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We're a bit late getting this week's SCENE posted; we're battling a summer cold. Sorry for the delay.
A lot of plays are closing this weekend, and nothing's opening to replace them this week; everyone is waiting until after the Fourth of July holiday. Of course, a few of them will be in rehearsals through the holiday. In the meantime, you may have a number of shows to see if you've been putting it off.
Here's what's playing on The Scene this sweltering summer weekend...
you still haven't missed...
Cabaret Verboten plays at the Theatre at Arts Garage through July 30, 2012.
last chance to see...
Slow Burn Theatre ends its limited run of Xanadu on July 1, 2012.
Miami Stage Door Theatre production of Deathtrap at the Byron Carlyle Theater also close July 1.
The Edge of Our Bodies plays at Mosaic Theater through July 1, 2012.
Empire Stage presents Love Scenes through July 1.
The Immigrant plays at the Broward Stage Door Theatre through July 1, 2012. They're also offering Backwards in High Heels, the musical biography of Ginger Rogers.
community/collegiate...
Florida Atlantic University's summer season kicks off with Showtune: A Jerry Herman Musical Revue, through July 21. Love's Labor's Lost joins the lineup this weekend.
101 Dalmatians plays at the venerable Lake Worth Playhouse this weekend.
Florida International University offers The Maids this weekend. This one has a tie-in to Edge of Our Bodies at Mosaic - that play is set on a school production of The Maids. See one, then run to see the other - and share your findings with us.
coming and going...
The JQ Studio presents First Man/First Woman at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center this weekend.
for kids...
City Theater partnered with Orlando Repertory Theatre to produce The Brand New Kid. Based on Katie Couric's children's book, it runs this weekend at the Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre June 29-30.
Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theater offers Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, through August 4.
Labels: The Scene
Miami Stage Door opened its production of Deathtrap at the Byron Carlyle Theater on June 15, 2012.
The trap is set… for a wickedly funny who'll-do-it. Broadway's longest-running mystery is a classic pulse-pounding thriller with devilishly wicked characters and multiple twists. The plot thickens as a once famed playwright, now living on his laurels, is sent a more-than-promising manuscript from an aspiring playwright. His dilemma: Can he get the young author to collaborate with him? If not – is murder an option? Of course it is.
Clayton Phillips directed a cast that featured Kevin Reilly, Clay Cartland, Elizabeth Sackett, Glen Lawrence, and Paula Sackett.
Back in 1978 when the word "meta" didn't have its current ubiquity as a pop culture definition of "something referring to itself," Ira Levin's ingenious comedy-thriller Deathtrap became the ultimate example of what would eventually become known as meta-theater.
Other than a few dated references, Levin's script remains a brilliantly crafted and slyly knowing piece of theatrical cabinetry. The ensuing plot regularly corkscrews in on itself with reversals, but to reveal much more is to sabotage the audience's delights in the twists. If you don't know what's coming, this marvel still holds up – as the gasps from Sunday's audience confirmed.
This production could use a little more topspin under the direction of Clayton Phillips, the production manager for the Maltz Jupiter Theatre and an experienced director of musicals judging by his bio. He leads his cast in an adequate rendition, but this iteration doesn't maximize the suspense or comedy that this play is capable of delivering.
The best thing about this production is that it finally gives veteran local actor Kevin Reilley a long-overdue role that is a perfect fit for his talents... He flavors Levin's bon mots with just the right seasoning of frustrated bile.
Handsome Clay Cartland (so good in last month's reading of tick tick… Boom for Outre Theatre) invests Anderson with the slightly bizarre enthusiasm that makes some of the play's less likely twists completely credible, showing the acting chops that made his performance as a demented industrialist the standout in Promethean Theatre's Song of the Living Dead.
Less satisfying was Elizabeth Sackett's Myra who starts off the play unremarkably bland, thereby robbing the first scene of crucial energy. Her performance deepens as Myra's growing anxiety and dread give the actress something to play with.
Paula Sackett works hard to create the one out-and-out farcical character, a frowsy Dutch psychic Helga Ten Dorp, whose visits to the manse threaten Bruhl's plans. But inexplicably, Sackett just can't make Helga land as the delightfully daffy fly-in-the-ointment that Levin penned. Glen Lawrence portrays Bruhl's stolid solicitor with appropriate stuffiness.
It's not the best Deathtrap you've seen (or will see if this is your first time), but it works well enough to be worth a visit. And credit Stage Door for being one of the few companies left in South Florida willing to mount this kind of tired businessman warhorse that combined sheer craft with sheer entertainment.
The Miami Stage Door production of Deathtrap plays at the Byron Carlyle Theatre through July 1, 2012.
The Theatre at Arts Garage opened its production of Cabaret Verboten on June 22, 2012.
In the face of the Nazi machine's insidious advance, Germany's Weimar era art-scene was a hotbed of music, theatre, and art that used satire and irony to expose the affected bourgeois morality of the time. While "decadent" and "degenerate" were terms Hitler used to describe whatever he found objectionable, the cabaret of the day reflected the social degeneracy, dripping in decadence and menace, as a response to what their world had become.
Jeremey Lawrence directed a cast that featured Pierre Tannous, Wayne LeGette, Lourelene Snedeker and Alexa Green
With brilliant but unrelieved corrosive cynicism, the musical revue at the Theatre at Arts Garage mercilessly draws unnerving parallels between the dissolute Weimar Republic and 21st Century America, bluntly underscoring how ripe we are for fascist demagoguery in a heated election cycle.
This sardonic and carnal recreation of a Weimar cabaret isn't the light musical fare Floridians are accustomed to seeing in the summer. Many intelligent discerning theatergoers will flat out hate this show. But an equal number will be intrigued and fascinated if not enraptured by the abyss-dark humor and timely political comment. For them, this is courageous gutsy programming.
Throughout, Lawrence's double-entendre lyrics twist and turn like depraved Cole Porter, corkscrewing so intricately that it seems like language itself has been perverted. That same quality imbues the rhyming couplets that he gives the vampiric Emcee to introduce each number.
LeGette as the pale-faced, gaunt-eyed Emcee, is especially effective with an angry leer that says, "Well, if this is the way you want the world, you asked for it." He smoothly delivers Lawrence's glib patter.
Snedeker (who received a Carbonell nomination for the 1996 edition) reminds us once again with her expressive face and lithe body language how we've missed her ability as a musical theater performer who is equally a fine actress.
In the end, Cabaret Verboten's power is that while it initially seems meant to be a time machine, in fact, it has the feel of an endless Jersey Shore marathon interspersed with ads for The Kardashian Book of Etiquette, set in a very recognizable post-modern Hell. Not for everyone.
Cabaret Verboten, directed, revised and slightly updated with contemporary references by its creator, should be a perfect fit with its four-person cast and three musicians. After all, where better to present an in-your-face revue than in a place where the performers can stroll among the tables, sometimes getting unsettlingly up close and personal? But Cabaret Verboten, 2012 edition, proves a hit-and-miss affair.
Lawrence's minimal updates, however, stick out like a sore thumb. Or maybe a bad bratwurst. A sketch titled Lost: One Small Dachshund works in a reference to strapping a dog to the roof of a car (hello, Mitt Romney) and has cast member Alexa Green donning glasses and speaking with a Sarah Palin accent, don't ya know. That material sounds like a reject from a show by the Capitol Steps, the company that specializes in of-the-moment political satire.
Wayne LeGette is the show's versatile emcee, a guy with a powerful singing voice and the acting chops to shift from menace to manipulation to naughtiness in the blink of a heavily made-up eye.
Lourelene Snedeker, the only holdover from the 1996 production, has a Marlene Dietrich-like world-weariness down cold. Green is at her most powerful when playing a pregnant woman who's not that keen on becoming a mother. Tannous does well in a sketch with LeGette, but his inexperience often shows.
Michelle F. Solomon wrote for miamiartzine:
Ready for a smart night of theater? If you're looking for mindless entertainment, Cabaret Verboten is not for you. But the musical... plays well to those who never shy away from the History and Current Events categories on Jeopardy.
There was nothing off limits to the cabaret writers then, and there's nothing off limits still: stand your ground, unwanted pregnancy, Wall Street rip-offs, i.e. Bernie Madoff, gay marriage, cross dressing, shopaholism, and addictions of all kinds, all get equal treatment. Interestingly enough, many of these topical points come out of songs that were already in place: The Stock Exchange Song (1921), The Kleptomanic (1931); When the Special Girlfriend (1928); The Lavender Song (1920), and The Snag (1931). In fact, each song, whether peppered with a contemporary reference or left untouched recalls something current.
Wayne LeGette... plays the smarmy emcee. He also doubles as different characters throughout the show and in many sketches. However, his emcee dripped with such one-note sarcasm throughout, the portrayal rendered the character unlikeable. LeGette fared much better in the ensemble parts.
Veteran actress Lourelene Snedeker is the stand out of the cast. She's absolutely frantic and fun as a woman addicted to shopping in The Kleptomaniac, and commands the stage in her solo, sprawled out on a settee as she sings about her vices in Shag Tobacco.
Ron Levitt, whose return key seems to broken, wrote for ENV Magazine:
It doesn't matter if you are a Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, straight or gay, believer or non-believer, you will get a lesson in politics, history and tolerance by spending 75 minutes at The Theatre at Arts Garage here , watching its musical summer production, the updated Cabaret Verboten.
Despite its obvious title, with songs and sketches from and about the Weimar German Republic – the time between the two World Wars – this edition of Cabaret Verboten by its creator/writer/director Jeremy Lawrence is a modernized version of the musical satire he wrote 16 years ago. Lawrence and producer Lou Tyrell – with an excellent ensemble of four vocalizing performers – somehow have managed to take the music of Germany's years leading up to Hitler and have given it a modern twist.
A good part of Cabaret Verboten's oomph must be credited to an outstanding ensemble – award-winning vocalist Lourelene Snedeker (who was in the original edition in 1966). The multi-talented Wayne LeGette (a veteran leading man who also must get some energy from his Florida Power and Light commercials), and dynamic newcomers Pierre Tannous and b, all of whom look vivacious and alluring in costume by Erin Amico.
