Jump the Moon: A Children’s Picture Book Review
This morning I had the pleasure of reading Kathy Simmers’ and Marjorie van Heerden’s children’s picture book, Jump the Moon, about the mystical bond that forms between “the girl with the long blond hair” and the misbehaving pony she is charged with for a summer. The book is based on a true story involving the author’s daughter. I rode horses throughout my adolescence (was president of the riding team at my college), so the subject of Jump the Moon immediately spoke to me.
Zalman Raffael's Elegant Reinterpretation of The Nutcracker Sparkles
Not feeling that Christmas Spirit as much this year as in the past? Going to see the Carolina Ballet artistic director Zalman Raffael's reinterpretation of The Nutcracker, inspired by the Raleigh, NC-based ballet's previous productions by George Balanchine and Carolina Ballet's founding artistic director Robert Weiss, will change that. Last night, I saw The Nutcracker at the Durham Performing Arts Center, with my 12-year-old son, who had never seen the holiday staple and -- except for the melody of The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (which I couldn't stop humming since we got the tickets) -- knew very little about it…
Playing Possum a No Win
Three weeks ago, my son spotted a tiny opossum outside our house. The next day, he found the opossum in our garage. An Internet search suggested it was about 13 weeks old – too young for weaning. We put the little guy in a newspaper-lined box with fruit, cat-food and water. Over the next few days, our neighbors and we had rounded up 5 littermates…
Karen Zacarías' Native Gardens at PlayMakers Rep Sparks Laughable Introspection
The set is an inner suburban neighborhood at the height of gentrification -- two distinctly different townhouses, side by side. The voluptuous flower beds in the Butleys' yard are bursting with such color and fullness that I swear I could smell them. As the play unfolds, we learn that those flower gardens are also impeccably unsustainable, which is just the beginning of frictions with their new next door neighbors…
Graveyard Surprise
By Melissa Rooney. For SCBWI Carolinas “Ignite the Spark” Zoom group (18 Oct 2002). Assigned Prompts: Write a children’s story, 250 words or less, using the following prompts: 1) take a location from childhood and strip everything normal about it (if usually crowded, make it barren, etc.); 2) the starting lines, “It’s okay, they’re not as scary as they look;”and 3) the image of a sign reading, “Beware, the Trees Talk.”
Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods Might Be Too Much of a Good Thing for Some Young Theatergoers
As the sun set and the odd bat or two flew across the clearing above the historic Forest Hills (outdoor amphi-) Theatre in Chapel Hill, NC, it was clear that director Melissa S. Craib Dombrowski and the folks at Stone Soup Theatre Co had chosen the perfect venue for their production of Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim's 1987 Broadway and 1990 West End musical, with a book by James Lapine…
Theme Song Today: Sylvan Esso’s Free
When I first heard it, I wasn’t overly impressed by the style of Sylvan Esso’s song Free. But when I read the lyrics, Amelia Meath’s casual humming, sing-song vocals made beautiful sense. It’s easy to imagine that she’s a little girl singing to herself, though with more knowledge than a little girl should have…
Playmakers Provokes Relevant Conversations and Showcases Superior Talents in Blues for an Alabama Sky
If you are looking for a play that will provoke relevant conversations with adolescents in your family, Blues for an Alabama Sky is a good place to start. You will also appreciate the play's references to prominent black personages during the time of the play, including Langston Hughes (1902-67) --
Paperhand Puppet Intervention's 2022 Summer Show, The Meanwhile Clock and Other Impossible Dances, Is Like a Pilgrimage to a Corroboree
Going to a Paperhand Puppet Intervention performance is like pilgrimaging to a Australian aboriginal corroboree, where magical ceremonies teach ancestral truths, pulling everyone present into the community. And it's all the more impactful when it occurs in a ruins-like amphitheater in a forest in the heat of a late-summer sunset…
Four-Wheeled Litmus Test
… Pedestrians in Northern Virginia and DC stopped to tell us they liked the van. In New Jersey, drivers in one suburb would smile and wave, while those in an immediately adjacent suburb would grimace with condescension. Massachusetts residents were generally unimpressed; my brother-in-law thought the van looked stupid, and his teenage son preferred it wasn’t parked in front of their house…
Hurricanes, (Re)Construction, Rip Tides, and Drowning- When Will We Learn?
In the wake of Hurricane Florence, one question plagues me (again): Are we going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in FEMA and other public emergency funds to rebuild homes along the hurricane-battered coast, only so we can do it all over again when the next hurricane/tornado hits? Or will we…
A Blueprint for Finding & Using Arts Funding (and the encouragement it brings)
My webpage redesign is finally complete, and I LOVE it! As promised, I am typing up a summary of how I obtained grant funding to bring this about, so that other local artists (literary and otherwise) can follow suit and get their own webpages, search-engine-optimized and all.
At least 5 Mass Shootings over the Weekend !!??
If it’s mental health and not guns (as the incessant debate goes), then why isn’t our country providing universal coverage of mental health services for all – including therapy (not just drugs)? Texas governor Greg Abbott said that “the Uvalde school shooter had a “mental health challenge” and the state needed to “do a better job with mental health” — yet in April he slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs.” …
Keep It To Yourself
Don’t stop writing poetry just because National Poetry month has passed. This favorite creation contemplates the scowls people wear when they are commuting, particularly on rainy days.
To My Sensitive Loquacious Friends
I have been chastised throughout my life for being talkative, which only amplifies my innate sensitivity. I know well that I am not alone. This article was written to celebrate our good nature and remind us that it’s often them, not us.
PlayMakers Rep's Production of August Wilson's How I Learned What I Learned, Starring Samuel Ray Gates, Is a Gift to Triangle Theatergoers
I would listen for two hours to someone reading August Wilson (1945-2005) aloud while sitting in a chair. But to see his writings performed in a one-person play, as if the actor were August Wilson himself? That is a real gift…
Gun Control, #ThemeSong, and #QuoteOfTheDay
My #ThemeSong today is "Get up off of our knees" by a 1980's post-Smiths band called The Housemartins. I remember the first time I heard this song - I immediately wanted to learn the lyrics…
Being Late, Bullying, and Slime Mold
Voice in My Head:
People want to help.
So why do you keep pretending you don’t need it?
Grace and Mercy at UNC’s Memorial Hall
Although more than 200 Confederate monuments have been removed across the country since 2019, the slabs of Confederate names in UNC's Memorial Hall still stand, rendering the Carolina Performing Arts ' presentation of Grace and Mercy an act of justice in and of itself.
All or None (Parents, Cut Yourselves Some Slack)
This article was first published by the News and Observer in February, 2012. When people say, “It goes by so fast,” I usually respond, “If only it weren’t all or none.” If only we could stretch these early years to double their duration and half their intensity. It’s wonderful, but it isn’t easy. And we parents shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves.