Say Hello to Fall with Words on Quilts

Fresh off the annual Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery, Illinois Voices Theatre has announced their next event -- a combination of poetry and quilt art called "Words on Quilts" -- starting at the David Davis Mansion State Historic Site in Bloomington on Saturday, October 13.

"Words on Quilts" is one way the first-ever McLean County Barn Quilt Heritage Trail is marking its debut. Poets Kathleen Kirk, Peg Kirk, Bill Morgan, Ginni Nappi and Irene Taylor will read poems they've written as a response to eleven barn quilt patterns on display throughout McLean County.

This kick-off event begins at 10 am with an heirloom quilt display in the Visitor Center at the David Davis Mansion, the poetry reading by the authors listed above at 10:30, facepainting, and the auction of 2' x 2' painted quilt blocks at 11:15. That will be followed by music, balloons, food and a barn dance. Barn Quilt Trail guidebooks will also be available (I'm assuming for sale).

If you'd like a sneak peek at the 2 x 2 quilt blocks to be auctioned off, they're being displayed on the Barn Quilt Heritage Trail Facebook page.

Eli Van Sickel Presents: The Dramaturgy of Pro Wrestling

Dramaturgy is one of those words that a lot of people a) sneer at, or b) don't understand, or c) both sneer at and don't understand. I've heard directors say they don't believe in dramaturgy. Laymen don't have a clue what it is. And then there's the job title. Dramaturg. Or possibly dramaturge. Is it pronounced with a hard g or a soft g? Does the last syllable rhyme with dirge or burg?

I'm on the side of "dramaturge" and "dirge," although when I just looked it up in an online dictionary, I found out it comes from the Greek dramatourgos, which certainly looks like a hard g.

Even if you manage to get past that prickly issue, you still have to decide if a dramaturge is a literary manager, selecting scripts and interacting with playwrights, or a researcher, someone who finds out more about a show to fill in the gaps in the script, or the person who writes notes in the program to help audiences understand it better. The first works with the artistic director and playwrights, the second works with the director and cast of a show, and the third is there for the audience. In England, the dramaturg has a playwriting component, throwing yet another possibility in there. So which one is the real dramaturge?

Luckily, we have Eli Van Sickel to explain it all for us. Or at least explain part of it. Van Sickel is offering a lecture and/or presentation -- free of charge -- called "The Dramaturgy of Pro Wrestling" in Centennial West 308 on Saturday, October 13, from 1 to 3 pm. Yes, that's right. Two hours on dramaturgy AND professional wrestling. Who could turn that down?

Eli explains the event thusly:

Eli loves wrestling. 

Eli loves performance studies. 

Eli wants to get better at lecturing. 

Eli thinks there should be more lectures around here that have nothing to do with a class. 

This event will be an exploration of pro wrestling as a theatrical performance and how it is made. If you're interested in wrestling, performance studies, or just learning new things, come check out this lecture/presentation and tell Eli whether his hypotheses are valid. It's gonna be fun! And there is only a 50% chance that there'll be a quiz at the end!

And there you have it. You may come to an understanding of both dramaturgy and professional wrestling in one fell swoop. Or not. You never know.

New Route Announces FOR COLORED GIRLS in November

New Route Theatre has announced the fourth show of their 2012-13 season. It's the Ntozake Shange classic for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, described as "an affecting and poetic play that explores what it means to be an African-American woman." Look for performances of for colored girls from November 2 to 11, with Friday and Saturday curtains at 7:30 pm and the Sunday matinee at 3 pm.

Shange's "choreopoem," focusing on seven women who "reveal themselves, their lives, loves, hardships, and ultimately their discovery of strength and love" was first performed in a bar outside Berkeley, California, but quickly moved to New York, with Off-Broadway and Broadway productions in 1976. After that, it was a book, a TV movie (with Alfre Woodard, someone I just talked about yesterday) and a film called simply For Colored Girls, directed by Tyler Perry and released in 2010.

For New Route, artistic director Don Shandrow and Phil Shaw will co-direct, while Lyndetta Alsberry choreographs this movement-centric show. The seven faces of African-American womanhood will be portrayed by Leola Bellamy, Jennifer Cirillo, Melissa James-Shrader, Gabrielle Lott-Rogers, Jennifer Rusk, Claron Sharrieff and Christie Vallela.

All performances will be held in the New Route Theatre tucked inside the YWCA of McLean County located on Hershey Road just north of Empire Street in Bloomington. You may reserve seats by sending an email to new.route.theatre@gmail.com. Please note that for colored girls replaces Sunset Limited on New Route's season schedule and will be considered part of the season pass for subscribers.

For more information, visit the Facebook page for this event here.

MYTHBUSTERS Busting Titanic's Jack and Rose... Again!

You still have time to tune in or set the DVR! Mythbusters is revisiting one of its most popular myths tonight, as James Cameron, the director of Titanic himself, joins the Mythbusters team in their pursuit of the truth. Last time, when they looked at whether there really should've been room on that plank for both Rose and Jack, they busted Titanic for choosing drama over reality. In other words, they decided there was no good reason for Jack to die in those icy waters, because he should've fit nicely right there next to Rose on the available piece of flotsam.

Or that's the conclusion Mythbusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage came to the first time they experimented with the size of the board and the size and shape of the lovers from Titanic, played by Kate Winslet and Leonard DiCaprio. Will they repeat their experiment and come to the same conclusion? Or will Cameron's presences (and inside info) make it come out differently this time?

I have to be honest, I wondered about the experiment the last time, since it didn't seem to matter whether the flat plane of the board was big enough for two bodies. I wanted to know whether two people would be too heavy for the wooden plank, not too broad.

I'm happy to say that Mythbusters has heard the complaints of kvetchers like me, and that's part of what Cameron, Hyneman and Savage will be looking at this time. Entertainment Weekly reports that they will consider two questions: Was the oak plank sufficient to sustain the combined weight of Rose and Jack? And would they have died of hypothermia whether they were on top of the board or not? EW has an exclusive clip from the show at the link, showing the parameters of the hypothermia question, which involves dummies, tanks of freezing water, gelatin flesh, a copper cardiovascular system, and a whole lot of ice cubes.

The Discovery Channel site also has video explaining cube roots, how to scale down Rose and Jack and their handy board, and whether they have a shot at floating. Not looking good for Jack's survival, I'll tell you that. But that's not the whole story...

So set the DVR now! Mythbusters and their Titanic iceplay appear on the Discovery Channel at 7 pm Central Time.

Queen Latifah Leads STEEL MAGNOLIAS Tonight on Lifetime

Steel Magnolias is not just a 1989 movie starring Sally Field, Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts, not just the Lifetime movie that airs tonight at 8 pm Central Time, starring Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard and Phylicia Rashad. It's also a play. A very popular play, by a man named Robert Harling, who, as far as I know, has only written the one play, although he's done several screenplays, like Soapdish and The First Wives Club.

But it's Steel Magnolias that is Harling's calling card. The play is set entirely in a Louisiana beauty shop, a place where a bunch of ladies hang out all the time, shooting the breeze over shampoo and perms as well as life and love and friendship. The small-town setting and all-female cast makes it perfect for a whole lot of small-town and medium-town theatres, the kinds of places where they recognize these women and their beauty salon. So, no, Steel Magnolias doesn't get staged at the Goodmans and the Guthries and the Mark Taper Forums of the world, but in places like Bloomington, Monticello and Champaign instead.

It's not my favorite play, I have to admit, although it's always fun seeing how they manage enough plumbing to make a working hair salon on stage. But the situations are a little too sentimental for me, and the dialogue... Suffice it to say I'm not really into "I'd rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special," offered as a rule to live (or, actually, die) by. I'll just quote a more acerbic character in a different play and say, "Well, that's a stupid thing to do."