There are memorable numbers throughout the show, especially Tannous doing a transsexual striptease and you will find yourself — if you are old enough — comparing Snedeker to Marlene Dietrich. The entire show is captivating and you will ask yourself how could such awful things happen in a civilized country?
Labels: Arts Garage, Review
AS the rain has been pounding South Florida the last few days, it's a perfect opportunity to pursue indoor activities - like, well, theatre. And don't forget to keep those ticket stubs to qualify for A Taste of Theatre, Theatre League's promotion tied into SummerFest.
Here's your Monday reading list.
City Theatre Still Going
Summer Shorts are packed away for the year, and Standing on Ceremony has come and gone, but you can still catch The Brand New Kid, City Theatre's co-production with Orlando Rep. The Examiner tells us about the show's upcoming date at Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre's space in the Galleria Mall.
Speaking of FLCT
Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre is getting ready to mount its production of Hairspray at The Broward Center for the Performing Arts, and The Examiner has a slideshow.
Stuff in the City
New York City, that is. Florida Theater On Stage reports that Michael McKeever's STUFF, winner of the 2011 Carbonel for Best New Work, will be getting a staged reading in The Big Apple. Playbill also has the story.
Why We Burn Out
Butts In Seats discusses the problems with overloading a job description.
Core job responsibilities are ones to which you should expect to devote a large portion of your day/week. If you have 25 core duties and even assuming you work at 10 hour day, you will only be able to devote 24 minutes each day to a duty. If indeed they are all core responsibilities.
If you give one person too many jobs, their ability to maintain quality drops because they must divide their attention to oversee the additional load.
The Huffington Post has the transcript to Robert Brustein's remarks to the Theatre Communications Group panel on Theater And The University. Brustein is the founder of Yale Repertory Company, which is partnered with Yale University.
...America's continuing adolescence in regard to support for the arts helps explain why the so-called not-for-profit theater is now sometimes serving not as an alternative to the Broadway system, but rather as a tryout house for commercial interests. I'm certainly not suggesting that these two systems shouldn't have relations with each other, or even intermarry at times. Rather, I am criticizing a process in which commercial interest is aroused before the opening of a not-for-profit production and thereby has a hand in raising the baby...
Try to imagine how an institution of higher learning would react to a chemistry department whose professors develop new pharmaceuticals in return for enhancement money from Pfizer.
South Florida Center Stage - in Movies
LA Weekly explains why the film adaptation of the musical Rock of Ages was shot in South Florida, even though it's set in Los Angeles.
For Shankman, however, L.A. was never an option. "The second I said yes to this, I knew there was no version that we were going to be able to shoot in Los Angeles, because [the Sunset Strip] is one of the busiest intersections in the world," he says in an interview with Miami New Times. "I couldn't close it down for six weeks, which is what I really needed. So I looked all over the world, and [Miami] ended up being really the only game in town."
But it was Fort Lauderdale that sealed the deal.
Shankman says he had very specific needs for that space -- a rock club that looked intimate but had enough space and balconies for cameras and cranes. "I walked in [to Revolution] and it was exactly... what I saw in my head," Shankman recalls. "I didn't want [anything] to move in case the illusion was destroyed."
Shankman likes the idea of building soundstages in Homestead, but Miami Today reports that the state needs to do more to help attract the film industry to the Sunshine State.
... in Miami, the Coconut Grove Playhouse is still closed. And The Examiner reports that Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff has said that it should be replaced with retail space. I guess The Grove doesn't have enough empty storefronts. And there's nothing new to be reported on the other two playhouse sitting empty across South Florida.
City Theatre/Broward Center: Standing on Ceremony (reviews)
City Theatre's production of Standing On Ceremony opened at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on June 21, 2012.
Experience an exciting, provocative evening of new short plays read by a dynamic, celebrity cast, written by some of America's most illustrious playwrights as they offer their unique takes on the moments before, during, and after "I do." Celebrate post-show at a wedding reception complete with music and wedding cake!Dealing in a personal way with same-sex marriage and equality, these American writers have created an evening that is at once as insightful and stirring as it is funny and heartwarming. A portion of all proceeds will be donated to Equality Florida.
John Manzelli directed a cast that featured Bruce Vilanch, Bryan Batt, Elizabeth Dimon, Elena Garcia, Steve Trovillion, Christopher De Paola, and Elizabeth Price alternating with jazz diva Nicole Henry, who will be singing a couple of numbers after the show on Friday and Saturday.
As the two men eloquently pledge their lives and their loves to each other in the moving vows that close Standing On Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays, theater reasserts its power to underscore the common humanity that transcends differences even as we treasure and celebrate those differences.
This production is really just a staged reading, benefiting from a few more rehearsals than usual with actors frequently referring to scripts in loose-leaf notebooks. But most of the personnel here are skilled enough to produce a satisfying professional evening...
The more overtly political skits are preaching directly to the gay men's choir such as Craig Wright's (I Am My Own Wife) edited transcript of a virulent debate on gay marriage that he instigated On Facebook. Only some heavy lifting by comic actress Garcia softened the one-dimensional feel of the piece.
...Dimon's hilarious depiction of a conservative Ohio housewife whose equilibrium is unhinged when she hears a caustic "gay" voice in her head as she interacts with a couple in The Gay Agenda by Paul Rudnick(Jeffrey, I Hate Hamlet, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told). She becomes increasingly upset by the "incursions" of gay life such as all the sassy wisecracking sidekicks to women characters on sitcoms being gay men. "It's taking jobs from black women!" she wails.
The high point was Batt's performance of Moises Kaufman's (The Laramie Project) affecting London Mosquitos, a surprisingly uplifting eulogy by a man in his late 50s, memorializing the intelligence and courage of his beloved long-time companion who died of cancer.
The City Theatre production of Standing on Ceremony plays at the Broward Center through June 24, 2012.
Labels: Broward Center, City Theatre, Review
Don't you believe for a second that there's no theater in the summer. This is one of the busiest weekends we've seen in months. City Theater and Slow Burn are both opening shows with very brief runs, so see those sooner rather than later; and four companies are winding up runs; New Theatre's A Bicycle Country has received particularly good reviews. We have a couple of college offerings this week, and something for the kids, too.
Here's what's playing on a very very busy Scene this weekend:
opening...
City Theater opens Standing On Ceremony at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts tonight. This one only plays through Sunday, don't miss it! Featuring Bruce Vilanch, Bryan Batt, and Nicole Henry, and some of South Florida's finest actors.
Slow Burn Theatre Company opens its production of the musical Xanadu this weekend. But it only plays through next weekend, so see it soon!
Theatre at Arts Garage opens its first home-grown production; Cabaret Verboten will play through July 29th.
Miami Stage Door Theatre presents Deathtrap at the Byron Carlyle Theater through July 1. It's Broadway's longest running murder mystery.
The Alliance Theatre Lab winds up its premier production of Small Membership at the Main Street Playhouse this Sunday, June 24, 2012.
The Andrews Living Arts Studio production of Avenue Q is selling tickets through June 23, 2012.
Don t Rain On Our Parade A Tribute To Barbara Streisand, Bette Midler, and Carole King concludes its extended run at the Plaza Theatre this Sunday, June 24.
New Theatre's production of A Bicycle Country completes its run at the Roxy Center for the Performing Arts through June 24, 2012.
Florida Atlantic University's summer season kicks off with Showtune: A Jerry Herman Musical Revue, through July 21.
Florida International University is offering Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You In The Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad through this Saturday only. Sheesh, you need more time than that to say the title!
passing through...
The national tour of La Cage Aux Folles winds up its stop at The Broward Center this Sunday, June 24, 2012. Christopher Seiber has been drawing rave revues for his "must-see" performance as Albin/ZaZa.
The Burt Reynolds Institute for Film & Theatre is offering An Evening With Bara Swain, this Saturday only at 7:30 pm. The Examiner has a story on the event.
City Theater partnered with Orlando Repertory Theatre to produce The Brand New Kid. Based on Katie Couric's children's book, it runs this weekend at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. It moves to the Fort Lauderdale Children's Theatre June 29-30.
Stage Door Theatre: Backwards in High Heels (2 reviews)
Broward Stage Door Theatre opened its production of Backwards in High Heels on June 6, 2012.
The remarkable life of the legendary actress Ginger Rogers comes to life onstage!
And that's all they're saying about that.
Dan Kelly directed a cast that featured Kelly Skidmore, Nicole Davey, Kate Scott, Ryan Lingle, Jake Delany, and Jonathon Van Dyke.
Rogers' rich life story is the subject of Backwards in High Heels, a show created in 2007 at Florida Stage by Lynnette Barkley and Christopher McGovern. The dance-driven stage biography is now at the Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs, and though simpler in execution, the production delivers thanks largely to the distaff half of its cast.
Director Dan Kelley and choreographer Yoav Levin smoothly convey Rogers' story, punctuating it with one dazzling dance number after another. Musical director Dave Nagy, bass player Martha Spangler and percussionist Julie Jacobs supply the live music so critical to the give-and-take between singers and musicians. Costume designer Jerry Sturdefant, lighting designer Ardeau Landhuis and Stage Door's scenic designers largely keep the show's palette in black, white and grays, appropriate for a star whose movie legacy was captured in black and white.
Determined to become a star, Ginger – played at Stage Door by the radiant, abundantly talented Kelly Skidmore – started dancing on the Orpheum circuit at 15
Rogers' less-fulfilling personal life involved five failed marriages and, at least according to McGovern's take, a love-hate relationship with her mother. At Stage Door, Kate Scott plays Lela as an omnipresent redhead who tries but fails to control her headstrong daughter. The warmth in Scott's voice as she sings You'll Never Know underscores the Lela's feelings of tenderness and pain.
Nicole Davey sketches miniature portraits of several stars – Merman, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Katharine Hepburn – and emerges as the show's solid comedienne. Ryan Lingle is a persuasive suitor-turned-scoundrel as Rogers' first husband, Jack Culpepper, but his Jimmy Stewart bears no resemblance to the affable star. Jake Delany gets the Astaire role, but he looks, sounds and moves nothing like the legendary dancer-choreographer, and Skidmore handily out-dances him.
