Skip to main content
May 06 2013
Love0

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR by the African-American Shakespeare Company(A-ASC) is Shakespeare on the “Chitlin Circuit.”

By Kedar K. Adour

The Merry Wives(l-r) Safiya Fredericks (Mistress Ford) and Leotyne Mbelle-Mbong (Mistress Page)and  send Falstaff (Beli Sullivan) “to the cleaners” in The Merry Wives of Windsor by the African-American Shakespeare Company

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR by William Shakespeare. Adapted and directed by Becky Kemper. African-American Shakespeare Company, Buriel Clay Theater at the African-American Art & Culture Complex, 762 Fulton Street, S. F. 800-838-3006 or www.African-AmericanShakes.org.  May 2 -24, 2013

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR by the African-American Shakespeare Company(A-ASC) is Shakespeare on the “Chitlin Circuit.”

Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy/farce that begs to be staged/spoofed as a concept performance and that is exactly what is happening at the Buriel Clay Theater at the African-American Art & Culture Complex.  It is a wild, wacky, ribald and uneven night of fun where the cast shares their enthusiasm and the lights never dim on the audience.

Adapted and directed by Becky Kemper, a relative Bay Area newcomer, who founded the Maryland Shakespeare Company has pulled out all the stops to make it a solid African-American production. Taking a cue from the “chitlin’ circuits”  that were the only places African-Americans could perform prior to 1960 racial integration. She has selected the time of 1950 as an appropriate era.

Before the play begins the audience is warmed up by members of the cast singing acappella and dancing to songs of the 50s advising that the auditorium lights would remain on for the entire show to encourage participation by the audience members who obliged with synchronous clapping to the music and singing when asked. The two intervals between the acts continued the audience interaction

In Shakespeare’s time women were not allowed on the stage and men dressed and played as women. A-ASC has turned that around and many of the male characters are played by women, including the pivotal role of Sir John Falstaff (Beli Sullivan) adorned with a false pot-belly to rival all pot bellies. That conceit works well earning most of the laughs. Casting of Tavia Percia and Fe’lisha Goodlow as Pistol and Nim (respectively) members of Falstaff’s gang is not so successful.

The familiar story line involves Falstaff the disenfranchised free spirit of Shakespeare’s King Henry IV plays who hatches a plot to gain money by wooing and winning the love of two wealthy wives Mistresses Ford (Leotyne Mbelle-Mbong) and Page (Safiya Fredericks).  Falstaff’s shenanigans go astray when the ladies discovered that each has received identical love letters from the treacherous would be swain. They plan revenge to end all comical revenge plans and our intrepid Sir John suffers well deserved indignities. Egotistical Falstaff is conned into a second try at seducing the Merry Wives and that has a more unsuccessful ending in the most riotous scene of the evening. A major factor in creating conflict is the jealous Master Ford (Armond Dorsey) who sets his own trap to determine his wife’s suspected infidelity.

The secondary storyline involves the thwarted love of young Anne Page (Tavia Percia) for her paramour Fenton (Terrence Moyer). It seems that Justice Shallow (Twon Marcel) has a not too bright nephew Master Slender (Terrence Moyers doubles in the role) also seeking the hand and fortune of Anne. Then there is French Dr. Casius (Martin Grizzell) who is also hot for Anne and he has a grievance with Reverend Evans who supports Slender’s suit for Anne. This leads to a hilarious “fight” between the Dr. and the Reverend. Would you believe a duel with boxing gloves and kung-fu replacing swords and the antagonists becoming good friends? Believe it!

Director Kemper encourages broad acting styles and encourages mugging.  Safiya Fredericks, Leontyne Mbele-Mbong and Tavia Percia are drop dead gorgeous and Armond Dorsey gives a strong display of Master Ford’s insecurity and jealousy. Sheri Young’s portrayal of Quickley, a pivotal role needs work. Martin Grizzel’s tall stature and inane nonstop antics dominates whenever he is on stage. His homoerotic twist in the final scene is a hoot and a holler.

The staging is appropriately bare bones with the minimal scenery changes keeping the action moving as well as adding to the overall humor of the evening. Running time two hours and 30 minutes with two ‘interludes’.

