Backstage...State Fair...1998

A new feature here, along with my common ones, which include On the Heels of, In the Shoes of, Image of the week, My Favorite Bad Movies, and Breaking News.
This new feature will showcase pictures of shows gone by, either depicted backstage or on.
My first look back takes me to State Fair at Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre, during July of 1998. I adored doing this cornpone show. I don't know why, but most Rodgers and Hammerstein really sits well with me. And I HATE old shows, usually. I am much more of a contemporary Musical Theatre buff. I hate war horses and museum pieces...but this show is really neither. It is just cotton candy bought on the midway.
With Unforgettable songs like, "That's for Me", "The Man I Used to Be", "Isn't it Kind of Fun?", "It Might as Well be Spring", "So Far", "You Never Had it So Good", "That's the Way it Happens", "It's a Grand Night for Singing", and the show stopping "Iowa", there is hardly a weak point in the score. I adored it. I still pop the old movie in on lazy days.


This first photo features (Left to Right) Me, My beloved Straight husband, Ryan Dean, Mary Robare, Matt Conner-the husband, and Marcus Davis, who remains one of our dear friends to this very day. This was taken during "You Never Had it So Good". We played the "FairTones". We called ourselves the "FairyTones". Notice the mylar strips behind us.
We had to enter through these, doing several rounds of turns. We always got stuck in them, or the tendrils would wrap around one of us, and we would continue the number with mylar wrapped around our necks. We would fight off hysterics every night.

This last photo features the FairyTones backstage, before an entrance for "That's the Way it Happens". Could we be wearing any more make-up? SU has a HUGE theatre, so we were always encouraged to do "corrective make-up". For queers, that meant-"Bette Davis Eyes", as seen in this photo.



This last photo is very damaged. It was on the refrigerator of the house on 16th St. that we lived in when it burned down. As you can see, more ridiculous make-up was used, but we were not playing FairyTones here. We were backstage, getting ready to make our entrance for the showstopper, "Iowa".
This picture tells the future.


We were all just good friends when this was taken. I was not with Matthew at the time. I wasn't particularly fantastic friends with Ryan at the time. Eight years later, Matthew and I have been together for 7 years, and Ryan, Matt, and I have been living together for almost 5 years.
When Backstage photos are taken of sometimes fleeting friends, sometime long lasting relationships, nobody knows what the future will hold when they are taken.
During this show, lasting friendships and love were created. And we didn't know it at the time.
A picture says a thousand words.
These pictures show a lasting friendship and love between 4 people, who did not know when the flash went off, that they would be linked together so much longer than when the curtain came down.
This post is dedicated to Ryan Dean, Matthew Conner, Marcus Davis, and Me.
I hope you like this new feature. I think I love it.
Saturday night, and signing off.
Luv,
SGS

Cell...Part 2

Matthew and I took an expedition back to the zombie infested halls of Ballston Common this morning.
Together, we were determined that we could defeat the Kiosk Queen. With renewed confidence, and a full nights rest behind me, I felt strong enough to face the task at hand.


I shoved through crowds of teenage cellular zombies with no fear at all. Matthew did the same. We came here with one goal...to take down the Kiosk Queen.
I also had a back-up plan. I still had my old Cell Phone from my Landscaping job. It still worked fine, just was not in service...a plan formed.
As we approached her on the fourth level of the video game...uh...mall, we saw the strangest thing that we may have ever seen...Standing at the Kiosk, chatting with the Kiosk Queen was a man of about 30, all dressed in gothness, with a live rooster in one arm. Yes, a live rooster. I wish I had my camera. I really am not even fucked up in the head enough to make this shit up. A man in goth, carrying a live rooster. Ballston Common truly is a strange place.
The goth dude carrying clucking cock walked away, and we were face to face with braids and eyebrows herself.
The Kiosk Queen seemed less than thrilled to see me again, but sizing up that there were 2 poofs present, as opposed to one, seemed to put her on her toes. She explained the reason that she couldn't give me a free phone to Matt, and the whole sordid mess. He was still confused, as was I.
My strength was depleting minute by minute as the Kiosk Queen pelted us with her "special attack".....which was rays of confusion.


