Princess’ Pick – Chalk Full of GOODNESS

One of the best memories I have growing up was drawing with chalk on the sidewalk outside my house. This was almost an early way of addressing the inner rebel while appeasing the inner artist as well. It feels like you are being truly outrageous drawing on public property, and while my cahlk endeavours were never masterpieces, Summer was full of colorful driveways, and the occasional “Arrow to Lemon-aid Stand” I see in pink and blue sidewalk chalk always brings a familiar smile to my face. For the artists in us all, and the kids in us all, this weeks Princess Pick is a salute these early creative sidewalk adventures.

See some of the masters create and have a little fun yourself at the Luna Park 2009 Chalk Festivalthis weekend.  There will even be an Aztec Dance performance! Celebrating the Northside’s Italian heritage, this event is intended to foster community pride and creative expression in the spirit of the Mexican and Chicano mural movements. In its second year, this is a great way to spend one of the last weekends of superior California weather, and to hold on to those last precious memories of summer!

EXTRA EXTRA – Ghosts come early!

Silhouettes dance amid the gloom in “The Ghosts of the River.”

Karen D’Souza – Mercury

The world of the dead bleeds into the world of the living in Octavio Solis’ haunting new theater piece, which mingles text, video and shadow puppetry in a mysterious 80-minute reverie.

Solis, the San Francisco-based playwright who burst onto the scene with the revelatory drama “Santos & Santos” before establishing himself as one of the nation’s most lauded Latino playwrights, has become the bard of the border. From “El Paso Blue” to “Bethlehem,” his plays examine the harsh truths of racism, economics and migration through the misty eyes of magical realism.

In “Ghosts of the River,” one of his most intimate works yet, Solis revisits his childhood fascination for the Rio Grande, the river that runs between Mexico and the United States. This enchanting shadow play, in its world premiere at San Jose’s Teatro Visión in collaboration with San Francisco’s Shadowlight Productions, gets a dreamy production directed by Larry Reed.

Gods and monsters guard the river as generations offer up their lives to its treacherous waters in five small vignettes. Reed, a master of the Balinese shadow puppet form known as wayang kulit, turns these short stories into an epic tale that’s equal parts myth, poetry and documentary.

Some of the stories are rooted in truth, such as the trusting Mexican-American boys bullied by an immigration officer who insists that they prove they have a right to be here. Others, such as the legend of the troll with the samurai sword and fondness for dismembered limbs, are the stuff of twisted fairy tales. Fantasy washes over into reality time and again here.

Solis fuses this hybrid piece with his lively ear for the mash-up of language and culture that suffuses life on the border. The text bounces back and forth from English to Spanish (with translations projected above the stage) as fluidly as the characters reference ancient lore and disposable pop culture.

It seems that Target, Eva Longoria and the Golden Arches loom large in the zeitgeist on both sides of the divide. Certainly, you don’t have to be bilingual to get the joke when one unfortunate fellow gets kicked in the huevos rancheros or the 8-year-old coyote wisecracks that his name is Nacho Business.

While there are moments when the pace seems too leisurely (and the narrative bookends should be tighter), the shadow puppets are nothing less than ingenious. Tiny details, like the mournful bent of an abused woman’s gaze, take on deep significance as our eyes mine these phantoms for every little nuance.

Reed’s alchemy of light and shadow gives these puppets a startlingly human quality. And Solis’ sly storytelling puts a human face on the immigration debate without dreary didacticism. He simply lets the narrative speak for itself. The true story of the little coyote who befriends a border guard has a quiet resonance that sticks with you long after the curtain falls.

If the supernatural interludes lack this visceral edge, there is so much power in the mixture of imagery and music here that the flaws are easily overlooked.

The corrido, for instance, cuts way past the bone. This haunting song (music by Cascada de Flores) traces the journey of a family trudging across the murky green depths of the river. The fearful and the fantastical collide as dreams of a better life sink forever into the mire. It’s an elegy to all the souls lost on the epic voyage to the other side.

