After Seeing JTP's Black Nativity in Concert, All This Reviewer Can Say Is, "Wowwie Wow Wow!"
I had the privilege of going to The Justice Theater Project's 2022 production of Langston Hughes' Black Nativity: A Gospel Christmas Musical Experience in Concerton Sunday, Dec 11th, at the Mount Calvary United Church of Christ in Durham; and can I just say: Wowwie Wow Wow...
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…
Hairspray Will Have You Singing When You Wake Up the Next Morning
I woke up this morning humming "You Can't Stop the Beat," the hit song written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for the 2002 hit Broadway musical Hairspray, playing now through Sunday, Nov. 20th, at the Durham Performing Arts Center. It wasn't just the music that was in my head. Images of the actors in the Tuesday-night performance of this romantic comedy by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan (based on John Waters' 1988 film) were singing and dancing across my mind as well. This can only make for a good review.
Painting the Town Blue
Since seeing a video of the Blue Man Group performing "I Feel Love," with Annette Strean and Venus Hum in 2004, I have wanted to see them live; and last night was my lucky night. Not only that, I got to see them in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts with my 12-year-old, whose college-aged siblings were actually jealous…
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…
OdysseyStage 10✖10: Homegrown Talent Knocked My Socks Off
TONIGHT is the last show of 2022 OdysseyStage 10✖10: Homegrown Talent, presented by OdysseyStage Theatre at the Seymour Center, 2551 Homestead Rd., in Chapel Hill, NC. I suggest you register for your FREE tickets right now and leave the $20 suggested donation at the door, because last night kinda knocked my socks off.
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) --
How to Stay Fit as a Traveling Professional
Working on just one of these practices is a worthwhile endeavor, whether your work life involves traveling or not. But traveling for work exposes you to unhealthy things at every turn, and you can find yourself working more than caring for your own physical and mental health. It’s time to break the cycle. Setting these good habits now will not only improve your health, it will improve your job (and life) satisfaction.
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…
Drunken Lament
I wrote this poem after a conversation with a new friend who introduced himself as an alcoholic and then offered me a beer.
Theme Song(s) Today: Jason Isbell and Amanda Shire’s Tiny Desk Concert
If you haven’t heard Jason Isbell’s music, you should. This article contains the link to his Tiny Desk (NPR) performance, which is particularly special because his wife no longer tours with him now that they are raising a family. #ThemeSong
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…
Who Pays for Schools?
This article was published by the News and Observer on July 21, 2010. In 2017, Orange County lost the ability to charge impact fees on new development; notably, Chatham County still charges school impact fees. A NC Senate bill enabling NC cities and counties to collect impact fees on new development for schools and other required infrastructure was filed in March 2021, but it appears to have gone nowhere since then (no surprise).
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…
Florida Oceanographic Society’s Coastal Center: MUCH More than an Aquarium
As promised via post-it note on the Florida Oceanographic Society's "Pledge" board, I am sharing my article about their Coastal Center in Stuart, Florida, where my family (12-50 years) spent an entire day and still didn't venture along the ~50-acres of Nature Trails in this barrier island ecosystem. If you’re visiting the east coast of Florida, you must put this stop on your list. And those who work for nonprofit organizations could learn a lot from the level of very visible volunteerism created by the leaders of the Florida Oceanographic Society. Building community for a common cause is the epitome of public outreach.
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.