Wonderfully Taming the Shrew

Posted on September 29, 2011 by djnpub

Tonight I saw my last play of the CalShakes season (perhaps my last Shakespeare play of the year), The Taming of the Shrew. Always one of my favorites, this was a fantastic production. It was somewhat contemporized, but it came across very well. For example the nicer daughter Bianca was introduced as a leggy swim suited beauty contestant in high heels, and was pretty much played like an air-headed Barbie. The role of Petruchio, the wild husband, was played amazingly well. This finally relieved a bit of my Shakespeare withdrawal after leaving DC.

Jeff once again joined Bill, Andy and myself, but I think we’ve failed to convert him to higher culture. Rita never made it, which is too bad as this was a very enjoyable play. It’s the first time in a while I’m tempted to think about going back and seeing a production again.

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Candida

Posted on August 18, 2011 by djnpub

Tonight I saw my first play in a while (going through withdrawal after leaving DC). It was CalShakes production of George Bernard Shaw’s Candida. I enjoyed it very much. It took me a little while to get into it, but I liked how the story turned out. The entire play took place in one setting, a richly furnished study with colorful rugs and nice leather furniture. The play consisted of three relatively short acts with brief intermissions in between. The cast was small (and mostly new to me). The acting was great; particularly enjoyable were two of the broadly drawn characters of the father-in-law and the secretary. The evening felt like a bit of a palate cleanser after the last one. It didn’t completely blow me away, but it was very enjoyable. Sadly, my entourage was missing, as there was a dive trip to Fiji, so I had the row to myself except for two seats that I donated back that got used.

Based on my recent rate of journal entries I need to step up the fun quotient if I want to keep up with my DC style.

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Washington Adventures

Posted on August 6, 2011 by djnpub

For a catalog of many of my Washington adventures click here.

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The Verona Project

Posted on July 14, 2011 by djnpub

I got together with the old crew for a California Shakespeare outing for the first time in quite a while. They even convinced Jeff to come along. This was CalShakes production of a new play, The Verona Project. This was a play inspired by The Two Gentlemen of Verona, but it was quite different. It began with a band, and the songs began telling the story, then the members of the band became players in the play. I’ll give it a little credit for some ambitious inventiveness, but in the end it seemed to me a muddle. From a musical perspective, it was just OK. There were some decent songs, but some of the main singers were just marginal. From the perspective of a play, it was very preachy trying to bring all sorts of sexual orientation issues in that seemed more forced and exploitational than natural and story enhancing. At the end of the day, this was the least enjoyable play I can recall seeing in a very long time. Not a great way to restart the California theater experience.

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All good things must come to an end

Posted on July 10, 2011 by djnpub

My time in DC ended with several hectic days of packing and tending to details that ran right up to the last minute I was in town. Things had been too crazy towards the end to do some last minute social connections, but a nice treat was Kathy joining me in the cab out to Dulles and sharing dinner with me before I left. I had some thoughts of staying back east for the weekend of the 4th, but now I’m glad I didn’t because I was so exhausted after the lack of sleep and all the packing at the end, I needed the weekend back at home just to recoup a bit.

I had thought that one benefit of coming back would be escaping the east coast heat to what I had been hearing was a more mild California. Unfortunately, when I got back, it was over 100° just about every day over the 4th of July weekend, and the air conditioning in my house wasn’t working. After suffering through the sweltering weekend I managed to get it fixed. I then discovered my refrigerator was on the verge of dying. I guess after being away for two years, some of the 20 year old stuff should be expected to wear out. Just a lot to take care of right off the bat, while trying to get resettled into my new/old life.

I’ll try and resist the urge to do more whining. I do miss DC, but it’s time to get revved up back in my old digs. I hope I will take some of the life lessons I picked up back there to continue moving forward, and not taking a step back.

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The Merchant of Venice

Posted on June 23, 2011 by djnpub

Tonight I saw the final play of my DC adventure, and my final play in this year’s Shakespeare Theatre Company season, [The Most Excellent History of] The Merchant of Venice. Upon seeing this, I was reminded of why it is one of my favorites. I’m sad it’s the end, but happy that it ended on a very high note. Although it was resent in a more modern setting (New York of the 1920s), they didn’t soften the antisemitism that sometimes compromises the drama for me. The acting was great, and it was powerfully delivered. There was even a little surprise in that Andy Murray, who’s been a CalShakes regular for years, was part of the cast.

This Shakespearean classic was so different than the very modern play I saw last night. I’m glad my theatrical cannon of my change of station ended with this rich play. I always find this a challenging play to watch because in many ways Shylock gets screwed, but there’s a lot of context which makes it a much richer story. For example, the back stories of the new husbands, who though they seem to win the big battle end up betraying their first token vow to their wives shows that these guys aren’t all so great either.

The staging was primarily one fixed set with a big angled staircase in the center, and all had the appearance of rich wood. The acting of the two leads was particularly affecting. I’m definitely going to miss having access to such great theater so close to home … but life goes on.

