We all go through stages in life. Shakespeare knew it. So does our author Greg Burdick. We are born, go through youth, our teen years, young adulthood, and finally maturity. Hopefully, at that time, we have learned to exercise good judgment. That good judgment comes from wisdom, but wisdom comes from bad judgment. We make mistakes on the road to maturity and wisdom. Society forgives us our feckless years because we all go through them. It is natural just as it is to forgive the errors of youth.
A few days ago Mike Sion (Smiley Mikey) and I took a walk in Downtown Reno. We talked about his latest song, his next song, as well as his musical calling. I found it fascinating how he describes the process of creating the song and the video for the song “U Hate Love”.
Do you want a frolic through New York’s demi-monde of the 1930s? Do you want an evening that is just plain fun, one that is breezy and carefree? If so, Guys and Dolls is for you. The Sierra School of Performing Arts is currently performing this gem of a musical at the Robert Z. Hawkins Amphitheater at Bartley Ranch. Do not let the school name fool you. This big, splashy production is as professionally done as you will get this side of Broadway.
The Institute for Young Dramatic Voices (IYDV) and the American Wagner Project held their gala Wednesday, July 31, 2019, at 6 PM in the Nightingale Concert Hall at the University of Nevada, Reno, and what a gala it indeed was. It was the performance that capped 3 weeks of intensive vocal training in operatic voice technique. It was performed by 29 beautiful young rising opera stars to show off what they have learned. It was their chance to strut their stuff.
Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a nostalgic journey back to the Hollywood of fifty years ago. By his own standards, this is a lovingly recreated fairy tale of a Hollywood that is dead and gone. But it is not an exploration of what is true but rather an explanation of what we wish was true. It is an instant classic. People will be talking about this film for a very long time. At 2 hours 41 minutes, you will require stamina to sit through it.
The opening of this year’s Artown was non-other than the great songwriter Paul Thorn. He played to a packed Park at Wingfield Park. He started out with an apology for not being able to be here last year when he was to perform with The Blind Boys of Alabama do to the passing of his sister. He did not disappoint the crowd one bit with his performance.
I had never seen Ruthie Foster before but had heard some of her music. To see her perform live is a totally different story. I had heard nothing but good about her and her powerful voice. This woman gets right into your soul and heart.
Meet Jacqueline Just and her daughter Valerie Pober. They are competing in the Atlantis Casino Resort and Spa’s 4th Annual Chalk Art and Music Festival from July 12 to July 14, 2019. This sprawling event takes place across Virginia Street in the Atlantis’ very large parking lot complete with music, souvenir vendors, and food and drink. Jacqueline lives in Incline Village. Valerie Pober just got her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. While there Valerie played the violin and oboe. Clearly, there is art in her soul.
A tip of the hat to Jane Austen. She had one foot in one century and another in the subsequent century. She started writing Sense and Sensibility in 1795. The 18th Century was a time of classicism. It was a time of logic and propriety, of formality, structure, and restraint. It was a time when everything made sense. It was a requirement of the time. She finished her novel in 1811. That was in the 19th Century, and it was different. It was a time of romanticism that emphasized individuality and emotions, following your heart more than your head, giving free rein to your sensibilities. It was a time of curiosity, exploration, and innovation. It was a time of empire and individual derring-do. It was the time of the Scottish Enlightenment and the scientific revolution. The Industrial Revolution had just started in Britain changing the world forever and Britain along with it.
Make no mistake about it. This is a female revenge play. This genre is as old as Seneca and Euripides in ancient Rome and Greece. Think of the movies The Other Woman, 9 to 5, Fatal Attraction, The First Wives’ Club, Thelma and Louise, and the list goes on. Lauren Gunderson is probably the most widely performed living playwright in America today. She has authored roughly 20 plays in what is still a very young life. She wanted to write a play addressing domestic violence. But–and this is a big but–in writing this play should she do drama or comedy? Should she decry domestic violence or mock it? Here’s her answer:
