"Much Ado" at the Folger's Theatre

So I caught "Much Ado about Nothing" at the Folger Shakespeare Theatre over on Capital Hill. Second night of the preview, and the press was scheduled to come next Friday. Looks like I beat DC to the punch.
It's my first Shakespeare show that I've seen in DC, and it was a great show to start off with. "Much Ado" was set in DC, under the Caribbean sub-culture. While that may seem a bit sketchy at first, the Caribbean atmosphere wasn't too over the top. Many (but not all) of the cast sported Caribbean accents that were not over the top. The music, and dancing placed in the production made the audience forget that the play is in a war-ridden setting, and instead focuses on the lighthearted spirit between the characters. The talented cast (two of them graduates of the GW MFA theatre program) has been around--with experiences in "The Wire," "Law & Order: SVU" and a number of other productions around DC, it's a pretty damn good cast. And Alexis Camins, playing Claudio, is FILIPINO.

Filipinos=eh.
Filipinos+theatre experience=swoon.

Of many Shakespeare shows that I've seen, the strength of the female characters in this show is fantastic. The female characters' articulateness and wit are not downplayed in this production, nor are they outshined by the male characters. Good stuff.

BUT. Before watching the show, I went to Good Stuff Eatery for dinner. Good Stuff Eatery, owned by previous TOP CHEF season competitor, Chef Spike. Good Stuff Eatery has a simple menu--burgers, fries, a few salads, milkshakes, and beer on tap. They have fantastic handcut fries that are seasoned with rosemary and thyme, which you can dip in chipotle mayo.

Since it was the only meal I had for the day (classes, internship...sometimes, food just doesn't happen), I also had their Milky Way Malt milkshake. Since they give you a buzzer whenever you order anything, you would think that your order would take forever (think: waiting to be seated at CPK in Ala Moana or pretty much any eatery in Ala Moana who give you those godforsaken buzzy things), but the wait is not so bad.

Is it obvious that DC is turning me into a foodie?

Spotlight On: Three Kids, One-Acts

What I've been up to this year so far. Directed "The Problem," by A.R. Gurney, with a fantastic cast. More below (not taken by me)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Healther Skelter
www.thedailyshow.com

Please make an intern's life easier. If a man is running for governor, please let him speak about his gubernatorial platform instead of turning a 2 hour long community meeting to shit by asking him "questions" about your health care.

No, there will be no town meetings. Please stop wasting time. Ok. Thank you for your time. Have a great day. A-fucking-loha.

Strong ensemble, colorful puppets spike an otherwise-tedious "Pericles" into an entertaining storybook

Men's Dance. Photo taken by Kaveh Kardan, http://www.kardanphotography.com

Compared to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and "Macbeth," "Pericles" certainly isn't one of his most famous. In fact, it's not even part of his folio. Scholars of Shakespeare argue that "Pericles" was only partially written (the first part written by John Wilkins, the rest by Shakespeare).

A potential suitor to King Antiochus's daughter, Pericles has to answer a riddle or die. However, the answer to this riddle reveals the hidden secret of the incestuous relationship between King Antiochus and his daughter. The discovery of this secret causes Pericles to flee back to Tyre and ventures around, where he marries the daughter of King Simonides. All of the events that unfold are primarily told by narrator Gower, condensing the usual Greek chorus down to one person.

Although Greek plays are full of violence, sex, and plot twists, they are also infamous for their frequent sleep-inducing expositions. The parts written by John Wilkins lack the genius use of language that the Bard is known for.

Faced with this, director R. Kevin Doyle made the wise choice with "Pericles"--he cut it. With this trimmed down version of Pericles, R. Kevin kept the idea of Hawaii Shakespeare Festival (by showcasing Shakespeare's work, not some John Wilkins) while keeping the plot points that were necessary in "Pericles." It also made the show a hell of a lot more interesting.

To solve the problem of the expositions, R. Kevin put Gower (played by Eden-Lee Murray) center stage, making her visible for most of the play. Instead of being a detached third-person narrator, Eden-Lee plays Gower with entrancing charm and energy as she commanded the onstage puppets (yes. There are puppets), and even pausing on-stage action with a bang of her staff.

If your thoughts are still on the previous statement on puppets, yes. To restate again, there are puppets. Mostly puppets on sticks, but they do well to entertain the few that may fall bored from Eden-Lee's well executed (but many) monologues of exposition. These do well to further the idea that Gower is not just telling a story, but putting on the show for us.

There are also dances, about five, throughout the play. These dances succeed in establishing the mood, however, and you definitely should not write off these little dancing segments as obligatory means to show off choreography. However, the men's dance (pictured above) features the always entertaining Samoan slap dance.

The stage is set in a round, with a simple set, and simple lighting. Set pieces would be tiresome, since the location of scenes change frequently. Instead, a huge ensemble cast accompany Pericles (played by Q) as pirates, prostitutes, kings, and knights as he journeys from place to place. The stage is easily transformed from scene to scene with the help of few movable set pieces, colorful costuming, and amazing ensemble chemistry.

This week is the last showing of Pericles at Arts at Marks--shows are 7:30 from Wednesday till Saturday, and at 3:30 on Sunday. Ticket prices vary on the day, Wednesday the cheapest. Tickets can be ordered in advance from Brown Paper Tickets or by calling 1-800-838-3006. You can also purchase tickets at the door one hour before show time.

Be sure to also check out the last show of The Hawaii Shakespeare Festival--"Merry Wives of Windsor"--also playing at Arts at Marks Garage. Expect it to open the 2nd Friday of August and run until the 23rd of August.

Urban Legends #1: 7.27.09--12 noon

This little "episode" of the blog is based off of The Floating City, a column Hawaii's independent newspaper, Honolulu Weekly. The column describes stray moments and chance encounters, where strangers are temporarily linked to experience a moment of absurdity. A summer of riding Hawaii public transportation (nothing good comes from riding TheBus), and living in D.C., urban strangeness is bound to happen. Besides, nothing happens in the suburbs.

Nothing.

Hopefully you'll find these stories entertaining, although like many of my ideas, this too will probably be unpopular and short lived. We'll see.

URBAN LEGENDS #1: 7.27.09--12 noon

Taking the E bus from Ala Moana to Ewa Beach. The bus takes its usual stop in Downtown Honolulu and opens its doors for its usual group of passengers. As the normal group of people trudge onto the bus, a woman sits decisively to the seat next to mine. She then started to engage in a one-sided conversation in a nonsensical story that I at first tried to follow, until I realized it made no sense. She pointed out local places TheBus passed by and weaved them into her narrative of epic nonsense themed with domestic abuse, prostitution, Roy Orbison songs, and Jesus hymns.

"She has a heart problem, like asthma or something."

As she spoke, her focus was undirected and scattered, and her body movements had a mind of their own as limbs flailed from where she was sitting, telling stories of mountains, guns, and obscenities. TheBus takes the on-ramp to the freeway, and she points out Royal School as it passes. I soon realized that she wasn't wearing a Bluetooth headset; I was in for an hour of crazy.

She had a navy sweater tied around her hips. A gray tanktop. A red Salvation Army grocercy bag laid on top of her ratted shorts. Years of picked scabs pattern her arms and legs. When she first paused, she turned her gaze to the right and stared at my hands that were nervously grasping my bag. Two minutes later, my fantasies of being invisible apparently became a reality, since she returned to her ramblings with renewed energy. One more time she paused, to fish out a bag of half finished sunflower seeds from her red bag. By this time, I lost track of her stories and zoned out to the new rhythm of her teeth cracking the shell of the sunflower seeds and watched her (from the corner of my eye) collect the shells in her left hand. The bus ride that lasted an eternity ended too abruptly; with a sudden stop in her rhythmic speak-crack-eat-speak routine, the woman threw the collected sunflower seeds in her hand onto the floor of the bus, and left.

To Begin at the Beginning:

This blog is meant to be a collage of thoughts (accompanied by photography, of course) on philosophy, art, local happenings, culture, and politics. These posts will range from well-thought out and organized writings to stream-of-consciousness "episodes." Similar to Molly Bloom's soliloquy in the last chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses (after which this blog is named--one of my favorite literary passages of all time), this blog can be read as an interior monologue of recollections and realizations. To be truthful, there is no solid plan for what this is going to be, but I need to occupy my time with something.

"Only your eyes are unclosed to see the black and folded town fast, and slow, asleep...
From where you are, you can hear their dreams."

-Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood