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Review: Guys and Dolls – Blue Fish Theatrical at Schonell Theatre
Sunday afternoon in the theatre with a friend … and musical theatre at that … a perfect way to end the weekend. Last weekend saw me at the Schonell Theatre for Blue Fish Theatrical Productions' latest, the fabulous Guys and Dolls (music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows). It's directed for the company by debutant-director Lindsay Fletcher.
Blue Fish is a relatively new, Brisbane-based company dedicated to musical theatre. It has professional aspirations, and is still establishing itself, so I was also keen to get a sense of the kind and quality of work they are doing. I was unable to see Spamalot or Jekyll and Hyde their two previous productions.
As to their vision for themselves, Blue Fish have a manifesto expressed in a programme message and online from the Producer – they don't appear to have an Artistic Director – at least there is no credit for one. What does come shining through are their pride in Brisbane and its talent and their ambition – they aim to be 'Brisbane's answer to The Production Company in Melbourne.'
As the note puts it, Blue Fish are aiming 'to open up pathways for excellence in the production and the quality of musical theatre works.' They seek to do this by focussing on 'intense rehearsal periods for short seasons of highly-regarded Broadway Book Musicals,' and in doing so want to contribute to 'the professional and independent theatrical landscape within Brisbane.' Good on them, say I.
Guys and Dolls, based on short stories by Damon Runyon, is an almost comic-book romance which focusses on two unlikely couples seeking love: Nathan Detroit and Sky Masterson are a couple of gamblers, and Miss Adelaide (a night-club singer) and Sarah Brown (a missionary) are the respective objects of their affection. A slew of street types from a mythical post-WWII New York make their appearances throughout the show. It's an almost perfect musical and an example of some of Broadway's best music and lyrics. Guys and Dolls has been revived on Broadway several times and has taken out 10 Tony Awards over the years, since its first production in 1951. It's also been filmed. TIME magazine called it, 'the perfect American musical.' It's a favourite, for sure, and why not? The music is gorgeous and the lyrics witty, snappy, and delightful.
The musical direction for this production and the action in the pit was most impressive: Julie Whiting (Musical Director) gets a great sound from her musicians and singers. It's always hard to pick a favourite, but in this production I very much enjoyed the gem, 'Sue Me' sung and played with spot-on gusto by Miranda Selwood (Miss Adelaide) and Jason Lawson (Nathan Detroit). Coming a very close second was the lovely 'More I Cannot Wish You' sung by Doug Rumble (Arvide Abernathy).
When it came to performance, the female company of actors and dancers were, on the whole, stronger than the males. Ms Selwood and Melissa Scheele (Sarah Brown) are talents to follow; I look forward to seeing their work in the future. Please, though, Mr Sound Guy, can you turn the volume down a tad when these girls sing; the can belt with the best of them! We're used to vocal enhancement in musical theatre, but their songs didn't need the amount you gave them and, at times, this verged on distortion.
Set mostly in NYC with a quick flight down and back to Havana, Cuba for some nightclub action and romancing Guys and Dolls' action is played out across a number of interior and exterior locations: streets on and off-Broadway; Sarah's Save a Soul Mission; nightclubs, and so on. With 17 individual scenes chock full of musical numbers the challenge for the design team is to create a flexible set with the capacity to move location and cast quickly and easily from one to another.
Blue Fish's production clocked in at 3 hours; this is just too long. I know these Golden Oldie musicals generally run much longer than contemporary shows, but I couldn't help but feel the pace of this production slowed things down. A few more cross fades from one scene to another, shortening some of the crowd scenes or dance sequences would have made things much sharper – anything that doesn't move the action along should always get the chop first, imho. Within individual scenes, lighting was a problem from time to time. Those which worked the best were well lit and isolated on the stage – in other words – were focussed. Ones that didn't sprawled across the stage, were under-lit or hit the wrong targets.
As a period piece, the production's overall look is critical to the success of the design. Set, costumes, hairstyles, and props don't need to be elaborate, but they should be consistent and of the era. Whilst the design of this production went a good way towards achieving an overall look for the piece, some of details were lost; haircuts for the men, hairstyles for the women. The devil's in the detail, and a sharper eye could have fixed it. Did men wear hats inside back then? Just asking …
Blue Fish notes that they value professionalism and artists 'who have attained international exposure,' as well as the wealth of local talent in the city and throughout the state. If they are prepared to commit to the independent, pro-am theatre road and remunerate artists and creatives, then I would strongly suggest that they give consideration to hiring experience and mentoring in key roles for future productions, and especially in the roles of Direction and Design. Learning on the job under the direction of an experienced professional and one who understands the brief is a recipe for success.
This new company are to be congratulated for their aspirations and for galvanizing their 'people power … passion and respect for musical theatre.' It has driven them thus far through two 'high-budget and large-scale musical theatre productions' during the past 12 months. This is no small achievement, but they have a way to go before they will be Brisbane's answer to The Production Company in Melbourne. It has to do not with passion or ambition or talent – which they have – but with a commitment to development and to raising the bar. Forget Melbourne's Production Company; they should aim to be the best Blue Fish can be.
Guys and Dolls is directed by Lindsay Fletcher, with musical direction by Julie Whiting for Blue Fish Theatrical Productions. The season continues at the Schonell Theatre, Brisbane until August 6th. Details from the company website.
You may like to Like Blue Fish Theatrical Productions of their Facebook page. I see they are holding open auditions soon for their next production, The Producers.


