A Good Day At The Renaissance Faire

We went to the Three Barons Renaissance Faire Sunday at Russian Jack.  For us Russian Jack is the southern section with the Chalet, golf, and the greenhouse.  But there were only a couple of golfers there.  

Things were happening behind a playground  at Pine an 8th.  It was a cloudy/sunny day with the possibility of sun, rain, both, but it turned out just perfect for going to the Faire.  Lots of people were in costumes.  

I sent this picture to a much younger friend who tends to know lots of anime characters. 

He immediately texted back:  Lucifer, Hazbin Hotel.

So I looked Lucifer up and got this picture.  (Apparently his wings aren't always visible.)

From Aminoapps

So I sent him so more pictures to see if he could ID them too.  

The sorcerer's hat from Fantasia.  Well he said Mickey's hat, but this one is my generation and I knew that Mickey used the sorcerer's hat when the sorcerer was away to make his chores easier.  It didn't work out the way he intended.    

From Reactormag

This one he couldn't identify. They're own selves maybe.

He wasn't sure.  Hazarded it might be the Valkyrie Gunnr

Maybe she's another Valkyrie.

From Creator

And Gandalf.

From USAToday

Lots and lots of people.  Some long lines at the food booths especially.  We got to see Fractured Fairy Tales - a production of Hansel and Gretel with a narrator  (to the right), 

The woodcutter and his wife (she also played the wicked step mother in the same outfit) and Hansel and Gretel.

And a bunch of other characters, some, like the Big Bad Wolf, from other fairy tales - had to be shooed off the stage by the narrator for being in the wrong play.   It wasn't high drama, but it was cute and we enjoyed it a lot.  Sitting out in the warm sunshine didn't hurt.  (For people in parts of the country where the temperatures are above the 90s, warm sunshine here means high 60s, maybe low 70s.)

This, as I understood it, was a slippery fish, who kept interrupting the play and had to be chased off the stage.  

And this (woman on the left) was the witch, who insisted she was being maligned.  Not a witch, a widow.  And the children were destroying and eating her house that she spent so long to bake and build.  

As I said, a lot of people dressed special (very special) for the occasion.  

We bought a turkey leg.  More like an ostrich leg, it was so big (and delicious.)  

We sat out on the grass and watched jousters take each other on with big foam clubs.  

And the turkey made me sleepy so I lay back an watched the clouds roll by.  

A good day.  

Cooper Bates - Takes Me Back To The Many Amazing Artistic Finds Out North Brought to Anchorage

 Here's Cooper after the performance.  

One man for a bit over an hour.  Telling the story of a black man who grew up on a farm in Kansas, where all the other families were white.  

After high school, he heads for Dallas to enroll in acting school.  

Every now and then there's a black out for - not really sure, maybe five or ten seconds - and then the story continues.  

On the one hand, this is the kind of story we rarely used to get to hear - a first hand account of growing up Black.  On the other hand, it's the kind of story people are working hard to suppress in various states.  While Anchorage pushed back against the Mom's For Liberty School Board candidates at Tuesday's election, comfortably reelecting the incumbents, MatSu has set up its own book review committee.  

Out North, for years, brought up relatively obscure, but brilliant acts, that challenged my brain to think bigger and different, many if not most with an LGBTQ (there was no + on the list back then) flavor.  This performance tonight reminded me of those stimulating evenings.  And with Cyrano's having moved into what used to be the Out North theater, my brain is still confused.  It's like two good friends having merged into one person.  

But let's get some basic information up for those who might want to see Cooper perform - and everyone reading this should.  

The performance is called Black Out.  It plays this weekend and next at Cyrano's Playhouse - the old Out North Theater, the Old Airport Heights library building, 3600 Debarr, kitty corner, almost, from Costco.  

I hope people share this post, or at least this event, widely.  This is great story telling.  Tonight's audience was pitifullysmall - about 10 people who hardly reflected the diversity of Anchorage.  At one point in the story telling, the aspiring actor has concerns about only playing Black characters, mostly white stereotypes of Black criminality.  But he even has doubts about being cast as Jackie Robinson because he's Black.  His acting mentor tells him about how the kids who watch him act will be inspired by watching him in that role.  None of those kids were in the audience to be inspired tonight.  [The program says for 14+.  The ticketing website says 16+.  Rape and suicide are covered in the play, but I think parents can judge whether their 15 year olds can deal with that.  But they weren't there.]  

