#thornton wilder thursday

[lenbryant]

(Long post-NYT) Review: An ‘Our Town’ for All of Us, Starring Jim Parsons

The Thornton Wilder classic returns to Broadway, still brutal and avant-garde after 86 years.

Jim Parsons as the Stage Manager in the Broadway revival of “Our Town,” at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in Manhattan.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesOur TownNYT Critic’s Pick

The first act of “Our Town” takes place in Grover’s Corners on May 7, 1901. Nothing much happens in the fictional New Hampshire village that day, except that two local teenagers, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, fall in love completely unaware that they do so under the shadow of the granitic pillars of time.

But we are aware. Even in an act entitled Daily Life, the playwright, Thornton Wilder, quietly batters us with the news that we are mortal. Immediately upon introducing George’s parents, he has his mouthpiece, the Stage Manager, convey as if it were part of their names a detail of their deaths: Doc Gibbs’s in 1930, his wife’s on a visit to Canton, Ohio. He blithely jumbles together, like their bones, the joining and splintering of human lives. “Most everybody in the world climbs into their graves married,” he comments without comment.

So if you think of the play as small, sweet or old-fashioned, and Grover’s Corners as a twin town to Bedford Falls or Hooterville, I respectfully offer that you have the soul of a rock. In any good enough production, “Our Town” is titanic: beyond time and brutal.

The revival that opened Thursday at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, the fifth on Broadway since the play’s 1938 debut, is more than good enough. To use this word in the only positive sense I can imagine, it’s unbearable: in its beauty, yes, but more so in its refusal to offer beauty as a cure when it is only, at best, a comfort.

That effect is achieved by writing that is ingeniously mitered, doweled and sanded until it seems as plain as old furniture. Briskly, almost cursorily, we are shown the two main families and told the work they do: Doc Gibbs (Billy Eugene Jones) is the local physician, Mr. Webb (Richard Thomas) the editor of the Sentinel. The lack of outside opportunity for their harried, homemaking wives — Michelle Wilson as Mrs. Gibbs, Katie Holmes as Mrs. Webb — is summed up in a typically pithy, bone-dry quip: “All males vote at the age of twenty-one. Women vote indirect.”

The exposition, of which there’s a lot in the first act, from the prehistoric to the 5:45 train, is always doing double duty fast. When the Stage Manager hurries a geologist offstage once he starts talking about the region’s “unique fossils,” we get the joke about blathering academics but are also left with the suspicion that he’s referring to us.

In Act II, set three years later, every potentially heartwarming premise — the act is called Love and Marriage — is dowsed with the cold water of cynicism. The wedding of George (Ephraim Sykes) and Emily (Zoey Deutch) counterposes the groom’s conventional nervousness, the bride’s existential panic, the ecstatic dithering of the besotted Mrs. Soames (Julie Halston, hilarious) and Mrs. Gibbs’s judgment of the whole ritual as a “perfectly awful” farce. Huge as all these sentiments feel to the characters, the play’s structure objectifies them and, in so doing, makes them small. You are left to sort out the scale in your seats.

Those seats don’t feel so far away; the production, despite its Broadway proportions, does much to shorten the distance. Beowulf Boritt’s set, as Wilder requires, is minimal — mostly weather-beaten siding — but also features a nebula of lanterns that extends into the orchestra. (The spectral lighting is by Allen Lee Hughes.) Also connecting you to the action is a wafting scent-scape matched to the action: heliotrope in Act I for the flowers the women grow, vanilla in Act II for sweetness and bacon in Act III for the longings of memory. (The bacon is a nod to David Cromer’s powerful 2009 Off Broadway production.) Up to 30 audience members are seated onstage, blending playgoers into the community.

Leon suggests that less literally too: The Gibbses are Black, the Webbs are white, the townspeople both and neither and more. Dede Ayite’s costumes freely mix formal period styles with contemporary casuals. (At one point, George wears a tank top.) The first thing you hear, in a prelude, is the Hebrew word “Shema,” part of an interfaith medley of Jewish, Muslim and Christian prayer. And with music that also includes BeBe and CeCe Winans singing “Lost Without You” for the wedding — the sound is by Justin Ellington — the production reaches forward in time and taste as well.

These might feel like anachronistic intrusions in a play bound tighter to its own age. In this timeless one, though, they feel like a mission statement: The “our” in the title means everyone.

That’s completely congruent with Wilder, as Act III, nine years further along, brings home. Boritt’s set undergoes a simple yet breathtaking transformation to deliver us to the cemetery we’ve heard much about, but now some of the characters from the earlier acts are in it. They do not seem unhappy or uncomfortable as they dully chat about the weather, trying not to think too hard about the living.

If only the living could return the favor! But this is where the play goes for your guts. The philosophical extremity to which Wilder has been leading now emerges in a scene of Shakespearean imagination, hubris and regret. His thought experiment is this: What would happen if one of the dead, ignoring the advice of her cohort, sought to return for one day to life? The answer is that she could not endure it. And neither could we.

I would tell you more about what was happening onstage but by that point I could no longer see it. Perhaps if you have lost a loved one, or feared losing yourself, you will feel the same way.

In other words, you will feel the same way.

The effect is almost geological: Push down long and hard enough here, watch an explosion happen there. It depends on the deep repression of emotion that deeply emotional people must master to survive — something that Wilder, a closeted homosexual, knew in his bones. Parsons seems to as well. With his light touch and cynical sang-froid, and the comic timing he has honed for years on television, he makes an ideally shrewd and withholding Stage Manager, placing you just where he wants you during the banter to achieve the greatest vulnerability to the blows.

Ultimately, that’s the trap of “Our Town.” Whether you are an Emily — apple-cheeked and wild-souled in Deutch’s gripping performance — or a cheerful George, a dizzy Mrs. Soames or the dour, alcoholic choirmaster nailed by Donald Webber Jr., you sooner or later wind up at Act III. If you are lucky, you will have valued “above all price” (as Wilder says in the play’s preface) “the smallest events” of daily life so that you will not feel cheated when forced to give them away. In that sense, “Our Town,” a unique fossil itself, is just another small event. But it’s one of the biggest smallest events the theater has produced.

Our Town Through Jan. 19 at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, Manhattan; ourtownbroadway.com. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.

Jesse Green is the chief theater critic for The Times. He writes reviews of Broadway, Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, regional and sometimes international productions. More about Jesse Green

[grapesodadarkchocolate]

September 14, 2023

“Good-bye to clocks ticking. And Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths. And sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you.”  — excerpt from Emily Webb’s monologue in Our Town by Thornton Wilder, 1938

Dearest Richard,

Wishing you a dazzling good morning from my corner of the world. Biked Lake Harriet this morning twice because it is a Thursday. Tuesday and Thursday are typically my twice around the track days at Harriet. I know it is a small detail. Shining out so everyday like that it might be overlooked, but I might guess that is what you would have missed the most after you passed. The simple routines that would mark off a typical Thursday in September. 