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This recipe is featured in the March/April 2019 issue of Zymurgy magazine. Six issues of Zymurgy magazine are published annually and are included in American Homebrewers Association (AHA) membership. Check out all the benefits our members enjoy.
My dad gave me my first homebrew kit. To say thanks, I would always make him an amber ale or red ale when he would come to visit. But after I went gluten free, getting a similar red hue and chewy malt flavor into a beer proved challenging.
Nonetheless, my gluten-free version won Ground Breaker's 1st Annual Pacific Northwest Gluten-Free Homebrew Competition. It went on to score a 36 in the First Round of the National Homebrew Competition and recently won a blue ribbon at the Oregon State Fair. It's a tasty beer and, most importantly, Dad loves it.
If the color turns out less red than desired, add small amounts of D-90 candi syrup to add color.
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Welcome to ORB's December 2015 Issue
November 30, 2015
In our Christmas 2015 issue, the Ottawa Review of Books' core and guest reviewers offer you some seasonal insights on recent works of fiction by five outstanding Canadian writers. We hope that you enjoy our reviews of Night Moves by Richard Van Camp, Town and Train by James K. Moran, Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen by Vicki Delany, The King of Shanghai by Ian Hamilton and The Deadbeat Club by Dietrich Kalteis.
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Brought to you by Penguin. This Penguin Classic is performed by Richard Armitage, star of Peter Jackson'sThe Hobbit trilogy and also known for his roles in Ocean's 8 and Spooks. This definitive recording includes an Introduction by Diskin Clay.Originally written only for his personal consumption, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations has become a key text in the understanding of Roman Stoic philosophy. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with notes by Martin Hammond and an introduction by Diskin Clay.Written in Greek by an intellectual Roman emperor without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a wide range of fascinating spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the leader struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe. Spanning from doubt and despair to conviction and exaltation, they cover such diverse topics as the question of virtue, human rationality, the nature of the gods and Aurelius's own emotions. But while the Meditations were composed to provide personal consolation, in developing his beliefs Marcus also created one of the greatest of all works of philosophy: a series of wise and practical aphorisms that have been consulted and admired by statesmen, thinkers and ordinary readers for almost two thousand years.Martin Hammond's new translation fully expresses the intimacy and eloquence of the original work, with detailed notes elucidating the text. This edition also includes an introduction by Diskin Clay, exploring the nature and development of the Meditations, a chronology, further reading and full indexes.Marcus aelius Aurelius Antoninus (121-80) was adopted by the emperor Antoninus Pius and succeeded him in 161, (as joint emperor with adoptive brother Lucius Verus). He ruled alone from 169, and spent much of his reign in putting down various rebellions, and was a persecutor of Christians. His fame rest, above all, on his Meditations, a series of reflections, strongly influenced by Epictetus, which represent a Stoic outlook on life. He was succeeded by his natural son, thus ending the period of the adoptive emperors.
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Share the spirit of the season with exclusive stamp sets and Thin Cut metal dies!
One of the best parts of the holiday season is getting to share your holiday spirit with the people you love! This year, we'll be celebrating National Stamping Month with the Share the Seasons special, designed to help you do just that!
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You can purchase each item separately at full price, or you can purchase the bundle that includes just the stamp sets at a 20% discount. You can even save 30% when you purchase both stamp sets and the Thin Cut metal dies bundle together!
The Share the Seasons special is only available September 1–30.


