John Singer Sargent Visits the Visual Arts Center

Tomorrow marks the opening of the 10th Annual Fine Arts Festival at the Visual Arts Center in Punta Gorda.  This year the Festival celebrates the works of John Singer Sargent.  By this time tomorrow evening, the ribbon will have been cut, and the Festival mural will have been revealed.  (The mural features Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, painted by Liz Hutchinson-Sperry, and it is gorgeous.)

Dottie Mattoon surveying her task

As the Festival gets underway, themed activities as varied as a cooking class to a monoprint workshop to a book discussion are being offered to the public.  While I'm looking forward to participating in lots of the events, it will be hard to surpass the fun I had today helping Cathy Lindenauer receive the paintings from the artists.  (As a bit of background, participating artists got together a few months back and selected the work or works by Sargent that they wanted to replicate. The show is the consummation of their efforts.)   By the end of the morning, approximately 80 works perched on chairs and leaned against walls throughout the gallery. There are watercolors and oils and collages. There are charcoals and drawings and pastels. There are paintings and sculptures and even a Sargent-inspired necklace.  The talent and creativity of the VAC artists is truly impressive.

Some of the works awaiting hanging

The task then fell to Dottie Mattoon and her committee to figure out how to display the works to their best advantage.   Luckily, the committee is quite experienced, as it has responsibility for hanging all of the exhibits in Goff Gallery throughout the year.

A portion of the show

Dottie took a few minutes away from surveying the works to talk with me about how they go about hanging an exhibit.  She first explained that a show like this is a bit more challenging than the typical exhibit due to the number of works.  Goff Gallery has approximately 200 feet of wall space, and it was clear that paintings would have to be hung from floor to ceiling.

The exhibit features ten large (3' x 5') reproductions of works such as the infamous Madame X and the Spanish-inspired El Jaleo.   As in the past, the large works would serve as focal points on the respective walls.  From there the real art of hanging a show came into play.  Her group took a look at all of the works with an eye to size and color.  She noted that the way the paintings are framed is a factor as well.  Subject matter is the final consideration (with the identity of the artist not being taken into account at all).

A portion of the show

I couldn't resist going back to the VAC a few hours later to find the show hung in all its glory. The committee did a fabulous job.   As promised, the works fill every nook and cranny of the room.  The way the show is displayed reminds me of the Barnes Foundation where every room contains so many masterpieces that you don't know where to look.

Art lovers who find themselves in Southwest Florida between now and November 29th should make it a point to come see the show.  And everyone is welcome to participate in the events that have been put together as part of the celebration.  (For a list of the workshops and activities, just click on the Fine Arts Festival poster in this link:  http://www.visualartcenter.org/)  Seeing the artistic community come together in this way is yet another reminder of what a special place Punta Gorda is.  I am so glad that I live here.

Art History's Top 100 -- 20th century non-American works

Sadly, my art history class is coming to an end.  Last week we covered works numbered 63 - 78 on Rosalie's hit parade.  The art itself was my favorite so far.

Munch's The Screan (1895)

We started the night off with Edvard Munch's The Scream, one of art's most iconic images.  Who didn't see Macaulay Culkin's imitation in the Home Alone movies?  I myself have recreated this work on more than one occasion.  (In fact, I think I have a picture somewhere of my rendition when looking at the map of ski trails in Taos, New Mexico.  My concern was appropriate as I left New Mexico with a sprained knee.)  It probably won't surprise you to learn that Munch lived in a constant state of anxiety and was prone to panic attacks.  He created four versions of The Scream between 1893 and 1910, the main character in which was inspired by his viewing of Peruvian mummies.  The version pictured here, painted in pastel on board, sold at Sotheby's in 2012 for $120MM.

Picasso's Desmoiselles d'Avignon (1907)

No art history class would be complete without some works by Pablo Picasso. In Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon, we find five women from a brothel in Barcelona.  Their figures have been reduced to basic geometric shapes.  Picasso has not fully embraced Cubism at this point, but he is definitely getting there.  You can see the influence that African art had on him in this work (which is probably one reason I like it so much).  Surprisingly, while the work was completed in 1907, it wasn't shown publicly until 1916, perhaps due to the mixed reaction that it received from his friends and colleagues.

Samson's Triumph of Truth (2009)

At the first session of the class, Rosalie said that one criteria she used to select the works to be included was that we would see them in the every day world.  Last week-end I went to a performance by the Laboratory Theater of Florida in Fort Myers.  When I popped into the ladies' room, I was confronted with a large replica of Les Desmoiselles.  I had to laugh.  And Carl Samson, the juror for the National Art Exhibition to be hosted at the Visual Arts Center in February, has incorporated this work into his own masterpiece, Triumph of Truth.  (I can't wait to talk with him about it when he comes down to judge the show.)  So Rosalie certainly had it right when she chose "the chicas of Avignon" (as Picasso preferred to call this painting) for our class.

Kahlo's Self-Portrait with
Monkey (1938)

While I can't say I love her work, I am fascinated by Frido Kahlo.  I first heard of Kahlo when my friend Danita told me that she was going to dress up as Kahlo for a Halloween party.  Danita has the coloring for it, but, happily, not the unibrow.  (In pictures of Kahlo you will see that she actually didn't have as much of a unibrow as she includes in her self-portraits.)  Kahlo's back was broken in a trolley accident when she was young.  She was in a body cast for three months, and it was during this period that she began to paint as a way to pass the time. The playful monkeys that are often featured in her self-portraits are said to represent her lost childhood.  The movie Frida with Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina is an interesting look inside the complicated lives of Kahlo and husband and artist Diego Rivera.  Kahlo said, "There have been two great accidents in my life.  One was the trolley and the other was Diego.  Diego was by far the worst."

In our last class we will cover American artists.  It promises to be another whirlwind.  Stay tuned for my report.  

Miss Witherspoon at Laboratory Theater

Stephanie Davis in the title role

Right or wrong, I often decide within the first few minutes of a play whether I like it or not.  I still remember going to see Carousel at Lincoln Center and taking an immediate -- and quite strong -- dislike to it.  This week-end I saw Miss Witherspoon by Christopher Durang at the Laboratory Theater of Florida in Fort Myers. Happily, my first impression was a positive one, and it held through the 95 minute show.

When we entered the theater -- actually more of a church hall with a stage and chairs set up for the audience -- there was great music playing.  The first song I heard was Rodgers and Hart's "Where or When" which has been recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald and Diana Krall.  I'm sure you know the lyrics, which go, in part:

"...It seems we stood and talked like this, before
We looked at each other in the same way then
But I can't remember where or when..."

The music later segued to the Talking Heads' "Once in a Lifetime" ("....You may find yourself, in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife, You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?..")   I wondered what connection the songs could possibly have to one another and then promptly forgot my question as the house lights dimmed.

In the opening scene of the play, we listen in on Virginia's "woe is me" phone call with a friend.  She is quite clearly overwhelmed by both her life and the world at large.  To cut to the chase (actually, the end of the scene), Virginia kills herself, and when we next see her she has woken up in the Bardo.  In case you don't know (I didn't), the Bardo is a Tibetan word for the state of existence between two lives on Earth.  You got it -- the play is about reincarnation. (And this is the link to the lyrics of the music playing when we arrived at the theater.)

Not having been happy in her first (or was it her fourth?) life on Earth, Virginia is quite reluctant to go back and give it another whirl.  Maryamma, her Bardo Buddhist "guide", is insistent that it's not really Virginia's choice.  Oh, but Virginia is now called "Miss Witherspoon" because the name seems to suit her brown tweed aura.  Just another thing that she's not happy about.  And she's quite confused about why she's in a Buddhist holding cell of sorts when she was a Catholic on Earth.  Maryamma quite calmly explains that this is a choice that her soul made.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot in case you're able to get to the show next week-end.  Suffice it to say that we see Miss Witherspoon experience several lives during the show, with varying degrees of success.  Perhaps my--and definitely Virginia's own--favorite was when she came back as a dog.

It's often hard for me to articulate why I liked a show.  There's lots to commend about this production of Miss Witherspoon, though.  I enjoyed the dialogue, particularly the back and forth between Virginia and Maryamma that was chock full of movie and literary references.  It was smart and often quite funny.  I liked the fact that the play made me think, not so much about the afterlife but about the daisy chain impact your choices have. And the acting was top notch.  Stephanie Davis, a member of the original ensemble at Florida Repertory Theater, did a wonderful job as Virginia/Miss Witherspoon.  I totally went with her character's experience without questioning whether it was consistent with my own belief system (such as it is).   And I smiled every time Gerrie Benzing appeared onstage as Maryamma.   Maryamma was funny and earnest and completely nonplussed by Miss Witherspoon's resistance to the process.   Kathleen Moye, Rob Green, and Yvonne Shadrach were strong as well in their supporting roles.  I can understand why the play was one of the finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2006, although it's so well-suited for an intimate venue that it's hard to imagine it on a Broadway stage.

