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Drama Queen: January 2010 Archives
How can
a just society operate when violence is the only means of communication?
Williams-Witherspoon's play is a grab-bag of material examining the violent
culture of northern Philly. Including poems, rap, videos, and interviews, it
creates a night of experimental, innovative theatre that pushes its edgy voice
through vignettes. Gangsters vs. warriors, young mothers, the
police, education, alcohol and drugs, and the homeless share a Zen-like balance
topically. The play's core, however, contains a wealth of interviews that paint
a rich image of the real people of
The citizens
Williams-Witherspoon literally employs her own narrative voice in the piece to mixed results. In some occasions her poetry vividly encapsulates the moment. Her valorous verse on the difference between a gangster and a warrior provides a stirring example on how to fight for one's cause when, "many are dying, few people are trying." Other times, sadly, her meter becomes overwhelming. While riffing about young women with babies, Williams-Witherspoon slides into a series of clichés: "non- existent sugar daddies" and "children with children."
Jessica Wallace's visually stunning lighting design inspires awe with its bold color choices and stark images. Ron Ron, an up and coming rapper, is at the end of his rope. Pointing a gun at himself, he says, "click." Abruptly the lights cut to black, and as he lay dying, a screen of crimson floods the backdrop.
A desolate wasteland, Kyle Melton's set design reflects North Philly's poverty. The choice to use three simplistic, worn stoops and doorways, however, also fosters a sense of community within the play in scenes such as when the elderly generation is reminiscing of the old days.
Shot! -- with its multiple performance
levels - takes a look at the raw life of
Forget a click of the heels and
a wave of the wand; there's a new homecoming vehicle on the rise, and this one
requires no ruby-studded mantras.
Home first premiered in 1979 as a production of the Negro Ensemble
Company (NEC), whose mission of
developing plays by African-American writers achieved instantaneous acclaim. Home proceeded to earn a Tony nomination
for Best Play in 1981. As the 70's were wrought with African-American political
defiance sparked by stagnant Civil Rights efforts, the piece was eschewed by
the Black radical movement, yet otherwise enjoyed widespread fame. Praise for
this play has not since dwindled, and in the past couple years
The stubborn soul-aching by
Jamal Douglas' farmer Cephus Miles erected the possibility for a man to be devoid
of religion, yet rich in faith. The devil himself must have been summoned as
Two female muses, Pope-McBride and Taysha Canales as Woman Two, glorified the soulful direction of Mark Wade with explosive guardian-angel-on-the-shoulder flashbacks to the human blessings along Cephus' quest for home. Somehow, despite Cephus' stabs at God's vacation to Miami (leaving him helpless and forlorn) and the slurred syllables with which the women's damning judgments were delivered as he drank and gambled, Cephus continued to keep the faith kite aloft through God's gracious gift of perseverance. Together as ensemble, the trio balanced the duality of belting lyrical poetry and hip-jiving to jazzy reader's theater.
Unfortunately, the lighting by Robin Stamey detracted from the storyline toward the beginning of the piece with completely unwarranted transitions between artistic visions: imagine a friend detailing a lengthy dream while shifting seats every thirty seconds, and a similar effect is attained.
With the recent inauguration of President Obama, the promises of the Civil Rights movement for which the NEC sought have been fulfilled at last. In effect, Home has again surged in popularity, testifying to the power of faith among all people to reclaim a home that was always theirs from the start.
Nicholas Barilar
On the steps before a green door of a ghetto home sit photos, stuffed animals, and lit candles as part of a public display of love and mourning. Around the steps, people are gathered: some hold each other, some stare in bewilderment. At the top of the steps stands a young man - arms folded and eyes closed. A mother weeps and as she cries a cascade of crimson envelops the proceedings. With a sudden pivot of the head, the mourners spit a single word that rips through the heart with the cold burn of an icicle: Shot!
Williams-Witherspoon also leads the ensemble in the show. Her play presents a gift to the world and an effective motivator; however, her poetic presence on stage conveys the classic strutting with pride saloon-cowboy rather than a voice of hope for the people.
While some of this poetic dialogue might be effective, such as discussing how men leave their girls with little more than a tattoo upon their breasts, much of it is unnecessary, such as the long speech about the difference between a warrior and a gangster - something that is not brought up for the rest of the play. If cuts could be made, the slightly dragging two-act could be consolidated into a single sitting of a clearer and quicker moving play.
The acting of the ensemble might be more genuine than Williams-Witherspoon, but it is the fact that they are students that make them so effective - within their age group the play most pushes for a radical change. During a section entitled "Anatomy of a Bullet" the students portray doctors and describe the horrific surgical procedure to treating a bullet wound with the similar effect of an Iraqi Muslim describing the waterboarding process - instilling a moment of awkward discomfort that twists the stomach.
Director Douglas C. Wager employs excellent use of his lights, designed by Jessica Wallace, bringing sharp color changes about quickly. A foreboding red lingers, a gunshot rings out with a blinding white light and fades to a now bloody red.
The simple set, by Kyle Melton, consists of a stage-length long platform upon which stand three different doors with stoops leading to the floor of the stage - illustrating the broken displacement and near ruination of home in this war-torn neighborhood - in addition to telephone cords that run above with a pair of shoes flung over the cord.
At its heart, Shot! calls for change to a city plagued by violence, drugs, homelessness, and other evils. One of the doctors says, "Once it becomes alright you become a part of the problem." Shot! demands that "alright" not come for those that are lucky enough to witness the play.
A Year with Frog and Toad
Robby Bassler
Wake up! Come on, hibernation is over! No it doesn't matter what your age is, because Willie Reale's adaptation of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad series titled A Year With Frog and Toad presented by Indiana University of Pennsylvania transports both young and old on an adventure as large as your wildest imaginations.
A waterfall of shrill trumpets, finger-snapping bass riffs, and bells that turn into swirling leaves (Musical direction by Tom Octave) propel director Rob Greta's paint by imagination environment. Frog and Toad (Sean Barrett and Joe York) pop out of two oversized matchbox beds, with a puddle-splashing ode about meeting in each other's dreams during hibernation. Despite awkward pauses before, during, and after various critters' swan songs, playful singing voices lure even the most lethargic slugs to frolic about in a pool of catchy musical slime.
Frog and Toad outshine expectations from the most dedicated toad-toting toddler or teen. Set and costume designer Dan Iwaniec flies the enormous children's book cover that starts and ends the show into the sky to clear a path for Frog and Toad. Wise, dry-humored Frog chuckles to himself as his best pal Toad runs with the staggering gate of Chris Farley across the stage and up into the audience, trying as hard as he can to fly his big red kite.
As Toad as Frog's unique friendship takes flight, Frog accepts Toad's quirks as Frog squeezes the murky lake water out of the spongy sandwiches that Toad used as a floatation device. Iwaniec dresses this loveable, laughable Toad in a Dr. Seuss-like polka-dotted bathing suit equipped with 1920's swimmer cap. Doo-wop birds change scenery in costumes with lace wings and a feather hat to guide the silly pair of amphibians in discoveries comparable to entering a new room of Willy Wonka's Charlie Factory.
No matter how great, a journey is not complete without its obstacles. Woodland creatures squint hard at their poorly lit path guided by spotlights meandering around stage like lightning bugs. Brown blobs topped with a light bulb (supposedly moles) scurry around stage, content with digging small holes to temporarily trap adventurers. The letter-toting mail-snail crawls onstage with enjoyable dialogue, but often delays Frog and Toad with her lackadaisical comedic timing.
Toad and Frog's platonic book-ending in which they summarize the action of the entire show patronizes adults and children but stands out as an exception for the play as a whole. Throughout the rest of the adventure, jokes about birds getting the flu and cookbooks titled Betty Croaker raises expectations for all children's theatre. So for all those parents that would rather be hibernating, use your children as an excuse to lick this toad and ride out the multi-colored shockwave of fun.
Michael Cook
Guns, teen pregnancy, and drugs. Is that the latest
news report on what is destroying our nation? Shot! is a
'docu-drama' performed by
Shot was created through
interviews and videos shot of several residents of
The play explored how a neighborhood descended into the place it now is, and leaves audiences with a sense of community and a wish to get closer to their neighbors and look after each other. To say that this is the work of a playwright is to spit in the faces of the many people who were interviewed, and the actors who then recreated those interviews in a brilliant naturalistic manner. While it was somewhat 'controversial' that 'multimedia' was used in this performance, it was used in a manner like some theatre practioners as early as the early 20th century did. 'Controversial' in the manner that every technological innovation to theatre is met with initial resistance and several theatre practioners are adamantly against it. The 'multimedia' aspects of t he show were very well done and always seemed to re-enforce what was going on in the play.
The actors played many different characters, and aside from the professor who helped write the play (Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon) it is difficult to put names and faces together, which helped solidify the fact that these events could happen anywhere and aren't specific to North Philadelphia. Characters were recreations of actual people which created an element of reality of the show.
The play was also complemented by a minimalist set by Kyle Melton. The set used very little to establish the front porches of three houses in a neighborhood, but it worked out quite nicely. There were three doors and three sets of stairs leading up to a slightly higher platform.
All of these elements helped
contribute to the idea that this just isn't about North Philadelphia, I
personally am from rural
This was the first production of this play at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (it has made script changes since it's debut) and it is safe to say that this is not the last time this show will be seen by anyone.
Mark Costello
Please, Douglas C. Wager: it's time to upgrade to a better toolbox.
The director of 2007's In Conflict has returned to the banality
of mass media talking points to harness yet another American tragedy: the
poverty and crime of
The crimson projections and lackluster tableaux of In Conflict are two more albatrosses that have clung to Wager's neck as he developed the mise en scene for Shot! Again, we see the entire cast repeatedly lined up, left to right, facing the audience in confrontation. Blood and figurative (or real) explosions abound in both works and sadly, both are as intriguing as a conversation overheard on the C-bus.
