Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center @ the University of Maryland, Dekelboum Concert Hall: Mavis Staples

 Mavis Staples is living musical royalty.  Born in the summer of 1939, every inch of her 85-year-old body (and she's just a little peanut of a person) reverberates with joy, and grace and then...  She opens her mouth and suddenly Howlin' Wolf appears!  I don't know how she sings on key through such a range and even more impressive variety of tones.  She can begin a phrase in a bluesy bullfrog baritone and rise up to something sweet and crystalline.  Best known for her passion raspy shout-singing executed with equal finesse whether in the service of Gospel, Blues, or Civil Rights folk songs, she also has an amazing soft and nuanced side when she wants.  

The concert lasted just over an hour and 20 minutes.  She was joined on stage by three musicians (drums, bass and electric guitar), two back-up singers and an ASL interpreter.  At times she caught herself and took a breath, but then came just as or even stronger.  Between the 12 songs she shared little vignettes from her past stories involving collaborators like Etta James and David Byrne.  After singing "Friendship" (which received a standing ovation from the audience) she relayed through teary eyes the fact that this was the last song her father "Pops" Staple ever sang.

A few years ago I had a ticket to see Aretha Franklin perform at the Kennedy Center.  It was meant to be the keynote performance for the Washington National Opera's annual Gala.  She got sick and was substituted by Cynthia Erivo.  Attendees only found out on the night of the event.  Cynthia is amazing, but she's no Aretha.  And then Aretha died.  I can say I didn't make that mistake with Mavis, and I am so glad that I had the chance to see this national treasure perform live.

Unlike the incredibly disrespectful lesbian couple sitting in front of me, I didn't take out my phone to take any photographs.  They were so annoying that someone from the staff came down (3 row from stage center orchestra) to tell them to knock it off.  These people knew what the ground rules were and just decided that somehow they were entitled and copyright law didn't apply to them.  Arrogance is why our world is going to hell in and handbasket... [Now, breathe and step carefully off of the Soap Box.]

This image was taken at an earlier concert performed at the University of Chicago with some of the same members of her ensemble.  [L-R: Katie Hodges, Sophia Williams, and Rick Holmstrum]

Maryland Zoo: Herp Highlights!

 When the Maryland Zoo underwent it's "dark days of the fiscal soul" during the early years of the current millennium, it closed it's Reptile House and sent off most of the animals to other AZA zoos and aquariums.  Over the intervening years, the zoo has established and upgraded habitats for various reptile and amphibian species at various locations across the campus from the Maryland Wilderness to the Chimpanzee Forest on the other side of the zoo.  Here are some of the images I captured of these amazing animals today.

STRIPED MUD TURTLE

Kinosternon baurii

Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

SOUTHERN COPPERHEAD

Agkistrodon c. contortrix

Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

WOOD TURTLE

Glyptemys insculpta

Conservation Status: ENDANGERED

SPOTTED TURTLE

Clemmys guttata

Conservation Status: ENDANGERED

GRAY TREE FROG

Dryophytes versicolor

Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

CORN SNAKE

Pantherophis guttatus

Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

EASTERN BOX TURTLE

Terrapene c. carolina

Conservation Status:Conservation Status: VULNERABLE

SULCATA TORTOISE

Centrochelys sulcata

Conservation Status: ENDANGERED

LEOPARD TORTOISE

Stigmochelys pardalis

Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

Maryland Zoo Volunteering Again

 For almost six years now, I have been a volunteer at the Maryland Zoo, and because of issues with my back, I haven't been able to be there since last February.  In June I had corrective surgery, and have been on the mend over the summer months.  Today was my first day back.

I volunteered at a special guest event: Breakfast with the Elephants.  It happens before the zoo is open to the public.  Tables are set up with a buffet in the proximity of the African Elephant habitat.  There's always tons of food: scrambles eggs, O'Brien potatoes, sausage, bacon, yogurt, Danish fruit roles, muffins, fresh fruit, juices (apple, orange and cranberry), tea, coffee.  Today we served 65 guests.  While eating, a keeper does a presentation and then takes questions.  There are artifacts that volunteers share like a huge ball of dung (dried and shellacked), a molar, and there are interactive discovery stations for the children.  Kids are also invited to color a brown paper bag with greetings to the elephant.  Then a keeper fills it with carrots and cheerios.  The top is folded shut and then tossed to the elephant who grabs it up with their trunk and eats the whole thing like a piece of candy.  All participants also receive a plush baby elephant stuffed animal.  

