Charlotte's Web to Kick Off Season at Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis

Quote of the Day:  It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

Photo by Dan Norman featuring Emma Thvedt as Fern

Above is one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite stories. I'm so excited that The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis is bringing Charlotte's Web to their stage, Sept. 17-Oct. 27, 2013.

Charlotte’s Web

By Joseph Robinette

Based on the Book by E.B. White

Directed by Greg Banks

UnitedHealth Group Stage

September 17 – October 27

Recommended for grades K+

Phone: 612.874.0400

Click on the website above to read more about the show and the cast and crew. I want to put the word out early that this show will be offered in the Minneapolis area, a fine show, indeed. "Terrific, terrific, terrific," as the Goose says. I might even have a few tickets to give away. Check back later!

Continue to support the arts wherever you live, take a new class, attend a concert, play, or art show, and watch how it opens your own creative corridors.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Who are some of your favorite storybook characters?

Review of Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul at The Ordway in St. Paul, MN

Quote of the Day:  Tonight we're going to turn The Ordway into an Irish pub! Eileen Ivers, performance on March 17, 2013 at The Ordway Performing Arts Center in St. Paul, MN. I felt like I was at an Irish wedding dance. Your heart sings. Your feet tap. Little kids run down to the dance floor in front of the stage. The melodies, both haunting and exciting, course through your veins.

Eileen Ivers, promo photo from her website. Photo by Luke Ratray

 

The daughter of Irish immigrants, Eileen Ivers grew up in the culturally diverse neighborhood of the Bronx, New York. Rooted in Irish traditional music since the age of eight, Eileen proceeded to win nine All-Ireland fiddle championships, a tenth on tenor banjo and over 30 championship medals, making her one of the most awarded persons ever to compete in these prestigious competitions.

Being an Irish-American, the intrigue of learning more about the multicultural sounds of her childhood took hold. After graduating magna cum laude in Mathematics from Iona College and while continuing her post-graduate work in Mathematics, Eileen fully immersed herself in the different genres of music which she experienced growing up in New York. Perhaps it was the mathematical mind coupled with her passion for seeking parallels in certain traditional music styles which contributed to what has become the signature sound featured in much of Eileen's recordings since the late 1980's.

(from Eileen Ivers' website)

 

What a great way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day to be filled with the exhilarating music of Eileen Ivers, her fiddle, and her fabulous band! You can't sit still while listening to this music. Your heart beats a little faster and you have to at least tap a toe. I envied the kiddos who jumped up and dragged their friends and grandparents to the dance floor. Some of those young lads and lasses could really dance a jig and had all the fancy footwork. I'll admit, I was a little intimidated. When I pop on the CD at home, though, I wiggle a little and practice the moves I saw!

 

Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul Band, photo by Luke Ratray

 

You can "Youtube" anything these days. Listen to as much recorded music as you like, but nothing, NOTHING, replaces the experience of live music. The energy in the room was intoxicating. Eileen Ivers and her band really did turn The Ordway into an Irish pub. By the end of the show, the dance floor was filled and overflowing up the aisles and into the balcony. What a rush. What an awesome experience. What an energizing way to celebrate being Irish (anyone can feel a bit Irish on March 17), and cultures beyond the seas and right here at home.

 

Thank you, Ordway, for inviting Eileen Ivers and her band and all of us to have a night filled with festive fun! Check out Eileen Ivers' schedule on her website. I hope she's coming to your neighborhood. You won't want to miss out on this party!!!

 

Go to The Ordway for info on upcoming music, dances, and shows. They have a great line-up yet this year, and next year's schedule looks amazing. I'm particularly excited to see Miss Saigon this fall, 2013.

 

Go. Create. Inspire!

 

Journaling Prompt: What is your family's heritage? How do you celebrate your own culture and other cultures in your neighborhood?

 

Robert Robinson & Tim Frantzich Create Heaven on a Saturday Night

Quote of the Day:  We all have a job to do here. We can make a choice and work together to build a golden city. paraphrase from Robert Robinson from his concert in the Brainerd lakes area...Heaven on a Saturday Night, May 5, 2012.

It was a moment of Transformation.

Robert Robinson, Timothy Frantzich, David Ballman

I sat up front, just feet away from the most powerful, soulful, gospel voice on the planet. The piano was an arm's length from me. I could see the subtle tick of facial expression as well as the wide open exaltation. Brother Timothy, Robert Robinson, David Ballman, and pianist David Billingsly created Heaven on a Saturday Night. There in the old, stone church in North Brainerd, I felt a transformation. This was not the kind of concert that we rural Minnesotans of northern European descent are used to. Uhn-ah, no, ma'am. No one was sitting straight and still with hands in their laps. These folks rocked the house. Their music, encouraged by our response, brought everyone to a higher plane. We were on our feet. We were clappin' and wigglin' our hips and tappin' more than toes and huggin' our neighbor. At one point, Robert challenged us to be a gospel choir. He said, "Let's raise it one step higher and make you a Black Gospel Choir."  He said that he'd never heard of people just stopping once they get into a song. You finally get'em going, and then they're done? No. You gotta keep singing.