This piece's failure comes from Wager's reliance upon a parasitic art form. Docudrama culls together snippets of interviews, histories, and newspaper articles to create a script from which drama is supposed to magically arise. In many instances, such as In Conflict or Robbins' Dead Man Walking, these works are about as engaging as a staged scrapbook.
Much of the first and the
entirety of the second act drag accordingly. Protean actors wander back and
forth, up and down, speaking the words of real
Thankfully, the production manages to rise under the power of Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon's writing and performance. Decked in loose corn-rows and an understated black pant-suit, Williams-Witherspoon commands awed silence with the practiced stride of a feared schoolmarm. When she screams: "No one can lift themselves up by their bootstraps!" the room erupts, and in that moment she could sell hot coal in hell. Her poetic testament can knock down the giants who keep her town starved in their shadows while raising her neighbors to the status of supermen.
The production is at its
strongest when Wager departs widely from the work he's done before. Kyle
Melton's inspired three stoop set transforms slowly into a roadside altar in memoriam of a boy slain by
circumstance; the boy's mother collapses on it, wailing, sorrow hanging thick
in the air like
Shot! loses its deeply felt message in Wager's inability to make art of reality. As it is, his unwillingness to trade in his old bag of tricks makes for a stale piece, sometimes melodramatic, rarely awe-inspiring, without much to brag about outside of Williams-Witherspoon's magic.
Please, Mr. Wager: revamp your toolbox.
A Year with Frog and Toad
"Crisp, but not overly brittle,
just a scintilla of spice, and cunningly soft in the middle." Claims the
delightful Frog as he relishes a fresh cookie from his pal Toad. Coincidentally,
Frog is also describing
Under the delicate and careful direction of Rob Gretta, the small ensemble remains true to the script and does not favor an adult or children's audience. With Robert Reale's score, which ranges from brisk jazzy melodies to breezy country tunes, and Willie Reale's witty libretto this production neither plays down to a child nor flashes a wink to an adult.
At the center of this production were a charming and playful Sean Barret as Frog and the sincere and sometimes doleful Joe York as Toad. Both embodied their characters fully, keeping the audience engaged through inside jokes, and amusing sight gags. Take a look at Toad's outrageous swimsuit, and Mr. Barret's amusing leaps onto his companion's shoulders. The ensemble works hard, and seamlessly with the audience to tell a warm story of friendship and devotion.
Brandon Beale & Anthony Lombardi's lighting design does a fine job in using bright yellows, and cool blues to depict the various seasons. However, their use of follow spots is questionable. The spotlights washed out the actors' faces, and took away from the rich colors thety created for the atmosphere. Shockingly, there were moments when actors could not find their light, and could not be seen by the audience. It was the one area of this production that appeared burnt and overcooked.
Charming costumes by Dan Iwaniec provided depth to characters, with bright colors and vibrant patterns that leap off of the stage like a children'spop-up book. Carefully and expertly detailed, such as Frog's sharp striped suit, with green leggings, and Toad's polka dotted suit, complete with converse sneakers. The costumes provided another layer for actors to dig deeper into their amphibian characters.
Zipping along at a quick 90 minutes, this delightful musical comedy reminds audience members that simple is better. Many contemporary musicals today try and boast flashy technical elements to wow the audience over, yet contain hollow librettos and scores that are consistently unmemorable. It is refreshing to spend time with an airy piece of theater that plays homage to the good old days of musical theater when artistic integrity trumps financial success. A Year with Frog and Toad is deliciously consumed from first bite to last and profoundly memorable long after it has been fully digested.
Valerie Gibbs
Worn wood, chipped paint, and a
sunken porch might not sound much like home, but hasn't it been said that "home
is where the heart is?" Well, heart is definitely found in
Young African American Cephus
Miles struggles to find himself during the racial crossroads in American
history. He was born to be a farmer, but soon hears the echoing call of the
city to hop on the subway and experience the high life. Actor Jamal Douglas
portrays Cephus with conviction and authentic passion and holds nothing back.
Supporting cast members Briana Pope-McBride and Taysha Canales also let the emotions of the text stir them to dancing, shouting, whispering, running around in a fury, or standing still staring off into space. Both speak with their entire body, not just their mouths. Emotion is not solely heard in their voices; it is freely personified for all to see. The show's heartbeat never slows, and music, dancing, singing, and poetic language fill the stage with an immense fever that cannot be ignored.
The set is comprised of a small
deteriorating farmhouse center stage and two angled platforms on either side,
often transformed into various locations such as a bar or Sunday school
classroom. The openness provides a blank canvas for hues of emotion to shine
through. Lighting designer Robin Stamey captures the essence of every moment
presented on stage. The moment Cephus' friend is killed in
Today's audience is much
different than the one Williams wrote for, but Home still relates to people today. Every individual goes through a
time of self-discovery. Many experience
a love like Cephus and Pattie Mae, the struggle between desire and duty, and
often wonder if God has "taken a vacation to
Increased Difficulty of Concentration
Peter Starr Northrop
1. At the center of
a quiet den Dr. Huml stands rigid in terror. He is completely surrounded by a
mad swirl of people and unavoidable questions while lights pop and flash all
around him. For the first time in his life, Huml has lost control. Yes,
6. In crafting this
3. The set consisted of a semicircle of four enormous column-like doors looming over a quiet living room. From the start, the doors give the impression that they will become a threat to the serenity of this place. The walls are all painted olive green, a shade that completely matches Julie Henegan's costumes.
2. A product of the
late 1960s during the Soviet Union's iron reign over the
5. And in his costume, Joe Feilding plays a marvelous Huml. He is earthy and smooth like pipe smoke. He can put any situation to ease--especially when both his wife and the woman with whom he is having an affair interrogate him in separate scenes. They both ask desperate him questions to see if he is ready to leave the other. But, Fielding deflects their inquiries with incredible ease.
4. In this case, Huml's costumes are an olive green suit and a plaid creamsicle set of pajamas. These complement the set's color and give the firm notion that this is Huml's space.
7. Vanessa Lancellotti's direction takes this crazy time scheme and brings order to it. From matching set and costume designs to casting Huml's two love interests so they look alike, Lancellotti weaves together all these chaotic elements so anyone can be guided through the pandemonium.
8. The show focuses around Huml's encounter with a set of fellow social scientists and their quest to make a scientific formula for the interactions of man. After the madhouse climax where everything goes wrong for the scientists, Huml completely loses control of his life for just an instant. Afterwards, Huml finally understands where he's gone wrong and the point of the show becomes clear. "The fundamental key to man does not lie in his brain, but in his heart."
Nathan Taylor
Click. The buckle opened as I pushed inward on the release. The straps swung slowly, back and forth, almost pleading with me not to go through with it. Ignoring their appeal, I put my hands to my head and took a deep breath before yanking off my thinking cap. It was the only way to even remotely enjoy W&J Student Theatre Company's original play Love @ 1st Plight.
Imagine an episode of Family Guy for a basic understanding of the jests writer Drew Aloe uses; lines like "holy cow on a hamburger" sacrifice pacing for humor, resulting in a Möbius strip of predictable clichés. Tiresome jokes assist in unraveling the script; in ninety minutes, main character Spools (David Doom) manages to repeat his name more times than Bob Dole has in an entire lifetime. No help is received from director T.S. Frank, who endorses a hamfisted style of acting.
Mate the voices of Harvey Fierstein and Scooby Doo with the comedic talent of Carlos Mencia, and out pops Doom's portrayal of Spools. The character is tricky; with lines like "Bullshit! From his ass!" and "Let's hug it out bitch," it's little wonder Doom trips over this complicated role. Yelling every line, he presumably researched his part at an elementary school recess.
Roommate Rich (Johnny Galli) is more of an unabridged collection of Shakespeare's works than an actual character. Galli delivers his lines with all the wooden acting ability of Keanu Reeves. There's no chemistry between him and Doom, but it's hardly a surprise watching him ineptly serve his lines to the audience instead of his partner.
Not all performances are as
threadbare - understudy Sophia Tsiris's Daisy demonstrates potential despite
the figurative manhandling she receives attempting to flirt with Doom. And ironically enough, the foreseeable plot
allows Dent Holden's cameo Phil to produce the most massive laugh. Expecting Daisy underneath a mask, the
prancing, southern accented
Enough praise, the crowd demands more blood! Dan Shaw's set design is a sloppy mess of ideas, unpolished and uninspired. Such clutter is absent from the dorm room that includes nothing more than two beds and a desk. Stylistically, the only item missing is a John Belushi poster. The door to said room was set in the middle of a large, white, sparkly fairytale castle. Why is still a mystery; I'll wish upon a star and get back to you.
With all the wit available at a college party, Love @ 1st Plight would have been much more satisfying with a beer in hand.
Jensen Toperzer
Rhythm and motion - this is what defines Arcadia University's production of Samm-Art Williams' Home, a show that in almost every aspect, a production that stands out as a true gem amidst the shows presented at this year's Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
The script itself would feel clichéd if not for the cadence of Samm-Art's dialogue, evocative of the works of Langston Hughes or Ntozake Shange. Taysha Marie Canales' character, listed only as 'Woman Two', shows this in the lines of a speech about going to the city - 'Take it to the city', she says, and in her words we can hear the rumble of trains and the flow of people, the skyscrapers towering overhead.