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We spent a long time making sure that our moving day service was the best available but our customers wanted more and we listened.
They wanted everything they would need under one roof.
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Since our Dear Leader uttered the inanity we have had the following hits to her assertion;
- East Timor
- Solomons
- Fiji 2000 and 2006
and now look what pops up, a little problem in Tonga.?
So much for the "incredibly benign strategic environment".
When will the sanctimonious socialist get it through her head that she has destroyed almost single handedly our Armed forces and their ability to respond to anything.?
As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he's not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.
They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn't do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.
He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.
Love him or loathe him, you can't ignore him.
To read Cam's previous articles click on his name in blue.


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Choosing the Parameter of Image Restoration Filters by Modified Subspace Information Criterion
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Practical image restoration filters usually include a parameter that controls regularizability, trade-off between fidelity of a restored image and smoothness of it, and so on. Many criteria for choosing such a parameter have been proposed. However, the relation between these criteria and the squared error of a restored image, which is usually used to evaluate the restoration performance, has not been theoretically substantiated. Sugiyama and Ogawa proposed the subspace information criterion (SIC) for model selection of supervised learning problems and showed that the SIC is an unbiased estimator of the expected squared error between the unknown model function and an estimated one. They also applied it to restoration of images. However, we need an unbiased estimator of the unknown original image to construct the criterion, so it can not be used for general situations. In this paper, we present a modified version of the SIC as a new criterion for choosing a parameter of image restoration filters. Some numerical examples are also shown to verify the efficacy of the proposed criterion.
- IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals
IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals 85(5), 1088-1095, 2002-05-01
The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers


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Trip To India
Today was bad, woke up blotted and sick with stomach upset and feeling really unwell and so decided to stay at home and rest the day.
In the evening went out with Deborshi and family for a quite dinner which as per Aaryan the pasta was the worst ever tasted - in the restaurant called royal orchid. My appetite was gone :-(
Well anyway needed some PPI and a good rest sleep ....
Home is where the heart is
Life seems to be losing a lot
Home is where all the past remains
Life indeed looses those memories elsewhere....
- comments


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Important Dates
Half Term: Monday 17th February- Friday 21st February
International Mother Language Day: Thursday 27th February (children to wear traditional/national clothes of their country of origin or clothes with the colours of their country's flag)
World Book Day: Thursday 5th March – (not dressing up)
Nursery Singing Show: Tuesday 10th March
Inset Day: Friday 13th March
General Reminders
Tapestry: Please remember to login and read your child's observations from nursery. We love to read your comments and observations you have made at home too!
Magic Moments: These are another way for your child to share achievements from home or experiences. The children are invited to share them with their friends at Rainbow Time.
Toys from home: Please do not bring toys in from home as they can easily get lost or damaged.
Library: This is every Tuesday- please remember your library book and yellow reading record.
Uniform: Please help us by putting names on jumpers/cardigans.
Have a lovely break!
The Nursery Team


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In this YouTube video i will show a plant that very well may be a dwarf version of the aji charapita, capsicum chinense, These seeds were sent to me from a man in Peru. i have my doubts but it could be a dwarf variety! Seems to be the worlds smallest pepper! Charapita peppers are known as Wild Peruvian Chili, Tettinas de Monk, Charapilla, and Aji Charapa. Visit HRSeeds.com for seeds
41.304064 -75.957862