No Excuses. VOTE

 

 

This is the moment.

No excuses.  No reasons.  No regrets.

VOTE

Mini Review

 Now that theater reviewers - and the newspapers that hired them - are an endangered species, reviews are harder to find.  But my new show at Stage West, Eureka Day! did receive an audience member review...

"The acting was top-notch. The set was wonderful."

That's it.  That's all we theater folk need.

18th century illustration - public domain

UPDATE:

Maybe not so mini after all.  An actual, living, breathing reviewer,  Jan Farrington of Onstage NTX, wrote this:

"The play’s bright-toned and lighthearted school library setting (Clare Floyd DeVries)—plus the perky (even a bit ironic) music choices from sound designer Rayven Harris,—set up a happy atmosphere that lingers stubbornly through the uproar. Carly Hinson’s quietly character-driven costumes hit the spot for everyone onstage—and the disastrous parent/board Zoom meeting couldn’t have happened without the expertly timed projections of Jacob Rivera Sanchez."a

A Small Dose of Hope

For those of us that need it...

First: for aspiring writers (and this is a very small dose indeed, that would fit in a tiny, tiny mustard spoon), but proof - Proof! - that you can actually make a little money by writing...

Viola!  

An actualy really-truly check from the printers for sales of my theater design book Alice Through the Proscenium !  (Much delayed, for small sales, and smaller profits but still!)  

Look at that lovely envelope.

And don't forget the new, expanded Alice II, the Second Edition with colored pictures (woohoo!) and a case study show.

Second and more earth-shaking: it's Early Voting in much of the U.S.  Hie thee hence and vote!  

Things don't change unless you - yes, you! - change them.  

Go wield a ballot!

Busy, Busy

 It's been hectic around here!

My show at Pocket Sandwich Theatre opened successfully.  (Sometimes you wonder if it will ever open!)  Here's a photo in the midst of the chaos of building The Werewolf of London.

The creepy swaddled head on the left was left over from the last show (and startled me every single time I caught it in the corner of my eye).  The rough floral painting in the foreground was something I painted fast onto a "French" IKEA mirror I had in my garage.  That one car garage is where most of my theater supplies and set dressing live... making it quite tricky to park the car!  The mirror got hung on the wall above the faux fireplace.

As that build wrapped up, my next one Eureka Day! at Stage West got busy.

The set for this play is the library of a private "community" school in Berkeley, California... in a building designed by ground-breaking architect Julia Morgan.  Best known for designing Hurst Castle for the newspaper baron William Randolph Hurst, she was the first woman licensed as an architect in California and the first female architecture student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts.

Also a wonderful designer!

This is a swimming pool she designed for the Berkeley City Club.

 

I felt completely fan-girl about getting to try to imitate her style.  (There might be a few arches in my set.  Possibly.)

Insulted by a Coffee Cup?

I'm kidding.  Kinda.

Woman drinking coffee from Edwards Coffee 

Family Circle February 1952

https://midcenturypage.com/

It's like this... Being too early for a meeting at Stage West, where my set for Eureka Day! is building, I tried out a new coffee shop and one of those house flavors that seem like a good idea at the time.  Then I sat outside in their pretty courtyard to enjoy our finally cooler Fall weather and to get a little thinking done. 1

The fancy-flavor coffee's cup came with a Bible verse written on the rim, Romans 3:10-12. 

Now, I'm the kind of obnoxious person who, as time allows, reads footnotes and appendices, so of course I also look up Bible verses.  In case you haven't noticed, it's not uncommon in the US to throw a little Bible into Business.  Plumber's trucks or auto repair places or famous hamburger chains 2  will sometimes include a pithy bit of wisdom from the Good Book. So I read up on my coffee cup... 

...and my day darkened...

Romans 3:10-12 is of the opinion that we're none of us good and not really even giving it a try.

Oh, that optimist, Apostle Paul!  Given the state of the world at this moment though, his view is somewhat... plausible. 3

As it happened, the day was beautiful and I was feeling cheerful and my sturdy (not to say stubborn) psyche was in good enough fettle that I could bounce back from this scolding. What though if another coffee drinker - first sip of coffee of the day! - were feeling a bit fragile?

Here is the verse, as rendered by those poets and scholars of King James:

As it is written, 
There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth,
There is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way,
They are together become unprofitable;
There is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Bleak.  Obviously I'm overthinking this.  But...?! 4  5

Footnotes:  

1 - The thinking was progress on the latest fantasy novel... You'll hear more about it!

2 - In-N-Out Burger's fry boat is much more encouraging, especially today: "For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes." I like the sound of that. Fingers crossed.

3 -  Dark.  Depressing.  But... y'know plausible.  

4 - Please!  Oh, writers-on-cups or fry boats... Wield Chapter and Verse responsibly!      

5 - The fancy flavor? Kinda... okay? Not sure I'll visit again even with a pretty courtyard.    

Insta-rific?

 I've been interviewed for other shows for all kinds of media - mostly print, but also radio and film/TV.  Upcoming is my first for Instagram.

We'll see how it goes I guess?

I'll admit I'm nervous to be following the vid of the charming costume designer with the nuclear rats though...  HERE

 The show is Eureka Day! upcoming at Stage West in Fort Worth.

Can I add in a nuclear unicorn?

Stage West Eureka Day! - design by Clare Floyd DeVries

Ever Notice This?

 It seems that, whenever I get engrossed in a thing - an idea or a project - the world suddenly joins me by going along with the theme...

I'm sure that it's a matter of becoming sensitized to a subject and therefore noticing what you'd otherwise overlook.  (Like the expectant parent suddenly noticing children everywhere!) Surely the world doesn't start stalking you?  But, however it works, I'm being stalked by the subjects of Space and AI.

Well, AI is the subject everywhere right now... As regular, non-tech-first people begin to see and to understand AI's presence everywhere.  And its growing threat to jobs, certainly, but more than that. (Threatening jobs is bad enough: no jobs means no money and no health insurance here in the US. And where will young career people get their experience, if AI does all the"easy" work? It's worth worrying about.)  

And Space?  I'm on quite a reading binge, having just discovered the Liaden Universe series, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. (Only 30 years late!)  An excellent, page-turning, many-volumed space opera which I'm really enjoying... in that great "Oh. Is it 2:00 am?" way.  Loving it! (I'd suggest starting with Agent of Change HERE.)

On a whim yesterday, one in my household (possibly tired of watching me read?) suggested we go to the matinee of the latest play at Kitchen Dog Theater: Absentee, by Julia Doolittle.

Really, really good!  I'll put the blurb at the bottom of the page, if you're curious, but, basically, it's set in space and features AI.  Chiming perfectly with my personal theme-of-the-moment.  Life is funny that way.  This is an excellent production: the script, the acting, and the production values!  (I had to turn down designing this show and now I'm so sad.  The set, by Brian Wofford, is wonderful!  Now I'm having those envious doubts... would I have thought of a set this cool?!)  The lighting too and... well, see for yourself.  Grab a ticket!

Far out in the Milky Way, “Beacons” serve as lighthouses for warping spaceships around the galaxy. When a U.S. Space Forces ship explodes near Beacon 44.AR.90, its Operator finds herself alone in deep space with only her ship’s A.I. for companionship. That is, until a persistent canvasser calls, desperate to convince her to vote absentee in the 2088 election. As the Operator finds herself waiting over days and weeks and months for the clean up to be over, she finds she has to come to terms with her isolation, grief, and her political voice. Winner of the 2019-2020 Woodward/Newman Drama Award

Chocolates

 

Public Domain image: Ladrone Islands by Samuel Davis

Right now I'm reading two different books.

Both are newly published novels by authors I have never read before.  Both books I heard about online.

Lately, at one place and time in my days, I'm reading - slowly - Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer.  I'm reading it as a first edition, in hardback, and signed by the author, a luxury I hardly ever splurge on.  But the author has a Pulitzer (impressive); the review I read (I forget where) was so enthusiastic; the cover design is so charming (I'm actually babying a dust cover, which I rarely bother with); and the characters, settings, and language are so delicious; that I visit the novel daily in the same way that I ration out a box of fine chocolate bonbons.  I savor wonderful flavor and try to make the delight last.

Its Italy is beautiful.  Not all that much is happening at Villa Coco, but I've met fascinating characters and I've learned about olive harvesting.  Autumn is advancing in lovely description - as the main character says, "I am not the first to comment on the poignant beauty of autumn, or the gold-edged pages of its days."

Highly reccomend.

The second book is different in every way I can think of off hand; I'm enjoying it just as much, but differently.  Phantom Signals is, I understand, the first fantasy novel in a series called Code and Stone by M. P. Moorland, an IT engineer who (classic motivation!) wrote the book he wanted to read.  I heard about it online.  If I'm honest, this may be the only time I have ever had my curiousity roused to the point of actually buying the book by an author's pitch and a book website with a sample chapter.  Out of amazement, as much as anything, I bought the ebook to tryout.  I'm enjoying it!

A mix of IT and magic? aliens? mysterious weirdness?  This modern London seems to be suffering from bugs in its oldest operating program.  So far the story is, for me, a compulsive read that kept me up until 2:00 am last night.

In feeling it reminds me very much of Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, although the more I poke at that comparison, the more differences I see.  I'm only about halfway through my read.  I can't allow myself to start again today until I finish a few other things, because I know now I won't be able to stop until I finish the book.  (High praise!  I love a page-turner.)  So this book, for me, is another sort of chocolate experience... something compulsive, like M&Ms maybe?  Something to binge on.

Recommend!  I hope this first novel is just the first in a loooong successful series. 

I also recommend this kind of book juggling.  

If you have the mental bandwidth - life can be too hectic for this - it's really satisfying to have a book at hand to suit your mood of the moment.  Not just stories either.  A thick non-fiction tome or an art book sitting by your armchair to wander through in an idle moment is wonderful too.  Over time those moments add up: you may find that you absorbed more of a serious topic than you would have predicted.

My non-fiction go-to at the moment is An Atlas of Imagined Islands, edited by Huw Lewis-Jones.  This gorgeously illustrated survey of places that don't exist starts with an illustration of a sky-island by Chris Riddell and a quote from Shakespeare:

I think he will carry this island home in his pocket

and give it to his son for an apple.

And sowing the kernels of it in the sea,

bring forth more islands.

It's been a very rich reading year for me so far...