Sunday, May 11, 2014 – Observations Along the Road

Mothers Day News Chum Stew

Posted onSunday, May 11, 2014Authorcahwyguy

Observation Stew You know you want to take your mother to dinner. But what will you talk about? Here’s a bunch of news chum stew items, accumulated over the last two weeks (I’ve been busy, what can I say) that might just do:

Size Matters. Here’s a great discussion topic for your mom… or for “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me”. A recent study has shown that, the larger your penis, the greater the likelihood that your wife will cheat on you. In particular, according to this study, every one inch longer penis increased the likelihood of women being involved in extra-marital partnership by almost one-and-half times. I think I’ll leave the subject at that and go on to the next subject…
Got Gas? Here’s some more useful information. Remember “Beans Beans They’re Good for the Heart”. Well, it turns out that lots of gas is a sign of a healthy biome in your gut. This reminds me of a joke from Jason Alexander. It seems there was this long married couple whose sex life was in the dumps (see item #1). The wife went to a sex counselor, who suggested they try 69. She came home and explained it to her husband. They got in bed and in the position…. and she ripped a good one. After the air had cleared, they tried it again… and she ripped another one. They were about to try it again when the husband said, “you think I’m going to do this 67 more times, you’re crazy”.
It’s the Place To Be. Yup, that Farm Living is the life for me. If this makes you think of Green Acres, you’re not along. There are plans for a Broadway stage play adaptation of the hicksville TV show originally starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor. The rights to the property were acquired by director Richard L. Bare, who was one of the most prolific helmers on the original series, and by producer Phillip Goldfine through his production company Hollywood Media Bridge.
Cramming It In. Sony is working on new technology that will cram 3,700 blue-rays into a single cassette tape. Actually, that’s a little misleading — we’re not talking here about a C-60 or a C-90, but a specially designed cartridge. Still, the technology is intriguing: a whopping 148 GB per square inch, meaning a cassette could hold 185 TB of data. Sony uses a vacuum-forming technique called sputter deposition to create a layer of magnetic crystals by shooting argon ions at a polymer film substrate. The crystals, measuring just 7.7 nanometers on average, pack together more densely than any other previous method. The result is that three Blu-Rays’ worth of data can fit on one square inch of Sony’s new wonder-tape.
A Touching Story. Here’s a very touching story about a late night encounter in a supermarket, told by Mark Evanier.
Anything But Starbucks. A touching obituary for Herman Hyman, founder of the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf chain. This chain, which roasts its beans in Ventura County, started in a small store on San Vicente Blvd in Brentwood in the 1970s. I think, in fact, that it started not far from my first condo.
Buildings Up, Buildings Down. Two interesting buildings in the news. First, the plans have been announced for the former furniture store space across from the Pasadena Playhouse. Should be an interesting project; it will be interesting to see how it changes the character of that area. In Las Vegas news, approval has been given to finally take down the Harmon. If you aren’t familiar with the Harmon, it is the oval blue-glass coated skyscraper next to the Aria and Vdara, across from Planet Hollywood and the Cosmopolitan. It was built wrong and is unstable, but they can’t implode it because it is too close to other stuff. They have to take it down piece by piece. Now if only they could do something with the Fountainbleau, which is an even bigger eyesore on the N end of the strip (where the Thunderbird once was).

Mothers Day Reflections

Posted onSunday, May 11, 2014Authorcahwyguy1 Comment

nancy userpic=young-me I tend not to think of my mother.

There are many reasons for this. My mother wasn’t your typical mother, at least later in my life when I most remember her. One of the first female CPAs in California, she was much more focused on clients and business than being nurturing. She also had her demons: misplaced blame for my brother’s death at age 18 (when I was 10) led her to abuse alcohol and prescribed medication (as well as cigarettes). She also liked to control people, which created significant chafing between us in my early college years. By my later college years, her abuses had led to problems that ultimately took her life.

And yet….

And yet, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve been doing more research into the family history. I’m beginning to see that she was a very different person when I was little, and that my brother’s death triggered a sea change in her personality that did her in, and created a long term alienation of affection from me. But I can also see that, had modern treatments for depression (and improved diagnosis approaches) been there in the early 1970s when this all started, things could have turned out very differently. I think this shows the importance of not living with depression, but getting it treated.

I’m also starting to see where I take after her, as opposed to my father. In many ways, I think the skills I use at work everyday come from my mother: the attention to detail, the sense of when some detail in intuitively wrong, and some of my facility with numbers. Alas, I didn’t inherit her sense for business — I’m more like my dad in that way, with no desire to be off on my own.

Still, it is useful to think about our mothers on this day. We all have them — its a biological requirement. Whether they are involved in our lives is up to us, yet even if they are not involved we cannot distance ourselves from them. We inherit — by nature or nuture — traits from both are parents. We have no choice in this matter. Understanding that is important.

Whatever the involvement of your mother in your life, and whatever your relationship to her, let’s thank her for at least bringing you into this world. Those of you have have had better relationships, and to the degree you’ve had better relationships, you are blessed. And to those of you with the thankless job of being mothers (at least from your children, who never seem to send a card), thank you. Your hard work is appreciated.

Some Things Never Change

Posted onSunday, May 11, 2014Authorcahwyguy

userpic=colony Today is Mothers Day. Some people honor their mothers. Some people cherish their mothers. Others just tolerate their mothers, and some have outright hatred for their mothers. However, in general, the normal loving family is, well, boring. You want interest, bring on the dysfunction. Bring on the obsessions. Bring on the hatreds. The entertainment industry knows this. When was the last time you saw a completely normal functional family on television? The Waltons, perhaps? Similarly, in the theatre, we like to watch dysfunctional families. They are at the heart of many of the best comedies (including quite a few we’ve seen recently, such as “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike“, “God of Carnage“, and many more. But the disfunctional family is nothing new. James Goldman‘s 1966 play, “The Lion in Winter” (currently at the Colony Theatre in Burbank) is about one such family.

“The Lion in Winter” tells the story of King Henry II and the Christmas Court in Chinon in 1183. Henry has released his queen, Eleanor of Aquataine, from her imprisonment for the holidays. The story focuses on the battle between Henry, Eleanor, and their three sons — Richard the Lionhearted, Geoffrey, and John — for who will be the next King of England. Henry wants John, a foolish young man to succeed him; Eleanor wants Richard, and Geoffrey… just wants to be noticed. Added into the mix is Alais, the King’s mistress and fiancee of Richard, and Philip, the young King of France, who wants the marriage to take place immediately. The play centers around all the sniping and intrigue that goes along with such succession battles — especially battles where each of the principals has a love/hate relationship with each of the other principals, and each has the rhetorical dagger at the ready to slash at those who are currently not favored.

This is a play whose story is loaded with humorous dialogue, fury, history, anger and betrayal… but ultimately leaves one with an empty feeling. Although the performances are glorious, one wonders at the end what growth has occurred in the characters. Henry certainly hasn’t grown — his feelings for Eleanor haven’t changed and she is going back to prison. He is more disillusioned in his sons than before, but still realizes that he will need to choose whichever is the lesser of the evils. The sons themselves haven’t changed from their stereotypes: Richard is still quick to make war; Geoffrey is still the schemer; and John is still the fool. Eleanor hasn’t changed: she still wants her son Richard on the throne, and is reconciled to a continual battle with Henry. Alais is still the mistress, but recognizes her role as pawn. Perhaps Philip is the only one who has matured. With no ultimate character growth, and no clear point to be made, this is 2½ hours of witty dialogue, signifying very little other than the chance for some great actors to have fun with the words.

Have fun they do. In the lead positions are two strong players, Ian Buchanan (FB) as Henry II and Mariette Hartley as Eleanor of Aquataine. These two come off as appropriately regal, and have an excellent way of using the nuance of phrasing to bring out the knives. Their sparring is fun to watch. This should be no surprise: Hartley is a master at witty repartee given the right foil, and Buchanan serves well in this stead.

The younger contingent are no slouches either. Henry and Eleanor’s sons are played by Brendan Ford (Richard), Doug Plaut (FB) (John), and Paul Turbiak (FB) (Geoffrey). Each portrays each brother with the broad brush required by the story: Richard as the brash warrior who thirsts to be king; John as the foolish young man who delights in teasing others that he is Henry’s chosen to be king; and Geoffrey as the schemer behind the scenes who really just wants to be noticed for his talents. They are all played well. As Alais, Justine Hartley (FB) (Mariette’s daughter) plays well off of Buchanan and her mother; her interactions with the others are more limited. Perhaps the most interesting portrayal is Paul David Story as Philip. Story captures the young French king well — initially seeming naive in his youth, but hiding quite a bit of inner strength that comes out later in the story.

In non-speaking roles are Desa Julia Ilic (FB), Shannon O’Hara/FB, and Nick Vogels/FB as the castle servants. It was a surprise and delight to see Shannon on the stage — we’ve known her for quite a few years. Shannon is the younger sister of one of our daughter’s good friends. She’s currently at LACHSA, and it was just wonderful to see her on the stage. We waited afterwards to talk to her — the director was one of her high school teachers and chose her for this production, and she’s earning points towards an equity card from this. This is one of the benefits of Colony and how they treat their actors, and we’re glad that Shannon is getting this career boost.

The production was directed by Stephanie Vlahos, who kept the story moving alone. As I’ve said many times, in a good production it is difficult to see where the direction ends and the actor begins; that was the case here.

The scenic design by David Potts was a suitably drafty and old castle, with the requisite tapestries to hide behind, the stone blocks, the candles, and such. Costume design was by Kate Bergh and seemed appropriate for the character; whether they were appropriate for the period was harder to judge, but hey, this is theatre. Jared A. Sayeg (FB) did the lighting with the usual high quality, and Drew Dalzell (FB)’s sound design provided the appropriate sound effects and music. Properties were by John McElveney (FB). Dale Alan Cooke (FB) was the stage manager.

“The Lion in Winter” plays for one more weekend (i.e., until May 18). It’s a fun show if you like to watch dysfunctional families in history. Tickets are available through the Colony Box Office; discount tickets may be available through Goldstar or LA Stage Tix. The Colony Theatre is also having a Costume and Prop Sale the weekend of May 30; this also includes some signed posters by Ray Bradbury for The Martian Chronicles. The Colony Theatre has also announced the 2014-2015 season. The season consists of 5 shows: (♦) “Family Planning” by Michelle Kholos Brooks (July 12-August 10, 2014), a comedy about putting a lot of relatives in the same space (stated as a World Premiere, although it was done by PRT in 2012); (♦) “What I Learned in Paris” by Pearl Cleage, a comedy about lovers in Atlanta in 1973 (West Coast Premiere); (♦) “Handle With Care” by Jason Odell Williams, a story about “love, fate, and the importance of GPS-enabled tracking devices” (West Coast Premiere); (♦) “The Road to Appomattox” by Catherine Bush, a drama about Lee’s final retreat to Appomattox (West Coast Premiere), and “Words by: Ira Gershwin & The Great American Songbook” by Joseph Vass (lyrics by Ira Gershwin, Music by Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Jerome Kern, Kurt Weill, and George Gershwin), a jukebox musical about Ira Gershwin (Los Angeles Premiere). Subscription prices run around $175 for the set of shows (at least for where we sit on a Saturday night). Subscription information for the season is here.

[Ob. Disclaimer: I am not a trained theatre critic; I am, however, a regular theatre audience. I’ve been attending live theatre in Los Angeles since 1972; I’ve been writing up my thoughts on theatre (and the shows I see) since 2004. I do not have theatre training (I’m a computer security specialist), but have learned a lot about theatre over my many years of attending theatre and talking to talented professionals. I pay for all my tickets unless otherwise noted. I believe in telling you about the shows I see to help you form your opinion; it is up to you to determine the weight you give my writeups.]

