women, men and women). The Cinderella ending bothered me for a long time, but it's iconic now and gets me every time.
• Top Gun, the original. I should include Top Gun: Maverick for the essential air-and-space training and relationship storytelling, but I don't happen to have it in my DVD library yet. Anyway, I only watch the original because the DVD has a commentary track featuring real flight instructors like my high-school classmate, Michael "Flex" Galpin. Mike's the one telling all the "that's accurate" or "that's not how it works" stories. I especially liked his description of one officer's home decor, which featured an "I love me" wall of photographs. 
• Contact, so let's get back to women as problem solvers dealing with male competitiveness. Jodie Foster discovers a message from another star system, and Tom Skerritt, whose character tried to thwart her SETI research, steals her thunder and takes her place on the mysterious transport through wormholes. Again, one of the best cast of actors among all these films, including Matthew McConaughey, James Wood, John Hurt, David Morse, Rob Lowe, and Angela Bassett.
• Courage Under Fire, and I don't care if everyone else thinks Meg Ryan was miscast as a helicopter pilot in the Gulf War. She pulled it off, and with an incredible array of male crew and castmates, notably Lou Diamond Phillips and Matt Damon. Her part of the story is told in flashbacks from different points of view, while the other part of the story is Denzel Washington's investigation of the incident that may or may not earn her a Medal of Honor. Scott Glenn, not incidentally, pitches in as a Washington Post reporter.
• Proof of Life, returning to the miscast (NOT!) Meg Ryan as a woman whose husband (David Morse) is kidnapped by narco-terrorists in a fictional South American country. She works with a specialist in the kidnap-and-ransom (K&R) business, trained in military intelligence, special ops, and hard-core military machismo. That would be Russell Crowe.

Technically, I could have ended my binge here, but it's still too cold outside. Besides, I noticed something about my playlist: a lot of crossovers in both the cast and characters. This made it essential for me to watch that Timeless episode featuring Katherine Johnson and Silence of the Lambs featuring Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn, Diane Baker, and Anthony Heald.

Here are some of the obvious cross-overs:

• The Right Stuff - Ed Harris (Apollo 13), Scott Glenn (Courage Under Fire, Silence of the Lambs), Pamela Reed (Proof of Life).
• Hidden Figures - Katherine Johnson (character, Timeless), John Glenn (character, The Right Stuff).
• Apollo 13 - Ed Harris (The Right Stuff), Gene Kranz (character, Timeless)
• Forever Young and Deep Impact - Elijah Wood.
• An Officer and a Gentleman - Taylor Hackford (director) and David Caruso (Proof of Life).
• Contact - Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs), David Morse (Proof of Life), Tom Skerritt (Top Gun).
• Courage Under Fire - Scott Glenn and Diane Baker (Silence of the Lambs), Meg Ryan (Proof of Life).
• Proof of Life - Meg Ryan (Courage Under Fire), Taylor Hackford and David Caruso (An Officer and a Gentleman), David Morse  (Contact), Pamela Reed (The Right Stuff), Anthony Heald (Silence of the Lambs).
• Silence of the Lambs - Jodie Foster (Contact), Scott Glenn (The Right Stuff and Courage Under Fire), Diane Baker (Courage Under Fire), Anthony Heald (Proof of Life).

Now I might go back to all my Jane Austen productions and other British dramas. Lots of cross-over casting there, notably with Downton Abbey.

Love, hosaa
hibernating

3D ready at A&S

Discovering ReDiscovery Readings

Sadly, it looks like The Laramie Project at Ford's is not the next event on my calendar, after all. Bad government, bad! Hoping to reschedule. It would have been a bitch to get there on Sunday anyway, since Metro will be doing track work in the middle of my route.

While waiting for the government to shut down this past Monday night, I got to head down to the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh venue for a staged reading of a play called Rutherford and Son. No, I never heard of it either. I'll confess that the main reason I wanted to go to this reading was because it was directed by Tom Story, one of my favorite local actors. I might have mentioned him a time or twelve.