Okay, I might look a little drunk here as I'm singin' & clappin' & movin'. It's not alcohol, folks. I'm intoxicated by the music, the moment, and the energy.

We were rockin' the house, way up here in Brainerd, Minnesota, at the United Church of Christ. The performers encouraged us to sing along, to move something in response. (Who could sit still?)

David Billingsly at the piano.

I watched in awe as David accompanied Robert Robinson. He'd often have his eyes glued to the singer. Robert sings from a deep well inside of him. I can imagine it's never the same song twice. David is vigilant, ready with his talented fingers to bring the song along, to give us waterfalls of transformation, to lift up Robert in places, and then have his moments to shine. It was a joy to watch him perform.

He seemed so comfortable there. Sometimes he'd lean forward, scrunch up one eye, listen intently to Robert, then take it away.

Fingers on the piano.

A touch of magic.

David said that tonight, at our concert, Robert went places he'd never heard him go before. He had his transformation. Brother Timothy said that when all three voices hit a chord in a song, he felt the transformation. I'm telling you, folks, you aren't living if you don't attend live performances. There is no substitute, and the feeling stays with you forever. It lifts you up. It transforms you beyond time and circumstance, and it gives you the energy to "build a golden city."

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  What inspires you to build a golden city?

Thank you, Joey Halvorson, for taking so many wonderful pictures and capturing the moment. She has more on her facebook page, and I told her she could subtitle the album, The Body Language of Music. mmm. hmmm.

Review of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy at Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis

Quote of the Day: 

“It’s what I always write about — what it is that makes a child move from childhood to adulthood. It’s when a child starts to say, ‘This is my decision. I make this call.’ It’s the message a child has to get — that there’s a moment when you have to become your own person.” Gary D. Schmidt, author of the Newbery Honor book Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy

The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis has brought this story to life through the creative direction of Peter C. Brosius, playwright Cheryl L. West, and an outstanding cast and crew.

(Pictures provided by the Children's Theatre Company, by Dan Norman)

Above all this is a story about friendship and finding your own way in this world. Who hasn't felt left out at one time or another, that you didn't quite fit in? Maybe you were new to a community like Turner is in this story. Maybe you're not the of the "proper" background or cultural heritage. Maybe you've lived somewhere all your life, but never quite felt like you belonged because you didn't go along with how people seemed to behave towards one another.

It takes a great deal of courage to be a stand out in a community that enforces conformity and pushes away certain types of people. The playwright, Cheryl L. West, gives voice to that bold personality. Turner and Lizzie are talking with her grandpa, the Reverend Griffin. She is responding to the announcement that all the inhabitants of Malaga Island must leave, find somewhere else to live. Lizzie questions Turner by saying, "Why are your people so mean?" The Reverend Griffin steps in and says, "Turner is his own people. He's not responsible for the meanness and actions of those around him." (This is a close paraphrase, I hope. I don't have the text in front of me.)

The story of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy shows us how important it is to come to a place in our lives where we don't care about being accepted by the mean and domineering, but to be our own person, to stand up for a friend, to do good whenever and wherever possible, and to believe that we can make a difference.

What happened on Malaga Island in 1912 was senseless and cruel. It was spurred by greed and racial prejudice. The author Gary D. Schmidt brought this dark piece of history to light through his novel. He gave an otherwise unknown girl a story, a friend, and a spirit that lives on past the destruction of her home and culture.

I checked out the audiobook from our local library and shared it with Ben and Matt, who are 12 and 10. They accompanied me and their mom Krista to the show. At intermission they looked at each other and said, "This is even better than the book." They told their grandparents that it was amazing and that they should go see it. Of course, I wanted the ending to be different, as I do when I watch Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music, and The Diary of Anne Frank. But, you can't rewrite history. All you can do is make a difference in the present and a positive influence on the future.

Although I know that Traci Allen, who plays Lizzie, is an adult, I was thoroughly convinced that she was a spirited 13-year-old girl who embraced both life and death, believing that is how you truly live. She helped Turner deal with loss in his own life. When she sang Shall We Gather at the River and My Lord, What a Morning, I got tears in my eyes. When the true devastation of this culture was revealed, I wept.

