Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Thanks to All for the Merry Christmas at Wayside Theatre with Glory Bea!

Today we don the final performance of Glory Bea! A Shenandoah Christmas Story at Wayside Theatre. It's Christmas Eve. There's no place I'd rather be than here today. Every year with our annual Christmas show I tell the cast that our charge and our mission is to bring Christmas to our visitors. Every year we do. Each performance we sense the audience getting into the Christmas Spirit right along with us. But the Christmas Eve performance is always something special.

Theatre artists talk about that bond that develops between performer and audience member all the time, but on Christmas Eve with a Christmas show the bond begins forming long before the audience takes their seats or the actors head to places. Everyone knows, and expects, this to be magical, this to be joyful, and this to be Christmas. And you know what? It is.

Today we'll travel that journey once again and then the Wayside gang will head off for a couple of weeks to try and recoup a little energy for the remainder of the season. It has been a year of challenges and a year of successes. It has also been a year of wonderful people working hard and sharing their efforts. Thanks to all of the wonderful children who make Glory Bea! possible and thanks to their wonderful parents for sharing them with us on this ride. Thanks also to Rich and Larry for giving us this tale to tell. Thanks to our audiences for spending the time with us.

And as always thanks to the wonderful artists who are Wayside Theatre. Some of us will be traveling different paths in the new year to come, but we'll always have those moments of joy we've created for those willing to come and play with us. Especially those on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Playwright and Political Dissident Turned Leader Vaclav Havel Dies

R.I.P. Vaclav Havel.

It's not often in the history of the world where the interesection of the arts and politics collide in a profound way that saw Vaclav Havel move from the stage of one to the stage of the other. But that happened with this playwright who saw his dissident and boundry pushing plays, along with his actions propel him from the stage to prision to the presidency of Czechoslvakia. All of this at a momentus and confusing time in history as communism was falling in Europe.

Havel was always a hero of mine for his writings and how they contained greater truths that unseated conventional thinking in such an entertaining way. In ways that only the stage can really provide and he did so with great risk, given the era in which he was poking at the ribs of the beast that constrained muh of the world.

These thoughts from Havel made sense then. And as with the case of all great thinkers and writers, it still makes even more frightening sense as we have supposedly moved forward. More, because you'd think we should have learned something from that era.

"We have become morally ill because we are used to saying one thing and thinking another. We have learned not to believe in anything, not to care about each other. . . . Love, friendship, mercy, humility, or forgiveness have lost their depths and dimension. . . . They represent some sort of psychological curiosity, or they appear as long-lost wanderers from faraway times."

But, then we don't have a habit of listening to the chroniclers of the human condition.

Words That Should Be Banned for Overuse

Each year the folks at Lake Superior State University publish one of my favorite lists. This list contains words or phrases that they believe should be banned because they are overused or just, well, they just shouldn't be used period.

This year's Lake Superior State University List of Banned Words contains some interesting ones such as viral, FAIL, epic, A-Ha moment, and one phrase that I think has become as demeaning in its overuse, The American People. As the nominator says, aren't all Americans people?

Anyway, enjoy this year's list. And if you want to see all the words that have been banned in the past here's a link to that as well.

The 7th Annual Life on the Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards

Like everything else in my life in this insane year this post is a day late and a dollar short. The seventh anniversary of this blog was yesterday, December 3. But things in my life kept me from putting the finishing touches on the post and getting it published on the big day. On some level that's unacceptable. On others it is entirely in character this year. But then, maybe we'll see that change in the new year.

Seven years. (and a day) That's how long I've been presenting the Ink Blot Awards as my way of recognizing the anniversary of this blog. It's been a fun ride. It's been full of laughs. I'm hoping this year's awards will also provide a few chuckles to folks who stop by and give them a read. Although the history is mostly ancient and perhaps bordering on the irrelevant, I think it is important to provide some of it as context. So here goes:

I created The Life On The Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards as a celebration. Yes, it's a celebration of the 1 year anniversary of this blog. But it is more than that. It is a celebration of a community that I have come to know and admire. The Tableteers that make up the Tablet PC Community are an amazing collection of individuals who know and work with the Tablet PC platform. They are fiercely protective of it, insatiably curious about advancing it, very intelligent, often wickedly funny, at one time very forgiving and patient, and in the same breath, scathingly critical when the need arises. They are also exceedingly willing to evangelize the platform to anyone who will listen, and in my humble opinion, have helped keep the spotlight on The Tablet PC in ways that may, in the long run, prove to be responsible for keeping the platform thriving.

So much has changed in the time I started blogging that first year. It's changed with me and also that community has certainly changed. Those around me have changed as well in an eerie parallel to how things with Tablets have changed. Tablets mean different things now-a-days, although some of those who make them seem to have less penchant for success than Microsoft did.

What hasn't changed and what's consistent about Tablets is that they are still the very personal devices that they started out to be. Microsoft never recognized that. Apple did. Others tried to emulate without acknowledging the core reasons for Apple's success. And by and large they failed.

What's also changed is my attitude about politics, cultural happenings, and other things that I observe on this blog. I've also changed how I observe and remark about them. The convenience of Twitter and Google+ take something away from this blog. Sometimes I worry about that. Sometimes I don't.

I've become increasingly disenchanted with quite a few things this year. To be honest, I don't know why. I used to find it all entertaining in a "Human Comedy" sort of way. I don't find it that entertaining anymore. The ins and outs of life begin with the foibles of humans. It used to be that somewhere along the line we acknowledged that, celebrated it, and moved on, bettering ourselves in the process. While I think we still acknowledge it, and we might celebrate it, the only benefit we're deriving by moving on is to repeat the same things over and over again with an increasing frequency. I think this year's Ink Blot Awards reflect that with the number of repeats. Or they reflect my warped sense of things.

This was a year that so many things resulted in a "FAIL" that I think we have to look for a new buzz word for failure. Politics and the circus around it started performing without a tent and nobody cared that the clowns weren't funny any more. It's not that the clowns weren't funny that is maddening. It's depressing that no one cared anymore. Major tech companies became exposed for what can only be described as abhorent stratagies. New gadgets now depend on the same fickle first weekend sales that movies do. Of course if we had better gadgets being released, we'd probably see better results. Social networking became a parody of itself and all of that sharing resulted in a few shares too many or not nearly enough, depending on your perspective. Big media continued to prove that it doesn't have a clue. Little media seems to inexplicably want to follow that path as well. Oh, and Mother Nature reached up and smacked the planet around trying to get our attention. But aside from watching the compelling video and pictures we continued to just be thankful it wasn't us feeling her wrath, and sympathetic to those who did. The 99% became the Tea Party without the tea but with lots of party, because in the end the complaints are the same. For its efforts it got criticized by the 1% for being unorganized, dirty, and partying too much by the 1% that defines itself by making money and not making anything else so it can party. I think the 1% are just jealous because they feel like they have to dress up and shower in order to play their game. There's an old saying in show biz that if you put real life on the stage no one would believe it. I think if you put this last year on the stage, not only wouldn't anyone believe it, but Groupon would have a hard time selling discount tickets to it.

Last year's many repeats were due primarily to me spending the year dealing with my mother's terminal illness and ultimate passing. This year's repeats, I think, deal more with the fact that nothing has really changed. Change used to be a constant. I don't think it is as constant presently. On some levels I find that depressing, on larger levels I find that extremely human. I also find that it focuses those who are looking at life with 20/20 vision into a clearer view that someday may pull us out of the rut we're in.

Any pretense at aspirations aside, the rules for inclusion on the list are the same. Award winners are subject to my own whims and fancies. Some are best in class, some are just frivilous, some deserve the small heaping of scorn these awards might cast their way. Human nature, no matter the field of endeavor, is ripe with that which needs celebrating and that which needs derision cast its way. Good friend, Tablet PC MVP and fellow GBM contributor, Mark “Sumocat” Sumimoto, christened these awards with the nickname of ‘The Blotties’ in year one, and that sorta stuck. So we'll let it keep sticking. And finally, if you don't like the list, go make your own.

So, as always, hit the jump, cue the dancing girls, beat out a tattoo on the drums, sound the trumpets (or the theremin) and get ready for the Seventh Annual Life on the Wicked Stage Ink Blot Awards .

Enjoy!