The zoo hosts a series of these events during seasons with clement weather and others focus on our lions, giraffe, otters, rhinos, chimpanzees, penguins, and farm animals.  I'm working a Farm Breakfast next weekend.  

My main job today was to guide guests through our main valley area down the path to the area we call Zoo Central where another volunteer was stationed to help them navigate the next leg.  The Zoo's main valley is no longer home to any animals.  It was abandoned around 2002, because the habitats either were archaic and an anathema to modern best practices, or just entirely too expensive to upgrade/repair.  It is; however, an amazing window into the past.  Enclosures and buildings found there date from 1876 (the year the zoo was founded) right up until the 1980's when the most recent habitat was constructed as a home for Tigers.  In the Around the time the main valley shut down, the Maryland Zoo scaled back it's collection to remove all of the Asian species and refocus it's limited resources on animals from North America and Africa.

So I positioned midway in the shadow of the historic 1925 Elephant House--home to the zoo's very first Elephant, an Asian Elephant female named Mary Ann.  As the guest arrived and traversed the main valley in dribs and drabs, I had plenty of time to appreciate the birds and other animals that also call the zoo home.  Among them was a lovely little doe.   The zoo and surrounding Druid Hill Park is home to a herd of white-tailed deer with a pronounced diminutive stature.  What a lovely way to start out my return.

My view looking up the valley.

When I first saw the deer in the space between the old Sea Lion habitat and the old Polar Bear habitat.

Fully grown, not 3 feet tall at the shoulders.

Arena Stage: Jaja's African Hair Braiding

 #2 on this year's Theatre 2024-2025 Theatre Season was down on the DC waterfront and one of the most storied regional theaters in the nation: Arena Stage.  Arena was the first to win the coveted Tony Award for Regional Theater Excellence back in 1976.  The production is the first of their season, too.  "Jaja's African Hair Braiding" opened on Broadway last October and played 56 performances.  It was nominated for 5 Tony awards including Best Play.  This production represents the first stop on a three city post-Broadway touring company.  After Washington, DC, the production moves to Berkeley, California, and then, in the new year, Chicago, Illinois.

The story is basically a tightly packed comedy featuring a crew of 5 women with West African heritage who are tossed together in a business created by Jaja (who is not present through the majority of the play).  A series of costumers and local neighborhood folk pop in and pop out while the comedy and drama unfolds.  Toward the end, the diva entrepreneur makes a cameo to be feted by her daughter (who runs the place) and colleagues on the day of her wedding.  While all of the women have different relationships with immigration and their status, Jaja is tired of waiting for the process to turn in her favor and so she's jumping the line by marrying a citizen--a white man with a dubious reputation.  All the levity of the day and all the petty bickering collapses when new comes to the shop at closing that Jaja has been detained by ICE.  It is a profound moment of realization; how dreaming in the land of opportunity is a precarious, ephemeral thing for some among us.

None of the original Broadway cast remain with this production.  The new lineup; however, does include a local actor in a key role.  I've watched Awa Sal Secka for years and enjoyed her performances and her vocal talents wherever I've encountered them--but this?  This was big time amazing.  Arguably, her character of Bea is the lynch pin to both the comedy and the drama at the center of the production.  She was simply magnificent.  The entire cast was amazing--no week links in the bunch, and certainly Jordan Rice, who played, Marie, Jaja's precocious and brilliant daughter who graduated Valedictorian from high school, but now without documentation and financial means cannot afford to go to college.  In an odd not to the lesser also included's, a huge shout out to Melanie Brezill, Yao Dogbe, and Colby N. Muhammad, who combined play 10 different characters!  With the support of costume and make-up to wrap their talents, each of these characters felt like they were played by their own unique actor.  

The set was beautiful and opened from within itself to transform from the exterior to the interior of the shop.  The costumes were colorful, vibrant and exciting, just like the actors who were wearing them.  An excellent play with more laughter than tears, but the point it makes about the human condition, the unfairness of our political machinations, and the resilience that allows us to thrive anyways.

Bea (Awa Sal Secka), Marie (Jordan Rice) and Aminata (Tiffany Renee Johnson)

L-R [BACK]: Colby N. Muhammad, (Aisha Sougou - obscured), Bisserat Tseggai, Jordan Rice, and Mia Ellis

[Front]: Awa Sal Secka, Melanie Brezill, Victoria Charles, and Tiffany Renee Johnson

Life 101: Bacteria

 

Behold!  A metagenomic representation created in 2016 of the unrooted tree of life using ribosomal protein sequences: BACTERIA

I don't know about you, but this gives my curious mind a metaphorical woodie!