Kedar Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

 

May 01 2013
Love0

“Happy” by Robert Caisley at 6th Street Playhouse, Santa Rosa CA

By Greg & Suzanne Angeo

Edward McCloud, Rose Roberts

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo

Photos by Eric Chazankin

 

Misery Loves Company

“Happy” by acclaimed English playwright Robert Caisley is one of the most provocative, powerful and disturbing new plays ever presented at 6th Street Playhouse. Caisley is now based at the University of Idaho teaching theatre, film and dramatic writing. One of his earlier plays, “Front”, received the 1996 Kennedy Center/Fourth Freedom Forum Award for playwriting. Both “Front” and “Happy” have been picked up for publication by the Samuel French Company. Now, in a series of openings called a “rolling world premiere”, four American theaters – the Montana Rep in Missoula, the New Theatre in Miami Florida, 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa, and New Jersey Rep in Long Branch – are each in turn presenting unique productions of this original play over the 2012-2013 season. These premieres are in collaboration with the National New Play Network, which allows the playwright time to refine his work after seeing it produced with different directors and casts.

The tale unfolds in the city loft of offbeat Spanish artist Eduardo, which is lavishly decorated with modern sculpture pieces and paintings. He has invited his longtime friends Alfred and wife Melinda over for a simple dinner and conversation, and to meet his newest lady love, the young and beautiful Eva. Alfred arrives early, with Melinda still on her way and Eduardo nowhere in sight. Only Eva is at home, and it’s not long before we realize this will not be your typical evening of casual chit-chat. Eva launches immediately into a series of pathological cat-and-mouse mind games, slinking about the stage in a bath towel and gulping tumblers full of gin. She zeroes in with laser-like precision on what she perceives as Alfred’s “fake” sense of contentment with his life. Eva’s apparent mission is to strip away the veneer and make people see “reality”, on her terms. The others soon arrive, but not after some serious damage has been done. Everyone gets a major attitude adjustment after an evening with Eva. She’s a good cook who likes serving up a little sadism with the shish kebab. The story has a compelling build and dramatic flow, but also has an oddly comic tone. The many laugh-inducing moments are a setup for the tragedies to come, and come they do.

Brian Glenn Bryson, Liz Jahren

Rose Roberts delivers a fearless, tour-de-force performance as the seductive, brutal Eva. From the very beginning, Roberts overwhelms the stage with mesmerizing authority. She reveals Eva’s deep, gut-level pain showing through her own veneer – cruel sarcasm – which she wields like a dagger to cut others down to size. We know this girl will soon end up either in the psycho ward, or in the morgue, and we can’t take our eyes off of her.

Edward McCloud as Alfred has a challenging task. He is forced to turn from blissful unawareness to face the unhappiness of his life head-on, like a car crash that he must survive. We see ourselves in him, which seems to be the intent of the playwright, and the actor has fulfilled this promise. Alfred’s slightly ditzy but lovable wife Melinda is played by Liz Jahren, who brings a delightful sort of new-age earth-mother quality to her character.  Jahren, who works with special-needs students, is able to find an authentic connection with Melinda’s love for their disabled daughter. Eduardo provides comic relief as portrayed by Brian Glenn Bryson, with lots of charm and appeal. Eduardo is an expressive man, with big emotions and big appetites. He serves as the bridge between the cruelty of Eva and the near-delusional optimism of Alfred and Melinda. There is also a vague suggestion that he may have engineered the whole evening, but it’s not clear, and may be one of several elements that needs refinement. “Happy” is a work in progress, and in some respects, it shows.

Lennie Dean is known to 6th Street audiences for her brilliant work on last season’s original production “Tennessee Menagerie” which was, like “Happy”, performed at 6th Street’s black box Studio Theater. It features an open thrust stage, which allows the audience a view from three sides. Dean makes us forget how small this stage is. As with “Menagerie”, she employs every corner of the space. She effectively makes use of the combined visual impact of the set and sculpture pieces, and the actors’ movements. The set design by Jesse Dreikosen includes original artwork by internationally recognized sculptor Boback Emad and other artists. Many of the set pieces are for sale, and a portion of the proceeds will benefit 6th Street. Splendid lighting design by April George and costumes by Liz Smith provide the perfect environmental touches.

We all know someone like Eva, or Eduardo, or Alfred and Melinda. Whether anyone is happy or not, who can say? Some believe that happiness is freedom from all desire. Some, like Eva, believe you can’t be happy unless you drag everyone around you down to your level. As it turns out, happiness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. “Happy” will certainly make you think about it, long after you walk out of the theater.

When: Now through April 21, 2013

8:00 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday

2:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Tickets: $10 to $25

Location: Studio Theater at 6th Street Playhouse

52 West 6th Street, Santa Rosa CA
Phone: 707-523-4185

Website: www.6thstreetplayhouse.com

Apr 30 2013
Love0

Ron Paul’s commentary on the Boston bombing

By Joe Cillo

Liberty  Was Also Attacked in Boston

 by Ron Paul

 

Forced lockdown of a city.  Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door armed searches without warrant. Families  thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause.  Businesses forced to close. Transport shut down.