Below is the stage just before the performance began.  

The playwright (also Cooper Bates) writes in the program

"For two decades, I've poured my hart and should into these productions.  They're not just performances;  they're a testament to my journey of self-discovery and purpose.  From witnessing racial bullying on the playground in first grade to grappling with my authenticity in my twenties, this play encapsulates the evolution of my existence."

I guess that can sound a bit self-centered, but the performance isn't.  He began talking to a few audience members and shaking hands with them.  He played not only his own part, but also some of the key people who influenced him along the way.  Throughout, he was relating a story directly to the audience.  

I had told my wife to poke me if I fell asleep during the performance.  That wasn't an issue.  I was listening and watching intently the whole way.  

My one frustration with the production was my inability as an audience member to let the actor know how much he had pulled me in.  I wanted to applaud at the blackouts, like you might do after a a musician does a particularly exciting riff, but by the time I was ready to applaud, the lights were back on and he had picked up the (one-way) conversation.  Could he read our faces? (We were both wearing masks which made it harder for him.)  Our body language?  We were close, but I'm not sure how much light was on us.  And no one else seemed ready to clap.  Maybe it would interrupt his rhythm.  And so, by the third or fourth black out, the audience silence was the norm.  And the blackout at the end, well the audience didn't know for sure if it was the end or not and didn't start applauding until the lights came back on and Cooper bowed.  

Or maybe the rest of the audience wasn't as into it was we were.  I thought the applause at the end was meagre for such a powerful performance. Maybe a bigger audience would have made some noise.  

I also want to mention that he projected his voice really well.  I wear hearing aids and when we watch Netflix, say, I usually have the subtitles on so I can 'hear' everything.  (But I hate reading the lines before the actors say them.)  But I heard every single syllable tonight.  Cooper didn't have a mic, and didn't speak particularly loud, he just projected well.  

You can get tickets at this link.  I'm hoping to see it again.  With the bigger audience it deserves.  

Phlox and Flax and Sweeney Todd

Great day today and the flowers are summer show.  I very accidentally planted things out front that start early and end late with different things blooming throughout the summer.  One of the early ones is the phlox.  These dime sized flowers put on a great show.

And if you look in the upper right corner, you can see several tiny blue flowers.  Those are flax.  They've been coming back and, I think, reseeding themselves every summer since about 2011.  They start early and stay most of the summer.  Opening up in the day and closing at night.  Also, tiny flowers.

There were flowers mentioned at last night's performance of Sweeney Todd.  Mrs. Lovett sings (from  MetroLyrics):

I've been thinking flowers, maybe daisies
To brighten up the room
Don't you think some flowers, pretty daisies
Might relieve the gloom?
Ah, wait, love, wait

Sweeney Todd has to be one of the most perfect Broadway musicals, more a blend of musical and opera by Stephen Sondheim.  The plot, the music, the lyrics, everything weaves together.  Here's a post I did before seeing the movie with Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd in 2007.

Back in those early blogging days, I was still testing to see if my camera could take video at the movies.  It was before Youtube was anything and even getting previews online was hard.  Besides I thought that if book reviewers could pick what they wanted to quote in their reviews, movie reviewers should be able to do the same and not be restrained by what the studio wants you to use. (I still think that.)  But there's lots more video available these days so I don't do that any more.  But there is some video in this post after we saw the movie and it will give you a sense of the story and the great music.

Another aspect of this musical is that while Sweeney is the main focus, a number of different characters get the lead on different songs.   There was a younger crowd than I normally see in the Discovery Theater and a lot more tattoos.

And since I don't take pictures without prior permission at live performances, I only have this picture of the first few orchestra members warming up in the pit well before the show began.

Sweeney is a treat and it's playing tonight and through the weekend.  I'd highly recommend it.  There were some great performances.  I particularly liked Enrique Bravo as Sweeney, Victoria Bundonis as Mrs. Lovett, and Zebadiah Bodine as Tobias Ragg.  But everyone was good.

