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Saturday, December 03, 2005

Forty Shades of Green

Forty Shades Of Green

Boise Contemporary Theatre presented Stones in his Pocket by arrangement with Paul Elliott, Adam Kenwright and Pat Moylan. The play was written by Marie Jones. She is currently a resident of Belfast Ireland and was born and raised there, she has written a number of plays including several dealing with
Ireland.
Tracy Sunderland was the director; Ann Klautsch was the voice and dialect coach. The dance scenes were choreographed by Leah S. Clark and created an authentic Irish air to the whole story told in forty shades of green.
The play was made for the two actors that enact the story. Joe Conley Golden and Tom Willmorth transform characters right before our eyes, and they do it so well that it seemed there were a legion of actors instead of two.
Each character had a different dialect, and mannerisms, so one could tell when it was someone else speaking, the body language changed and so did the Irish lilt.
The story begins in the beautiful green country side of the Irish Highlands. We make out, uneven ground with many shades of green, flat stones piled in stacks to resemble a river bed along a horizon. To the left is a rack of shabby clothes, featuring many tweed type jackets and work boots such as an American director might imagine Irish peasants wearing in the countryside. The stage adapts itself to each scene with a trunk and a few chairs and was fashioned by Michael Baltzell.
A Hollywood Studio has arrived to stir up the rural Ireland Village to make a film called “A Quiet Valley” The company has decided to use the locals as extras in the production.
Charlie and Jake, two down and out Irishmen, are happy to make 40 pounds a day for their trouble, and rubbing elbows with stars, especially the extremely beautiful American Starlet, Caroline Giovanni.
In his pocket, Charlie who is from another part of Ireland, and a stranger in town, carries a well worn dog eared manuscript. It is a play he has written and he hopes to gain the attention of someone that could make the story into an award winning movie. His cheerfulness is touching in its optimism. The two actors change characters in brisk progression. Pay attention or you may miss something. Jake becomes the oldest living extra from the Quiet man, an efficient assistant to the assistant film director, and a troubled young man. Charlie becomes, Caroline the American actress, a Catholic father, the self important director, and an impatient assistant director.
Charlie and Jake make a reference to all the fake admiration that Hollywood holds for the beautiful Irish countryside, Hollywood is really only there to exploit and use it for their own purposes. One of them mentions, they must be getting sick of the forty shades of green by now. The two friends know full well that living in a luxury trailer and having meals catered and being waited on like royalty is not the same as living a simple life of hard work and perseverance.
We find that Charlie is not as cheerful as we originally heard, and Jake has his own demons to exorcise when his nephew kills himself by walking into the river with stones in his pocket.
The Director and his staff still expect the extra’s to behave in a joyful manner, and they do not want to allow anytime off for the funeral of the young man, who was a friend and relation to many of the extras. In the end, the publicity becomes the motivation behind “allowing” the extra’s to attend the funeral.
One amazing scene shows Charlie and Jake, doing a dance straight out of River Dance, to lively Irish Music. The oldest Living survivor from the movie The Quiet Man gets kicked off the set because he comes back from the funeral tipsy.
After the movie is finished, “in the can” as quoted by the old man, Charlie and Jake gain some confidence and take a movie idea to the pompas director. In between eating and talking with his mouth full, he completely changes their idea, and makes it his own. Charlie and Jake relentlessly decide that they have a good idea and will open their own company and produce the film themselves. They have complete confidence that it is going to be a success.
The lighting designer Deborah Penrod matched the colors of the lighting to what was happening on stage. She accomplished a sun set, and evening, and it complimented the whole story. I saw the forty shades of green, as accented by her lighting.

To Whom it may concern... or not

So why? I thought I could write anything.
When it becomes an assignment my hands feel tied. Today I have played mah jong, talked to Anna, traded ideas for baby names with Janelle,Read reviews,stalled, read the news, talked to the dog,listened to Blue Oyster Cult,drank coffee,Stalled, played mah jong again. SIGH
ok, focus...
Two Theatre assignments:
A review on
Stones in his Pockets &
A Christmas Carol..
A paper on Creationism versus Evolution with a few comments thrown in on Charles Darwin and my highly exalted opinion... I KNOW the English Professor sighs with dread when he sees my happy face in class. KNOWING it doesn't stop me.
it should stop me but I have always been a social idiot.
STUDY Pshychology... EWWW Two Assignments in Philosophy.. its a real YAWN.
hmm is it still snowing? does the dog want a biscuit? Are the kids hungry? What is Anna doing?

Friday, December 02, 2005

Joe Conley Golden, and Tom Wilmorth

Boise Contemporary Theater
854 Fulton St.
(Boise Downtown)
Boise ID
331-9224
http://www.bctheater.org

Thursday, December 01, 2005

SO I stayed home today.