These were not the scenes  from a military coup in a far off banana republic, but rather the scenes just  over a week ago in Boston as the United States got a taste of martial law. The  ostensible reason for the military-style takeover of parts of Boston was that  the accused perpetrator of a horrific crime was on the loose. The Boston bombing  provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a  police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city. This  unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack  itself.

 

What has been sadly  forgotten in all the celebration of the capture of one suspect and the killing  of his older brother is that the police state tactics in Boston did absolutely  nothing to catch them. While the media crowed that the apprehension of the  suspects was a triumph of the new surveillance state – and, predictably, many  talking heads and Members of Congress called for even more government cameras  pointed at the rest of us – the fact is none of this caught the suspect.  Actually, it very nearly gave the suspect a chance to make a getaway.

The “shelter in place” command imposed by the governor of Massachusetts was lifted before the suspect  was caught. Only after this police state move was ended did the owner of the  boat go outside to check on his property, and in so doing discover the  suspect.

No, the suspect was not  discovered by the paramilitary troops terrorizing the public. He was discovered  by a private citizen, who then placed a call to the police. And he was  identified not by government surveillance cameras, but by private citizens who  willingly shared their photographs with the police.

As journalist Tim Carney wrote  last week:

“Law enforcement in Boston  used cameras to ID the bombing suspects, but not police cameras. Instead,  authorities asked the public to submit all photos and videos of the finish-line  area to the FBI, just in case any of them had relevant images. The surveillance  videos the FBI posted online of the suspects came from private businesses that  use surveillance to punish and deter crime on their  property.”

Sadly, we have been conditioned to  believe that the job of the government is to keep us safe, but in reality the  job of the government is to protect our liberties. Once the government decides  that its role is to keep us safe, whether economically or physically, they can  only do so by taking away our liberties. That is what happened in  Boston.

Three people were killed in  Boston and that is tragic. But what of the fact that over 40 persons are  killed in the United States each day, and sometimes ten persons can be killed in  one city on any given weekend? These cities are not locked-down by paramilitary  police riding in tanks and pointing automatic weapons at innocent  citizens.

This is unprecedented and  is very dangerous. We must educate ourselves and others about our precious civil  liberties to ensure that we never accept demands that we give up our  Constitution so that the government can pretend to protect us.

 

April  29, 2013

Apr 30 2013
Love0

Palo Alto Players stages “Miss Saigon”

By Judy Richter

“Miss Saigon,” a musical theater updating of Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Madama Butterfly,” moves the action from 19th centuryJapanto 20th centuryVietnam. The names and setting differ, but the plot is similar.

Palo Alto Players has undertaken this challenging, ambitious work in a mostly successful production directed by Patrick Klein.

“Miss Saigon” starts in its namesake city in April 1975, shortly before South Vietnam’s fall to the communist Viet Cong. A weary U.S. Marine, Chris (Danny Gould), meets a shy, virginal, 17-year-old Vietnamese bar girl, Kim (Katherine Dela Cruz). They fall in love during a brief affair, but Kim is left behind when U.S.personnel are hastily evacuated from the city before it’s overrun by the enemy.

Three years later, Chris and his American wife, Ellen (Lindsay Stark), return toVietnam after learning that he has fathered Kim’s son. The visit, just like Pinkerton’s in the opera, ends tragically.

Like the opera, most of this musical is sung. There’s little spoken dialogue. Moreover, it’s not always clear what’s happening if one isn’t familiar with this show or the opera. Hence, precise diction becomes vitally important, but this production sometimes falls short in that department. Compounding the problem is Jon Hayward’s sound design, which was problematic in seats on the far right close to the front.

The standout performer is Brian Palac as the Engineer, a pimp with an uncanny ability to survive and a strong desire to get to the United States. He has the show’s big production number, “The American Dream.” Stark as Chris’s wife is the most assured singer among the women. Dela Cruz is believable as Kim, who’s steadfast in her love for Chris.

Gould tries too hard as Chris and pushes himself vocally, usually singing too loud. His best friend, John, is well portrayed by Adrien Gleason.

