Do not adjust your monitor, the images in this exhibit may appear SMALLER than actual size. A LOT smaller. And that is exactly what makes it so CUTE! Maybe it’s because I never had a dollhouse growing up. Maybe it’s becuase I’m so terribly nearsighted as it is. Maybe it’s just because the scientist in me is continually asking HOW DO THEY GET THOSE THINGS SO SMALL! But whatever it is, the It’s a Small Wonder exhibit of Scaled Miniatures at the Los Altos History Museum is a bunch of fun art crammed into tiny little packages. What? You didn’t even know there was a Los Altso History Museum. Well, Christmas just came early! Now you know.  This exhibit features architectural models, artwork and salesman’s samples. From doll houses, books and dishes to ships, automobiles and trains, you can explore the fascinating world of scaled miniatures, antique and modern, from the U.S. and around the world.  Enjoy the  annual themed tree, the decorated (full-size) J. Gilbert Smith History House, the Museum Store, and the changing holiday décor in the tiny houses.  So you see…size DOES matter. But bigger is NOT always better. There. I said it.

Admirable Palo Alto Players production reminds us why we still care about Romeo and Juliet
by Chad Jones – PALO ALTO WEEKLY

Director Bill Olson asks an interesting question in his program notes for Palo Alto Players’ “Romeo and Juliet.” He wonders, in this digital world, if it’s still possible for audiences to emotionally invest in a classical tragedy where the characters’ problems, as he puts it, “could be solved with one phone call.”

Think about it. Romeo is banished and Friar Lawrence’s message to him is never delivered because of an unexpected plague quarantine. Because of that missed communication, three people die needlessly. In the modern world, the friar would just call Romeo (or text him: “OMG! Juliet not really dead!”) and tell him the complicated plan involving Juliet’s temporary stint in the crypt. No one would learn important, albeit tragic lessons, and the Montagues and Capulets would likely continue their petty feuding.

The answer to Olson’s question is, of course: Yes, we still care about those crazy, star-crossed kids. We care about them in fair Verona and we care about them when they’re singing Bernstein tunes on New York’s Upper West Side. We care because, cell phones and singing aside, they are the beating heart of an irresistibly juicy love story.

Olson certainly knows this, though his road to the play was slightly unusual. After working on “Romeo and Juliet” with students at Jordan Middle School, he convinced Palo Alto Players to produce a Shakespearean play on the stage of the Lucie Stern Theatre for the first time in 54 years (though the company did produce three summer Shakespeare productions in Woodside about a decade ago).

He probably made a persuasive argument about making a direct, unfettered connection with the emotions at the core of this oft-told tragic tale. And that’s exactly what he does here.

Though not every member of Olson’s 17-member cast (which includes the director himself as Friar Lawrence) handles the verse with precision, everyone on stage attacks it with gusto. Even when the words aren’t always clear, the action is, and that goes a long way toward effective storytelling.

Fair Verona is represented in Patrick Klein’s bustling, crowded set, which needs only a few sliding or rolling tweaks to become a romantic balcony or a chilly crypt. Cleverly, Klein has subtly designed the railing on one side of the set with ornate Cs for Capulet, and Ms for Montague on the other side.

Costume designer Mary Cravens goes for a similar device to depict the feuding families. The overarching color scheme of the show favors rich autumnal hues, but for the specific families, the Capulets are in reds and maroons, while the Montagues go for a range of blues.

There’s a classical feel to Olson’s stage, but it never feels musty. Sound designer George Mauro keeps one foot in modern day with his underscore and its decidedly un-Elizabethan sounds such as electric keyboards and, for several fight scenes, electric guitar.

Olson’s dynamic staging of the fights is one of the two-and-a-half-hour show’s highlights. From the slow-motion prologue, in which the entire tale is told through its violence, to the intense confrontations between the young men of the warring families, the fight choreography dazzles with its swordplay and its hand-to-hand combat.