Miss Witherspoon is the second production that I've seen by The Laboratory Theater of Florida.  The first was The Laramie Project in 2011, and it was also very well done.  While the Laboratory Theater is definitely community theater--hence the downscale venue and small audience--it is well worth checking out.  And at $20 a ticket, it's a bargain.  This season holds a bit of everything, from the upcoming Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune to Death of a Salesman to The Altruists.  And on December 7th, the Laboratory Theater will present the results of its 24 hour play writing contest.  I will definitely be back.  

Edison Pops -- Rat Pack Tribute

I was never a child who dressed up in my mother's clothes, clomping around in too big high heels and draping myself with costume jewelry.  Nor has dressing up for Halloween ever been my strong point.  In fact, I have always been a bit in awe of people who come up with a clever idea for a costume. I still remember a Halloween party back in the 1980s when my friend Paul dressed up as Julia Child, complete with a rubber chicken.  It was hilarious.  I dressed up as a sewing kit.  My costume:  a sweater with a zipper down the front and a tape measure thrown around my neck.  So I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that it's the exception, rather than the rule, for me to go to an event where costumes are involved.  Nonetheless, last week-end I found myself at the Edison Pops concert--this year a Rat Pack tribute--despite the fact that attendees are encouraged to decorate their tables (and themselves) in keeping with the evening's entertainment.

Our own rat pack

Just to be clear, my lack of imagination extends beyond dressing myself to dressing the table.  And so I was duly impressed when I arrived at the event to find our tables festooned with all sorts of "rat pack" paraphernalia.  Mary and Vicki had searched high and low to find little stuffed rats to represent Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dean Martin, and other members of the pack.  The cigarettes (compliments of the Party Store) were a particularly nice touch.  And of course you'll notice that Mary took the time to fold our napkins like tux jackets and tie them up with bow ties.  Mary also brought white frosted cookies with black bow ties  In for a penny, in for a pound (literally, in this case).  

Diana and Joe Lehr and Dorrit and Bruce Tompkins

The piece de resistance, though, was the group's attire.  When Diana came up behind me and said, "Hello, doll," it took me more than a couple of beats to figure out who she was.  Again, the cigarettes put the costumes over the top. Bruce looked like a photojournalist back from the wars with his tripod, camera, loosened tie, and beleaguered look.  And any of Sinatra's gangster buddies would have been happy to have Dorrit on their arm.  (For the record, the women at our table were asked to wear red to complement the men's black and white attire.  I went all out, wearing a red t-shirt and black shorts.  I was happy when the sun set and people could no longer see how lame I looked.)

I was truly shocked that our table didn't win the award for best theme.  I attribute our loss to the fact that our well-dressed diners were out roaming the grounds when the judges came along.  Less surprising is the fact that this candelabra adorned table with tiara-wearing women won the prize for most outrageous decoration.  Really, where do people get these ideas, not to mention the clothes???

The evening was great fun, with the Ultimate Rack Pack--comprised of Bill Stabile as Sinatra, Steve Roman as Davis, and William Cintron as Martin--putting on a good show.  The audience particularly liked the danceable songs like "Everybody's Twistin'."  (Not one of Sinatra's biggies, but I checked, and it is on his list of recorded songs.)

The Ultimate Rat Pack (compliments of
Intergalactic Photography)

In case you're curious, the term "Rat Pack" was coined in the 1950s to refer to a group of actors of which Humphrey Bogart was the leader.  The expression is said to stem from a comment made by Lauren Bacall (Bogart's wife) who, when Bogart and his cronies came home from a night of carousing, said, "You all look like a [expletive] rat pack."   The group didn't like the name, referring to themselves instead as "the Summit" or "the Clan", but it stuck.  After Bogart's death, Sinatra became the leader of the group.  Other members included not only Sammy Davis, Jr. and Dean Martin but Peter Lawford (brother-in-law to JFK) and Joey Bishop.