There were so many of those Thursdays that didn’t get to transpire for you. You died way too young. Just twenty four—“B-24, Forever”-that is so hard to grasp. I know when I wrote your story, Ben, my son, your great nephew, had recently passed that mark. So as your story spilled out for others to see and respond to, the reality of how young you were hit me in a new place of understanding. Striking me below the belt or was it more about going deeper within my heart? I can’t imagine being your dad, my grandpa. His wife, your mom, passing in 1937. Doing more of the math—some six, seven years later you pass and just before Christmas. But your family didn’t know that yet. The telegram alerting them of your crash came on January 12th, 1944, after all the presents would have been opened and the un-trimming of the tree would have transpired. Placing the bare evergreen out back by the trash. A lonely place for a tree, I think. After all the hopefulness it offered just the week before. 

That Christmas must have been bittersweet for so many families. The tug and pull that war time demands of everyone. It is there always looking over shoulders or shadowing our steps while we walk in the dark. It is so much easier to speak to what should have happened in reflection. But in the everyday moments where getting the groceries and taking the streetcar to your university classes might have seemed less important somehow. Or at least tainted with a smidge of something that couldn’t rightly be identified. I am just guessing here, but I would presume my mom thought of you ALL—THE—TIME. You were everywhere and yet not. How utterly confusing and comforting that might have been. Such a see-saw mix of emotions.

Thinking about you in the simplest of my everyday moments.

Love You for always, 

Your Niece

[brookston]

Holidays 7.20

Holidays

The Binding of the Wreaths (Lithuania)

Cleat Dancing Day

Common Mullein Day (French Republic)

Deepfake Awareness Day

Dia del Amigo (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay)

Engineer’s Day (Costa Rica)

Falun Gong Persecution Anniversary Day (China)

Frantz Fanon Day

Friend's Day (a.k.a. Dia del Amigo; Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay)

International Ambigram Day

International Chess Day

International Ride MTB Day

July Plot Anniversary Day

Liam Payne Appreciation Day

Lempira Day (Honduras)

Mammal Day

Man on the Moon Day (a.k.a. Moon Day)

Nap Day

National Biplane Day

National Dental BIller’s Day

National Heroes Day

National Megan Day

National Moon Day

National Natalie Day

National Pennsylvania Day

National POW-MIA Recognition Day

National Secretary Day (Mexico)

National Tell A Girl She's Beautiful Day

Peace and Freedom Day (North Cyprus)

Space Exploration Day

Special Olympics Day

Sumarauki (Iceland)

Sun’s Rest Festival (Elder Scrolls)

Tree Planting Day (Central African Republic)

Ugly Truck Day

Vigil for Peace, Justice and Respect for Human Rights (Colombia)

Women’s Union Day (Laos)

World Jump Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Fortune Cookie Day

International Cake Day

National Ice Cream Soda Day

National Lasagne Day

National Lollipop Day

National Milkshake Day (Australia)

National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day

3rd Thursday in July

Get To Know Your Customers Day [3rd Thursday of each Quarter]

Latitude Festival (Suffolk, UK) [3rd Thursday thru Sunday]

Independence Days

British Columbia Province Day (Canada; 1871)

Colombia (from Spain, 1810)

Libernesia (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

Republic of Plymouth (Declared; 2015) [unrecognized]

Samana Cay (Declared; 2008) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Ansegisus (Christian; Saint)

Apollinaris of Ravenna (Christian; Saint)

Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage (Christian; Saint)

Barsabas (Christian; Saint)

Ceslas (Christian; Saint)

Ealhswith (a.k.a. Elswith; Christian; Saint)

Editha (Christian; Saint)

Elias (Christian; Prophet)

Elijah (Christian; Saint)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman (Episcopal Church (USA))

Feralia: Day of Purification(Pagan)

Greater Bajram (Feast of Sacrifice; Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Interstellar Lasagne Day Day (Pastafarian)

Jerom Aemiliani (Christian; Saint)

John Baptist Yi (Christian; One of The Korean Martyrs)

Justa and Rufina (Christian; Martyrs)

La Fontain (Positivist; Saint)

Larry the Fish (Muppetism)

Margaret the Virgin (a.k.a. Margaret of Antioch; Christian; Saint)

Max Liebermann (Artology)

Perun’s Day (Asatru/Slavic Pagan God of Thunder)

Pope John XII Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Synoika (Ancient Greece)

Thorlac (Christian; Relic Translation)

Turkish Invasion Day (Cyprus)

Uncumber (Christian; Saint)

Ulmer (a.k.a. Wulmar; Christian; Saint)

Wilgefortis (cult suppressed)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

Batman: Hush (WB Animated Film; 2019)

Breaking Away (Film; 1979)

The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder (Novel; 1927)

Buddy Steps Out (WB LT Cartoon; 1935)

Christmas in Connecticut (Film; 1945)

The Dark Knight Rises (Film; 2012)

Do You Believe in Magic?, by The Lovin’ Spoonful (Song; 1965)

Ghost World (Film; 2001)

Hairspray (Film; 2007)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Film; 2001)

Like a Rolling Stone, by Bob Dylan (Song; 1965)

Lucky Number (Disney Cartoon; 1951)

Mama Mia!: Here We Go Again (Film; 2018)

The NeverEnding Story (Film; 1984)

Revenge of the Nerds (Film; 1984)

Sid and Nancy (Film; 1986)

Spirited Away (Studio Ghibli Animated Film; 2001)

Stop the World — I Want To Get Off (Musical Play; 1961)

Tabasco Road (WB LT Cartoon; 1957)

Train to Busan (Film; 2016)

The Wind Rises (Studio Ghibli Animated Film; 2013)

Today’s Name Days

Apollinaris, Bernhard, Margareta (Austria)

Ilina, Iliya, Iliyana, Ilko (Bulgaria)

Apolinar, Bernard, Ilija, Margareta, Marina (Croatia)

Ilja (Czech Republic)

Elias (Denmark)

Elias, Erland, Liias (Estonia)

Maaret, Maarit, Margareeta, Marketta, Reeta, Reetta (Finland)

Élie, Marina (France)

Elias, Greta, Margarete (Germany)

Elias, Ilias (Greece)

Illés (Hungary)

Elia, Simmaco (Italy)

Namejs, Ramona, Ritma (Latvia)

Alvydas, Česlovas, Jeronimas, Vismantė (Lithuania)

Margareta, Margit, Marit (Norway)

Czech, Czechasz, Czechoń, Czesław, Eliasz, Heliasz, Hieronim, Leon, Małgorzata, Paweł, Sewera (Poland)

Ilie (Romania)

Eliáš, Iľja (Slovakia)

Apolinar, Aurelio, Elías (Spain)

Greta, Margareta (Sweden)

Elio, Eliot, Eliott, Elliot, Elliott, Marine (Universal)

Edna, Edwin, Edwina, Elias, Elijah, Ellice, Elliot, Elliott, Ellis, Ellison, Neal, Neala, Neil, Neila, Nelson, Niall, Nigel, Niles (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 201 of 2024; 164 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 29 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 11 of 28]

Chinese: Month 6 (Ji-Wei), Day 3 (Ji-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 2 Av 5783

Islamic: 2 Muharram 1445

J Cal: 21 Lux; Sevenday [21 of 30]

Julian: 7 July 2023

Moon: 8%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 5 Dante (8th Month) [La Fontain]

Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 7 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 30 of 94)

Zodiac: Cancer (Day 30 of 31)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 7.20

Holidays

The Binding of the Wreaths (Lithuania)

Cleat Dancing Day

Common Mullein Day (French Republic)

Deepfake Awareness Day

Dia del Amigo (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay)

Engineer’s Day (Costa Rica)