Reality Done Gone Bye-Bye: Trump to Moderate Republican Debate

If there was a shark that was still circling the wading pool after all the splashing we've been through so far in this political season we would now have jumped it. It's been apparent for some time now that what passes for presidential poltitics has become not only irrelevant, but a continual mockery of itself. All players in the charade have been unmasked and anyone passing for an Emperor can't be that embarrassed to be exposed because all of the exposers are just as unclothed.

So, this should, perhaps mercifuclly, be the final nail in the coffin for what used to be the process of pretending like we were serious when we chose a president. Donald Trump is going to moderate one of the debates.

In earlier times this would have been as laughable as choosing Big Bird or Mickey Mouse. But those times have long passed us by. I take that back. I've just insulted Mickey and the Bird.

I'd say I was sickened by this, but that would imply that there was anything healthy about my response to any of the political shennanigans that go on now that demean the concept of politics.

Glory Bea! Has a Magical Opening Night to Kick Off the Holidays

Whew! This weekend we debuted a World Premiere Christmas musical by Rich Follett and Larry Dahlke, entitled Glory Bea! A Sheandoah Christmas Story. We had two previews, made a bunch of changes in this new show and offered it as a gift to our community at the official opening on Sunday night. To say it was a smashing success would be an understatement. Three audiences loved this show, which we hope promises many more full houses to come.

The entire company of Wayside Theatre audiences outdid themsevles on this one. Incorporating last minute changes and re-writes, while rehearasing two casts simultaneously, is no easy task, especially with children in the cast. But the kids, the adults and the staff were all sensational. This is truly an experience for the ages, on many levels, and one none of us will ever forget.

Now, it is on to a month of performances and bringing Glory Bea! and Christmas to our community. What a spectacular gift we have to offer, and what a treat our audiences and community has in store.

Glory Bea! Gets Ready to Light Up Your Holidays

We're working like frantic elves to get the World Premiere of Glory Bea! A Shenandoah Christmas Story ready for this weekend. We'll all try to fight the traditional Thanksgiving Day coma today when we come back for two dress rehearsals. This lovely new Christmas show from Rich Follett and Larry Dahlke will delight children and adults of all ages. It's full of fun, joy, hope, and a can do attitude that will make you understand just how indominitable we can be when we want to.

Here's a preview article of the show by the Northern Va Daily. Hope you plan to check it out this month. It's the best Christmas gift you can give to your family or yourself.

 

Be Thankful and Have a Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you and yours have a warm, safe, and yummy Thanksgiving. I also hope you take a moment to be thankful for all the blessings bestowed upon you and us all.

Stuck on Repeat in a Moment In Time

I suppose we've exhausted the clichéness of the cliché that George Santayana is credited with, "those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." All you need do is look around, if you have the courage to fix your gaze on just about anything that is happening in the world today. The picture that heads this post from an OWS protest at UC Cal Davis is just one example of how we've either lost any perspective on our current roles in the continuim or have just decided, in some astonishing feat of hubris, that what we're doing has no connection to the magnificient human errors that we and our ancestors stumbled into in the past.

What's that lesson we all learn as children? Stick you hand in a flame and you get burned? Why have we seemed to take a collective leave of our senses (both physical and intellectual) when it comes to dancing so periously close to fires we thought we had extinguished? Is the burning heat and glow of the fire so seductive that we ignore the potential for pain?

Here's a small list of seemingly collective memorable moments in time within which we seem to have collectively forgotten to remember our past. 

• The ridiculous responses to the OWS protests.The crackdowns serve to inflame not douse. These efforts to diminish the protests only serve to diminish the diminishers. I mean seriously, you write a memo explaining our you are going to spend money to discredit the protesters and let it leak?
• Wall St and the finanical world, you know that place where people make money by not making anything, are heading us all into another crash. Of course this behavior and our lack of a government with any desire to do something about it led to the OWS movement in the first place.
• The Republican presidential circus primary. I mean if Newt Gingrich can be on the ascendancy then those who are boosting him upward either don't care, or the office of the presidency has lost all meaning. Probably both. But then, I think the last decade has proven that what we call the US poltical process is nothing more than a hand maiden to bigger interests.

The list could go on and on, because as a species we just go on and on. But somehow in the going on and on, we've forgotten to carry any baggage with us from out collective past as we try to step into the future unfettered. But the only thing that is unfettered or unencumbered seems to be our destiny to find ourselves, again, on the bottom of the cycle that is life, crying about the burns on our hands.

