Category: Theater

Tidy Potpourri: Books & More

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Here are notes on two beach reads, my thoughts on a difficult play, and a great restaurant find for birthdays or anniversaries.

LEISURE READING

Karen White’s Flight Patterns is an absorbing novel about family secrets and the tortured relationship between two sisters and a good candidate to take to the beach.  Set in New Orleans and Apalachicola, Florida, a coastal town on the panhandle, it’s multi-layered with twists and turns as the complicated relationships between Georgia and her sister, Maisy, and their mentally ill mother, Birdie, play out against Georgia’s return after 10 years away and the hunt for a missing piece of china.  Birdie was distant and in her own world when Georgia and her sister were children so they were raised primarily by their grandfather and by their grandmother when she was still alive.  Grandpa is a beekeeper and Georgia is a fine china expert who comes back with a client to research china he has that is similar to a piece she thinks she has seen before.  I enjoyed the characters and also learning about Haviland Limoges china.

Footnote: Character Georgia’s research prompted me to search online for more information about my great (or great great) grandmother’s Limoges china which I inherited from my mother.  Based on the markings on the back of the pieces, I was able to determine that it was probably made in 1887, but so far I haven’t located any images of the pattern.

Georgia by Dawn Tripp is a well-researched novel about Georgia O’Keeffe’s early career and her relationship with photographer and artist promoter, Alfred Stieglitz.  Decades older than O’Keeffe, Stieglitz gave her flower paintings wide exposure with an exhibit in the gallery he owned.  Seductive, passionate, and domineering, he was mentor, lover, husband, and philanderer who too often tried to control her and her art.  Tripp’s prose is evocative and sensual and portrays Georgia’s struggle to be seen as an artist (not a female artist) and how her appreciation for what Stieglitz could offer becomes warped over time.  This was the book for the April meeting of our island book club, and most everyone liked it.

THEATER

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity.  Our local repertory company, Asolo, deserves much credit for presenting this challenging play.  Written by Kristoffer Diaz and first presented in 2009, it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for drama and winner of an Obie Award for Best New American Play.  It’s an exaggerated comedy about professional wrestling, as shown on TV, and we had ringside seats.  Literally!  In the small theater, we were in the first row on the floor (no stage) and right at the edge of the ring when it was pushed out for the second act.  The actors rushed by us carefully, never stepping on our toes!

The main character, Mace, is not a star, but a wrestler paid to lose to the big names like Chad Deity.  Mace and an Indian-American friend convince their bosses to let them fight each other, but they are then marketed as “terrorists.”  With undercurrents of racism and the overriding theme of money, this is a loud play with a strong message.  I found the first act tedious and too long, while the second act had lots of action and revived my interest somewhat.  Overall, not my favorite of the season.

SPECIAL OCCASION DINING

To celebrate my birthday, we tried Maison Blanche on Longboat Key.  It’s located in the Four Winds resort.  The dining room is understated with floor to ceiling white drapes lining the walls, a glass tower topped with a large floral display, and tables with comfortable round back chairs. 

With both a 3-course prix fixe menu for $65 and a la carte selections, there is something to appeal to every palate.  I enjoyed the tomato tart to start followed by the sautéed halibut special over pureed spinach with scattered chanterelle mushrooms and then the cheese course.  Actually we shared the cheese course and my spouse’s apple tart dessert.  He had the octopus salad and the red snapper.  This was the best food we’ve eaten in this area and the service was impeccable!

Credits:  Georgia O’Keeffe photo by Bella Orr (ThingLink); all other photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Culture Notes: Music, Politics, Movies

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What follows are paeans to lively performers and great theater (Born Yesterday and The Originalist) along with comments on two challenging films.

MUSICAL RICHES

I swear you’d think we live in a big city given all the musical offerings we have!  In the last two weeks, we had the return of handsome baritone John Brancy (this time with pianist Peter Dugan); an exceptional orchestra concert, Estonian Voices, with the award-winning Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir performing the Mozart Requiem; and then a Monday morning brightened by New York based organist and conductor, Kent Tritle.  On the faculty of both the Manhattan School of Music and Juillard, Mr. Tritle is also organist and director of cathedral music at Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  He was bubbly and delightful in conversation and bounced from his seat down to play the impressive digital organ (we learned a lot about the latest digital organs and how the stops operate) at the Church of the Palms in Sarasota.  Demonstrating his musicality, he played works by J. S. Bach, Franck, and a very familiar sanctuary-filling postlude by Widor  It was a most memorable morning!

SUPERB THEATER

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we are blessed with fabulous live theater locally.  Recently, we saw the 1946 play, Born Yesterday, presented by the Asolo Repertory Theatre.   Set in Washington, D.C. it’s about politics and wheeler-dealing, but more significantly about the transformation of junk dealer Harry Brock’s mistress Billie from a so-called dumb blonde to a self-confident assertive young woman.  It starts out a bit slow, but then catches fire and Billie (Christina DeCicco) is wonderful and her evolution both hilarious and poignant to watch.    Beautiful set, great cast—everyone from the leads to those playing maids and doormen was top notch—with a story line that faintly echoes some of the political concerns of today.

Next up was the third of the political plays this season, The Originalist, a three-character drama focusing on Antonin Scalia and two of his law clerks.  Scalia engages in an ongoing sparring match with one of them, Cat, a liberal black lesbian, which is occasionally enlivened by a competitive card game.   Edward Gero has the look and walk of Scalia and when he first takes the stage I felt for sure we were seeing Scalia himself.  This is great drama that is even more relevant as we await the hearings on Judge Gorsuch.

THOUGHT-PROVOKING FILMS 

We didn’t see them in the theater so we watched two notable films at home on our biggish small screen.  One was Jackie.  Natalie Portman (nominated for best actress) is most convincing as Jackie Kennedy, but for those who idolized the woman, this film will not necessarily endear her to you.  Contained, reserved, and always smoking, this Jackie is unto herself ever mindful of her image and that of her now late husband.  The film focuses on the short period of time right after Kennedy’s assassination when Jackie gives a key interview and re-lives the events of that horrible day.  If you accept, as I do, writer Barbara Leaming’s theory that Jackie was suffering from PTSD (something not yet identified in 1963), then her behavior is more understandable.  Not an easy film to watch.  

Moonlight won best picture—much to the surprise of everyone, especially the creators of La La Land who were winners for an instant—and we felt we ought to see it.  It is a raw and powerful film that I think I kept on appreciating after it was over.  Chiron’s story is the maturing of a poor black boy wondering about his sexuality.  It unfolds in three chapters from his grade school years as he is bullied for his difference, to his teen years and his fragile friendship with Kevin, to his adult life alone working the mean streets of Atlanta.

His mother is a drug user and mostly unavailable to him.  As a kid, Chiron is rescued by Juan, a drug dealer.  Juan and his partner, Theresa, offer Chiron warmth and stability and regular meals.  The interactions between these three individuals are some of the brightest spots in the film.  Years later, Kevin surfaces and prods Chiron into a bit of reflective conversation.  For more on what this intimate film achieves, I highly recommend this review in The New Yorker by Hilton Als.

Notes:  Header photo from Asolo Repertory Theatre; Moonlight image from www.indiewire.com

Suncoast Scene: Out and About

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Visitors from the North

You know it’s winter up north when your friends and relatives start showing up in Florida.  Over the past few weeks, we’ve enjoyed getting together with a former colleague from San Francisco, entertaining two of the Chief Penguin’s former graduate students and their three almost adult children (do we feel old?), and catching up with the C.P.’s college roommate and wife from Potsdam (whose wedding we attended decades ago).

