Prologue Theatre: A Mirror

The Program was for the fake wedding complete
with a guest gift bag!

There is a lot of new theatre out there, and honestly, I tend to give most of it somewhere between a B- and C-.  It's derivative.  It's cliche.  It's formulaic.  It's idiosyncratic to the point that its message is irrelevant.  The characters are flat.  So you sit through a story and when it's over there's not that much left to ponder, except perhaps why did I pay to give up two hours experiencing this.  It's a little bit like fishing.  Sometimes you catch a really great fish, but often you don't and still you can appreciate all the incidentals, right?  There's the river, the fresh air, your friend/s, the warm sun, the cool breeze, etc.  So even if a play's plot is not so great, you can appreciate the sets, costumes, props, light & sound, the actors who bring their A-games even to C- scripts.  So that's why I rarely find myself regretting going to the theatre.

And then there are those other times.  The time you bring in the most magnificent Rainbow Trout the Au Sable River has ever given up, and your dad is so proud of you, and later the old girl as fresh as new mown grass roasts over an open fire and flakes off the bone like manna from Heaven.  "A Mirror" by Sam Holcroft is like that trout.  Premiered in London in 2023, it's a relatively new work that is both sharp in its intentions, but soft enough to allow for some atypical character development.  

Prologue Theatre has been around now for about 10 years.  It is the lovechild of Jason Tamborini, who directed this production.  The intention of Prologue is to create interactive post-production experiences in which ideas can be discussed.  To this end, every show comes with an online forum.  "A Mirror" tells the story of a playwright trapped in a totalitarian society who is forced to stage his plays in clandestine ways.  So you enter the "theatre" which is decked out like a church chapel (and which is literally staged in modestly sized storage space on the backside of a CVS drugstore anchored mini-strip mall of just three business.  Parking is in the rear as is the entrance.  It is the most intimate of theatre spaces, perhaps in all of the DMV.  Previously they have found room in the schedule of the Atlas Performing Arts Center in DC, and the very first production I ever saw with in the recital space of a converted circa 1930's movie theatre on Georgia Avenue, NW!  And that's when I knew it was love at first sight!

While this little company might seem inconsequential in the big sea that is the DMV theatre scene--it always manages to punch above its weight.  And nothing proves this more than the fact the Maboud Ebrahimzadeh held the leading role of Celik.  Maboud is one of the most amazing actors I have ever seen, and I've seen him in over a dozen shows.  To experience his talent in such a small and close-up space is a gift I would have paid for under any circumstances.  And he's so good, that I cannot help but believe his performance raise the other's work around him.  And I don't mean to be undermining the role of Jason Tamborini as director.  There's just something magical that can happen when the chemistry is right.  And to that end the rest of the primary cast: Jordan Brown, Lily Burka and Shaan Sharma were pitch perfect.  Here's the ticker--this was a two and half hour production that never lost my attention, if at times pushed the boundaries of my apprehension as I aloud the ideas to sink in and join an internal dialogue around the issues of censorship, honesty, courage and survival.  

On stage through May 18th.  Honestly, go.  This is the sort of opportunity that doesn't come along very often.

My Favorite LEGO sets: The Postcard Series

 While I think some of them could have been more thoughtfully designed (I'm looking at you, Australia), on the whole they are a clever and fun series of sets, that are also affordable by LEGO standards.

CHINA

AUSTRALIA

GERMANY

UNITED STATES

FRANCE

ITALY

JAPAN

UNITED KINGDOM

Dinner: Tuna Melt and Salad tossed with a French Vinaigrette

 

Hawkweed! Glorious Springtime Guest!

 

1st Stage: Young Americans

"Young Americans" by playwright Lauren Yee was my opportunity to see something other than her most celebrated work, an autobiographical comedic look at her immigrant father and his quirky ways which eventually led to political corruption called "King of the Yees".   It's actually been produced thrice in the DMV in the past decade, so what else has she done?  "Young Americans" is my first answer to this question.

It is a story told in split-screen (er, split-stage?) about a Haitian immigrant, Joe who 20 years after meeting his future wife at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC and driving her cross country to his home in Portland, Oregon attempts to recreate the experience with adult daughter after her return from a year spent studying overseas in India.  Some key notes.  1) Joe's marriage to Jenny was arranged through friends in Haiti and the road trip was the first time either had said much more than hello to one another.  2) Joe wants children; however, Jenny is barren.  3) Lucy, their daughter is adopted through a foreign adoption agency from an orphanage in India.  4) Jenny has left Joe some years prior to his staging of the re-enactment of the road trip with his daughter; although, they remain married.  That pitch alone sounds both rich with possibility and challenge.  

Structurally, I LOVE a play like this.  Intriguing characters, but not too crazy, with a structure that bubbles over with potential.  In execution, Yee created a compelling and delightful story with awkwardness, genuine humor, vulnerability, resilience, poignancy, and love.  The actors grabbed the script by the horns and ran with it, each embodying a character whose moments seem to endlessly rise with each scene.  