I intervened with the back-up plan.
I was in no mood to share oxygen with this lady anymore.
I whipped out my old phone and cut to the chase. She said that I could just switch the sim card from my old phone and put it in this one. Problem solved.

My old and trusty friend, Mr. Nokia, who had been sitting and collecting dust in a drawer for this whole past year, came to my rescue. He had been sitting there, just aching to be charged and used as a great communicator the whole time,
as Nasty Mr. Samsung chewed at my face silently, and beeped with evil abandon. Finally Mr. Nokia is back in faithful service.
There is a lesson here. I should have stuck with Mr. Nokia. He never treated me particularly bad. He was very receptive..(always 4 bars at the very least). He had much better ringtones, that much was clear. But I left him behind in the drawer for...Mr. Samsung.


Mr. Samsung was a bright, shiny new object that perhaps was more sleek than Mr. Nokia (who was a bit boxy). Mr. Samsung was small, compact- oh- and he could take pictures. Oohhhh. I loved that. AND VIDEO! I was sold. (Shiny object syndrome). Was he receptive? No. He in fact was horrible in the communications field. I found myself talking into empty space most of the time. And all the while, he was eating at my face little by little with his metal teeth.
After my year with Mr. Samsung, and Mr. Samsung's ultimate demise through the device of a squirrel running from bush to tree, and a Pointer named Reagan causing Mr. Samsung to take a death plunge into a cherry blossom filled puddle, Mr. Nokia was right there waiting for me, as he always has been. Old reliable.
The lesson here? Stick with what you know, and avoid shiny new objects.
Emily Sailers of the Indigo Girls says it best...
"All those tiny little trinkets of temptation;
Something new instead of something old.
All you gotta do is scratch beneath the surface and its Fool's Gold..."
Point taken, Emily.


By now, the events of the morning were starting to take their toll on us, and we decided to descend to the first level for nourishment, as we were both tired, and hungry.
We fought our way through more throngs of teenage undead, and arrived at the food court.

Matt went to some Open Market deal and got a legume and air salad, or something like that, while I decided to man up to the Arby's counter and get myself a Roast Beef sammich. Yummy.
We finished up and escaped from Ballston Mall at last.
Mr. Nokia is resting comfortably and content by my side. While the dead remains of Mr. Samsung sit on the other side of this laptop. What to do with him, I wonder?
Should I throw him away? Recycle him? No.
I think I will keep him. As a reminder of my mistake.
My cell phone is now up and running, at the very same number, but in more competent hands...and all is right in the communications world.


Luv,
SGS

In the Shoes of...Brad Oscar

In the third installment of my "In the Shoes of..." series, which previously featured Sean MacLaughlin, and J. Fred Shiffman, I recently caught up with our upcoming Helen Hayes Awards host, and nominee for Best Actor in a Resident Musical, Brad Oscar.
I had the pleasure of meeting Brad for the first time at the Helen Hayes auction, this past Fall. We sat next to each other, and as they served legumes and bits of this and that...we confessed to each other that we shared the eating habits of a 10 year old boy...(Chicken, Pizza, Pasta, Burgers). I got SO drunk on the wine, because I only ate a few pieces of strange bread.
I knew we would be friends from that night on.
We had a blast throughout Damn Yankees at Arena Stage. He and I frequently joked about all sorts of things backstage. Brad is the kind of man who when he is laughing, you can't help but laugh too.
Here is our chat...

SGS-How did you get your start in show business?

BO- My first professional gig was in 1977 when I auditioned and was chosen to be a "correspondent" for a weekly local show on Channel 4, NBC, called "The New Place". I did movie reviews and entertainment related stories for the younger demographic, being all of 12 myself. I got my AFTRA card, and my first paycheck.

SGS- Do you remember going to see much DC theatre growing up? If so, what?