Still, Steel Magnolias has its fans, and the Lifetime movie has a talented cast who may just be able to pull the material out of its soggy moorings and give it some life. Queen Latifah is billed as the star, as you can see in the poster image at the top, and she's playing M'Lynn, the mom character Sally Field took on in the 1989 version. I can't imagine Queen Latifah going the trembling-chin, misty-eyed martyr route. Let's hope she gives M'Lynn some fire.

Alfre Woodard is always magic, and she's taking on Ouiser, the cranky one in the bunch who has all the best material, played by Shirley MacLaine in 89. Dolly Parton, another one who manages to make magic with inferior material, was Truvy, who runs the beauty salon, in the big-screen adaptation; that role is now played by singer-songwriter Jill Scott. Lifetime's cast also includes real mother and daughter Phylicia and Condola Rashad, even though they're not playing mother and daughter here. Instead, Phylicia is cheery Clairee, Ouiser's nemesis, and Condola is Shelby, M'Lynn's daughter, the self-sacrificing lamb who gets that terrible "thirty minutes of wonderful" line. Julia Roberts got an Oscar nomination for playing Shelby, and Condola may score an Emmy nod if she plays her cards right. The cast is rounded out by Adepero Oduye as clueless Annelle, taken under Truvy's wing to get her life straightened out.

So there you have it. If Steel Magnolias is your thing, you'll definitely want to try the one on Lifetime tonight at 8. Given the cast (seriously, Alfre Woodard is as good as it gets), it looks to be the best of all possible Steel Magnolias. You can see photos and video, including a preview, on Lifetime's site for the movie.

A SHAYNA MAIDEL Soars at IWU

Barbara Lebow's A Shayna Maidel is a perfect example of how to explore an issue, something really weighty and important, through theatre. As she builds her drama around a family split by the Holocaust, Lebow keeps the focus on her characters, on how these specific people have been divided and damaged and changed forever. That effort makes the issues -- family, faith, loss -- achingly real and heartbreakingly human.

A Shayna Maidel centers on sisters Rose and Lusia, one brought up in America and one left behind in war-torn Poland, reunited for the first time since Rose was four. What should be a miracle, what is a miracle, doesn't come easily, as Rose and Lusia struggle to find common ground, to remember and to forget, and to figure out what family means there's nothing familiar there.

This is not an easy show for college-age actors, since it requires a great deal of maturity, especially from the actors playing Lusia, so fragile and so fierce, and her father Mordecai, who bears his own scars. Nancy B. Loitz, who directs A Shayna Maidel for Illinois Wesleyan University's School of Theatre Arts, draws excellent performances from Amy Stockhaus, who finds the emotional truth in Lusia, and Ian Scarlato, the rare 20-something who can credibly play a 70-year-old. I don't know how Scarlato manages it, honestly. But Mordecai's prickly pride, terrible regrets and inability to bend are clearly etched in Scarlato's performance.

Annie Simpson is very pretty, a "shayna maidel," indeed, as Rose, while Sarah Menke is a joy as Hana, the friend Lusia left behind, Allyce Torres is a warm presence as Mama, and Ben Mulgrew does beautifully with both sides -- the sweet youth of memory and the drawn, pale face of reality -- of Duvid, another broken piece of Lusia's heart.

Scenic Designer Curtis C. Trout mounts the action on three levels of golden wood in the cozy domesticity of Rose's New York apartment. It's a beautiful set with a clever little radio that lights up (and cues some nostalgic mood music, too.)

Zachery Wagner's costumes do a nice job of evoking the 40s, with pretty frocks and robes for Rose, a solemn suit for Mordecai, and a dreary sweater and skirt for poor Lusia. Who's who and where their heads are becomes clear just from the wardrobe.