The set was conceptually interesting and functional for the needs of the production.  It was also enhanced greatly by the accompaniment of lighting and technical effects.  However, it was not up to the standards of the company.  It's construction felt haphazard and cheap.  This was especially noticeable in the wake of the set for the previous production which must have just broke the bank wide open.

Staged in 90 minutes with no intermission, I kind of planned my day around this.  It's a sign of my approaching "curmudgeon-ly-ness" that when such an expectation is upended, it bothers me.  The show was supposed to start at 2:00.  At 2:05, the stage manager came before the audience and said, "Due to a minor technical problem, the start of today's production is going to be delayed.  But I promise it will start by 2:20.  If you have any problems with this, please see me at the counter in the lobby so we can make amends."  Okay, kicks back my afternoon a little, but its "technical," so what can you do?  Then 2:20 came and passed.  Around 2:30 two young women entered the theater and took seats in the middle of the room.  It's a small room--you can't sneak in.  No sooner were they seated than the stage manager reappeared and ran her spiel about cell phones, bathrooms, etc and the show began.  

There is a standard procedure around seating and the start of shows.  You can hold the curtain for up to 5 minutes, but after that, late comers stand in the back and are seated between scenes.  Now, if these young women were relatives of the Author, or associated with a local embassy, then just tell us.  But don't call their inconvenient arrival a "technical problem".  Everyone saw exactly what happened.  There was a time when I was stuck on the beltway because of an accident and realized that I would be at best 20 minutes late, so I called from my car to let them know my situation and that would be unable to attend.  The person on the phone didn't say, "Oh, no!  We'll make up a story about technical problems and hold the curtain for you.  Please, come."   

I'm sure if they would have said, "We apologize.  We have some special guests attending this performance and they have been delayed so we are going to hold the curtain for 15-20 minutes until they arrive.  People would have been understanding--Hell, we'd probably applauded to welcome their arrival.  

The moment Jenny (Jasmine Joy Brooks) realized that Portland is in Oregon and NOT Maine while Joe (Shawn Sebastian Naar) Blissfully drives them west!

Joe and his daughter, Lucy (Surasree Das) setting out from DC on the same trip 20 years later.

Jenny & Joes first night "together".

Father and Daughter discovering a new understanding in their parent/child relationship.

Breakfast: French Toast & Fried Apple wedges with Maple Syrup

 

My favorite Lego Sets: The Kingfisher

COMMON KINGFISHER, Alcedo atthis

 I love this little set.  I love birds.  A few years ago Lego did a series of the three birds that were lovely (I have them) and then published a book on how to construct life-like birds from Lego.  I also have it.  

When this set came out I was thrilled by its design.  Placed in a naturalistic setting on a simple, but elegant base.  I hoped it was the first in what would become a series.  Alas, it appears to be a one off.  But what a lovely one, eh?

You can also adjust the head (and to a lesser extent, the wings)

DINNER: Pizza!

 

SPRING: Kwanzan Cherry at My Bedroom Window

 

Brandywine Museum of Art: Sharp Gallery: Works of Illustration from the Permanent Collection

 The final Gallery is exactly what it says it is: paintings of works used in popular illustration.  This was N. C. Wyeth's bread and butter.  His painting and illustrations graced the covers and pages of popular fiction/young adult fiction for nearly 30 years.  It is a genre that transitioned to magazines throughout his career.  

To get there you traverse a corridor with a wall festooned with paintings created by local children under the directive "Imagine Brandywine" as a celebration of March as Youth Art Month.  On the other-side is yet another amazing view of the Brandywine Creek.  

"Fairy Godmother," circa 1907

Sarah S. Stilwell Weber (1877 - 1939)

"The Fiddler," 1921

Norman Rockwell (1894 - 1978)

"Public Health and Morale," circa 1943

N. C. Wyeth (1882 - 1945)

Executed at the very end of his life as a result of supporting the nation's participation in World War II, this painting is AMAZING.  The factories' pollution is meant as a GOOD thing.  Evidence of a nation hard at work to defeat an existential threat of Fascism and the German Nazi Regime.  How differently time tells this story...

"The Pirates Cruise," 1931

Peter Hurd (1904 - 1984)

I almost ran to this one, it is so beautiful!  Winken, Blinken and Nod meet Mark Twain on the Mississippi!

"Through Mud to Glory," 1914

William Henry Dethlef Koerner (1878 - 1938)

"The Immigrants," 1899

Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle

Another view from the third floor.  Remember those millstones in Andrew Painting?  Now they are "tables" in little alcoves along the Brandywine Creek next to the Museum.

