New Year's Reads

My friend Dorrit told me about an Icelandic tradition of giving books as presents on Christmas Eve and then spending the rest of the night reading them. It's a wonderful idea, but I'd prefer to adopt it for New Year's Eve. (My days of eagerly waiting for the ball to drop are long past.) Here are some books to cozy up with whenever the mood might strike.

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff.  I'd been reading about this 2015 National Book Award Finalist for quite a while, but was resistant to picking it up.  What could be so special about a story of a marriage? But once I started this book (which I listened to on Audible), I found myself walking further and looking forward to time in the car so I could find out what would happen next.

Groff tells the couple's story in two parts. We hear first from Lotto, a golden boy who grew up with everyone expecting great things of him. The narrative of Lotto's life is sequential, from childhood through marriage to Mathilde. I was engrossed in Lotto's story, but found myself anxious to hear Mathilde's perspective. It was worth the wait. The circumstances of Mathilde's life before Lotto are a closely held secret she hasn't shared with anyone, including her husband. Mathilde's story unfolds in bits and pieces, and we learn one moment about her childhood and the next about her role as Lotto's wife.  All I can say is "wow."

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. This highly readable book has been on my list for some time.  It tells the story of two women--one at the end of her life and the other at the beginning--whose paths cross when the young woman is required to do community service for stealing a book. Over time, they realize their commonality and develop a real bond. Friends, as the saying goes, are the family you choose.

While I enjoyed the book, what I found most interesting was learning about the orphan train movement.  From the 1850s to 1929, more than 200,000 orphaned, abandoned and homeless children from the East Coast were shipped westward by train in search of new homes. The passages in the book about the train ride and the selection process are particularly sad. And while some children ended up in loving adoptive homes, many were taken in as indentured servants (complete with a 90-day return policy).  The orphan train program was discontinued in the 1929 with the advent of what is now the foster care program (which, of course, has its own problems). 

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. I picked this book up in part because it was short-listed for the 2014 Man Booker Prize. But I also was drawn in by the prologue, which tells of Rosemary, a girl who was a "great talker" as a child. At bedtime, Rosemary's father would come in to tell her goodnight and Rosemary "would speak without taking a breath, trying desperately to keep him in my room with only my voice....'I have something to say,'  I'd tell him." "Skip the beginning," he'd respond. "Start in the middle."  And so this is how Rosemary relays the story of her life, by starting in the middle. 

The book is the story of Rosemary and her two siblings, Fern and Lowell.  Fern disappeared when Rosemary was five years old; Lowell ran away a decade ago. At its heart, the reason for these losses is simple. As the back of the book says, their father used their childhood as an experiment. 

Before you get too alarmed (or decide not to read this book on grounds of gruesomeness), there's no child abuse or neglect. Just a highly unusual living situation that, to the kids, is totally normal. It is when the circumstances change that their lives begin to go awry.

I don't want to say more because the relationships at the heart of this story are what make it so surprising, compelling and--ultimately--satisfying. What I will say, though, is this is a tale like no other written by an author at the peak of her craft.  I loved it. 

Make Me by Lee Child. Sometimes you just need a good thriller, and nobody writes one better than Lee Child.  Make Me is the 20th book in the Jack Reacher series, and I've read every one.  What I love about these books is the intelligence with which Reacher approaches the situations he wanders into. (Admittedly, it's quite beyond belief that one guy who randomly moves around the country carrying only his toothbrush could find so much trouble, but I'm more than willing to go with it.)

I fell into this book quickly, with an appreciation for the thought the bad guys put into burying a corpse in the first paragraph of the book. "They buried him close to the house. Which made sense...The harvest was still a month away, and a disturbance in a field would show up from the air. And they would use the air, for a guy like Keever. They would use search planes, and helicopters, and maybe even drones." The story takes off from there, and I went happily along for the ride.  

May your 2016 be filled with great reads! 

Dickens at the Powel Crosley Estate

The holidays are always a bit frantic, as we run from party to party while trying to take care of our regular lives and finish up our shopping. It can be hard to get into the spirit of the season.  "Dickens at the Crosley" is a terrific way to do just that.

Powel Crosley Estate

The Powel Crosley Estate is a mansion just north of The Ringling. You can imagine how grand it was in the day, with its large patio and balconies overlooking Sarasota Bay.  (You can also imagine how overshadowed it was by John and Mabel Ringling's Ca d'Zan just up the road.)

Crosley made his money in a wide variety of businesses. In 1916 he started a mail-order marketing business of auto accessories to car owners. He manufactured phonographs and radios and refrigerators. He owned the Cincinnati Reds and a radio station that aired "continuing day time drama" to keep listeners tuned in.

Powel built "Seagate" in 1929 for his wife Gwendolyn. Powel and Gwendolyn were our hosts for the afternoon and shared their responsibilities with friends and family.  We were greeted on the back patio (giving the audience an opportunity to appreciate the vista) with introductions and some carols.

The format of the afternoon was explained. Four performances would be given, and we would have the chance to enjoy three of them.  We would all hear Powel and Gwendolyn's interpretation of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" in the Great Room. From there (after time to grab some wine or wassail from the bar), we would head to the Library for cousin Betsy Trotwood's telling of Clement C. Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and Oscar Wilde's "The Selfish Giant."  Then the audience had to make a decision about which story to sit in on in one of the upstairs rooms -- James M. Barrie's "The Real Peter Pan" or Dickens' "Christmas Dinner with the Crachits" and Willa Cather's "The Burglar's Christmas."  Whew!

Eileen Earnest as Gwendolyn and Christopher Voeller as Powel gave a wonderful rendition of "A Christmas Carol," with Gwendolyn playing the parts of the ghosts and Powel as Scrooge. The audience got in on the act, including a little boy conscripted into playing nephew Fred (his put-upon facial expressions were priceless) and a big burly African-American man being tapped as Tiny Tim. (The "ghost" remarked that he was a bit like an "adult jungle gym.")  I loved the feeling that you were in someone's home as they acted out the play as a parlor game of sorts.  And, I have to admit, the story kind of got to me.

Our time with Vanessa Webb in the role of Betsy was feel-good from start to finish. Oscar Wilde is not known for his child-appropriate stories. But "The Selfish Giant," with its tale of a giant who walls up his garden to keep children from playing there, was specifically written to be read to young listeners.  It's a wonderful story that, while not Christmas-themed, definitely has the spirit of the holidays in it.  And Betsy's version of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (which starts, of course, "'Twas the night before Christmas....") was great fun, with audience members making reindeer noises and crying out at appropriate parts.

From there I headed upstairs into the Bayside Room to catch Ann Morrison/Aunt Great Aunt Victoria's "The Real Peter Pan." Ann developed this play from Barrie's "The Little White Bird/Adventures in Kensington Gardens."  It tells the story of Peter's meeting with Maimie, a little girl who sneaks out to Kensington Gardens in hopes of meeting Peter and the fairies who live there and gets locked in for the night. (Maimie becomes Wendy Darling in the later books.)  Ann swooped around the room using wonderful voices to portray the different characters, and I found myself swept up in the story.

All good things must come to an end, and the audience was then led back out to the patio for good-byes and a few more carols.  It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.  The show is running through Dec. 20, so there's still time to get there. And if you miss it, "Shakespeare at the Crosley" is coming in January.  (Click here for information.)

Happy holidays!

 

Castles in the Sand

Like most people, I have vague memories of spending time at the beach as a kid making sand castles that would be swept out to sea with the next high tide. Some people have never outgrown that stage of their lives. Luckily for them, sand sculpting has become an art form of sorts, with competitions like the 29th Annual Sand Sculpting Championship recently held in Fort Myers Beach. How could I resist?

I had envisioned walking down the beach with water lapping at my feet while admiring sculptors at work on their creations. Instead, the event is held in a roped off area with a demonstration tent and vendors galore. (How else to make sure they get the $5 admission fee from gawkers?) Once inside the ropes, Bruce, Dorrit and I headed in to see what the event was all about.