BO- TONS. My parents loved the theater, so the exposure was there early on. One of the first productions I saw was "Raisin" at Arena. And then, through friends, my parents got to know the head usher at the Opera House, and from then on, we got walked in to anything playing there. I saw so much, many shows more than once. I loved seeing tryouts, how they would work and change a show to try to make it better. It usually didn't work. I refer to "Platinum", "Carmelina", "Oh, Brother!", "Rex". But there was also "42nd Street", "Sophisticated Ladies", and many more that did succeed. I'll never forget seeing "Amadeus" tryout at the National, an amazing production. And when "Sweeney Todd" began it's tour at the KC, I saw it once a week for the entire run. Oh, and yes, I'm gay.

SGS- What actors inspired you growing up?

BO- So many. Both on stage and screen. I can't even begin to single out, and I don't have one or two favorites like most people seem to. And then there were the adults I worked with as a child, some of whom inspired me greatly.

SGS- What took you to NYC, and how did you get started there?

BO- I had visited the city often from the age of 13 on, with my family and later on my own, and I always knew I wanted to live there, after college. And I got started waiting tables.

SGS- Tell me a little about working on The Producers. You started as Franz
Liebkind, and ended up as Max Bialystock...how long were you involved with
the show?

BO- I was involved from the start, though cast only two weeks before rehearsals began. Originally I was a swing, because I covered 7 people, but when I took over as Franz, I only continued to cover Max, and was a second cover for Roger DeBris (I never went on for Roger).


SGS- Which was your preferred role?

BO- Well, Franz is a blast, but Max is the shit. I mean, you can't ask for anything more in a character man role. And they won't let me play Mame.


SGS- Tell me about your ground-breaking performance as Motel the Tailor in
Fiddler on the Roof at the JCC...

BO- Yes, legend has it that in the summer of 1977, I sang onstage for the first time, did my first full musical at the JCC in Rockville. They still talk about it. How I "unbalanced" the show, as it should be about Tevye, not Motel.

SGS- SO we just closed Damn Yankees about a month ago...how has life,
post-Yankees been treating you?



BO- Just lovely, thanks. For the first time in a long time (like 10 years), I am unemployed, auditioning, and really appreciating the down time. Seeing friends and getting back and forth to DC for Panda visits and such. I feel like the next chapter of my professional life (which is so personal anyway) has begun, after 5 years with The Producers, and the 5 before that pretty much with Jekyll & Hyde.

SGS- What was, for you, the best part of the process of Damn Yankees? (
besides our "Joe...there's been an accident" moments in vom 4)?

BO- I LOVED being back in the rehearsal room. The whole exploration thing, especially with Molly who aces it. All the possibilities, the questions, the unknown, working with new actors, some with large nipples, it was really a great process. And then, it was so wonderful to play a delicious role that didn't bust my ass 8 times a week!


SGS- What would one find you doing on any typical given afternoon?

BO- It would depend if I was working or not. If so, ideally, going to the gym (I can hear the peals of laughter...), deciding what to eat for dinner, as I like to eat by 5, and showering. If I'm not working, there is no typical afternoon.

SGS- What fills your time when theatre is not doing so?


BO- I'm a sports whore. So I love watching (even better, going to) football, baseball and sometimes basketball. And yes, I'm still gay.


SGS- After seeing so many shows at Arena growing up, how was it to return to
DC to do a show there?


BO- Fantastic, and very special. I have wanted for so long to work in DC, and missed out years ago when I left the Aspects of Love tour, and then the OTHER national company of The Producers played the KC. But it was even sweeter to do it at Arena, as it was a place I respected and admired so.



SGS- What's in the pipeline for you?

BO- I am hopefully going to the Cape Playhouse on Cape Cod in June to do a PLAY! Very excited about that, to get back "on to text" and have that process.

SGS- What makes you mad?

BO- Hate, indifference, Bush, most reality shows.

SGS- What makes you happy?


BO- Love, opportunity, candy corn.