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Bootycandy

Posted on June 22, 2011 by djnpub

Tonight I saw my last play in the Woolly Mammoth season, Bootycandy. It consisted of a collection of sketches (which ultimately were revealed to be interconnected) that appeared to be comedic on the surface, but covered challenging aspects of race, racial culture, sexual identity, etc. The cast were mostly black with only one white actor. There were a couple of unique aspects of the production, where just before the intermission, after about four of these sketches, there was another sketch that sort of broke down the barrier with the audience of a conference of theater writers (the audience was the conference attendees), where each actor played the author of one of the preceding sketches and described a bit of what they were about. They also explicitly said it’s not supposed to be easy to watch … “it was hard to write, it should be hard to digest”, directly addressing some of the challenging topics. In the second half they again pretended to abruptly halt due to the emotional state of one actor, brought up the lights, reset the stage, and moved onto the last scene.

There was one sketch that was hilarious: the un-committment ceremony of two women. The speeches mirroring wedding vows, where they ripped each other, and even the preacher’s variant of Corinthians espousing the power of hate, were perfect parody. I’m sure anybody who had gone through a divorce could have related.

The acting was very good, and despite the subject matter that made me a bit uneasy, it was a wonderful play to see. I’m going to miss having and avant garde theatre like this a block from where I live.

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Nats Game

Posted on June 21, 2011 by djnpub

Tonight I got another example of the spontaneous fun activities that seem to come up for me in DC. My friend Kathy and her daughter Megan were planning on going to a Washington National’s baseball game, and she invited me along. We snagged some tickets from an apparent season ticket holder on the street, and got some discounted tickets for seats down the third base line. This had been something that had been on my DC list of things to do, but as time is running short, I hadn’t really expected to accomplish it. I was a humid warm evening, and the Nats didn’t do too good against the Seattle Mariners, but it was a fun evening with good friends, and it gave me a chance to check one more thing off my list.

[Correction: Apparently the Nats came to life in the 9th inning and scored 5 runs to win the game … the “greatest comback in franchise history” … all after we had left the ballpark]

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Winding Down

Posted on June 19, 2011 by djnpub

A little over two years ago, in one of my first posts, I wrote about the big decisions I had made to lead to my leaving home for what at the time was a one year assignment on the east coast. In reading that post, I am reminded of my uncertainty at the time as to how this adventure would turn out. I had rationalized needing to shake up my life a bit, and get out of the rut I had been in. I enjoyed my positions at the time, and it was a gamble that giving that up would end up being a net career positive, but I was willing to jump off the cliff and face what came.

Now here it is at the end of my time in DC. I have enjoyed my two years here much more than I ever could have imagined. Living the the heart of a vibrant urban environment has been an enjoyable change from living in a quiet suburban community. I have taken advantage of many of the cultural opportunities afforded by this location, seeing a couple of dozen plays and many museums and historical sites. I’ve also taken nearly 3000 pictures.

I think I am returning to my old life with more trepidation than when I unplugged my old life and came out here. I had to take a career risk, and I paid a big price in a personal relationship to do this. Despite initial anxiety about how it would impact my life, I found it to be a big step forward. It tore the blinders off my eyes as to the possibilities that are out there for me. Now going back is feeling a little like a step backward. They talk about “Potomac fever”, but for me it’s more a sense of recognizing that I’m not limited to just doing what I was doing before. Not only that, I’ve made a number of good friends, and the environment here makes socializing easier. It pains me to leave my new friends and my work colleagues behind.

With only a couple of weeks till I return, my return path at work is still somewhat uncertain, and we will see how it all turns out. I just need to make sure I actively pursue the things I’ve enjoyed here (even though it may take more work) and take advantage of what I’ve learned, and not slip back into my old rut.

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Titus Andronicus in CA

Posted on June 14, 2011 by djnpub

During a quick trip back to CA to interview for my new job, I rescheduled the first play of the California Shakespeare Theater’s season that I had missed the previous week. This was Titus Andronicus, which was the first time Cal Shakes had done this play. I had been waiting ten years to see it as Jonathan Moscone had dropped it from the first season he became artistic director where it was originally scheduled.

It was a very pleasant evening, and it was a very good production. It was nice to see a more sparse set in the Cal Shakes mode after the expensive productions at DC’s Shakespeare Theater Company. The acting was good in this grisly revenge tragedy. There was also some very interesting theatrical staging, for example when one of the characters falls in a pit, they had people carrying partitions surround the actor, and the other actors talked off the edge of the stage. The action flowed back and forth, but it was an interesting way to engage the audience’s imagination with a simple staging device.

I very much enjoyed the evening, even though I had to fly back early the next morning. I think I may go through some withdrawal going from four theater subscriptions to one, so hopefully Cal Shakes can keep me sustained till I can broaden out a bit again.

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