I met up with one of my Shakespeare Reader friends, and we huddled in the frosty theater, down close but not too close. Front row is great for a Clay Aiken concert, but nowhere else do we want to be looking up the performers' noses or getting rained on by saliva-soaked soliloquies. Anyway, we sat and waited for the reading.

And waited. And waited. Well, Tom did a great job introducing all the actors, but then he brought out a scholarly prologue, which whipped us into a torpor. The scholar was clearly thrilled to be on stage, but preceded her speech with speeches describing what would be in the speech. She needed an editor.

I will say something of the actor's behavior during this sequence, though I didn't witness it myself: one of the actors on stage, behind the scholar's back, apparently was doing a bit of eye-rolling and watch-checking. Another audience member mentioned it during the intermission, declaring that behavior a "hoot." I would have found it rude, had I seen it.

If you're on a lecture panel with someone else, who is giving the speech of a lifetime (or several), there has to be a polite way of encouraging them to wrap things up for the sake of those who've come for the main event on a weeknight.

So anyway, we had the historical and cultural analysis of the play but no plot summary unless you were able to squint through the four dense paragraphs in the four-page program. I did not. But I did read a Wikipedia version of the story, which called to mind the relationships of the Child Trumps to the Donald, as seen during Celebrity Apprentice. Those kids clearly know where their bread is buttered; while the Rutherford sons and daughters also were aware of the patriarchal power wielded by the elder Rutherford, most of them survived by fleeing.

I really enjoyed hearing the stripped-down version of the play. I was surprised by how much acting the actors actually did, given that they only had five hours to rehearse. My friend said that it was like a radio play. (I will confess here, also, that the preliminary academic torpor, combined with the soothing effects of a nice stuffed flounder and a bright sauvignon, made it impossible to fully enjoy the first half. After intermission, with a drink and a pee, we're on to Act Three.... Twooo and a Half, my attention had been revived.)

So, squinting at the back of the program, I see:

Works for the ReDiscovery Series are chosen by Artistic Director Michael Kahn and presented by members of the artistic staff. Guest artists join actors from the Shakespeare Theatre Comapny and the Washington theatrical community to investigate these great but lesser-known plays of world literature.

The actors participating were:
Robert Hogan (Rutherford)
Fred Arsenault (John)
Gretchen Hall (Mary)
Eric Martin Brown (Richard)
Colleen Delany (Janet)
Catherine Flye (Aunt Anne)
Chris Genebach (Martin)
Jennifer Mendenhall (Mrs. Henderson, a fleeting but powerful presence)

There are three more TBD readings scheduled this season, so I hope to see them, too.

Love, hosaa
watching art get made

Books in review: A 2025 reading list

Expect my usual menu of Shakespeare, Dickens, and Austen (in celebration of Jane’s 250th birth anniversary this year). However, I thoroughly benefited by including a more diverse array of authors, again mixing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and what-not. (Was there any what-not? I think there was.) The list is largely chronological (by when I read them, not when they were written. Just to be clear).

1. James, Percival Everett (fiction). One of the best books I’ve ever read (a phrase I’m going to repeat ahead), for its perception, its inspiration, its truth. And I loved Huck Finn, which I will probably never re-read without r-reading James.
2. The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan (nature, art). A favorite storyteller expands her subject and her art. This was an Audubon magazine recommendation, and it’s a treasure.
3. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison (fiction). Another one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I can’t believe I’ve never read it before (a phrase I’m going to repeat ahead). I think back to being a little white girl, not especially privileged but certainly more so than Toni’s youngsters. I would hope I behaved better, but my hometown was what it was at that time.
4. Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York, Alexander Nemerov (biography, history, art). Helen is one of the artists introduced in Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel and is now one I always look for in my museum visits.
   