This is a Perseverance Theater (Juneau) production and ticket information is here.  There are significant discounts for military, seniors, and students.

[Reposting once again because of Feedburner problems]

Happy Year Of The Monkey

From Chinese Fortune Calendar:

"2016 is the 4713th Chinese Year. According to Chinese Horoscope calendar, the first day of Red Monkey is on February 4, 2016. This day is not the Chinese New Year Day. Most of Internet Chinese horoscope sites use Chinese New Year Day to determine the Chinese zodiac sign, which is wrong. Chinese New Year Day of Red Monkey Year is on February 8, 2016. This is the reason that some people confuse their Chinese zodiac signs."

The picture comes from my copy of the Monkey King and the illustration is by Zdeněk Sklenáf.  This picture is from chapter 9, 'The Monkey King disrupts the Peach Banquet.'

The Chinese Fortune Calendar also tells us about Monkey King:

"Monkey King is a main character in the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West. Monkey King was born from a stone and acquired supernatural powers from a Taoist master. It's very naughty, went to heaven, stole an elixir of life, ate many peaches of longevity, and then rebelled against heaven. All guardians or generals of heaven cannot conquer the monkey. Finally Buddha tamed and jailed it in the bottom of Five-Element mountain. The monkey had to wait Master Xuan-Zang monk for 500 years to rescue it. Then the story of Journey to the West began. The monkey had to escort the master monk to bring Buddhist sutras from India to China. At the time of the journey, the stone monkey was about 850 years old."

From Your Chinese Astrology:

The people born in the year of the monkey are of great intellects and skillful. They are usually good leaders. Quick and intelligent as they are, they can win prizes frequently from childhood, thus, often appreciated by parents and teachers. Besides, they are most in good physical conditions. Not only good in fortune when they are young, but also perfect after middle ages. As they are good at saving up money, they usually live lives without worrying about food and clothing.
The people under the sign of the monkey are sometimes a bit quick-tempered. This may hinder them from getting success. So, they should learn to be patient to overcome. They also like to project themselves to attract others. As they have extraordinary ability to distinguish between things, they can always make good decisions. In their families, they are usually considerate and thoughtful.

The monkey people born in different periods of a day have different personalities and fortune:The Monkey people born in the morning usually treat others kindly and politely. They would not like to push themselves forward. When dealing with things, they are usually actively to round off their work. However, they regard their interests much more important than work. Sometimes, they may give up a good job in order to have more time on their hobbies. So, when finding jobs, they had better choose one that they are interested. However, like the monkey scampering in the trees in nature, the Monkey people are not steady. They are fond of social activities and circulate among many friends. Nevertheless, they have few bosom friends.

To test this, here are some people born in the Year of the Monkey:

Leonardo de Vinci (1452)
Charles Dickens (1812)
Oscar Schindler (1908)
Elizabeth Taylor (1932)
Michele Kwan (1980)
Yao Ming (1980)

Here's a whole list of famous people born 1908.

Here's some flashy juggling, balancing, and acrobatics from the Beijing Opera about the Monkey King.

Out North's Waking Up From Its Coma

Last summer, Out North shut down.  There'd been rumors of problems, grants not extended, etc.  I didn't write about it at that time because I didn't know much and because it was too painful.  Out North has offered Anchorage a door to another world that isn't often seen here - a world of art and theater and performance that pushes limits and makes audience members reassess what they believe.  For me, that's one of the criteria for great art.


We'd heard rumors that that Out North might be coming out of its coma, and last night it was official.  There's a new board and new enthusiasm, and maybe soon new money.




Coming out of a coma is a good metaphor and it was echoed in the movie that showed after, The Wisdom Tree.

Musical About Gold Rush Prostitutes Premiers at Cyrano's

Barker (scum of the north)

After the show I told Ed Bourgeois that he was lowlife scum and I'd never speak to him again.  And just last week when I talked to him he seemed so nice, but as Barker in Gold Rush Girls he was such a despicable villain that the audience even booed him a few times. Ed was also the director of this musical. 

It was dark on stage after the show and my pictures didn't turn out well, but Barker doesn't deserve a clean, crisp picture.  Fuzzy and out of focus is still too good for him.

