EclectEcon

The Pure Joy of Seeing One's Work Come to Life: "Murder at the Office Christmas Party"

A couple of years ago I published a small volume of three mystery dinner theatre plays. In the summer of 2022, the Marathon (Florida) Community Theatre put on three performances of "Shrink-Wrapped Murder". I was delighted that someone who had bought the book actually liked one of the plays and, what's more, paid me some royalties (I spent much more than I earned, celebrating!). I was disappointed that I couldn't fly down to see a performance of the play, but I was out in Saskatchewan at the time, and I couldn't work out any way to join them.

Last week I received a message that they were planning to do a different script from the book.Two of the performances are scheduled for New Year's Eve but one was set for last Friday, December 1st. My partner and I looked at our Aeroplan points and realized we could both fly down to Miami on points and drive to Marathon to see the show. Unfortunately, we had other plans for Sunday, and so it would have to be a quick, whirlwind trip from Thursday night until Saturday night.

As my Facebook profile says, one of my favourite quotations is, "Well I was born to have adventure..." and so booked the trip.

It was fabulous!!!!

Because of some delays in Toronto, we didn't get to Miami until nearly 1:30 Friday morning. We rented a car and drove to a hotel about 25 minutes from the airport, where we finally hit the sack at 3am. Fortunately the hotel allowed us late checkout, and we were able to sleep in a bit. But just a bit. I was too excited to sleep very late. Neither of us had been as far south in Florida as Miami, much less the Keys, and so just the trip alone was going to be fun. But the president of the Theatre had been so enthusiastic about our visit that we were looking forward to meeting her and watching the show. The topper, though, was that we would see one of my plays performed!

The Theatre Company and its president were unbelievably gracious and hospitable. We stayed a small resort near the gulf and swam in their pool that afternoon. In the evening, we joined people at the Marathon Yacht Club for the show.

The actors didn't know the playwright was in the audience (they had been told we might be there over New Year's Eve and had expressed considerable nervousness). The programme had my picture, along with a lengthy profile of me, but there were separate programmes printed for the cast, and those didn't include my photo. The president's husband was in the play and she hadn't even told him that we were there.

The production was great! I was shedding slight tears of joy from the first scene! The company paid careful detail to the props and to the script, and they created a fun time for everyone there (about 65 in total -- a perfect size for mystery dinner theatre shows). They had the lines and characters down cold, and as they worked the tables between scenes, interacting with audience members in character, they were really good.

After the performance, the president introduced the cast and then introduced us. The cast members and audience members were amazingly enthusiastic with their applause. Ecstatic doesn't go far enough to describe how happy they made me. Extremely kind words from everyone!

The next morning we slept in a bit and then went for a bit of a walk. My partner joined a yoga class and then swam some more while I lazed in a waterfront chair.

We didn't get back to Barrie, ON (where my partner lives) until early Sunday morning. And I was still glowing.

What a treat to see your work picked up by people you don't know and to watch its performance. I'm sure other writers have had similar experiences, but this was my first, and it was absolutely wonderful!

... with great thanks to Joanne Zimmerman (President of the Marathon Community Theatre) and to the cast of the play for making it all such a momentous event for me. And special thanks to my partner, Nancy Knapp, for her enthusiastic support throughout the adventure.

DOUBT -- See this Play!

DOUBT is a play about two nuns who suspect the priest at their school is sexually abusing one of the boys.

The priest is such a well-polished offender that he is able to make them doubt their suspicions.

Ms. Eclectic used to work with sex offenders. Everything in this play rings true and is consistent with all the things she told me and had me read. The Play was written by John Patrick Shanley and was very well done. Excellent staging, and fantastic acting.

Did I say fantastic acting? It really was!

Dan Curtis as Father Flynn could convince just about anyone of his innocence.

Nora Cuzzocrea as Sister Aloysius was superb as a stern, rules-oriented school principle.

Melony Menard as Sister James did a terrific job as the innocent nun who kept wavering.

And Sherine Thomas-Holder brought a tear to more than one eye with her performance as the boy's mother.

And I want to mention some of the others who contributed to this fantastic performance: Brian Speagle as director, Angela Gilker (stage manager), and Lisa DesGroseilliers (sound).

There are only three performances left. Click here for tickets.

 

 

Cruising (for Murder)

The snow finally stopped last evening, and I decided to go out then to do my latest snow-stomp art, a cruise ship.

As winter arrives, many people would love to be on a cruise ship, especially in a warm-water environment (Covid-19 permitting).

Also, this Saturday, I'm appearing in a mystery dinner theatre show called "Cruising for Murder".

Ms. Eclectic took this first photo of me as I was shuffling and stomping through the wet snow:

The completed scene last night:

My previous snow stomp art:

        Cruising (for Murder)

        Lest We Forget

        Goose

        Fibonacci's Balloon

        Waiting for Our Covid-19 Vaccination

        2020 -- Spiraling

        Wear me

        The Meaning of Life

        Peter Cottontail Visits the Condo

        Fight CV19 and STAY HOME

        Skool Daze

        I Think It Might Rain

        The Penrose Triangle

        Snowflakes (done with my granddaughters)

       Tobogganing Through the Trees   

        Kilroy Was Here

       Happy St. Patrick's Day, 2019

       Spring is Sprung

       You Wanted Spring? 

       Too Cold to Build a Snowman 

       Simply a-MAZE-ing 

       Let There Be Music

      Ommadawn 

      The First Robin of Spring? 

      Be My Valentine, 2018

      Curling AND the Super Bowl

      I'm No Escher... 

      Hark! the Herald Angel Sings

      Nativity Scene, 2017

      Planning an Escape

      Caught in the Net

Surf's Up 

Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe, Part 2

      Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe

      Pikachu

      Happy New Year, 2017

      O Tannenbaum

      Nativity Scene

Special Weather Statement

Think Tropics

Qubix

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

 

Amazon Prime Video Bleg

Please read the post before making recommendations!

We've had Amazon Prime for years but we never bothered trying to look for Amazon Prime videos on our Smart TV. Several years ago, we tried Netflix for two months and didn't watch anything on it because we never came across anything that looked as if it might appeal to us, so we never bothered with Amazon Prime videos.

But a couple of weeks ago, Amazon was the exclusive broadcaster of an NFL game, and so we had to figure out how to view Amazon Prime videos. And we did.

So here's a request. What do you think we might like to watch on Amazon Prime?

Before you start typing recommendations, here are our tastes, roughly:

• We like convoluted spy stories that we can watch over and over again, e.g. Three Days of the Condor, Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People (the Alec Guiness versions), and the Page Eight trilogy, including Page Eight, Turks and Caicos, and Salting the Battlefield. We highly recommend all of these and we watch them frequently. We have them on Blu-ray and don't need Amazon Prime for these.
• We like British classic mysteries, with little gore, little suspense, and lots of puzzles: Agatha Christie (we have tonnes of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot on Blu-ray), Sherlock Holmes (we have everything ever put out on DVD or blu-ray).
• We never cared much for Morse, but love the Lewis series (again, we have them), and we like most of the Endeavour series (though some are dodgier and/or weaker than we like)
• The Bletchley Circle series was good at the beginning.. but weakened as it went on.
• Vera is okay, but isn't the sort of thing we like to watch over and over again.
• The two different series of Peter Wimsey are both fabulous.

Others:

• We watch tonnes of baseball, some football, lots of curling, no basketball, and very little hockey.
• We watch tonnes of science/space on BBC Earth, NASA Smithsonian, and the Nature Channel (also some on TVO and other channels that sometimes have shows like these).

It looks as if we can get all these things on Amazon Prime. But are there other things like these that we're missing or might enjoy?

Our first attempt was Alex Rider, a teen-spy series. It had potential, but had way too much filler and too much gag-me/meh stuff in the first four episodes. We may watch the last one or two episodes to see what happened but it was exactly the type of thing we don't want to spend much time on.

Speaking of Plays ... Three Murder Mysteries

During the past year I tried my hand at writing some mystery dinner theatre plays.

The first one, Shrink-Wrapped Murder, involves some semi-famous psychologists meeting for a dinner symposium.

The second and third ones are variations of the theme of Murder at the Office ______ Party. One is for Christmas and one is for New Year's Eve, and other variations are suggested as well.

The final chapter is a lengthy description of the organization and structure of mystery dinner theatre shows.

The scripts are available in both Kindle and Paperback formats  from Amazon.com ($1.28US/$6.98US), from Amazon.ca ($1.71Cdn/$9.29Cdn), and from all the other major Amazon sites.

 

A Red Plaid Shirt by Michael Wilmot -- See This Play!

Last night I saw "A Red Plaid Shirt" by the late Michael Wilmot, a London Community Players production at the Palace Theatre. It is a truly brilliant play and the acting is excellent.

The play involves two couples, all four of whom have retired. The women seem to have adjusted reasonably well, but the men are lost without their careers, and they are struggling to find themselves. If they can't find themselves, then their wives want them to at least find something to do.

It is absolutely hilarious, which is so typical of Wilmot's plays, and yet it has depth, meaning, and insight. It goes beyond standard sitcom-type humour, and it isn't really farcical either. It's witty. It's bright. It's full of surprises and, to repeat myself it is absolutely hilarious. In the photo below, John Garlicki is shown in one of his best ever performances, as he considers buying a motorcycle and dreams of becoming another Easy Rider.

The audience was in stitches throughout the play. If there was any failing in the performance, it was that the actors seemed unprepared for the amount of laughter and continued their dialogues through it all, and we missed some of the lines as a result.

"A Red Plaid Shirt" is one of the funniest, wittiest plays I have ever seen. See this play.

And let me add that if you have anything at all to do with community theatre anywhere, get this play and perform it. Even if you aren't involved with community theatre, take a look at the samples of his scripts at his website: https://www.wilmotscripts.com/script-samples-etc.html. You'll enjoy reading what is available there.

 

Side note: I knew Michael Wilmot, and I always enjoyed his works. I even had the pleasure of performing a play written by him and his partner, Lynda Martens, for 24-Hours at TAP, a play they wrote together overnight and that four of us performed the next evening.

If there were a compendium of his plays available on Amazon, I'd buy it, in part to honour Michael, but mostly because his writing just that good.

The Unique Fabric of Canadian Cultural Identity

There is little doubt in my mind: the film Strange Brew captures the unique essence of the Canadian Cultural Identity.

But even though this film was a minor commercial success, there are many people in the culture industry who claim they absolutely NEED subsidies from the rest of us taxpayers to help preserve the national cultural fabric, whatever the heck that is.

What is so unique about Canada that needs preserving? Hockey? Curling? Beer? Skiing? Songs by Anne Murray? Poutine? Tim Horton's? But all these things pass the market test very successfully and will continue to do so without subsidies from the taxpayers so long as they provide satisfaction to consumers who vote with their dollars.

What is definitely not unique to Canada, though, is allegedly high-culture stuff for the elitist bigots of the country. Shakespearean productions are not a part of the unique Canadian culture; neither are local orchestral productions of supposed "music" by Mahler or Schonberg, showings of ancient art at local art musea, etc.

These things are nice, maybe, for people who like them, but there is no reason for the rest of the taxpayers of Canada to support such extravaganzas. Just because they are performed or managed or produced by people living in Canada, that doesn't make them part of our unique cultural fabric.

Some people think we should help preserve our cultural identity by supporting the artists who write music and paint and write stories. I disagree. Most of the stuff produced by these self-proclaimed artistes is unwanted by the majority of Canadians; it comes from snobs to be consumed by snobs with average folk being asked to pay for it. This situation is highly unfair. Furthermore, if average Canadians don't want the junk enough to support it, I place little credence in the claims that it represents Canadian culture.

Let's face it. Most real people would probably rather visit a wax museum than sleep through a ballet. And a wax museum probably sounds better to most people than all the "cultural" activities in all of the prairies put together (by prairies, I mean from Kenora to the Rockies). Ask yourself this: which has more visitors per year -- the Niagara Falls wax musea or Winnipeg. I'll bet Winnipeg loses by a ratio of about 235 to 1.

And now ask yourself: which gets more tax dollar support for culture -- the Niagara Falls wax musea or Winnipeg? I'll bet Winnipeg wins by an infinite ratio.

The important conclusion to be drawn here is that Winnipeg needs, yes, NEEDS federal subsidies for its very own wax museum. Or else to subsidize the move of their entire city to Niagara Falls.

Meanwhile, let those who make their living by appealing for government grants to the arts do something useful with their time, such as set up a wax museum in London, Ont., or produce more good movies like Strange Brew that real Canadians can identify with.

***

People who know me understand that I'm an above average supporter of the arts in London, Ontario; I strongly favour private support for the arts. My objection is to taxing everyone to support the tastes, wishes, activities, of the pretentious (and, of course, non-pretentious) few.

Aging and the Generation Gap

In a mystery dinner theatre show for Murder for Hire last weekend, I played a knock-off of Sean Connery. The audience was almost entirely made up of young adults between the ages of 18 and 35.

As I went around introducing myself, several of the younger people in the crowd  pulled their phones out to google "Sean Connery". They hadn't heard of him and had no idea who he was.

"Oh," said one person, "it says here you're a famous actor."

Others had at least heard of and seen a few movies starring Sean Connery. But while they had some vague notion of Sean Connery as James Bond, they knew much more about his more recent films such as "The Rock".

And, much to my dismay, not one of them had even heard of my favourite Sean Connery movie, "The Russia House", based on one of my favourite LeCarre novels of the same name.

----

That reminds me of the time when I was 36 years old and was telling some students that I had worked in a McDonalds in 1961. Several of them said, "I wasn't even born then."

I got the same reaction to "Russia House"; they googled it, saw when it was made, and said, "I wasn't even born then."

Oh well. On the other side of the generation gap, I don't have Netflix and I don't binge-watch anything except maybe some back-to-back live sporting events like baseball or curling [typically viewed as sports of interest to old(er) people, I guess].

 

Willy, Death of a Salesman, Pretty Decent Performance

This afternoon I was in a mystery show called "Death of a Salesman" playing the role of Willy Cheatham. The show begins with Willy giving a long introduction in which he tries to set up the audience so they will want to buy into his pyramid-selling scheme with Scamway Corporation.

I was about 3/4 of the way through this introduction when the hostess got very suspicious, and interrupted:

"I thought I hired a group to do a mystery show, not this financial sales thing..."

She seemed pretty concerned, disgusted, and maybe even more than a little upset, wondering if we had scammed her.

Willy (me) reassured her, "Don't worry. Believe me, you'll be very happy by the time the afternoon is over," which, of course didn't reassure her at all until I went to speak with her privately.

The opening scene obviously had her convinced. Clearly the script was good for that opening scene (and her reaction led me to believe it was one of my better acting performances, too).

"Death of a Salesman" by Murder for Hire.

Is Hugging an Unwanted Sexual Assault? Affront?

Since joining various theatre groups in London, Ontario, six years ago, I have become accustomed to LOTS more hugging than I experience in other parts of my life. Everybody hugs everybody all the time. Well... nearly everybody hugs nearly everybody nearly all the time.

In my adult lifetime, I can think of two times when I may have started to hug someone and then realized that they didn't want to be hugged. There were probably more. It's hard to stop in mid-hug, so when I sensed it, I just gave a very light, perfunctory type of hug.

In my adult lifetime, I can recall two times when I was hugged when I didn't want to be hugged. There may have been more that seemed inconsequential at the time,  but I don't remember them, and I expect the hugger in all these instances might have been unaware that I was uncomfortable with the hug or maybe, as I did, converted it into a perfunctory pretend hug.