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts: Next weekend brings both “Porgy and Bess” at the Ahmanson and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” at REP East (FB). The next weekend brings the musical “Lil Abner” at LA City College (directed by Bruce Kimmel, with choreography by Kay Cole). The last weekend of May is currently unscheduled: Karen is helping Erin move, and there’s not that much calling to me from Goldstar. June is busy. It starts with a CDF Conference for Karen while I see “The Fantastiks” at Good People Theatre (FB). We lose the following weekend to a Bat Mitzvah. The remainder of the month brings “Stoneface: The Rise and Fall of Buster Keaton” at the Pasadena Playhouse (FB) on June 22, and “I’m Not Just a Comic Genius” at Secret Rose (FB) on June 27. July will be busy: “Ghost” at the Pantages (FB) on 7/5, “Return to the Forbidden Planet” at REP East (FB) the weekend of 7/12, “Once” at the Pantages (FB) on 7/19, “Bye Bye Birdie” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) on 7/26, and “Family Planning” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on 8/2. August then remains quiet as we work around vacations and such, but things start to get busy again in September and October. More on that later. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.

Can’t Stop These Kids

Posted onSunday, May 11, 2014Sunday, May 11, 2014Authorcahwyguy

Hairspray (Nobel Charter Middle School) userpic=nobel Yesterday was a double theatre day. The first show was at one of our favorite amateur venues: Nobel Charter Middle School. Our daughter went to Nobel; she was involved with their theatre arts program from the beginning of its revitalization about 7 years ago. Since then, we’ve seen this program grow and grow, improving sets, lights, sound. The Spring 2014 production of “Hairspray” was one of their most astounding productions to date. Although not perfect (after all, these are middle school students at a school not dedicated to theatre), the potential talent here was a delight to see.

For those unfamiliar with the story, the musical Hairspray is based on the John Waters film of 1988. The story concerns a “hefty” teenager in Baltimore MD in the early 1960s. Not a stellar student, she lives to dance on the Corny Collins TV show (think “American Bandstand”). She also has no problem with integration, and works to integrate the show… which causes a furor in 1962 Baltimore. This non-musical movie was made into a musical stage production in 2002, with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan. That production won many Tony awards, and was remade as a movie musical in 2007. You can find the full synopsis here, if by some chance you haven’t seen one of those incarnations. When I first saw the production in 2004 at the Pantages, I thought that this musical would have a long life on the amateur stage (high school). It appears I was right — this month alone there are numerous productions in Los Angeles (in addition to Nobel, the LA Weekly had an ad for a Venice HS production next weekend).

Watching the musical on the Nobel stage, one of the things that struck me were the changes that were made. Part of these changes were due to the fact that Nobel licensed the “Junior” version, which tones down a lot of the sexual innuendo and implications for a more “pure” middle/high-school audience. Examples of these changes were the reworking of lines like “they padded their cups, but I screwed the judges”. Some songs were removed (such as “Big, Blonde, and Beautiful”), and others were either shortened or reworked slightly. These changes I can understand, although the purest in me chafes a bit (and believes that, at least in Los Angeles, the students would understand all of what was cut — perhaps this is more to protect the parent’s impression of their students). The other change was a bit more interesting. During the opening, I noticed they changed “negro days” to “ethnic days”. When I inquired about this change, I discovered that it was made because the program didn’t have enough African-Americans to fill all of those roles. This was discussed in the class, which decided to make the change to “ethnic” (the other word debated was “minority”). I found this a telling observation on LA Unified, as well an interesting teaching opportunity. For those unfamiliar with LA Unified’s history, in the 1970s busing divided the district. There was much white-flight to the valley, who objected to inner-city students being bused to their lily-white districts. Those of us who lived through the era remember the fights that ensured. [As an important aside, I’ll note that the fights were not over Hispanics attending the schools; “inner-city” was a euphemism for blacks]. Magnet schools were created not as an educational quality mechanism, but an integration mechanism: supposedly the programs would be so good they would act as “magnets” to draw minorities voluntarily to the valley, and to draw whites to the inner city. It is a telling reflection of both the effectiveness of magnets, and the changing demographics of Los Angeles and its population, that the Nobel program had to change to “ethnic”. The second aspect of this was the fact that the historical fights in Baltimore were not over mixed “ethnic” dancing, but specifically black/white dancing. Although there are shows where color-blind casting can work (I’ve heard tell of it being done for “Once on This Island“), there are others where it just breaks the story. I hadn’t realized when I first saw it that “Hairspray” was one of those shows. I shudder to think how this show is tackled in the states on the great plains. Interesting thoughts (and probably ones the rest of the audience didn’t notice).

Janelle Miller. Link from Benjamin Timor's public Facebook album As I wrote earlier, the performances in this show were just astounding. Most astounding was the lead, a young lady named Janelle Miller, as Tracy Turnblad. For someone so young, she had a powerhouse voice and handled her songs with ease, grace, and fun. She also gave a strong dramatic performance, and seemed to be having a wonderful time with the character. You knew this young lady was great from her first unhesitating notes of “Good Morning, Baltimore”. I hope this young lady goes far in all her endeavors — she has loads of talent.

The rest of the leads weren’t shlumps either. Another strong performer was Alana Gardett DuPre as Little Inez Subbs, who also demonstrated a great singing voice in her numbers, as well as a great performance presence. Also giving great performances were Matthew Bacon as Link Larkin, Andrzej Krassner-Cybulski as Seaweed Stubbs, Harry Harutyunyan as Wilbur Turnblad, and Morgan Knight as Edna Turnblad. All were very good in their musical numbers, and inhabited their characters quite well. Bacon had a nicely suave performance as Link and handled numbers like “It Takes Two” quite well; similarly Krassner-Cybulski’s handled Seaweed’s number (“Without Love”) well. The Turnblads (Harutyunyan and Knight) did a spectacular job with “(You’re) Timeless to Me”. I do need to make a comment regarding Edna Turnblad, however, completely unrelated to Ms. Knight’s performance (which was great). The traditional casting for Edna is as a man playing a woman, echoing the original casting of Divine in the role (Harvey Fierstein in the stage musical). Casting a woman in the part breaks a number of jokes in the songs, which play up Edna’s non-traditional size and non-traditional looks. It was interesting to see how the effect changed with a lady in the role.

Continuing with the leads who gave good performances: Rounding out the lead positions were Claire Frankland (Penny Pingleton), Emily Alexander (Amber Von Tussle), Rebecca Radvinsky (Velma Von Tussle), Justin Tuell (Corny Collins), and Jasmine Moore (Motormouth Mabel). All of these young men and women played their characters well and acquitted themselves well in their musical numbers.

Of the remaining large cast, there are a few additional performances I would like to highlight. The three Dynamites, Aaminah Babatunde-Bey (Judine), Alishia Maghreiva (Kamilah) and Joann Gilliam (Shayna) gave a very strong musical performance; whichever of them did the primary vocal on “I Know Where I’ve Been” was astounding. As the matron, Rose Meyers was a bit hesitant at first, but hit the final notes of “The Big Dollhouse” with surprising power and clarity. Lastly, Frenchy Wane was fun to watch for the enthusiastic way she attacked the role of the gym teacher.

Rounding out the large cast were: Jennifer Sarkisian (Prudy Pingleton); the Council members: Max Chester (Brad), Rachel Khoury (Tammy), Braden Harness (Fender), Kamryn Siler (Brenda), Jason Foster (Sketch), Charlotte Doolittle (Shelly), Ryan Wynott (IQ), Leanne Langston / Taylor “Cookie” Carlson [Sat. Matinee] (Luanne); the studio crew: Troy Richman (Orville), Brendon Harrington (Cobbs), Jacob Lipman (Nibblet); Emilio “Bongo” Godinez (Newscaster/Principal); Eli Leyberman (Mr. Pinky), Emma Cassella and Talia Ballew (Mr. Pinky’s assistants, Violet and Rosie); Brett Jariabek (Prison Guard); the detention students: Michelle Villalobos (Beatnik Chick), Kennaya Ndu (Lorraine), Jessie “The Rock” Pacheco (Gilbert), Fernanda Lopez (Cindy Watkins), David Gomez (Thad), Shawn Wadhwani (Duane), Spencer Goldman (Stooie), Juliana Barba (Tamika), Devine Moore (Dominique), and Marena Wisa-Wasef (Tanya); and the citizens of Baltimore/high school students: Nancy Turmell (Wendy), Leila Musleh (Tina), Gigi Mkchyan (Nicki), Emily Borses (Katie), Jake Dalton (Danny), Sammy Wane (Jeannie), Anthony Sottile (Johnnie), Taylor Carlson (Cookie), Willow Islas (Carrie), Hannah Protiva (Fancy), Robert Cerda (Barrrry), and Brandon Moser (Denny).

Choreography was by Carolyn Doherty, assisted by Madison Tilner (9th grade) and Ryan Wynott (8th grade), with Harry Harutyunyan, and Leanne Langston as Dance Captains. The dancing was quite good, considering that most of these kids are probably not skilled dancers. Daniel Bellusci (12th grade) as music director, assisted by Iona Della Torre. The music was prerecorded and likely supplied by MTI.

Turning to the technical side: every Nobel production improves upon the previous ones in these areas. From the early days of simple sets and backdrops, just a few lights on overloaded extension cords, and barely audible sound, yesterdays productions was 1000 times better. Professional quality sets were designed by Dennis Kull and constructed by Huan “Papa” Chu, Barrrrrry Borses, and Roman Jariabeck, with significant period props that Nobel has never had before. Artur Cybulski‘s lighting design was spectacular, and I thought I saw a few new LED lights on the stage. This, folks, is where your donation dollars go, so donate if you can. The sound was the best of any Nobel production to date — credit should go to Isaijah Johnson (9th grade) and his sound crew who miked the performers well, tuned the auditorium, and ensured there was no difficulty in hearing people. The costumes by the Nobel Drama Mamas seemed appropriately period.

A special call-out to the folks who did publicity on this one: the poster (designed by Michelle Franks) was one of the best ones yet, providing performance dates, prices, and addresses. Katelyn Bauer also made a wonderful promotional video (follow the link — it really is good). This was the first show that Nobel had formal tickets and prices. This is a good thing, but may have impacted donations. I suggest, for the future, that they raise prices (Venice HS was charging $10 at the door, and Van Nuys has charged $10 in the past, and I think this performance was better than any HS performances), and consider a higher price yet for better seating. To address the fears for the parents of students that cannot afford, vouchers for a discounted “parent price” could be provided. Those who can should consider writing a check to this program — contact Fanny Araña for a donation address or mail a check to the school to her attention.

The production was produced by Fanny Araña and directed by Jean Martellaro (assisted by Harry Harutyunyan (8th grade)). Fanny and Jean have been the cornerstone of this program since its inception. They have inspired hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students with their energy and enthusiasm. They are examples of what teachers should be.

Alas, the last performance of “Hairspray” was last evening. Keep an eye on Nobel Middle School for an announcement of their Fall 2014 production.

Upcoming Theatre and Concerts: Following “Hairspray“, we went to Burbank to see “The Lion in Winter” at The Colony Theatre (FB). That write-up will be posted shortly. Next weekend brings both “Porgy and Bess” at the Ahmanson and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” at REP East (FB). The next weekend brings the musical “Lil Abner” at LA City College (directed by Bruce Kimmel, with choreography by Kay Cole). The last weekend of May is currently unscheduled: Karen is helping Erin move, and there’s not that much calling to me from Goldstar. June is busy. It starts with a CDF Conference for Karen while I see “The Fantastiks” at Good People Theatre (FB). We lose the following weekend to a Bat Mitzvah. The remainder of the month brings “Stoneface: The Rise and Fall of Buster Keaton” at the Pasadena Playhouse (FB) on June 22, and “I’m Not Just a Comic Genius” at Secret Rose (FB) on June 27. July will be busy: “Ghost” at the Pantages (FB) on 7/5, “Return to the Forbidden Planet” at REP East (FB) the weekend of 7/12, “Once” at the Pantages (FB) on 7/19, “Bye Bye Birdie” at Cabrillo Music Theatre (FB) on 7/26, and “Family Planning” at The Colony Theatre (FB) on 8/2. August then remains quiet as we work around vacations and such, but things start to get busy again in September and October. More on that later. As always, I’m keeping my eyes open for interesting productions mentioned on sites such as Bitter-Lemons, and Musicals in LA, as well as productions I see on Goldstar, LA Stage Tix, Plays411.