 I keep saying this, but it continues to be true.  Anchorage is lucky to have such good local theater in small intimate venues.  Cyrano's Playhouse holds 99 people.  We were on the side and we were closer to the action at times, than other actors on the stage.

Cyrano's stage from our seats before the show

Lael Morgan

 And the actors were all so good.  The acting and, more importantly, the singing voices were strong and beautiful.  The music was strong.  This was a cast of seasoned actors and singers (the program lists lots of notable experience)  bringing to life this musical "Gold Rush Girls" about the people in an Alaska dance hall.  It's based on the book Good Times Girls by Lael Morgan who was there for opening night.  So were the composer and playwright, Jerry and Karmo Sanders.



A good story, good music, great cast.  It's scheduled to be here through September.  It's a perfect night of entertainment for tourists who want to see good musical theater with an Alaskan theme as well as for locals who just want to see a good musical. 

The playwright and composer notes in the program say:

Gold Rush Girls has been through many incarnations in the past 10 years;  with numerous readings, 5 of them being at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre, and a 2 week workshop at the New Repertory in Watertown, MA.  After each one of those adventures, we came home - and re-wrote.

I'm sure after seeing it actually performed now, they'll be doing some more tweaking.  Despite it being over two hours long, I was fully absorbed throughout.   There were so many great performances.  It was like an old Perils of Pauline plot with several heroes, some weaker souls who went with the flow, a love-struck "Schoolboy", and an ambitious woman who is easy prey for the devious villain.  So the boos from the audience fit right in.  I wanted to grab Lily (Regina MacDonald) and tell her, "No, don't be a fool!!  But the lead character, Eudora (Katie Strock) told her for me. 

I want to point out Christina Gagnon, who played the ghost of Kanoontuk, and hovered around the stage throughout singing advice from the afterlife in her amazing, powerful, and beautiful voice.  My favorite moment was Schoolboy (Leo Grinberg) and Rose's (Ali de Guzman) duet.  They were standing about six feet from us and Kanoontuk was looking on from the doorway, even closer to us, adding her beautiful encouragement. 

We've had many great experiences in this intimate theater.  An evening of opera stands out - hearing those penetrating voices up close without amplification.  Another evening with Dan Bern - two shows worth - just totally into the music and the audience.  This was a night like that.  If this play ever makes its way to Broadway, the people in New York won't have this magical intimacy with the actors.

I don't take pictures during performances without permission. This was during what would have been the curtain call had there been a curtain.   I'd note that during the performance the actors did not ignore those of us sitting on the sides of the stage. 

Man Survives Nazis and Stasi Dressed as a Woman

Brandon Demery Curtain Call

[The Nitty Gritty:  Yes the title was meant to get your attention, but it's also accurate.  "I Am My Own Wife" is one more truly amazing performance at Out North.  A Pulitzer and Tony winning play about a most unusual character, performed so extremely well, by Juneau actor  Brandon Demery.

Two more shows Saturday (today) at 3pm and 8pm.

This is one of those true gems that we in Anchorage get to see intimately in Out North's tiny theater.  The blurbs written about the play simply do not give a sense at all of what this is really about, and it's so good you shouldn't spoil it by reading the in depth reviews in advance.   You can stop reading now and just go and see this while you can.  But if you're not convinced, read on.]



This really should have played every night for the week before the Prop. 5 election.  It's one more story about a man's body holding a woman inside.  From Peter Hinton's study guide for the play:

“In an age where politicians still routinely decry homosexuality on the evening news and “fag” remains the most stinging of all playground epithets, Charlotte’s dogged insistence on her own sexuality could prove downright curative, an antidote for a community too often besieged by public condemnation and internalized self-loathing. She was a bona fide gay hero.”**

From New York Times theater reviewer, Bruce Weber,  almost ten years ago, about this play in New York,

. . . the producers of ''I Am My Own Wife'' have done theatergoers a service by giving the play a chance to be more widely seen. And it has, in fact, broader appeal than a mere description would have you believe. It is not an esoteric work, and it isn't especially kinky.

