Constellation Theatre: "Aida"

The classic Verdi Opera "Aida" got a modern makeover a few year back by Sir Elton John and Tim Rice.  Constellation Theatre's intimate storefront venue is the perfect place to give it life.  A deceptively simple set with many entrances and a sloped perspective based not too subtly on the geometry of the triangle (get it?  Love triangle), was an effective frame for this magical retelling.  The costumes were beautiful.  The choreography was fine given the limits of the space within which the actors are confined.  The lighting often proved enhancing, although on this score there were a couple of notable moments where it failed to either work or was poorly designed in illuminating the actors.  When a production is overall as lovely as this one was, it only takes a couple of errors to really mar any particular aspect of the production.

The cast was strong and many familiar to me from other local productions.  Three deserve some focused attention.  Greg Watkins as Zoser, the pharaoh's vizier, was delightfully evil and led a couple of the shows most memorable musical numbers.  Chani Wereley as the Pharaoh's daughter, Amneris, played both the campy self-absorbed moments and the poignant spurned lover moments with equal flare.  Her interpretation of songs was likewise as polished and noteworthy.  But the star was the star, Aida, in the very talented hands of Shayla S. Simmons.  Her vocals were piercing even when they were restrained.  He voice and use of it to convey emotion was only surpassed by the exceptionally mesmerizing range of her countenance.  I can't remember when I've watch an actor with such complete control of every aspect of their faces.  Her mouth, her eyes, her cheeks, her brow...she had such subtle yet powerful ways of embodying the feelings of the doomed Nubian princess.

I have no reservation is recommending this production for all my friends in the DMV.

Kimchi Sunday!

Another friend posted a photo of his ingredients for Kimchi, and I thought, it's been too long since I made my own.  For every problem, there is a solution!

 Brined the ingredients overnight (above), than added spices and jarred for the fermentation process (below).

Chili Bamboo Shoots! -- Who knew?

At my local Asian grocery this morning I discovered this jar of chili bamboo shoots.  A friend suggested using it in a stir fry.  She's a very smart person!

Green Non-Thumb

I live with an African Violet and her off-spring.  I mostly ignore her all the time, and just look at how she rewards me!

Library Cleaning, part 2

From poetry to Art catalogues, the cleaning and reorganizing continues.  30 years of visiting art exhibitions and art museums across the country and world has given me a lovely collection of art catalogues from both exhibitions and museum collections.  It was a task to pull them all off the shelves and clean them, but it was also a chance to reorganize them into groupings that made sense and gave greater ease to finding the one I would want in the future.

 Spill-over on the top of the second shelf left room for some other books.  Goodness knows, I need more room!

My Boy, Romeo

Autumn Gardens

Round House Theatre: "How I Learned to Drive"

The first thing, that will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen a Paula Vogel play is that they are extremely well crafted.  The format of this play is a non-linear construction based on the protagonist's memories of an uncle who was a pedophile and abused her.  The memories bounce driven by degrees of rawness, building to the most uncomfortable.  I use the word uncomfortable with great intention as the play is not an outright condemnation of the Uncle.  Oh yeah, you know he's a monster, but he's a monster that you can grasp--not simply in unredeemable incarnation of evil.  And therein lies what I found most powerful about this play.  The author doesn't tell you what to think, but give you something worth thinking about.  The wickedness of the antagonist is never in question, and his fate is justly deserved, but he is not the star.  The protagonist is, even as you witness her fall into the relationship as vile as it is, it is a relationship.  Such a powerful play.

The sets were the barest I've ever seen at Round House and though simple the actors used the open space to good measure in defining the setting.  The costumes were, meh, especially where the three members of the Greek Chorus were concerned.  The lighting effects were especially complementary to the stark production as well.

The central key to a well written play is having actors up to the material, and this was certainly true here.  In the three member supporting ensemble of the Greek Chorus, Emily Townley really stood out in her portrayals for both Li'l Bit's mother and aunt.  Peter O'Connor was a fresh face to me and brought both a degree of confused niceness and subtle creepiness to the role of the pedophile Uncle Peck.  But the crown goes hands down to Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan's embodiment of L'il Bit.  With tremendous ease and chilling effect she jumped between 18 and 11 and many stops in between.  It was a mesmerizing performance.  Losing oneself in her craft made bearable the overriding subject matter of the play.  After the older couple sat down on the other side of me, he looked at his program and said, "Oh my, what have I gotten myself into?"  Indeed.

Greek Chorus members in back: Emily Townley, Daven Ralston, Craig Wallace,

Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan as Li'l Bit and Peter O'Connor as Uncle Peck

Craig Wallace and Alyssa Wilmoth Keegan

Flashback to a middle school dance

The final scene with Uncle Peck on Li'l Bit's 18th Birthday

Dewey Decimal Class 800 - Poetry

I like poetry.  I like to read it.  I like to share it with friends.  And for the past 20 years or so, I've been collecting it.  Individual volumes of poets both contemporary and classic.  Poets who write in English, but also, Albanian, Armenian, Bengali, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Vietnamese.  303 poets.  431 books. 

Over the past several days, I've been cleaning all of them and reshelving.  Fortunately, they all fit on a single 6 ft tall shelf.  They fit because I have modified the shelf to be able to display them on both sides of an open design!

The project should have taken about 2 hours at most, but you can't disassemble shelves of books of poetry without stopping to visit, to read, to savor.  So it's taken the better part of a week, and even then, I felt rushed.  Such is the power of poetry.

Diane Ackerman to Constantine Cavafy

Christopher Cessac to Chris Forhan

Robert Frost to Frieda Hughes

Langston Hughes to Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel

Michael McFee to Sharon Olds

Mary Oliver to Joe Salerno

Carl Sandburg to Connie Voisine

Fred Voss to Paul Zimmer

Autumn Blossoms

Glow Hanging Fruit