Jennifer Gorgulho’s choreography is outstanding, especially in the militaristic “The Morning of the Dragon” and the Engineer’s “The American Dream.” The set, though not nearly as spectacular as the original Londonproduction or the touring production in San Francisco, works well, as do the costumes by Shannon Maxham and lighting by Edward Hunter. Musical director Matthew Mattei conducts four instrumentalists from the keyboard.

“Miss Saigon” was created by composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyricist Alain Boublil (with Richard Maltby Jr.), the pair behind the earlier “Les Miserables.” It became a huge hit after it premiered inLondon in 1989, when the Vietnam War was still fresh in the memories of most adults. Now it’s history to the PAP cast and to younger people in the audience.

Still, the show and this production capture some of the human costs of that war.

 

Apr 30 2013
Love0

A HOME LIKE NO OTHER

By Joe Cillo

BEST DIGS EVER

If you want total security, go to prison…..
Dwight D. Eisenhower

I have always wanted to be daring and do something absolutely outrageous…but the truth is I fear the punishment.  I have read horror stories of what happens in prisons: brutality, rape, lousy plumbing…and I want none of it.  However, I am in the unenviable position of losing my house because it is under water and I am looking around for affordable housing for my declining years.  Unfortunately, the only shelter that is “affordable” for me on my pension is a used Yurt in the Andes or an abandoned cave in New Mexico.

Imagine my delight when I discovered the Maconochie Center, a prison in Canberra, Australia specifically designed to pamper lawbreakers with so much smother love that they realize the only way to have little fun is to obey the law and get out on parole.  The philosophy at Maconochie is that if you give love, you will receive it. I think that is a wonderful attitude.  It didn’t work for me with my two husbands, but it has been overwhelmingly successful with my dog.

The “guards” at the prison (called service providers) refer to the inmates as customers and do their best to give the darlings in their care whatever will make them feel wanted and secure.    If one of their customers is feeling a bit depressed, why not cheer him up with a couple gin and tonics, a shot of heroin and a little sniff of cocaine.  Whatever works as they say in the trade.

The residents at Maconochie Center live together in five bedroom cottages.  There is never a problem if a rapist cannot get along with the guy who strangled his baby.  Maconochie Center has mediators on call to help the boys (you KNOW they are boys) settle their differences.  Perhaps one of them needs a long walk in the country…where there are willing sheep?  Perhaps the other needs apple pie a la mode?  Who knows?  The staff at the center are there to help.

It sounds like a very fun place to live for me.   All I would have to do is grow a bit of cannabis in my yard before my foreclosure and sell it in a schoolyard.  If I wanted to be certain I could stay at this lovely place for the rest of my life (and after all, I am 80 years old.  How long can that be?)  I would have to toss someone around screaming “I am going to kill you!”  My mother said that to me often enough.  I know I can be convincing.  The good news is that I don’t actually have to plunge the knife into anyone’s heart…all I need to do in Australia is make the judge believe I really meant to do the deed.

The weather in Canberra is perfect for me.  You get four seasons, none too hot or too cold and at Maconochie there are endless opportunities to explore the outdoors.  I can use my computer at all hours and if I have a severe pain, I can get a prescription strong enough to use for recreation after the pain has disappeared.  But the best news of all is that there has been a rash of pregnancies at the center since it opened.  Why, I could finally have that baby I always wanted and not have to worry about dealing with the little sweetheart when it becomes a teenager.  By that time I will be long gone and the Maconochie service providers can take over.

 

 

Apr 29 2013
Love0

The Artist and the Model — Film Review

By Joe Cillo

The Artist and the Model

Directed by  Fernando Trueba

 

 

This film is very similar to the film, Renoir, that I reviewed here a couple of weeks ago.  I wonder if they borrowed the script?  An aging artist (Jean Rochefort), who isn’t named, is sitting out the war (World War II in this case) in a placid pastoral landscape.  He meets up with a gorgeous young girl (Aida Foche) who becomes his model.  The girl spends a lot of her time on screen naked, which really makes the film.  Some young girls bodies are so compelling that you can just look at them for hours and hours without losing interest.  They have a mesmerizing quality about them that just won’t let go.  Foche has that, and that is what keeps this film alive.  Because there is not a whole lot going on.  Watching somebody sketch and sculpt and walk through the country meadows can wear out after a fairly short time.  But Foche’s nude body does not.

There is a lot of silence in this film, which I liked.  It gives you a chance to think about the characters and what is going on.  Unfortunately, that is not a lot.  The script is not as well constructed nor is the story line as interesting as Renoir.  Nor is the conversation as stimulating and as thought provoking.  By every measure this film is inferior.  So if you only have enough money to attend one of these, make it Renoir.  I would have said it is a good film, interesting to watch, although mostly devoid of action and rather slow moving, but the ending made me mad at the director and the screen writer.  It made absolutely no sense.  It completely nullified everything that had been established about the character throughout the film.  I took it as a gesture of futility on the part of the filmmakers.  They didn’t know what else to do, so they trashed the whole movie, their lead character, and everything the film had set out to do.  Were they so dissatisfied with what they did that they decided to turn it into Romeo and Juliet?  It’s utter nonsense.

The film is in black and white.  In French with subtitles.  Seen at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Sundance Kabuki Cinema, April 28, 2013.

Apr 29 2013
Love0

A personal look at PILGRIMS MUSA AND SHERI IN THE NEW WORLD playing on Center Rep’s Off Center stage

By Kedar K. Adour

Gabriel Marin & Rebecca Schweitzer in Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World at Off Center Rep

PILGRIMS MUSA AND SHERI IN THE NEW WORLD: By Yussef El Guindi and Directed by Michael Butler. CENTER REP on the intimate Knight Stage 3 Theatre. Lesher Center for the Arts 1601 Civic Drive in downtown Walnut Creek. www.CenterREP.org or call 925.943.SHOW (7469). April 27 through May 12, 2013

A personal look at PILGRIMS MUSA AND SHERI IN THE NEW WORLD playing on Center Rep’s Off Center stage.

Center Rep’s production of Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World under Michael Butler’s provocative staging/direction is well worth a trip to the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek. For this play Butler is the scenic designer as well as the director putting his very personal stamp on Yussef El Guindi’s very personal play that won the 2012 Steinberg Award as the best American play that had not been produced on Broadway. It is playing at the intimate 130 seat Off Center ‘black box’ theatre where the audience becomes drawn into the action.

For this reviewer, the play brought back very personal memories. Both my parents were immigrants to America from Greater Syria that was divided into Lebanon and Syria after World War I.  He met my mother, the youngest of three sisters, who ran a boarding house in Upstate New York in 1911 and eloped with her on his motorcycle. The fact that he was a Muslim, though non-practicing, and she was a Catholic was as great a dichotomy as that between non-practicing Muslim-Egyptian Musa and white American waitress Sheri who elope in his taxi cab.

Although I have given away the penultimate scene it will in no way detract from the convoluted love story that is infused with modern day, post 9/11, angst of assimilation of Arab immigrants into American culture. In one scene, a dream sequence, a secondary character Abdallah (Dorian Lockett), a Sudanese Muslim, gives thanks for the American opportunities for success that led to his financial independence. When I offered to take my successful truck farmer father, whose name was Abdul(lah), back for a visit to Syria, his response, in colorful Arabic, suggested I was crazy because he was now an American.

Back to the play. Although the ancillary cast of Lena Hart, Carl Lumbly and Dorian Lockett are fine actors, the evening belongs to Rebecca Schweitzer as Sheri and Gabriel Marin as Musa.  She is a ditzy chatter-box waitress who accepts an invitation to visit Musa’s walk-up apartment knowing full well that sex should be the ultimate end of the evening. Schweitzer is a whirl-wind of insecurity as she prattles on and on about her past experience with abusive boyfriends, an alcoholic mother and inner emotional turmoil.  Marin as a young Egyptian-American taxi driver with his own insecurities is the perfect foil for Schweitzer with his minimalist verbal responses and expressive facial movements to her inane chatter.

It is a love story with political-social implications that are woven adroitly, but not seamlessly into the text. Musa is torn between his potential marriage to his fiancée Gamila (Lena Hart) and a life of oppressive sameness stifling his desire for change. Gamila an intellectual woman thoroughly integrated into the American dream but is willing to accept the customs of Arab culture where elders plan the future of their children.

Carl Lumbly is superb as Somali Tayyib, Musa’s best friend who makes a living illegally selling luggage on the street. El Guindi has given Tayyib the words explaining the devastating effects of cultural differences of a match between Musa and Sheri that can only lead to disaster. He has personally experienced such a disaster. This fact is emphasized in a poignant last scene between Tayyib and Gamila.

You may not cheer when El Guindi’s pilgrims head off in his taxi to uncertain adventure but you will wish them best of luck because they are in love. Running time is just under two hours with and intermission.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Apr 28 2013
Love0

Blackfish — Film Review

By Joe Cillo

Blackfish

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite

 

 

I have never been to SeaWorld, and I’ve never had any desire to go there.  It always seemed to me like shallow entertainment which gives people the wrong impression of orcas in particular, and the relationship between humans and the animal kingdom in general.  This film starts to set things in the right relationship.