Falun Gong Persecution Anniversary Day (China)

Frantz Fanon Day

Friend's Day (a.k.a. Dia del Amigo; Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay)

International Ambigram Day

International Chess Day

International Ride MTB Day

July Plot Anniversary Day

Liam Payne Appreciation Day

Lempira Day (Honduras)

Mammal Day

Man on the Moon Day (a.k.a. Moon Day)

Nap Day

National Biplane Day

National Dental BIller’s Day

National Heroes Day

National Megan Day

National Moon Day

National Natalie Day

National Pennsylvania Day

National POW-MIA Recognition Day

National Secretary Day (Mexico)

National Tell A Girl She's Beautiful Day

Peace and Freedom Day (North Cyprus)

Space Exploration Day

Special Olympics Day

Sumarauki (Iceland)

Sun’s Rest Festival (Elder Scrolls)

Tree Planting Day (Central African Republic)

Ugly Truck Day

Vigil for Peace, Justice and Respect for Human Rights (Colombia)

Women’s Union Day (Laos)

World Jump Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

Fortune Cookie Day

International Cake Day

National Ice Cream Soda Day

National Lasagne Day

National Lollipop Day

National Milkshake Day (Australia)

National Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day

3rd Thursday in July

Get To Know Your Customers Day [3rd Thursday of each Quarter]

Latitude Festival (Suffolk, UK) [3rd Thursday thru Sunday]

Independence Days

British Columbia Province Day (Canada; 1871)

Colombia (from Spain, 1810)

Libernesia (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

Republic of Plymouth (Declared; 2015) [unrecognized]

Samana Cay (Declared; 2008) [unrecognized]

Feast Days

Ansegisus (Christian; Saint)

Apollinaris of Ravenna (Christian; Saint)

Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage (Christian; Saint)

Barsabas (Christian; Saint)

Ceslas (Christian; Saint)

Ealhswith (a.k.a. Elswith; Christian; Saint)

Editha (Christian; Saint)

Elias (Christian; Prophet)

Elijah (Christian; Saint)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman (Episcopal Church (USA))

Feralia: Day of Purification(Pagan)

Greater Bajram (Feast of Sacrifice; Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Interstellar Lasagne Day Day (Pastafarian)

Jerom Aemiliani (Christian; Saint)

John Baptist Yi (Christian; One of The Korean Martyrs)

Justa and Rufina (Christian; Martyrs)

La Fontain (Positivist; Saint)

Larry the Fish (Muppetism)

Margaret the Virgin (a.k.a. Margaret of Antioch; Christian; Saint)

Max Liebermann (Artology)

Perun’s Day (Asatru/Slavic Pagan God of Thunder)

Pope John XII Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Synoika (Ancient Greece)

Thorlac (Christian; Relic Translation)

Turkish Invasion Day (Cyprus)

Uncumber (Christian; Saint)

Ulmer (a.k.a. Wulmar; Christian; Saint)

Wilgefortis (cult suppressed)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Premieres

Batman: Hush (WB Animated Film; 2019)

Breaking Away (Film; 1979)

The Bridge of San Luis Rey, by Thornton Wilder (Novel; 1927)

Buddy Steps Out (WB LT Cartoon; 1935)

Christmas in Connecticut (Film; 1945)

The Dark Knight Rises (Film; 2012)

Do You Believe in Magic?, by The Lovin’ Spoonful (Song; 1965)

Ghost World (Film; 2001)

Hairspray (Film; 2007)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Film; 2001)

Like a Rolling Stone, by Bob Dylan (Song; 1965)

Lucky Number (Disney Cartoon; 1951)

Mama Mia!: Here We Go Again (Film; 2018)

The NeverEnding Story (Film; 1984)

Revenge of the Nerds (Film; 1984)

Sid and Nancy (Film; 1986)

Spirited Away (Studio Ghibli Animated Film; 2001)

Stop the World — I Want To Get Off (Musical Play; 1961)

Tabasco Road (WB LT Cartoon; 1957)

Train to Busan (Film; 2016)

The Wind Rises (Studio Ghibli Animated Film; 2013)

Today’s Name Days

Apollinaris, Bernhard, Margareta (Austria)

Ilina, Iliya, Iliyana, Ilko (Bulgaria)

Apolinar, Bernard, Ilija, Margareta, Marina (Croatia)

Ilja (Czech Republic)

Elias (Denmark)

Elias, Erland, Liias (Estonia)

Maaret, Maarit, Margareeta, Marketta, Reeta, Reetta (Finland)

Élie, Marina (France)

Elias, Greta, Margarete (Germany)

Elias, Ilias (Greece)

Illés (Hungary)

Elia, Simmaco (Italy)

Namejs, Ramona, Ritma (Latvia)

Alvydas, Česlovas, Jeronimas, Vismantė (Lithuania)

Margareta, Margit, Marit (Norway)

Czech, Czechasz, Czechoń, Czesław, Eliasz, Heliasz, Hieronim, Leon, Małgorzata, Paweł, Sewera (Poland)

Ilie (Romania)

Eliáš, Iľja (Slovakia)

Apolinar, Aurelio, Elías (Spain)

Greta, Margareta (Sweden)

Elio, Eliot, Eliott, Elliot, Elliott, Marine (Universal)

Edna, Edwin, Edwina, Elias, Elijah, Ellice, Elliot, Elliott, Ellis, Ellison, Neal, Neala, Neil, Neila, Nelson, Niall, Nigel, Niles (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 201 of 2024; 164 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of week 29 of 2023

Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 11 of 28]

Chinese: Month 6 (Ji-Wei), Day 3 (Ji-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Rabbit 4721 (until February 10, 2024)

Hebrew: 2 Av 5783

Islamic: 2 Muharram 1445

J Cal: 21 Lux; Sevenday [21 of 30]

Julian: 7 July 2023

Moon: 8%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 5 Dante (8th Month) [La Fontain]

Runic Half Month: Ur (Primal Strength) [Day 7 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 30 of 94)

Zodiac: Cancer (Day 30 of 31)

[otc-dramaturgy]

Thornton Wilder Thursday

Toto, I don’t think we’re on Tuesday anymore...

That’s right, folks! Thornton Wilder Tuesday moved to Thursday and everything is chaos. So. We’ll be talking today about derivative works, based on Our Town.

Our Town is a quintessential story about an American small town in the early twentieth century, so it’s no wonder that it’s been adapted, modified, and derived from many times. Changes to the text in performance are not allowed, of course, because playwrights have rights, but the creation of a work inspired by the piece is totally legal. So today, we’re highlighting two derivatives.

Middletown by Will Eno - This play was actually my first exposure to Our Town. My junior year of high school, I went to New York on a school trip to see some plays (I think that year we saw Memphis and Next to Normal but I might be wrong, it’s been a while). While there, we stopped at The Drama Book Shop (which is possibly the most important place ever) and, while I was perusing the shelves, I came across Middletown. Middletown was the school I went to, so I decided to buy it. I had not yet, at this point, read Our Town, so I didn’t realize this piece was a derivative of it.

Middletown tells the story of a small town, where the main street is named Main Street and the side streets are named after trees (I’m paraphrasing the opening monologue here). Instead of a narrator, we are told the story by the Cop, who is both metatheatrically important and also an integral part of the show, often physically encouraging people to do what he desires (I use physically encouraging as a polite way of saying beating them). We see the cycle of life, death, love, and more, much in the same way you would when you see a production of Our Town. There is an expert, much like Professor Willard, who tells the audience some history, and the parallels continue.