SGS- You and I share similar eating habits...a fact that we both happily
discovered at the Helen Hayes Auction...would you like to share with the
class? (PS-I was SO damn hungry after that dinner at the Auction...I think I
ate 2 hard rolls, and that was about it. The wine didn't help)..

BO- Stephen, the chicken was fine, even I ate it. Yes, I still have many of the eating habits of a 5 year old, but my primary issue is fish. I do not eat from the sea, and if pressed, will claim that I will die if I eat it. That's when it helps to be in the theater.


SGS-When does The Producers movie come out on DVD...soon, right? Oh, PS
folks, Brad is a taxi driver in the film...unfair? Yes, but a sad reality of
Hollywood...


BO- I think it's out in May. I will have to see it again, as it was impossible to be objective the first time. I still can't believe what a bomb it was.


SGS- Top 5 movies...

BO- In no particular order, Willy Wonka, Heaven Can Wait (1978), Arthur, Reds, and, of course, Mommie Dearest.


SGS- Favorite music?


BO- I'm a musicals whore. And jazz, smooth jazz.


SGS- Favorite actors...

BO- Albert Finney, Ian McKellan, Oliver Platt, Matt Bogart...

SGS- Actresses?


BO- Meryl Streep, Blythe Danner, Patricia Clarkson, and others I will think of after I've sent this and say "Shit, I forgot Chita Rivera!" or whoever.


SGS- Last time you considered a life in the clergy versus being an actor...

BO- Um, never.

SGS- Last thing that stopped you in your tracks...


BO- Being asked about a life in the clergy.


SGS- Advice to anyone starting out in this scary business....


BO- Stay in the moment, force perspective, and remember that life is about more than your chosen profession.

Thanks, Brad. I can't wait to see you at the Helen's.
Luv,
SGS

Happy Birthday, Lynn

Today is Lynn Filusch's Birthday!!! She is coming in to town for some auditions this coming weekend, so maybe we can all get together and celebrate together...
Happy Birthday, Darlin'.
I love you more than my luggage.
Luv,
SGS

Cell...a blog by SGS

No, this is not a copy cat retelling of the brilliant Stephen King novel of the same title, but it is my own tale of horror for the day.
This horror is personified in my cell phone. Yes, the phone that has metal on it's face that eats at my own every time I put it to my cheek, due to my metal allergies. My cell phone, that ever since it was mauled by Molly the Devil, has resented me and acted in a strange and angry way. This cell phone ate my face away to a zombie-like state last summer, during Pacific Overtures at Signature Theatre. Bloody scabs covered my left cheek due to that silent beast that was always close to my body...silently pulsing it's all knowing blinking green light. This is the tale of the end of my evil friend, and it's parting gift to me...a venture into the evil abyss of a zombie laden mall in North Arlington. This is a story of survival.


The day started on an upbeat note. Matt agreed to join me on my first 3 dogwalks, just to keep me company. It was a very nice gesture that indeed started my day out right. Despite the light rain that quickly made puddles on the dry streets, it was a lovely Spring morning.

We were walking Reagan the Pointer when everything started to unravel...and it all started with one little squirrel. This foolish squirrel decided to dart out in front of us from one bush to a neighboring tree. Reagan's instincts kicked in.
Reagan made a quick sprint to the right, which caught his leash on my cell phone clip, which was tucked into my jeans pocket. In one split second, the phone was flung from my pocket, and thrown into one of the growing puddles on Luray Street.

"Fuck!", I exclaimed, as I retrieved the phone from the murky and cherry blossom filled puddle. Funny enough, I got a call from Lynn Filusch not 2 minutes later. The phone seemed to work fine, so I breathed a sigh of relief. This sigh did not last, however. I excused myself off of the phone from Lynn, as the rain had intensified, and I feared further water damage to the phone by keeping it up to my ear. The phone immediately started to beep uncontrollably. This beeping intensified for about 20 minutes, a sort of countdown to destruction.
Twenty minutes later, the phone shut off, and would not come back on. I tried to charge it later, hoping that it would somehow come back to life. Nothing. I took it apart, dried it off and put it back together again. Nothing. Dead.

I dropped Matthew off at home, and continued my work day. No phone communique. Unbearable, almost. I listened to tapes on my cassette player for hours. I listened to Dolly Parton telling her own life story on audio. I ADORE this. It kept me company most of the day. I finished my dog day afternoon, and returned to home, husband, and puglet.

I dropped him off at work, and made my trek up Glebe Road to the Ballston Commons Mall. This is where the nearest T-Mobile store is. Ballston Commons Mall is also one of my most hated destinations. Most malls are these days. Malls just seem so 5 years ago to me. They became hip in the 70's, and put tons of strip malls out of business. Now, I think that the tide is turning the other way. Most of the stores are home to craft stores, or cheap-ghetto-airbrushed-Bob Marley and pot leaf tee-shirt-kind of places. Trashy.
I remember in my college days, going to the Apple Blossom Mall in Winchester, VA. I went many times with my friend, Katie Sina. She would often remark at the throngs of rabid teens and skeletal girls in slut-wear. "Wow...the youth is really out tonight...", she would say in a tongue in cheek manner. I would laugh at her joke every time she said it. It echoed in my head tonight as I walked into the teen cruising hell that IS Ballston Common.
A favorite film of mine started to play in my head...Rabid gangs of ghetto wannabe 14 year olds, who seemed to wander in packs of 6-8, stalked every floor. Anorexia is as big a problem as obesity in this country. Gaggles of skeletal thin teen and pre-teen girls loudly gossiped to cell phones, while remaining in their packs of 3-5. I felt incredibly old and out of place. Whenever I saw a person of my age or older, I felt a relief when our eyes would meet. I knew they felt it too...I saw it. We all felt unsafe amid the rabid-teenage zombie plague.


I ventured to the T-Mobile store, and explained the situation. Matt and I are on a Family plan with our phones, started by him...so...I had to be authorized by him to extend the plan 2 years to get a free phone. So, I had to get in touch of him, and then HE had to authorize me to do this through customer service, and then I would be in business. I called him, he called them, he called me, ok, we're set. I go back to the store. She says that he changed the plan and renewed it over the phone, and I had to be the one to do that to get the free phone. I have to call him back so that he could call them back, then change it back, call me back, and then it would be ok.
Sigh.
Ok, I call him, explain, he goes to call them back.
Time passes.
I am awaiting the call, and getting sick of the snooty glances from the ghetto queen running the store, who gave me those glances ever since I told her that my plan was through my partner, Matt. Funny, that.
I start to walk around the mall, zombie-like myself. I stumbled around, half tired, half starving. The longer I was there, the more I seemed to fit in to the mindless hordes who stalked the linoleum of Ballston Common. I felt one with their vacant stares into windows offering wares that some of them already wore. A numb army of consumerism, marching in tandem. I marched their march. What else was I to do? I was waiting in limbo, waiting for my substitute cell( a work phone) to pulse and give me marching orders.

I saw the zombie throng of cell phone attached humanoids crowding one particular store...the Suncoast. It's neon light flickered in the window, where herds of the teenage undead wandered behind.


I wondered why they were all drawn there in crowds, until I saw the sign..."GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE". Wow...all Suncoasts have been bought out bye FYE. I hate that....Suncoast was always an upstart, renegade feeling movie store with TONS of obscure titles and lots of cool memorabilia. FYE is a lame, family oriented movie-n-music mart with no imagination in it's stock of cookie-cutter bestselling films. Translation: I couldn't buy Orgy of the Dead there. FYE is the WalMart of video stores. I went down the escalator to the store, and rabidly explored its remaining contents. Things were 70% off at the absolute least. I prowled through the Horror section with avid hunger, as tons of the Teenage undead did the same, in utter silence, all around me. One false move, and they night have devoured me, I thought. Still no pulse from my Cell.
I walked out of Suncoast with these gems...Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter, The Dead Next Door, and Season of the Witch. All for $8.
Still no Cell Pulse.
I am ravaged with hunger, so I tear into the throat of an elderly woman using a walker. Just kidding. I go to Sbarro's Authentic Nasty Pizza and get some reheated cardboard with cheese on it. Yummy.


