John Chu, Ann Leckie, Mary Robinette Koval and Charles Stroud Win Hugo Awards

Science fiction's highest honors, the Hugo Awards, were handed out last night in London at the World Science Fiction Conference, this year affectionately known as Loncon 3.

And I am happy to say that my friend, John Chu, took home the Hugo trophy for Best Short Story. It's a wonderful honor, much deserved for a beautiful story called The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere, published by Tor.

John gave a lovely, heartfelt speech, most of which is included in this Guardian article about the Hugos. John said, "When I started writing, so many people told me... ''I'm not racist, but…' or 'I'm not homophobic, but…' There were so many buts, and they all told me, in polite, civil and sometimes these exact words, that no one was interested in or would publish ever anything that I would ever write. So to win a Hugo, and for this story, I can't, I literally cannot put into words how much that means to me." He added, "Thank you to anyone who has ever said a kind word to me."

Bravo, John Chu! If you want to see exactly why he won, you can read The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere, a story that combines love, family, telling the truth and a meteorological rebuke for telling lies, at Tor.com. And if you want to see his speech or any other parts of the ceremony, the World Science Fiction Society has provided video of the event from start to finish here.

Other Hugo winners included the film Gravity, which took the prize for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, and "The Rains of Castamere" episode of Game of Thrones, which was named Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice won Best Novel, probably the most prestigious of the Hugos, one that has been given in the past to stars of the science fiction and fantasy world like Isaac Asimov, Lois McMaster Bujold, Philip K. Dick, Neil Gaiman, Robert Heinlen, Frank Herbert, Ursula LeGuin, J. K. Rowling, Verner Vinge and Connie Willis. Ancillary Justice also took home a Nebula, an Arthur C Clarke award and the British Science Fiction Association's top award, making Ann Leckie a very well-lauded author with her debut novel.

Best Novella went to Charles Stroud for Equoid, while Mary Robinette Koval won Best Novelette for The Lady Astronaut of Mars.

Kameron Hurley was a double winner, nabbing the award for Best Fan Writer as well as Best Related Work, which we won for an insightful and important piece called We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative. The link here is to the article as it appeared on SFWA's site, but it was first published by A Dribble of Ink, the blog that won Best Fanzine.

And the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, an award presented by Dell Magazines, went to Sofia Samatar, author of  A Stranger in Olondria.

To see a list of all the winners, visit the Hugo site here. To watch the Hugo awards ceremony, click here. Approximately the first 20 minutes are a slideshow of book covers and other relevant images, after which hosts Mur Lafferty and Sheila Williams begin the awards program.

Community Players Has a Rummage and Bake Sale for You!

Community Players Theatre has announced a combo rummage and bake sale to be held at the theater on Saturday, August 23 from 8 am to 2 pm. No word on whether the sale will include any overflow from their props or costume stock, or whether your sales clerks might be actors you recognize from previous productions, but... Hope springs eternal! And you'll certainly find out if you stop by.

They are promising "great bargains and delicious treats" for sale if you stop by. And if you'd like to partake of some Mexican food before trying out the newly purchased baked goods, you can see what Oogie's food truck has to offer on the sidelines.

Community Players is also open to donations to boost their stock and add to the array. If you want to donate something, you're asked to bring it by the theater on Robinhood Lane on Thursday, August 21, between 3 and 8 pm.

For more information, check out the Facebook page created for the event.

It's Cary Grant Day Tomorrow on TCM

Yesterday was my birthday, but tomorrow is the day Turner Classic Movies sends me the gift of a whole day of Cary Grant movies. I can't think of a better birthday present.

The Cary Grantapalooza starts at 6 am Eastern/5 am Central time with one of Mr. Grant's best. The Awful Truth, directed by Leo McCarey, is what has come to be called a screwball comedy. Specifically, it's a divorce comedy, with Grant and Irene Dunne as a husband and wife who split up and then flirt with getting back together. Dunne combines a certain daffy charm with intelligence and wit, making her an excellent match for the dashing Mr. Grant. Add Ralph Bellamy as the Wrong Man and Joyce Compton as the Wrong Woman, a performer named Dixie Belle Lee whose act includes fans blowing up her skirt, and the always adorable Asta, a very famous fox terrier, as Mr. Smith, their dog, and you end up with a winning romantic comedy that makes it clear why Cary Grant was already a hot item by 1937.

After The Awful Truth, it's time for Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby, the 1938 Katharine Hepburn/Grant comedy which plays both actors against type. Hepburn is a loopy heiress with a missing leopard named Baby and a mischievous dog (once again played by Asta), while Grant is a bespectacled professor of paleontology whose entire life is turned upside-down by Hurricane Hepburn. It's a famous example of another niche in the romantic comedy genre, the one where a woman with wild ways hooks up with (and loosens up) a buttoned-up man. See: Ball of Fire, The Lady Eve, Something Wild... Bringing Up Baby was famously not a hit at the time, just about when Katharine Hepburn hit the Box Office Poison list. But it's been rediscovered by generations of film students and rom com fans, making it a perennial favorite. Bringing Up Baby starts at 6:45 am Central time.

Howard Hawks also directed His Girl Friday, the super-fast-talking 1940 comedy based on The Front Page, which airs at 8:30 am. Rosalyn Russell plays Hildy, the reporter (and ex-wife) trying to work around her controlling editor, played by Grant, while he does everything he can to keep her on his payroll and in his life.

My Favorite Wife, which pops up at 10:15 am Central time, will look familiar to fans of Move Over Darling, a Rock Hudson/Doris Day trifle from 1963. You'll recognize the old Enoch Arden plot, where a presumed dead spouse (Dunne) returns at the precise moment the left-at-home spouse (Grant) is moving on with someone else. And, yes, it's a comedy. It pairs Grant with Irene Dunne again, this time with Garson Kanin in the director's chair and Randolph Scott as the Wrong Man. It's also much, much better than Move Over Darling.

His Girl Friday, My Favorite Wife and The Philadelphia Story, playing on TCM at 11:45 am Central time, were all released in 1940, a banner year for Cary Grant. Jimmy Stewart won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as a "man of the people" writer who vies against dapper ex-husband C. K. Dexter Haven, played by Grant, for the affections of Hepburn's Tracy Lord. Hepburn was nominated for Best Actress, as was Ruth Hussey, who played the fourth member of the quartet. Why no nomination for Grant? I have no idea. He and Hepburn are perfect for each other and perfectly directed by George Cukor.

Arsenic and Old Lace brings Grant up to 1943, putting him into a classic comedy about two older ladies cheerfully dispatching lonely men into the Great Beyond by way of poisoned elderberry wine. He's the normal nephew, trying to juggle corpses, gangsters and cops while hoping to keep his aunties out of trouble. Arsenic airs at 1:45 pm Central time, followed by The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, with Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple, at 3:45 pm Central time.

Every Girl Should Be Married, a bit of a mess of a film from 1948, is notable only because Grant plays opposite Betsy Drake, one of his real-life wives. It plays at 5:30 pm Central, a good time to take a snack break and wait for Hot Saturday, in the marquee spot at 8 pm Eastern/7 pm Central. This little-known 1932 potboiler is all about small-town girl Ruth Brock, a good girl bank clerk, whose reputation is unfairly sullied. If you want to see what Cary Grant looked and acted like before he was CARY GRANT, check out Hot Saturday.

You'll see a very different, older, more settled Cary in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, a movie that's more about how tough it is for a city-dweller to move to the country. Note that his character's name is Blandings. If you'd like to see mature Cary put-upon by house-building nightmares, check out Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House at 8:30 pm Central time.

Gunga Din shows yet another side of Mr. Grant. Adventure Cary goes to India with pals Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. to stop the Thuggees. And Sam Jaffe, a Jewish guy from New York City, plays Indian water carrier Gunga Din. You can judge Gunga Din's questionable politics for yourself at 10:15 pm Central time.

Destination Tokyo, the after-midnight movie, is a more standard war story from 1943, with Grant captaining a submarine that ventures into dangerous waters. That leads him into 1952 and Room for One More, a family film about parents "Poppy" and Anna Rose, who build their family by adopting orphans. It's sweet and a little sappy, not one of the movies people usually think of when they think of Cary Grant, but still... It has its charms, and it's another opportunity to see the wonderful Cary with Betsy Drake, wife no. 3.

I'm afraid that's the end of Cary Grant Day. TCM is on to Charlie Chaplin Day at 5 am on Thursday. But if you're like me, you'll pull out DVDs of Holiday, Notorious, North By Northwest, Charade, To Catch a Thief and maybe even Mr. Lucky to keep the party going.

Robin Williams 1951-2014

I don't know what to say about the loss of Robin Williams. It's just so sad and tragic and impossible to describe with any words that remotely capture someone so original, someone I always thought was dancing (and riffing) as fast as he could to try to contain the darkness nipping at his heels. He was hilarious, yes, a dynamo of energy and inspiration and insanity. But, like his hero Jonathan Winters, there was also something fragile there.

I prefer to remember the funny.

Ken Levine, the sportscaster/TV writer who runs a great blog, has written it as well as I can imagine. So let's read that, eat Fruit Punch Oreos, sing the Genie's songs from Aladdin, share quotes from Dead Poets Society or Good Will Hunting, take a look at The Fisher King or Popeye, and maybe refresh our memories of Mork from Ork.

Goodbye, Robin Williams. We shall not see your like again.

Alan Ayckbourn's A SMALL FAMILY BUSINESS On Screens Tomorrow

We don't seem to get many National Theatre Live screenings -- stage performances, direct from London, filmed and shown in movie theaters -- here in central Illinois. More's the pity. A few of these shows pop up at The Art in Champaign or somewhere in Peoria, but Bloomington-Normal is usually not a site.

And, no, we're not getting Alan Ayckbourn's A Small Family Business around here, either. But that doesn't mean lucky people in Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Milwaukee shouldn't make every effort to get to a movie theater to see this sharp, dark farce about a man who slides down a slippery slope of compromise and corruption when he takes over the reins of a family furniture business.

A Small Family Business at the National Theatre

The Telegraph judged this production as a "fine revival of an ambitious play" and noted that it "delivers both laughs and chills with great panache." But it's Time Out London that sums it up best, calling this Family Business "one of [Ayckbourn's] very best, a semi-farcical family drama that serves as a quietly devastating metaphor for the ravages of Thatcherite capitalism, as decent businessman Jack finds his scruples eroded by his spectacularly venal family."

Because it's Ayckbourn, it's funny, but it has a real bite, too. The cast of 13 includes Nigel Lindsay, Debra Gillett, Niky Wardley, Matthew Cottle and Alice Sykes, with Gerard Monaco as an entire family by himself. And this production features a fabulous set design by Tim Hatley that garnered rave reviews.

A look at Tim Watley's two-story scenic design

Let's hope local movie theaters will see their way to screening more of the National Theatre Live offerings. And more local theater companies will see their way to including Ayckbourn on their schedules.

In the meantime, you can see interviews about A Small Family Business, the entire cast list, and galleries of rehearsal and production images at the National Theatre Live site for the show, as well as a list of venues.

FLASHBACKS Coming Up Next Week at New Route

New Route Theatre will present Flashbacks, "a multi-media work that examines the intersections of childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, poverty, sexism and racism through poetry, rap and dialogue" next Friday in the new New Route space at 814 Jersey Avenue in Normal.

Flashbacks is based on the writings of Erica Thurman, as adapted for this staged  reading by Thurman and Gregory D. Hicks. Hicks directs a cast that includes Connie Chojnacki Blick, Michael Howard, Gabrielle Lott-Rogers, Jennifer Rusk, Claron Sharrieff, Miles Michael Spann and Jaimie Taylor. Blick and Lott-Rogers were recently seen in Heartland Theatre's Fowl Plays, while Rusk was part of Community Players' Shrek and Taylor appeared in Illinois State University's Dancing at Lughnasa last fall. Lott-Rogers, Rusk and Sharrieff have all acted in the Illinois Voices/McLean County Museum of History Discovery Walk at Evergreen Park, as well.

This staged reading of Flashbacks is scheduled for Friday, August 15 at 7:30 pm. Although there is no charge for admission, donations will be accepted at the door. Note that this is a general admission event without reserved seating, so you are advised to come early if you want to have a choice of seats.