Backwards in High Heels may play a little loose in spots with the facts of a fascinating life. But watching the cast sing and dance to such movie musical classics as Fascinating Rhythm, A Fine Romance, I Got Rhythm, We're in the Money and Let's Face the Music and Dance? That's entertainment.
Michele F. Solomon wrote for Florida Theater On Stage:
Broward Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs presents a super-energized rendition of the nostalgic musical that follows the life of the other half of the Astaire-Rogers dance duo, from the teenaged Virginia winning a Charleston dance competition that put her on the Orpheum circuit in 1926 to Ginger's Oscar win in 1940 for a dramatic role in Kitty Foyle... It has been performed around the country since, but Stage Door embraces its tap-happy beat to put on a production that feels genuine to the core.
Kelly Skidmore as Ginger is nothing short of spectacular. She glows on stage from the moment she arrives in the opening number with the rest of the company for the rousing Gershwin ditty "Fascinating Rhythm," which quickly propels the production into high gear.
...things continue to take off thanks to Dan Kelley's swift direction that keeps everything moving on point so that the show never misses a beat. Add to that a live orchestra set above the action that adds even more energy. The trio is one of the hardest-working bands seen on a local stage — musical director David Nagy on piano, Martha Spangler contributing rich, deep sound on stand-up bass, and Julie Jacobs keeping time on drums.
Just as fetching is Kate Scott as Ginger's mother, Lela Rogers, who plays the Mama Rose-esque part with a cool confidence. In Act II, her treatment of the ballad "You'll Never Know" is so perfectly rendered it reveals true heartbreak.
The show calls on the ensemble to wear a number of different hats and there isn't a weak link in the bunch.
For unlimited comic relief throughout, Nicole Davey has the most fun playing a veritable cast of characters... During a party scene, Davey's quick change ups as Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich and Katharine Hepburn are wonderfully defined and comically spot on...
Jonathan Van Dyke takes on a number of different roles, too, but he's a stand out in the tuneful "Let's Face the Music and Dance" that he shares with the two leading ladies.
While Barkley and McGovern's story travels a predictable road, there's no denying it's a musical gem. Stage Door's Backwards in High Heels gets five stars for being a true original.
Backwards in High Heels plays at the Broward Stage Door Theater through July 15, 2012.
Empire Stage opened Love Scenes, a co-production with Gato Flaco Productions, on June 7, 2012.
Moe Bertran plays 6 gay characters including a twenty-year-old hustler falling for his kinky mentor; a Broadway producer in a locker room brawl with the starlet who's after his man; a sixty-something martini drinker whose partner wants to have an open sexual relationship; and a drag diva ending her search for a rich husband to settle for true love.
Rod Stafford Hagwood's review was picked up by The Miami Herald:
Written by David Pumo, the one-man show doesn't spark until the third scene. But from that moment on, it's a laugh-a-minute gallop through all sorts of gay relationships, each one getting its own monologue. To be sure, poignant points are scored, but it's the zingers that linger.
Don't think for a moment that the late-coming "wow" factor is due to a meandering attack by actor Moe Bertran, who has performed the show across the country and even aboard Atlantis Events' gay cruises. It is not. It's just that those first scenes seem to have very little new or particularly interesting to offer.
But for a six-scene play stripped of the usual theatrical tricks of one-person shows... we are left in Bertran's capable and well-rehearsed hands.
Empire Stage presents Love Scenes through July 1, 2012.
Labels: Empire Stage, Review
Summer is upon us; but it was a lovely weekend with little rain, so we were out catching rays instead of combing the internet. City Theatre has concluded Summer Shorts, and its CityWrights event was a smashing success; but they're not done for the season quite yet. This week they open Standing on Ceremony at the Broward Center, a collection of short plays dealing with gay marriage, and features the talents of Bryan Batt and Bruce Vilanch.
It's a little tardy, but here's your Monday reading list.
A Taste of Summer
BroadwayWorld fills us in on a promotion sponsored by The South Florida Theatre League as part of WLRN's SummerFest.
Patrons who attend three Theatre League member theatre performances will be eligible to receive a $20 gift certificate to The Melting Pot, the popular restaurant that offers a truly unique dining experience created by the art of fondue.
Those Neon Lights Will Shine...
South Florida Theatre News reminds us that Slow Burn Theatre Company opens its production of the musical Xanadu this week.
Pulling Strings
The Examiner fills us in on the next production at Actors' Playhouse; the world premiere of Real Men Sing Show Tunes...and play with puppets, a new musical by Paul Louis and Nick Santa Maria. And leave the kids at home; this one's for grown-ups.
Ringing In A New Season
The Miami Herald reports that the University of Miami's Ring Theatre will start off its 2012-2013 season with "an ambitious festival showcasing the work of Cuban playwright Virgilio Piñera." The plays will be performed in Spanish with English supertitles, while the one-acts will be done in English with Spanish supertitles. The Virgilio @ 100 International Festival runs from August 17 through September 22 at the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre on the UM campus in Coral Gables. The rest of their season includes Boeing Boeing, Girls vs. Boys (with The House Theater of Chicago at the Arsht Center), and King Lear.
Reincarnated
Rising Action Theatre closed in the middle of its season last year, but South Florida Gay News reports that the small company is returning as Island City Stage, kicking off with Michael Leeds directing Twentieth-Century Way. Playbill has the audition notice, and notes that the Island City Stage website is still "under construction."
Resurrected... Rented
Meanwhile, BroadwayWorld describes the Entr'Act Theatrix rental of The Count de Hoernle theatre as "resurrecting the Caldwell Theatre."
"JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is now more relevant than ever, particularly with idealistic young people taking to the streets and challenging the political status quo from Egypt's Tahrir Square to the occupiers of Wall Street's Zuccotti Park," says executive Producer Vicki Halmos. "Plus I can think of nothing more appropriate than a musical about resurrection to re-open this fabulous theater."
It's one thing to put plays in the building, but it's not resurrection by a long shot. However well-intentioned, student actors doing popular fare is no substitution for 37 years of professional production at the levels produced by The Caldwell. It's nice to see the building being used as a theater, but it would be better to see the actual Caldwell Theatre Company back in production.
Money Makes The World Go Around
Via Parabasis, we bring you an... interesting approach to getting good press. Superfluities Redux reports that a a small theater company in Brooklyn is, well, offering bribes to theatre critics.
...the producers are offering a $100.00 "reprint fee" for any reviews that they excerpt on the show's Web site...
They include a portion of the classified ad making the offer, and background on the company, and a good discussion of the issue.
Speaking of Critics
That last article linked to one on Onstage/Backstage, a Chicago theatre blog. Jonathon Abarbanel discusses what it means to be a theatre critic.
The job of the critic is to be frank, professional and neutral. It's easy to be smart-ass and witty when lambasting a show ("And then I tore her heart out and stomped on it," we like to say), and sometimes it's fun, but it rarely makes for good criticism although it frequently makes for lively writing. Neutral does not always mean nice, but the voice of the reviewer (in print or on-air) never should sound like personal attack or a sermon, whether of the soapbox or high pulpit variety.
It's a good read, and if you're wondering what criteria is used when The Scene reviews a critic, here you go.
Talking With...
Florida Theater On Stage has a green room chat with veteran actor Harriet Oser, while miamiartzine raps with the inimitable George Schiavone.
BroadwayWorld has more on the tribute to Jan McArt that's tied in with a performance of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Ms. McArt will be honored at a Piano Bar/Pizza Party at the Count de Hoernle Theatre (formerly "The Caldwell") following the Sunday matinee performance of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR on July 8.
"Just as this production of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is resurrecting the recently-shuttered Caldwell Theatre, so too are we going to use this show to remember with great fondness another vanished cultural landmark in Boca Raton, the Royal Palm Dinner Theatre, and its guiding light and guardian angel, the always enchanting Jan McArt," said Halmos.
Butts In Seats discusses the issue of non-profit organizations doing business with their own board members. The Minnesota Playlist notes that you are your own marketing department - something we thought should be obvious, but then we found out that Actors' Rep was still running ColumbinUS and hadn't put that up on their website. Which is why your attendance has been down, Bob.
Speaking of Marketing
Mission Paradox describes the role of the marketer.
Polly Carl of howlround was the keynote speaker at City Theatre's CityWright event this past weekend, and has posted the transcript of their speech.
One of her points:
During my fifteen years of making new plays, I've watched our field become more obsessed with the transactional and less obsessed with making good art. If I'm here for no other reason today, it's to push you as artists and people who love the theater to rethink this momentum.
While we can see that more attention is being paid to the business of show business, has the art truly suffered? We'd love to hear your thoughts.
This summer is just blasting past. Do you have a summer camp happening at your theater? Leave information in the comments, and we'll see about putting together a summer camp show guide.
This weekend, City Theatre is presenting a playwright's conference called CityWrights. The Drama Queen fill us in on the event, which includes playwrights Christopher Durang and Leslie Ayvazian reading some of their work. Also this weekend, one night only on June 16th Deco Drive's Louis Aguirre & SocialMiami's Aaron Glickman will star in a benefit reading of Sam Shepard's True West. All proceeds will be donated to the Miami Theater Center (formerly known as The PlayGround Theatre).
On the horizon; Cabaret Verboten at ArtsGarage, Standing on Ceremony at the Broward Center, and The Brand New Kid at the Kravis Center. Two of these three shows are produced at least in part by City Theatre.
Miami Stage Door Theatre opens Deathtrap at the Byron Carlyle Theater. It's Broadway's longest running murder mystery.
New Theatre presents its production of A Bicycle Country at the Roxy Center for the Performing Arts through June 24, 2012.
The Alliance Theatre Lab presents Small Membership at the Main Street Playhouse through June 24, 2012.
Don t Rain On Our Parade A Tribute To Barbara Streisand, Bette Midler, and Carole King winds up its limited has extended its run at the Plaza Theatre this Sunday, June 17 June 24.
City Theatre's 17th iteration of its famous Summer Shorts winds up its exclusive run at the Arsht Center through June 17, 2012. Don't look for it in Broward, or anywhere else.