It is a documentary about SeaWorld, the whales that perform in their shows, the trainers that train them, and whether or not it makes sense to be doing this.  The impetus and center of gravity of the film is the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was killed on February 24, 2010, by Tillikum, a 12,000 pound male orca at SeaWorld, Orlando, Florida.  Brancheau was 40 years old and a senior trainer who knew Tillikum well and was comfortable with him.  SeaWorld blames Brancheau for the mishap, but Tillikum had killed at least two other humans prior to Brancheau, and he also had a history of maltreatment, not only at SeaWorld, but also before he came to SeaWorld from Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria, Canada.  The film explores all of this material in great detail.  It is well documented and accentuated with interviews with former trainers who know Dawn Brancheau, and who provide much background and insight into the world of training orcas, the relationships of the trainers to the whales, and the conditions the whales are forced to live under at SeaWorld.  Did Dawn Brancheau make a mistake that cost her her life, or was this a ticking time bomb destined to go off sooner or later?  You decide.

The film makes the case that it is not such a good idea to be keeping these huge animals in the cramped quarters of the SeaWorld pools, separated from their natural social connections, and it is even less prudent to be letting young trainers, who don’t really have a clue what they are getting into, to swim into a tank with these powerful undomesticated animals.

How do you think a behemoth like Tillikum gets to be 12,000 pounds?  Not by eating potato chips in front of his TV.  These animals are top predators.  There are good reasons why they are called “killer” whales.  There is one dramatic sequence in the film of several whales attacking a seal that is stranded on an ice floe.  The whales work together to tip the ice floe enough that the seal is toppled into the water.  Once that happens, it is all over for the seal in seconds.  It seems to me that this is the truth that people — including children — should see about these whales.

There is a video on YouTube of a man clowning on a beach at the water’s edge.  Two orcas creep up on him right at the shoreline, knock him down, and devour him in seconds right before your very eyes.  Some people think the video is fake.  It shows you how strong is this will to believe in the benign nature of fierce predatory animals.  Perhaps it is a way of denying our own vulnerability and how quickly we can be snuffed out and disappear at the hands — or rather jaws — of natural enemies.  But this sort of thing goes on in the animal kingdom all the time every day.  An animal can be placidly going about his business, and suddenly, without warning, be beset and completely devoured within seconds.   It is a discomfiting thought which we would prefer to dispel, how sudden our lives can be snuffed out by powerful predators, who don’t really hate us, they just want to consume us.  It’s nothing personal.  Just as it is nothing personal when we raise chickens, or pigs, or cattle on factory farms in minimal conditions feeding them just enough to get their weight to a certain point in an optimal number of days at which time they will be abruptly and unceremoniously slaughtered.  You don’t stew about that when you sit down and enjoy a sumptuous steak in a fine restaurant, do you?  Predators cannot afford to be sentimental about the animals they must kill in order to survive and thrive.  The orcas did not feel sorry for that seal they toppled from the ice floe, nor for the man they probably mistook for a seal on the beach.  Rather than dwell on that unsettling thought that these animals in their natural habitat would kill us in a moment, we turn them into friendly teddy bears, companions who can communicate with us and be friends with us.  Denial is a first line defense against anxiety.

The film does not mention the parent corporation of Seaworld (which used to be Anheuser-Busch until it was sold to the Blackstone Group in 2009).  It is now called Seaworld Entertainment Inc., which is 63% owned by Blackstone.  The Blackstone Group is a multi-billion dollar private equity firm based in New York City, with offices around the world.   Just this week Blackstone held an initial public offering of Seaworld Entertainment stock.  According to the Wall Street Journal the stock went up 24% on the first day of trading (Wall Street Journal, April 22, 2013).  After this film circulates I wonder how well the stock will do?

Blackstone cares about making money, and they’re making a lot of it on Seaworld.  They don’t particularly care about the trainers at Seaworld, much less the orcas.  They refused to be interviewed for this film or make any comment about its findings.  This is an entertainment business that sells illusions.  Illusions are strongly held beliefs or viewpoints that are in contradiction to facts or conditions that should be obvious.  They reflect a human need to see things in a certain way in order to allay anxiety, to provide a consoling view of life that offers comfort or a feeling of security.