 

 

Tay Zonday is Back to Explain the Economy

Remember Tay Zonday? He became a YouTube sensation with Chocolate Rain awhile back. Well, he's back again with a new video and song called Mama Economy that purports to explain the economy. He does as good a job as anybody else is doing. Especially considering that those who can explain it (versus those who think they can) don't want it explained. That only makes the mirage disappear.

Enjoy.

 

Take the Pepsi Challenge and Help Young Playwrights at Wayside Theatre

This weekend we debut a new play, Mary Shelly: A Spark of Being. It's a really exciting new piece. What makes it even more exciting is that it was written by a young team of playwrights from Wayside Theatre's educational programs. They spent the summer researching and writing the piece and now they are ready to see this new piece about the author of Frankenstein take the stage on Friday night in the first of three performances.

This program is just one of the many things Wayside Theatre's educational programs offer. This is the fourth year in a row where we've debuted a new play by teen writers. And for a number of years now we've sponsored a playwriting competition in the spring that has seen some really remarkable work from some apsiring young authors.

As everyone who follows Wayside Theatre here knows we've been struggling to make ends meet for sometime now. We might have turned that corner with our recent Emergency Campaign, but we still need to raise ongoing funds for our programs.

One way we're attempting to do this is to drink a lot of Pepsi products. Well, actually we're taking the Pepsi Challenge, which is a wonderful program that gives us an opportunity for a $25,000 grant. We applied for the program and were accepted as a finalist and we're now in the voting stage. I encourage you to go and vote at this link. Not only that I encourage you to go and vote each and every day, because we're allowed and encourage to do that. We're currently ranked at number 91 which means we've got a long way to go and with your votes we've got a shot. You can even text in a vote each day on your mobile phone (Text109578 to Pepsi (73774) to vote from your mobile). This allows you to vote once per day on the web and once a day via text.

Help us spread the word as well. We'd love to make this work for the kids in our area who enjoy writing and your vote can make the difference.

And, hey, this doesn't cost you a thing.

Wayside Theatre Featured in Northern Va Daily's The Haunted Valley Mobile Apps

Given that this is the day after Halloween, I wish I'd known of this sooner, but better late than ever. One of our two local papers is making a real push to reinvent itself for the digital age and one of the ways it is doing so is by creating Apps for mobile devices. The NVD has it's own iPhone App and Android App. It now has a specialty App out for iOS devices and Android devices called The Haunted Valley chroniciling some stories about haunted properties around the Northern Shenandoah Valley. One of those featured is our own Wayside Theatre.

We've been investigating mysterious activities here for quite some time. We've debunked a few legends and come up with a few more mysterious and unexplained events, sightngs, or whatever they are called. The Haunted Valley App tells some of that story and features my lovely wife, Thomasin Savaiano, who heads up this department for us. (Don't ask for a name of the department, we don't have one.)

We're getting checked out by a cable channel tomorrow to see if some of the events here might make their show and other producers and investigators are checking in to see if we "qualify" as well.

The Haunted Valley App is currently on sale for $.99 on iTunes. The Android price is $.99 as well.

 

Early Snow Brings Broken Trees

Today we got a highly uncharacteristic early snowfall for our region. It came duriung a weekend where we've still got plenty of trees that haven't seen their leaves change color yet. But those hanging leaves combined with a very heavy and wet snow to bring quite a few branches down in our yard and our neighborhood. As you can see from the photos, we didn't get all that much snow, but what we did get was enough to crack some decent sized limbs. What a mess. More pictures here at this Flickr Feed.

 

Apples and Oranges? Apple's Success in the Middle of Occupy Wall Street

It looks like the Occupy Wall Street movement is finding more than its legs as it continues not only to spread and grow, but to garner the typical denunciations and dismissals from those who don't get what all the fuss is about, as well as from those who are the targets of the demonstrations. Like my friend Francine Hardaway, I'm surprised this has taken this long.

Her post is worth a read as are many others on all sides of this issue. I love the characterizations of those who thing they have something to gain by talking about the protestors and their cleanliness, sex habits, and work backgrounds. Those reactions are sadly all to predictable and make cliches out of those using them. 