Contact Karen D’Souza at 408-271-3772. Check out her theater reviews, features and blog at www.mercurynews.com/karendsouza.

“Ghosts of the River”

By Octavio Solis
The upshot: An enchanting fusion of puppetry and poetry that evokes the haunting legacy of the Rio Grande
Where: Through Oct. 11 at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose; Oct. 28-Nov. 8 at San Francisco”s Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St., San Francisco
Running time: 80 minutes (no intermission)
Tickets: $10-$24; 408-272-9926 or www.teatrovision.org

EXTRA EXTRA -The Pillowman cometh!

Twisted – San Jose Stage delves into the importance of storytelling in Martin McDonagh’s wickedly dark comedy ‘The Pillowman’

By Emily Grube – The Metro

FOR ITS season opener, San Jose Stage Company presents Martin McDonagh’s Tony Award–winning play The Pillowman, a collection of twisted children’s stories. Despite its sinister subject matter, the play is surprisingly hilarious and moving—it tugs at the heart and the gut simultaneously. As the action begins, a writer named Katurian Katurian (Aaron Wilton) is being interrogated by seasoned cops Tupolski (Julian López-Morillas) and Ariel (Randal King) about the brutal and heinous deaths of several children. It seems that his short stories were the inspiration for the sickening murders, and he and his mentally challenged brother, Michal (Justin Karr), are being tortured for information. Throughout the questioning, several eerie tales are resurrected that lead to enlightenment regarding the characters and the vitality of writing.

The production team does a stellar job of immersing the audience in this stiflingly depressing world. The set is minimalistic, with only a few objects in the room. This allows the audience to envision the opening stories without being overwhelmed by distractions. Once our imagination is exercised and prepared, the scrim is lit from behind to reveal re-enactments of Katurian’s other tales that were always there, hiding in the dark. Behind the see-through curtain, the setting is full of small details, gorgeously colored mosaics and faces to go with the victims. The mood of dread is also enhanced by the lighting. The floor is bathed in green and blue lights that are interrupted by branches, evoking the feeling of being lost in a terrifying forest with some predator catching a hold of one’s scent.

It is easy to get lost in these seamlessly woven and grim tales, thanks to Wilton’s precise narration. His voice leads us, with every inflection and pause, back to our childhood when we felt that reading a story before bed was just as important as eating and breathing. It was our job to listen and imagine, and with Wilton’s portrayal, it is our job again. Both López-Morillas and King offer delicious performances. Every mannerism, every delivery is completely owned and understood by these true professionals. Another portrayal that was impressive was that of Katurian’s brother. In his Stage debut, Justin Karr is able to breathe humanity into this complex character by implementing endearing gestures and a childlike understanding of the situation. The cast balances horror and humor flawlessly. This daring play is inexplicably able to have audiences laughing uproariously one moment and sitting in stunned silence the next. This production is a gift, wrapped in the darkest of paper, and it is everything you want but were too scared to ask for.

THE PILLOWMAN, a San Jose Stage Company production, plays Wednesday–Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday–Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm through Oct. 18 at The Stage, 490 S. First St, San Jose. Tickets are $20–$45. (408.283.7142)

Princess’ Pick – Olive You!

This Sunday you can enjoy a day of fine festival fare AND help build up much needed college scholarship funds at the 12th Annual Arts & Olive Festival. Now it just so happens I am not a fan of olives. Olive oil, yes, but actual olives, I can pass on. No really, you go right ahead. Olive bread, honestly not interested, but there are lots more than olives to this fesitval, LOTS!  The Arts & Olive Festival at Cañada College began in 1998 as part of Cañada’s 30 year anniversary celebration to benefit student scholarships. The festival has since grown to be one of the largest scholarship fundraisers of the year. More than 70 vendors come together for this annual event including some of the olive industry’s top experts to provide the community with olive education, olive and olive oil tasting, olive related products, and an abundance of quality art works and gifts.

What’s more, this year’s festival will also serve as a kick-off to the Cañada College Performing Arts Series, sponsored by the Associated Students of Cañada College, bringing some of the Bay Area’s most spectacular performers to the Peninsula.