This is not a short play -- it ran about 2:40 on the night I saw it -- and it takes a while to find its rhythm, with a costume change or two that trips up the pace in the early going. Act II goes much more smoothly, however, as emotion flows more freely and secrets are unlocked, building to a moving conclusion.

A SHAYNA MAIDEL
By Barbara Lebow

McPherson Theatre
Illinois Wesleyan University School of Theatre Arts

Director: Nancy B. Loitz
Scenic Designer: Curtis C. Trout
Costume Designer: Zachery Wagner
Lighting Designer: Stephen Sakowski
Sound Designer: Toby Jaguar Algya

Cast: Annie Simpson, Ian Scarlato, Amy Stockhaus, Sarah Menke, Allyce Torres and Ben Mulgrew

Remaining Performances: October 5 and 6 at 8 pm and October 7 at 2 pm.

Running Time: 2:40, including one 10-minute intermission

For ticket information, contact the box office at 309-556-3232 or visit www.iwu.edu/theatre.

Who's at the Discovery Walk, Part II: Kirk, Smith, Sutliffe andWickart

It's been a week and a bit since we looked at four of the actors in this year's Discovery Walk at Evergreen Cemetery. I have been remiss in filling in the blanks, but there's still time to fill you in on the remaining four actors before the Walk starts up again on Saturday for four more rounds of performances.

The Discovery Walk is, of course, the annual celebration of Bloomington's past put together by Illinois Voices Theatre, the McLean County Museum of History, and Evergreen Cemetery. Judy Brown, who directs the actors who present real people who lived and worked and made an impact in our town, has chosen some veterans, like Rhys Lovell and Gwen de Veer, and some newcomers, like
Leola Bellamy and John Bowen, as we discussed last time.

The last four actors are that same mix, with two returnees in Kathleen Kirk and Kevin Wickart, and two actors trying out the Discovery Walk experience for the first time in Marcus Smith and Cathy Sutliff.

Kirk has, of course, performed as part of this event many times. She's a well-known local actress and poet with plenty of appearances on local stages. This year, she's portraying Georgina Trotter, a tireless advocate for education and the public library in Bloomington. In the Museum's biographical material linked under Trotter's name, they note that "The Pantagraph called her 'one of the most remarkable women Bloomington has ever claimed as a citizen.'" Kirk will also be playing Georgina Trotter in the dinner-and-drama salute to educators called "Spirit of Educators Past" coming later in October.

Marcus Smith and Cathy Sutliff co-starred in Heartland Theatre's Superior Donuts last spring, and they're both making their Discovery Walk acting debuts this year. Smith is playing Ike Sanders, a local entrepreneur who started the Workingman's Club, a popular restaurant that served miners and railroad workers in downtown Bloomington. Sanders was the first African-American to own and operate a restaurant (he actually had three of them over the years) in town.

Sutliff is the current president of the Area Arts Roundtable and former president of the board at Community Players. A 25-year resident of Bloomington-Normal, she is also an experienced costumer, and has acted as costumer for the Discovery Walk before. Her role is Charlotte Ann Perry Scott, the wife of Judge John M. Scott, a character whose script I wrote for the Discovery Walk in 2002.

Rounding out the cast is Kevin Wickart, who's been seen recently at Heartland in Mauritius, at Eastlight in Les Miz, and in Prairie Fire's Damn Yankees. Last year, he played John Roeder, the wild-eyed soldier who served with the Union Army hunting down "bushwhackers" in Missouri, and this year, he's taking a very different turn with Benjamin "Trott" Funk, the seventh of ten children born to Isaac and Cassandra Funk, founders of Funks Grove. Trott was a respected politician who served five terms as mayor of Bloomington, making welcome improvements to city sewers and streets and the water supply.

Tours begin at 11 am and 2 pm on Saturday and Sunday, and tickets are available at the McLean County Museum of History, the Garlic Press, Casey's Garden Shop and Evergreen Cemetery. For more information on the characters in Discovery Walk 2012, click here. For ticket information and general details, click here.