Equally as impressive is the romance. The famous balcony scene with all those famous lines — it’s a veritable Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits! — is especially charming. After having met and fallen in love at first sight at a masked ball, Romeo (Andrew Gruen) and Juliet (Sepideh Moafi) seal the deal romantically speaking with a spritely moonlight flirtation.

First, we see Juliet on the balcony outside her bedroom singing to herself. Clearly Moafi is an extraordinary singer as she teases us with her gorgeous soprano. If the play were suddenly to turn into an opera, that might not be such a bad thing where Moafi is concerned. Watching and listening to her, it’s easy to see why Romeo would be so easily smitten. In addition to her beautiful (if only briefly glimpsed voice), Moafi brings considerable verve to Juliet, a smart young woman with easy access to her emotions.

With Gruen’s Romeo, it’s harder to see why Juliet would fall so hard, but Gruen warms up to the role and finds reserves of charm in his scenes with Moafi. She’s sassy and bursting with life, and he’s gleefully overwhelmed.

The bulk of the play’s testosterone is burned by Tybalt (Paul Jennings), Juliet’s kinsman; and Romeo’s homeboys, Benvolio (Kevin Hsieh) and Mercutio (Jeremy Koerner). They’re all lively, especially when fighting, but the show’s liveliest livewire is Shannon Warrick as Juliet’s nurse.

There’s always a chance that “Romeo and Juliet” will be stolen by the nurse, a role filled with bawdy humor and genuine, heart-wrenching emotion. Warrick gets some big laughs here before she takes us deep into grief. She, like so many great nurses before her, makes you wish someone could have written a spin-off show following the exploits of the nurse after the “R&J” madness ends.

Curiously, in a play so famous for its language, Olson stages some of his most effective scenes with only musical underscore. First, there’s that ballet-like prologue, and then there’s Romeo and Juliet’s actual wedding, which is touching in its silence.

Words are secondary to emotions in this ambitious, admirable production.

‘Shape’ Shifters

Excellent cast puts its own spin on Neil LaBute for RTE’s ‘The Shape of Things’

By Steve Palopoli – the Metro

I love gift-giving. I’ve made up holidays just as an excuse to buy and give people things. I better not ever win the lottery,  or you are all getting the most random, unneccessary gifts you never needed, seriously. This has always been one of the love hate problems I’ve had with the Silicon Valley. Being in the middle of gadetland, it’s easy to get your hands on the hottest technology and geek chic gadgets before you ever knew you couldn’t live your life properly without it! Great for fun, not so much always for the wallet. And, sometimes the temptation to jump the gun and be first overpowers the logical, wait 2 weeks and someone will have a better version with more bells and whistles for half the price. It certainly would be handy to have my own personal tech guru’s tell me what’s in and out and what I should get all my tech savvy compadres for the impending holiday season! OH WAIT! I CAN! Becuase the Commonwealth Club is totally looking out for me.  You can get all the latest nerd news to appease your inner wonk by attending the Tech Toys for the Holiday Panel and discussion.  I’m making my list and checking it twice! Happy Geeking!

FROM THE AWESOME INVENTIONS..

TO THE TECH FUN THAT AWAITS THE DJ IN YOU!

I have just 2 words for you this week. ROB. ZOMBIE. It’s Hallowee for goodness sake. The man’s name is ZOMBIE! Okay, that was more than 2 words. But please, if you are EVER going to see Mr. Zombie, jus after Halloween is almost as as good as seeing him ON Halloween. The man can rock. He, being a film maker too, is all about putting on a good show. So treat yourself to a great experience at the San Jose Civic, intimate yet able to handle the Metal!

A tragedy without tears
West Bay Opera’s ‘La boheme’ is exceptional but fails to deliver ‘a good cry’
by Kevin Kirby – Palo Alto Weekly

On opening nights at West Bay Opera, it is customary for José Luis Moscovich, the company’s general director, to address the house prior to the overture. A dapper man with a dry sense of humor and a soft yet crisp speaking voice, Moscovich has a nice touch with a curtain speech, making the audience feel like integral collaborators in the preservation of a precious cultural heritage.

Last Friday, at the opening of Puccini’s “La bohème,” the first show in WBO’s 54th season, Moscovich riffed on the recent health care debate, wryly suggesting that the government should support opera as a form of therapy and suggesting that this show was just what the doctor ordered for those in need of “a good cry.”

Certainly Puccini’s tale of young love cut down in its prime is designed to be a tear-jerker. When the chronically ill seamstress, Mimi, appears in the rundown garret that the poet Rodolfo shares with three other starving artists, asking him to relight her candle because she has no matches in her own quarters, no one with any knowledge of operatic tropes could expect their sudden romance to have a happy ending. By the opera’s final scene, when a severely weakened Mimi is carried into the garret once more, unable to climb the stairs on her own, it’s hanky time.

Or at least it should be. It is perhaps an overstatement — and an overly glib one at that — to say that there was not a wet eye in the house at the close of Friday’s performance, nor was the Lucie Stern Theatre filled with the sniffling noises of an emotionally devastated crowd. In short, the production simply lacks the visceral punch that one would hope for.

It’s an unfortunate critique to have to make, since WBO’s latest staging of this perennial favorite gets so many things right. The orchestra, singers and visual design are all quite strong.

Conductor Bryan Nies has assembled a fine group of musicians. Apart from some minor difficulty in a tricky pizzicato passage in Act III, the orchestra was effectively flawless. Nies has superb control of the players, and his sensitivity to the ebb and flow of the score is exemplary. During Rodolfo and Mimi’s crucial arias — especially Act I’s “Che gelida manina” and “Si, mi chiamano Mimi” — Nies never takes his eyes off the singers, matching their phrasing breath for breath.

Pedro Betancourt (Rodolfo) and Carrie Hennessey (Mimi) are equally adept at capturing the lyricality of Puccini’s melody lines. Their duet, “O soave fanciulla,” is a lovely close to the first act, even if the characters’ proclamation of love seems a bit premature for two people who met 10 minutes earlier.

David Hodgson is immensely likable as Marcello, the painter, and his unselfconsciously warm baritone serves the music well. Ani Maldjian gives a vocally accomplished performance as Marcello’s on-again, off-again lover, Musetta, even if she doesn’t quite capture the infamous siren’s larger-than-life persona.

John Bischoff and Teagan Moore lend great energy and humor to the garret scenes as Colline and Schaunard, respectively. Both men have rich voices, even if Moore seems to be scraping the bottom of his vocal range in a few passages. Moore is very funny in Schaunard’s dance solo at the top of Act IV, and Bischoff delivers the aria “Vecchia zimarra” (in which Colline explains to his faithful overcoat that he must pawn it to buy medicine for Mimi) with perfect simplicity. Eric Coyne is adequate as the landlord Benoit — balancing on one foot on a raked tabletop while bragging about his extramarital conquests — but his exaggerated makeup actually distracts from his performances.

Jean-François Revon’s set designs are simultaneously simple and ornate. They are a marvelous recreation of the Art Nouveau style… and an appropriate one, as WBO has set the story at the turn of the 20th century. There is hardly a straight line or square corner to be seen. Instead, the garret and the Café Momus are defined by enormous curvilinear window frames: sinuous, calligraphic and botanical, and the sky in Act III is framed by ominous tentacles of cloud or vegetation.

The only odd scenic choice is the apparent decision to strip the garret of all props and other set dressing during Act IV — “apparent” because it almost seemed as though the stage crew had simply failed to preset the stove, the easel and a handful of smaller items before the lights came up, leaving Marcello and Rodolfo to sing about “this pen” and “this brush” with not a single prop in sight.

The period costumes by Yuri Cataldo are effective, as is Steven Mannshardt’s lighting design. Another odd choice, however, is the decision to play all of Act III behind a dark scrim. Granted, this tactic creates a murky pre-dawn feel that suits the scene, but it also robs the actors of their facial expressions.

Jimmy Smith’s staging is very good in the garret scenes; less so elsewhere. In particular, the Latin Quarter market scene that opens Act II feels more cramped than vibrant. Also, more rehearsal time should have been devoted to the children’s chorus; the kids are enthusiastic but unpolished.

Ultimately, though, none of the production’s relatively minor flaws would matter if this “Bohème” could deliver on Moscovich’s promise of a good, cathartic cry. But the saddest thing about this tragedy is that the alchemy doesn’t quite work. Perhaps the sting of Mimi’s fate is blunted by the fact that Hennessey never exhibits a full measure of youthful gaiety in the first place, choosing to play Mimi as rather staid and pragmatic throughout. Perhaps the fault lies with the somewhat lackadaisical reactions of her friends when she returns to the garret in Act IV, as though they all realize they’ve come to the final, preordained scene.

Whatever the reason, it might be wise of Moscovich to change the thrust of his preshow remarks. Both musically and visually, this is an exceptional production. If it were pitched as a timely social commentary on the cruelty of a healthcare system that neglects the poor, rather than as a tear-jerker, it might just succeed on all fronts.

What: “La bohème,” presented by West Bay Opera
Where: Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto
When: Remaining performances are Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. and Oct. 25 at 2 p.m.
Cost: $30-$55 (group discounts available)
Info: Call the box office at 650-424-9999. For more information, go to www.WBOpera.org.

‘Spring’ In Fall
Broadway San Jose presents the Tony-winning ‘Spring Awakening’
By Emily Grube – Metro

IN 1917, the play Spring Awakening, by German writer Frank Wedekind, played in New York City, only to be censored and banned over the next 89 years. The rock musical that opened off-Broadway in 2006 and was loosely adapted from the play received a much better reception. Spring Awakening was the winner of eight Tony Awards, including best musical, in 2007. The Broadway run ended in January 2008, and the national tour is set to hit the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 28 for a five-day run.

Spring Awakening tells the story of several students coming of age in a sexually repressed, 1891 Germany. The parents and teachers refuse to enlighten the children about their changing bodies and urges. That leaves the students confused and angry, grasping with both hands in the dark only to find a microphone. “Rock music expresses anguish and longing, passion and joys,” says Steven Sater the Tony Award–winning writer of the musical’s book and lyrics. “[Having rock music] altered the whole feeling of the play.” The characters burst into songs such as “The Bitch of Living” and “Touch Me” to show “the internal world of the teens.” As a unique touch, the actors are given microphones to hold onstage as they sing. This was done to remind the audience of when they stood in their bedroom and held a hairbrush as they sang. “Everyone has been a rock star in their own bedroom,” notes Sater.

The touring cast of mostly recent high school graduates, college students and new college graduates “gives the show a fresh, new energy. They believe in the show because it’s what they are going through.” Two of the Broadway cast members who believed in the show reached worldwide fame: John Gallagher Jr. won a Tony Award for his performance, and Lea Michele went on to star in FOX’s hit new series Glee. “These young people just stand out there and give you their hearts,” says Sater.

The musical touches on “the hope and the strength, the darkness and the light” in self-discovery. In fact, the importance of the subject matter led Planned Parenthood to invite Sater to become a member of their organization. “This play opens up real dialogue between generations because, whatever your age, you watch from the perspective of the young. And [the play] touches the heart so profoundly to remember that time of naughty pleasure.”

SPRING AWAKENING, presented by Broadway San Jose, plays Oct. 28 at 7:30pm, Oct. 29 at 2 and 7:30pm, Oct. 30 at 8pm, Oct. 31 at 2 and 8pm and Nov. 1 at 1 and 6pm at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 Almaden Blvd., San Jose. Tickets are $20–$75. (408.792.4111)

Transporting!

