Two San Jose Rep Reviews in One

We saw the San Jose Rep production of "Legacy of Light" this past weekend, and it was WONDERFUL.  Everything we love about theatre: great writing, great performances, humor, deep thoughts to keep you talking even after the play is over.

The play merges the stories of two heroines from two timelines:

• In the 1700's: Physicist Émilie du Châtelet, a young poet and lover of famous French philosopher Voltaire
• Modern day: Astrophysicist Olivia and her husband contemplate her discovery of the birth of a star

The common theme for both women is career vs. childbirth.  The writing is brilliant, and even explains dark matter and the measurement of mass vs. velocity, in an understandable way.  Lots of humor as well--and play close attention to which actors are playing parts in both timelines, so you can fully appreciate the humor of the funniest lines in the play, "Every action triggers an equal and opposite reaction!"  The most humorous quoting of Newton's laws of physics ever!

We especially enjoyed the following performances (click here for cast bios):

• Carrie Paff (Olivia/Wet Nurse): We loved her in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where she played both his manservant (tall, lanky), and a femininely sinister Mr. Hyde
• Rachel Harker (Emilie Du Chatelet): Wonderful portrayal of mature intelligence, maternity, and sensuality
• Kathryn Tkel (Millie/Pauline): A little screechy as a playful Pauline, but her Millie was so endearing and wonderful she stole most scenes she was in.
•  Robert Yacko (Voltaire): He seemed over-dramatic at first, but as the show went on, we realized that Voltaire was just larger-than-life.

For a more complete review, click here.

This show reminded us a lot of the Splitting Infinity show from the San Jose Rep's 2008-2009.  Both were directed by Kristen Brandt, and shared themes of astrophysics vs. love.  Robert Yacko performed in both.  Brandin Baron was Costume Designer for both--the costumes were more fun in this show.  Bruce Elsperger was also the Casting Director for both shows--well done!

We hope to be seeing more of Kristen's direction in future shows. Legacy of Light was very, very enjoyable! 

Good timing too, as it is time to renew subscriptions for next season, and we were not so happy with the last show we saw in January.

The Dresser is one of DH's all time favorite shows, he had been looking forward to seeing in onstage for the first time, after watching the movie again and again.  I knew the basic storyline of the decline of a Shakespearean actor, and his faithful servant, Norman, but I had never seen it before.

What we liked:

• James Carpenter delivered his usual stunning performance as Norman.  Lively, devoted, clearly in love, he was perfect! 
• The staging--they managed to show us the "backstage", onstage, with the actors taking their bows and performing to whomever was standing behind the left curtain in the real backstage.  As a veteran of many high school stage crews, I laughed to think what temptation there would be to make monkeyfaces at the performers and break their concentration.
• Costumes were wonderful (as you can tell by my last post, a weakness of mine)
• I liked the storyline--interesting dynamic, though it was funny to think almost everyone in the show was apparently in love with "Sir".

What we didn't like:

• The pacing was slow.  I love theatre, and I was embarrassed to realize I was dozing off during some of this show.  The last time I have done that during a live performance, I was pregnant.  No such explanation this time around.
• The performances were convincing, except *every* line was delivered as if it was the most important line of the play.  It was hard to fault the actors, so it may be the direction that was off.  

Anyway, based on the strength of Legacy of Light, we've renewed again for next year, but it was a close decision.  San Jose Rep is shrewd in its line-ups, as I recall being similarly swayed in past years.  They're no dopes.

More Costumes--all new!

Way back at the end of January, I took an afternoon with my friend Rose to attend the Bay Area Costume Guild Annual Meeting.  Click here to learn more about this organization.

I brought the camera, and we enjoyed an excellent luncheon, with dessert, and of course, LOTS of costumes.  After enjoying an eyeful last year, I was concerned we might just see the same outfits again.  Silly me...these folks are really into costumes, and wouldn't be caught dead wearing the same one twice!

I felt visually sated after this event.  Most of the costumes evoked days gone by:

Other costumes evoked faraway places and cultures:

In fact, the costume of the woman below right was from so far away, it was another galaxy!  It was worn in an episode of the short-lived but much-acclaimed Firefly sci-fi series by Joss Whedon. (AWESOME series!) She told me the name of the episode, but it escapes me now.

Her friend wore an outfit evocative of another favorite movie, this one about a famous courtesan of Venice: Dangerous Beauty:

Rounding out the movie theme, this funky costume is modeled on one from Alice in Wonderland:

And this one evokes the programs from Tron--front and back views:

 I love costumes, and if I did not have children to rear, or a job that requires my daily attention, I could seriously get into this as a hobby.  Until the boys are up and out, and I can retire, I'll just have to live vicariously through these annual luncheons.  I'm glad Rose is on their member mailing list!

$500 Sweater: Conclusion

For those who read my series on the origin of my v-neck aran sweater saga, I can happily report that I am *finally* done!  For those who missed the series, you can begin reading the story here.

DH and I had a weekend away, which was the perfect time to leave pieces of wet wool drying on pillows on the floor all over my house.  No risk of children landing on pins, or adults spilling coffee as they trip over the pillows.  I had been a little intimidated about having to block the wool into the right sizes (they would have to grow 4" in width), and it turned out to be easy--no pins needed at all.  In fact, they would have stretched 6-8 inches further if I had wanted.

OK, pieces blocked, ready for sewing together, and DH agreed to be my brother's stand-in.  It came out GORGEOUS!