Even more than in their voices,
the actors' mastery of their own bodies is nearly perfect. James Douglas' lithe
movements are each well thought out, not a single one wasted as he conjures vignettes,
stories, and locations from Cephus' life. For example, when he tells the story
of the "Black Indian" he leans on his porch to speak to the (not physically
present) man, then stands up bolt straight with his arms close to his body to
mimic and parody the deluded fake-Indian before shifting back to his own
confidant yet relaxed posture. Everything seems planned, from the confidant and
sly way he moves as a young man to the subtle tremors in his hands as a shoe
shiner in the twisted canyons of
Robin Stamey's lighting is
almost as much of a character as the actors. Though some cues are slightly
mis-timed and on occasion the actors are left in shadow, it is clear that this
is a problem of the space and short amount of time to put on the show, not the
show itself. The warm, almost buttery tones used to recall Crossroads,
There are some questions about the possible relevance of the play to modern audiences - originally produced in the late 70's, the play speaks on issues concerning Vietnam and black rights.Yet the themes addressed seem just as relevant to the modern day: Cephus' treatment as a man who 'spits on the flag' after he refuses to fight in the war for religious reasons is especially relevant considering the pervasive conservative attitude towards objectors to the war in Iraq during the last decade.
Rhythm and motion - this is what defines Arcadia University's production of Samm-Art Williams' Home, a show that in almost every aspect, a production that stands out as a true gem amidst the shows presented at this year's Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
The script itself would feel clichéd if not for the cadence of Samm-Art's dialogue, evocative of the works of Langston Hughes or Ntozake Shange. Taysha Marie Canales' character, listed only as 'Woman Two', shows this in the lines of a speech about going to the city - 'Take it to the city', she says, and in her words we can hear the rumble of trains and the flow of people, the skyscrapers towering overhead.
Even more than in their voices,
the actors' mastery of their own bodies is nearly perfect. James Douglas' lithe
movements are each well thought out, not a single one wasted as he conjures
vignettes, stories, and locations from Cephus' life. For example, when he tells
the story of the "Black Indian" he leans on his porch to speak to the (not
physically present) man, then stands up bolt straight with his arms close to
his body to mimic and parody the deluded fake-Indian before shifting back to
his own confidant yet relaxed posture. Everything seems planned, from the
confidant and sly way he moves as a young man to the subtle tremors in his
hands as a shoe shiner in the twisted canyons of
Robin Stamey's lighting is
almost as much of a character as the actors. Though some cues are slightly
mis-timed and on occasion the actors are left in shadow, it is clear that this
is a problem of the space and short amount of time to put on the show, not the
show itself. The warm, almost buttery tones used to recall Crossroads,
There are some questions about
the possible relevance of the play to modern audiences - originally produced in
the late 70's, the play speaks on issues concerning
A Comb and a Prayer Book
Kelly Wetherald
Awareness of the Holocaust is an
event that individuals cannot avoid for we are educationally bombarded with
images and horrific details in American history classes nationwide. Modern
society knows this. But what about "genocide in
A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story's central theme struggled. Was the vision to tell one person's history or to heighten awareness of genocide and humanistic cruelty? The play had an unclear objective and static storyline which in turn made the performance boring and unbearably annoying. The production was just another attempt to do justice to a riveting memoir that turned out to be an epic failure on stage.
I cannot blame the painful
performance solely on the actors at
Hendrick also chose to incorporate chamber theatre techniques while directing. This technique includes using as much original text as possible while telling the story through a couple main characters. Unfortunately, Lauren Suprenant playing Shana Fogerty delivered unmotivated monologues with a monotone voice. It is hard to believe that such vivid textual images such as "barren bed chambers", "saturated piss stains", and "starvation to the point of eating worms" could still come across so bland. The lack of ensemble interaction and clear disconnect to the story only added to the antsy atmosphere felt in the theater.
One positive aspect of this production A Comb and a Prayer Book was the technical lighting and set design. Varied lighting angles and color helped create a somber, death stricken mood that the actors themselves couldn't naturally create. The lighting provided depth, a sense of time and helped to make the minimalistic set spring to life. Metal scaffolding, ominous hanging lights and block platforms blended into the background yet also chilled the tone of the piece. The basic set design allowed for imagination to drive visual images.
The high hopes that I had for this production after their nomination to KCACTF were shattered within twenty minutes. I found myself longing for the end or at least for the nonexistent intermission to take a break from the monotonous one dimensional narration.
Shawn Arnold
no, not again." The room spins. A woman on a chair writhes and contorts. She
grips the seat, but it is no use. Falling with a thud, she flops about as a
white vortex opens behind her. Snap! All suddenly goes black. The woman opens her eyes in
a nursery and discovers she is now A BABY! This is but one of the many
reincarnations of Miss Witherspoon. In Christopher Durang's absurdly funny play,
Amy Asendorf
When searching for a personal sense of fulfillment, it is wise to begin with a healthy dose of
suicide. Go right ahead! Run into oncoming
traffic, overdose, invite the dog to nibble on your flesh. Any method will suffice! Christopher
Durang's Miss Witherspoon, as
performed by
Nicholas Barilar
Chicken Little, Gandalf (The
Lord of the Rings' wizard), an abusive parent, an Indian angel, suicide,
and Jesus Christ in a muu muu are now available in one convenient package! All
of these characters--and more--reside in
Robby Bassler
Michael Cook
The world is in danger because humans can't just get along,
the sky is falling, events from decades past traumatize one woman. Only one
person can stand up and save humanity. Who is this hero? Why, Miss Witherspoon
of course! Chistopher Durang's Miss Witherspoon tracks our reluctant
hero's spiritual journey through the afterlife. As with many other Durang
plays, no topic is taboo and audiences will find themselves laughing at topics
they'd otherwise find uncomfortable. However,
Mark Costello
A young woman of no more than 21 flops around like a beached
sea creature. She's writhing in a big way, as though her brown-hued, business-casual
outfit is made of peanuts and she's allergic. Her eyes strain upward, her face
is almost on the ground, and in a terrified flash, her hand darts back toward
her raised hindquarters. Stunned confusion soon trumps horror, as said hand
spastically fans an imaginary flame. We soon get it: she's pretending to be a
dog. This unfortunate, disturbing mishandling of Christopher Durang's
pleasantly dark comedy is the norm in
this Heaven? Nope, it's purgatory, and unless you quit killing yourself you're
going to stay here for all eternity! Sticking around may be a problem for suicidal
Veronica, who rests uneasily at the center of Christopher Durang's Pulitzer Prize-finalist farce Miss Witherspoon.
Valerie Gibbs
"Who said life has to
move forward? Can't it move backwards, too?"
Peter Starr Northrop
So the lights came up for
Nathan Taylor
Ever wanted to see a two-week-old baby incite an invisible
dog named Fido into mauling her to death? Never fear,
Jensen Toperzer
Kelly Wetherald
life like a box of chocolates? No. Life is a dream-cycle filled with suffering,
sacrifice, and perpetual annoyance; at least according to Miss Witherspoon, Christopher
Durang's suicidal cynic starving for peace in the afterlife.
A Year with Frog and Toad
Robby Bassler
Wake up! Come on, hibernation is over! No it does not matter what your age is, because Willie Reale's adaptation of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad series titled A Year With Frog and Toad presented by IUP takes both young and old on an adventure as large as your wildest imaginations.
We are going to start our adventure off in a waterfall of shrill trumpets, finger-snapping bass riffs, and synthesizers that outlive their reputation. With a little help from your imagination, bells turn into swirling leaves to create the environment. Occasionally, critters will sing along with these background beats, but you must watch out for awkward pauses before, during, and after these animals begin their swan songs. Fortunately the beautiful woodland voices cover up any murky water in the composition and you will be singing along with them in your head long after the adventure is over.
The guides of our adventure, Frog and Toad as played by Sean Barrett and Joe York respectively, outshine expectations from the most dedicated toad-toting toddler or teen. They will take us through relatively simple book-cover set that is transformed by the imaginations of the animals and audience. The wise, dry-humored frog guides Toad, the physical, Chris Farley doppelganger as they fly kites, splash in a swimming hole, and bake cookies. You will surely learn and laugh along as the lanky frog and the large, loveable toad learn more about their unique friendship.
Wacky yet simple props give the illusion of magical flower-growing, springs shooting out of an alarm clock, and sponge sandwiches dripping water. Toad's polka dotted yellow bathing suit equipped with 1920's swimmer cap and an ensemble of doo-wop bird outfits of lace wings and a feather hat highlight the Dr. Seuss-like costume choices. The doo-wop birds fly in with the props or scenery changes to make sure that there are no pauses in the adventure.
No matter how great, an adventure is not complete without its precautions. On your adventure you must watch out because the poorly lit path equipped with purposeless spotlight-ningbugs may have you missing important moments in the show. Not even the brown blobs topped with a light bulb can help you as underdeveloped characters prevent them from ever illuminating the situation. You might not even be able to see the snail that will leave poor timing slime all over your knickers and slow down your journey to an awkward pace merely to sing about how everyone should take a "real good look at her."
Toad and Frog's platonic book-ending where they meet each other in their dreams and summarize the entire show might be the only failure of the script not to dumb down the message for kids. Throughout the rest of the adventure, you will be treated as an intelligent member of Toad and Frog's witty, vaudevillian comedy. So dads that would rather hibernating, use your children as an excuse to lick this toad and ride out the multi-colored shockwave of fun.
Mark J. Costello
Frog and Toad Not Just Child's Play
Mention "children's theater" to any member of the arts set and watch them convulse. The mere utterance calls up images of well-meaning but generally inept production teams staging concentrated saccharine on DayGlo sets. The fear is that easy physicality might trump complex story and that no thread, thought, or moment will last longer than 30 seconds. It's a rule that children's productions are little more than distracting chaos unleashed, because kids are dumb, right?
Absolutely not, booms the reply from IUP's Theatre-by-the-Grove. A Year With Frog and Toad is the latest volley against drivel in the war for legitimate children's theater. Sean Barret's Frog and Joe York's Toad guide us through a whimsical, musical world in which snails deliver mail, a protean chorus of birds croon in Andrews Sisters melodies, and most importantly, no one in the audience is talked down to.