Writers and artist, keep sharing stories, painting pictures, and making music. Bring light to the darkness and hope to the hurting. We do make a difference.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy is playing at the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis through April 8. Be part of this debut audience and help the story live on. CTC is running a special on tickets purchased on Sunday, as well as group rates and school discounts. Click above to go to their website. They also have a study guide and additional information on their website.

Journaling Prompt:  Have you ever been moved to tears by a performance, book, music, or work of art? Write about it and share it with someone.

Review of "Hay Fever" at the Guthrie

Quote of the Day:  We all play off of mother. It's one of our unwritten rules." Sorel Bliss in Hay Fever by Noel Coward

Cat Walleck as Sorel Bliss, Harriet Harris as Judith Bliss and John Catron as Sandy Tyrell. Photo by MICHAEL BROSILOW from the Guthrie facebook page.  Like the Guthrie on facebook for current shows, what's coming, and ticket specials.

When the character, Judith Bliss, makes her entrance in Hay Fever, the entire Wurtele thrust theatre is filled with her grand presence and self-absorbed wit. It was a delight to watch Harriet Harris live on stage. She has great comedic timing and delivery. We recognized her from her role on the tv show Frazier as Frasier's conniving agent Bebe Glazer. Her portrayal of Judith Bliss, an actress who never stops being dramatic, was outrageous. Her body, her actions, her facial expressions all made this character and play a highly entertaining event.

The Bliss family have a lovely country cottage where they go to retreat and indulge in their own forms of art. One weekend, they have all invited a special guest, without consulting with other members of the family, and they're all a little put out that the other might trump them in who will be most entertaining. As each guest arrives, the tension in the cottage increases. These skilled actors do a marvelous job of creating the uncomfortable feeling of sitting in a room with someone you've just met, wondering where your host might be in the recesses of the house, and thinking, as the character Jackie says, "I wish I'd never come."

The family members argue about who will sleep in the "Japanese Room" and turn a word game into a major family meltdown. Couples pair up, split up, and join up with a different guest, and mother/actress Judith pushes them all over the edge with her extreme reaction to every comment, action, and tryst.

We sat up in the balcony for this show, and I felt like I was looking down into a doll's house, with the roof removed, as the figures moved in and out of rooms and relationships, moods, and costumes. (Btw, the ladies' evening gowns were just as gorgeous from the back as they are from the front, flowing and intricate, a delight to the eye from every angle of the thrust stage.)

Hay Fever has a stellar cast including Harriet Harris with her numerous film, tv, and stage credits, Simon Jones who appears to have been everywhere from Hollywood to Broadway, and Barbara Bryne who has been in over 60 productions at The Guthrie. (She's the star we sat next to for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.) What I enjoyed seeing was this star power mixed with some actors who are newer to the Guthrie, and a couple students from the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater B.F.A. Actor Training Program. What a great learning experience from a phenomenal cast.

I attended this performance with my friend and publicist Krista Rolfzen Soukup from Blue Cottage Agency, and her mom DiAnne. DiAnne hadn't been to the Guthrie in several years, so it was a treat to bring her to his performance. She enjoyed the gorgeous scenery and costumes and excellent acting. She said that her favorite character was Jackie Coryton played by Heidi Bakke. She had great lines and a really cute dress that was so fluffy on the bottom, I thought she looked like a bird.

If you're looking for a fun night out watching top-notch professional comedy actors in a classic British play, go to Hay Fever at The Guthrie Theater (click on the theatre for showtimes and tickets) runs through April 22! It was fun seeing a play, set and written at the turn of the century, with a strong, comedic female lead.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Have you ever seen any of your favorite film or tv stars on stage? Who would you like to see in person?

Close the Screen and Live in Real Time!

Quote of the Day:  Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human. Anthony Robbins

Inspiration is all around us. We need to wake up to the life we're intended to live. I love that Toyota commercial (above). I'm not trying to sell you a car, here. What I love about that ad is the young woman thinks that she's "living" since she has so many facebook "friends". She tried to get her parents to "live a little." When, in fact, they're already out there experiencing life. They're active and adventurous. They're meeting new people and exploring the world.

Many of the great artists and writers of the world lived interesting and complex lives. They got out there and explored new territory like Stephen Crane. They picked apples on farms like John Steinbeck. Mary Higgins Clark was a flight attendant and a mother of five, widowed while they were all still young. The brilliant playwright Oscar Wilde traveled, studied the classics, and spent time in prison for "indecent relations" with men. Mark Twain worked various jobs and traveled extensively. The great poet Mary Oliver, survivor of childhood sexual abuse, worked on a farm. Clara Wieck Schumann started touring as a concert pianist when she was 11-years-old. She toured with her husband Robert Schumann, who was supportive during their courtship, but later begrudged her success. The couple had eight children, one died in infancy, had a life filled with tragedy, and yet, she continued to perform and compose music. All this in the 1800's when it wasn't proper for a married woman to be pursuing her own talents and career.