It does, however, tell a terrific story based on a real person, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (née Lothar Berfelde), a soft-spoken but tenaciously gender-bending biological male who died in 2002 at 74. Her lifelong obsession -- Mahlsdorf preferred to be thought of as female -- was the preservation of furniture, especially pieces from the 1890's, and other household relics like Victrolas and gramophones.

The playwright is one of the main characters in the play, a resolution to the dilemma of having conflicting information about his main character - is she a hero or not? - and not knowing which version was true or how to resolve the conflicts in a person he saw as a hero.

 From the study guide about the drama:

"An exchange with a colleague at a writers’ retreat in 2000 gave Wright insight into an approach to Charlotte’s story that freed him to proceed with it: “For the first time, the play’s structure dawned on me. It wouldn’t be a straightforwsard biographical drama; it would chart my own relationship with my heroine. I would even appear as a character, a kind of detective searching for Charlotte’s true self” (Wright, p. xv.). By making his own process of discovery just as much a part of the drama as the events in the life of his enigmatic subject, Wright highlights the notion that the meaning of an individual life -- in truth as well as in fiction -- depends on who’s telling the story. No collection of stories, no matter how exhaustive it may appear, is ever enough to capture the elusive essence of individual identity; hence the provisional element in the play’s subtitle -- not “The Life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf” but Studies for a Play About the Life of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf."

And while there were a number of characters - the Irish Film Magazine says 44 (some had very short parts) - there was only one actor playing them all.  There were a few words here and there that slipped out of his mouth that had to be retrieved quickly before proceeding, but that really didn't detract from the power of the performance.

Stage table with props

Need I say it again?  Go see this.  Take your neighbor who voted no last week.  




An additional note.  The student guide has a German vocabulary list for the play.  There is German spoken, but mostly it's translated in the play.  But there is one bit of German not on the list - probably because it was said in English.  Charlotte says something like, "I became the furniture"  "I became . . . "  In German, bekommen, means "to get."  I'm assuming the playwright was indulging in a bit of bi-lingual word play here, because the character both 'gets' these objects and in a way 'becomes' them as well. 

Kelly Williams, the Frosting on Superior Donuts

Kelly Williams, II (Franco) after the play

We decided to head down to Cyrano's to catch Superior Donuts before it was gone.  We knew nothing about it.   What a treat it was.  All the acting was good.  But when Kelly Williams, II walked through the door in the role of Franco Wicks, the whole place lit up.   Or, as the actor who played Franco at the Steppenwolf in Chicago says in the video below, "He breathes new life into the neighborhood."

The script was crisp and funny and I found myself totally pulled into the play.  This is the end of the run.  You've got Friday and Saturday evenings at 7 and then Sunday afternoon to see it.  At Cyrano's. 

The playwright, Tracy Letts, won the Pulitzer and a Tony with his previous play August: Osage County, and he had plenty of talent left for Donuts.

Here's a video from the Chicago production at the Steppenwolf including playwright Tracy Letts.   

I Didn't Connect to Ruskin's Lonesome West

I couldn't relate to any of the characters in Lonesome West.  It was well acted, the set was great, the tiny theater puts everyone almost on the stage, and I could hear it all well, though the Irish accents were so thick, I had trouble understanding at times, mainly the priest's words got lost.

That was my reaction as we left the Ruskin Group Theater Saturday night and I pretty much decided not even to post about it.  It just wasn't my world at all.

But it seems my brain has been working on this without my knowing and this morning my reaction was clearer.  We like some art because it reflects what we feel.  But really good art should help us understand things and people we don't know.  That's what was missing.

Lonesome West takes place in Ireland - I think they mentioned Galway in the play, and Wikipedia confirms that.   There's lots of alcohol and two adult brothers who do their best to piss the other off.  (It's a lot grimmer than that, but that's enough.)

I couldn't relate to these characters and nothing happened in the play to bridge the gap.  They were strangers at the beginning and not much more at the end.  There was some allusion to past wrongs that could justify the brothers' hostility to each other, but I never felt I got into any of the character's hearts.  I was watching these dysfunctional siblings and their equally troubled friends, and I always was an outsider.  I never saw the world from their view.  I never felt their pain.  Mostly I was irritated at their constant fighting.  For me, a really good play would have made me understand - emotionally as well as rationally - why they had so much trouble breaking the cycle.   We never got a glimpse of their humanity, only their self-destructive behaviors.