The illusion in this case is the belief that the natural world is a benign place where humans are in control and living in harmony with the other creatures in nature: that orcas, who are top predators in the wild, are actually benign, friendly, good natured companions to humans who can be domesticated to behave like entertaining pets.  However, this illusion is starting to wear a little thin and fray around the edges.  In order to maintain it, much truth has to be concealed, downplayed, and outright falsified, which the film documents very effectively.

The Seaworld trainers seem to be goodhearted, but naive, young people who have very little background in orca behavior or ethology, but are possessed of the illusion that you can get into a tank of water with a 12,000 pound captive whale that lives by killing, make him do all kinds of ridiculous things that he would never do in the wild, and be perfectly safe.  People want to believe that they can be friends with their natural enemies, that the most fearsome predators can be tamed and transformed into loving companions.  Yes, the animals have personalities, they have intelligence, they have a complex social life, they have sophisticated ways of communicating among themselves.  Some people seem surprised and charmed to discover this.  But it doesn’t mean you can be friends with them.  They cannot be a substitute for wholesome, loving human companionship.  The captive environment is very artificial and the animals understand their dependence on their human handlers in this extraordinarily unnatural situation.

The film points to a record of at least 70 incidents where killer whales have attacked their human trainers and several where the trainers have been killed.  Seaworld consistently blames the trainers, saying they made errors which led to the attacks.  In some cases this was true, but on the other hand, you don’t have a lot of margin with killer whales, and it is also true that the whales are kept under inhumane conditions and often treated badly, which, over time, probably builds up a lot of rage and resentment.  Sometimes the whales reach a point where they decide enough is enough.

The film brings to light a lot of unsavory conditions in an inherently perilous enterprise that SeaWorld would prefer to keep under wraps, and which they have done pretty successfully for many years.  This speaks to the power of this illusory phantasm of the benign natural world in the public imagination.  People want to take their kids to this grandiose spectacle and be dazzled by huge powerful animals cavorting to entertain human audiences pleased with themselves to have subdued and dominated these breathtaking creatures.  But it is insipid and barbaric.  It gives kids the wrong message about the relationship between humans and animals and it gives them a very wrong impression about killer whales.   Don’t go to Seaworld.  Watch this film instead.  Seen at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Sundance Kabuki Cinema, April 27, 2013.

 

Apr 28 2013
Love0

LOVE ME LOVE MY DOG

By Joe Cillo

MY FAMILY, MY DOG

There is no psychiatrist in the world
Like a puppy licking your face.
Ben Williams

When Daphne sits on my lap, my blood pressure drops 30 points.  Why bother with Lipitor?  Daphne is not dispensed to me by a pharmacist although she is definitely good medicine. She is a five-pound Chihuahua with blue eyes and an attitude.  However, when she sits on MY lap, her blood pressure elevates…and no wonder.  She is at work; she is doing her job.

Daphne’s mother dresses her in high fashion: ruffled skirts with matching knickers and booties, a warm hoodie to wear when she and her mum are on the slopes and a bright strawberry vest to welcome spring.

Daphne has a stubborn anal gland that does not process her food properly and her mother has spent hundreds, nay, thousands of pounds on Daphne’s alimentary canal, to no avail.  At last, her mother resorted to holistic remedies and feeds Daphne a nightly soupcon of pumpkin and rice to soothe her aching bottom.

Daphne is well aware of her privileged position in the family.  She dines with us at our table.  We do not consider her germs as lethal as those of her former daddy or all her cousins…some with four legs, some with only two.   We all know her preferences and we do our best to keep her as happy as her presence makes us.  She does not like the rain; she considers walking on the other end of a leash demeaning; she loves to watch movies and never so much as woofs lest she disturb the others watching with her.  We know that Daphne is absorbing the action on the screen because she often weeps at a sad ending, and she still wails when she remembers what happened to poor Jackie Robinson.

We who know and love Daphne think she is unique but it appears that she is no different than any other dog in any other home anywhere in the world.  One look at her stimulates human oxytocin, a bonding hormone that increases our trust and attachment to those close to us and makes us suspicious of strangers.  The fact is that the longer Daphne stares at me, the more I love her and want to shoot that yapping little dachshund next door. This explains why we think nothing of spending half our wages on Daphne’s attire, rushing her to a doctor at the slightest hint that she is not in perfect health even as we ignore our own coughs, tummy spasms and exploding lungs. She is far more than part of our family…she is the very adhesive that keeps us together. For, although we all  have spats with one another over toilet seats left up or down, toothpaste tubes squeezed wrong and dishes unwashed, we all unite in our love for Daphne.  It is she who keeps us human.