   
   
5. Fail-Safe, Eugene Harvey and Burdick Wheeler (fiction). A character-by-character approach into telling the story. It didn’t really work for me, but I guess that’s because I liked the movie better. Dr. Strangelove, that is.
6. Lincoln and the Indians, David A. Nichols (history, Civil War era). Historians don’t set out to villainize, but clearly there were a lot of bad guys running Indian affairs for the U.S. Nichols does seem to excuse Lincoln from full culpability, what with his country-saving war and his country-expanding railroad and all.
7. The Adventures of Curious George, Margret and H.A. Rey (children’s literature). It’s been on my “children’s” shelf a long time. The illustrations are a delight!
8. The Constitution of the United States and The Declaration of Independence (documents). A good time to catch up, I think.
   
   
   
9. Einstein: Decoding the Universe, Françoise Balibar (biography, science). You can’t write about Einstein without mentioning the science, but there’s a lot of social history in this (badly designed) little bio.
10. Fathers and Sons, Ivan Turgenev (fiction). One of my top four Russian novelists, telling a compelling story with some of the social turmoil of the time.
11. Ghetto Diary, Janusz Korczak (memoir). He saved children and went mad.
12. The Remains of the Day (re-read), Kazuo Ishiguro (fiction). The butler didn’t do it.
13. The Guns of August, Barbara Tuchman (history, World War I). A piece of history I’m not very familiar with. An archduke is shot and all hell breaks loose. The historian does not set out to establish villainy, but there are some pretty despicable dudes in this.
14. Winnie-the Pooh, A.A. Milne (children’s literature). Another one of those books I can’t believe I’ve never read. And the illustrations are delightful.
15. Man Ray (no author cited), Ediciones Polígrafa (biography, art). Man Ray (is that what friends called him? Or just “Man”? Or “Emmanuel”?) is one of my favorite artists, even when he was not doing Dada. I just think I get more out of art books looking at them than reading them.
    
    
    
16. Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels, Dierdre LeFaye (history, sociology). A good overview of the novels’ setting in Regency England. I just think I get more out of Jane Austen reading her than reading about her.
17. The Watsons, Jane Austen (fiction). I honestly don’t remember reading this.
18. Minor Works (selections), Jane Austen (fiction). The “juvenilia” included Jane’s brief history of English monarchs. She seemed to have no love for Queen Elizabeth I, sharpening her satirical sword on her head!
19. Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (fiction). One of the best books I’ve ever read, and I can’t believe I’ve never read it before. I was almost halfway through the story before I realized the narrator was nameless.
20. Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky (fiction). Apparently one of Ellison’s inspirations. As much as I’ve always loved Dostoevsky, I liked Ellison’s story better.
21. Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White (children’s literature). Another one I’d never read before. Life and death in a tale gentle enough for children to understand the realities of both.
22. King John (re-read) William Shakespeare (play). Read in preparation for seeing a performance. I still cry when little Arthur dies.
23. Wild Gratitude, Edward Hirsch (poetry). A fellow Grinnellian’s biography came out this year, but I thought I’d better read his poetry first. Lots of misty, rainy nights prompting reflections of life and love. 
    
    
    
    
24. What Jane Austen Ate & Charles Dickens Knew, Daniel Pool (social history, reference). Explanations of much that might baffle you while reading 19th century English novels (not just Austen and Dickens). Keep as a useful reference. (I always thought a “bob” was the same as a pound. No, it’s a shilling.)
25. Northanger Abbey (re-read), Jane Austen (fiction). Much funnier than I remembered! It would be hard to displace Pride and Prejudice from the top spot, but I now almost have a five-way tie for second place.
26. Bordering on Madness, Andrew Popper (fiction). I left this on my shelf too long thinking it was some of Andy’s legal writing. It’s actually a ripping-good novel with criminal types and types with criminal tendencies. And a lovely love story.
27. America’s Future: Poetry & Prose in Response to Tomorrow, Caroline Bock and Jona Colson, editors (anthology). It’s not futurism, except it includes my own essay, “Remembrance of Futures Past.”
28. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam [partial], Edward FitzGerald, translator (poetry). Just dipping into my ancient edition of Norton’s Anthology.
29. Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf (fiction). Another “I can’t believe I never read this before.” A day in the lives of Mrs. D and people in or around her circle. Why does this stream of consciousness work for me when I can’t get a page into Joyce or Proust? I guess I want to live in someone’s house or neighborhood and not entirely in their head.
30. 1984 (re-read), George Orwell (fiction?). It wasn’t a prediction. It was a warning. Then it became a playbook. 
    
