The Return of Steve

From Penguin Group website:  In 1936, in the midst of the Great Depression, photographer Dorothea Lange took a photograph for the Federal Resettlement Program that would become the most iconic image of that unforgettable time in American history. Her subject was Florence Owens Thompson, a thirty-two-year-old Native American and mother of seven, whose arresting face became the defining symbol of American poverty. Mary Coin is a novel inspired by that photograph.





Now, here's Steve...

...finished up Mary Coin last night - this strikes me as a possible 'one town one book' candidate. Could not help but reflect on how this book is like a Venn diagram with Mary as the key circle and the other characters intersecting in small slices off her - the other image I had was circles within circles. 

Back in the mid 70's I  was working for Lincoln Action Program, a community action agency, and was asked to help an elderly woman relocate from her apartment above a downtown store to someplace else - she took me up to her room where her few possessions were mostly packed.  On the dresser was a photograph of a young woman, dressed in a fancy outfit (with fringe ,I  think), and stunningly beautiful face.   I asked if that was her and she acknowledged it -I  said she was quite the dish in her youth age and poverty had worn the shine right off her - salvation army clothing, stooped posture, and a face creased with disappointment the only thing an observer would notice at that point - never saw her again, but the memory stuck with me, squeezed out by Marisa Silver  and her fictional account of that woman.

 Let me jump in for a second and explain...Steve has taken to reading poetry aloud each morning.

My morning poetry reading is about to shift gears to Dante's Inferno - am also reading Ted Koozer's The Poetry Home Repair Manual- Ted was named poet laureate a while back, a local celeb that is about as unassuming and plain as a grown up farm kid - think his thoughts on poetry will serve in my prose efforts.

Here I go again....Long before I have finished reading the draft of Steve's first novel, he has surprised me with the news that he is well underway with his second.  I won't give too much away, except that it is set in a small town south of Door County and focues on a women's book discussion group.  Hmmmmm...

Here Comes Rumpel...

This is our crazy cast for "Rumpelstiltskin".  Oh, how I enjoy working with them and hope you will come and see them in action!

Public performance

  Thursday, January 24

7 PM

UW-Manitowoc

Tickets available at the campus, at the door or at LaDeDa

Adults...$5.00 

Children under 12...$2.00

Lots of audience participation so every child can get into the act!

The day before the public performance, all the Riverview kindergartners will be bussed in to see the play.  A few first grade classes are coming as well, so we will have two full houses for the school performances.

Here's the scoop on the cast for you...

Glady...Laurie Magyar...she's the storyteller who keeps things going and involves the audience throughout the play

Annette...Sheila Hansen...Annette is the Miller's daughter, and the sweet young thing who is must spin straw into gold or face dire consequences

Rumpelstiltskin...David Bourgeois...Rumpel's an elfish fellow who appears and disappears.  He's a trickster and a game player.  We took the "Scary" out of the character because so many wee ones come to see our shows.  Didn't want to have to mop the floor or dry tears. 

King...Keith Shaw...He's the one on the floor looking a bit like Elton John.  As a matter of fact, Keith played Rumpel once for us.  His King is silly, loud, and unpredictable.  I am thrilled that Keith retired as principal of Lincoln High School.  Now he has time to play with us again.

Miller...Charles Allger...This guy (the Miller not Chuck) is pathetic,  and without Annette to push him, he'd be sitting on his butt grumbling all day long.

They have been working hard to learn lines, lock in blocking and develop characters.  Their improv skills are being honed as well.  This show is loaded with audience participation, and several kids will be invited on stage to become characters.  So, this cast has to be on their toes and work with whatever is thrown at them.  Needless to say, our rehearsals have been fun, inventive and filled with laughs.

We have had tons of help from lots of other friends.

Suzanne Lawrence...Procucer... Suzanne is the new Director of Continuing Education at UW-Manitowoc.  Rumpel is her first whack at theatre so her learning curve is steep.  She's been great and I'm looking forward to working with her on a larger project this summer.

Chris Lochmann...set builder

Sara Steeber...set painter

Pat Smith...lights and sound
Maddie Hansen...student assistant
Cindy Gruett...poster design

Terri Temme...good friend who loans me props for the show

Hope to see you there.  There might not be a post next week in order to give me more time to be nervous.    It's my way of pumping up for the show.   It's delusional, really, allowing me to think my contribution  was greater than it really was.   Realistically, when I work with a cast and crew like this...well, what do I really have to do?

Thanks for stopping by.

What am I reading?  Home Front by Krisint Hannah.  I recently won 12 copies to give to friends provided I write about it on my blog.  Soon.

 

Valley of the Dolls

 

That's the book my discussion group chose for January.  I say say "chose" with tongue firmly in cheek since our selection method leans toward the non-complex.  Anyone with a suggestion tosses it into a latte mug, and from there it's a random pick.  I confess, "VOtD" was my choice, thinking a little retro reading would be fun.  In reality, I have found this book to be one of the saddest I have read in a long time.  Jacqueline Susann's style leaves much to be desired.  For instance, her characters share a common voice in spite of varying backgrounds,  age, social status, or levels of education.  And, they all converse in paragraphs.  No short give and take responses as in normal conversation.  Basically, she wasn't a writer, but rather a theatrical insider who was not afraid to model her characters after real life stars such as Judy Garland, Mary Martin and Ethel Merman.

Despite all that, she created on heck of a sop opera and I'm turing pages real fast trying to get to the next affair, scandal, or moment of hubris.  The book focuses on several New York women, all young and hungry for love, success, fame or all three.  Achieving those goal in the late 1940's seems tricky, especially when society has definite rules and roles for women.  Even Ann, the smartest of the bunch, accepts that she has to connect herself to the right man in order to get ahead.  She may not like it, but that's the way it goes.  Ann tries to fight the system in her small, girlish way, but she doesn't have the tools to break through the network of men who trade up women on a weekly basis, and who have no compunction about commenting on a woman's physical gifts.  No typing skill needed if the sweater if tight enough.

I was stunned at many of the attitudes in this book and and happy that, for the most part, we have learned.  At the very least, words like "fag" and ethnic insults have been driven underground.  Even better, many people have arrived at the realization that we simply can't define people by arbitrary attributes like skin color. 

Dolls - pills.  Lots of pill popping in this book.  I'd like to think that today's entertainment industry is smarter and healthier.  I hope that we all are smarter about drug use and abuse but the headlines prove otherwise. 

Not much good happened to any of the women in "VOtD".  Each one had a bit of fight in her, but their opponents were heartless, and cruel.  How lucky that we live when we do.  Sure, the struggle for equality continues, but there are  many platforms for voices to be heard today.  Each of us has a voice, if we choose to use it properly, and respectfully - and that matters.