You might ask why Olives? Indeed, Cañada College has had a special relationship with olives since its inception. When the college was built in the late sixties, the olive trees were carefully removed during construction and planted in a temporary location under the protective custody of the San Mateo Community College District’s Buildings & Grounds experts. The olive trees were replanted in time for the college’s official opening in 1968. Thirty-five years later, the trees are thriving and are an integral part of the campus. The graceful leathery olive trees bearing gray-green leaves haven’t changed much in thirty-five years.

This event has all the making of a great day with art, food, and that warm fuzzy that comes from helping to further the education of local students. It’s a lovely way to BRANCH out and to give back while soaking up those last few rays of sun before Autumn truely consumes us.

EXTRA EXTRA – Breaking up, hard to do…

Strong songs, but short on spark – While ‘Pete ‘n’ Keely’ captures that great variety-show sound, the repartee needs a kick
by Chad Jones – Palo Alto Weekly

Oh, to bring back the super-cheesy days of the television variety show. In the 1950s, Milton Berle, Jack Paar and the like filled the airwaves with sketch comedy and snazzy musical numbers. In the ’60s, the British invasion threatened to bring some class and some genuine rock to variety shows, but thankfully, that never really happened. Cheese reigned supreme.

By the 1970s, when Sonny and Cher bickered and Donny and Marie ice skated, the format wobbled, and it took the combined cheeseballishness of Tony Orlando and Dawn and the Mandrell Sisters to put the variety show out of its misery. And we won’t even discuss “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.” Too painful.

Those of us who grew up loving variety shows in all their hard-working absurdity have a soft spot for a show like “Pete ‘n’ Keely,” the Palo Alto Players’ ode to yesteryear now at the Lucie Stern Theatre.

An off-Broadway hit in 2000, the musical revue by James Hindman — which combines original songs by Patrick Brady (music) and Mark Waldrop (lyrics) with great American standards — purports to take place in 1968. We’re in the NBC television studio audience for the taping of a variety show starring America’s former singing sweethearts, Pete Bartel and Keely Stevens.

Now divorced, Pete ‘n’ Keely haven’t spoken in five years, not since their final Vegas appearance at Caesar’s Palace. In an attempt to grab ratings, sponsor Swell shampoo has engineered a reunion full of bad jokes, goofy medleys and buckets of show-biz bitterness.

Anyone worth their variety show salt will pick up immediately on the fact that Pete ‘n’ Keely are inspired by the world’s greatest singing married couple (no, not Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love): the one and only Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme.

Steve and Eydie fell in love on a variety show — Steve Allen’s “The Tonight Show” — and spent most of the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s as guest stars on every imaginable variety show, though they were both intermittently brilliant on one of the all-time great variety shows, “The Carol Burnett Show.”

For the record, Steve and Eydie are still married — they celebrate their 52nd wedding anniversary this December — and though Eydie has hung up her concert hat, Steve is still touring.

One day somebody will pay proper tribute to Mr. Lawrence and Ms. Gorme with a full-blown musical biography incorporating their best songs. Until then, we have “Pete ‘n’ Keely,” a cheerful facsimile of their career that imagines what might happen if, like Sonny and Cher, the singing duo had broken up in the limelight, faded from the scene and attempted to reemerge as a still-warbling duo.

Just so there’s no doubt that Pete and Keely are stand-ins for Steve and Eydie, the show’s first number, a chipper ditty called “It’s Us Again” makes direct reference to “This Could Be the Start of Something Big,” a hit for Steve and Eydie, which is actually performed in a more expanded version later in the show.

The problem is that neither Pete nor Keely is as charming or as talented as Steve or Eydie. Their cartoonish bickering grows tiresome, and they don’t have that old-time show-business gusto that fueled all the great stars of variety television who seemed able to do it all: physical shtick, character comedy and complicated musical numbers.