Snowstorm closes schools and slows morning commute

01:36 PM MST on Thursday, December 1, 2005
KTVB.COM
BOISE –- A snowstorm blowing through the Treasure Valley today wreaked havoc with motorists and forced the closure of some schools in the area.
Traffic on Interstate 84 was moving at a snail’s pace during the morning commute. Idaho State Police dispatch reported to about 50 calls, mostly slide-offs. A semi-truck loaded with pears overturned in the eastbound lanes near milepost 25 west of Caldwell. Police say the driver hit the brakes to avoid hitting another car, causing the back end of the trailer to slide off the road and flipped the entire truck onto its side. The pears were transferred to another truck to help lighten the load. Traffic is limited to one-lane through the area.

Monday, November 28, 2005

It doesn't look so good from here



The day started at under twenty degrees Fahrenheit.
It is so cold it hurts to breathe out of my nose. So I breathe out of my mouth. I walk along puffing and mouth breathing, I suddenly realize how ridiculous this must look, pant puff pant puff.
So far the knee is holding up as I walk. I am thankful for this, I hate annoying displays of pain, especially my own.
English--I have to re-write the vile paper that I merely spit out to start with.
Theatre--I missed the play I was supposed to review for one of our main grades..."F"
Psychology--Finals in two weeks, I am not ready.
After psychology, I amble down to the student union building for a quick bite. I realize that I have nine dollars to last me till January, but I am hungry and I didn't prepare in advance, its too cold to walk back to the car.
I figure I will get a bag of chips and a bottle of juice, that shouldn't cost too much.
All the chips look disgusting, but the sushi looks good. So I bring up a diet coke and a tray of sushi to the counter.
Mr. Studly is busy watching the pretty young blond make a food decision. He ignores me.
She brings up her purchase, and he makes polite and friendly conversation with her.
I stand. Next the busty brunette. He makes conversation with her, and ignores me.
I try to gain eye contact. Finally I ask him to ring me up. He says "Certainly" with a bright smile. "HAVE A NICE DAY" I take my purchase out of the store without answering.
I find a seat, and blow my nose noisily, it is bleeding. I proceed to eat the sushi and steel myself for the dive into the philosophy book. It will take all my concentration, I was already dozing off in psych, I have no hope that philosophy will keep me awake.
Happily, I finish two assignments. I notice something odd about the page numbers... SHIT two and a half hours of work on the wrong assignment.
OK< there is still some time left before I go do the test pig thing in the Pshych lab.
I finish the correct assignment, and proceed out the door to the educational building, its damn cold. My finger is going numb under the warm glove, once again my nose hurts to breathe, but I avoid breathing out of my mouth, not wanting to look like a trout on land.
Educational building. I am there to take a survey as part of my grade in Psychology. I am hoping to end this soon, and also hoping I understand the simple instructions. I have a difficult time, I am very literal minded and sometimes I think instructors are speaking a different language to me.
They hand out three pieces of papers, they inform us that only one paper gets our name and student ID.number.
I struggle with the questions, knowing that I have some difficulting tracking what I am reading and where to put the answer. After twenty minutes of work, I discover that I put the answers on the wrong sheet of paper. I have to go back and put them on the correct one and erase them on the question sheet.
The instructor has said, that when everyone is finished we can go home. Everyone has finished, except me, busily erasing and re-writing 160 questions. Most eyes are on me now, people are sighing. I can feel my face turn red, I do not wish to be here, and now it seems I am a dunderhead.
The girl next to me has her leg crossed and is swinging her foot so it bumps my backpack every so often. I wish she would stop and she is leaning forward staring at my answer sheet... and SIGHING.
I kept the whole class after. What a wonderful addition to my already poopy day.
I am the last person to walk forward to turn in my paper, most eyes are on me, some look the other way in embarrassment for me. I keep thinking, this isn't the worst thing that could ever happen, its just my worst nightmare, I don't like to make public spectacles. I am wishing it was over, and soon it is, and I am walking in the cold air, wishing I had a hat. I am also thinking that the sushi was very fishy, and I hope that I don't regret eating it later....

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Tortured Noises

Much to my irritation, I can't move my right leg today. What is that supposed to mean? I can bend it, but it wont go straight, and if I try to straighten it, it sends pain waves so violently up my body I fall.
If I try to stand on my right foot, I collapse. This happened when I was cooking dinner last night.. Beef stew with dumplings,then the dramatic falling on the floor collapsing in pain, writhing in agony, with the Grandchildren looking on, wondering what the hell, that unpredictable Gramma was up to again.
I am applying heat, I don't have time for this bullshit, and going to the doctor doesn't occur to me, I just want it over with.
How am I going to walk around campus tomorrow? I got stuff to do.
Who said I could get old?

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