Keegan Theatre: Noises Off

 And another year of live begins.  This will be my eighth in the DMV, not counting the dryness of the Pandemic.  (Isn't that something, to think of the Pandemic of 2020-2021 a nuisance only 2 years after it's faded into the background noise of everyday pathogens?)  This year, I started at Keegan Theatre in DC with, ironically, the closing performance of "Noises Off".  A farce in the grand tradition of "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Harvey," and "You Can't Take It With You," with a twist or two.  It's not a play, but a play about a play, and the physical comedy is more suited to the Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges than Broadway.

The first Act, sets the stage, introduces the characters and takes place on the evening of the final dress rehearsal.  Act II flips the stage around and shows us the behind the scenes mayhem at some point mid-season.  Here's where the physical comedy goes on steroids!  The final act returned us to the audience's perspective on the day of their final performance, and have they learned nothing over time?  Yup, that would be zip--except how to be funnier with each succeeding Act!  

The cast of 8 is a mixed bag of old and new faces.  Keegan is a sort of repertory company without the company, meaning you see a lot of the same actors tossed about from one production to the next.  One very familiar actor is Susan Marie Rhea.  She's a power stage presence and I've only seen her play characters who have trouble suppressing their anger.  Not knowing a thing about play, I thought, "ugh, not again"; and she was without a doubt the best surprise of the afternoon.  Given a different type of character, she can really nail that, too.  Second, kudos goes to Ryan Sellers, an actor I've seen over several years now.  He has a tremendous physicality that serves him so well with the demands of slapstick.  And he's just such a fun actor to watch a real presence among any ensemble.  Swing, Emily Erickson, took on the role of Brooke Ashton, but the theatre never formally acknowledged that which I found disappointing.  

The set design was the most ambitious I've seen at Keegan, which fed my set design gremlins very nicely.  Credit goes to their resident designer, Matthew J. Keenan.

All in all a fun show!

Housekeeper Dotty Otley (Susan Maria Rhea)

Garry LeJeune (Ryan Sellers), Dotty, Belinda Blair (Valerie Adams Rigsbee) and Selsdon Mowbray (Timothy Hayes Lynch)

Garry LeJeune

Stage manager Poppy Norton -Taylor (Casi Demming) and Set Designer Tim Allgood (Gary DuBreuil)

Frederick Fellowes (Michael Innocenti) and Belinda Blair, off stage husband and wife.

Allgood, LeJeune, Fellowes, and Mowbray in the midst of some Act II physical comedy

Blair and Otley in a moment of revelation of an infidelity sort.

Allgood with the Director Llyod Dallas (Jared H. Graham)

Life Quote #5: Albert Einstein

 

Salisbury Zoo: Salisbury, Maryland - Coda: The Statuary

 Like nearly every zoo I've ever been to, the Salisbury Zoo also hosts a range of animal sculptures.  Here are four that caught my attention.  A little coda to the living ones.

FAWN AND TURTLE

"White-tail Fawn," 1992

David Turner

TWO WOLVES

"Timber Wolves," 1995

David Turner

run of 50, $3,000.00

BEAR WITH TRIPLETS

"Black Bear & Cubs," circa 2006

by David Turner

ANDEAN BEAR MEMORIAL

"Gritto," 2016

by David Turner

Plaque Reads:

"Papa Bear Gritto"

1991 - 2015

In Loving memory Of the Delight

You Brought To Our Community

--------Given By--------

Dr. Alfred & Ruth Beattle & Family

Salisbury Zoo: Salisbury, Maryland - Part 5 of 5

 We'll end our visit by making our way back toward the east gate and the parking lot where my car waits.  On the way will visit the Alpaca herd hanging out along the Wicomico River.  Walk to the end of it's look peer looking for the Great White Pelicans who used to reside there--not today.  Then one little sidetrack to see the American Bison and little colony of Black-tailed Prairie Dogs.  I've already said enough, so let's just go to the pictures, eh?

ALPACA

Llamas pacos

Alpaca are just so damned goofy!

The big Bison has a big habitat.

AMERICAN BISON

Bison bison

The Prairie Dogs have a carved-out habitat from the Bison's space.

BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG

Cynomys ludovicianus