A simple set (a storybook backdrop, a few sticks of furniture, and two white picket fences) allows for an expansive space in which magic can be made. And magic it truly is: IUP's production teaches that in a world where we value and care for each other more than ourselves, the things we want simply appear in the wings. Lovingly holding a flowerpot allows flowers to grow (quite suddenly!) and seats appear when tired bones call out to them. Frog and Toad's child-sized bromance envelops the stage in a magical ether where innocence is rewarded.
The show's tech aspects are at once its blessing and its curse. Spring-loaded alarm clocks and flowerbeds, sharply colored 1930s-chic costuming, and punny cookbooks ("Betty Croaker"--go ahead and groan) create a whimsy one settles into readily. Meandering spotlights, however, sometimes distractingly light up barren stretches of empty stage. The pit overpowers the cast often (especially Barret, when he slips into his low register), and one must endure uninspired, repetitive choreography during frequent musical interludes.
Strong performances save us from these wanting moments,
Their willingness to respect child intelligence is rewarded in the formation of a well-rounded, respectable production. They have told children that it's okay to dream, to love simply, and to put others before all things.
Maybe it isn't really children's theater after all.
Sweet, with an Excellent Crunch
"Crisp, but not overly brittle, just a scintilla of spice, and cunningly soft in the middle." Claims the delightful Frog as he relishes a fresh cookie from his pal Toad.
Coincidentally, Frog is also
With Robert Reale's score, which ranges from brisk jazzy melodies to breezy country tunes, and Willie Reale's witty book the play has something for everyone. This is not your average children's play that uses witty dialogue to play down to a young child or over their heads. Under the delicate and careful direction of Rob Gretta, the small ensemble remains true to the script and does not favor an adult or children's audience. The show portrays a simple friendship that is strong and can't be broken in half like a cookie.
At the center of this production were a charming and playful Sean Barret as Frog and the sincere and sometimes doleful Joe York as Toad. Both embody their character fully, keeping the audience engaged through inside jokes, and amusing sight gags. The ensemble works hard, and seamlessly with the audience to tell a warm story of friendship and devotion.
If there is any burnt or overcooked element in this production, it came from Brandon Beale & Anthony Lombardi's lighting design. While creating beautiful atmospheric looks to Dan Iwaniec's minimalist set, their use of follow spots was the only stale part of this production. At times the actors were not in their light, and could not be seen by the audience. Not to pin all the blame on Beale & Lombardi, Gretta stages several scenes extremely down stage creating impossible positions to hang and focus lights.
Dan Iwaniec's charming costumes provided depth to characters, and caused the characters to jump out of the stage like a children's pop-up book. Carefully and cleverly detailed, the costumes gave each character their own distinct style. From Frog's sharp striped suit, with green leggings, to Toad's poke-a-dotted suit with converse sneakers, the costumes gave the actors another layer to dig deeper into their amphibian characters.
Zipping along at a quick ninety minute pace, this delightful musical comedy reminds audience members that simple is better. Many contemporary musicals today try and boast flashy technical elements to Wow the audience over, yet contain librettos and scores that are hollow and flat. A Year with Frog and Toad is consumed like a chocolate-chip cookie, delicious from first bite to last and profoundly memorable long after it has been fully digested.
Valerie Gibbs
Is Spring Here Yet?
A lot can happen in a year, especially when you're hanging out with two energetic amphibians like Frog and Toad. Indiana University of Pennsylvania's production of A Year with Frog and Toad takes this classic children's story and brings it to life in a vibrant way. These two amphibious pals will keep you leaping with laughter through every season, no matter what your age. Who ever said there was an age limit to children's theater? This show definitely proves that anyone can rediscover their inner child and enjoy the innocence of a make believe world in which animals can sing and dance.
The five person cast took on the challenge of over thirteen different characters and performed a show enjoyable for the entire family. The girls of the ensemble sung as sweetly as any Lady Bird and had tight harmonies and full voices that produced the sound of a much larger ensemble. Sean Barrett (Frog) and Joe York (Toad) did not have to work hard to gain the complete attention and approval of the audience. They were engaging and easy to watch, and when they had fun, the audience had fun too. They had a strong connection and portrayed a lifelong friendship. They showed us just how fun baking cookies, flying kites, and sledding with your friends can be. Frog and Toad were best friends, and as we journeyed through the year with them, we learned more and more about what true friendship looks like. Though the story is technically meant for children, the script kept the parents in mind as well with jokes about the bird flu, the wittiness of "snail mail," and various other things that any child would probably not notice. There was something entertaining for everyone to enjoy.
Though the set was minimal, the costumes and props were more than enough to create the fun-filled atmosphere of this show. With the exciting little tricks of the springing alarm clock and the growing flowers in the garden, to the cleverness of using sponges for soggy sandwiches, the props added a youthful, excitement and mystical element to the show. The vintage style of the costumes gave the show the feel of a sophisticated fairytale. The textures and fashions coordinated perfectly with the jazz era musical style as well. Even those in "the pond pit" were dressed to match. This show was unified across the spectrum.
The only thing that needed more attention was the lighting. The follow spots struggled to keep up with their actors and at one point, the audience members somehow became illuminated as well. The house lights flickered at one part too, which could have easily been prevented. The overall lighting was sloppy and flat and did not do much to enhance the atmosphere of the show. However, all the other elements worked so well together that I was willing to overlook the unimpressive lights and still enjoy an experience that had me ready to spend another year with the wonderful dynamic duo, Frog and Toad.
Nathan Taylor
There Could Be No Better Friend Than IUP
Frogs and toads and snails - oh my! No, it wasn't an aquatic version of "The Wizard of Oz," but rather Indiana University of Pennsylvania's production of A Year with Frog and Toad, a children's theater musical whose title couldn't be more truthful. Exploring the bonds of friendship, Frog and Toad bake cookies, ride a sled, and rake each others leaves as the seasons pass.
Even before the musical begins the audience is immersed into the storybook world of these lovable characters when musical director Tom Octave introduces the orchestral "pond." Though the set is minimalistic, nothing besides a few choice pieces are ever needed; the production is carried primarily through the actors, props, and costumes, a welcome change from the growing trend of spectacle heavy musicals.
Sean Barrett's Frog provides an air of cordiality without ceding any of the downright neighborly vibes towards Joe York's ragamuffin Toad. Their relationship was like a G-rated version of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple;" despite the clear differences in their characterizations, there was never any doubt about how much each actor cared about the other - it was in their voices and physicality. Even with an over the top style conducive towards children's theatre, their believability never faltered.
Both Barrett and York utilized melodious voices that rose to
the belting occasion when required. What was truly impressive was their ability
to keep their respective character voices when doing so; Barrett's was deep and
rich, while
Supporting actresses Jamie Markel, Whitney Weimer, and Veronica Wilt made full use of Dan Iwaniec's inventive costumes that were quite congruent with the nature of the props. With ears made of springs, shells made of blankets, and miner's head lamps made from plastic wine glasses, Iwaniec's design never showed a lack of ingenuity without impeding any functionality.
"A Year with Frog and Toad" is best described in the words of the titular characters when they sing "it's inconceivable! It's unbelievable!" The only thing they leave out is that IUP's musical is a whole heap of fun, unrestricted to age and guaranteed to make audiences giggle.
A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story
Shawn Arnold
"Survivor Story" Needs a Little Help
Okay, epic story, guys! Elizabeth Goldstein, a young Hungarian Jew, is uprooted thanks to the Holocaust. She embarks on a perilous journey from concentration camp to concentration camp. Along the way she loses most of her family, but refuses to lose her own will. She even manages to escape the bloody Nazi regime and passes down her story to her granddaughter. If this were a play, sounds like it would make for some assuredly gripping theater, right? Epic stuff!
The piece visually nails it. Dan Wright and Chuck Cole's use of side/down light casts huge shadows and creates an ominous sense of foreboding. This is most intense when a Nazis' Greek chorus is rambling off a cacophony of legislation on the suppression of Jews.
The sound design by Jessica Schon includes bold and haunting choices. Most notably is a sequence where she uses John Hobbie's versatile set as a means to create sounds of a munitions factory. By hitting, scraping and slamming the set, the cast viscerally brings the world of the factory to life.
Pamela Hendrick's cast clearly brings the message home that the play is about preventing genocide. There is also an intense focus on presenting the source material as written. This non-traditional interpretation becomes old quickly, however, as the audience is hammered over the head again and again with presentational narration on level with Ben Stein's droning.
One would think that Hannah Hendry's Goldstein would experience a wave of emotions induced by PTSD while recalling her horrific past. Sadly, trying to find this development is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Hendry's portrayal is monotonous, and in the few months when she is overcome with emotions, they disappear as quickly as they arrived.
Lauren Suprenant's young
A Comb and a Prayer Book is neither stellar nor terrible. Some
brave choices that don't completely work might cost
Amy Asendorf
When A Comb and a Prayer Book Are Your Only Hope
Family Separation. Back-breaking labor. Painful humiliation. Torturous starvation. And all because she was Jewish. A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story, as performed by the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, is an original verbatim theater production based on the memoir of Holocaust victim Elizabeth Blum Goldstein. Because the majority of the production accentuated the dismal trials of life amidst concentration camps, the display of Goldstein's miraculous hope and resilience served merely to remind us of the hope for human tolerance, but lacked a firm basis in reality.
Director Pamela R. Hendrick chose to utilize alternating patterns of narration, dialogue and dramatic action which produced a haunting rhythm to which the audience travelled alongside Goldstein. The use of overlapping served multiple purposes as the lines between Elizabeth Goldstein (Hannah Hendry) and Young Elizabeth (Lauren Suprenant) established a clear distinction between Goldstein's recollection and the interview between Goldstein and Shana Fogarty (Lauren Suprenant) at present. In addition, the overlapping lines of the Hungarian government officials, played by the ensemble, drowned the audience in a spinning whirlpool of hatred and fear. The nearly monotone montage of voices took on a distinctly robotic nature, completely unidentifiable with human emotion and empathy.