    
    
31. Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann (history, 20th century Oklahoma). As we learned from Truman Capote, good journalism tells a cracking good story, and brings history to life better than most textbooks.
32. The Cider House Rules, John Irving (fiction). Like A Prayer for Owen Meany, this Irving book sat on my shelf for too many years. One of the best stories one could possibly read about abortion, and why many people consider its re-illegalization a crime against humanity.
33. Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard (play). Very absurdist in a Becketty way.
34. The Cricket On the Hearth, Charles Dickens (fiction). I couldn’t figure out why this is known as a Christmas story, except that it’s sort of fairy-tale-ish, life-affirming, and written for the public at Christmas time like the Carol. Anyway, it was free from the Gutenberg Project and I could read it in a day.
35. The Obama Portraits (no author cited), National Portrait Gallery (art and artists, the works of Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald). Captures a moment in time and what led to it. No such presidential portrait unveilings have succeeded these. And I don’t even want to look in that gallery right now (let alone the one in the White House).
36. Reflections of a Futurist, Bob Chernow (futurism). Duty reading to remember my former professional life. This English major did learn a lot from working with authors at The Futurist magazine.

In addition to the aforementioned essay I contributed to America’s Future, I got far enough in my DIY piano lessons (Great Courses edition) to write my own little 45-second waltz, Hosaa’s Magnolias: Waltz in C. I wouldn’t subject any readers to a recording of my own playing, but I did create a piece of sheet music by hand. I hope it’s playable.

Love, hosaa
wondering what to read or write next

Christmas Extension

Back from the penultimate performance of this year's round of A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre. Since the final performance starts in a little over an hour, I'm glad no one is looking to me for go/no-go advice. For the record, it would have been "GO!!" - it's a wonderful, life-affirming story, sprightly told.

Edward Gero as Scrooge, with James Konicek as 

Marley's Ghost (in the portrait).

Photo by Scott Suchman for Ford's Theatre 

Cast, A Christmas Carol. Photo by Scott Suchman

Hard to believe this was my first CC at Ford's, since they do it every year. I don't know whether the production or staging changes from year to year - I suspect so. But I really liked this one a lot. The "twist" I hadn't seen before in this CC telling was the use of multiple casting such that the debtors whom Scrooge terrorizes pre-Marley's-ghost turn up later as ghosts past, present, and future. This gives it that same dreamlike quality of "you look familiar..." that you get from the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion in Wizard of Oz.

Sometimes you just get lucky and find very pleasant seatmates. Had a nice convo with a couple in town to see all the shows they could - Les Miz at National, White Christmas at KenCen, and this. Discovered also that the seat I purchased for this (as well as for the remaining two shows in this Ford's season, Hello Dolly and Our Town) is probably the most perfectly perfect seat I've sat in yet at Ford's, where as I have said before there is no good seat in the house. (Still haven't topped that second-to-last-row in the balcony where I first saw Edward Duke....)

So I was happy even before the show started. The show began with the villagers wandering through the aisles of the theater introducing themselves. I love that. The balcony was decorated with the same Christmas decor as the set. And one of the cast members I recognized right away was that adorable Tom Story I'm well on the way to having a crush on. (His last hilarious turn was as one of the unsuitable suitors of the ingenue in Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare Theatre Company.)

The show was a wonderful tribute to the spirit we strive for, or at least we think we do, most of the time, when we're not all being Republicans and Democrats about this sort of thing. Humanity is our business, isn't it? So leave the decorations up awhile longer and let the season last at least as long after December 25 as it does before.

love,
hosaa,
spirit-visited