Dogs are miracles with paws.
Susan Kennedy

SIDEBAR ONE:

Percy is a Corgi without a tail.  He stares at me with the same intensity Jewish men look at me.  You know: something is missing and he doesn’t remember how he lost it.  The interesting thing is that the more Percy stares at me, the more I adore him.  I cannot say the same for Jewish men.

SIDEBAR TWO:

Dorothy is a shih’ Tzu with a raging metabolism. When she sits on your lap, you can feel the heat of her tiny little body warm you right to your toes. When her blood pumps through her veins and burns her calories you will swear the house is on fire.  Dorothy’s mother says she has saved 1000 pounds a year on heating bills and her only cost is dog food.  That, after all, is Dorothy’s fuel and it is a lot cheaper than petrol.

Apr 27 2013
Love0

Fringe of Marin Festival of Original One-Act Plays, Dominican University of California San Rafael

By Greg & Suzanne Angeo

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo

Current “Fringe” Offers the Ridiculous and the Sublime 

The Fringe of Marin Festival is celebrating its 31st season, the first without its spirited founder and artistic director Annette Lust, who passed away in February at age 88. She often referred to the Fringe – with great affection – as her “peanut stand”. It was, and is, so much more than that.

The Fringe was founded by Dr Lust nearly 20 years ago to give local writers, actors and directors the chance to try out their original work in an informal setting.  Produced by the Dominican University Community Players and performed by actors of all ages, races and ethnicities, nothing is off-limits:  comedy, drama, slapstick, cerebral musings, political rants. The one-act plays are presented in a converted lecture hall with a rudimentary stage and very simple props. Many plays are clearly works in progress, only partly successful, but you can see the germination of something truly wonderful in many of the offerings. In 2004, the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle gave the Dominican Players a special award for excellence in staging the Fringe of Marin during the ten years of Festivals it had presented by that time.

Although Dr Lust was small in size, she left some very big shoes to fill. Her formidable legacy has been handed down to two very courageous colleagues who are determined to carry the baton – to Mount Olympus, if necessary. Dominican University alumnus Gina Pandiani is the dynamic new Managing Director. She is passionate about the Fringe’s mission of presenting diverse and cutting-edge work. Pamela Rand, a talented graduate of Ecole Jacques Lecoq, the acclaimed school of theatre movement and mime in Paris, is the new Production Manager. She shares her gift of physical comedy in one of this season’s productions.

The Spring 2013 Festival features 14 one-act plays evenly divided between two 90-minute programs.  All manner of subjects are explored: from the demise of the U.S. Postal Service to the siege of Leningrad during WWII; from a madcap send-up of Sid Caesar’s 1950s TV show to an adaptation of a Chekhov classic. There’s song and dance, dumpster diving and a magic act, too – something to please just about everyone. This season’s efforts may not be quite as edgy or daring as those of earlier days, but there are the usual standouts. “Not Death, But Love”, written by Roberta Palumbo, is a solo piece delivered by Molly McCarthy as Elizabeth Barrett Browning. McCarthy displays amazing imagination through her vivid yet controlled expressions. “The Wreck”, another solo, is a cleverly creative adaptation of the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and is performed by Deanna Anderson, who is also the writer. Anderson weaves memories of her own childhood into her performance, making for a unique and moving piece. “Here’s Your Life” is a cavalcade of craziness. This homage to Sid Caesar has eight performers displaying perfectly-honed comic timing, led by Pamela Rand as the hapless but agile lead character, Susannah P. Metcalf. Rand is also the play’s co-writer, with Stacy Lapin. Some alarming acrobatics will have you on the edge of your seat.

The primary appeal of the Fringe is that you never quite know what to expect. The programs present a mixed bag of quality ranging from the groan-inducing to polished professionalism. The Fringe of Marin was and remains a worthy undertaking, but it faces an uncertain future. Its current home at Meadowlands Hall, which was built in 1888 as the DeYoung family’s summer estate, must be closed soon so it may finally receive a much-needed renovation. The Fringe will relocate to the much larger space at Angelico Concert Hall, and it remains to be seen if it can find the necessary storage space for important props and equipment. The Fringe of Marin has a storied history in Bay Area theatre, and deserves to carry on with the tradition of giving budding theatre professionals a laboratory in which to conduct their novel, and entertaining, experiments.

When: Now through May 5, 2013

7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

2 p.m. Sundays

Tickets: $5 to $15

Location: Meadowlands Assembly Hall, Dominican University

50 Acacia Avenue, San Rafael CA
Phone: 415-673-3131

Website: www.fringeofmarin.com