Life On the Wicked Stage: Act 2

Marking the End of a Decade at Wayside Theatre

Today we have the final two performances of Cotton Patch Gospel at Wayside Theatre. It also marks the end of our 47th Season. For another notch on the pole it also marks the end of my 10th season as Artistic Director. Who’d a thunk things would go this far?

It has certainly been a wild ride throughout those 10 seasons. The first one was nothing short of a disaster as I and the Board of Directors had to figure out what was what. We produced some good work in those early seasons amidst the chaos, but it was really all about figuring out what we needed to do to really move forward on the mandate I was given when I was hired in 1999. At the time, Wayside Theatre’s season ran from June to December and the board wanted to get to a season that ran throughout the year. We worked hard on that goal and achieved it in 2003. There was a lot of courage exhibited by a few and a great deal of cowardice by others over those years and that still seems to be the trend today.

We’ve had some amazing successes and some stunning failures. We’ve almost had to close the doors a couple of times, this past fall being one of them. Given the state of the economy currently, it is anybody’s guess how we’ll emerge from a huge funding downtown and a climate where are ticket sales are much lower than we need them to be, but we keep finding ways to keep things going forward.

We renovated the facility that was surely in sore need of it. The plumbing was ready to collapse, the roof leaked and needed replacing and I won’t begin to tell you how scary the electrical system was. During that renovation we moved out for a year and created another theatre in Front Royal about 10 miles away. We really had no choice because the alternative would have been to shut down during that period and to shut down even temporarily meant goodbye for good. Who knew we’d turn into a political hot potato during that time. That interesting little theatre we created at the Royal Phoenix was unique and wonderful and we really hoped it would become a second space for us, but politics and money kept that from happening and so we returned home to our renovated theatre last season, with hopes of someday being able to move onto Phase II which will allow us to expand a little. Although I think we’ve already outgrown those original expansion plans.

Our Educational Programs have grown to a point where we not only do amazing work with the area’s youth, but we do just amazing work. In this still very much rural area we see kids who ache to perform and learn what that means. We fill that need, but the kids fill us up with their energy, creativity, and enthusiasm.

iPhone and Palm Pre Grudge Match

Very funny I'm a Mac I'm a PC Style video featuring a grudge match between the Palm Pre and the Apple iPhone.

Torture Debate is Becoming Torture

I wanted to begin this post by saying never in my life could I have imagined that intelligent people would spend time trying to nuance their way around the evils of torture. But then that would be a lie. Things have become so twisted in the way we conduct political and social discourse within the last period of human history that you can count on intelligent people to completely forget the issue being debated and instead apply their gift of brainpower towards figuring out how to win the debate and score points.

The problem with the current torture debate is that this isn't a debating club, where the results are just a trophy. This is eating at our very souls.

We've seen a few talking heads (Sheppard Smith, Nora O'Donnell) actually go off script and throw up their hands in disgust during this last week but unfortunately we've seen more instances of those who want to be respected dip themselves in a bucket of tar so deep that the stain will never be removed.

Let's set aside the fact that for the better part of five years now everyone has known what was going on. We watched as our president lied to us on a regular basis about torture. Some screamed in protest but the "we do not torture" mantra permeated so deeply within our nation's fabric that it will forever mar how we and others view ourselves. It happened so frequently that the national nightmare became a national joke and now it has become our national legacy and threatens to tar the new administration with the same brush due to, what appears to be, some indecision on how to navigate through these dark and troubled waters.

I'm not arguing for trials and investigations here in this post. Honestly, I don't see the point, given that many of those doing the trying and investigating are directly or indirectly implicit in the way they handled themselves during this dark period. Sure political points can be scored and ratings can be won, and righteous indignation can be shared. But who is really left to be the judge? When I watch intelligent people bend themselves into pretzels trying to dance to the way the music used to be played over this issue it really drives home the point that our political and media classes have not only lost their way, but they have dragged the rest of them into the pit with them. It makes you wonder why the voices of the so called morality guardians in our religious leadership are so silent as well.

It would take a purge of biblical proportions in order to come close to thinking about putting this behind us and moving on.