 

We humans were not meant to live in isolation. Go out this weekend and find adventure. Do something that takes courage. Take pictures of something that looks interesting to you. Attend a live performance. Talk to the artists. See all that your community has to offer.  My plan is to visit relatives I haven't seen in a while and attend the 1940's Radio Hour up in Pequot Lakes, presented by the Greater Lakes Area Performing Arts (GLAPA).  What's on your agenda?

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Give yourself an adventure, take a vaction from who you usually are, and live. Afterwards, write about the experience. (Looking forward to hearing back from you on Monday. *grins*)

Of Mice and Men Review

Quote of the Day:  John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, in 1902. His first three books were financial failures, and he worked at various kinds of jobs to surive, including fruit picking. - from the "About the Author" at the back of my yellowed copy of Of Mice and Men, which was in its 72nd printing when I bought my copy for a college course 25 years ago.  The story is still powerful and relevant today. With three failed books, and who knows how many rejections, and working at hard labor, unfulfilling jobs, do you think he ever felt like his dreams were as hopeless and unattainable and George and Lenny's?

I watched the show with my 13-year-old son, Zach. I had a ticket for my oldest son Bobby, but he wasn't feeling well so didn't attend. He was the first one I thought of bringing when I saw the advertisement. He's a senior in high school. He's read the book. He's ready for these heavy themes and dark look at life. I decided my 11-year-old twins weren't ready. When I told them a little about the play, that it ends sad, that it's a tragedy, they said, "We like shows where the good guys win."

So, I found myself sitting next to my 8th grader, wondering how he was handling the content and emotional impact of this story. He told me afterwards that watching a play is way more intense than watching a movie. You're right there. When the actors' voices get louder, you can hear that. When they get emotional, you can feel that. While the movie makers might try to manipulate the volume, it's not the same as being in the same room with the actors.

Wow. My work here is done. That's exactly what I want him to know about live performances. I want my sons to know that there is life beyond the screen. That to be in the presence of gifted and emotional performers is more powerful than anything they'll experience. Zach and I agreed, the screen creates a barrier. We have an easier time telling ourselves that it's not real.  Even though the set is representative of the time and place and the actors are playing parts, it becomes real through their words, actions, reactions, their very breath...and ours, the audience. The actors I spoke with on Monday said that each show is different. It takes on a life of its own. Each time they perform, it's a little different. The audience has a different chemistry. A Tuesday night performance in Brainerd, MN is going to feel different from a Friday night performance in Nothern California. I wonder how the folks in California react to this play?

Marcus, who played Crooks with amazing depth, told me that their director Jason King Jones wanted their performance of Of Mice and Men to be unlike any the audience has seen before. And it was. I believe it's because he allowed himself as a director to interpret the play, to bring it to life as he sees it. Then, he got out of the way and allowed the actors to create their characters. I felt like the actors and their characters were one.

As Eryn O'Sullivan, Curley's Wife, was talking about leaving this place and joining the traveling show, I couldn't help but think of how all these young actors did just that. They left the comfort of home, of a "regular" life and hit the road in a traveling show. Aren't they also beating it from one town to the next, looking for work, seeking connection, discovering more and more about themselves, and wondering if they dare to dream of something more?

And, that is the theme of the play. Zach asked me what I thought the theme was. I hesitated. I thought I'd lost my English teacher eye for literary elements. But, when he asked me, I was still in shock over the ending. Of course, I knew what was coming. I've seen this play done a couple time, read the book, studied the story, but I couldn't answer that the theme was the death of a dream.  I wanted it to be more hopeful than that.

I asked Zach, "Why do you think John Steinbeck wrote this story?" He said, "Because he wanted to show how hard some people had it, especially during those times."

I have such a smart son.

I am feeling grateful for the experience of the theatre, the improv class, the emotional and powerful performance by The National Players, and a great night out with my son, who sheds light on life and literature for me.

(Brian Vaughan who played Slim, and Patrick Hogan, as Carlson)

Go ahead, Play off the Page!

I dare you!

Go. Create. Inspire!

Close the screens, and experience life and art in real time. It's waiting for you to show up with your own creative energy.

Journaling Prompt:  What do you think is the theme of 'Of Mice and Men'? Why do you think John Steinbeck wrote this story? Where would we be if he gave up on his writing life and accepted the death of his dream? Where would you be if you gave up on your dreams?