I like the hugging, in general, especially among my theatre friends. I like the closeness, and I even like the pretense of closeness. I like both.

And yet, there are times when I'm uncomfortable with it, and I expect others are, too. Most of those times, I or we sense the situation and shake hands, if it's another guy, or avoid the situation somehow if it's a female.

But here's the question: In light of these data from The Economist, what hugging is assault or at the very least an affront?

I know that rarely, if ever, did I see or experience any hugging among my colleagues in the 40+ years that I taught economics at The University of Western Ontario. It just wasn't the done thing. And I expect that's the norm for many, if not most, academic and business environments.

And yet there have been times when a colleague with whom I felt close and I would see each other in a non-work setting and a hug sometimes seemed appropriate and we hugged. Not often, but a few times.

I just wonder how people know what is appropriate? If you feel like hugging someone and start to hug them, you can usually judge the intensity of the reciprocal feeling -- some people go into the hug with more enthusiasm than others. It's possible in these situations to have a perfunctory, polite hug that is probably not offensive. I hope it isn't anyway.

In theatre (in London, at least) hugs seem to be the default. Not always, though.

And given that different actions seem to be unwanted by the recipients at times, it is not always easy to judge.

National Community Theatre Day

There are national days for lots of things. Some serious, some frivolous; some sad, some fun.

But I've searched a bit, and I cannot find any proclamation or declaration for

National Community Theatre Day

There should be one. By far, the largest community of actors and theatre workers in the world comprises local amateur and semi-professional theatre people.

I know there is a "World Theatre Day", but no National or International Community Theatre Day.

There should be one.

The Merchant of Venice -- on Bay St, the financial centre of Toronto

Two years ago, I saw "Midsummer Night's Dream" in Stratford. I gave it a 3/5 star rating. The acting was superb but the cross-gender casting was annoyingly gimmicky. It made no sense.

Fast forward two years to the upcoming performances of "The Merchant of Venice" at The Arts Project in London, produced by Crow Bait Productions.

In this adaptation by Jason Rip, there isn't really cross-gender casting, but the roles have been redefined and include what can best be described as "gender-fluid" characters, loan sharks, drug dealers, rappers, major media, and Jewish crime bosses. The language is Shakespeare's, but the setting is modern.

And it all hangs together beautifully. It has a modern-day internal consistency that was lacking in the Stratford production of "Midsummer Night's Dream". And the acting is superb.

If you have ever seen or read "The Merchant of Venice", you will be very impressed with this production. Heck, even if you haven't read or seen it, you'll be impressed. The continuity, the modernization, the setting (for a black-box theatre), and the acting will all impress you.

Of special note is the performance by Franklin Davis Jr as Shylock. I have never seen anyone portray Shylock as well and as convincingly as he does.  The others are all excellent, but he is stunningly amazing. I am moved to tears by his speech "Am I not a Jew..." every time he delivers it.

Franklin Davis Jr as Shylock:

I'm happy to be along for the ride, with two minor roles as Old Gobbo (a blind street person who sells soap to earn a bit of extra cash) and Tubal (kingpin of the Jewish underworld?), along with some stagehand work thrown in for good measure.

Me as Tubal during a dress rehearsal:

The conceptualization by Jason Rip is just plain brilliant. His work, along with that of the producer/props-person/jane-of-all-trades Sue Parke, co-director Kim Kaitell, and stage manager Emma Wise,  has brought to this stage a production that is far superior to the glitzier but far less brilliant productions I have seen in Stratford.

If the folks at London's Grand Theatre or Niagara's Shaw Festival or Stratford's Festival had any sense, they would put Rip and Davis under contract to move this production to their stages. It's that good.

Caught in the Net

I am currently appearing in the play "Caught in the Net", and so it seemed appropriate when I saw the snowfall this morning to write that title in the snow:

The play is a really fast-paced farce about a man who has two wives and families, one in Wimbledon and the other in Streatham. But the deception is about to fall apart when his children meet on the internet. Hence the title, "Caught in the Net."

I have a fabulous role, type-cast as a semi-senile lecherous old man.

Tickets can be ordered here.

The remaining performances are:

• Thursday, March 2 (tonight) 8pm
• Friday, March 3, 8pm
• Saturday, March 4, 8pm
• Sunday, March 5, 2pm

Venue: The Princess Theatre (a beautifully converted church), Elgin Theatre Guild, St. Thomas, Ontario, about a half hour south of London, Ontario.

 

My previous snow stomp art:

      Caught in the Net (this post)

Surf's Up

Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe, Part 2

      Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe

      Pikachu

      Happy New Year, 2017

      O Tannenbaum

      Nativity Scene

Special Weather Statement

Think Tropics

Qubix

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

Somewhat Sensitive? Overly Defensive? Nevertheless, I AM OFFENDED!!

Recently I was sent an audition notice that reads (in part),

Seeking AFRICAN CANADIAN, CAUCASIAN AND HISPANIC Grandparents or Senior Couples (ages 70 to 90) for a Telecommunication TV commercial. .... Looking for Seniors who are clueless about technology. (emphasis added)...

To apply [please send, inter alia,]... a short description or story of how clueless they are with technology.

I resent the hint that seniors are or might typically be clueless about technology. Some are, for sure, but there is absolutely no reason to feed or promote that stereotype.

What if the notice said, "Looking for (females/Canadians/Arabs/Mexicans/Scotsmen/cheerleaders/Jews/athletes/sociologists/York graduates/whatever) who are clueless about technology"? Why is such a characterization of seniors tolerated or even smiled about, when surely it would not be tolerated if it were about some other group.

I'm tempted to write something very nasty about this audition call using Fortran II.

Comparative Advantage

Last night I was at a social event with some theatre friends. One person there is widely respected as by far the best tech person in theatre throughout the region -- knowledgeable, creative, industrious, and pleasant to work with. He is also quite possibly a better actor than I might ever hope to be.

I laughed that the only reason I have a role in the upcoming play "Mr. Richardson Was Jesse James,"* was because my friend is such a good tech person and will be doing tech work through the two-week period of the London Fringe Festival.

It's a clear example of what economists call "comparative advantage". He's a better actor and a better tech person than I am, but he can't do everything, so I get some opportunities. He's absolutely better than I am at both (economists call this an absolute advantage) but comparatively he's better at doing tech work. That's his comparative advantage. And my comparative advantage is at acting, even though he could well be a better actor than I am.

Scarcity of his time, means he must choose how to use his time; he can't do both acting and tech work. So he chooses to do the one at which he has a comparative advantage. And so do I.

I know I'm not the best economist in the world, not the best writer, not the best actor, not the best horn player, not the best sportscaster, etc. But I have had comparative advantages in some of these things at various times in my life, meaning I've always been able to enjoy doing them. And as I age some more, it seems altogether reasonable that my comparative advantage will shift to something else.

And that's what trade and exchange are all about -- exploring and adapting to shifting comparative advantages.

*"Mr. Richardson was Jesse James", a play about the summer Jesse James may have spent in Princeton, Ontario.

London Fringe Festival
SHOW DATES AT THE PALACE THEATRE:
Wed June 1st: 6:30pm
Fri June 3rd: 8:00pm
Sun June 5th: 1:30pm
Tues June 7th: 9:30pm
Thurs June 9th: 6:30pm
Sat June 11th: 2:00pm

 

Jesse James in Southwestern Ontario?

There is a long-standing story in Princeton, Ontario (yes, there is such a town), that after the failed Northfield Minnesota bank robbery, Jesse James found his way to Princeton, Ontario.

Jason Rip has written a play about what might have happened while he was there, "Mr. Richardson Was Jesse James."

The play will be performed as one of the productions during the 2016 London Fringe Festival.

At the Palace Theatre:
Wed June 1 6:30
Fri June 3 8:00
Sun June 5 1:30
Tues June 7 9:30
Thurs June 9 6:30
Sat June 11 2:00

It stars Rob Faust and Chris McAuley, along with Sarah Abbott and Matthew Stewart. Also I'm in it (a small role).

There are LOTS of plays to see during the Fringe Festival, but this one will be worth seeing.

Titus Andronicus

My granddaughter and I are going to see Titus Andronicus tomorrow evening at The Arts Project in London. If I didn't know the producer/director, and if I didn't know and respect the actors playing the leading roles, and if I didn't enjoy supporting local theatre, I probably wouldn't go to see this play.

Murder, rape, dismemberment, mutilation, torture, fratricide, sacrificial death -- you name it. This play has all that gruesome stuff. I'm not keen on it. From Wikipaedia,

In his 1998 book, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom attacked the play on numerous occasions, calling it "a howler", "a poetic atrocity", "an exploitative parody, with the inner purpose of destroying the ghost of Christopher Marlowe" and "a blowup, an explosion of rancid irony." Bloom summates his views by declaring "I can concede no intrinsic value to Titus Andronicus." Citing the 1955 Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production, directed by Peter Brook and starring Laurence Olivier, which is generally agreed to have provided the impetus for the 20th century revaluation of the play, Bloom said that the audience laughed several times in scenes which were supposed to be tragic, and he sees this as evidence for its failure as Tragedy. He particularly focuses his criticism on the line when Lavinia is told to carry Titus' severed hand in her mouth (3.1.281), arguing that no play which contains such a scene could possibly be serious. He thus concludes the best director to tackle the play would be Mel Brooks.

Say, now there's an idea! I'm going to laugh all the way through the play. Maybe I'll have a few glasses of wine before I go, too.

My Next Theatre Role -- a Naive Retired Teacher in 1-900-Dee-Lite

Naive, retired teacher! I wasn't exactly typecast (close, though), and I am thrilled to have been offered the role of Tom in 1-900-Dee-Lite.  I'll be working with several talented friends with whom I've worked before, along with a couple of newcomers to the theatre scene.

In the play, Dee (a widow) earns money selling sex talk through a 1-900 phone number. Tom develops an interest in Dee but thinks she sells cosmetics. The love and confusion are compounded by the relationship between Dee's son, Scott, and his long-time friend, Jennifer.

We begin rehearsals soon. Performances will be May 17-21 at The Arts Project in London.

In case you hadn't guessed, it's a comedy.

I Didn't Learn a Thing as an Undergraduate a video of my last public lecture

In the summer of 2012, I gave a public lecture at The University of Regina. In that lecture I criticized higher education because most people don't remember much of what they studied as undergraduates. As an alternative, I emphasized signaling theories of education. I also emphasized the importance of learning-by-doing and the importance of learning from one's own mistakes.

Below is a link to the lecture on YouTube. Unfortunately, the technician forgot to turn the microphone on until the 26-minute mark. So you will miss the introductory remarks by Hafiz Akhand, who was the economics department chair out there at the time. You will also miss my own introduction in which I chronicle all the evidence I had from my own life about everything I may have learned but then quickly forgot. Here is a snippet from the notes I had prepared for that talk:

Old exam story. Saw an intermediate theory exam I’d taken as an undergrad. “Did I know that then? I don’t remember having studied or learned that.”

Disclaimer and personal history.

The fact that I didn’t learn or retain much as an undergrad would surprise none of my undergraduate professors. Ds in two econ courses, Failed a math course, barely passed and barely graduated. Majored in bridge and the identity crisis, and if there’d been an exam in bridge, I’d probably have failed that.

Re-took all the math. Even after only three years, remembered very little.

Okay, okay, I remembered a few things. Dy/dx when y = xⁿ

Virtually no Russian. No Henry James. No Plato, etc. No chem-phys. A bit of Hemmingway. One specific paragraph from Tropic of Cancer that I won’t recite for you now.

Not much econ, really. One item that I remembered and that stood out was the result of a phone call to my prof. Technology change. Used it in gradskool.

Micro theory? Bad sense of analytic geometry by prof. Also methodology (and Machiavelli).

Money and banking? A lot of IS-LM and a prof who looked out the window and cancelled classes.

As I said, I was a bad student, but I think I was fairly typical. How many of you remember very much from the undergrad courses you took (aside from, but maybe even including, fields in which you have continued to work?)

Another example from a different realm: It may be old age, but when I look back at some of the things I wrote the blog 7-9 years ago, I think, “Really? I don’t remember that.” The point I’m making is that memory deteriorates, even with continued refreshing. In Econ speak, if memory is a capital good, like a machine, it deteriorates over time, and (speaking as a senior citizen) it requires continued gross investment to keep it working.

So suppose we do remember very little and use practically none of what we may have learned. What does that imply about higher ed?

Before I try to answer that,

Teaching experiences and thresholds for law and biz.: Experiences at UWO: 70 for bizskool, 80 for lawskool numbers have changed but the idea is still the same.

Couldn’t let them through unless they had demonstrated….. what? That they had learned enough?

Well that fits in nicely with the “human K theory of ed”

But does it follow if we don’t remember any/much of what we are taught? And what if what we DO remember has nothing to do with our future productivity?

What I seem to be moving toward is a challenge of the “human capital theory” of education, which says we get education, at least in part, so we will be more productive in the future.

Those are just the notes for the first 26 minutes. If you would like to see the entire set of notes, I'll be happy to send them to you. Just write me or post a comment requesting them.

And here is the link to the YouTube video [it's about 1 hour and 41 minutes long. I think the last 35-40 minutes are questions-and-answers.

Friends will recognize two things (aside from my general lack of gift of glib):

1. The necktie. A colleague and I bought a bunch of them on sale and distributed them among our colleagues at The University of Regina, dubbing them "the official economics department necktie."
2. Much of my thinking on this topic was heavily influenced not just by my own experiences and by those of my friends and students, but also by the posts of Bryan Caplan at Econlog. See the links to his posts here.

Finally, let me say that I was really pleased with this lecture. I'm glad I was finally able to salvage this much of it.

Auld Lang Syne

Last night I was doing a show in Sarnia, about an hour west of London. After the show, I met Bert. He told me he had been an economics student in one of my classes at UWO back in the early 1970s. He said that he wasn't surprised to see me acting now since I'd had a bit of a flair for presentation way back then.

I probably looked something like this when Bert was in my class:

And then with a chuckle, he added

You looked older than your age back then, too.

Sherlock in Eastbourne

There's a new Sherlock Holmes film out that was filmed mostly in East Sussex: Hailsham, Eastbourne, etc.

It doesn't have Benedict Cumberbatch in it, but I still want to see it (and Ian McKellen is no one to disparage).

Here [via Kath] is a photo of an article about the film:

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See This Play! "The Big Lad"

Last night I went out to Fanshawe Pioneer Village on the NE edge of London, Ontario, to see Jason Rip's original script about the impact of WWI on a small southern Ontario town. The play is "The Big Lad". It was amazing. There is one final performance tonight. Go see it!

The story is about life in a small farming community from 1914-1917. Young men wanted to go to war, but some were turned down for various reasons while others did go. Meanwhile xenophobia reigned as Canadians feared and resented the Germans in their communities [digression: indeed, the people of Berlin, Ontario, renamed it Kitchener]. Rip, the playwright, and the actors captured so many facets of all these emotions, and more, in a play that lasted only about an hour.... It doesn't matter that it was only an hour --- it was brilliant.

All of the acting was good. I knew two of the actors (Demis Odanga and John Turner) and fully expected the high quality performances from them that I saw; I wasn't disappointed. And I had seen Taylor Bogaert recently and was pleased to see him more than live up to the standards of Alvego Root Theatre (the company that produced the play). But most impressive for me was Shayne Coffin who played the title role, The Big Lad. He was truly brilliant in the role.

Adam Corrigan Holowitz directed and produced the show. His direction and staging were beyond brilliant. The venue is an old barn set up in a mini-proscenium style. It is not the set that amazes, though, because it doesn't: it is simple. It's what Adam and the actors do with the set, the 8' x 8' angled proscenium, the entrances, the exits, and the actions. Just wonderful.

[by the way, I saw this play on the evening of the hottest day we'd had so far in Ontario, and the venue wasn't at all uncomfortable.]

I have seen other plays about WWI and southern Ontario, and I have thought they were really very good. The Big Lad was better.

There is one more performance of this play, tonight. It's only about $17 (with taxes) and well worth it. There are plenty of seats available, so you can buy tickets at the door.

Go see this play. You won't regret it.

Well at Least I Wouldn't Struggle to Learn My Lines....

Shakespeare without words? Gimme a break. As my Shake-o-phile grand says, "His language is perfect." or words to that effect.

In Act 5 of “Love’s Labor Lost,” one character scoffs at pedants: “They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps.” The latest Shakespeare fashion, at least in the Washington area, is to invite people to a feast of language and serve nothing but grunts, grimaces and grins—with a few gyrations thrown in for dessert.

The Synetic Theater has harvested a bushel of Helen Hayes Awards (the local version of the Tony Awards) for its Silent Shakespeare shows in the past dozen years. The company (whose name blends “synthesis” and “kinetic”) is run by a husband-and-wife team who were raised in Soviet Georgia and pride themselves on making Shakespeare “very accessible.” Paata Tsikurishvili, described in a Synetic video as a “visionary director,” explains: “Why I do Shakespeare, like this with less text, is because we have that vocabulary to express without the words—like crying and laughing; I take it to the next level.”

And the conclusion is really spot on:

Still, Silent Shakespeare is akin to mental nouveau cuisine with more flourishes than calories. The fact that many Washingtonians consider Silent Shakespeare an improvement rather than an oxymoron reflects unkindly on the capital’s cultural pretensions. But perhaps we should not be surprised that the city that pioneered obfuscation is now exalting expunging English altogether.

The photo that accompanied the article:

Best Line at The Wedding of the Decade

Last weekend I officiated/officianted at "the Wedding of the Decade," a fund-raiser put on by Murder for Hire for The Sunshine Foundation.

Most of us involved in the wedding wrote our own speeches.  The best line of all the speeches was one from the vows written by the "bride" who said, quoting the famous Doris Day song,

When I was just a little girl
I asked my mother, what will I be
Will I be pretty, will I be rich?
Here's what she said to me.

No.

 

"The Library" --- a show worth avoiding at the London Fringe

I made plans to see "The Library" at the London Fringe Festival last night because two of my friends were in the cast. It turned out they had both withdrawn from the cast "because of schedule conflicts". Good move on their part.

The play was performed in the basement of a vintage clothing shop. No fooling. Basement. Rafters, cement floor, posts, stairs in the middle, bare lightbulbs, zero sightlines, hard chairs or seating on the floor. It was a basement.

Before we went down the stairs, we were warned that there was incense and turmeric being burned during the play. I joked to my friend, "Yeah, sure. It's dope." I wish it had been. I might have enjoyed the show if I had been under the influence of second-hand dope smoke.

After the announcements, we were allowed to go down the stairs to the venue in the basement. The stairs were none-too-great for older people with trifocals, that's for sure. And no handrail on the upper half of the stairs. Nevertheless, I made it down ok, and grabbed a chair in a place where I hoped to be able to see most of what was going on.

The play opened with some young woman, dressed in a tight white one-piece thing (a teddy?) wearing a massive cod piece.

Okay, more weirdness, I'm thinking. Then she started conversing with a guitar player who was at the other end of the basement, and some guys dressed in yellow came down the stairs.

After about 2-3 minutes I noticed people across from me rolling their eyes. Despite the fact that the actors were using the stairs all the time, those folks left after 20 minutes. I would have, too, if it wouldn't have been so frickn obvious from where I was sitting.

What the heck was the play about? My best guess is that it was about people wanting to explore different sexual pleasures but constantly being thwarted by some morality cops who got theirs in the end.

So we got to watch all sorts of simulated sexual acts. Sorry folks, but it didn't work for me. What I saw only vaguely showed what the programme promised: Bollywood drag queen, executioners, musical passion. Huh?

Redeeming features?

• The woman singing at the beginning had a gorgeous voice as she sang a Renaissance-type tune. But I couldn't understand her lyrics nor the speeches of the folks who were talking at the same time.
• There was a group dance somewhere near the midpoint that was very well choreographed and synchronized.
• It took a LOT of courage to do this show. And that deserves some credit, since that's what Fringe is supposed to be about.

But the acting was spotty (at best), the dialogue (if you can call it that) was often inaudible, the music was egregiously too loud about half the time, and the script was horrible. It seemed like self-indulgent nonsense.

I will grant that I am from a demographic cohort that probably is not the target audience for this type of play. But the folks who walked out (oh, why couldn't there have been an intermission after 10 minutes so I could have left somewhat discreetly?) were all young adults likely in their 20s. I later heard that people walked out on other performances as well. I don't blame them.

If you want to support daring, sloppy, and self-indulgent, you may want to see this. But for me it was the worst theatre experience of my entire life.

I'll give it 1.2/5 as a rating. The .2 is for the positive things I listed above, but I wish I'd stayed home to watch the Jays on television.