But as I was reading some of the coverage this morning I'm struck by an interesting parallel track that is going on in the news that might seem contradictory but instead, I beleive, makes a real point. In the tech and computing field these last two weeks have been all about one of the makers of the most current conspiously consumed devices: Apple. Between the announcement of its new iPhone, the death of Steve Jobs, and the release of the new iPhone and iOS5, it's been hard to find much other news on the consumer tech front. And let's keep in mind here that these aren't inexpensive devices and gadgets we're talking about. Apple makes its buckets of dough by being on the upper end. Apple had its best stock day ever yesterday and is going to be making a boat load of cash selling new iPhone 4S devices this weekend and beyond.

So, while on the one hand we have news footage of protesters in the streets and parks of New York City (and other places) running along the same path as we have photos of long lines of eager customers outside of Apple Stores. It makes me wonder how many folks are actually participating in both events. 

But that's not the point. The OWS folks are angry at the bankers and money lenders for essentially stealing their future. Given that we've essentially destroyed any hope of ever hearing any thing close to the truth about any issue that matters to us anymore of course that message gets ripped apart and from those who disagree with it. Epecially those who loved the Tea Party when they were on the rise. I think you would be hard pressed to find anyone beyond the very wealthy that would honestly (note I said honestly) argue that the OWS folk have a point, just like their Tea Party predeccsors did before they became organized and thus had to respond to their sponsors.

So, why is it, that the OWS folk don't go after Apple as a target this weekend? It is certainly a ripe target and the PR value would be huge. My guess is that it boils down to a simple fact. Apple makes things. Apple makes things that people find useful, even though they are expensive. The bankers, the brokers, and the hedgers only make money. Sure occasionally it is for their clients, but usually it is for themselves. And when the screwed up the making money part, they made off with some of yours and mine, thanks to the cozy relationship they have with the politicians. Apple makes its money by making tangible things that consumers want to buy. The targets of the OWS folk make money by making up things that have no real tangible value beyond increasing bottom lines and conning folks into buying them.

I have great sympathy for those who believe their sole purpose in life is to keep making more money. We went wrong when we decided that making money was a better path than making things. Of course you need money to buy things. But, as it appears ever more likely, when there isn't any way to make money any longer, that won't make much of a difference now will it.

The Woman In Black Opening Crowns a Crazy 6 Weeks

On August 25 we launched an Emergency Campaign to raise over $90,000 by October 10 to keep Wayside Theatre alive. A few days later we opened a production of Steel Magnolias that quickly became an audience favorite. As the early returns for the Emergency Campaign came in, it became apparent that we were going to find our community willing to step up and graciously help the theatre out of the current cash crunch. Bolstered by those early returns ($30,000 in the first week of the campaign) we launched rehearsals for The Woman in Black on Sept 20. As we all worked hard to keep the early momentum of the campaign going and began rehearsing this spine-tingling two-hander, there was this odd sense of impending success married to an even odder sense of not knowing what the future will bring.

Well, the Emergency Campaign is over. Our community stepped forward and the total amount donated is over $104,500. We've paid back the bills we had accumulated, we've opened Woman in Black, and now we begin preparations for our annual Christmas Show, the world premiere of Glory Bea! A Shenandoah Christmas Story by Richard Follett and Larry Dahlke.

In the interim we had to let some staff members go, reducing our team even more. That put stress on an already stressed organization, but it also opened up an opportunity for each member of the team to step up. And step up they did. The opening night performance of The Woman in Black, like the Emergency Campaign, showed what a group of determined individuals can do if they care and if they want to create their own success. We had a great performance by our cast, Jody Lee and David Millstone. Rebecca Calkin stepped up big time in every aspect of the theatre proving that she can indeed do it all. Our tiny admin staff pumped out an amazing level of work, and our production team did did an outstanding job. They usually do, but they exceeded what, by any rights, they should have been capable of, given all we were facing with the demands of the show, and the Campaign running.

I've always been proud to be a part of the team that is Wayside Theatre, but at Sunday night's opening that sense of pride was eclipsed by the weight of the knowledge of what these few individuals had accomplished. Our community should be very proud of the way it rallied to Wayside Theatre's cause in these recent weeks. That community should also be very proud of the amazing group of artists and adminstrators that it has within its bosom at this tiny little theatre with a big heart called Wayside Theatre.

Like the show they just created, they have the power to take your breath away.