Lehigh Valley Zoo, part 4

 

The heart of the lower section of the zoo is dedicated to African hoofstock.  Ostriches (a male and female) share one space with a pair of Plains Zebra.  Next to them you'll find a pair of male Masai Giraffe.  They are both 7-years-old.  Tatu has lived at the Lehigh Valley Zoo for the past 5 years, Joshua arrived from the Houston Zoo to be his companion a year ago.  The move was precipitated on the death of 20-year-old Murphy, a longtime resident of the zoo.

Across the path a large habitat is home to small herd of critically endangered Scimitar Oryx.  The six adults were joined by a newborn calf on August 4th, following a previous birth last November.  The zoo is very successful at breeding this species with 10 live births in the past nine years.  Besides the newborn oryx, the zoo received three young Common Elands as a new species.  Largest of the antelopes, they are gorgeous.

The final animal is an Kordofan Aoudad; a type of mountain goat native to the Sudan's eastern hills that skirt the shore of the Red Sea.

Oryx and Common Eland Habitat

Scimitar Oryx

Common Eland

Masai Giraffe Habitat

Joshua [R] and Tatu [L]

Lehigh Valley Zoo, part 3

 There are three featured species from Australia at the Lehigh Valley Zoo.  They are the Emu, The Red Kangaroo and the Tammar Wallaby.  It is possible to get supervised entrance into the Kangaroo and Wallaby habitat at designated times in the day.  

The newest habitat in the zoo houses two species of Lemur: the Red Ruffed Lemur and the Mongoose Lemur.  It opened earlier in the Spring and cost $500,000.00.  

Emu

Red Kangaroo

Madagascar Habitat Design

Realized Construction

Mongoose Lemurs snuggling

Red Ruffed Lemur

Lehigh Valley Zoo, part 2

 As you continue your visit in a clockwise direction, the path leads you down hill to an extended farm area.  The first habitat is a Lorikeet aviary with other birds included.  None were available due to the Avian Flu.  Next you come to the Goat Barn, a sturdy space with a handful of goats (the usual suspects: West African Pygmy goats, miniature Alpine goats, and a pair of Toggenburg's).  Guests are invited to pet them and can buy some feed to share.  At the very base of the zoo's western edge is another set of barns with animals to pet like Alpacas, Vietnamese Pot-belly Pigs, and Dorset and Hampshire Sheep.  

There's a set of picnic tables between the two farm areas with a handful of food wagons.  Leaving, you head east into an area with some animals from Australia.  The first habitat is a pond with beautiful Black Swans.

Goat Barn

Little Alpine Goat

Toggenburg Goat

The Keegan Theatre: Sweat

 It's interesting how different playwrights seem to be the cat's meow for a season or two in the DMV.  In the past it's been works by Athol Fugard, Paula Vogel, Lynn Gunderson....and this past season the darling was Lynn Nottage.  I honestly like this.  The opportunity to experience more than one work by a prolific and acclaimed playwright is a great way to better understand them, to appreciate their talent, to recognize their style.  

"Sweat" is the third of Nottage's works I've seen.  The previous two were "Milma's Tale" and "Intimate Apparel."  Each of these is as different as "Octopus" - "Electron" - "Banjo".  What they all have in common is a desire to stab the human heart into a deeper awareness of it's capacity to care.  

Realizing that "Sweat" actually won a Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2017 for what the Pulitzer committee cited as "a nuanced yet powerful drama that reminds audiences of the stacked deck still facing workers searching for the American dream," I respectfully offer the following observations.  1) It is the most ambitious work in terms of diversity of characters of the three plays I've seen.  2) As it bounces between specific dates in the years 2000 and 2008 with events tailored to Reading, Pennsylvania--the bouncing was not always an asset to the accessibility to the themes.  I recognize that this disregard for linear story-telling is in vogue, and it works sometimes.  3) I appreciated the ways in which she sought to create rounded characters with such a diverse and varied cast, but also felt that some stereotyping was predictive and flat.  Finally, 4) I was genuinely surprised by the apex moment of the play.  I can see how it would leave any visitor feeling exhilarated by the experience.

Now, onto this production.  

I loved the set!  I'm sorry that's a rather banal place to start, but honestly.  It was beautiful on every level.

I wasn't as impressed by the sound design.  Every scene is introduced by a snippet of a radio program.  A little monologue announcing the date and then the highlight of national and local news for that moment in history.  Each was presented flat.  There was no actual radio depth--the slightly echo-ey reverberation that is easily recognizable as transmitted on a AM/FM radio.  I felt like this was an epic fail on the part of the sound designer.

The ensemble cast was full of wonderful performances, and a few that were one-dimensional.  I loved the work of Lolita Marie as Cynthia.  She was powerful yet restrained in her portrayal of Black woman who finally get's her break in life only to discover that she is being used by a heartless corporation to betray her friends.  You could just feel the tension between the themes and want to collapse with her at the final realization.  Jamil Joseph as her son Chris was also a stand-out performance.  His ability to convey a young man with the opportunity to escape the treadmill of manual labor while choosing his loyalty to his best friend and family first resulting in paying an unfair price within the criminal justice system--just ripped at my heart.

On the down side is Susan Marie Rhea.  She is a founding member of this company and technically a flawless actor with an out-sized presence on any stage.  And therein lies the rub.  I've had the privilege of seeing her perform in three other Keegan plays, and always she is the angry, wounded, over the top character.  There doesn't seem to be any nuance to her performances.  And they are exhausting in their tornadic presentation.  Granted, her character, Tracey, had every reason to be angry and aggressive, but when you play your stereo at 12 all the time...you miss the lyrics out of conscious self-preservation.

The other flat performance was from Jon Townson as Stan.  Arguably the lynch pin to the entire play, he constantly rattled off his lines as if he were the only person on the stage.  And when it mattered most, his presence on stage felt comedic rather than profound.  It wasn't so horrible that I could reign in my darker angels and experience the moment for the playwright's intent, but the mere fact that I had to do this work was enough to lessen the moment.

Given the pluses and deltas on this one, I did not stand up with others at the end as we presented our real time ovation for the performance.

Parole Officer Evan (Delmoni Brewington) and Jason (Bowen Fox)

Nearly everything takes place at a local pub in Reading, Pennsylvania

L-R: Tracey (Susan Marie Rhea), Cynthia (Lolita Marie), Stan (Jon Townson), and Jessie (Santina Maiolatesi)

Back [L-R]: Oscar (Andres F. Roa) and Stan
Middle [L-R]: Jason, Tracey and Cynthia

Front: Jessie

Tracey, Jessie and Cynthia

Brucie (DeJeanette Horne) and Cynthia

Jessie, Jason, Tracey, Stan and Cynthia

Oscar and Tracey

Jason and Chris

Chris and Brucie

Oscar and Stan

Lehigh Valley Zoo: part 1

 

The Lehigh Valley zoo is located in eastern Pennsylvania just northwest of Reading.  It's a mid-size institution where on a good day you could see up to 65 different species.  

From the entrance, you first see the African Penguin habitat, a large round pool with a large enclosure camouflaged to look like a rock mound. You can never see all of the birds in an exhibit like this where the penguins are free to come and go.  I counted about 13 birds, but I think the colony's larger than that.

Visit the zoo in a clockwise fashion, the next notable place of interest is the Reptile Amphibian Discovery Center, a herpetarium with about 15 different species of turtles, frogs, lizards, snakes and salamanders.

Beyond this is the North American River Otters' habitat.  A point of personal interest to me.

AFRICAN PENGUIN HABITAT

One of the characteristics of the African Black-footed Penguin is their unique vocalization.  They sound like mules braying.  For this reason in South Africa they are colloquially known as Jackass Penguins.   Members of this colony were particularly vocal.

REPTILE AMPHIBIAN DISCOVERY CENTER

Check out this gorgeous Timber Rattlesnake.  I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful speciman.

Gila Monster

Green Monitor Lizard

NORTH AMERICAN RIVER OTTER HABITAT

The final habitat to visit in this part of the zoo belongs to the North American River Otters.  As eluded to previously, I had a more personal reason to spend time here.  Owing to an AZA breeding recommendation, the 8 year old female, Piper, who used to reside at the Maryland Zoo, now calls the Lehigh Valley Zoo home.  But first a word or two about the habitat itself.  

The North American River Otter habitat sits in a concrete bowl surrounded on about 75% of it's sides by tiers of wide concrete "seats" and a trio of concrete steps to allow visitors to descend from the general path down to the habitat's edge.  It is an amphitheater, and bears all of the characteristics of a one-time sea lion performance venue, now retrofitted to accommodate the otters.  It's decently sized, but like the Penguin Habitat before this, doesn't hold a candle to Maryland Zoo's.

Upon arriving I quickly spied Piper--she loves to swim underwater on her back with belly up reflecting the muted whiteness of her underside fur.  Her new beau is Luwani.  He is larger that she, not unusual between males and females; however, more so than was poor Hudson back at the Maryland Zoo.  It's Hudson's lack of procreative impulses that landed Piper here.  

In watching the two of them interact, they seemed chummy enough.  Piper bears the added description of "hyper," because the girl never slows down.  As I watched she and Luwani play on a floating tambourine thingy, there were moments when he would assert his dominance over her by biting the nape of her neck and holding down until she submitted.  She wasn't hurt physically, and it probably bodes well for the likelihood that Luwani and she will (or have) breed (bred).  As stated, Hudson never layed a paw on her.  And it made me a little sad for.  After being queen of the expansive habitat at the Maryland Zoo, she's now a mail order bride.  And the kingdom is diminished.

Miss Piper

Mr. Luwani