As people were heading to the parking lot, ideas were being thrown out for next year's concert.  A Beach Boys tribute band?  The Rolling Stones?  Back to the more traditional CSO Pops?  Whatever is decided, I know it will be another fun evening Punta Gorda style.

Art History's Top 100 -- Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

Monet's Impression, Sunrise (1872)

Spending an evening with the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists was like visiting with old friends.  I still remember how sophisticated I felt when I selected a poster of a beautiful Monet painting to hang in my first dorm room (probably Impression, Sunrise, but I can't say for sure).   The Impressionists, of course, were all about the effects of light.  They were also responsible for the development of plein air painting. Previously, artists might go outside to sketch or do some preliminary work, but the real painting occurred in the studio.  This practice can be attributed both to tradition and convenience.  At the time, artists couldn't just pack their gear up in a car and head off to their chosen site.  Artists such as Monet and Renoir decided that the additional effort was worthwhile.  I don't think anyone would argue with that conclusion.

Manet's Luncheon on the Grass (1863)

Eduard Manet was drawn into the burgeoning group of Impressionists by Berthe Morisot, a fellow artist who eventually became his sister-in-law.  The official Paris Salon had been in existence for nearly 200 years by the time Manet submitted his Luncheon on the Grass for inclusion in 1863.  The scandalous work was rejected and ended up as the centerpiece of the first Salon des Refuses. Not only was the image of naked women unabashedly cavorting in the woods with fully dressed "gentlemen" deemed inappropriate for Parisian society, but the men bore a striking resemblance to two prominent members of the community.    This iconic image continues to serve as an inspiration to artists today.  One example can be found in Mickalene Thomas' work entitled Les Trois Femme Noires.  If you're interested in seeing her take on the scene, go to http://nanettesnewlife.blogspot.com/2012/12/mickalene-thomas-at-brooklyn-museum-of.html.

Cezanne's The Card Players (1894-95)

The Impressionists freed artists to explore painting in a new way, and the Post-Impressionists took this liberty and ran with it.  In the work of Cezanne, you can find a precursor to Cubism as he transitioned from the Impressionists' style of laying down blobs of paint that the viewer's eye blends together to using patches of paint to achieve the same effect.  ("Blobs" is the technical term Rosalie used.  If you look at details of the works, you see how apt it is.)  Seurat took this even further with his development of pointillism (very similar to today's pixelation).  It is a pretty amazing experience to see a Seurat painting up close, at which point it really does look like just a bunch of colorful dots, and then to watch the image come into focus as you back away.

Toulouse-Lautrec La Goulue (1891)

Toulouse-Lautrec is perhaps my favorite of the Post-Impressionists.  I am a real fan of graphic art so it's no surprise that I am drawn to his images.  Many of his works were advertisements for the headliners of the day from the Moulin Rouge -- Jane Avril, the Troupe of Madame Eglantine, and La Goulue to name a few.  In this poster, Lautrec captures Louise Weber (aka La Goulue) dancing the can-can.  The dance, which La Goulue is credited with inventing, was considered quite risque at the time as no self-respecting woman would pull up her skirts and invite the audience to peer underneath as she twirled her legs around.  Come to think of it, I suspect that's one of the appeals of the Rockettes.

As much fun as it was to talk about these works, the highlight of the evening was our activity -- learning a bit about art criticism.  Rosalie introduced us to the acronym DAIE -- Description, Analysis, Interpretation, and Evaluation.  We watched a couple of short videos on the topic, jointly applied the methodology to Andrew Wyeth's Christina's World, and then headed to one of the VAC's galleries.  An abstract show had just been hung, and we each selected a work to critique.  I could have happily spent hours in the gallery analyzing works and listening to the others' evaluations.  It was fascinating both to see which works were chosen and what people saw in them. In fact, it was so much fun that I am encouraging Rosalie to teach a workshop just on art criticism.

And with that the evening was over.  One of our class members was off to Paris where she will see some of the works we've talked about over the last few weeks.  I am looking forward to hearing her reactions to getting up close and personal with the art at the Louvre, the Musee d"Orsay, and the Rodin Museum.  In the meantime, I'll be learning about non-American 20th century.  Sure, I'd rather be in Paris, but there are many worse ways to spend an evening.