Sometimes pictures speak louder than words. This is the case for this weeks Princess Pick. Tomorrow Star Trek – The Exhibition opens at the Tech Musuem and myself along with Michael Pease and Dexter Santos from our office got to explore it in a special preview night. I myself am not a huge Trekie, but that being said, this was a ton of fun. i’m even thinking about changing my title from Princess to Captain. Maybe I’ll just change my middle name to Tiberius. No Picard sightings but George Takei was there to pose for photos.  There was even a simulator ride. A real treat indeed!

Review: ‘The Chosen’ at TheatreWorks in Mountain View
By Karen D’Souza – The San Jose Mercury

A word is worth one coin but silence is worth two, the Talmud teaches us.

That bit of wisdom from the Jewish holy book reverberates throughout “The Chosen.” Based on Chaim Potok’s beloved 1967 novel, this poignant tale of boyhood friendship in 1940s Brooklyn is filled with tiny silences that echo in the ear like bells. Sensitively directed by Aaron Davidman, the gentle-hearted revival runs through Nov. 1 at TheatreWorks in Mountain View.

Aaron Posner, the playwright who collaborated with Potok on this adaptation, clearly has an affinity for the author’s richly lyrical sense of language and culture. A keen reverence for the Torah and the deep-rooted connection between heritage and ambition permeates every aspect of this universe. Here the truth comes from a quiet place, from long walks through the borough and hours peering over ancient texts.

Warm reminiscence drives the play, which is narrated by a man of learning named Reuven Malter (Michael Navarra) looking back on his childhood during World War II. Chad Bonaker’s delicate projections of archival photographs capture the romance of the past.

Back in the day, little Reuven (Jonathan Bock) and Danny Saunders (Thomas Gorrebeeck) shared the same sandlots and street corners, but their worlds rarely collided. Danny’s family are Hasidic fundamentalists. He wears the yarmulke and earlocks (payos) and he’s thoroughly surprised to find that he has anything in common with baseball-obsessed Reuven. His father David (Rolf Saxon) is a hard-driving Jewish writer and scholar who is not afraid to question orthodoxy.

Danny’s father, the Rebbe, believes in the time-honored practice of religious disputation, arguing with God one on one, when it comes to the synagogue. However, he’s not so charitably disposed to differences of opinion at home.

Corey Fischer, best known as one of the founders of the Traveling Jewish Theatre, makes a rare appearance outside that troupe as the formidable Rebbe Saunders. A tower of gravitas with a white beard and a steely gaze, the Rebbe is so strict in his observance of tradition that he “excommunicates” anyone who doesn’t toe the line.

Gorrebeeck, a regular on the City Lights stage in San Jose, shines here as Danny, nimbly conveying the smug hubris of a boy genius. Bock, for his part, nails the awkwardness of adolescence, and the anxiety of a son wracked with worry for a father all too likely to work himself to death. The tenderness of the bond between the two boys stands in stark contrast to the rigidity of Rebbe Saunders.

It’s not that he’s a hard man, but he’s led a hard life, from the pogroms in Europe that cost him his family to the dawning realization of Hitler’s evils.

One of the most visceral moments in the show is when the boys learn of the horrors of the Holocaust. First, one million lost. It’s a shock. Three million. It’s staggering. Six million perish. It’s almost inconceivable. A whole people slaughtered almost to the point of extinction. Navarra’s face registers the sorrow of grieving a loss that is beyond comprehension.

Surviving tragedy is perhaps the most potent test of faith in a chaotic world. It’s a turning point for the Jewish community but also for Danny and Reuven, who chart their course in life fueled by a sense of life’s fragility.

“The Chosen”
The upshot: A heartwarming revival of the classic tale of faith and friendship tested by the vagaries of history
Where: TheatreWorks, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View
Through: Nov. 1
Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes (one intermission)
Tickets: $24-$62; 650-463-1906 or www.theatreworks.org.

Taut and volatile, ‘Groundswell’ explodes at San Jose Repertory