friday fiesta with greek tragedy on the side, please!

"That sounds like a pretty mixed bag!"

For sure, but what great fun! The evening began at Jalapenos, naturally! This week, we even had a birthday celebration for Betsy!

"Very nice! And just how old is she?"

Ah, she wasn't sayin'. Remember, these folks are a bit cagey about agin'. Still, I'd say she's late 50's.

"So, between Smitty and Tony in age?"

Yeah, I think so. I know Jimmy, her husband, is at least Smitty's age, so that would put him at 63, minimum.

"She certainly doesn't look quite that old."

Well, it helps that the photo of her isn't quite in focus, giving a bit of softening to any smile lines and such that she has.

 "Whoa. Not so with the photo of Dood. Extreme close-up there!"

Hahaha! He was right there beside me and just held that pose, so I snapped it. The bfe had texted, so I sent him the photos of my brothers to let him know where I was.

"And Tony is 56, right?"

Right. And I'm saying that Betsy is older than him, but maybe not as old as Smitty. Like I said, she wasn't forthcoming with that info.

"Hey, her choice, ya gotta respect that."

For sure. I am really glad that her daughter, Addison, drove down from UGA to surprise her for her birthday. Good job!

"How very nice! And you were still there when she arrived?"

I was! The Savannah Stage Company production was not to start until 8 PM, so, even with me riding to Tybee with Barbara, I still had time to stay for the entire Smiths & Kamerons Friday Fiesta. Woohoo! Even so, I'm glad I was home when Barbara pulled up just after 7 PM. We got there early, but that gave us time to pick out our seats on the stage.

"Another theatre in the round performance?"

Truth to tell, all of their plays are in that format, and I rather like it. Much like the Black Box theatre of the Masquers, it allows an intimacy between the actors and audience. For this Greek tragedy, in which nearly everyone dies - the group at Jalapenos got a kick out me branding it that way! - the setting lent an air of urgency to the story of a sister trying to bury her brother, and the uncle who had forbidden her from doing so.

"That's what "Antigone" was about? Such serious subject matter."

Well, we are talking about Oedipus' family, so those would all be children of incest, with muddied blood lines from him wedding and bedding his mother. Yikes, right? And I had tried to find out the birth order of the two sons and two daughters, but could not. What we know is Eteocles was given first rule over Thebes, then he was to allow Polynices to take the next shift on the throne. But that other son decided to mount an army against his brother to seize the throne. The two sons ended up killing each other. Antigone, who had to be the older of the two sisters, didn't think her uncle had been fair in lauding Eteocles but leaving Polynices to rot on the field, so she wanted to bury that brother. Ismene, the younger of the two girls, didn't want to buck the uncle, who was now playing king. And then there's Haemon, the uncle's son and the girls' cousin, who was to wed Antigone, his love since childhood. What a tangle!

"Yeah, that guy was so cursed! I bet it was fun, even with all that death."

It truly was! And of course it was fast, fast, fast!!! I'm really glad I had reacquainted myself with the story and the genealogy beforehand. Some of the actors had multiple roles, so it was vital to stay in tune the whole play, or just get lost in the mix. I'm glad we had the chance to talk with them afterward at the opening night celebration!

"Oh, wow! How long has it been since you were at one of those? That's so cool!"

It was, and I loved getting the chance to talk more with Jayme Tinti. You know what she did? She posted on fb about the plays that other troupes were doing this weekend! She's all about sharing the love of theatre. I also applauded her on the spread of minimalist plays here in Savannah. You know, works that, like gypsy jazz, are very portable and can be performed in limited spaces. So I spoke of seeing "Backpack of Power", now touring in schools, as well as "For The Love Of Three Oranges" with David Poole's students. She was quite touched that I recognized that they owe their audiences to SavStageCo.

"For real. You could have also thrown in SavRep's "Empanada Loca" as well as the Armstrong Masquers' "Lethal Lecture" as examples."

I could have, but we were talking about Savannah Arts Academy and that's why David Poole came to mind. I thanked Jayme for having mentioned their latest musical, which Barbara and I will be attending tomorrow night, and how surprised I was that David had not said anything on fb about it. Without her post, I wouldn't have known!

"I do hope others will follow her example. Getting folks out of their houses and into the playhouses is good for the troupes and for the community."

Preach!!!