Summer is technically just a little more than three weeks old, and it’s already passing too quickly. I found myself the other day starting to day dream about our week at the beach. It’s the time I sit and try to clear my head and get perspective on the coming year.
My mind seems a little overworked this summer. Not because I’m being particularly brainy. But because there’s so much going on that I need, or at least think I need, to sort out. Political, physical, financial, spiritual…maybe it’s an age thing. That’s all I’m saying about that right now. Maybe more after the beach when I can speak/write coherently. Or, maybe not.
But one of the things I’ve been thinking about is how theater can be used to effectively tell the story of the human struggle. Work with me. Week before last I saw Cabaret at Richmond Triangle Players. This morning I’m still singing the music from Hair after seeing it last night at Firehouse Theatre.
On a sidenote, if you haven’t seen them, stop reading right now and run to their websites to see if tickets are available before both close next weekend. Then come right back to finish (and share) this post.
I have a personal history of sorts with both of those musicals. Cabaret was the first musical I saw on stage. I think I was in seventh grade. I fell in love with Sally Bowles, and the theater. I will grant you that at the Giles Little Theatre in the early 70s, the show was a much tamer version of what you’ll see at RTP.
It was the music of Hair. I was middle-schoolish when it came out. I even designed our 8th grade homecoming float for which the theme was “Let the Sun Shine.” It was all pretty and yellow. I was pretty naive about the show until I saw the movie years later. Last night was the first time I’d seen it live on stage.
The thing is both speak to the human struggle. Cabaret, and I think RTP does an exceptional job of this, is set in pre-war Germany as the Nazis are taking over. The show foreshadows what will happen to both the Jews and the gays. It speaks volumes.
With Hair, there’s the 1960s/70s music, the drug culture, and most importantly the anti-war culture. I grew up hearing this music in a time where we watched the Vietnam body counts be reported on the CBS Evening News. The war ended while I was still in high school. By the time I graduated, the draft had also ended.
The point is that both shows bring to the stage a turbulent time in our human history. I’m not sure there’s more to that thought. There may be.
But for now, you need to read this stuff.
About that blogger the Redskins hired.
Last week we told you how the blogger who was instrumental in bringing down George Allen’s 2006 senate campaign had been hired by the Washington Redskins, of which George Allen’s brother Bruce is the general manager, to defend the Redskins name. But Ryan Nobles tells us that “It is an ironic twist in the debate of the Washington Redskins name controversy. Ben Tribbett, the liberal blogger on the job at Redskins park for only 12 days, was forced to resign Monday night after he was attacked online because of questionable tweets he posted several years ago.”
I love karma.
Political correctness at Washington and Lee
After students complained, Washington and Lee University decided to remove Confederate flags from the chapel where Robert E. Lee is buried. The group of students also wants the school to repudiate General Lee.
Part of me wants to ask why the heck they chose to attend the school in the first place? I’m not going to get into that debate, because I’m inclined to take the side of history. It’s not all pretty, but we shouldn’t forget it lest our ugly human nature rear its head again.
Don’t think it can happen again? I’ll wait right here whilst you go google “Nigeria” or “ISIS” or “Meriam Ibrahim.”
Still while I think the story is much complaint about nothing, when I learned that most of the flags weren’t installed until the 1930s….well…crap.
The Governor goes to China
Governor McAuliffe and entourage have embarked on an eight day trip to China and the United Kingdom. Bring back the business, Governor, we can use it.
The goring of the bulls
Or something like that. Two men were gored in Spain’s running of the bulls. Color me shocked, but not red, because that’s dangerous. Except that it isn’t.
Chalk this up to one of those things I just don’t get.
E-mails don’t just dissapear
A federal judge has ordered the IRS to explain the lost emails of Lois Lerner.
No word yet if the judge’s audit notice has arrived in the mail.
Seriously, folks, the IRS just needs to go away.
Quotes of the Day
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
Henry David Thoreau
– Born on this day in 1817
I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. I think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn’t write anything without hope in it.
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