I get the call...


Matt informs me that the customer service imp has fixed it all, and if they had a problem, call him. The imp's name was Andrew.
Ok.
I push past the throngs of rabid zombies, who by now have recognized me as not one of their own, due to my desire and willingness to escape the confines of the Monroeville-uh-I mean-Ballston Common Mall.


The Kiosk wench, who is obviously a biggot to the faggot, rolls her eyes again as I approach. "Here comes the poof", I seem to envision her sighing. I tell her to try the transaction again. She does. It still doesn't work. I tell her to call the imp-uh-I mean-Andrew. She does. Still no dice. I make a desperate call to my hubster, explaining the chaos at the Ballston Mall, and my need for rescue, as I have been there for 2 hours now, and my parking rate is going up and up.
A thunderstorm starts. I see the flashes of lightning through the skylights of the mall, as I am on the very top level of it, dealing with Miss Queen of T-Mobile. Her weapons-adjectives, eye rolls, apathy.
I jam the dead cell phone in my hand into her eye, which makes her stagger back for a minute, before baring her fangs she leaps at me and...
I'm losing reality.
I need to get out of Ballston Common.
Me and Matty agree to deal with this together at the kiosk in the morning.
Oh God...I have to venture back into this death nest of teenage zombies and Kiosk queens? God help me. At least I won't be alone this time.
My dead cell phone sits next to me now. No longer blinking its evil pulsing light. No longer eating at my face with it's metal teeth. Any minute, I expect it to come back to life and start beeping at me.
I think I watch too many horror films.
Phoneless...
Day one.
Updates tomorrow.
Luv,
SGS

A PSA...

Beware, boys...

Sean MacVampire

These photos of Sean in Lestat the Musical just came into my inbox. heh. Wasn't trying to make that sound sexual at all, folks. Really.
Let's see here...first we have...
Tool MacTuxedo...




Next we have...
Tool MacFopp...


Finally, and my personal favorite, we have...
Tool MacVampire...

Thanks, Sean.
You warm my black heart...
Luv,
SGS

Candyman

I have recently got into the habit of collecting candy or products that have strange names that make me do a double-take.
Thought I would share these two with you...
The first, "Reese's Big Cup with Nuts"...

No gay man can utter the title of this candy outloud without letting out a titter.
Alternate title: "Reese's Big Jockstrap Bulge"...









My second needs no alternate title...

First of all...it's a gummy snake. How is that appealing? Second, the name. I have heard way too many queens having Hissee Fits backstage to be able to look at this on a store shelf and not chuckle.
Both of these were purchased at the convenience store with the strangest array of products for sale that I have ever seen...
7-11.
SGS

Spring

As the landscape is starting to come back to life again, I have been working more and more. While I have had the time to witness its glorious rebirth, I have not had much time to partake in my own yard's resurrection. I finally got a chance to get out back and do some Spring prep, however minimal.
I got some mulch and grass seed from the local Nursery, both extremely effective, and pretty cheap. (This is design on a dime, folks). I used a Silver Dollar mulch that I am quite fond of, having used it on many projects before. I mulched the ground around my Azalea bushes, my two rose bushes, a Hydrangea, and the bed also contains two large containers: one with my Weeping Yucca, the other containing Disco Belle Hybiscus(my favorite perennial), some spring bulbs that never quite produce in the volume I want them to, and some drippy Vinca Variegata to round it out.
This is what the bed looked like last summer...
My Disco Belle...
















My Hydrangea...















I also hauled out the duck family...

These ducks float around the pond when the water garden is up and running...(Matty collects these, and I can't remember what all of their names are...I remember one is named Kirk Duckless)...Oh, and the one with horns is new...an opening night gift from Damn Yankees...his duck brethren will have to teach him to swim very shortly...
I put out a new dining table centerpiece...