This past week we had a delightful time with my Chapel Hill sister and brother-in-law.  They provided the impetus for breakfast at the beach, lunch at Thai Palace, live music (along with fresh fish) at Cortez Kitchen, dinner at our favorite new French restaurant, wandering the Sarasota Seafood Festival, and another tour around Selby Botanical Gardens.  Note the emphasis on food; as Sally says, “we ate, talked, and walked,” and ate some more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Performing Arts

At Music Monday, we were privileged to see and hear from Betsy Hudson Traba, principal flute in the Sarasota Orchestra, and Cheryl Losey Feder, harpist. Together they played several works, a couple of which had keyboard parts that had been adapted for harp.  It was a treat.

Playwright Robert Schenkkan wrote two plays about Lyndon Johnson’s presidency.  Last year we saw the first, All the Way, and this past week we went to Asolo’s production of The Great Society.  This second, equally superb play, deals with the tumultuous events (marches, riots, deaths, war in Vietnam) from 1965-68.  It is both instructive and chilling to see this period from 50 years later and to be reminded of how much and how little progress has been made.  Also disturbing in light of the current president.  The play ends with a line from President-elect Nixon about making America great again.  I wondered if it was in the original play.

We ended the week with the Sarasota Ballet.  Under director Iain Webb, the company has made a specialty of presenting the works of choreographer Sir Frederick Ashton.  We were pleased to see the lovely Valses nobles et sentimentales and look forward to more works by Ashton on future programs.

Footnote

The Florida Suncoast refers to the west-central coastal region from Tampa and St. Petersburg south to Bradenton and Sarasota which includes more than 20 miles of lovely sandy beaches on the Gulf of Mexico.

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)

Sarasota Scene: Holiday Happenings

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Fabulous Fun.  Asolo Repertory Theater’s production of Guys and Dolls is the perfect antidote for any lingering post-election blues.  Energetic, boisterous, lively, romantic, it’s hard to find enough adjectives to describe the sheer fun of it all.  I had never seen this musical before and was caught up in the music and the fast-paced dancing.   And pleased to discover that I even knew a couple of the songs, ”Luck Be a Lady,” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.”  The subtitle of the work is “A Musical Fable of Broadway,” and reflecting that, the action is set on Broadway and in a Salvation Army-like mission and features gamblers and show girls and the most unlikely of romantic pairings.  It runs until January 1, so if you’re local, treat yourself!

Christmas Concert

Tucked just in from Sarasota Bay, the Church of the Redeemer in Sarasota’s sanctuary is both elegant and cozy.   This week we attended “This Day, a concert of Christmas-related music by the Musica Sacra Cantorum, part of the church’s Great Music Concert Series which runs from December through next May.  This concert mixed the familiar, “The Holly and the Ivy”, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” and “Joy to the World” (all verses) with the new and the unexpected.  British composer John Rutter is one of my favorites (“All Things Bright and Beautiful”) and we heard his three-movement, “Gloria,” along with works by John Tavener and the hauntingly beautiful, “Shine on This Shining Night,” by Morton Lauridsen.  Much honored and lauded, Lauridsen’s name and work were previously unknown to me.

Bob Parrish, the choir director, is a warm and engaging presence at the podium.  The program was an ambitious one and at some points challenging for the singers.  But overall, an enjoyable paean to the season.

Fresh Fish

For fresh and tasty fish in downtown Sarasota, I highly recommend Duval’s on Main Street.  We’ve had lunch there a number of times, but dinner perhaps only once before.  This week we took our visiting friend Barb and were delighted.  It’s a place where when you walk in, the décor leads you to expect an acceptable casual meal.  In our experience, the food consistently trumps the ambience.

Two of us enjoyed the grilled red snapper with a choice of sides.  I opted for the lightly sautéed spinach (one of my favorite vegetables) and requested the fried green tomatoes.  They were not technically one of the sides, but were being offered in a modified caprese salad.  Also tasty were the corn and lobster mac and cheese and a Caesar salad (large enough to share).  Our waitress was charming and knowledgeable—the next day we spotted her at the Asolo Theater.  Small world.

 

Header photo:  http://www.bradenton.com/entertainment/article115230988.html; Brass:  Christmas-brass.jpg