Happy Birthday William Shakespeare

Today is the 445th anniversary of William Shakespeare's birth (at least when it is celebrated). So toss back some ale and celebrate. If you've been the victim of a 10th grade English Teacher and turned off to the bard's work, here's hoping a local theatre near you can rekindle your interest.

And if not and you just want to have some fun, some have proclaimed this Talk Like Shakespeare Day.

Tharon Musser R.I.P.

The American Theatre lost an icon this week with the passing of Lighting Designer Tharon Musser. She cut across styles as well as generations with her work and received several Tony Awards for her work. Her design for A Chorus Line was the first to use a computerized control board on Broadway.

As a lighting designer, you’re taught that if your work gets noticed you haven’t done your job. Musser was a giant who did the job and got more than noticed for doing so.

As my good friend Jose Simbulan said earlier today, “Heaven will be a little brighter today.”

Here’s a link to the Playbill obit.

iPhone App Store Dips Further into Toilet With Pee Factory

Let no one say there’s no money to be made from toilet humor. First, Apple’s iPhone App Store picked up a raunchy smell with a bevy of Fart apps. Now we’ve got the Pee Factory.

Supposedly this app allow you to make a variety of urination sounds (you know like a racehorse or a mild tinkle) and even uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to change things up a bit. It costs you $.99.

Talk about a revenue stream.

And no, I’m not buying it.

Via Krapps

Waterboarding by the Numbers

So, the Torture Memos are getting combed through with combs, fine toothed and otherwise. The numbers game coming out so far says that we used waterboarding a combined 266 times on two terrorists (Abu Aubaydah got water up his nose 83 times in one month, and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed got the treatment 183 times in one month.

Set aside all the previous bravado that these guys talked immediately and quickly on the first go. That obviously goes down as bunkum now. Set aside the lunatic assertions made by some that because this happened so frequently, the targets must not have conceived of it as torture.

Dick “the vice-waterboarder” Cheney is now arguing for the info that shows the positive results that were gained be declassified. That’s probably just a smokescreen as that info probably won’t be declassified for some time.

What strikes me as absurd (as in theatre of the absurd) about this is the focus on the numbers. Humans have always done horrible things to other humans and will continue to do so. I’m not saying that to excuse anything as there is no excuse for the depravity that any of us is capable of towards someone else. Where the absurdity comes into play is the fact that someone thought they should keep the numbers as if the results of this kind of thing could actually be measured and that the documentation wouldn’t surface somewhere down the line.

I don’t think Ionesco, Kafka, Artaud, or for that matter, Mamet could have dreamed that one up.

George Will Gets His Shorts in a Bunch Over Denim

George Will needs a vacation. Apparently not content with making up stuff about global warming he’s decided to take on denim and those who wear it as some sort of symbol of the decline of all culture.

Now, don’t think George got original on this. He actually riffs off of Wall St. Journal writer Daniel Akst’s earlier column on the same topic. (Will thinks Akst should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his thoughts.) George must be campaigning for something bigger because he later says Akst only scratches the surface. Both have too much fun to take them even with a grain of salt.

Denim is the carefully calculated costume of people eager to communicate indifference to appearances. But the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves.

George, George, George. I think you need to look a little deeper than the bow tie beneath your chin. I think what you’re seeing is the grand undressing of the myth that clothes make the man/woman. At least several generations have written off those festooned in sartorial splendor who spend their time playing charades with the news and other important matters.

The little child isn’t pointing at the Emperor(s) lack of clothes. We’re way beyond that. The child is saying it just doesn’t matter anymore and isn’t worth the gesture.

Weird Coca-Cola Cult

I guess branding is branding, even if it becomes cultish. These folks apparently wear some soft of half bottles with Coke in them on their heads.

Via The Inquistr

Hydrokinetic Adjustable Wrench

I don’t climb ladders and do much work with tools in the theatre anymore, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting one of these. The Hydrokinetic Adjustable Wrench lets you work with 23 different sizes of nuts and bolts. It has a liquid core. You open a valve, fit this over the nut or bolt, push what they call the ‘gripper’ and you get a snug fit and can go about your business.

 

Via ThinkGeek