It's a pity.  This could be a universal play.  Certainly many rural Alaskan villages (not to mention some urban Alaskan settings) see the same kinds of alcoholism and violence that's portrayed in this production.  Is there a commonality that we could learn from?  I didn't get it watching this play.

I do like this little theater in the Santa Monica Airport which holds maybe 70 spectators (the photo of the set was from my seat before the play began) and is easy walking distance from my mom's.  And we'll see what they're doing next time we're here.  And I am still thinking about what I saw. 

Darrell Dennis - Tales of an Urban Indian

Gramma Susie was broad humor with a bite.  In the Gramma Susie costume, Sharon Shorty could play the classic role of the king's fool and say things that normally wouldn't be tolerated.

Darrell Dennis' humor was there to cover the pain.  First the universal pains of growing up and becoming a man.  Second, the additional pain of growing up as a member of an outsider group - in this case as a North American Indian.  Darrell's a charming, good looking man whose very presence on stage is in sharp contrast to the gritty story he tells of alcohol, sex, and drugs.  The stories he tells are powerful and his performance magnifies their power.  And the humor makes it possible to stay and listen. 

I'm really glad friends got us out to see these two pieces at the Alaska Native Heritage Center Saturday night.  I've already posted about Shorty.  Now I offer you a short video to give you a sense of Darrell's performance.  And yes, I did get his permission to post this too, though I did say it would be maybe 30 seconds, and it came out to 2 minutes. 

Raven Clan's Gramma Susie Makes For Non-Stop Laughter

Gramma Susie with 'grandson' Caleb

I wanted to put some catchy line in the title, but it was the performance of Sharon Shorty as Gramma Susie, not just the words, that had the audience laughing so hard last night at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

Her act was part of an eight day "alerNative Theatre Festival."

There was a second, one actor play - Tales of an Urban Indian - by Darrell Dennis which tapped into an edgier humor to bring underlying issues in Gramma Susie right up to the surface.  I'll put up video of Darrell Dennis in the next post.   In this post, I offer you some video from Gramma Susie.

Sharon Shorty after performance

As I edited the video, I laughed over and over again each time I saw the clips. It's not so much the jokes, but how she tells them. True genius. And she's been winning awards for her performances even though they don't quite fit into most standard categories.

"Sharon Shorty has been voted one of the TOP 10 YUKONERS to meet (Up Here Magazine, 1999) and is from the Tlingit, Northern Tutchone and Norwegian People. Sharon is from the Raven Clan and was raised with the storytelling tradition of her southern Yukon community." 

Sharon is also an award winning actor (Aurora Award, 1997) and Storyteller (Aurora Award, 1998). She has received the Ross Charles Award (1999), the CTV Fellowship (1999) and The Yukon Filmmaker's Fund Award (1999). And more importantly, Sharon is an award-winning Bannock-Maker! (New Yukon Indian Days, 2003)  She was also recently named "Best Comedian" and "Best way to dress as an Elder"." 

She also performed at the Vancouver Winter Olympics.  Find out more at her website.

I edited the video a bit out of order so you could hear her dead-on raven call first (and last.)  She's from the raven clan and when she introduces herself, she gives her lineage in English and Tlingit.  There's a hint of the humor already, but it really starts after honoring her heritage.  If you can use a smile, just watch the video. All of it.

  


By the way, I asked Sharon after the performance if I could post the video and she generously consented.  And also said to credit 'grandson' Caleb who plays the drum in one clip.  (He gave permission too.)

Does God Exist? Out North Season Opener Part 3

[Headlines should reflect what you write.  Mine tend to be prosaic, but I try to remember they matter and to find something catchy from what I'm writing about.  So, yes, this question arises, but it's at the end (about 10:50) of the video below.]

The Out North Season Opening Event, as I said in the first post, generated (for me at least) a real excitement with the bringing together of a lot of different art, theater, dance, writing opportunities from a wide array of people and groups in the Anchorage community. Everyone was clearly pleased about their own membership in the 'club' and as the evening went on they got to see all the other neat folks they'd be rubbing elbows with in the hallways of  the former Grandview Garden library building, which before that was an electrical station.

I imagine that as the year goes by some of that excitement will be tempered by conflicts over how one group leaves the rehearsal space for the next group; over people unable to keep up with the pace; personal problems that interfere with artistic ambitions; performances that don't live up to the initial concept; and a myriad of other obstacles. But my bet is that people will overcome those problems and fulfill the promise of Thursday night.

And since I had an empty sd card in my camera and a battery that didn't start blinking its imminent demise until the very end, I just kept shooting more video. Maybe when the frustrations of making those dreams actually come true gets too heavy, people can come back to these videos to remember why they're working so hard.  And there are a couple of folks in the UK who, I'm sure, like to look in on their grandchildren, so to speak. 

So, here's the video Part 3. In it you meet the people from Focus - their connection to Out North is a little different. Their plan is to bring visual arts, theater, poetry, etc. to kids with disabilities and their families. Then one of the co-founders of F Magazine (I didn't catch the name) gives her Anchorage Arts rant. Then Scott's notion of a multi-disciplinary Art House.
Finally, the youth - Brave New Alaskan Voices. Three perform for you - in part - on the video. And you can ponder God's existence with the last performer.




To see Part 1.
To see Part 2.

I've edited a little bit, but this is much longer than I would normally do. That's why it's taking so long to get it all up.

Therapy Secrets Onstage, Here and Now, and Artistic Amnesty - OutNorth Season Preview 2

In part 2 of the video of the season preview you hear about Out North's dance classes, KONR - Out North Radio at 106.1 (coming soon), bringing therapy to the stage, Be Here Now - "a young artists theater group."  And then there's Corinna Delgado - a force of nature all on her own - talking about the Artistic Amnesty Project and One Soul. 




And I'll get part 3 (and there will probably be a part 4 too) up later.

Part 1 is here.
Part 3 is here.

There's Magic Happening at Out North - Season Kickoff

[Looking this over, I realize it gets a bit gushy.  But I'm convinced it's accurate.  There really is something special happening at Out North now.]

The very first time I saw Scott Turner Schofield at Out North I knew this guy was special.  That feeling's been reinforced every time I've seen him in action.  Last night the years of work that Gene Dugan and Jay Brause put into clearing the land, planting the seeds, watering, fertilizing, keeping  the wild animals from trampling it all, are now turning into the magical arts incubator and stage they cultivated.

That's not to say a lot of special performances haven't already happened over the years.  But Scott seems to have sprinkled his own magic dust on Out North.

The season preview attracted a full house to bid on silent auction items, eat and drink, and then to watch Scott emcee the preview show spotlighting Out North Art House residents he's gathered to Primrose and Bragaw.

It's an amazing collection of talent - from Hmong youth musicians, Hispanic Hip Hop, a therapy theater group from Akeela House, youth rappers, a writers' group, 20 something actors troupe, a non-profit that works with disabled students, a dance group, local arts magazine, to an FM radio license - from such a variety of local communities and media.



I have no doubt that the kind of talent we sampled  last night exists in every community.  The difference is that here everything has come together just right to provide the nurturing and mentoring to hone one's craft and confidence, the space and time to  practice and perform, and an administrative infrastructure to get the bills paid and the audience to attend.  That infrastructure includes a lot of volunteers and a charismatic performer/organizer who contributes a special energy and excitement. 

I haven't had time to edit all the video I took of last night's event, but here's part one.



I've added the second part of the video here.
Part 3 is here.

"Under the Counterfeited Zeal for God.. ."

We saw Henry IV Part 2 last night.  It was a performance filmed at the Globe Theater in London - an authentic replica, according to the introductory film, of the first Globe Theater.  This is the theater that Shakespeare wrote for and the people quoted in the film - actors, directors, stage designers - all agreed that the 600 members of the audience who stand during the whole performance change the experience of the actor radically.  (Another 900 or so sit in boxes.) The fact that they perform in natural light means the audience is very visible.  Someone even said they are performers in the play.  And as I watched the movie my eye wandered to the audience from the actors in the beginning, but not at the end.  (I wonder if they had fewer shots of the audience at the end.)