Hendrick also established the idea of rigidity within the lives of the Holocaust victims. The meticulously equal spacing between characters as well as the stiff stances of the Hungarian officials and camp guards suggested the immutability of Goldstein's situation. Ironically, the actors playing the siblings and parents of Goldstein's family also play the guards and officials who condemn them. This intriguing duality asserts that both sets of individuals are equally human.
Hannah Hendry provided a breathtakingly chilling portrayal of the disturbed Goldstein. Her rich Hungarian accent combined with her meek hesitancy naturally evoked pity and fear. It was as if Hendry were a hypnotist as the audience fell powerless to the horrors of her account. Each time she nearly stopped the story due to her fragile and painful memories was like a sudden return to reality. Unfortunately, the potential cathartic effect of Hendry's performance was hampered by her young counterpart, Lauren Suprenant. Suprenant ultimately failed to express the horrors of her own present reality as young Goldstein. In fact, there seemed to be no audible change in voice or physical change in stance and presence as Suprenant oscillated between her two roles. The calmness of Shana, the interviewer, seemed to carry over into Young Goldstein, the mildly disturbed, if that.
Due to the complete lack of comic relief, the closing of the production was only slightly palatable. The audience was abruptly shifted froma pathos-ridden tale to a sudden public service announcement: What can we do to help stop genocide? Unfortunately, it's hard to call an audience to action when they are overwhelmend by emotional hypnosis.
Nicholas Barilar
Holocaust Play Proves to Be Devastating
Three multi-leveled scaffold towers loom before you. The house lights slowly darken. The ominous sound of a Yiddish tune on pipes is suddenly heard.The lights come up and the Brechtian A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story plunges us into the tragic world of a holocaust survivor. Unfortunately, this production proved tragic as well.
It shares the story of Elizabeth Blum Goldstein who, after facing a brutal experience in six different concentration camps, tells her story for the first time to her granddaughter for a class project. We see both happening at the same time.
I loved the set design by John Hobbie. It was balanced as well as extremely usable for such a stylized show.
The lighting, by Daniel Wright and Charles Cole III, was effective, specifically, in the use of a projection that placed barbed wire across the entire stage provided a sharp jab to the stomach in not only separating the characters from the world outside the concentration camps but from the audience as well.
Perhaps the most helpful in the actual storytelling, though, was the combination of properties and sound designs, by Jessica Schön and Patrick Judd, respectively. When the set is pounded by billy clubs to create gunshots that create sounds that crawl over and through you like an ocean wave the result is chilling. Still, one of the hardest images to shake comes when the family is forced into labor and create, using the props and their bodies, the sounds of the factory. But, then there will be occasions when non-live sounds were used and they simply failed to have the same impact.
The acting was largely executed in a very unrealistic manner. These moments were probably the most effective at the beginning when laws regarding the rights of a Jewish person were recited in a chaotic unison. However, for the actual action of the play, it proved to be irritating because the best moments of action where acted realistically.
The cast comes across as awkward, however, the fault probably lies in the direction. It became very clear that what was and wasn't real or "in the moment" wasn't real because it failed to connect and just lacked life. Coupled with pacing problems, the direction was simply stagnant. Toward the end of climax-devoid staging, it all just seems the same, that being too long and slow.
The final scene between
Michael Cook
A Comb and A Lack of Justice Done
A Comb and a Prayer Book is a play about a woman revealing her experiences in the holocaust for the first time since the events transpired. This sentence seems to be the basis for several other books, plays, and movies. However, A Comb and a Prayer Book claims to be much more and falls short of those claims. The story is one of hope and the subject matter of the Holocaust is a familiar tale to many people who are taught not to forget the past.
Before the play started, I noticed the unconventional size of the program and read the director's notes which stated that the director wished to portray the reality of the holocaust using Chamber Theatre (a style of theatre which seeks to use as much of the original text from which it was adapted) because every other play the director read resorted to expressionism or metaphor to convey this. However, upon viewing this play I would certainly say that expressionism is a large influence on the play. However, the costumes didn't lend well to either idea. The men were in costumes that suggested Jewish apparel of the time, but the female characters were wearing black leggings and jumpers, which could have suggested that the play is a memory, and some of the details of the memory aren't as strong. While some may argue that this was the entire point in doing so, it is also possible that it was entirely unnecessary. The music seemed to cut off the actors' lines at times and at other times it was almost overwhelming viewing the play, the acting itself was good and the actors had to play several different characters, changing many conflicting mindsets and personalities in a matter of minutes, and the lighting helped establish the cold nature of the Holocaust, and the warm nature of the family.
The story itself would have been worth hearing regardless of how its presented but I often found myself asking if the story was being dealt justice during my viewing. However, the ending seemed to pull me entirely out of the story and could've been a reminder that injustice carries on to this day, but instead seemed awkwardly executed and killed the mood of the play, instead of portraying reality it felt too much like I was watching a group of actors trying to raise awareness about a cause.
While it was an ambitious first production, I feel as if this script has the possibility of being executed well, but for now that will have to wait.
Peter Starr Northrop
Peter Starr Northrop
A Comb and a Prayer Book and Not Much Else
Ah yes, the Holocaust. It was one of the harshest crucibles that mankind has ever had to endure. By now, we've all heard the terrible stories of that dreadful time, from Anne Frank's heartbreaking diary to the power and fury of Ellie Weisel's Night. The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey has tried to add one more side to this terrible chapter with A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story.
Comb tells the
story of one
But, storytelling aside, this show looked fantastic. Set designer Jon Hobbie really accomplished something special for this show. His design is made entirely out of layers and stacks of skeletal scaffolding backed by grey scrims. This, paired with Daniel Wright's chilled lighting design really sombers up the audience even before the show begins. The whole thing is cold and grey--a cloudy December afternoon on an industrial beachfront. This spartan design leads to some incredible stage pictures. We see a whole family crammed into the cattle car of one scaffold while bright jagged squares of light play off their frightened faces. But these beautiful and shudder-inducing images do little to save the show from it's greatest flaw: the story.
The tale is told essentially through a 90 minute intermissionless monologue shared by Elizabeth Blum (Hannah Hendry) and her granddaughter, Shana Fogarty (Lauren Suprenant.) The show went live in the massive Fischer Auditorium, though it became abundantly clear that Comb felt more at home in a smaller space. Suprenant simply could not project to fill that whole auditorium, and Hendry did not fare any better. Their speeches took on a ghostly, distant aspect that made it difficult for the audience to make any emotional connection.
The show is more of a torture story than a survival story.
While Comb is a very important story, it simply does not tell enough of it to make the experience have anything other than a slight educational value.
Jensen Toperzer
A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story
In literary fiction, there is an adage that one should always show, not tell - that is, a character should not simply state "I am angry," but show their rage through their actions and reactions. It is advice repeated to the point of near absurdity, but that does not change its relevance, and it is at this very task that Pamela Hendrick's adaptation A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story utterly fails.
There's a certain irony in this, as the theater is a medium precisely for showing, not telling, but many parts of A Comb and a Prayer Book feel like a book report rather than a play, with the narrators both seeming emotionally distant from their subject matter - a true shame, as the story itself should be incredibly moving. We speak here of a story about a woman who managed to survive not one, but six concentration camps, and who is alive to this day with grandchildren.
The primary problem comes from director Pamela Hendrick's
choice to create the play as a Chamber piece. While the style has been used
effectively in other contexts - such as The Grapes of Wrath - in this
case, it serves to create a gulf of emotional distance between the audience and
a subject that should, by all means, be emotionally raw. While the director's
stated goal of neither sanitizing nor romancing the Holocaust is an admirable
one, it is one the piece ultimately falls short of. Indeed, A Comb and a
Prayer Book does feel sanitized. For example, there is one scene in which a
The ending of the play feels ham-handed, with the actors listing off modern genocides in an effort to brain the audience with the fact that the Holocaust "could happen again." But because the horrors of the Holocaust were not presented in a way that could evoke an emotional response from the audience, this list falls as flat as the rest of the production, feeling more like the sort of thing told to middle school history classes.
In the end, A Comb and a Prayer Book manages to do
the very thing it set out to avoid - it sanitizes the Holocaust and worse yet,
Kelly Wetherald
Comb and A Prayer Book:
The Holocaust of World War II is
an event that educated individuals cannot avoid learning about for we are
bombarded with images, events and horrific details in American history classes
nationwide. Nearly six million Jews were murdered, tortured and humiliated
all to indulge the egotistical control freak, Adolf Hitler. Modern
society knows this. But what
about genocide in
The main area I am struggling with was whether the purpose of A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story was to tell one person's history or to heighten awareness of genocide and humanistic cruelty. The play had an unclear objective and static storyline which in turn made the performance boring and unbearably annoying. To me it was just another attempt at making a Holocaust memoir that turned out to be an epic fail.
cannot blame the painful performance solely on the actors at
Hendrick also chose to incorporate Chamber Theatre techniques while directing A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story. This technique includes using as much original text as possible while telling the story through a couple of main characters. Unfortunately, Lauren Suprenant playing Shana Fogerty and Hannah Hendry playing Elizabeth Blum Goldstein's monotone vocal qualities, unmotivated monologues and lack of ensemble interaction put me to sleep.
One positive in this production of A Comb and a Prayer Book was the technical lighting and set design. The use of top, side and blue light helped to create a somber, death stricken mood that the actors themselves couldn't naturally create. The lighting created depth, a sense of time and helped to make the minimalistic set spring to life.
The high hopes that I had for this production after their nomination to KCACTF were shattered within twenty minutes. I found myself longing for the end or at least for the nonexistent intermission to take a break from the monotonous one dimensional narration.
Dear Editor,
The theater world has a new and exciting craze that's popping up in small drama companies all across the country. It's an incredible movement called "24 hour theater." This new twist on drama involves paring down the usually lengthy and exhausting process of writing, workshopping and producing a fully staged show from what could be several years to just a single day. This bold new form of expression is usually done in a festival setting where a rag-tag group of writers, directors, actors and designers are frantically thrown together into teams. They are then given a concept and (you guessed it) 24 hours to write, produce and perform a ten minute play. These festivals are usually teeming with the theater scene's amateurs, all of them desperate for that first chance to express their vision on the stage.
This sounds lovely, but do the theater-goers of your readers really want to go see a play (or series of plays) that have been haphazardly built over the course of a single day? What's the appeal of 24-hour theater to an audience?
I would like to offer your publication a 1,200-1,500 word
feature article entitled "The Fringe Challenge--a look inside the new form of
spontaneous theater" that answers that very question. The article will take a very in-depth look at
one of the many spontaneous theater
festivals that has popped up in the region--The Kennedy Center American College
Theater Festival's Fringe Challenge. While the Fringe Challenge is technically 48 hour theater, it's still got all the
aspects one would expect from a 24 hour theater fest. Best of all, this year's
challenge is held at the Indiana University of
The article will go in depth into the conceptual side of this new art form, opening up with the Fringe Challenge's long-time director, Len Kelly. It will then feature interviews with several of the Challenge's participants--where they will share their background in theater and their passion for this fun new way of looking at the performance arts. The article will be a collage of different stories from a wild and maddening 48 hour period that leaves its participants and audience members forever transformed. It will show amateurs pull off stunning theatrical feats that--given the circumstances--seem almost impossible.
The article can also have several aspects on your publications website if desired. Full audio interviews with participants are available and several groups involved have agreed to have their chaotic writing and rehearsal sessions filmed for internet publication--giving further breadth to this experience.
The Fringe Challenge begins on January 12th , and goes live on the night of the 14th. The article and online aspects can be available to you by as early as the 15th.
Peter Starr Northrop
Query 3:
Dear Editor,
How many times have you driven down an unknown street in Philadelphia, and had a chill run down your spine? Did you immediately lock your doors, and accelerate your car to escape the block? If you have then the Temple University theater department's production of Shot! wants to have a brief word with you.
I'd like to offer you a 1,200-word article entitled "Song of the Street". The theater department of Temple University has conceived a brand newperformance piece entitled Shot! The piece gives audience members an inside look at Beirut, a Northern Philadelphia urban community, whose image has been tarnished from the 1964 riots.
My article will examine the process that the production team of Shot! went through and give an inside look at the process that goes into putting a piece of this nature together. Temple University uses poetry, monologues, songs, and documentary footage to create an authentic narrative and perspective of a neighborhood that has been.
Through interviews with writer Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, director Doug Wager, and a few members of the ensemble members I will give readers an insight into the process. I will also have video recordings of the interview to place on your website. As a theater artist and scholar I believe that it is important to highlight this production and highlight the Docudrama performance style. I believe that through this production, Philadelphia citizens will get an insider's perspective into the real story of their community and an insight in the process that goes into putting a piece of this nature together.
I would like to thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing back from you!
Connor Davis
Query 4:
Dear Editor,
Is there really such a drastic gap between entertainment for children versus entertainment for adults? And do basic instincts and values change over time or are the morals instilled in us as children timeless? Actors and adult audience members alike tend to look at children's productions as a "dumbed-down" version of stereotypical theatre. On the contrary, children's theatre explores a different aspect of creative expression, taking a script and interpreting the text to be universally relatable.
I would like to offer you a 1,000 word article entitled, "Rediscovering Childhood in a World of Professionalism." The article would explore the importance of well rounded theatrical exposure, the connection between a mature and elementary script style as well as Indiana University of Pennsylvania's effect on the youth of the community. IUP's presentation of A Year with Frog and Toad by Willie and Robert Reale opened my eyes to the lack of children's style shows in production, especially at the collegiate level. These specific points are supported with interview quotes of the cast and director, Rob Gretta, as well as video clips of recent productions.
The lack of children's theatre workshops and events at KCACTF further proves the reasoning behind this article. According to the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, children's theatre is a completely different focus for the performing arts that has consistently increased in both revenue and popularity over the last decade. Shouldn't professors, actors, directors and theatre goers alike place more weight and interest on this steadily growing field?
Children's theatre can be thought of as the foundation of theatrical experience. If an actor or director can interpret a script and convey its message to a sea of children, then they can take the basics of a mature script and convey its ideas to a sea of educated adults.
As an actor, newly evolving director, and avid writer I feel that I have an extremely diverse and multi-faceted viewpoint and would therefore be the best candidate to write for your journal. I am a junior musical theatre major and nonprofit studies minor at James Madison University and have recently worked with JMU's Professional Children's Playshop in the summer of 2009. I have a passion for children and the importance of theatre in their ever-changing development as productive and artistic citizens.
I thank you for taking the time to review and consider my proposal and I look forward to hearing your response. If you are interested in the details of my research or this unconventional perspective, I would be glad to have my article, "Rediscovering Childhood in a World of Professionalism" on your desk within two weeks of hearing your response. Thank you again.
Kelly Wetherald
Query 5:
Dear Editor,
Many people are fascinated by the survival stories of the men and women who endured life in concentration camps during the Holocaust, but how often do we really stop and think about how hard and grueling their lives must have been? There are plenty of books and documentaries on this subject, but few have ventured to take these stories to the stage. A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story, by Pamela Hendrick, is the story of Elizabeth Blum, who, by the age of nineteen, had endured life in six concentration camps. It is based on personal interviews and the book written by her granddaughter, Shana Fogarty.
I would like to offer you a 1000-word article title "Staging
the Holocaust," which examines the long process of transforming the book and
interviews of this Holocaust survivor into a theatrical production. Specifically, I will examine the process of
the show performed by The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey at the 42nd
Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival held in
The stage is a place where we see stories brought to life, made into a reality. This article will explain exactly how that is made possible. It will follow the show's development from a simple interview, to the writing of the book, and finally, to the stage. It will not only present the difficulties in putting such an emotional event under the lights, but it will explain the effect that doing so can hold. Staging historical events is different from creating a movie on the subject in that the action is experienced right before our very eyes; the audience is in the moment, and is able to relive a bit of history. This not only creates a bridge to the past, but it furthers one's appreciation of the present.
As a Theatre major at
I hope that you sense my passion for this subject and if interested, I can have my full article to you within two weeks of your approval. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for your time,
Valerie Gibbs
Query 6:
Dear Editor,
The other day I saw a four-year-old teach her father how to
use his I-Phone to take a picture. Generations
in this country find it difficult to communicate because they do not
communicate through the same media.
I want to offer you a 1000 word article entitled "Snap-Shot!:
"Snap-Shot!" addresses how the fuse of theatre and film made a new medium for addressing race in Shot! Interviews from old and new generations of Northern-Philadelphian audience members explore how Shot! acts a gateway to new racial frontiers. The article concludes with the idea that interlocking technology and race in Shot! helps two generations of Philadelphians share accounts of racial strife.
This article is important to Philadelphians because it demonstrates how multi-media performance in Shot! starts a new discussion that is accessible to all generations and races.
As a Native-American critic and a product of today's technology codependency, I offer insight into how using a timeless medium to fuse generations and discuss racial tension. Additionally, "A Night at the KCACTF Drive-In," my runner-up critique in last year's American College Theatre Festival, provides insight into my exploration of the use of live-technology in Shot!
I hope that I can interest you in sharing this discussion
with the city of
Robby Bassler
Query 7:
Dear Editor,
It's always wonderful when we
get to celebrate ambassadors of the City of
For your publication, I would like to write an 800 - 1,000 word article tentatively entitled: "Taking Home With Them." The piece will detail the production's path from stunning hometown show to successful, recognized opus as follows:
story. By interviewing Mark Wade (director), Taysha Canales, Brianna
McBride Pope, and Jamal Douglas (all of them ensemble actors and KCACTF merit
certificate winners), I will provide a look at the driving personalities behind
the work's hometown success. I will also detail their connection to the
· Outcome. After establishing the group's path to the festival, the remainder of the piece will be devoted to detailing the students' current preparation for performance, the outcome of the competition, and the students' reaction to it.
I am a master's candidate in
theater at
am highly concerned with rising college theater companies that are making the
Mark J. Costello
Query 8:
Dear Editor,
Beads of sweat dot the furrowed brow of the twentysomething actor. They gently cascade down his nose while the butterflies in his stomach do choreographed air shows. Throw on top of this the fact that he is competing against 200 other students for a chance at a scholarship. Thus is a case of one student who is taking part in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship.
I would like to offer you a 1000 word article on the journey of local college students who take part in the KCACTF Region II scholarship program (tentative title- Going for Granny: Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship).
In the article I would specifically like to track the progress of three to four students who take part in the process. Here I hope to examine their feelings about auditions, acting, and what the scholarship would mean to them.
To begin with, the article will briefly introduce the reader to exactly how students are selected. I will then follow the stories of three to four local college students who are competing in the competition. This will paint a picture of the experience of each actor's time in the Ryan audition process. Following the festival I will sit down with each student and conduct a formal interview. Here I will gets the reflections of each student after all is said and done.
As a former Irene Ryan partner and actor I know the strife auditions can cause and the journey students go through academically while honing their craft. These students are the future of theatrical arts, and they are products of this paper's base. I hope you find interest in this topic, and I am looking forward to your response. I can have a copy of it to you 3 weeks following the regional competition and your approval. Again thank you for your time!