Palm Beach Dramaworks' critically acclaimed production of David Auburn's Proof closes this Sunday, June 17, 2012.
The national tour of La Cage Aux Folles plays at The Broward Center through June 24, 2012. And we're not going to make any jokes about George Hamilton, because he's a hometown boy (West Palm Beach). We're fairly certain those stories of Burt Reynolds giving him wedgies between classes at Palm Beach High are just vicious rumors we thought up for our own amusement.
The national tour of La Cage Aux Folles opened at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on June 12, 2012.
Winner of three Tony Awards® including the award for BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL, this hilarious new production of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES was the biggest hit of the 2010 Broadway season, leaving audiences in stitches night after night!
LA CAGE tells the story of Georges, the owner of a glitzy nightclub in lovely Saint-Tropez, and his partner Albin, who moonlights as the glamorous chanteuse Zaza. When Georges' son brings his fiancée's conservative parents home to meet the flashy pair, the bonds of family are put to the test as the feather boas fly! LA CAGE is a tuneful and touching tale of one family's struggle to stay together... stay fabulous... and above all else, stay true to themselves!
Terry Johnson directed a cast that included George Hamilton, Christopher Sieber, Dale Hensley, Michael Lowney, Jeigh Madjus, Gay Marshall, Allison Blair McDowell, and Todd Lattimore.
Mary Damiano reviewed for Florida Theater On Stage:
Coinciding with Gay Pride celebrations here in South Florida, La Cage aux Folles, the musical about a charming nightclub owner and his flamboyant partner, has landed at Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale with a likable production containing a don't-miss performance.
This version of La Cage aux Folles is scaled back, and feels smaller than previous renditions. The musicians have been raised from the orchestra pit to theater boxes above the stage, a design that brings the audience further into the intimate world of a nightclub. Some of the production numbers by Les Cagelles have a darker edge to them, more Cabaret than classic, colorful La Cage. But it works, largely due to the exceptional performance by Sieber.
Sieber, who was nominated for Tony Awards for playing Lord Farquaad in Shrek: The Musical and Sir Dennis Galahad in Monty Python's Spamalot, is the heart and soul of the show. What's most impressive is that Sieber excels at turning this old chestnut of a role into his own special creation through little nuances and laugh-out-loud bits. La Cage aux Folles is simply more vivid when Sieber is on stage.
Playing a charming nightclub host and master of ceremony is no real stretch for Hamilton, whose affable manner is as ingrained as his electric white smile and bronze perma-tan. And while his acting style is better suited to the screen than the stage, his low-key performance allows his co-star to shine all the more...
La Cage aux Folles has been entertaining audiences for almost 40 years, as a play, two movies and a Tony Award-winning musical. The reasons for the story's enduring popularity are on plentiful display at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts...
With a lovely, moving score by Jerry Herman and witty book by Harvey Fierstein, director Terry Johnson's grittier scaled-down La Cage delivers all of the musical's laughs, its flashy cabaret numbers and its poignant story about love, pride and sacrifice.
...to hear Sieber — dressed in glamorous drag as Zaza but singing as the deeply wounded, fierce Albin — perform I Am What I Am is genuinely transcendent theater.
The Broadway veteran is wondrous throughout La Cage, anchoring the show's humor and touching truths. He is always commanding (even when he's done up like Marilyn Monroe in The Seven-Year Itch), and his inventive choices in a role so many others have played make him fascinating to watch, start to finish.
Georges is supposed to be different from Albin, a bit more controlled, a lot less dramatic. But Hamilton and Sieber are a mismatch. The movie and TV veteran is a strikingly handsome, smiling, charming presence who doesn't look 30 years older than Sieber, though he is. His singing voice and dance moves are passable, but the real trouble lies in his too-small, too-subtle acting. Performing in a musical, particularly one as bold and comedically bawdy as La Cage aux Folles, demands bigger, more powerful choices than the ones Hamilton makes.
Quick-thinking cast member Todd Lattimore, done up like a '40s Fort Lauderdale pinup girl, does a hilarious pre-show warmup that gets the audience in a happy, receptive mood before the curtain goes up. Sieber and company keep them that way, right through to the sing-along finale. Once again, La Cage aux Folles proves it's a show with legs. They just happen to belong to talented guys in dresses.
Beau Higgins wrote for BroadwayWorld:
LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, with all its makeup and heels, drag queens and Broadway stars, glided into the Broward Center last night and I simply loved it.
This production, as seemingly all productions of this show, gets its primary power from Jerry Herman's magnificently funny and touching score. Along with the aforementioned Hello, Dolly! and Mame, La Cage is third in the trio of Mr. Herman's masterpiece Broadway musicals. This production also features the unforgettable performance of Christopher Sieber as the flamboyant drag queen star Albin/Zaza.
Mr. Sieber had us in the palm of his hand about a third of the way through "A Little More Mascara." He never let go. A larger than life performer, Mr. Sieber is physically big and he used this to great avail in bringing us the funniest Albin we have ever seen.
Mr. Sieber's life partner is delightfully played by George Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton received warm, loud, and lovely entrance applause... As tanned and great looking as ever, Mr. Hamilton as Georges delivered the performance, we frankly expected. Understated and elegant, with a singing voice, that while not very good, delivered his two big solos well enough...
The national tour of La Cage Aux Folles plays at The Broward Center through June 24, 2012.
The Stage Door Theatre opened its production of Mark Harelik's The Immigrant at its Coral Springs Location on June 6, 2012.
Playwright Mark Harelik follows his grandfather's flight from Russian pogroms to resettlement and struggle in early 20th century Texas. Speaking just a few words of English, Haskell Harelik totes bananas door-to-door in a wheelbarrow, selling his produce for a penny apiece. He walks miles just to get the bananas, many more to sell them. But his toil is in service of a dream: When he has saved enough money, he'll send for his young wife Leah, and their new life will truly begin.
Hugh M. Murphy directs a cast that features Andrew Wind, Ann Chamberlain, Janet Weakly, and Ken Clement.
...The Immigrant has broad, enduring appeal because of the folk-tale warmth Harelik brings to his family story and because so many of its issues resonate in this country of immigrants. Stage Door Theatre in Coral Springs is just one of the area theaters that has presented The Immigrant in the past, and now the company has returned to tiny, turn-of-the-century Hamilton, Tex., with a new production of the play.
...director Hugh M. Murphy draws particularly strong performances from the younger actors playing the Hareliks. Wind and Chamberlain both handle the Yiddish that their characters speak early on quite well. And both mature convincingly, changing from wary newcomers to thrilled new parents (times three, each baby a boy) to successful citizens whose sons are about to defend their American homeland in World War II.
Weakley and Clement are good actors stuck playing folksy stereotypes, and Weakley's wig doesn't look like a hairstyle a rural Texan would have sported in 1909. Clement makes Milton a bombastic guy with a heart of gold (the sound level for all the actors is often ear-splitting), but finally, at the play's end and with a single word, he achieves a moment that seems real and touching
The Immigrant plays at the Broward Stage Door Theatre through July 1, 2012.
It's Monday, so it's once again time to run through all the most relevant theater stories we've been able to find this week. And there's a lot of exciting things going on in South Florida. Companies returning from hiatus, theatres reconstituting, and exciting partnerships with larger companies
But you're on your own for Tony stories.
Low-down on La Cage
The Miami Herald talks with Christopher Sieber, who will playing Albin/Zaza when the national tour of the recent Broadway revival of La Cage Aux Folles opens at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts this week. Harvey Fierstein (who played Albin/Zaza when the revival first opened) and George Hamilton (starring as leading man Georges) also weighs in.
"He's very adorable, such a good guy and a trouper," Sieber says. "We have gay and straight people in our show, but everyone has to be out there. It's big and bawdy, yet really intimate. La Cage has a good book and a great score and lyrics. Everything works together really well. We make people cry and laugh. Even guys who get dragged there by their wives."
The Orlando Sentinel also has an interview with Hamilton and Sieber, from when the tour stopped in up there.
City Theatre Expanding The Brand
As you may have heard, City Theatre isn't moving Summer Shorts from Miami this year; instead, they're expanding their programming with additional productions in other locations. BroadwayWorld fills us in on The Brand New Kid, which the company is co-producing with Orlando Repertory Theatre. It's playing at the Kravis Center through June 17th.
South Florida Gay News fills us in on Standing On Ceremony, which City Theatre is presenting exclusively at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. It's a collection of short plays by a range of award-winning playwrights, and the cast includes Bruce Vilanch and Bryan Batt.
Return from Limbo
Florida Theater On Stage reports that several local companies return to the scene after laying dormant for varying periods: Rising Action has resurrected as Island City Stage, Naked Stage is going to do a bit more than The 24 HourTheatre Festival, Arts Garage is producing its own production, and the company formerly known as PlayGround Theatre presents its first production as The Miami Theater Center.
Rented, not Revived
Florida Theater On Stage also reports that Entre'Act Theatrix will be presenting Jesus Christ Superstar at the Caldwell Theatre Company's space - sans Caldwell Theater Company. They've arranged to rent the building from the court-appointed receiver, Scott Brenner. Brenner evicted the 37 year old company just hours before the Carbonell Awards ceremony on April 2nd. No explanation has been given for granting access to an outside group while a company that has a vested interest in the building continues to be locked out.
Related: Reunion at Rental
In a related story, Florida Theater On Stage reports that former Royal Palm Dinner Theatre employees and patrons will be attending Entr'Act's Sunday matinee of Superstar to honor Royal Palm's founder and producer, Jan McArt.
A Little Love for Labor
The Palm Beach Post reports that in this age when all the economic ills are place on union labor, the Tony Awards honor Actors' Equity Association.
Gonna Be Fun
Palm Beach DramaWorks will be opening its production of The Fantasticks on July 13. We're especially looking forward to it because Broadway World reports that Craig Ames is on board as Musical Director. We worked with Craig on this show many moons ago, and it was an amazing experience. With an amazing cast and one of the finest production teams in South Florida, it should be a slam-dunk. If you've never seen this show, or have never seen a professional production of it, don't miss it.
Speaking of Fun
Florida Theater On Stage announces that the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts has announced that it's partnering with several small production companies:
Theater Up Close, the series co-produced by the Arsht Center, has announced a 2012-2013 season partnering with the home-grown Zoetic Stage, the University of Miami's theater department, the House Theatre of Chicago and, for the first time, the Alliance Theatre Lab of Miami Lakes.
Congratulations to all the partners, and to us, the theatre-loving public.
New Theatre opened its production of Nilo Cruz's A Bicycle Country at the Roxy Center for the Performing Arts on June 8, 2012.
Three characters whose lives seem to be moving nowhere set out to build a dream, even if that dream seems perilous. This stirring portrait of three Cuban exiles and their harrowing journey across the Caribbean Sea examines the universal themes of freedom and oppression, hope and survival.
Steven A. Chambers directed a cast that featured Evelyn Perez, Ricky J. Martinez, and Charles Sother.
Nathasha Waisfeld wrote an oddly truncated piece that seems to have been run through Google Translator for The Miami New Times:
New Theater is filled with an eager audience. Conversations in Spanish fill the room as men wearing guayaberas and moving to the rhythm of Guantanamera take their seats in anticipation of Nilo Cruz's celebrated play, A Bicycle Country. We know these are familiar words that will tell us a story that cannot be erased. A story some of us recognize from our own lives.
Evelyn Perez, as Inez, is beautiful in capturing her essence. She emits the tenacious beauty of a Cuban woman who sings and dances in times of hardship. She is the strength that convinces Julio to leave Cuba.
Julio, as played by Ricky J. Martinez is instantly heart warming. His physicality is striking as he fights to walk from one corner of the room to another. Charles Sothers as Pepe, depicts a child's innocence; he brings laughter and purity in moments where they are much needed.
Passion, poetic language and vivid imagery infuse the work of Nilo Cruz, the Cuban-American playwright who brought honor to Miami and New Theatre in 2003 when he became the first Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama... Now the company is returning to Cruz's world with A Bicycle Country, a 1999 play that had its world premiere at the now-defunct Florida Stage and a 2000 production in the Encore Room of the in-limbo Coconut Grove Playhouse.
Directed by Steven A. Chambers, New Theatre's production, designed by Nicole Quintana (set), Eric J. Cantrell (lighting) and Ozzie Quintana (sound), is simple but evocative. The action takes place on a raised platform that serves first as Julio's home, then as the raft that will carry the three to freedom or death.
Martinez, New Theatre's artistic director, ends a six-year hiatus from acting with a strong performance as Julio, a damaged man whose spirit and sensuality are reawakened. Perez is the play's life force as Ines, a woman who charges ahead no matter the obstacle. Sothers is solid as Pepe, the friend whose dangerous delusions make him see what is not there and want what he should not have.
In recent years, New Theatre has focused on new work, some of it inspired, some less so. Presenting an earlier play by a writer who has meant so much to the company and giving audiences a fresh chance to experience the language of an artist whose work resonates so strongly here is a lovely way to close out the season.
...every season or so, they deliver a moving, finely crafted gem of theater such as J.T. Rogers' Madagascar or its fresh take on The Glass Menagerie. Add to that list of reasons to be proud its production of Nilo Cruz's A Bicycle Country, a lyrical tragedy about three friends who escape Cuba on a raft.
These actors stumble making that verbiage credible coming out of their lips for the first few seconds of every one of these speeches. But under Steven A. Chambers' direction, they quickly slip into Cruz's unique rhythms and patois. At that point, you are drawn into a world of passions encouraged by hope and bridled by experience.
Martinez, the New Theatre's artistic director, returns to his first acting role in six years. Time has robbed him of some hair and left him with a bit of a paunch (perfect attributes for the character), but it's also deepened his acting skills considerably.
Perez... has found her perfect match in the difficult role of Inez, the character Cruz saddles with his most imagistic metaphors and ethereal prose. The final scenes in which her sanity is replaced by fatal fantasies are riveting and moving thanks to her complete commitment inside the madness of the moment.
Sothers is the least comfortable with Cruz's ravings on the raft, but even he delivers an effectively heart-rending monologue as the hallucinations warp his mind. He also establishes a credibly ardent affection and camaraderie with his friends.
With a tenth of the budget that Florida Stage had when it gave the play its world premiere in 1999, New Theatre redeems itself with a stirring and harrowing paean to the power of dreams, the courage of dreamers and their cost.
Labels: New Theatre, Review
Mosaic Theater opened its production of Adam Rapp's The Edge of Our Bodies on June 7th, 2012.
The Edge of Our Bodies was a tremendous hit at this year's Humana Festival and features Bernadette, sixteen, on the train from her New England private school to New York City to give her boyfriend some big news. Achingly articulate about all she can't know or control, this play captures a young woman at the threshold of vulnerability and experience.
Margaret M. Ledford directed a cast that featured Lexi Langs and Jim Gibbons.
The Edge of the Our Bodies is less a play than a monologue, like a New Yorker-fiction story read aloud. For an uninterrupted 80 minutes, Bernadette (Lexi Langs), a 16-year-old woman who ceased being a girl a long time ago, will share a few days of her life while sitting, standing, leaning, smoking, dancing, and disrobing.
As a theatrical experiment, it's a little pretentious, but playwright Adam Rapp can be forgiven — he's clearly using the familiar solo-theater platform to reach for something postmodern and metaphysical, to disrupt the known with a few jolts of the unknown. And anyway, his words are brilliant enough to permit some obscure stagecraft.
If it seems like I'm praising the playwright too much, it's because the actor, Langs, leaves something to be desired. An NYU student pursuing a degree in acting, Langs knows the part, and her physicality is spot-on. But her cadences are off; emphasis is placed on the wrong words, so the lines don't land the way they should. Tears are effectively shed, but her performance is largely one of rote memorization without capturing the feelingbehind the diction. She's wonderful at the steely-eyed glance, but the emotions beneath it remain elusive.
Part of this responsibility lands on director Margaret Ledford's shoulders. For long stretches, especially at the beginning, Bernadette reads from her journal in static positions, losing a number of battles against monotony even if the show itself wins the war.
There are coming of age stories and then there are coming of age stories that dig deep, make waves, and genuinely move audiences, no matter what their ages. This is Adam Rapp's The Edge of Our Bodies, presented with authentic soul and sincerity by Mosaic Theatre to close out its eleventh season.
Throughout the 90-minute play, Langs holds court in a one-woman show, save for a disruption three quarters into the play by a maintenance man (Jim Gibbons). Through Rapp's detailed and descriptive script, Langs' focused characterization, and Margaret M. Ledford's particular direction, the stage may be populated by a single actress, but Edge is brimming with characters.
We're left to somehow figure out that the action takes place in the black box theater where Whitney Academy is about to produce The Maids. We become then a built-in, captive audience for Bernie to tell her tale. When the school's maintenance man appears to clear the stage leaving only a ghost lamp standing, it could be that Bernie has acted out this whole charade for the benefit of us. Is her story true or the fabricated musings of a teen fiction?
There are many remarkable moments in Mosaic Theatre's The Edge of Our Bodies, made even more spectacular by the intriguing scenic design by Douglas Grinn, sound by Matt Corey, lighting design by Suzanne M. Jones, the beautiful props by Terry Lawrence, and costume design by K. Blair Brown.
This extended monologue by a high school girl reading from her journal and acting out what she has written is by turns illuminating and opaque, precise and equivocal, comprehensible and incomprehensible. It rarely comes head on at what its heroine is feeling let alone whatever Rapp is trying to say.
If forced to guess, it's something about a girl on the cusp of womanhood grappling with various incarnations of sex as a form of human relations. But it is likely far deeper, subtle and complex than that. Your guess is as good as anyone else's. For once, a director's note in the program might be of some help.
...you may find Bodies intellectually stimulating and artistically intriguing, if not emotionally fulfilling. The trick is to stop fighting the confusion and just let the play take you wherever Rapp is trying to go, much like admiring a work of non-representational art in a gallery.
You can also enjoy the calibrated performance by Lexi Langs under the precise guidance of guest director Margaret M. Ledford who unreel and reveal the heroine's inner turmoil inch by inch.
Langs plays Bernadette, a high school junior seemingly travelling on a train from her Connecticut boarding school to New York City... she is reading to us from her journal what initially seems like a recap of the train trip.
This construct makes no sense since she seems to be telling what happened as it is happening before us. This was explained only when I Googled the original production at the Humana Festival of 2011 and discovered that this entire play is a flashback that she is relating on the stage of her school's theater after her performance in a production of Jean Genet's The Maids.
It's a little purple with metaphors, just as budding writers and Rapp himself are wont. Her diary reveals that she is pregnant and is en route to tell her sweetheart, a wealthy college student in Manhattan. Initially, she seems an archetypal disaffected, emotionally blunted and precociously bright 21st Century teenager...
She continues to narrate the day's events that include visiting her boyfriend's terminally ill father, allowing herself to be picked up in a bar by a creepy businessman...
If not for the sudden appearance near the end of the play of a maintenance man (the always wonderful Jim Gibbons) clearing away the set of The Maids, you might think Bernadette's just having a breakdown in an institution. Or maybe she is. Or is this Sartre's Hell? Or…. If this seems to the Mosaic team be overthinking the play, the confusion ought to be a red flag.
Praise Ledford, a meticulous and insightful craftswoman, for divining as much as one could ask for from Rapp's script and helping Langs forge this character.
The play is an almost-solo show, a slice-of-young-life story told by 16-year-old Bernadette, a student at an upper crust New England school. Rapp throws in snippets of dialogue from Jean Genet's The Maids (Bernadette is in a school production of the play)... But mostly, The Edge of Our Bodies consists of articulate, observant Bernadette reading aloud from her journal, sharing the story of her train trip to Brooklyn to tell her19-year-old boyfriend that she's pregnant.
Lexi Langs, an experienced young actress... at first plays Bernadette as a slightly nervous, quietly introspective girl who barely manages to raise her eyes from the pages of her journal. But Langs and director Margaret M. Ledford start small for a reason.
When the school maintenance man (Jim Gibbons) finally appears, lighting designer Suzanne M. Jones floods the space with bright, unforgiving light as reality abruptly invades Bernadette's world of remembrance, disappointment and make-believe.
The Edge of Our Bodies is vividly written, provocative, shocking, reflective. Thanks to the intricately collaborative work of Langs and Ledford, Mosaic's production is absorbing, infused with wintry melancholy and, like a sudden snowfall, delicately beautiful.
Labels: Mosaic Theatre, Review


This past weekend I was happy to be part of an art & community event here in Waltham at the Lincoln Arts Project on Moody Street. It was a SERC, a social emergency response center, a one-day popup event to bring the community together to collaborate and heal as we discuss climate change and how it affects us.
I created a zine, called "Many Drops – An Ocean," especially for this event, and set up a zine-making station at the SERC to show people how to assemble a zine, and encourage them to conversation about what they read in the zine and what information they found useful or helpful.
As the event took place, the pages about self-care and dealing with climate change-related anxiety resonated the most with attendees, which was interesting to me especially as those were the ones I enjoyed making the most. It did seem very telling that people who self-identify as worried about climate change aren't looking (necessarily) for more information on personal actions they can take to be more green, but rather how they can keep up their stamina to maintain their efforts. A lot of food for thought for me in that realization, especially as I consider future projects.
We distributed the zine for free at this event thanks to a very generous local sponsor (our Waltham main street UPS Store!) who donated the copies for the event, and we did have some leftovers that we'll have at future events around Waltham.
I've now twice worked on artwork for healing. My first time was teaching a friend on how to use acrylic paints to convey something she wanted to make: A picture visualizing her body and her chemotherapy and immune system battling the cancer inside her. The second time I worked on a commission visualizing a friend fighting a part of her body that was causing her pain and was to be surgically removed.
I couldn't help but reflect that this kind of artwork is so sacred to me. Just as Orthodox iconographers pray and fast when creating their icons to the Saints, these healing artworks were made as a supplication to the doctors, medicines and the fates that hold our health in their hands. A manifestation of our deepest fears, of our bodies working against us, and our non-body selves in conflict with that, trying to vanquish pain, frailty.
I'm really excited to announce that I have a new art studio, and it's in the fantastic Mad Oyster Studios in awesome Somerville, MA. I used to live in Somerville (back in the day) and it has a very active art scene, so I'm excited to be officially a part of it.
Since my walls are mostly masonry (great for fire-proofing, not so good for nailing stuff up), I rigged up a not-very-elegant-but-very-useful pine board rig to hang up frequently used tools, as well as a mirror for checking expressions and all that.
Here's me looking terrible and exhausted after finishing moving in! It's pretty much the worst photo… why did I post this picture again…?


Singapore has some small but lovely beaches the kids will love. Many are on Sentosa island and a few, a boat ride away. Pack up a picnic, bucket and spades, and get ready for a sandy adventure! Here are our favorite beaches for family fun in SG.
The park is over 15km long which means there's a perfect spot for you. Base yourselves on the water's edge next to one of the many BBQs or retreat further back among the trees for some shade. There's lots of activities from cycling, inline skating to volley ball. BBQ stations are available for rent, so invite your friends and family to join along. Feeling adventurous? Bring your tent and stay the night to watch the stars.
West Coast Park is known as the play center in the West and this is the park for the most adventurous types! BBQs are available in area 2, so while the food is cooking, why not fly a kite or watch the birds in the water's edge. The beach is long with plenty of room to build sandcastles or play games in the water's edge.
Sentosa beach has grown in popularity over the years with beach bars and restaurants dotted between the man-made white sandy beach. It's close to the popular attractions of Resorts World Sentosa so make a day of it. Escape the hustle and bustle of city life and relax with the kiddos playing games and having fun.
Just next door to Sentosa Beach is Palawan beach. This beach is mostly famous for the super kid friendly Port of Lost Wonder and the Pirate of the Caribbean inspire, rope bridge. Find your inner Jack Sparrow and talk a walk across the bridge on to the small island and swim back. The beach is full of soft white sand, perfect for relaxing on and building sandcastles.
At the end of Sentosa is Tanjong Beach, a quiet secluded part of the island where you can relax in the day and party at night. You'll see swimmers first thing in the morning, dog walkers later on and then kids running around enjoying the sunshine. The bay is a small crescent with shallow waters, perfect for a splashing good time. Wind down the day with a cocktail and dinner at Tanjong Beach Club before heading home.
Siloso beach underwent a large makeover and its transformation is amazing. The beach is now home to luxury hotels, bars and restaurants as well as a selection of sports. If you're kids are up for canoeing, volleyball or beach football, then this is the place for them. Check out Siloso Fort while you're there too and discover some of the history of Singapore.
If you're looking for a beach with plenty to do, then head down to Changi Beach. The beach is long and narrow with paths for riding bikes and roller blading. The beach is perfect for kids who want to build sandcastles and play games. Take your binoculars and watch the planes land and take off at Changi airport. You can also stay the night at one of their camping spots and get a BBQ going for an alfresco night on the beach.
A short boat ride away is the tranquil, St. John's Island. Housed on 40.5 hectares, this hilly island was transformed in 1975 into a tranquil getaway with swimming lagoons, beaches, picnic grounds, trekking routes and soccer fields. There are bungalows and chalets to rent if you want to stay the night with friends.
Connected by a short walkway from St. John's Island is Lazarus Island. This peaceful, untouched, paradise is perfect for families looking for a little place to call their own. The unspoiled white sandy beach is perfect for a lazy afternoon. Pack a picnic, explore the jungle and have a snooze under the palm trees.
The fabled sisters' island is a short boat ride away. Swimmers and snorkelers can also indulge themselves here as the fantastic reefs are filled with marine life. The islands are separated by a narrow channel and are popular with picnic-goers because of their shady palm trees and beach shelters. Watch out for monkey's, they will want to join you for lunch. Hold on to your chips and burger buns!


In Russia and CIS countries Rise of Flight will be released in a limited edition of 15 000 jewel-packs and 2 000 unique collection editions.
After all copies of these editions will be sold out, Rise of Flight can be purchased in digital distribution on the world price (will inform later where and how). Advance order (Russia and CIS) of our game is now open.
In any country in the world, and at what price would you buy a ROF, you can play from your home country, if you have Internet access.
Unfortunately, under an agreement with the developers, we had to change the price of the collector's edition. This is due to the fact that with our Napoleonic plans to create quality content for the box, it does not want to fit into the agreed budget.
Simply put, the collector's badge that you will find inside the box - is very expensive to manufacture, almost manual work. We could abandon such a beloved icon, or raise the price. After long negotiations, it was decided to raise the price.
Incidentally, this edition is indeed very collectible. It will be released a limited edition and more will not be printed.
And now the good news: everyone who has had to order and pay for the game on the old price, they get the old price. No extra cost is not necessary.
P.S. And, incidentally, on another thread, I warned that the price might be subject to change.
Hopefully us non-Russians will be able to have a chance at purchasing hard copies of the game ourselves! It would be very nice to have a chance at buying a collector's edition, and I'm sure many people would be more than willing to pay!


Saying no to "timeouts," some fundamentalist Christians "train up" their children by carefully hitting them with switches, PVC pipes and other "chastening instruments."
As a young, new, Christian parent, Meggan Judge, 26, of Anchorage, Alaska, was looking for guidance in raising "Godly children." She found advice that clicked for her when a friend loaned her a popular -- and controversial -- Christian parenting book called "To Train Up a Child," written in 1994 by Tennessee pastor Michael Pearl with his wife, Debi, who claim to have raised five "whineless" children. At the book's core is the notion that when parents "train" a child to obey early on, even before he or she is able to make conscious, or conscience-based, decisions, home will be a place of peace and harmony. Here, the term "train" is a reference to Proverbs 22:6: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
Neither Pearl has advanced training in child development or a related field. "These truths," the tall, white-beaded Michael Pearl, 60, writes in his book, "are not new, deep insights from the professional world of research, [but] rather, the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules, the same technique God uses to train his children."
As you may have guessed, the Amish do not train their mules by giving them "timeouts." Judge and her husband followed the Pearls' advice when trying to train their infant son Noah not to grab forbidden objects: "Switch their hand once and simultaneously say, 'No.' Remember, you are not disciplining, you are training. One spat with a little switch is enough," reads the book. "They will again pull back their hand and consider the relationship between the object, their desire, the command and the little reinforcing pain. It may take several times, but if you are consistent, they will learn to consistently obey, even in your absence."
Problem was, Noah didn't learn so fast. By the time he was almost 2, neither the word "no" nor a swat on the hand were getting through to him. "I remember thinking how stubborn he was, and that he was a smart baby and should understand what we were doing. He was obviously being defiant. Obviously, I wasn't switching him enough," Judge says sarcastically. "So I did it more." Contrary to the Pearls' advice to use an object and never, ever to strike in anger, Judge used her hand, so as to better gauge the strength of the blows. When her hand got sore, she used a wooden spoon.
By this point, Judge had another baby -- and, though she didn't realize it at the time, a case of postpartum depression. One summer day it became clear to her that the Pearls' advice and her own rages were a toxic combination: Judge had to lock Noah in a separate room for fear she would "beat him senseless," she says. "I just wanted to know when that damn 'peace' the Pearls talk about was going to come."
While the Pearls are well known in fundamentalist Christian circles, they were largely unknown to the secular world until March, when their discipline methods were tied to the death of a North Carolina boy and the alleged abuse of two of his siblings. As reported by Mandy Locke of the Raleigh News & Observer, the children's adoptive mother, Lynn Paddock, 45, a devotee of the Pearls' teachings, is currently behind bars. She is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 4-year-old Sean, who suffocated when wrapped tightly in blankets, reportedly to keep him from hopping out of bed. She is also charged with felony child abuse in connection with welts found on two of Sean's other five siblings. Nowhere in the Pearls' book do they advocate restraining with blankets; however, Sean's siblings had apparently been struck with a particular type of "rod" recommended by the Pearls: a length of quarter-inch plumbing supply line.
Paddock's attorney, Michael Reece, confirmed to Salon that Paddock owned "To Train Up a Child" and was a devotee of the Pearls' teachings. He maintains that Sean's death was accidental and that there's a difference between corporal punishment -- which he acknowledges may be "unpopular" -- and abuse. And actually, Paddock's connection to the Pearls may serve as part of Reece's defense of his client. "She's following a recognized philosophy even if it's not a mainstream one. The only one who advocates the PVC pipe is Pearl, " he says. "You can pull a switch off a tree all day long. There's no other reason to buy a PVC pipe -- that's clearly from him."
For the Pearls and advocates of Christian child "training," obedience is next to godliness. For their detractors, fellow Christians and home-schoolers among them, corporal punishment is akin to child abuse -- and to them, the Paddock case proves it. ("Christian," here and throughout, indicates fundamentalist or evangelical Protestants.) Outrage sparked by the case has fired up the blogosphere, bringing impassioned new attention to what is actually not an entirely new debate. Parents, religious and otherwise, have argued the merits and dangers of spanking since the invention of children. When it comes to physical "training" as essential to "biblical" child-raising, the Pearls are neither pioneers nor renegades; for fundamentalist Christians, corporal punishment -- or, as the Pearls prefer, "chastisement" -- is neither a fresh nor a fringe concept. But what's clear is that today, the controversy over biblical child-rearing is more than a family matter. Especially to its supporters, child "training" is yet another battleground in the culture wars.
As the Pearls, their advocates, and supporters of similar Christian parenting approaches appear to see it, child "training" serves, in part, as a bulwark against "modern," liberal, secular, permissive, "child-centered" parenting -- the touchy-feely stuff of timeouts that, they suggest, spoils children into believing in a boundary-free world that revolves around them. "Pearl and others in their camp associate permissive parenting and the assumed moral laxity that it produces with non-biblical, humanist or naive understandings of human nature. It's 'us,' the true believers, against 'them,' the secularists and anyone else who has fallen under their influence," says Mark Justad, senior lecturer in religion and society and executive director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture at Vanderbilt University. "It's all part of the larger picture of returning our whole culture to godliness." Or at least preserving godliness in one's own family, safe from the "crusade" launched by "spanking abolitionists," safe from the influence of the corrupt, and corrupting, secular world.
"If you want a child who will integrate into the New World Order and wait his turn in line for condoms, a government funded abortion, sexually transmitted disease treatment, psychological evaluation and a mark on the forehead," writes Pearl in "To Train Up a Child," "then follow the popular guidelines in education, entertainment and discipline, but if you want a son or daughter of God, you will have to do it God's way."
Michael Pearl's rural church is tiny, and his home base so remote that, with no broadband access, Internet connections require a satellite hookup, says their business manager, Mel Cohen. Still, the Pearls' 18-employee nonprofit company, No Greater Joy ministries, is big business. According to Cohen, much of the ministries' $1.5 million annual earnings go right back out the door via product donations as well as financial support for missionaries in nine countries. The Pearls have sold or donated -- to churches, military families and community groups -- more than 1,000,000 copies of their books, CDs, DVDs and other materials related to the Christian family. Their bimonthly newsletter has 74,000 subscribers, a number that's growing each month. "To Train Up a Child," in particular, is frequently sold or passed around via church groups and home-schooling conferences.
While the Pearls are not in direct competition with Christian media juggernauts such as Veggie Tales or "The Purpose-Driven Life," they are part of the booming religious publishing and products market, which hit $7.3 billion in 2005 -- a 28 percent increase since 2002, according to an April 2006 report by Packaged Facts, the publishing division of MarketResearch.com. Among Christian books, the "Christian Living" subcategory, which includes parenting, is one of the most popular sub-segments; products for children are expanding as well. The Packaged Facts report, titled "The Religious Product Market in the U.S.," cites "the culture wars" as being one reason for this overall growth. "What has until recently frustrated evangelicals is their difficulty in translating political power into social and cultural clout," states the report. "In addressing and attempting to redress this problem, evangelicals are increasingly turning to publishing."
As for their position on corporal "chastisement," the Pearls are following in the footsteps of their forebears -- and are not out of step with most of their peers. "The tradition of 'breaking the child's will' using physical punishment is long-standing among evangelical, fundamentalist, Pentecostal and charismatic Protestants," says retired Rutgers University historian Philip Greven, author of "Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Child Abuse." "It's associated with a very strong patriarchal authoritarian tradition," he adds, along with a belief in the literal truth of the Bible. Greven found calls to physically punish children in 17th and 18th century American Protestant texts; he was surprised, in the course of his research, to see that they'd persisted into the20th century and even today.
Indeed, not sparing the rod is the norm among Christian parenting books. Ted Tripp's 1995 book "Shepherding a Child's Heart," which endorses judicious spanking, was recently at No. 37 on Christian Retailing magazine's list of bestsellers; the same magazine, last October, called W Publishing "one of the first major Christian publishing houses to publish a book that is opposed to spanking children." (The book is "Grace-Based Parenting" by Dr. Tim Kimmel.) And today, there are not only texts, but also products, such as "The Rod of Discipline" (see Proverbs 22:15 ) and a plastic "chastening instrument" said to "fit easily into purse or travel bag."
The Pearls, who almost never give interviews, declined to speak with Salon. Their business manager, Mel Cohen, essentially said that they rely on their publicly available writings to speak for themselves. Indeed, a thorough read of "To Train Up a Child" -- along with "In Defense of Biblical Chastisement," Parts 1 and 2, on the Pearls' Web site -- says quite a bit. Much of the Pearls' instruction is not about "switching," but simply about raising cheerful, creative children, who value adventure and accomplishment, and enjoy a close bond with both parents -- "Plan your life's trade so as to maximize your role as father," Pearl admonishes men. "Fathers who become absorbed in their success in business will make lousy fathers" -- and who know they are loved.
Still, as the Pearls define it, "training" is considered a means of showing love. "Training" children to obey unconditionally is much more than training them, say, not to bother Mommy. It is training them to submit to the will of God. "When the child is young, the parents are the only 'god' he knows. As he awakens to Divine realities, it is through his earthly father that he understands his heavenly Father," Pearl writes in the book. "As the child relates to the figurehead of authority (his parents), in like manner he will later be prone to relate to God. If, when the parents say, 'No,' they do not mean 'No,' then the 'thou shalt not' of God will not be taken seriously either."
And yes, "training" -- as with a puppy or mule -- involves asserting one's dominance, even inflicting small, non-injurious amounts of pain. Pearl is extremely precise in such prescriptions: hitting or spanking must never, ever be done in anger or as punishment, but rather only as a means of calm, consistent, reasoned, loving conditioning. And never with the hand.
"Select your instrument according to the child's size," writes Pearl. "For the under one year old, a little, ten to twelve-inch long, willowy branch (stripped of any knots that might break the skin) about one-eighth inch diameter is sufficient. Sometimes alternatives have to be sought. A one-foot ruler, or its equivalent in a paddle, is a sufficient alternative. For the larger child, a belt or larger tree branch is effective." Additional advice from their Web site: Switching with a length of quarter-inch plumbing supply line is a "real attention-getter."
"Hands," by contrast, "are for loving and helping," Pearl writes.
Yet again, in a sense, so is the switch. "The parent holds in his hand (in the form of a little switch) the power to absolve the child of guilt, cleanse his soul, instruct his spirit, strengthen his resolve, and give him a fresh start through a confidence that all indebtedness is paid..." writes Pearl. "After a short explanation about bad attitudes and the need to love, patiently and calmly apply the rod to his back-side. Somehow, after eight or ten licks, the poison is transformed into gushing love and contentment. The world becomes a beautiful place. A brand new child emerges. It makes an adult stare at the rod in wonder, trying to see what magic is contained therein."
"Training," as Pearl defines it, is practically the polar opposite of abuse, which goes more like this: "The child is rebellious. The parent suddenly loses it and screams out. Like a whirlwind, the child is snatched up by the arm and given several bangs on the bottom. The parent's eyes burn. The brow hardens. The pulse rate soars ... 'You will do what I say. You are not going to do this to me, little girl,'" he writes, concluding: "There is no place for that selfish vindictive streak in the discipline of children."
A parent concerned that he or she is crossing the line should ask the opinion of respected friends -- and look upon the face of his or her child. "If your child is broken in spirit, cowed and subdued, you have a problem," he writes on his Web site. The advice there: "Get counsel in a hurry." In his book, he shows less patience. Pearl sarcastically offers abusive parents "The Millstone Award," which is a pretty threatening reference to Matthew 18:6: "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."
Many Pearl supporters were unwilling to speak on the record, wary of their opinions being taken out of context. But Lauren and Joel Killion of Wilson, N.C., along with Meggan Judge, were interviewed by Locke of the News & Observer, and then by Salon. The Killions received "To Train Up a Child" in a "welcome wagon" basket from a community group when their daughter Moriah was born. The Killions now attribute Moriah's obedience, patience and good cheer to the principles in the book -- though it wasn't easy to apply them at first. "It was so hard not to always let her get her way when she cried," recalls Lauren, 27, a former kindergarten teacher who now stays at home with her daughter. She recalls wincing when her husband switched Moriah lightly with a small twig from a tree, which they tested on themselves first. Now that their daughter is all of 2, Lauren says, they seldom use it; if anything, they simply walk toward where it's kept and Moriah straightens right out. "The rod in the hands of a loving parent is the right thing," Lauren now says with assurance. It's hard not to notice that while Lauren is talking on the phone, and fixing supper, Moriah is chattering happily in the background. Only once during a 30-minute conversation does she interrupt Mom with a request for a favorite video, and only once does Mom have to say no.
"We're only treating our child the way God would treat us," adds Lauren's husband, Joel, 26, a banker. "As in Hebrews 12, He chastens those whom he loves. If I love my child, I am going to train her. Others don't have to believe that, but I do."