I find it cute and Springy....all about color.
I took my main interest in gardening the Summer before I played Dickon in
The Secret Garden. I, from then on, grew my obsession. My obsession turned into Landscape Design, water gardens, and so forth. I just love the ability to bring forth life and color from where there was none.
So as you can see, the garden isn't really all that much right now...

But as the song goes, "When a thing is Wick, it will grow..."
Happy Spring...
luv,
SGS

Secret Lovers

Ok, hands down, the gayest commercial that I have seen in quite some time. What is funny is that this commercial has been airing back to back with ads for Brokeback Mountain. At least they didn't use the Brokeback theme, and chose a different song...
Click HERE to see the little gay hobbitses...

Tornado of the week

I am obsessed with tornadoes. I have lived through many. I wanted to be a Storm Chaser. I ended up an actor. Same diff, in many aspects.
I am starting this feature, of tornado video that I find incredible.
Here is the first.

Love-40

Tennis again, this evening.
A rematch for Me and Matt VS Fred and Ryan.
A tie.
Here are some photos of the outing...

Buddha's Spring Break

Buddha has completed a new blog. His best yet, I think...

BREAKING NEWS:

Studio Theatre's Secondstage will present my favorite musical, Reefer Madness from July 11th to August 5th, 2007...
*swoon*

Sexual Healing

Me and Matthew went to see The Sex Habits of American Women at Signature Theatre last night.
I have to say, we both thoroughly enjoyed it.
I am a fan of anything at all to do with the 50's anyway, so when I walked into the Theatre, I saw the set and wanted to move in. I mean...folks, it is just spot on 1951 home. Sunken living room and all.
The pre show announcement is, I have to say, very funny and clever.
I will not include any spoilers here, because I enjoyed taking the journey of the play, with all of its twists in plot. So, no spoilers here.
What I love here is the faux perfection of the 50's, juxtaposed with the more raw and dark side of human nature that lies seething beneath a monogram apron.
The struggle to remain perfect and pristine in this gleaming and Stepford era is always an engaging subject. Social taboos such as adultery, or....well...I won't say the other ones....were things not discussed. The stress they caused must have been unimaginable. "The Bridges of Madison County", or "Far From Heaven" come to mind.
The script also juxtaposes a filmed documentary in between scenes, in a one-two punch effect. Amy McWilliams ,(an SGS Blogspot obsession), plays the interviewee of the modern documentary. Megan MacPhee plays her daughter, Katie. Paul Morella plays her interviewer.
The modern section appears on 15 flat screen monitors, cleverly hidden within the set.

It hammers home the "You've come a long way. baby" sentiment. Any remnants of the pitch perfect 50's housewife, if that woman ever truly existed, are rendered unrecognizable.


Back in 1950, the entrancing Helen Hedman plays Agnes, the 65 year old, yet still chic and gorgeous housewife of Dr. Fritz Tittles. Dr. Tittles is busy writing a book on The Sex Habits of American Women. He has recently retire from his practice to write this book.
Their daughter, Daisy Tittles- 35 and still a spinster, is played with angsty gusto by Teresa Castracane. Her best friend,Ruby Lawrence-the girl next door, who is the 50's ideal...(just had her first child, married, always dressed to the nines), is played by Casie Platt.


Will Gartshore plays Edgar Green, a former student of Dr. Tittles, who is a friend of the family. He, as always, turns in top notch work here. His character is very pivotal, too. But then again, they all are pivotal.
Michael Baron (not Michael Carnahan, as Nancy McCord misquotes in her squib on the ever enlightening AllArtsReviewForU website) produces some fine direction here. It looks like you are watching a 50's TV show, even by the actors stances on the stage. The little nuances that he has put into this fascinating work by Julie Marie Myatt, are self evident. Topped off with a fantastic bow sequence, that is quite ingenious.
The soundtrack of the piece had audience members around me singing lightly, as they recalled these songs from the past.
I had the honor of talking with Michael Baron, the director, Helen Hedman, and Julie Marie Myatt, the playwright, after the show. All were very cordial and kind, and offered insightful viewpoints into the show and the process along the way. I was honored to talk to such an emerging voice.
The performances are all very engaging, and in particular, Helen Hedman is a delight. She carries so much of the brunt of the play, and they have chosen her able hands to do it.
I heard through the grapevine that the show is quickly selling out, and I can honestly say to you that I had a great evening of theatre, and think that you will too.
Reserve your tickets NOW.