Worldwide Photo Walk 2013

My friend Bruce has officially become a shutterbug.  He got a fancy camera and is busy taking photography classes at the Visual Arts Center in between lots of self-instruction from the web.  A couple of weeks ago he mentioned that he and Dorrit would be participating in the Worldwide Photo Walk and invited me to tag along. How could I refuse?

The Worldwide Photo Walk, sponsored by Canon, is in its sixth year.  On October 5th, 1238 photo walks were held around the world, with over 28,000 participants.   The concept behind the Walk is for photographers to rendezvous, snap some shots, and then retire to a watering hole to discuss the experience and share their photos. The event is a competition as well, with a winner and ten honorable mentions.  Just to give you a sense of the caliber of photographer that participates in this event, here's a link to last year's winning pictures:  http://worldwidephotowalk.com/2012-best-photos/

Our walk was led by VAC photography instructor Spencer Pullen, a five year veteran of the event.   Our location was beautiful Boca Grande.  Approximately 35 photographers met by the lighthouse where we were given very loose parameters for our outing.  We were allowed to shoot anywhere on the beach or in town.  The only requirement was that all pictures had to be taken between the 5 p.m. start of the walk and its 8 p.m. conclusion.

It is a wholly different experience to go out into the world with the intention of taking interesting pictures than to stumble upon a scene that cries out, "Take a picture of me!"  (My friend Maggie aptly referred to the latter as being an "accidental photographer.")  I felt slightly ridiculous pulling out my point and shoot while many of the other photographers had not only cameras with all kinds of expensive lenses but tripods (which somehow ratcheted things up a notch).  I was clearly out of my league and glad that this was not an occasion when my competitive instincts had kicked in.

The time passed quickly, and it was an interesting exercise.  I first gravitated down the beach towards a dilapidated pier with old phosphate bins.  I can't say why I liked the scene other than that its worn and uncared for appearance seemed disconsonant with upscale Boca Grande.  As I began walking around, I became somewhat obsessed with these two water towers.  Again, I have no idea why they struck me -- perhaps the geometry, perhaps the fact that I like wooden structures-- but I came away with lots of pictures of them from all different angles.

I've given myself  a B+ for my "best" photo idea but, sadly, a D for execution.   While walking around an administrative building looking for a good vantage point to take some pictures of the beach, I began peering through the windows into the offices.  I discovered this sumo wrestler on one of the desks, along with some action figures.  They were hilarious, and I am very curious about the person whose desk is home to this little guy.  When I was working, I often had fresh flowers on my desk and maybe a photo or two.   I can safely say that the thought of having a small sumo wrestler in my work space never crossed my mind.   Inquiring minds definitely would like to know.

Lucy and Ethel - shot by Intergalactic Photography

The walk was timed to coincide with sunset but the weather wasn't particularly cooperative.  It was a cloudy afternoon, and the sun "set" without any of the fireworks that we had been hoping for.  This is when Bruce's superior equipment really came into play.  He started what he is calling his "Lucy and Ethel" series featuring, you guessed it, Dorrit and me.   Keep in mind that this picture was taken between dusk and dark.  Even having been there, it wouldn't be too hard to persuade me that we are actually sitting in front of a beautiful backdrop of an ocean.  Pretty amazing stuff.  Next to us, another photographer had set up his tripod and was taking pictures of a woman doing yoga poses on the concrete ledge that Lucy and I had plopped ourselves down on.  (One of her poses was a headstand -- on the concrete -- that she held for a couple of minutes.)   I would love to see those shots.

None of my shots are worthy of submitting to the Flickr website that Spencer put together for our group, much less to the actual competition.  If you're interested in seeing what people have posted on the Flickr site, go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/2013-worldwide-photowalk-boca-grande-florida/    I think you'll be impressed.

While the outing confirmed that I haven't missed my calling as a photographer, I am already looking forward to next year's walk.   We'd love to have you join us.   If you're not in the area, check out the Worldwide Photo Walk website and find a walk that works for you.   It's free, fun, and a great opportunity to look at things around you with a slightly different perspective.

Art History's Top 100 - From Baroque to Realism

Whew!  This week's art appreciation class was another whirlwind, starting with Baroque works from the early 1600s and ending with a sampling of Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Realism from the 1800s.   I have to confess that, much as I try, Baroque art just doesn't grab me (which is probably the reason I'm less than enamored with the Ringling's permanent collection).  It just tends to be too gloomy.   That's not to say that there aren't some incredible Baroque artists, including Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.

Rubens' Four Continents (circa 1615)

Rubens was a highly successful artist in his time and had many apprentices working for him.  The invention of oil paint made it easier for artists to use apprentices in the actual painting process.  Rubens could sketch out what he wanted, indicate which colors should go where, and let the apprentices loose to lay down the oils.  Since oil paint stays wet for up to three weeks, there was plenty of time for him to go back and fine tune what had been done.  (It turns out that the way Damien Hirst uses "apprentices" today for his dot paintings can trace its roots back to the Old Masters.  Go figure!)    The apprentice system is one reason there weren't many female artists in this era.  Apprentices generally lived with the artists with whom they were training, and needless to say it would have been frowned upon for a woman to bunk with a bunch of men.  In Rubens' Four Continents (which has more color than many Baroque works), you see Rubens' incorporation of dramatic poses and dark shadows, both of which are typical Baroque characteristics.  And of course the nude woman is "Rubenesque" in her proportions.  (Those were the days!)  The chubbiness indicated not that the woman was out of shape, as it does today, but that she lived in a wealthy household that could afford to feed its residents well.

Fragonard's The Swing (1767)

Louis XIV (the Sun King) rebelled against the Baroque and embraced the Rococco style (which you see in spades if you have the opportunity to visit his Versailles).  Frangonard's The Swing is a classic Rococco painting. France in the 1700s was a place without a middle class; you were either wealthy or impoverished.  And since most of the wealth came from family money, people didn't have to work to earn a living.  Instead, life was one big party, and love (or at least sex) was in the air.  In this painting, you see an older gentleman pushing his trophy wife on a swing.  The woman's young lover hides in the bushes, sneaking a peek up her skirt with each push of the swing.  The woman is clearly enjoying the attention of the men and flicks her shoe off in the direction of the statue of cupid.  I can only imagine what reality TV producers would have come up with in this era.

Throughout this period, English painters were doing their own thing, with a heavy focus on portraiture.  The two leading English portrait artists in the 1700s were Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds.  A drunken bet between the two rivals led to the creation of Gainsborough's The Blue

Gainsborough's The Blue Boy (circa 1770)

Boy, one of the most recognizable portraits in history.  One night at a party, the two men were talking shop, and Reynolds said that he would never paint a subject wearing blue because it was such an unflattering color.  The gauntlet had been thrown down, and Gainsborough vowed that he would paint his next subject dressed in blue.   In this portrait of Jonathan Buttall, the son of a successful hardware merchant and friend of Gainsborough, the artist persuaded the boy to wear a costume that harkens back to Flemish paintings from 140 years earlier that were well known at the time.   He definitely carried it off (both the model and the artist)!   One other note about Gainsborough:  He used a paintbrush extender when creating his portraits.  He liked to position the subject, the canvas, and himself in a equilateral triangle, with each side approximately six feet in length.  I am sure that he did a fair amount of his work on the canvas from a more traditional distance, but it's pretty interesting to envision.

Next week's class will focus more narrowly on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.    I am looking forward to the tidbits that Rosalie will share about paintings that are more familiar to me than what we've covered so far.   Stay tuned!  

Love, Loss and What I Wore Comes to Charlotte County

Note:  A version of this article ran in the September 26th edition of Florida Weekly.  Since I recently blogged about going to see this show, I wasn't planning to post this article here.   But I was so taken aback at the lung cancer statistics that Tom Cappiello, event organizer, shared with me that I want to do my part to get the word out.   I have two friends currently battling lung cancer, which is probably one reason the statistics hit me so hard.  If you know people who are or were "30 pack smokers" (someone who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for 15 years), please encourage them to be screened.  A simple blood test might save their lives. 

LET’S PUT ON A SHOW – Love, Loss and What I Wore Comes to Charlotte County

By Nanette Crist

Last May, Tom Cappiello found himself in a theater full of women watching a performance of Nora and Delia Ephron’s Love, Loss and What I Wore.   The show had a two week run at Theatre Conspiracy in Fort Myers, with the proceeds from each performance going to benefit a different non-profit.   Cappiello and his wife were there to support friend—and actress for a night-- Kathy Grey raise funds for the Adonis Autism Assistance Foundation.   While the women in the audience laughed and cried along with the vignettes in the show, Cappiello was thinking about logistics.  Could he bring the show to Charlotte County to raise money for his own non-profit, the Lung Cancer Research Council?  With a little help from some friends, the answer was a resounding “yes.”

BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE SHOW

Roberts, Grey, Cappiello, Moody.Amelia, and Feinberg

The first step was to assemble a cast – five female community leaders who would be willing to volunteer their time and take to the stage.    The task was made easier by the fact that Love, Loss is a readers’ theater production.   The women will sit at their respective podia during the show with their scripts in front of them.  No concerns about forgetting lines or hitting marks or exiting stage right at the proper moment.   This format enabled Cappiello to reach out to women both with and without acting experience.    

Grey, editor of the Charlotte County edition of Florida Weekly, was in from the start.  Sherrie Moody, Executive Director of the Charlotte Players, was another natural choice.  The Virginia B. Andes Volunteer Community Clinic yielded two actresses:  Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Roberts and Development Coordinator Susan Boon.   Christy Feinberg, features reporter for the Charlotte Sun, rounds out the group.  

Cappiello then approached Kathy Amelia, coordinator of readers’ theater outreach at Lemon Bay Playhouse, to direct the show.   Once Amelia came on board, it was time for the work to begin in earnest. 

Suzanne Roberts as Gingy

At the first rehearsal, Amelia talked to her cast (which includes two first-time actresses who will remain nameless) about how to approach this type of production.  “Readers’ theater is the purest form of theater.  You have to make audience members interested in listening to you because there’s nothing else to watch.  In this time of visual overstimulation, your challenge is to get the point across using only words.”  

Luckily for the actresses, Love, Loss makes that easy, at least for the women in the house.  As Nora Ephron said, “What you wear and what happened to you are indelibly connected.”   There’s no doubt that every woman in the audience will think back to the clothes that have played a role in her own life—be it a favorite sweater or that prom dress she just had to have—while listening to the characters’ stories.  

At several points in the show, the Ephron sisters use a device they aptly call a “clothesline.”   Each character is a pin on the line and chimes in with her thoughts on the subject at hand.  Take, for instance, the experience of trying on clothes in one of those awful department store dressing rooms.  Who hasn’t said to themselves when in this situation,  “Is there something wrong with the lighting in here?”  “My arms!  What happened to my arms?”  And, of course, “This will fit if I lose ten pounds.”  
  

While Love, Loss contains a lot of laughter, there’s heartbreak as well.   One character shares a particularly poignant story in which a bathrobe triggers memories of her mother who died at a young age.   It is stories like this that make the connection between Love, Loss and What I Wore and Cappiello’s work with the Lung Cancer Research Council. 

REDUCING LUNG CANCER MORTALITY IN SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

Cappiello is a lung cancer survivor.  So his passion about lung cancer research and prevention comes as no surprise.  What may come as a surprise, however, is to learn that lung cancer is the number one cause of death in Charlotte County.    Or that each year, lung cancer claims over 160,000 lives nationwide, more than breast, prostate, colon and kidney cancers combined.   Or that only 15% of people diagnosed with lung cancer will survive five years beyond their diagnosis.   (The survival rate has remained virtually static since the “war on cancer” was declared in the 1970s.)     

The goal of the Lung Cancer Research Council is to raise awareness about the importance of screening and early detection.   Because the Council has no paid staff or overhead, 100% of the proceeds from the performance of Love, Loss and What I Wore will fund this mission.  (Truly Nolen has generously agreed to underwrite the rental cost of the Cultural Center Theater.)    

While Cappiello is excited about Love, Loss and What I Wore, he is also looking forward to the Council’s major fundraiser – The Southwest Florida Lung Cancer 5K Run/Walk and Mile of Memories Walk.  The Run/Walk will take place on Saturday, November 9th.  This event is in its fifth year and has options for participants at all fitness levels.    

GIVE A NIGHT, SAVE A LIFE

Love, Loss and What I Wore will be presented at the Cultural Center Theater on Friday, October 4^th, at 7:30   It’s hard to imagine an easier – or more fun—way to help battle lung cancer in our own backyard.  The question is not whether you should go see this show, but what you will wear.