There are categories in the competition for both "professional" and amateur sand sculptors. The day we checked it out, the advanced amateur and master doubles competitions were underway. Unlike the artists at the Sarasota Chalk Festival, these participants weren't keen to talk with visitors. Sure, they were working on deadline. But I also had the (snobby) sense that their views about their art weren't as well formulated as the articulate chalk artists. When I asked one amateur how he decided what to sculpt, he mumbled something about "too many recreational drugs" and went back to play in his sand.  

That's not to say that the creations--and the amount of sand that went into them--weren't mind-boggling. The competition boasts using more than 1000 tons (yes, tons) of sand. Each of the master double teams, for instance, starts with 24 tons of sand. Working within their allocated space, their first job is to shovel the sand into the general area where they will be sculpting, saturate it with water and tamp it down using a 25 lb. tamper.  (I would have loved to have to have seen this part of the process.)  It's a little hard to tell from the program how much time participants are allowed to sculpt their creations. It looks, however, as if several days are allotted for each category.

The demo tent was home to music, quick sand competitions (which we missed) and daily demonstrations.  Bill Knight and his wife Marianne are the owners and operators of the company that organized the event (aptly called The Sand Lovers).  Knight was on hand to give a demo that let the audience in on some of the tricks of the trade.

The question on everyone's minds was, "What do you put in the sand to make it stay in place?"  The answer is simple: water. While a concoction of one part Elmer's Glue to ten parts water is spritzed on the final sculpture, its purpose is to prevent wind and sand erosion, not to hold the sculpture together.  Knight analogized it to paint on a house (which, he pointed out, has nothing to do with the construction of the building).  And in case you're wondering, Elmer's Glue is apparently bio-degradable and environmentally friendly.  Who knew?

Knight shared some handy tips on how to make your own sand castle using some simple tools.  The first step is to make sure your sand is totally wet. For your base, use a pail with the bottom cut out. (The bottom traps the air and makes the sand stick to the pail.) Once the sand has set--about five minutes--tap the bucket and then remove. Voila!  If you want to get fancy, build a double

or triple decker using increasingly smaller buckets. A funnel can be used to create the perfect top to your castle.

Once you're ready to get sculpting, make sure to start at the top. (This isn't for reasons of stability, but because you don't want the sand you are carving away to fall into work you've already done.)  Offset spatulas and trowels are great tools for shaping. Windows can be made using offset knives or melon ballers. Don't forget straws, paintbrushes and make-up brushes to get rid of loose sand.

Knight assured us that if we followed these easy instructions, we would be able to make an awe inspiring sand castle. Sounds like a plan for my next outing to the beach.

Flower Child -- Not

Syreeta Banks in "Hair"

I am a child of the ‘60s.  And when I say this, I literally mean that I was a child then.  I was born in 1961, so I came of age in the Reagan era.  Youth then (myself certainly included) bore little resemblance to the free-loving flower children who took it upon themselves to protest the Vietnam War and other social injustices.  

 

I vividly remember researching sit-ins and protests from the 1960s for a paper I wrote in college. It was very eye-opening. It sounded exciting and energizing to fight for a cause, and I wished I had grown up just a few years earlier. (Of course, there might have been a bit of romanticizing going on.)

Fast forward to 2015 and Venice Theatre’s production of “Hair: An American Tribal Rock Musical.” I was thrilled to see the show, not only because it evoked those memories, but because it was directed by the amazing Ben Vereen.  

Ben Vereen at aaCT WorldFest

People who know me may recall that I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Vereen last year when he appeared at Venice Theatre at the American Association of Community Theater's WorldFest. Talking with him was a true pleasure.  He was just so zen and cool. 

During the Festival, Mr. Vereen taught a master class to five young actors with a theater full of people looking on. I was amazed at how transformative his quiet words were to the actors.  If just a few words could have such an impact, what would community actors be able to achieve after working with him for an extended period? 

Vera Samuels in "Hair" 

We arrived at the theater early and took our seats. The actors were hanging out with the audience, and several took advantage of an open seat by Dorrit to talk to her (and, quite literally, get in her face).  By the time the first notes were sung, I was definitely in the mood for what I expected to be an upbeat show.  

While the performance gets high marks for a community theater production, I found myself depressed by the end of the show about how much anger these young people felt. (To add insult to injury, “Let the Sunshine In” is a real bummer of a song in context.) Everyone I mentioned this to who lived through those days had the same response. “Yeah, “ they said. “It was a very angry time.”  

Maybe I grew up at the right time after all. 

The Seafarer at Florida Rep

Just because I love to spend time in dark theaters doesn't mean that I actually enjoy dark theater. You know the type of show I mean. The kind that makes you squirm in your seat as family dysfunction or alcoholic binges or [insert whatever makes you cringe] plays out on stage.

And while Florida Rep's "The Seafarer" is a show that makes ordinary family dysfunction fueled by too much wine look like the stuff of happy memories, the quality of the acting drew me in enough to make me come back after intermission. And I'm glad I did. Although this play about a group of friends gathering for a friendly game of poker and a holiday libation is definitely dark, the production was well done. And as a bonus, artistic director Bob Cacioppo led a surprise talk-back with actors James Clarke (Sharky), Graham Smith (Richard) and Peter Thomasson (Mr. Lockhart). Here's a bit of what they talked about.

On dialect -- Unlike the young actors I watched last week at Asolo Conservatory, these guys are old pros at adopting different accents. And so the services of Florida Rep's dialect coach were not required. The actors did confess, though, that it becomes harder to speak in dialect (and, for that matter, to remember lines) as they get older. 
 

Thomasson, Smith and Clarke at talk-back

On playing a blind man -- Smith was very believable in his role as a blind codger who uses an upside down golf club as a cane. Smith's research revealed that the newly blind move around more than people who've been blind for a long time. This fact made it easier for him to play Richard, who lost his sight only a couple of months prior to the events played out onstage. Smith found it challenging, though, to overcome his natural instinct to connect with other characters by making eye contact.

On the role played by alcohol (which is consumed in copious amounts) -- In theater as in life, a bit of alcohol can ease the way. Smith enjoys playing roles in which the characters are drinking because it gives him the opportunity to over-act (or, in this case, to speak just a wee bit too loudly). Clarke, just back from two months in Ireland, talked about how meeting friends for a pint or a harder libation is an integral part of the way the Irish communicate.   

On language -- While the use of profanity didn't even register with me, one audience member noted that another theater-goer counted the number of times the word "f**k" was uttered (73). Cacioppo said Florida Rep has never sanitized a script, but noted that the information on Florida Rep's website indicates that the show is for mature audiences only.

On theater in the round -- When Janice and I sat down, the set was so close we literally could have used this table to hold our beverages. Cacioppo had originally slated this show to play on the main stage, but realized the play would work better in the more intimate setting of Florida Rep's ArtStage Studio Theater. Good call! He pointed out that the staging for theater in the round has to take advantage of the "sweet spots" on the stage - the corners from which most of the audience can see the actor's face. (This is something I'll notice in the future.) One audience member commented that even when Clarke's back was to her, she could see the tension in his back and enjoyed this different perspective. Acting at its finest.

On casting -- Cacioppo is in charge of casting for all shows, and this was an easy one for him. Clarke, Smith and Thomasson, as well as Craig Bockhorn in the role of Ivan Curry, were cast based on Cacioppo's knowledge of their work. Approximately 25 actors auditioned in New York for the role of Nicky Giblin, with William Zielinski winning the part. One audience member noted--with apologies to Thomasson--that his appearance was perfect for the role of Mr. Lockhart (who is the human manifestation of the devil).Thomasson responded with a, well, devilish grin. 

The "Seafarer" is playing at Florida Rep through December 13th.