Problem Solved

Thanks to The Rebel Prince's problem solving, I got my links and archives back up.
Thanks so much, THOM! ;)
The Rebel Prince has saved the day!
:)
SGS

Heaven

Ok...just building a wishlist, more out of fun than anything else...I found this...


Ok..any of my set designer-like friends know an easy way to just build this? I MUST have this in my backyard. It doesn't have to be made of wicker..wood is fine.
It must be mine.
;)

HeeHee

Sorry this became a "You Tube" blog for several post there! I JUST learned how to uplink from that brilliant site, and it is like Christmas at YouTube....ANYTHING you would ever look for is there...=I mean...come on....I found clips from Female Trouble there for God's sake!
*sigh*
OK. I promise I will try to show some YouTube restraint.
Wonder if they have any clips from Reefer Madness....
Hmmmm.....

Mamma Mia!

To all the Joan fans...

Another Female Trouble clip...

This is another clip from one of my favorite films, that I am sharing with the very enthralled Rabbit, and the very disturbed Nancy...

What I'm watching right now...

Rabbit, Nancy and I are watching...

Bitches

The same viewing tips apply...

FleshEater...again and again...

I went over to Uncle Fred's and met his best friend, Ron, who was down visiting. I joined them about 20 minutes into their viewing of FleshEater.
God, what a brilliantly horrible film.
I laughed like the first time I saw it.
For all who never caught it, I did a dual movie review of this film and another stinker, "Chopping Mall".
Here it is again...

To Sarah

From Nancy...

Lisa Minoolie

Rabbit and I watched "Liza with a Z" tonight over some Cici's Pizza (again) and Yuengling Lager (creature of habit).
Well...it was better than I expected it to be. Not that I thought it would be bad, I just...I don't know. I'll stick to my original statement. Better than I thought it was going to be.
The first song set, "Yes", "God Bless the Child", "Liza with a Z", and "It was a Good Time", was the weakest, in my opinion. "It was a Good Time" is so strange as a concert piece. An odd "Daddy's Gone" kind of breakdown number. Very dramatic, yet...strange out of context. Rabbit and I were scratching our heads like...huh?
Odd choice. But...this from a man who sang "VD is for Everybody" in one of his cabarets, so...each to his own.
The second set..(The Red Dress set) was stronger, with "I Gotcha"- first of all, damn she danced with wild abandon...very impressive.
Also in that set was "Son of a Preacher Man", and the epilepsy inspired "Ring Them Bells".
Then there was the "Little Lord Fauntleroy" set...where she was dressed in a black and white school boy's outfit. In this set, she and the ensemble performed the AMAZING "Bye Bye Blackbird". The simple and gorgeous "You've Let Yourself Go", the "I'm a white girl singing a vaudeville number"-"Mammy"...ok. Strange, but...this from a man who sang "Miss Celie's Blues" in one of his cabarets, so, again-I digress.
Then, the inevitable Cabaret medley...
It was so great to see her in her hey-day. Liza was in top form in this concert, and it was a treat to see her preserved on film in this top form.
My mother introduced me to this album as a child, and, as I have said earlier, wondered why I was gay.
I warn you, readers...watching Liza with a Z will most definitely make you gay.
I don't know about you, but I LOVE a Cabaret...


Luv,
SGS

"I wish I knew how to eat you..."

(Hint...Push play, then pause, and wait until the little grey bar loads all the way before you play it.)