And that reminds me. I think Ian Klymchuk got off easy with the show he saw but didn't like.

Last Blast: Chet Baker Checks Out See this Fringe Play! It is Brilliant!

Tonight we saw Jason Rip's play, Last Blast: Chet Baker Checks Out. It is a 90-minute entry in the London Fringe Festival, and it is spectacular. I'd give it 4.5/5.

What was so brilliant was the script in combination with the staging, coupled with the acting, especially by the two leads: Chris McAuley and Franklin Davis.

The story has a somewhat unforgiving angel (Davis) visit jazz trumpeter Chet Baker (McAuley) in a hotel room in Amsterdam shortly before Baker is going to die. The angel drags Baker through all his miserable relationships and his drug addiction before Baker dies. It is an interesting way to do a biographical/historical script.

The script itself is witty. Rip shows himself to be a premier wordsmith and an extremely knowledgeable playwright once again. This is one of the best things I have ever seen that he has done.

In the wrong hands, the production of the script could have been a boring recitation. Fortunately, Rip, who directed the play as well, brought life to the script with unique staging and excellent casting. The roles played by the women in Baker's life were cast with actresses who captured a wide range of Baker's experiences.

Last Blast  is an impressive, significant play about Chet Baker. There are two more shows scheduled at The McManus Theatre: Thursday, 8:30pm; and Saturday, 4:15pm. Don't miss it.

Disclaimer: I know and/or have worked with all but two members of the ten members of the cast as well as several members of the crew for this show.

 

Underneath the Lintel - a one-hour, one-man production at the London Fringe

I just saw "Underneath the Lintel" at the London Fringe. I'd rate it at 3/5 stars.

The play is about the adventures of a Dutch librarian as he explores the mysteries unlocked when a 113-year-overdue book is returned through the night deposit box.

The energy of Patrick O'Brien, the actor is amazing. He goes rapid-fire, non-stop for an hour with the show. The props, the slides, the audio are all impeccably organized so that the show flows rapidly from one situation to another with no fumbling and no delays. The energy of O'Brien and the organization for the show were captivating.

The energy and rapidness also detracted from the show. Too many times, O'Brien spoke so rapidly (and slightly muttered) that I couldn't make out what he was saying. That was tolerable, though, because the actions and expressions carried the show through those scenes anyway.

Unfortunately, the show was boring near the end. There was O'Brien on stage, ranting and raving and philosophizing and muttering and trying to make something of a play that had degenerated into superficial philosophizing by playwright Glen Berger about Jesus, the Wandering Jew, immortality, lost loves, etc. My mind wandered and I couldn't wait for it to end.

See it for the energy and production quality. See it for the fun and humour in the first half or so. Those things might make it worthwhile for you.

Some Photos from Neville's Island

The Play, "Neville's Island" ended yesterday. It will be nice to have a rest now. I expect the other three who were in the play (and had bigger, more active roles than I) as well as the wonderful crew will also welcome the rest..... and feel a bit at loose ends.

There are some photos that the spectacularly good photographer, Ross Davidson, took of our dress rehearsal two weeks ago here. Here are a couple:

When I think back to how we were performing the show then and how we did it yesterday... Wow, we sure came a long way quickly!

Onward: several mystery dinner theatre shows coming up, including one with a rather large role I haven't played before (a knock-off of Peter Falk's Colombo!).

Neville's Island Resumes This Evening

Neville's Island by Tim Firth (who also wrote Calendar Girls) continues tonight at The Princess Avenue Theatre in St. Thomas. Tonight's show is pretty much sold out, but there are still tickets available for Friday and Saturday (8pm) and Sunday (2pm). After these shows, it's done, so don't put it off.

It's a comedy with tonnes of darkness and sarcasm, filled with intensity. It will likely be worth the drive to St. Thomas to see it.

You can get tickets for Neville's Island via Bellsbookbin 519 878 4452 or by Paypal on Elgin Theatre Guild's website.

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It All Comes from a Clean, Healthy Lifestyle

It All Comes from a Clean, Healthy Lifestyle

Last Saturday night, during a scene in "Neville's Island", I twisted my ankle and sprained my knee as I took this pose atop some rocks (yes, those are my bare legs and knees... you'll have to come see the play to see the rest!):

I somehow made it through the rest of that performance and took a megadose Vitamin I (aka Ibuprofen) before leaving the theatre for the drive home.

For the Sunday matinee, I loaded up on Tylenol 3s and Diclofenac, wrapped my knee, and altered my blocking/movements during the play somewhat. Somehow I made it through the show, thanks to the help from Ms Eclectic along with everyone in the cast and crew.

Fortunately we have had Monday - Wednesday off. I have rested a lot, worn a knee brace much of the time, and continued my healthy eating and lifestyle (including lots of protein, fat, and vegetables, and, of course, scotch therapy).

I don't know what has happened, but by now (Wednesday), my knee and ankle seem to be almost completely back to normal. Yea! "It all comes from a clean, healthy lifestyle."

Neville's Island, Princess Avenue Theatre, Elgin Theatre Guild, St. Thomas, Ontario:

• Thursday 8pm, sold out
• Friday 8pm
• Saturday 8pm
• Sunday 2pm

You can get tickets for Neville's Island via Bellsbookbin 519 878 4452 or by Paypal on Elgin Theatre Guild's website.

 

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