This was rather like the movie theater showings of the Metropolitan Opera - with higher ticket prices and an audience that is probably not your average audience.  No cell phones went off, but the smell of garlic and jalapenos interrupted the performance for me.  I imagine in Shakespeare's time, people ate during a three hour performance like this so I get over it.  (OK, I'm over it.)

Technically, I was occasionally distracted by a dip in the volume as, I'm guessing, the actor moved from one microphone to another.

Oh yes, then there was Shakespeare's play itself.  Even with the introductory film, it was hard to keep track of all the characters and, at times, to track the meaning of the words.  But a couple themes jumped out at me near the end, reminding me that underneath our modern veneer, we are just humans who aren't much different from humans long ago.

"We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone."

. . . it is the time,
And not the king, that doth you injuries.

This debate lingers today.  Is Obama doing injuries?  Or is it the time?

And using one's devotion to God for earthly gains is nothing new.  Below, Lancaster speaks to the Archbishop of York:

Who hath not heard it spoken
How deep you were within the books of God?
To us the speaker in his parliament;
To us the imagined voice of God himself;
The very opener and intelligencer
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven
And our dull workings. O, who shall believe
But you misuse the reverence of your place,
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a false favourite doth his prince's name,
In deeds dishonourable? You have ta'en up,
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
The subjects of his substitute, my father,
And both against the peace of heaven and him
Have here up-swarm'd them.

Anchorage Fourth of July - Something For Everyone

We biked down to the Delaney Park Strip for the Anchorage July 4 celebration.  We were too late for the parade or the reading of the Declaration of Independence, but then I'd just read it preparing for the previous post.





This will just be pictures and a few comments of a sunny day enjoying being with others on the Fourth.

The Marines were there.















J wondered why they didn't hire vets to interact with the kids - particularly vets in wheel chairs,

and with missing limbs.  Give the kids a more realistic idea about war and the vets some work.

One of the things that makes the US great is the richness that we've gained over the centuries from immigration.  While most citizens of the world know more about the US than the average American knows about any of their countries, we can know people from all those countries. We have absorbed not only the people, but their cultures which gives us access to understanding them in a totally different way, if we choose to engage them.  




I've been a fan of Taiko drumming since the very first time I saw and heard a group from Japan perform at West High School, eons ago.  The physical strength, discipline, and group coordination necessary to do this is amazing, and the result is mesmerizing as you can sense in the video.

You can learn to drum like this in Anchorage.  Just think, you get exercise, music lessons, and cultural training all in one.  From their website:

Tomodachi Daiko offers beginning taiko classes for adults (13+ years) on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 - 7:00 p.m., starting September 1, 2010.  All classes are held in the gymnasium at Sand Lake Elementary School on Jewel Lake Road. (Please wear comfortable clothing for this activity.  New students are required to purchase bachi (drum sticks) which are available at class.)

There was lots of food.

This young lady was soliciting donations - very successfully I would say - for Alaskan Assistance Dogs. 



Their mission statement, from their website, is:

"Alaska Assistance Dogs provides professionally trained service dogs to Alaskans with special needs including mobility impairments, autism and post traumatic stress disorder. We also incorporate service dog training into therapeutic programs to improve the lives of Alaskans from pre-schoolers to adults."

A lot of relatively young kids were having a great time on the climbing tower, well strapped in.

 The Bird Treatment and Learning Center had several birds there.  They were either disabled or too adapted to humans and couldn't be released into the wild.  It was a great opportunity to get some good pictures since my little camera doesn't do well with telephoto.  This is a great horned owl.  The owls that really do go Hoo, Hoo, Hoo. Hoo.

 From the Bird TLC website:

The Bird Treatment and Learning Center

is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to rehabilitating sick, injured or orphaned wild birds and providing avian education programs to the public. Dr. James R. Scott, an Anchorage veterinarian, now retired, founded Bird TLC in 1988. Dr. Scott, along with other Alaskan veterinarians and volunteers, donate their time to treat these birds in need. In addition to medical care, Bird TLC provides a variety of educational programs to increase people's awareness of the wild birds around them and to encourage preservation of their habitat. Bird TLC is supported by education program fees and contributions from individuals, private foundations, and corporations.