Kate McCormick as Keely and Justin Taylor Nixon as Pete are both appealing, and both have beautiful voices. It’s just that they both seem to be musical-comedy performers and not crooners of a 1950s and ’60s vintage. On stage, they read young, unlike Steve and Eydie who seemed perpetually in their 50s even in their 30s and 60s, and who could sell any song with more ballsy brio than all the members of the Rat Pack combined.

Director John Kirman emphasizes sincerity over cheesy campiness, which really works only in the heartfelt ballads (“Still” and “Wasn’t It Fine”). The so-called zingers that the former husband and wife throw at each other lack zing, and the strained comic atmosphere on stage is not helped by the performers accentuating each uncomfortable line with a forced chuckle.

The repartee may be awkward, but the music helps keep the show percolating through much of its nearly two-hour run. Act 1 ends with a monster cross-country medley incorporating just about any song you can think involving a state or a city name. Though one must quibble with a medley supposedly from a 1961 concert tour that includes the song “Seattle,” a theme song from a TV show that wouldn’t appear for another seven years.

In Act 2, Pete and Keely get a couple of nice solos: She tackles “Black Coffee” and he works up a “Fever.” The only sparks that flew during a recent matinee came in a nearly ferocious “Love,” and the show-ending “That’s All” had the kind of laidback spark that would have been helpful through much of the preceding show.

The onstage quintet — headed by musical director David Manley at the piano — captured that great variety-show sound, especially when the horns (played by Mike Parykaza on trumpet and Hermann Lara on saxophone, flute and clarinet) kicked in and blared.

“Pete ‘n’ Keely,” for all its flaws, is a nice nod in the Steve and Eydie direction, but let’s hold out for that official Lawrence-Gorme musical bio. Now that could really be the start of something big.

EXTRA EXTRA – Order in the Court!

The trial of ‘Judas Iscariot’
By Colin Seymour – for the Mercury News

At the core of “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” is a straightforward debate: Should the villain who sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver be damned to hell forever? In the roundabout form of a courtroom trial, this debate lasts the better part of three hours at City Lights Theater Company, but, heck, Judas has been twisting for two millennia.

He gets a fair trial, though it resembles a kangaroo court. Steven Adly Guirgis’ theologically bent 2005 quasi-comedy blends and updates the histrionics of the Scopes “Monkey Trial” with the absurdity of the Marx Brothers to make a potentially boring premise fascinating and relevant, not to mention theatrical.

The heavy theology benefits from the usual City Lightness, as director Kit Wilder milks every nuance to keep the play from talking itself to death.

Guirgis has certainly provided a lot to work with, including entertaining ideas, and dialogue both urbane and profane. There’s also an entertaining lineup of characters, starring a sweaty, fidgety prosecutor (John Romano) who flirts most unattractively with the exotic young defense attorney (Alika Ululani Spencer), Judas’ mother (Vera Sloan) and even the star witness, Mother Teresa (Patricia Tyler). Mother Teresa is in good (and bad) company. Pontius Pilate (Jake Vincent) is a macho wise guy who invokes the Fifth Amendment repeatedly. Satan (blond hunk Jeff Clarke) initially seems to be a sweetheart from Sigma Chi. And Sigmund Freud (John Baldwin)? Well, sometimes a witness is just a witness.

Guirgis’ staging concept, abetted here by scenic designer Ron Gasparinetti, is equally imaginative. Judas (Isaac Benelli, coming off his recent performance in the title role of “The Who’s Tommy”) is penitent or catatonic (you decide) during not only most of the play but also the preceding half-hour as audience members trickle to their seats.

Judas sits motionless behind Plexiglas, underneath a platform that looks like a gallows. His neckwear looks like a noose. Atop the platform, where the judge ultimately sits, are a chair and a table that supports a glass, a bottle of liquor and, on a lower shelf, a folded Confederate flag.

Judge Littlefield, we soon learn, hanged himself near a Georgia battlefield in 1864 and ever since has been presiding over this courtroom in a corner of highly urban purgatory called Hope. Towering Bill Davidovich plays Littlefield with a stentorian drawl, but he also plays Caiaphas the Elder as a Manhattan banker type. At one point he poses a brief but priceless discussion between the two characters.