The finished sweater is heavy--over 2 pounds of warm wool!  That should keep my brother warm.  Final tally on the materials for this sweater, adding in $38 for overnight delivery?:  Cost of wool, patterns, books, more wool, shipping for all including the final sweater: $408.  Keeping my brother warm through the snowstorm coming this weekend?  Priceless.

He'd better LOVE this sweater, or I'm coming on a "repo" visit this summer...

DH has asked for a sweater of his own after trying this one on as my model.  Since I bought so much yarn in my quest for a single dye lot, I think I might have enough, heh.  Here is a picture of DH's sweater, which I'll be working on for the next 9 months...

Date Night at last

DH and I finally got to see The King's Speech, which we enjoyed very much.  It took 4 tries to manage it, but we finally had our first successful "Date Night" of the year--in March!  What happened the first 3 times?  Let's see...

Attempt #1: Teddy had a sleepover on Friday night, and we agreed to let Barley have a friend over the same night, since he would not have his brother to torment/play with.  At the last minute, Teddy's sleepover got changed to Saturday night, so we somehow fouled up our babysitting, such that there were kids here when we weren't expecting there to be.

Attempt #2: We made dinner reservations, timed to allow us to dine and still catch the movie, while getting done before the local drop-in babysitting service closed.  As we were signing the boys into the center, they looked up Teddy's birthday, and realized that at age 12, he was over their licensed age.  Too old for daycare (this is going to be a problem this summer, too), but too young to leave home alone for 5 hours.  And no way was he coming on our date night!  Scrap plans again.

Attempt #3: Teddy was going on an overnight (snow) camping trip.  Try plan #2 again, only dropping off one kid, who is definitely under age 12.  Perfect!  Except for inclement weather--the snow camping trip was cancelled at the last minute.  Doh!  Stuck with 2 kids again, one over age 12.

Attempt #4: Call expensive babysitting service--pay agency fee of 35% on top of $18/per hour nanny rate (mature, licensed, trained, experienced, and background-checked adults cost way more than pizza-eating teenagers).  Cost of a night out with my husband?  $200.  Guaranteed date night with no last-minute snafu?  Priceless.

Remembering Nana

It has become a tradition that I make my Nana's Irish soda bread for St. Patrick's Day every year.  Then I had children, and one of them wanted to bring it in to share with his class.  OK, 20 thin slices out of one loaf...hmm, maybe I can make 2 loaves.  Fast-forward 6 years, and Teddy's class now has 34 students!  Add in the one I want to bring into my office, one for a friend we are visiting on Friday, and one for us to enjoy, and that means I need to make six!  (Since Barley doesn't care for any baked bread except pumpkin bread, his class misses out)

As you can see below, every round baking pan in the house was pressed into service (including my cast-iron frying pan--which did not cook long enough).  I know I could bake them in regular rectangular loaf pans, but that just would not look right to me--it's not how my Nana made them.  The picture does not include the one I made for us as a test batch, because that one is already half gone.

The recipe for her Irish soda bread might have been lost forever if not for my younger brother's wife, who measured out the ingredients while helping Nana to make it one day (Thanks, J!).  Nana didn't use a recipe, nor did she measure.  She just put the flour, etc. in a bowl until it "looked right" and baked it up.

HAPPY St. Patrick's Day!  

May you always have
Walls for the wind,
A roof for the rain,
Tea beside the fire,
Laughter to cheer you,
Those you love near you,
And all your heart might desire!

My Winnebago Career

Things have been crazy busy around here, as you can tell by my lack of posting.  Work has been the biggest challenge, but being sick, and then DH being under the weather have also contributed.  My biggest distraction in the last week was the departure of my manager of the last few years.  She has been AWESOME, and I am going to miss her influence very much.  She is moving on, as people and life have a way of doing, and this means changes at my job, of course, which makes us all a little uneasy.

Fortunately, her boss is someone I get along with, and he proved years ago that he values my contribution, when he talked me into staying after I had resigned.  And while I know that is supposed to be a bad idea (to stay after you have quit), it has actually worked out quite well.

Anyway, I usually avoid blogging or posting on Face*Book about anything work-related (you never know who might be reading!), but I had to share a funny dream I had while processing all this work-stress.  Now, I've been having a lot of work-related dreams since learning my boss was moving on--not all of them have been enlightening, or fun, or even restful.  

In this dream, I am driving a giant Winnebago (Merikay, are you listening?), and I am trying to get it to go down one particular street, to get to a certain destination.  In the dream, it is just a parking lot, but I needed to get there.  This is a HUGE vehicle, and I can't seem to turn the wheel hard enough to go where I want it to--I just keep going straight, passing all the avenues that would take me to the right place. 

Suddenly, the Winnebago and I are up on a sidewalk, and I need to find a way to build a ramp that is 3 feet high, so I can drive off the sidewalk and get back to my route.

Did I mention that among other challenges at work, I am trying to get promoted?  Does anyone else see the analogy my subconscious has made?  The best part of this?  I was telling some girlfriends about this, and one noted, "Well, at least you have a bathroom, right?  And a kitchenette?"

And that is the funny part of this analogy.  I have been very comfortable in my job/career so far--I have work that I enjoy, flexibility to work the schedule and location around my family's requirements, and enough to live on, even in the Bay Area.  Not that we're rich (oops, I have to finish that other post series, don't I?), or anything.  But we are comfortable.  So here I am, counting my blessings again, even as I try to reach for that brass ring.