Below are some photos from various productions: 

O, Earth by Casey Llewellyn - O, Earth brings Thornton Wilder back to the stage, not as the Stage Manager, but as a character, in this queer adaptation of Our Town. It also features characters like George (in this production, a transgender character), Emily (in this production a feminist), and the Stage Manager (in this production a black woman), as well as Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres. 

Below are some photos from a production of that at the Foundry Theatre:

And that’s all we’ve got time for today, folks! 

[architectnews]

Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library

Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library Derbyshire, East Midlands Building News, English Architecture Award

Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library Building

29 April 2022

Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library, Belper, Derbyshire

Thursday 28th of April 2022 – five projects were selected by the expert jury, who visited all of the shortlisted projects.

Design: Glancy Nicholls Architects

Photos © Verity Milligan

Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library, Derbyshire

Jury Report

The Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library combine to create a project that bridges a number of current issues for our built environment. It has taken the derelict backland industrial site of the Thorntons chocolate factory within Derwent Valley Mills UNESCO World Heritage Site, and connected it back to the energy of the high street.

The architects’ team and their local authority clients have made the enlightened decision to combine a residential care building for the elderly with a new library for the town, with both uses accessing a shared courtyard and public cafe. The panel felt this was a brave stand against the traditional isolation of elderly care, extending independence, and improving the dignity and quality of life of residents.

The brick facades of the old factory were in a sorry state and there must have been a strong case to demolish or at least to retain far less of the existing structure on this contaminated brownfield site. The team were clearly committed to re-use as much of the found structure, facades and fabric as they could and this will have made significant embodied carbon savings. The jury found the scale and massing of the different elements worked well together, with both library and residential care uses re-inhabiting the red brick shell, while the entry corner of the library building is expressed as infill to complete the orthogonal form of the overall plan – picked out in local Stanton Moor stone.

The elderly care accommodation is gathered in a sheltering ‘U’ around a west- facing garden, looking off to the distant hills – with windows gently canted to emphasise this outlook. The design has been aligned with the Stirling University Gold standard for dementia design, with the potential for reinvigorating experiences across the traditional divide between elderly care and the host community.

Internally, the planning and detailing are simple and straightforward, allowing the big move to unite residential and community uses around the sheltered courtyard to take centre stage. This is a pragmatic and quietly bold enterprise that has addressed each of the social, environmental and economic facets of sustainable design, while improving urban connections. Belper is better for it.

Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library – Building Information

RIBA region: East Midlands Architect practice: Glancy Nicholls Architects Date of completion: May 2020 Date of occupation: Sep 2020 Client company name: Derbyshire County Council Project city/town: Derbyshire Contract value: Confidential Gross internal area: 3,929.00 m² Net internal area: 3,143.00 m² Cost per m²: Confidential Contractor company name: Robertson Construction

Consultants

Environmental / M&E Engineers: Derbyshire County Council Structural Engineers: WYG Landscape Architects: Derbyshire County Council Quantity Surveyor / Cost Consultant: Gleeds Project Management: Gleeds

Awards

RIBA Regional Award

Library building designs

England

2022 RIBA East Midlands Award Winners

2022 RIBA East Midlands Award Winners

Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library, Derbyshire designed by Glancy Nicholls Architects

Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library building images / information from the Royal Institute of British Architects

Location: Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library, Derwent St, Belper, DE56 1UQ, Derbyshire, England, UK

Phone: 01629 535060

Derbyshire Buildings

Derbyshire Architecture Designs – recent selection:

Ravine House, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Design: Chiles Evans + Care Architects photos © Dug Wilder Ravine House, Chesterfield, Derbyshire

Derwent Valley Villa, Duffield, Derbyshire Design: Blee Halligan photos © Henry Woide Derwent Valley Villa, Duffield, Derbyshire

Charlesworth Passivhaus Design: Studio Tashkeel Architects image courtesy of architecture office Derby Swimming Pool Complex

Derby Swimming Pool Complex Design: FaulknerBrowns Architects image from architects practice Derby Swimming Pool Complex

Lilas Pavilion at Chatsworth House, Bakewell image from architects Zaha Hadid Pavilion at Chatsworth House

East Midlands Architecture

Nottingham Southside Property Development image from property developer St. Peter’s Gate HQ

St. Peter’s Gate HQ, Nottingham Interior Design: CPMG Architects image from architects office St. Peter’s Gate HQ

‘The Orchard’ – Eco Hotel – University of Nottingham Eco Hotel – University of Nottingham

Isover House Contest – Nottingham Architecture Competition Design: Evgeni Leonov Architects Nottingham Architecture Competition

Maggie’s Nottingham Building Design: CZWG Maggies Nottingham

Nottingham Architecture

Nottinghamshire Buildings

Birmingham Architecture Designs – chronological list

Birmingham Buildings

Contemporary English Architectural Designs

English Architecture Designs – chronological list

English Architecture

Comments / photos for the Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library page welcome

The post Ada Belfield Centre and Belper Library appeared first on e-architect.

[albuum]

Ave, Caesar!  Happy birthday, aeterna dictator the birthday of Caesar is the 12th or 13th of July is not precisely defined, today is Thursday, Jupiter's day, and he was a great Pontiff, tomorrow is Friday - the day of Venus, he led his family from her, so that, too, both days are suitable. You can celebrate birthnight 12/13 July. One of the best books that I read about Caesar - "The Ides of March" by Thornton Wilder, although there is not strictly actually about Caesar - the author shuffled the characters as he wanted, but it is a great book about courage, masculine strength, tenderness.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 12/13/19: JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL, BLACK CHRISTMAS, RICHARD JEWELL, BOMBSHELL and more!

Woooooooo!!! We’re starting to get to the end of the year with only three more weekends of new movies before we’re into 2020, which on one hand, has to be better than 2019, but maybe not in terms of box office with no “Avengers” or “Star Wars” movie in sight.

Sony Pictures is releasing the second-to-last sequel of the weekend, JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL, which brings back all of your faves, including Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, and introduces a new character played by Awkwafina. I reviewed the movie over at The Beat, and also discussed its box office prospects

I also will have a review of Sophia Takal’s horror remake BLACK CHRISTMAS (Universal) over at The Beat, but that’s mainly interesting since it’s the second remake of the ‘70s horror movie, this one produced by Blumhouse.  I really liked Sophia Takal’s previous movie Always Shine, so I’m definitely interested to see what she does with a mainstream horror film.

You can read my reviews of both those movies over at The Beat, although the Black Christmas review is embargoed until Thursday night… make of that what you will. Plus you can read more about the three wide releases over at my weekly Box Office Preview.

One movie I haven’t reviewed over there is Clint Eastwood’s latest, RICHARD JEWELL (Warner Bros.), which stars Paul Walter Hauser as the famed Atlanta security guard who discovered a bomb in the city’s Centennial Park and was then accused of planting the bomb there to be seen as a hero. The movie also stars Sam Rockwell (as Richard’s lawyer), Kathy Bates (as Richard’s mother), Jon Hamm as the FBI guy who is after him and Olivia Wilde as the Atlanta reporter who first breaks the story about Jewell being a suspect. I’m going to try to write a mini-review for this one, but long and short of it, is that this is another really good movie from Eastwood, and if I get a chance, I will write more about it soon.