This is a larger-than-normal cast for City Lights, providing good supporting roles for Jake Van Tuyl as the young bailiff, Lonnique Genelle as a sassy St. Monica, Angel Ordaz as St. Peter and a brilliantly understated Ken Boswell as the jury foreman, among others.

The two attorneys carry most of the exposition. Spencer, the sort of young professional you might see on “Boston Legal,” has the more thankless task. She leaves the scenery chewing to Romano, who sports a red fez and a Middle East accent as he channels W.C. Fields, Oliver Hardy, Pat Buttram and perhaps Wimpy, somehow without overdoing it.

Jesus is present, of course, with Robert Campbell projecting benevolence. Judas continues to question Jesus’ constancy in a climactic scene, but Jesus says, “I’m not above it all. I’m right here in it.”

Couple that with a revelatory line from Freud — “Any God who punishes the mentally ill is not worth worshiping” — and you’ve got a succinct summary of Guirgis’ message.

The play is not that succinct. It could stand to be about 20 minutes and 20 F-bombs shorter, and a few audience catnaps may be inevitable. But it’s a lot more fun than we have any right to expect from Judas.

Princess’ Pick – Packed with Alpaca

 

Los Gatos has a hidden treasure, but not so hidden for long thanks to National Alpaca Farm Day and Artsopolis. The Ocean View Ranch (note this is NOT where the above video was shot) is hosting their Alpaca Open House tihs weekend! What you might ask does that have to do with the arts!? Oh don’t get me started! TOO LATE! If the blankets, scarves, and sweaters woven from the alpaca fur isn’t enough, there are a variety of other fiber art items that will be for sale in the shop. Don’t miss the yarn spinning demo and knitting lessons too. Have some refreshments, let the kids do some coloring in their Alpaca coloring books, get some fresh air and enjoy a day of alpacamania.  In addition to alpacas, the ranch also breeds and raises Great Pyrenees dogs and Basset Hounds, and it just so happens they have a 4 week old litter that you can play with. Sounds like a pretty outstanding way to spend  the weekend to me! And THAT’S, the pick!

EXTRA EXTRA – Itching to see some theatre?!

Under the Skin – In a cheap motel, anything is possible for RTE’s ‘Bug’

By Emily Grube – The Metro

RENEGADE Theatre Experiment’s first play of the season leaves the audience with questions burrowing under their skin. Tracy Letts, the Pulitzer Prize– and Tony Award–winning playwright of Bug, creates a situation crawling with uncertainty: Are the two main characters infested with bugs, or is it just a delusion? Director Susannah Greenwood transports us to a squalid motel room where no one can be trusted. Over time, as the plague of bugs, or insanity, contaminates the residents, we realize how inviting and beautiful the room used to be before the nesting.

Immediately, when we see Agnes White (Jennifer Jane Parsons) sprawled on an unmade bed, with a crack pipe and a visible bra, we know her. She is the woman on Cops who is nearly impossible to sympathize with. Parsons expertly humanizes this stereotype by allowing glimpses of hope and genuine happiness to shine through. When Peter Evans (John Vicino) appears, he is not your typical, twitching psychopath. His astute demeanor and sinuous movements make the audience feel as if he is able to hear colors. Because of Vicino’s relatable rage, we wonder if he is a paranoid schizophrenic, a sane man who the government actually experimented on or an insane man because of the government experiments, throughout the entire production.

The other characters attempt to talk the couple out of their buggy beliefs. Sean C. Murphy plays Agnes’ abusive ex-husband Jerry Goss, whose violent outbursts and patronizing tones make you wish that he were the one being hollowed out by bugs. Darcie Lee Grover’s portrayal of the masculine lesbian R.C. is animated; however, it seems uneven considering she never uses her physical power to protect her friend Agnes from either man. Finally, Ambera DeLash’s Dr. Sweet seems to be more delusion than reality as she fearfully scans the room for snakes and unprofessionally takes a hit from Agnes’ pipe.