Brandywine Museum of Art: Cropsey, Wyeth And The American Landscape Tradition

 A large open foyer mimics the one on the second floor.  The one side faces a walled courtyard with tables and chairs and strings of those popular garden light bulbs running from the side of the museum to the far wall.  One can easily imagine a festive wedding reception or a benefactors' event, even a more intimate concert, lecture or poetry reading in this secluded courtyard.  On the opposite side the floor to ceiling glass forms a wide arch creating an area with concentric comfy chairs and a stunning view of the Brandywine Creek.  Just now I left a similar area on the floor below full of pre-schoolers and the moms enjoying a story hour--a sign that this is a welcoming and beloved institution in the wider community.

The first of two additional Gallery spaces consists of three rooms with an exhibition titled "Cropsey, Wyeth (Andrew) And The American Landscape Tradition."  By the time you enter the second and largest of the three rooms, you've said good bye to Jasper Francis Cropsey and you're pretty much looking at works by Andrew Wyeth.  The final room is all Wyeth.  Which is fine, after all the museum is built on what was his farm.  A few images and impressions.

"Autumn in the Ramapo Valley, Erie Railway," 1873

Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823 - 1900)

DETAIL "Autumn in the Ramapo Valley, Erie Railway"

Cropsey painted a lot of landscapes and at one point early in his career he traveled to London with a stash of them in hopes of obtaining a gallery that would represent him there.  You'd think anyone with such talent would have had an easy time of it; however, his autumn landscapes proved problematic.  Apparently autumns are far less colorful in England, and people just thought he was making it up!

"Coast of California," 1870's

Albert Bierstadt (1830 - 1902)

The post Civil War era in the United States was a grand time to be a landscape painter.  While the form got its initial kick via a group of artists who painted images of nature throughout the upper mid-Atlantic and New England and came to be known as the Hudson Valley School; they were easily eclipsed.  The east was hohum, it was the exotic west that had captured everyone's imaginations.  Like the British art patrons who poopoohed Cropsey's Autumn fare, stories of Grand Canyons, Grand Tetons, Grand Deserts, Geysers, Rivers, Waterfalls, Lakes, not to mention the wild beasts...  An artist with a keen sense of what the market wanted could make a killing, and several tried.  Among the most successful was a German immigrant named Albert Bierstadt. 

Bierstadt made a grand visit to the west seeing everything he could make his way to see.  He sketched like mad and took notes and made quick studies with both oil and watercolors.  He filled notebooks with notes and then returned to the east and churned out one of the most impressive collections of Western landscapes ever conceived.  Many of his works were monumental, we're talking 6 + feet tall and 8 or more feet wide.  These were paintings for public spaces, and the public ate them up.  Such was his talent, he also painted even more works of a modest size, repeating some of his most beloved locations.  All that said, I've never seen a painting by him of the Pacific Ocean.  What Joy!

"Blasted Tree and Deserted House," 1920

George Wesley Bellows

Artists of the Ashcan School were prevalent and popular during the heart of N. C. Wyeth's career.  The aforementioned John Sloan was a member, and so was George Wesley Bellows.  Bellows was perhaps the most recognizable of the group.  Besides painting of boxers in the midst of their sport, and urban settings with industrial aspects, his use of the color Cobalt Blue is a hands down key characteristic of his paintings.  Thus my surprise to discover this one.  Nary a hint of that dark, brilliant, nearly metallic shade of blue.  And neither 'house' nor 'tree' withstanding, I feel like the mountain is the real star of the painting.

"Robert Howorth Sledding," 1935

Andrew Wyeth, (1917 - 2009)

"Pennsylvania Landscape," 1941

Andrew Wyeth, (1917 - 2009)

"Fairy Cove, Port Clyde," circa 1925 - 1930

N. C. Wyeth (1882 - 1945)

"Winter Fodder," 1939

Andrew Wyeth, (1917 - 2009)

No one paints solitude like Andrew Wyeth...

"Osborne Hill," 1948

Andrew Wyeth, (1917 - 2009)

DETAIL "Osborne Hill"

"Untitled," 1941

Andrew Wyeth, (1917 - 2009)

I am not without a certain degree of ADD.  I will hit a wall and things sort of blur.  I either distract myself to clear my head, or take a nap!  On a gallery wall with 6 similar paintings, one titled: "Untitled" isn't likely to get my attention, especially when my attention is teetering.  But then deep inside my head another voice sometimes prevails.  It pricks my consciousness and seems to say, "Hey.  Hold on there.  Look again.  You're missing something!"  So I do and there it is.

DETAIL "Untitled"

The train...  Andrew seemed to have a little thing for trains.

"Night Sleeper," 1979

Andrew Wyeth, (1917 - 2009)

A later work.  A tender portrait of the family dog, Nell.  She sleeps against a striped duffle on a padded seat flanked by two windows.  It's not a real place, but a suggested one.  It's a train car.  And looking out of the window is the farm the Andrew purchased and transformed into his home, the site of this museum.  Hard to see, but leaning against the building are a pair of millstones.  Remember that.

"Woodshed," 1944

Andrew Wyeth, (1917 - 2009)

No mention of the dead crows in the title.