Doctor X is a certifiable, industrial-strength nogoodnik making Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi look like Mary Poppins. She sees her face like a squirming bowl of worms. I have no idea what that means. Okay, let’s take it to mean that she does not see herself as a good looking gal. The love of her life (the nurse) has a face like a china plate. Maybe that means she has a face like a beautiful piece of Wedgewood china, like a creamy white cameo against a field of pale, delicate blue. Okay, that makes sense. Let’s go with that one, too.
Picture this; the date is 1815 in the Frankenstein Castle on the Rhine River in Germany. The family gathers for a holiday celebration, with all the peculiarities you would expect from a gathering at the Frankenstein’s Castle. Add to this the flavor of ballet and the thread of a classic Christmas tale, and you have this year’s “Son of a Buttcracker.”
The Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future leads us through a futile attempt to redeem intensely practical Scrooge. Of course, it doesn’t work. She (the Ghost) is a hopeless underachiever. She transports us from time to time and place to place and invariably ends up somewhere other than her intended destination. But Scrooge is irredeemable. He hates Christmas. Durang divides Mrs. Cratchit into two, a nice Mrs. Cratchit married to Bob Cratchit and a nasty Mrs. Cratchit who keeps trying to kill herself by jumping off London Bridge. Scrooge, bah humbugging his way through the play, falls in love with nasty Mrs. Cratchit. Who woulda thunk? But, it seems like a perfect match.
This play is an ensemble piece, a fast-paced tragedy and comedy that will leave you touched by the humanity of it all and laughing uproariously at its comedy. But it is different from ordinary plays. Ordinarily, a play lays some groundwork by showing us the characters and the situation. Then the playwright builds some tension and some conflict. In the denouement at the end the conflicts and tensions are resolved, and all the loose ends are tied up. The play has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
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.
Here is just a glimpse of this year’s Hot August Nights.
Every year car lovers gather in Reno for over a week of classic cars, music, and high octane fun.
Our videographer shows us a bit of what he experienced this year.
Check out his video.
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 Nevada Museum of Art has opened the “Georgia O’Keeffe” exhibit. This exhibit is indeed a stunning and inspirational exhibit.
The “Georgia O’Keeffe: Living Modern,” will be on display through October 20.
Check out the video where Amanda Horn takes us on an in-depth tour of the exhibit. The Biography is a great read a well.
Shelea” performed to a full house last Thursday night at Hawkins Amphitheater. This is the second artist in the last couple of weeks that just blew me away with their songwriting and their incredible voices. It’s not too often that I can be amazed by the talent that we have out there in the world today. Especially in the traditional pop, jazz, R/B and soul area of music. When you have seen as many artists as I have over my lifetime. This woman will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck without a problem. I waited for her after the show so I could tell her what a beautiful singer she was and how her voice got under my skin. (In a Good Way). I didn’t want to wait till she got mobbed by all her fans waiting outside to meet her.