The special effects were impressive, especially when it came to blood—spat out from a wrenched tooth or gushing from a neck—and sound. At times, the pervasive hum of electricity would cut out, leaving a heavy silence. The eeriest part was that I hadn’t noticed that the sound was there to begin with until it was gone. It made me wonder: What else was I not noticing? Bug is a psychological thriller that will have you picking your brain long after you leave the theater. Let’s hope you don’t find a bug in there.

BUG, a Renegade Theatre Experiment production, plays Thursday–Saturday at 8pm through Sept. 26 at the Historic Hoover Theater, 1635 Park Ave., San Jose. Tickets are $15–$21. (408.351.4440)

EXTRA EXTRA – TRIAL AND NO ERRORS

Betrayal – City Lights asks what the true meaning of loyalty is in ‘The Last Days of Judas Iscariot’

By Jessica Fromm – the Metro

IN THE REALM between heaven and hell, the world’s biggest sinner is up for trial. Everybody from a dirty-mouthed St. Monica to Sigmund Freud and Mother Teresa are called on to bear witness to the innocence or guilt of Jesus’ infamous betrayer in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, now running at City Lights. This provocative, uncompromising production holds nothing sacred as it delves with uproarious dark humor into the hard questions about good and evil, to largely enjoyable results. In the a modern, urban purgatory court of law presided over by Judge Littlefield (Bill Davidovich), a catatonic Judas Iscariot (Isaac Benelli) sits motionless in a glass box while two lawyers fight for his place in the afterlife, whether it is forgiveness or eternal damnation. Though the main momentum of this play lies in the courtroom drama, it eventually comes to light that what is really on trial here is not the man but the question of what is real loyalty and real betrayal in every soul.

The black, two-level set is basic but effective, with music and sound effects used minimally by director Kit Wilder. The main action takes place on a moodily lit circular courtroom in front of the elevated, shamelessly biased Civil War–era judge, who sits on a bourbon-soaked perch. The highlight of this witty, strongly written play is the comic delivery of John Romano as the perspiring, hairpin-erection-bearing prosecution attorney Yusef El-Fayoumy. Meandering around onstage while pandering to various saints and frequently covering his crotch with his red tasseled fez, his greasy, awkwardly comic demeanor truly carries this production. Though she had the assets to play Judas’ buxom, cleavage-bearing defense lawyer Fabiana Aziza Cunningham, Alika Ululani Spencer never quite hits the same stride with her character. Spencer fumbled through her line delivery several times, muddling up what should have been impassioned pleading for her client’s soul, making her speeches seem practiced and lacking the same impact as much of the other cast.

Trash-talking, streetwise St. Monica (played by amusing newcomer Lonnique Genelle) saunters into the proceedings sporadically to keep things real, while a Gucci-suit-clad Satan (Jeff Clarke) appears at various points to stir things up as an alternatively charming, then hostile witness. Jesus of Nazareth’s (Robert Campbell) role serves as more of a mood device, much talked about by the other characters but never really delivering any lines until the play’s disappointing, anticlimactic finale. Though the beginning and ending scenes are the production’s weakest points, when The Last Days of Judas Iscariot successfully hit its stride toward the production’s middle, it challenges the audience’s perceptions about holy judgment and personal redemption with injections of contemporary wit and hilarity.

Commission This – Duct ‘N Cover!

In packaging up some presents to send to my sisters and friends last night, I had my own battle with the packing tape and thought there must be an art project in this. A quick search on the internet (thank you Al Gore =]) came up with some amazing, and I mean check this photo out AMAZING, fashion created from DUCT TAPE.  I remember failing at even cutting in a straight line in 7th grade sewing class, but these teens have turned out ridiculously rad clothes and in the process no doubt upped their popularity at school and earned a $3,000 scholarship to boot. Brilliant!

So yes, while not an entirely original idea, your  COMMISSION THIS challenge is to get out your leathermans and your rolls of tape (be it duct, scotch, or masking) and create a coveted original prom dress or hell, why not swim suit, appliance or a car for that matter! Halloween is just around the corner, the possibilities are endless!

Happy taping!