Yes, but precisely where in the Bible do we find mention of quarter-inch plumbing supply lines? First, it should be noted that the oft-quoted expression "Spare the rod, spoil the child," frequently assumed to appear in the Bible, actually appears in Samuel Butler's 17th century satiric poem "Hudibras." But that doesn't mean that biblical references to "the rod," many of which occur in Proverbs, are altogether pretty: "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying" (Proverbs 19:18); "Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell" (Proverbs 23:14). For some, such passages are eternal, universal precepts for child-raising. Others reduce the passages to their historical context, reading them as nothing more than King Solomon's personal parenting primer. Still others note that the word "rod" appears throughout the Bible, translated from several different Hebrew words, one of which connotes the rod a shepherd might use -- not to strike his sheep, but to guide them.
In any regard, for believers in child-training, causing the child palpable harm is antithetical to their mission. Child Training Resources offers this disclaimer with its "chastening instrument": "Though each instrument includes instructions for proper use, we highly recommend parents train themselves by reading and discussing Biblically-based parenting books together. Child Training Resources stands firmly against any and all child abuse and is not responsible for misuse of this product."
Likewise, the Pearl camp considers the Paddock case an aberration. "How that can be traced to the Pearls seems a little ridiculous to me," says Pearl business manager Cohen. "There's nowhere in the book that says, 'Here's how to smother your child.' I look at it this way: A doctor says, 'One ounce of red wine a day will do your heart good.' Then someone drinks five quarts and runs somebody over -- you can't go back and blame the doctor for recommending one ounce. To blame the Pearls here is really a stretch."
Following in the footsteps of a British blogger known as Carlotta -- who, pre-Paddock case, worked to draw attention to the association between the Old Schoolhouse Magazine, a popular Christian quarterly for home-schoolers, and the Pearls' ministry, one of its advertisers -- Doc launched a boycott of the magazine and its partner blog services, Homeschoolblogger.com and Homesteadblogger.com. Other bloggers picked up the banner. (One printed anti-Pearl T-shirts. ) As a result of such efforts, Doc estimates, at least 250 bloggers have left Homeschoolblogger.com. Rumors abound that the Old Schoolhouse's subscriptions have dropped since the boycott -- its current readership is around 100,000 -- but according to the magazine, business is booming. "Subscriptions are actually up," says Nancy Carter, marketing manager. "With bad P.R. I think you also get folks saying, 'Hey, we want to show you we support you.'"
Doc admits that this boycott is but a "small battle" in the fight against child abuse. Ideally, she'd like to see the Old Schoolhouse -- a major market source for an often-isolated community -- stop printing articles by the Pearls and advertising their wares. But she hopes at the very least to draw attention to the methods espoused by the Pearls -- and distinguish them from other branches of the home-schooling community. "When a secular person/parent whips a kid, they're doing it because they're ignorant or just a jerk. They don't say God gave them permission or commanded them to do it," she says. "Home-schoolers who beat their kids make all home-schoolers look like freaks."
One home-schooling/blogging mother went so far as to buy the plumbing hose and try it on herself. "What I did was take the small supposedly 'harmless' tube and LIGHTLY tap myself on the forearm with it," she reports. "Not only did it sting like an SOB but it also left welts on my arm for TWO hours afterwards."
Some Christian parents have tried to find a middle ground between "punitive" and "attachment" parenting; others distance themselves from physical child-training while stopping short of overtly criticizing their peers. "I believe that Christian parents from both approaches love their children deeply and have a heart's desire to follow God and to raise their children for His glory, and I have no desire to create further division in the Christian parenting community," says Jeri Carr, 35, a home-schooling mother of four in Washington state. Initially, however, Carr had trouble finding a place there for herself. She founded the Web site Gentle Christian Mothers nine years ago after determining that other Christian parenting resources ran counter to her "God-given mothering intuition." There was no Christian support for many of the "gentle parenting choices," such as feeding in response to hunger, as opposed to on a schedule, that she believed in, she says. "I felt very alone. "
Then Carr came across a technique called attachment parenting, a "secular" style promoted by other Christian parenting Web sites such as Arms of Love Family Fellowship. "I began mothering my little one more responsively and from the heart, making more gentle choices," she says. "I had always planned on spanking my children, but I began to realize that I didn't have to spank in order to please God, and God led my husband and me to discipline our children without spanking them."
But what about all those verses in Proverbs? "The 'rod,' or staff, our Shepherd holds is one that He uses to comfort us, guide us, lead us, protect us," Carr says. "As Christian parents we desire to show God to our children through our relationship with them, a God who is loving and gracious, who is always there for us and who answers our cries and treats us with gentleness and kindness."
Gentle Christian Mothers has also become, in part, a support community for mothers like Meggan Judge, who was at first convinced that Noah's recalcitrance was entirely her fault. "They tell us that if parents would only spank 'correctly,' parents will get the results -- the first-time, happy obedience -- that they desire," says Carr. "When it doesn't 'work' parents can end up feeling very guilty and worried that they are doing it wrong and are failing to do it the biblical way. They may worry that they'll wind up with out-of-control children, so they try harder to do it 'right,' and the battle continues. Children may end up bitter and angry, and deeply hurt, with a warped picture in their mind of who our gracious God truly is."
According to Straus, even the controlled, limited, non-anger-based spanking associated with child-training can be a matter of concern. "It's better in the sense that it has a morally correct purpose," he says. "But it's worse in the sense that it teaches you that it's morally correct to hit."
And what of people who say, "I was spanked and I'm OK! I love my parents, I'm not a delinquent, I never hit my wife"? "They're telling the truth," Straus says. "It's about probability. One-third of heavy smokers will die of lung cancer, say, but two-thirds will not. That doesn't mean smoking doesn't cause lung cancer. The implication to me is that people who were spanked and are OK are, like that other two-thirds, the lucky ones."
All of that said, experts are not unanimous on the issue of spanking. Those who say it can have its place, expert or parent, are not necessarily making their case from a Christian perspective. Its advocates -- even those who peddle paddles -- are, like the Pearls, exceedingly careful to articulate a clear distinction between discipline and abuse, between spanking, say, and beating. Occasional swats, perhaps as a last resort, accompanied by an explanation: yes. Impulsive, enraged, indiscriminate wallops: no. For their part, opponents of corporal punishment make clear that no spanking (or very rare spanking) does not mean no discipline, that even "positive" parenting teaches boundaries.
One person Straus might call "lucky" is Rebekah Pearl Anast, 32 one of the Pearls' grown daughters, who did agree to speak to Salon. "I have a wonderful life. I think that the fact that all five of us are very happy, balanced people with great marriages and happy kids is evidence that my parents did the right thing," says Anast, who lives on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico and who runs, with her husband, the wellness Web sites Beeyoutiful.com and WellTellMe.com. "And my memories are full of being with my dad, going fishing, exploring the Mississippi River bottoms -- just being with my parents. The most significant factor in who I am is that my parents gave me themselves."
Yes, and they also gave you spankings, no? "I never received a spanking that left bruises or broken skin, and more importantly, I was never punished with one of my parents being angry," she says. She recalls only one spanking incident in particular -- one she says she deserved. "I'd done some sort of prank that I don't remember, something dangerous, but also funny," she recalls. "Mom was giving the spanking, and Dad was laughing, though he was trying not to. So was I. But the spanking wasn't pleasant -- they still managed to communicate, 'Don't do this ever again because you could hurt someone -- and here is your just reward.'"
More often than not, though, "just rewards" were not physical. Often she and her siblings would be sentenced to do some sort of household job that no one would call fun, but that would also offer a sense of accomplishment -- and that simply reinforced the idea that no bad behavior went without consequences. "My parents were very creative," Anast laughs.
Does Anast "train" her own three kids? Yes, though "98 percent of the time" she and her husband rely on the more "creative" penalties she remembers from her childhood. If they do spank, they use a "tiny little switch the size of a chopstick," she says. "It's a little swat on the back of the hand that says, 'Don't touch that,' or a swat on the back of the calf that says, 'Stop crying, buck up, be a happy girl.' It never breaks the skin or leaves a mark. It's not like 'going out to the barn for a beating.'"
Anast believes that the controversy over her parents, and those who espouse similar methods, arises in part from people who -- because of their own experiences -- cannot reconcile spanking with loving parenting. "Many of these people were abused," she says. "They had angry parents who struck them in anger or who abused them verbally or emotionally. When they hear about a parent who spanks their children it's just not in their realm of experience to imagine striking a child in love.
"I can't blame these people. I regret the way they were raised. But at the same time you can't take away the rights of balanced and emotionally sound individuals in order to cater to the fears of people who've had their own trauma," she says. And yes, she does feel that such rights are in danger: They're threatened by the anti-spanking forces as well as by those who support laws increasing minors' autonomy (such as those that would lower the age of sexual consent). "There's a real effort to take away the rights of parents so that children are unprotected," she says.
Her father goes farther. "Don't be so indiscreet as to spank your children in public -- including the church restroom," he writes on his Web site. But discretion, here, is more than just the better part of embarrassing your kid. "I get letters regularly telling of trouble with in-laws who threaten to report them to the authorities," he goes on. "Parents have called the Gestapo on their married children. Church friends who have noses longer than the pews on which they perch can cause a world of trouble. If you cannot get [your children] trained before going out in public, stay home and read our four books again. If the Federal or State agencies take me to court over advocating corporal chastisement, this will be part of my defense: 'He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (Prov. 13:24).'"
Indeed, if anything will spark ardent debate, it's religion. And if anything else will, it's child-rearing. Put them together in the context of today's "culture wars," and you've got yet another "us vs. them" struggle that will never be settled by studies and statistics -- whether "they" are "the authorities," or simply other parents.
"My wife has seen how kids are, and I have too, and we're not impressed. They're the byproduct of parents who believe in 'positive reinforcement' and the 'timeout' concept -- and those kids are wild. They want their way, and now," says Joel Killion, the North Carolina dad. "I think time will tell, far as whose concepts work and whose don't. We can all look at each other's children in a couple of years and see who is the role model for the future."


text:
Karl Christ ist der Name folgender Personen:

* Karl Christ (Heimatforscher) (1841–1927), deutscher Heimatforscher
 Karl Christ (Bibliothekar) (1878–1943), deutscher Bibliothekar, Romanist und Philologe
 Karl Christ (1923–2008), deutscher Althistoriker

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia