Tag: Asolo Repertory Theater

Tidy Tidbits: Asolo & Morland

JWF 1 Comment

BACKSTAGE AT ASOLO

We had the opportunity to take a backstage tour at the Asolo Repertory Theater’s Mertz Theater earlier this week and it was fascinating.  There was a tech rehearsal in progress (just what it sounds like, all the technical aspects of the production—lighting, sound, projection, etc.—run through), and we got a peek at the set for the upcoming musical, Josephine as well as having the chance to walk around on stage and in the wings.  We also toured the costume shop (could have spent the rest of the morning here!) and Cook Theater which is the home of the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training (what a mouthful, that is).

This three-year graduate program is one of the top ten in the U.S. and accepts only 12 students each year.  As part of their training, in addition to a season of plays at Asolo, they get six weeks of theater in London, the chance to make presentations in New York, and earn their MFA degree and an Equity card.  Impressive!  I really knew nothing about this program and wonder how many people in the area are similarly uninformed.  Next year, we’ll be sure to go to some of these student productions.  Kudos to Sarasota and to our tour host, Scott Guin.

JOSEPHINE

Josephine Baker was an American singer and dancer who became famous in Paris as a star performer at the Folies-Bergere during the 1930’s and 40’s.  A poor black woman from St. Louis, she was not welcomed or wanted in the white nightclub scene.  This is preview week for Josephine and we were there on the second night.  The production is an ambitious one for Asolo and both demanding and challenging for the technical team as well as the actors.  We enjoyed the show, as they say, but overall feel it will benefit from some more tweaking and tightening up as the week unfolds.  Less than two minutes into the opening scene, the fire alarm went off (probably due to stage smoke) and everyone, audience and actors, had to exit the theater for about 10 minutes.  I imagine this had an effect on the actors.

Despite everything I would recommend seeing it and wish that I could see it again in several weeks.  See it for the intricate sets and creative use of projection (newsreels, e.g.), see it for the stunningly gorgeous costumes and headdresses, see it for the four guys who have a heck of a lot of fun dancing, see it for Prince Gustaf of Sweden and the swan bed, see it to hear Deborah Cox as a multi-faceted Josephine.  Other standout performances were Lynette DuPree as the brassy, but savvy Bricktop, and Tori Bates, the simply amazing 11-year old who plays young Josephine and practically steals the show with her vigorous tapping and big voice.

 

IMG_8226

INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES THRIVING

“These are heady days for independent booksellers, whose ranks have grown to 1,712 bookstores operating in 2,227 locations in 2015, compared with 1,410 bookstores in 1,660 locations in 2010, according to the American Booksellers Association.  Even Amazon.com Inc. has opened a bookstore in Seattle and has a second planned for La Jolla, Calif.”  One bookstore featured in this Wall Street Journal article has reduced the size of the stock on its shelves, but added a print-on-demand device, Espresso Book Machine, which provides access to hundreds of thousands of titles.  (April 20, 2016, “How Tech is Bringing Readers Back into Bookstores,” by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg).

NOT QUITE BEACH FARE

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles is a prolific British novelist fascinated by history.  Over the past decade or so I’ve been reading my way systematically through her Morland Dynasty series.  Set mostly in Yorkshire, the first book, The Founding (published in 1980), opens in 1434 with a marriage that launches the dynasty and covers the period of the War of the Roses.  Each novel builds on the previous one and together they constitute a detailed lesson in British history—wars, social issues, governments and politicians, food and dress, all intertwined with the lives of successive generations of Morlands and their home at Morland Place.  The writing is straightforward and her characters are quite engaging, but sometimes the plots tend toward the formulaic.

To her credit, Harrod-Eagles has done extensive research and often you feel like you are part of the time being evoked.  I found the novels that dealt with the women’s suffrage movement especially absorbing.  Other times, I got bogged down in the specifics of yet another military battle.

I’ve now almost completed Book 33, The Dancing Years, set in 1919, which juxtaposes the club high life of the rich with the harsh realities of unemployment for others.  The series was popular from its inception and the scope kept being expanded partly because Harrod-Eagles covered shorter intervals of time in each book.  I read it was to continue up to WWII, but Book 35, the latest one, is set in 1931 so we’ll see.  She has also written a mystery series, several contemporary novels, and, most recently, a separate WWI series.

Header photo:  Mertz Theater (www.asolorep.org)

Tidy Times: Films & More

JWF 1 Comment

ENJOYABLE CINEMA

We ended the Sarasota Film Festival on a high note with two very good films, one a feature and the other a documentary from Argentina.

The Congressman.  Starring Treat Williams with George Hamilton, this feature-length film was written by former Long Island representative, Robert Mzarek.  Set in Maine, it’s an old-fashioned film with a straightforward plot about an embattled congressman who returns to his district and simultaneously deals with embittered residents there and a contretemps brewing back in DC.  There’s an overly ambitious aide, an attractive woman, and beautiful Monhegan Island.  Mr. Mzarek was at the screening and called it a “message film” and in the style of Frank Capra.  I predict success at the box office when it goes into distribution.

Our Last Tango.  Prepared to be seduced by dance.  This documentary about a very famous dance couple is both a celebration of the tango and a dissection of a partnership.  Argentinians Maria Nieves and Juan Copes were tango dance partners for more than 40 years.  He selected her and they were both professional partners and for a short time husband and wife (married in Las Vegas during their tour of the States).  In the film, she’s now 80 and he 83 and interviews with each of them separately are interspersed between clips of their tangoing.  She is alternately sparkling about her love of the dance and philosophical about being old and alone.  He, on the other hand, is taciturn and a man of fewer words, but still loving and living for the tango.

RELEVANT THEATER

Asolo Repertory Theatre continues to delight and entertain us.  We just saw “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”  The set with its view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the dining room window brought on a touch of nostalgia for our San Francisco years.  Although the play takes place in 1967, it still seemed relevant, and I credit the cast for achieving the right balance of humor and seriousness.  I saw the movie (starring Sidney Poitier as a surprising guest) when it first came out, but had forgotten how meaty some of the dialogue is—at least in this version.  Well worth seeing.

2016-04-14 11.11.40

COMPELLING NONFICTION

I’m currently about half way through Rebecca Traister’s new book, All the Single Ladies:  Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation.  It is informative and well-researched, as you would expect, but written in a very lively fashion with bits of humor along with Traister’s observations and anecdotes about her own life experiences.  As such, it’s a very pleasurable read and I recommend it!

I should add that while I don’t know Ms. Traister, I was predisposed to like this book since I’ve known both her parents.  Her father was a colleague in Penn’s libraries and her mother I knew at Lehigh University where she was an English professor.

 

 

 

 

Header photo:  Golden rain tree  (cJW Farrington)

Tidy Tidbits: Film & Theater

JWF Leave a comment

TIDY TIDBITS:  Film & Theater

This was a week when we gorged on culture, films especially.  The Sarasota Film Festival (SFF) is celebrating its 17th year, and over the course of ten days 270 films, a mix of documentaries and feature films, are screened.  We were late getting tickets, having been away, but still managed to see several noteworthy films.  Most of these are making the rounds of a number of film festivals, and at least some of them are set for commercial release in the next three to six months.  Here are my thoughts and my recommendations:

Dior and I.  An excellent film about the fashion industry and Raf Simons’ first couture collection for the House of Dior.  Featuring both passages from Christian Dior’s memoir and the suspenseful account of the creation of Simons’ collection,  this is documentary film making at its best.  If you ever wondered why haute couture is so dear, then seeing all the hand work involved here, you will understand.  The film was also the focus of a recent NY Times piece in their style magazine.  Not for fashionistas only.

For the Record.  A documentary about court stenographers and those who do closed captioning for TV shows and the like.  I really enjoyed this film.  My husband got bored and snoozed a bit.  There was the excitement of the competition to see who was the fastest transcriber, and one of the contestants was local, from Sarasota.  I think my librarian and linguistically-inclined friends would enjoy this one.

Blood, Sweat and Beer.  The subject of this film is the craft beer industry and it portrayed two start-ups, one in Ocean City, Maryland, whose owner was having a rough time due to a copyright infringement law suit, and the other in a very depressed former Pennsylvania steel town.  Two energetic recent college graduates took on the challenge of creating a brewery and pub in Braddock in the midst of abject poverty and neglect.  The film could have used more editing, but it gives you a sense of how pervasive the craft beer industry has become.

Wildlike.  A feature-length film set midst the gorgeous Alaskan scenery, this is the story of a teenage girl who is sent to stay with her uncle.  She has problems with his behavior and runs away and attaches herself to a middle aged backpacker who has recently lost his wife and is trying to find some peace and solace in Denali National Park. Sensitively done and worth viewing.

Paradise, FL.  Another feature film, this one shot in the Sarasota Bay area and hence of interest due to its local color.  It’s a depressing tale of drug addiction and family strife straining the friendship and loyalty between two young male fishermen.  Overly long and drawn out, it still held my interest.  It would be better with some judicious cutting.

Theater

Asolo Rep did it again with their marvelous production of Somerset Maugham’s Our Betters!  This was the equal of anything you’d see on Broadway and was both well cast and well staged.  Featuring four women, all of whom were part of the exodus of American heiresses to Britain to find titled husbands, it was funny, fabulous and thought provoking about the role of women.  This director chose to move the time of the play from 1917 to the 1920’s in order to have costumes that were more flowing and allowed the women characters greater freedom of movement.  An inspired decision!