Sincerely,Shawn Arnold
Query 9:
Dear Editor,
Angry shouts are heard in the distance. You walk around the corner and down a street. The sound grows louder. You continue around yet another corner and find the source: a large group of political activists spreading a message. What might be the most intriguing aspect of the group is that they are made up of college students. The college student body has traditionally been a political force to be reckoned with and the theatre has proven to be an excellent venue to send a message.
I am offering to write an article entitled something to the affect of "Political College Theatre - You Cannot Stop It!" that would be some 3,000 - 4,000 words in length on the political nature of college theatre and how it is bound to continue to be a natural choice of medium and venue through which a political message may be conveyed using the shows featured at this year's American College Theatre Festival in region two as examples.
The article will include commentaries on the festival's productions of A Comb and a Prayer Book: A Survivor's Story, Increased Difficulty of Concentration, and Widows Each have a political or social issue behind them (genocide, sexual morality in the workplace, and repressive government, respectively). I will also include interviews with the cast and director of A Comb and a Prayer Book in my article, to gain a better demonstrate the potency of the political college theatre scene. What's more, if you should chose to pursue the publication of this article, I will provide the full audio to the interviews I will be conducting.
My article would focus on the political and social aspects of each play and how college theatre groups will use plays like the ones that will be seen at the festival to make their own charged statement as well as how colleges are an ideal place to present a political play.
I hope to hear from you soon and that the topic of my article might be of interest to your publication. Thank you for your time.
Nicholas Barilar
Query 10:
Dear Editor,
You find yourself at an audition, receive a cold reading, and are told to go with no time to prepare. The casting director vaguely asks you to try something "different." Your scene partner drops their line and everyone stands around awkwardly, now unsure of both themselves and the scene. Whatever the scenario, there is one solution accessible to all - improv. With some sort of improvisational training, actors will never find themselves stumped in any sort of circumstance.
I would like to offer you an 800 word article titled "The Importance of Improv: Imagination in Action." The article would discuss the significance of actors attending improv classes and workshops, and provide an evaluation of several workshops, informing readers about various teachers and their methods.
Take Gail Winar's workshop "Theatre Games," being taught at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival this week. It describes itself as a way to "explore theater games and improvisational exercises to wake up your creativity, imagination, and awareness during the rehearsal process." In my own experience, there are several types of directors, and a number of them have no problem with an actor bringing their own ideas to the table - some, in fact, encourage it. Through improv, one can open themselves up, becoming more extroverted and willing to share their ideas.
Another area improv can help an actor explore is physicality; with enough creativity and a willingness to explore their environment and their body, actors can discover mannerisms unique to their character that they might never have dared to try before. Improv is no simple chocolate or vanilla but rather the Neapolitan, where no one bite is exactly the same as the last. Improv is a tasty gift that changes in every new situation.
The great American improvist Viola Spolin once wrote in her book "Improvisation for the Theatre" that "everyone can improvise." Whether or not every person has the ability to travel to Second City or star on "Saturday Night Live" is of no matter; the mere introduction of improv can enhance an actor's innate skills. My article will show the influence of improv by interviewing those who attend these workshops, and asking them how each class heightened the skills they already had.
I was not only involved in improv in high school, but also at my college (James Madison University's "New and Improv.'d"). The value of the practices, the conferences we visit, and the myriad of classes we attend is unfathomable, so I speak from experience when I say that improv is an inestimable tool that should be utilized by every actor.
Please let me know if you have any interest in this article or its subject matter, and I can have a finalized copy of the article delivered to you within a week. Thank you for your time.
Nathan Taylor
That's all for the pitches; the students are waiting to hear if any of these result in a home run. Tomorrow I'll post their first reviews, and appropriately enough, the two shows they saw today run the emotional gamut from comedy to tragedy. Both have literary roots, but A Year with Frog and Toad, based on Arnold Lobel's children's stories, and A Comb and a Prayer Book, based on Elizabeth Blum Goldstein's Holocaust memoir, couldn't be more different. I'm really looking forward to seeing how they handle this analytical mood swing, and I hope you are too.
Peter Starr Northrop is a Memphis-born, Pennsylvania-based writer with no style and an awkward sense of humor to match. He is currently a junior at Elizabethtown College, where he is frantically throwing together a double-major in English and theater. Mostly he divides his time between working as the head features editor for his school newspaper--The Etownian, heading the writers of a sketch comedy group, and attending the occasional class. When it comes to theater, Peter has recently stuck to the directing side of things. He just wrapped up a production of David Ives' English made Simple and is currently assistant-directing Elizabethtown College's production of Five Women Wearing the Same Dress.
Nathan Taylor is a junior at James Madison University, currently working on a double major in theater and English. He has been involved with theater since he was a young boy, appearing in several shows in the Washington D.C. area during his childhood. It was not long before Nathan realized that he had to be involved in some facet of theater for the rest of his life. Coincidentally, he has also been involved with the English language since he was a young boy, attending elementary school and learning the alphabet during his childhood. It was not long before Nathan realized that he had to both be able to speak and read the English language if he was going to be successful in his adulthood. With the love of both writing and watching a production, he naturally has a passion for critiquing shows of all types.


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Get the most out of your Privilege Club membership when you share it with family. Our Family Programme offers main members the benefit of pooling Qmiles earned by nominated family members into their accounts for quicker awards.
Our Family Programme allows main members across all membership tiers to nominate up to nine family members including and limited to their spouse, children older than 2 years and parents to their Privilege Club membership. The higher your membership level, the more Qmiles your family members will earn.
All family members except those of Burgundy members will receive their own membership cards. Burgundy members will be able to print, save or email the digital cards of their family members. Each family member will have their own unique membership number. They can then start earning Qmiles whenever they fly with Qatar Airways and any oneworld member airline, or use the services of our other airline or non-airline partners.
To nominate a family member, log into your membership account, select "My Profile" from your dashboard menu and "My Family" from the left navigation menu. Click the "Add a Family Member" button on the page to nominate your family member. You will be required to attach supporting documents to support your relationship with your nominated member. Alternatively, you can visit any Qatar Airways ticketing office to submit the form and documents.
All Qmiles earned by family members are credited to the main member's account. Family members' flight activities do not earn Qpoints.
Once added, family members cannot be replaced on your membership for 24 months. However, family members more than 12 years old can delink from the family programme and have their own membership accounts as main members. The Qmiles earned prior to delinking will remain in the main member's account
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subset: commoncrawl


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As promised, I'm sharing how I made the painted pine cone garland that I showed you in my Simple Christmas Vignette post.
With Christmas only 11 days away, any decorating project from here on out must have the following criteria: minimal effort, time and expense.
The only supplies you need are pine cones, spray primer, spray paint, jute twine and hot glue.


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Deborah Rudacille's history of Sparrows Point, told largely through interviews with retired steelworkers, is called Roots of Steel.
But according to one of her sources, she could have chosen a different title. "You should call it 'Roots of Sadness'," an 83-year local resident said, "because nobody's working anymore and they lost everything they had."
That's not strictly true more than 2,000 people are employed at the Maryland plant, now owned by Russia's OAO Severstal, and some of those who cashed out before the wrenching 2001 bankruptcy of longtime owner Bethlehem Steel Corp. avoided the huge pension and benefit reductions that scarred so many.
Still, this is a book about decline—of Sparrows Point, of Bethlehem Steel and of the U.S. manufacturing base—and it doesn't make easy reading. At its peak in 1959, Sparrows Point claimed the title of the largest steel works in the world, employing 36,000 people. Wages were good, especially when the United Steelworkers union won hard-earned rights for workers in the 1960s and '70s, a struggle that takes up a large part of the book.
Wages still are good for those who survived the cuts of recent decades until the 2008 recession, the wages of some hourly workers were above $100,000 a year, according to Rudacille.
"They are making more money than we ever made," retiree LeRoy McLelland Sr. said. "But there are less people making it." That might just be the story of the past 25 years in America.
Rudacille, who is from the neighboring town of Dundalk, traces the early history of Sparrows Point, from its 1887 foundation by the Pennsylvania Steel Co. on malarial wetlands south of Baltimore, through its purchase by Bethlehem Steel in 1916 and the war-related booms and depression-era slumps of the first half of the 20th Century. Residents of the company-built town of Sparrows Point had their own movie theater, bowling alley and pool hall, and could catch bushels of crabs in the unsullied waters around the plant.
It was no paradise for workers, though, some of whom would put in 24-hour shifts and 100-hour work weeks in hellish conditions. Drunkenness was rife, both on and off the job, and the safety record appalling in one six-month period in 1910, there were 10 deaths.
Even as steel production expanded in the following decades, those conditions didn't improve significantly. The toll on steelworkers' health, and the fight for better working conditions in the post-war era, form the bulk of the book. A tragic number of the steelworkers died early of mesothelioma, asbestosis or other work-related diseases.
Unionization resulted in some improvements in working practices and better pay and benefits, Rudacille says, even though some Sparrows Point workers were initially hostile to unionization ("Why should we join a union," one pre-war worker asked, "when the company always treated us right?").
But it took far longer to change the culture of racial and sexual discrimination that the book's sources document.
Even though Rudacille is a strong supporter of the benefits of unionization, she acknowledges that some of its results contributed to the inefficiencies and high costs that left Bethlehem and other steel companies unable to compete with foreign steelmakers in the 1970s and 1980s. The massive layoffs and loss of benefits that followed are still felt keenly by retirees, in part because of the huge sense of pride many had at being part of Sparrows Point in its glory days.
The book contains some errors and omissions Sparrows Point was never "churning out a million and a half tons of steel a day," and allegations of bad practices under Severstal's ownership go unchallenged. It ends on a paean to the election of President Obama, an event which, as Rudacille notes, was not welcomed by a number of her sources—in fact, Republican presidential candidate John McCain carried Dundalk.
But at its best, Roots of Steel isn't political or preaching—instead, it lets the Sparrows Point steelworkers tell their own story, a large part of which may never be heard in America again. In the post-World War II boom, "there was so much work that when you were looking for a job you could go anywhere," Willy Cohill, a weighmaster in the plant's wire mill, said. "If you didn't like this place, you could go next door. There was always somebody looking to hire you." A different era indeed. KEVIN FOSTER
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We actually don't know who his investors are. At the point when we are ready, we will investigate further. There are just so many things to handle and there are a lot of items to be considered with the project."
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One person is dead following a wreck Friday night on Old Furnace Road.
One person is dead following a wreck Friday night on Old Furnace Road.
Gene Franklin Pearson Jr., 39, of Glassy Drive in Inman, died shortly after 10 p.m. Friday at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center as a result of internal and external injuries, according to Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger.
The coroner's office, Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office and South Carolina Highway Patrol are investigating reports that Pearson jumped out of a truck near the intersection of Asheville Highway. He was hit by an oncoming 2007 Cadillac driven by Detroit Michigan Wolf, 80, of Inman.
No charges have been filed in connection with the wreck, said Lance Cpl. Bill Rhyne of S.C. Highway Patrol.


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DailyDirt: Mostly Harmless Scams...
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
- Now that computers are better than humans at playing chess, it shouldn't be too surprising that chess engines are being caught in use in human vs human tournaments. One teenager was found using the Fritz chess engine during competition, and it could mean future chess tournaments will be held without any kind of technology near the competitors. [url]
- A mid-40s software developer was caught outsourcing his job to a team of programmers in China (for about a fifth of his annual salary). And he would have gotten away with it, too, if he'd just covered his tracks a bit better. [url]
- Prof T. Mills Kelly taught a class at George Mason University that encouraged undergraduates to enter fake information into Wikipedia. Don't believe everything you read, kids... [url]


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Well we're about a month past PASS Summit 2011, and yet I haven't finished blogging my notes! Between work and home life, I haven't been able to come up for air in a bit. Now on to my notes…
On Thursday of the PASS Summit 2011, I attended Klaus Aschenbrenner's (blog|twitter) "Advanced SQL Server 2008 Troubleshooting", Joe Webb's (blog|twitter) "SQL Server Locking & Blocking Made Simple", Kalen Delaney's (blog|twitter) "What Happened? Exploring the Plan Cache", and Paul Randal's (blog|twitter) "More DBA Mythbusters". I think my head grew two times in size from the Thursday sessions. Just WOW!
I took a ton of notes in Klaus' session. He took a deep dive into how to troubleshoot performance problems. Here is how he goes about solving a performance problem:
I normally start with blocking and then hit the wait stats. Here's the wait stat query (Paul Randal's) that I use when working on a performance problem. He highlighted a few waits to be aware of such as WRITELOG (indicates IO subsystem problem), SOS_SCHEDULER_YIELD (indicates CPU problem), and PAGEIOLATCH_XX (indicates an IO subsystem problem or a buffer pool problem).
Regarding memory issues, Klaus recommended that as a bare minimum, one should set the "max server memory (MB)" in sp_configure to 2GB or 10% reserved for the OS (whichever comes first). This is just a starting point though!
Regarding I/O issues, Klaus talked about disk partition alignment, which can improve SQL I/O performance by up to 100%. You should use 64kb for NTFS cluster, and it's automatic in Windows 2008 R2.
Joe's locking and blocking presentation was a good session to really clear up the fog in my mind about locking. One takeaway that I had no idea could be done was that you can set a timeout in T-SQL code view LOCK_TIMEOUT. If you do this via the application, you should trap error 1222.
Kalen's session went into execution plans. The minimum size of a plan is 24k. This adds up fast especially if you have a lot of plans that don't get reused much. You can use sys.dm_exec_cached_plans to check how often a plan is being reused by checking the usecounts column. She said that we can use DBCC FLUSHPROCINDB to clear out the stored procedure cache for a specific database. I didn't know we had this available, so this was great to hear. This will be less intrusive when an emergency comes up where I've needed to run DBCC FREEPROCCACHE.
Kalen said one should enable "optimize for ad hoc workloads" if you have an adhoc loc. This stores only a 300-byte stub of the first plan, and if it gets run again, it'll store the whole thing. This helps with plan cache bloat.
I have a lot of systems that use prepared statements, and Kalen says we simulate those calls by using sp_executesql. Cool!
Paul did a series of posts last year to debunk various myths and misconceptions around SQL Server. He continues to debunk things via "DBA Mythbusters". You can get a PDF of a bunch of these here. One of the myths he went over is the number of tempdb data files that you should have. Back in 2000, the recommendation was to have as many tempdb data files as there are CPU cores on your server. This no longer holds true due to the numerous cores we have on our servers. Paul says you should start out with 1/4 to 1/2 the number of cores and work your way up from there. BUT! Paul likes what Bob Ward (twitter) says on this topic:
One common myth out there is to set your MAXDOP to 1 for an OLTP workload with high CXPACKET waits. Instead of that, dig deeper first. Look for missing indexes, out-of-date statistics, increase the "cost threshold for parallelism" setting, and perhaps set MAXDOP at the query level.
Paul stressed that you should not plan a backup strategy but instead plan a restore strategy. What are your recoverability requirements? Once you know that, now plan out your backups.
As Paul always does, he talked about DBCC CHECKDB. He said how fabulous it is. I didn't want to interrupt the presentation, so after his session had ended, I asked Paul about the need to run DBCC CHECKDB on your mirror systems. You could have data corruption occur at the mirror and not at the principal server. If you aren't checking for data corruption on your mirror systems, you could be failing over to a corrupt database in the case of a disaster or even a planned failover. You can't run DBCC CHECKDB against the mirrored database, but you can run it against a snapshot off the mirrored database.
Print | posted on Friday, November 11, 2011 12:22 PM |
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Surnames and Family Research Forum
Transcription Help - See Image
Hello Everyone
I need help in transcribing the last name of Ida. I have posted the Ancestry.com transcribed info. I have also attached the image and hope you can read it.
I know that the trancription says Winsten, but I'm not sure if that is what it actually is.
Thanks in advance.
1930 Federal Census:
Household Members: Name Age
Messages In This Thread


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I was reading The Joy of Discovery in Web Design in the Inspect Element Web & Design Blog and it made me think of designing user experiences online and in the library. The post talks about taking that extra step to make the experience memorable for users by providing opportunities for discovery.
From an in-person library experience, I think an intuitive understanding of this would be related to browsing. Libraries that go all-digital can really hinder this important experience for users by making browsing and discovery more difficult. I remember this being one of the most exciting aspects of the library for me: searching for something in particular, and then browsing around related shelving; the best part about it was being able to discover something new myself.
Now, this blog is pertaining to web design, and the post can be directly related to library websites too. Creating alternative search features, and even going as far as to hide some fun features within pages that are more interactive could certainly improve a user's experience visiting the site. Even creating more resources for users that they might not even think would be provided through the library, for example, feed listings for interesting subjects to outside blogs or recommended Twitter feeds for research topics, or maybe tutorials for concepts related to but not directly involving just how to use the library or search a database. Maybe even including more library polls for users to contribute their feedback so they feel more involved with the library and are able to say something when they come visit the library virtually.
As Inspect Element says, "Subtlety can play a large role in discovery too even if the visitor doesn't feel as though they have discovered anything, subconsciously giving them a feeling of greater control." I think that's an important idea to think about with libraries -- giving the user a feeling of greater control; greater control in manipulating library information and resources online, as well as navigating the library in person.


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Daily Newspapers of the World » Caribbean » British Virgin Islands » Island Sun Akhbar Today ePaper in English
Island Sun Akhbar Today ePaper in English
Island Sun Newspaper is english Epaper of British Virgin Islands which belong to Caribbean region.
BVI Beacon, Island Sun, Virgin Islands Stand Point, And the other most famous daily newspaper of British Virgin Islands included in the list so keep visiting pknewspapers.com for free latest updates and news all over the country online newspaper, News, Radio TV Channels and Press agencies. Here we provide you latest news updates, sports, entertainment, weather updates, jobs and daily astrology etc from all over the British Virgin Islands.
You are reading Island Sun Newspaper of British Virgin Islands.
Official website of Island Sun is » http://www.islandsun.com/
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GREENVILLE, Ill. -- The men's basketball team was a 96-71 winner over Logan Chiropractic Friday night. Greenville used the the scoring efforts of four Panthers who scored 13 points or more, led by K.J. Hilliard and Markeith Brown with 15 points each. Ben Giertz and Jordan Smith chipped in with 14 and 13, respectively.
Alex Mumphard had a very solid game leading the team with seven assists and three steals to go along with his 10 points. Travis Garrison was strong on the boards pulling down eight rebounds.
Logan Chiropractic kept it close in the first half before Greenville pulled away in the second half outscoring LC 41-25.
The men's team will have a short turn around as they will host Missouri Baptist on Saturday.


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Tons of Taxidermy: Stuffed Owl, Deer & Alligator
I know that mounted animals are a love or hate thing in these parts, but they exist. Enjoy, or ignore, these from our Classifieds....
• Chicago, IL: Stuffed Owl - $900
• Brooklyn, NY: Mounted Deer - $75
• Brooklyn, NY: Taxidermy Deer - $150
• Chicago, IL: Alligator Head - $750
• Chicago, IL: Four Point Deer - $150
Shoppers, check out the Classifieds for many more listings. Sellers, gather up your goods and list them in our Classifieds to turn them into a little extra spending cash.
Go To: Classifieds Main Page
Apartment Therapy is not the seller of these items. This is an edited selection of our favorite offerings from our Classifieds. For more information, see How it Works. Happy Scavenging!