There will be a "talk back" with the cast, director and playwright Erica Thurman after the performance.

Upcoming in August

August is a bit calmer month for local entertainment, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty to keep you busy.

The Illinois Shakespeare Festival continues through August 9, with their all-male Much Ado About Nothing at 7:30 pm in the theater on the grounds of the Ewing Cultural Center on Tuesday the 5th and Thursday the 7th and in the Illinois State University Center for the Performing Arts at 1:30 pm on Saturday the 9th; Antony and Cleopatra at Ewing at 7:30 pm on Wednesday the 6th and 8 pm on Saturday the 9th and inside the CPA at 1:30 pm on the 8th; and the not-written-by-Shakespeare-but-featuring-him-as-a-character play Elizabeth Rex, written by Canadian playwright Timothy Findley, at Ewing at 8 pm on the 8th and in the CPA at 1:30 pm on the 6th. If that sounds like a lot of performances, remember that this is the last week. And check here on the calendar if you want to keep it all straight or see ticket information.

Also continuing through the 9th is the Station Theatre production of Amy Herzog's 4000 Miles, a much-acclaimed new play about a grandmother and grandson trying to find common ground after he bikes across America and lands in her West Village apartment. Sara Boland-Taylor directs Janice Rothbaum and Casey Thiel as grandma Ida and grandson Leo in performances at 8 pm Wednesday through Saturday at the Station Theatre on Broadway in Urbana.

Terry Gilliam's weirdly wonderful Brazil comes to Champaign's Art Theater Co-op on August 6 and 7 in the 10 pm slot. Gilliam, the only American member of the Monty Python troupe, paints a picture of a sort of anarchic alt-world, not exactly the future or the past or the now, just a world that ours might have been or might become, where paranoia, an all-powerful bureaucracy and eccentric technology, as well as a lot of duct work, tubes and pipes, rule the day. That world is crushing the spirit of an everyman named Sam Lowry, played by Jonathan Pryce. It's funny, strange and sad, but never depressing. And visually, it is indeed a "nonstop dazzler," as the Art's website calls it.

If you were a fan of Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series of time travel romance novels, you'll either be thrilled or horrified to find out there's finally a screen adaptation of her work. It's on Starz and it starts August 9 at 8 pm Central. And if you just can't wait, Starz is making the first episode available online now. Irish actress Catriona Balfe plays English nurse Claire Randall, the one who tumbles backwards in time, away from war-torn Britain, landing in Scotland in 1743. Her Scottish love interest, rough and tumble Jamie Fraser, is played by Scotsman Sam Heughan.

New Route Theatre is officially moved in to its new space at 814 Jersey Avenue in Normal now, and they have been celebrating that fact with a summer schedule of workshops and staged readings. The next one up is set for August 15th. It's called Flashbacks, and it is written by Gregory Hicks and Erica Thurman, based on Thurman's prior writings.  Hicks also directs. New Route describes Flashbacks as "a multi-media work that examines the intersection of childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, poverty, sexism and racism through poetry, rap and dialogue." The performance will begin at 7:30 pm on August 15, with a talkback afterwards. Tickets are available at the door for a donation. If you'd like more information, you can visit New Route's Facebook page or email new.route.theatre@gmail.com

The University of Illinois' Krannert Center for the Performing Arts recently sent out its big annual packet on the 2014-15 season, featuring "Renée Fleming, Ragamala Dance, KODO, Cassandra Wilson, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Rosanne Cash, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Circus Oz, and dozens of other artists and intriguing events," as they put it. Tickets go on sale August 16 at 10 am for everything from the season's opening night festivities September 12 with Tiempo Libre, Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández and Samba Soul to the Mark Morris Dance Group's Acis and Galatea in May, 2015. All the details are available here.

Doctor Who with new doctor Peter Capaldi comes to BBC America on August 23 with the "takeover" episode at 7 pm Central that night. But there's a slew of Doctor Who programming before and after the premiere, including a live pre-show and after-show, a marathon of episodes voted through by fans, and movie theater screenings. To see the trailer for Who with Capaldi, click here. For the complicated list of what exactly is happening to usher in Doctor No. 12, thumb through BBC America's roundup.