two free musicals and (a nearly) free concert!

Remember David Poole, the director and ringleader at Collective Face Theatre Ensemble?

Well, when the pandemic rendered that troupe null and void, he was hired as theatre director at Savannah Arts Academy - yes, the very place where three of my nieces (Christina, Emily, and Hope) went to high school years ago.

Now, he's taking this bunch of young thespians to a competition!!!

To give them practice, he's holding three free performances at the Kennedy Building on the Savannah State University campus - the old stomping grounds of CFTE.

Small world!

I found out on fb and let mi amigas know, but they couldn't go on a Thursday, choosing Friday night instead.

No worries, I went on Thursday and had a front row seat to a play straight out of the medieval ages, complete with "traveling players"!

"The Love Of Three Oranges" was billed as "An Italian Comic Fairy Tale", and was written in the 17th century. (We have Giambattista Basile to thank for collecting such tales, and his sisters for printing them in a book.)

Such fun this was, and all done in only 45 minutes!

That's the stipulation of the contest: completion, including set-up and take-down, in that time.

That means the story moved right along, full of humor and deception and love and even a giant ogre!

What's up with the umbrella?

Well, it was a rainy night, so Dan Vaden Chevrolet gave each and everyone of us that free memento!!!

Kudos to the kids... and break legs, y'all!!!

(smile!)

 

So, wondering why I couldn't go on Friday with my friends for the play?

I already had my concert ticket!!!

I'd had it for several weeks, and AMC wasn't doing refunds or exchanges.

That's okay, I really like the 33-year-old artist and her music videos... 

and I like her even more now!

So many costume changes, she could give Reba McEntire a run for best Entertainer!

So many instruments she played, including an painted upright piano, acoustic and electric guitars, and a classical piano draped with Spanish moss and lichens and such!

So many albums she pulled the music from, beginning with Fearless, morphing right into Evermore, getting sassy and loud for Red, dialing it back for Folklore, then jamming for her birth year 1989, before diving (literally) into the depths of Midnights... wow!

I spent the entire time - almost three hours - dancing in my seat!

Sure, there were a lot of songs I didn't know, but there were others, such as "Love Story", that I've sung multiple times for karaoke nights.

There were even a couple I knew from "Sing 2"!!!

And there were several that I love from their music videos, which she was mindful of, being sure to have that same flavor for the costumes of her and her dancers.

Honestly, I just may have to see this again!

I could even count it as an A*List, as it will only cost me three bucks, thanks to all the Bonus money I have built up.

Yes, I just may do that!

Technically, AMC isn't allowing A*List to be used for "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour"... but that didn't stop me from seeing it this time, and won't stop me should I go again! 

(smile!)

As for tonight, my entertainment was again free all the way, as it had been on Thursday.

AARP Theatre showed a football musical... seriously, it was all about that sport, and even had the actors in those uniforms and playing ball on set!

This reminded me a lot of "Lombardi", done a few years ago by SavRepTh, but that had been strictly a play.

"Something In The Game" was a musical - a musical about football!!!

This time, the coach was Knute Rockne and the team was Notre Dame's Fighting Irish...

but the story was as much about George Gipp as about Rockne.

Everyone has heard the line at some point: "Win one for The Gipper!"

Well, George is the one they're talking about, an All-American star that essentially drank himself to death at 25 years old, even though the actual cause was pneumonia.

Rather sad, for all involved, but especially for the coach, who saw in that player the son he had wanted, as well as the faults he himself once had.

What an incredibly well-told and well-acted story - bravo to all!

What a nice way to end my trio of free cultural events!

I wonder what I'll find for next week?

(smile!)

tweety and alice and roses and hyacinth!

Something different!

Dixie Chick en croissant, with apple slices to offset the onions in it!

I saved the other half, and that luscious grape salad, for slunch, 

even eating the cookie as dessert!

Many thanks from this veteran, Chicken Salad Chick!

And, yes, that's Scott on the coffee mug.

He helped me get set up with AAA when I changed car insurance last month.

Liberty didn't offer road service, but saved me $200.

Bye, bye, GEICO!

Speaking of change, I caught all of "Bugs Bunny And Friends" this morning!

That's because I've been up by 9AM every morning since the time change.

As far as my body is concerned, that's 10AM... 

so I'm keeping my body on schedule.

No more fighting the "fall back"!

And since this is going to be my new groove, I'll be enjoying extra daylight in the morning 

to offset that loss of light in the early evening.

That should make for a more positive winter... with more Tweety Bird!

 

Something different!

Collective Face Theatre Ensemble joined forces with Savannah Children's Theatre for a quasi-musical!

"Alice's Adventures In Wonderland" had a first act with no songs, then a second act filled with singing.

Quite unusual... and more humorous than expected!

Before the show, David Poole pulled me aside to tell me  his latest news: his teaching job has been terminated.

He told me he knew I would understand that feeling of loss.

Sadly, it may be the end of CFTE as well, he said.

I certainly hope he will be able to keep the troupe alive, but I know it's been a financial strain.

Savannah needs his creativity, so evident in this show.

I'll be hoping for the best!

Time to switch gears for some adult humor!

Comcast gifted me with a $1 Movie as part of a fundraiser project, so I grabbed "The War Of The Roses"!

Not only is it a particularly black comedy, but it has that sultry voice of 35-year-old Kathleen Turner and the boyish charm of Michael Douglas, ten years her senior, repeating their chemistry from "Romancing The Stone" five years earlier.

That lovely statue on the banister?

She's a naked Japanese goddess.

Both had bid on her during an active estate auction, with the gymnast eventually outbidding the future lawyer... which led straight to a meet-cute relationship and eventual marriage.

It gets pretty dark after that, and pitch black when the kids go off to college.

Very good movie!

That definitely called for something a little lighter before bed.

"Keeping Up Appearances" filled the bill nicely!

There were two episodes, split into different times on different channels.

I had thought, as both are public stations, that the episodes would be the same.

Au contraire, as Hyacinth Bucket ("pronounced Bouquet!) might exclaim!

The one on GPB had Richard buying her an alarm system for the house as an anniversary gift, with hilarity after he sets it off and forgets the date of their wedding, which she had set as the code.

Hahahaha! Silly chap!

The one on SCE, two hours earlier, had Hyacinth starting a business to train others how to be hostesses, given her experience with "candlelight dinners", with the problem arising when folks misread the ad she posted and believe her to be a stripper for stag parties!

Very funny!

I'll just need to remember to check out both next week!

(smile!)

dos noches con tres mujeres!

It was a dark and stormy night...

so that must mean we were out at Cinema Savannah again!

Hahahaha! Hahaha!

Last night, we made up about 20% of the audience.

No, really!

I can wait while you do the math.

Hahahaha! Hahaha!

Sadly, though, this movie that Tomasz had curated for his foreign movie club was not very good.

I had high hopes for it, as it was written and directed by Kevin Kline's son... but "Funny Pages" was overly full of grotesqueness, as demonstrated by its cast of characters and their mean spirits.

Funny strange, yes.

Funny  "hahaha", most definitely a resounding "No".

Tonight's entertainment was much better, even though we again had rain!

Barbara and Sandy were with me again, as well as their theatre-loving friend with the banker's hours, Kaye.

(That's an inside joke with mi amigas!)

And what's going on here?

It's an opening night reception!!!

Oh, how we have missed these with CTFE!

Thanks, David Poole, for bringing back this tradition!

Thanks, too, for trying again to being us this play!

"Quilters" was a pure delight!

As well as being a musical, it was a true celebration of the work that women do, now, then, and always.

The seven actresses portrayed a multitude of characters, recounting the stories of these pioneer women through the designs of sixteen quilt blocks.

Magnificent!

Some were patterns I'd seen before; many were new to me, and hardly any were reflected in the myriad of quilts displayed on the walls of the stage, the walls in the lobby, and the walls up and down the hall.

Even the women's costumes were constructed of quilts!

It reminded me of my quilting days, during my teens and beyond.

I don't recall whatever became of the quilt I made for Great-Granny White.

However, the pillow I quilted for Grandma, to accompany her on her Greyhound bus rides, was constructed from bits of clothing I'd made during my disco days.

Reds, pinks, and white-on-white.

After she died in 1997, the pillow was returned to me, and it sits in the rocking chair I brought back from Panama.

And now, thanks to this historical musical, I again know the name of that pattern.

"Lone Star"

How appropriate for scraps of clothing that danced under a disco ball!

Right place, right time.

(smile!)

plethora of theatre activity!!!

It seems that every troupe in this seaport is trying to get going again!

That's all well and good, truly, as there has been a dearth of that since the pandemic began.

But, still... all in this same month???

Apparently so.

 

The Collective Face Theatre Ensemble will have "Quilters" for the first two weekends.

That's a musical from 1982, which I'll be attending tonight.

Fortunately, that will be at the Savannah Children's Theatre midtown, so there will be plenty of free parking. 

(smile!) 

The SavChTh will most definitely have a play, but they're performing it elsewhere.

The musical, "Pete The Cat", based on a children's book series, will be at The Historic Savannah Theatre on Bull Street.

Why?

I don't know, unless it's to draw more locals to that venue downtown.

That starts the third weekend of September and runs through the first weekend of October.

Most likely, I'll be catching that last production.

Most likely, I'll be going for the Sunday matinee... parking is free for Sundays.

(Yes, I'm a local and I object to paying for the privilege of parking downtown.)

The Bay Street Theatre will host the premiere of "Rockabye" for Labor Day weekend, as special early matinees, at the Club One location downtown.

The following two weekends will see BST's production of "Tick, Tick... Boom!", a pseudo-autobiographical musical written by Jonathan Larson (of "Rent" fame) in 1990.

The troupe already presented "Murder At The Bay Street Cabaret" last month, and will offer its near-annual romp, "The Rocky Horror Show", next month.

I missed the one in August as I was having my 45-inning vacation, and I doubt I'll go to October's show, as I've seen it so often; however, I'll be at "Rockabye" on Saturday and hope to see the other September musical.

Sadly, there's a serious parking issue, now and in the future, exacerbated by the recent permanent closure of two blocks of Broughton to vehicular traffic.

 

The Savannah Stage Company will be reprising their musical "Charlotte's Web" production from 2020, just before the COVID pandemic began here in the US.

There will be two major differences, though.

Rather than use the cramped space down in the Starland area, this will be at the Tybeee Post Theatre, so parking may be a challenge, but not bad.

And, rather than use the adults for the show, their new Teen Troupe will be treading the boards and sharing their talents.

I just may have to go see it on its one-night, mid-month, stand!

(smile!)

Savannah Repertory Theatre will have its professional actors at work for "The Christians" for the third and fourth weekends of this month.

Yes, the same time that the BST and SavStageCo and SavChTh will have plays.

Ack! I guess they don't think their audiences overlap!

But I like it all!!!

Just too eclectic, if that's any such thing.

At least their downtown location is still being remodeled.

That's why the production will be at Asbury Memorial Church.

There's certainly plenty of parking there!!!

(smile!)

And, rounding out the month with its southside location at Jenkins Hall on the GaSoU: Armstrong campus will be "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940"!

I don't know if the college troupe is still called the Masquers, but I hope so.

I hope the physicist will join me, too, as he loves stuff from that era.

It will only play for that first weekend of October, though.

And parking???

So...much...free...parking!!!

(smile!)

Such a busy month for theatre lovers!

I wonder just how many of these I'll be seeing?

One thing about being retired is having a fixed income and I recently gave myself a pay cut.

Maybe some of the shows need volunteers to help out...

I'll have to check!

(smile!)

tragic love and closed minds all around

This was not an "Appalachian legend", as one local paper called it.
The other local paper referred to the tale as "subversive", though that's not it, either.
So, just what is it?
"Dark Of The Moon" is an American play written during World War II, wrapped around "Barbara Allen", a centuries-old Scotch ballad of love gone wrong. The Collective Face Theatre Ensemble kept the original time period intact, as well as the setting in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.
It's important to realize, in this day of instant communication options and a tv in every room of a house, that life in the 1940's was very different. There may have been a phone in the community, but that would have been for emergencies. No television would have existed there for another decade. Television was not in the United States until the mid-1940's, and then sparingly. My mother used to talk of the families gathering at the home of the one neighbor who had a tv, to watch a televised show. My mother was born in late 1937. That memory was from her childhood in Augusta, Georgia, folks, a well-populated city. Remote locations, such as the Appalachian areas from Georgia to New York, would not even have had television reception. Any news or culture from the outside would have to come in print or by radio, but that would have been AM only, with spotty reception. Indeed, it wasn't until after the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 that many remote areas had electricity, as they lacked roads and many other services.
That meant that in such a rural mountain community, regardless of locale in the northern or southern USA, life lived seventy years ago by the younger people was nearly identical to that of their grandparents, with almost no influx of new ideas or new people.
Take a moment, please, to imagine that.
.
.
.
Now, consider a tiny community in a valley in those isolating mountains. Their entertainment had to be made on-site, consisting of folks using home-made fiddles and such. Singing and dancing were highlights, folk songs and ballads brought by the original settlers from their European homes in mountainous terrain. Those folks - Scots and Irish - brought their accents, their customs, their superstitions, and their religion with them. The town had endured for all those years, continuing the hard life of their ancestors, taking care of their own and avoiding strangers.
Another tiny community lived on a nearby mountaintop. Their origins? Who knows. Their entertainment was also made on-site, using local materials as well as their bodies to provide the rhythm for their dancing and singing. They practiced a pagan religion involving moon idolatry and were called witches by the townfolk in the valley below. Their group had endured for all those years, continuing the hard life of their ancestors, taking care of their own and avoiding strangers.
Both communities were self-marginalized from the rest of society.
Both communities wanted life to continue as it always had.
Both communities allowed their folk to have sexual freedom.
Let's take a moment to consider that scene.
.
.
.
From the midst of that stagnation in both communities arose two youths who dared defy tradition for the sake of love.
Witch-boy and the auburn-haired girl from town had met one night when the moon went dark. Lunar eclipse, perhaps? In the heat of the moment, they had sex, resulting in her becoming pregnant and him falling in love with her.
Maybe not quite the tale of Romeo and his Juliet, but certainly star-crossed.
(Get that little joke? Because of the moon and such, right?)
The witch-boy, John, is determined to be with her, even though he will have to change his form and his life. No more riding the backs of eagles, no more lolling about all day. As a human, he will have hard work in the fields ahead of him. Nonetheless, he chooses that path of most resistance, as that path will be shared with Barbara Allen.
For her part, the garrulous and promiscuous lass will pledge to be true to him alone, for an entire year, as his wife. That act would require her to go against her community of stranger-haters.
She is not alone in that task of rebellion against her community. The witch community is also full of stranger-haters and is not willing to release John to life as a human, to life with a human.
It's a hard row they've both chosen to walk, beset by saboteurs on both sides...
but they're in love and are willing to walk that path.
Do they succeed?
Of course not.
I said this was a tragic romance.
.
.
.
I found the story very entertaining and quite well-acted - bravo, y'all!
But I most enjoyed the music, both the rollicking folk tunes and the old-time religious hymns. I even found myself silently singing along to all of the hymns except one. They aren't the songs from my Methodist experience, but I recalled them from my youth as a Southern Baptist. (These town folk weren't Baptists, though, as dancing would not have been sanctioned.)
I highly recommend the play, folks.
If there's one lesson from this one to take to heart, it's this:
We all need to get out more.
We all need to interact more...
with people from different geographical areas...
with people having different cultures...
with people with different faiths...
with people who walk different paths.
Each and every one of us.
Each and every one of us have so much to learn from another.
Amen.