LIMITED RELEASES

There are a bunch of great movies coming out in limited release, some that will expand wider later in the month.

First and foremost is Jay Roach’s BOMBSHELL (Lionsgate), starring Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly and Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, and if you know those names, then you might already realize that this film written by Charles Randolph (The Big Short) is about the Fox News sexual abuse scandal. Margot Robbie also stars in this one, as does John Lithgow as Roger Aisles, plus there’s lots of other great character actors in roles as people you might know from the news (both on camera and behind the scenes).  I was hoping to write a fuller review of this and maybe still will but didn’t have time before getting this column out. Regardless, this is a very intriguing and entertaining film (just like The Big Short) with fantastic performances by all. The movie will expand nationwide next Friday.

Josh and Ben Safdie are back with UNCUT GEMS (A24), starring Adam Sandler as a New York jewelry merchant who gets his hands on a rare South African gem, and then spends the entire movie trying to get it back after lending it out to star basketball player Kevin Garnett (playing himself). I wasn’t really a very big fan of the Safdies’ Good Time, which Millennial critics tend to cream all over, but Uncut Gems is definitely better even if it’s similarly manic. Sandler’s definitely good in the role, but awards-worthy? Not even close… I think this ia good movie being sold by people as a great movie, and I couldn’t disagree more. If you liked Good Time, you’ll probably like this, too. This will be nationwide on Christmas Day.

Terrence Malick is also back, continuing his amazingly prolific degree of filmmaking in his mid-70s with A HIDDEN LIFE (Fox SEarchlight), a three-hour drama about an Austrian farmer (August Diehl) who refuses to swear allegiance to Hitler as WWII begins, which first makes him a bit of a pariah in his rural community but eventually gets him thrown in prison for treason. Valerie Pachner is quite terrific as his wife, and the movie has some great smaller roles for Matthias Schoenaerts, the late Michael Nyqvist, Bruno Ganz and Jürgen Prochnow. If you’re a fan of Malick’s better films than

Kristen Stewart plays French New Wave actress Jean Seberg in Benedict Andrews’ SEBERG (Amazon), about how the actress got into a relationship with Hakim Jamal (played by Anthony Mackie), causing trouble for her career. The movie also stars Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood), Jack O’Connell, Zazie Beetz and Stephen Root, and it will get a limited release this weekend.

Stephen and Robbie Amell star in Jeff Chan’s Code 8 (Elevation Pictures), Robbie playing Connor Reed, a guy with superpowers living in a world where those with powers are minimalized and living in poverty. In desperate need of money to help his ailing mother, Connor gets in with a powered thug named Garrett (played by his cousin, Stephen) to use his powers for elaborate heists. It’s a surprisingly good movie, mainly due to Jeff Chan’s ability to create a big movie on a seemingly limited budget.

You can check out the trailer and Chan’s original short film that inspired the feature below, and my interview with Robbie Amell will be on The Beat on Thursday sometime.

Steven Luke’s The Great War (Saban/Lionsgate), opening in select cities Fridays, takes place during the last days of WWI where a regiment of African-American “Buffalo Soldiers” are trapped behind enemy lines. When one escapes, he asked to join an all-white troop to find the survivors.s

An interesting doc, especially for lovers of dance, is Alla Kogvan’s documentary Cunningham (Magnolia), which uses 3D technology to explore the life and work of the late choreographer Merce Cunningham (who would be celebrating his centennial anniversary this year), combining archival footage with newly-created performances of Cunningham’s greatest work. This movie reminded me quite a bit of Wim Wenders’ doc Pina in that I enjoyed this, despite having zero to no interest in dance in general. It will open at the Film Forumin New York on Friday, as well as Film at Lincoln Centeruptown, the Royal in L.A, the Arclight in Sherman Oaks and Edwards Westpark 8 in Irvine.

Xavier Dolan’s latest film The Death and Life of John Donovan (Momentum), stars Kit Harington, Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Thandie Newton, Jacob Tremblay and more. It’s about the relationship between a young actor and a TV star that takes place ten years after the latter’s death. It will open in select cities and On Demand.

Lastly, there’s Danny Abeckaser’s MAFIA drama Mob Town (Saban Films), starring David Arquette, Jennifer Esposito, Jamie-Lynn Sigler and PJ Byrne.

Also, next Monday, Trafalgar Releasing is releasing Gorillaz: Reject False Icons, a new concert doc about Damon Alban’s Blur spin-off group with comic artist Jamie Hewett.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Michael Bay’s action-comedy 6 UNDERGROUND (Netflix), starring Ryan Reynolds, will get a very limited release Weds. before debuting on the service on Friday. I really don’t know much about it other than it’s about six specialists come together to do stuff.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

This weekend, the Metrograph begins a fairly self-explanatory series called “Malick: The First Four Films” to coincide with the release of A Hidden Life (see above), although 2005’s The New World won’t screen until next weekend. Also, the theater also continues its annual “Holidays at Metrograph” series with Billy Wilder’s 1960 Oscar winner The Apartment screening Saturday and Sunday. Welcome To Metrograph: Redux continues with David Lean’s Brief Encounter  (1945) on Wednesday and Otto Premingers’ Bunny Lake is Missing  (1965) on Friday and Saturday. This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph  is David Lynch’s Dune (1984) while Playtime: Family Matinees is the 1992 The Muppet Christmas Carol.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Tonight’s “Weird Wednesday” is Blue Vengeance from 1989, while the weekend’s “Kids Camp” is last year’s animated The Grinch. On Monday evening is a 10thanniversary screening of Vernon Chatman’s Final Flesh. Tuesday’s “Terror Tuesday” is the original Black Christmas from 1974 (already sold out), and “Weird Wednesday” is the 1985 thriller Trancers, hosted by John Torrani.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

The Weds. Afternoon Classics matinee is The Thin Man (1934), starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, while Friday’s “Freaky Fridays” offering is the original 1933 James Whale movie The Invisible Man. The Weds/Thurs double feature is Todd Haynes’ Carol (2015) and Far from Heaven (2002) with DP Ed Lachman appearing on Weds (sorry, sold out!). Saturday and Sunday offers the Kiddee Matinee of A Christmas Story, as well as a special “Holiday Edition” of the New Bev’s Cartoon Club. Friday’s midnight is Tarantino’s own Reservoir Dogs, while Saturday midnight is the holiday horror film Don’t Open Till Christmas (1984). Monday’s Matinee is Bad Santa, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Monday night’s screening is Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander (1982).

FILM FORUM (NYC):

“Scorsese Non-Fiction” will continue through December 17 with screenings this week of Rolling Thunder Revue and Shine a Light, as well as another screening of A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American MoviesFriday, and screenings of the classics The Last Waltz and No Direction Home: Bob Dylan on Sunday.The 70th anniversary 4k restoration of Alec Guinness’ Kind Hearts and Coronets will continue through December 19 with screenings at 12:30 and 6:10pm each day. This weekend’s Film Forum Jr. is the Disney animated film The Aristocrats (1970).

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

After an encore screening of Auntie Mame (1958) on Thursday, the Egyptian will screen a David O. Russell hosted screening of Tourneur’s 1919 film The Broken Butterfly with musical accompaniment on Friday. Saturday night is “Retroformat 10thAnniversary” sponsored by the George Lucas Family Foundation, showing two hours of movies from the early 20thCentury with musical accompaniment. Saturday night is a Spike Jonze double feature of Being John Malkovich and Three Kings, while Adam Driver will continue his awards campaign run by appearing for a double feature of Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Storywith Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson.

AERO  (LA):

Terry Gilliam will be appearing in person on Friday night for a TRIPLE FEATURE (!!!) of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Time Banditsand The Adventures of Baron Munchausen… which makes me really wish I lived in L.A. On Saturday, screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski will screen their new movie My Name is Dolemite along with Tim Burton’s Ed Wood  (1994). Edward Norton and Primal Fear  (1995) producer Hawk Koch will appear on Sunday afternoon for a double feature of the latter (in which Norton stars) along with Norton’s own new film, Motherless Brooklyn. Tuesday’s “Christmas Noir” Is Nicholas Ray’s debut TheyLive By Night (1949).

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

MOMI’s own Terrence Malick series ends this weekend with screenings of Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey on Friday and Sunday, The New World: Limited Releas Version on Saturday, as well as The Thin Red Line on Sunday evening. Monday, there is a free screening of Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995) as part of “Martin Scorsese: Four Movies over Four Decades.” Saturday’s family matinee is Hiroyuki Morita’s 2002 film The Cat Returns, while John Cassavetes’ Gloria (1980) will screen on Sunday afternoon as part of the ongoing “Always on Sunday: Greek Film Series.”

MOMA  (NYC):

This week’s new series is called “The Wonders” and it’s the first American retrospective of writer-director Alice Rohrwacher and the actress Alba Rohrwacher. I’m really not that familiar with either although Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro last year was fairly well-received.Modern Matinees: Iris Barry’s History of Filmal so continues this week with Hamlet  (1920) today, Greed  (1924) tomorrow and a program called “Great Actresses of the Past 1911 – 1916” on Friday.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Weekend Classics: May All Your Christmases be Noir will be screening Charles Laughton’s 1955 film The Night of the Hunter, starring Robert Mitchum;  Waverly Midnights: Spy Games will screen Hitchcock’s North by Northwest; and Late Night Favorites: Autumn 2019 will show Aliens and Eraserhead.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

Not much to report except that there will be an encore screening of the 2001 Korean blockbuster My Sassy Girl on Thursday afternoon.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

Continuing its Nicolas Cage vintage series with 1991’s Zandalee on Wednesday, Barbet Schroeder’s Kiss of Death (1995) on Thursday and Sunday.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

[larryland]

"The Skin Of Our Teeth" Comes to BTG's Fitzpatrick Main Stage

“The Skin Of Our Teeth” Comes to BTG’s Fitzpatrick Main Stage

Pittsfield, MA– Three-time Pulitzer Prize-Winner Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth begins performances on Thursday, July 11 at the Berkshire Theatre Group‘s Fitzpatrick Main Stage (83 East Main Street) in Stockbridge, MA, and runs through August 3. Directed by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-Winner David Auburn (Proof; BTG: The Petrified Forest, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), this production features

[dashfire2-blog]

Review: Hello, Dolly! (Broadway in Chicago, 2018)

Review: Hello, Dolly! (Broadway in Chicago, 2018)

John Olson | October 30, 2018 | 0 Comments

     Hello, Dolly!    Music and Lyrics by Jerry Herman Book by Michael Stewart Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph (map) thru Nov 17  |  tix: $27-$108  |  more info         Check for half-price tickets         

        A Broadway classic done in classic Broadway fashion

        Broadway in Chicago presents      Hello, Dolly!

Review by John Olson

This 1964 musical ran for nearly seven years on Broadway thanks in large part to producer David Merrick’s practice of bringing some of show business’s most famous actresses into the title role – a role meaty and funny but one offering enough latitude to suit a variety of performance styles and personas. Carol Channing originated the role of Dolly Gallagher Levi and will be forever identified with it, but the likes of Pearl Bailey, Martha Raye, Ethel Merman and in the recent Broadway revival, Bette Midler, made it their own as well. So for this national tour of that revival directed by Jerry Zaks, we have

the now-unusual practice of getting a star to tour in the title role – Betty Buckley. Since Midler’s presence in the Broadway revival made it a hot and expensive ticket, it’s tempting to want to make comparisons. Not having seen Midler in the role, I can’t, but what’s the point anyway? Betty Buckley is one of the greats of the Broadway stage. She originated the role of the aging Grizabella in Cats on Broadway and those who might have been around for that will remember her fondly as Abby in TV’s “Eight is Enough”. She’s one of our very best musical theater actresses, period. But do we think of her as funny?

No matter. Buckley is funny enough as the widow matchmaker seeking to remarry for money, but what’s distinctive about her Dolly is her warmth. In the monologues where Dolly addresses her late husband Ephraim Levi, asking for a sign that he approves of her remarriage and recalling the zest for life he possessed that she hopes to reclaim for herself, Buckley is downright touching and a little heartbreaking, Further, she shows true compassion for the young lovers she takes under her wing as well. And for her vocals – well, it’s no surprise to anyone who’s heard her sing that she wrings everything there is to be wrung out of Jerry Herman’s score. She can belt like Merman (well, almost) when she wants to, or softly croon. Like so many of the actresses who have preceded her in the role, she bends to it her own, considerable skills.

She’s paired with Lewis J. Stadlen, one of the great Broadway character actors of past several decades, as Horace Vandergelder. Stadlen’s deadpan, gravelly voice has served him well through many roles since his Broadway debut as Groucho Marx in the 1970 musical Minnie’s Boys; and the crotchety skinflint Horace is a perfect match to his vocal and comedic talents. The other comic standout of the cast is Jess LeProtto, bringing acrobatic skill to the role of the seventeen-year-old clerk Barnaby Tucker.

  Zak has brought two other vocal standouts to the tour as well. Playing Irene Molloy, the milliner who Dolly initially matches to Vandergelder before determining to snag the rich merchant for herself, is Analisa Leaming, who understudied the role on Broadway, and earlier had understudied Anna for Kelli O’Hara in The King and I. We only get to hear her to full advantage once – in her solo “Ribbons on My Back,” but she establishes herself as as fine a soprano as we’re likely to hear in musical theatre anywhere. She gives Irene an appealing independence and feistiness as well. Nic Rouleau, who Chicago audiences will remember from his Elder Price in the first national tour of The Book of Mormon, has a few more chances to show off as Cornelius – in his “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” and “It Only Takes a Moment.” But where Rouleau was funny as well as a strong singer in Mormon, here he falls victim to Zaks’s often pushy direction that tries too hard to be funny and robs Rouleau’s Cornelius of much the charm the role requires. Zaks smartly lets Buckley play it soft and sensitively, but his direction of the supporting players gets so broad as to become almost unfunny. Hello, Dolly!, like its source material, Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker is a farce, but there’s still opportunity to relax a little in places and let numbers “Dancing” and “Elegance” be charming. Frequently, Zaks seems to be playing this musical as a vaudeville and this hinders us from making an honest connection with the young lovers.

Even so, in total, it’s an entertaining and colorful package, with Santo Loquasto’s sets and costumes taking us back to the New York City of the 1880’s. His sets include some gorgeous painted backdrops of NYC streetscapes that evoke the time and place nicely. He makes two dancers look like a real horse pulling a streetcar and gives us a most convincing train locomotive and passenger car ready to make the trip from Yonkers to NYC.

This Hello, Dolly! is classic Broadway showmanship in all the most important ways: a major Broadway performer we all ought to see at least once, a top flight supporting cast and bright and clever production values.

   Rating: ★★★½   

Hello, Dolly! continues through November 17th at Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph (map), with performances Tuesdays 7:30pm, Wednesdays 2pm & 7:30pm, Thursday and Fridays 7:30pm, Saturdays 2pm & 8pm, Sundays 2pm & 7:30pm.  Tickets are $27-$108, and are available by phone (800-775-2000) or online through Ticketmaster.com (check for availability of half-price tickets). More information at BroadwayinChicago.com.  (Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes, includes an intermission)

Photos by Julieta Cervantes

   artists

cast

Betty Buckley (Dolly Gallagher Levi), Garrett Hawe (Ambrose Kemper), Lewis J. Stadlen (Horace Vandergelder), Morgan Kerner (Ermengarde), Nic Rouleau (Cornelius Hackl), Jess LeProtto (Barnaby Tucker), Kristen Hahn (Minnie Fay), Analisa Leaming (Irene Molloy), Beth Kirkpatrick (Mrs. Rose, ensemble), Jessica Sheridan (Ernestina), Wally Dunn (Rudolph), Scott Shedenhelm (Stanley, ensemble), Timothy Shew (Judge, ensemble), Daniel Beeman (Court Clerk, ensemble); Maddy Apple, Giovanni Bonaventura, Elizabeth Broadhurst, Julian DeGuzman, Alexandra Frohlinger, Dan Horn, Corey Hummerston, Madison Johnson, Ben Lanham, Kyle Samuel, Maria Cristina Slye, Cassie Austin Taylor, Davis Wayne, Brandon J. Whitmore, Connor Wince (ensemble).

behind the scenes

Jerry Zaks (director), Warren Carlyle (choreographer), Santo Loquasto (scenic and costume design), Natasha Katz (lighting design), Scott Lehere (sound design), Larry Hochmann (orchestrations), Robert Billig (music director), Andy Einhorn (music supervisor), Don Pippin (vocal arrangements), David Chase (dance arrangements), Seymour Red Press (music coordinator), Campbell Young Associates (hair, makeup and wig design), Brian J. L’ecliyer (production stage manager), Julieta Cervantes (photos)

18-1055

Tags: 18-1055, Alexandra Frohlinger, Analisa Leaming, Andy Einhorn, Ben Lanham, Beth Kirkpatrick, Betty Buckley, Brandon J. Whitmore, Brian J. L’ecliyer, Broadway in Chicago, Campbell Young Associates, Cassie Austin Taylor, Chicago musical theater, Chicago Theater, Connor Wince, Corey Hummerston, Dan Horn, Daniel Beeman, David Chase, David Merrick, Davis Wayne, Don Pippin, Elizabeth Broadhurst, Garrett Hawe, Giovanni Bonaventura, Jerry Herman, Jerry Zaks, Jess LeProtto, Jessica Sheridan, John Olson, Julian DeGuzman, Julieta Cervantes, Kristen Hahn, Kyle Samuel, Larry Hochmann, Lewis J. Stadlen, Maddy Apple, Madison Johnson, Maria Cristina Slye, Michael Stewart, Morgan Kerner, Natasha Katz, Nic Rouleau, Oriental Theatre, Oriental Theatre (Ford), post, Robert Billig, Santo Loquasto, Scott Lehere, Scott Shedenhelm, Seymour Red Press, Thornton Wilder, Timothy Shew, Wally Dunn, Warren Carlyle

Category: 2018 Reviews, Broadway in Chicago, Jerry Herman, John Olson, Musical, National Tours, Oriental Theatre (Ford), Thornton Wilder

Source: http://chicagotheaterbeat.com/2018/10/30/hello-dolly-review-broadway-in-chicago-2018/

[seekerstopstory]

9,15,29,3,21,51,75,90,97

3: List 3 fears- heights, snakes, dying

9: Best first date- this girl took me kayaking to this gorgeous lake and we spent the whole day out there wandering the trails and the water and then went to get ice cream and got to pet this really cute puppy with 3 legs. 

15: Favorite quote- From Our Town by Thornton Wilder “I’ll choose the day I first knew I loved George. Why should that be painful?”

21: Shoe size-  8 1/2

29: Favorite song-  I have sooooooo many. One I will never get tired of is Back Around by Shannon Saunders. 

51: How often do I wear a fake smile- All. The. Time. not as often any more, I was doing pretty well up until last thursday.

75: What was I doing last night a 12am- crying

90: Failed a class- Hell fucking yep! 4 to be exact

97: Sex in public- Technically yes

[kjplays]

Thursday, 27 December 2018

”Our Impound”

At the Registry of Motor Vehicles, present day. Twelve chairs sit in three rows, facing the audience. ACTORS, of all different sorts, enter, taking their seats. The audience is unsure when the show starts.

DISEMBODIED VOICE/THE STAGE MANAGER

M16

HIS WIFE

GEORGE

EMILY

UNNAMED NUMBERS

P91

CHILD OF P91

P92

At last, the front row is all but empty. Only one chair remains.

DISEMBODIED VOICE: Now. Serving. R66. at. Counter 4. Now. Serving. R66. at. Counter 4.

An elderly actor rises, exits.

DISEMBODIED VOICE: Now. Serving. R66. at. Counter 4. Now. Serving. R66. at -

M16: Christ Jesus, could he not walk any faster? I’m sick of hearing about R66.

HIS WIFE: Hush. He can still hear you.

M16: Not with those hearing aids, he can’t. Or with that damn racket behind us.

He glares at P91, whose daughter is sing-screaming Old MacDonald. He knocks over his paperwork in the process.

HIS WIFE: She’s just a kid.

P92: Sir, sir, sir -

With the paperwork.

DISEMBODIED VOICE: Now. Serving. R66. at. Counter 4. Now. Serving. R66. at. Counter 4.

M16: I’m going to go carry that man to counter fucking 4 if it’s the last thing I do.

HIS WIFE: Do any such thing, and it will be the last thing you do. Sit. Here.

She hands him a newspaper.

It’ll be another hour before you’re called. Might as well know what 45 is up to.  

P92: Sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir -

CHILD OF P91: HERE A MOO, THERE A MOO, EVERYWHERE A MOO MOO!

P92: Sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir, sir -

M16: WHAT?

P92: You dropped this.

Hands him the paperwork.

M16: Jesus. Thanks.  

DISEMBODIED VOICE: Now. Serving. R66. at. Counter 4. Now. Serving. R66. at. Counter 4.

M16 shifts in his seat.

HIS WIFE: Don’t you dare, Dick.

EMILY and GEORGE enter, the STAGE MANAGER creeping behind them. Full Victorian costume.

GEORGE: Emily, if I go away to State Agriculture College next year, will you write me a letter once in a while?

EMILY: I certainly will. I certainly will, George . . .It certainly seems like being away three years you’d get out of touch with things. Maybe letters from Grover’s Corners wouldn’t be so interesting after a while. Grover’s Corners isn’t a very important place when you think of all—New Hampshire; but I think it’s a very nice town.

M16: Are you fucking kidding me.

HIS WIFE: Oh, I did this play back in high school.

CHILD OF P91: HERE A MOO, THERE A MOO, EVERYWHERE A MOO MOO!

STAGE MANAGER: Welcome, one, all, to the Registry of Motor Vehicles! To improve your time with us, we have hired blossoming actors to act out one of the classic American love stories ever put to paper - Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Oh, excuse me.

He takes off his scally cap to reveal a Britney Spears mic.

DISEMBODIED VOICE: Now. Serving. R66. at. Counter 4. Now. Serving. R66. at. Counter 4.

M16: This is hell.

END OF PLAY.

[mysteryshelf]

BLOG TOUR - Running Out of Time

Welcome to

THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF!

DISCLAIMER: This content has been provided to THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF by Great Escapes Book Tours. No compensation was received. This information required by the Federal Trade Commission.

Running out of Time (A Dodie O’Dell Mystery) by Suzanne Trauth

What a fun production! This has been my favorite of the series so far. Fast paced and kept me wanting to say I have to read one more chapter! ~Laura’s Interests

Running out of Time (A Dodie O’Dell Mystery) Cozy Mystery 3rd in Series Lyrical Underground (October 10, 2017) Paperback: 220 pages ISBN-13: 978-1601837240 Digital ASIN: B01NBUM1LD

Restaurant manager Dodie O’Dell’s themed food ideas have been called cute, clever, and delicious, but never revolutionary—until now. Dodie’s Windjammer Restaurant is stocking the Etonville Little Theatre’s concession stand with colonial-era desserts and drinks: Swamp Yankee applesauce cake, pumpkin bread, hot cider punch, and mulled wine to complement the latest production. A local playwright has adapted Thornton Wilder’s Our Town into Eton Town, shifting the story to colonial America and the founding of Etonville, New Jersey, shortly after the Revolutionary War.

On opening night, hours before the curtain rises, Dodie runs into an agitated actress backstage with blood on her hands. Then a stranger is found among the chairs set for a graveyard scene with a knife in his chest. The show will not go on—the theatre is now a crime scene. Hoping to clear the red-handed suspect, Dodie returns to the role of amateur sleuth to mull over the clues and beat the backstage stabber to the punch—before someone else becomes history . . .

Interview With The Author

What initially got you interested in writing?

I can’t remember when I wasn’t interested in writing! I entered contests in primary and secondary school, writing short stories, essays, and plays. Occasionally, I won something…so that encouraged me more. I loved getting lost in the fictional worlds I was creating.

What genres do you write in?

In fiction, I write a cozy mystery series – the Dodie O’Dell mystery series – and I have written an historical stand alone novel. I also write plays and spent some time exploring screenplays.

What drew you to writing these specific genres?

I have read mystery novels all my life so I suppose it was only natural, when I started to write fiction, that I would write mysteries. Write what you know…I wrote books that I would enjoy reading.

I spent a long academic career in theatre, teaching acting and directing plays. So I am drawn to exploring dramatic works as well.

How did you break into the field?

I had been working on fiction for a number of years, first an historical novel and then a mystery novel, when I was referred to a terrific freelance editor. He helped me shape the book, adhere to the elements of my genre, and gave me submission support. Including an introduction to an editor at Kensington Publishing. The stars aligned!

What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?

I hope readers have fun reading my Dodie O’Dell mystery series. Since the books feature a community theater and a restaurant as part of the setting, readers will get a dose of food and a play with each book! I also hope that they get invested in the lives of the characters in the small town of Etonville, NJ and enjoy visiting with them in each novel.

What do you find most rewarding about writing?

I love seeing the printed pages spew forth from my printer when the book is finished, or at least when each draft is complete. It’s a thrill to see the publisher’s copy with a beautiful, thematic cover – Kensington has a wonderful design team who supply fun covers.

What do you find most challenging about writing?

Though I have a good time producing the first draft of each mystery novel, it’s also the most challenging feature of writing for me. The series aspect requires that I reintroduce a setting and cast of characters that remain partially the same from book to book. The mystery aspect requires that I plant clues and plot out my protagonist’s journey as she solves the murder mystery. Both aspects require a technical, detailed approach to structure. Which can be challenging!

What advice would you give to people wanting to enter the field?

Be prepared to be persistent, to write every day, or at least to work on your craft every day, and find a great editor. Someone who knows the publishing field and can provide both creative and professional guidance.

What type of books do you enjoy reading?

I love to read a wide variety of books. Mysteries, of course, but also general literary fiction and biographies. I have read a few interesting memoirs recently.

Is there anything else besides writing you think people would find interesting about you?

In addition to writing the Dodie O’Dell mystery series, and writing plays, I teach an acting studio in my home for a small group of performers. I am also a celebrant and I enjoy presiding over weddings in my area of New Jersey.

What are the best ways to connect with you, or find out more about your work?

Check out my website or Facebook page and contact me through either one. I also run contests through Facebook and Goodreads. Please enter!

Website: suzannetrauth.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuzanneTrauth/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel

      Suzanne Trauth, Harvard Studio, Montclair, NJ. 06/27/2014 Photo by Steve Hockstein/HarvardStudio.com

About The Author

Suzanne Trauth is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, and a former university theatre professor. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Dramatists Guild. When she is not writing, Suzanne coaches actors and serves as a celebrant performing wedding ceremonies. She lives in Woodland Park, New Jersey. Readers can visit her website at www.suzannetrauth.com.

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BLOG TOUR – Running Out of Time was originally published on the Wordpress version of The Pulp and Mystery Shelf with Shannon Muir

[otc-dramaturgy]

Throwback Thursday

We’re throwing back today to another production of Our Town (much like we did two weeks ago when talking about the production at Sing Sing Correctional Facility):

In 2014, Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn hosted a production of Our Town. That’s right, a literal cemetery. Performances ran throughout all of June, with 7:30 performances and, for “night owls,” a midnight show each Saturday. Directed by James Presson, it was marketed as “an American classic with a Brooklyn edge.”

For those of you who haven’t read or seen Our Town, the final act of it does in fact take place in a cemetery over Grover’s Corners, so this setting is particularly potent. Some quotes from the Green-Wood website about it:

“As the sun sets on Green-Wood’s stunningly unique landscape, you will be immersed in a fresh new take on this American classic, helmed by innovative director James Presson.”

“And while the play stays true to universal themes of Wilder’s world-renowned work, Green-Wood’s Our Town is distinctly Brooklyn – the cast is diverse, the music is modern, and the vibe is decidedly urban.” 

“Original music and arrangements by Brendan Fox. Scenic Design by Daniel Geggatt. Costume Design by Sara Donovan. Lighting Design by Jonathan Cottle. Sound Design by Lee Kinney. Puppet Design By AJ Cote.”

The puppet design element is particularly notable, because our production too uses puppets. However, as far as I can tell, there are no pictures of the puppets readily available, so it’s hard to compare.

Given the meta-theatricality of performing a play that takes place in a cemetery in a cemetery, I think Wilder would have loved this adaptation. 

[bunraku-en]

Montgomery County community calendar, October 5-12, 2017

#bunraku [Washington Post]301-588-8279. forum-theatre.org. $18-$38. “Our Town” Director Aaron Posner’s adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s intergenerational story features seven actors and Bunraku-style puppets. Thursday and Friday at 7:45 p.m., Saturday and Sunday (sold out ...