"Sing, Maria" gets to the heart of the story

Fast-forward to the 32-minute mark for True Troupe's staged reading for Annie Shay's script "Sing, Maria" based one one of my short stories.

Drama nerds and debaters seize the day after Florida school shooting

It seems that arts education can be a wonderful asset in standing up to bullies.

That was on display last week at the CNN town hall meeting on gun violence. Young people from Margory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., schooled Sen. Marco Rubio and an NRA flack on just about everything. No surprise that the students had honed their skills by participating in the school's drama club and speech and debate programs.

Memorizing lines and defending your views in front of a crowd can give you the confidence to take on a U.S. senator and the NRA. I encourage these students to continue the fight. Their #NeverAgain movement is sponsoring March for Our Lives march on Washington on March 24. Allied marches will be help around the world. Some are being planned for Wyoming. I will keep you posted on these pages. Several high-rolling liberals have donated to the cause. The rest of us can donate by going to https://www.gofundme.com/8psm8-march-for-our-lives . As of noon Sunday, the campaign has raised $2.5 million of the $2.8 million goal.

Further reading on the topic:

Emily Witt wrote this Feb. 19 New Yorker piece on how three drama club nerds sparked the #NeverAgain movement: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-survivors-of-parkland-began-the-never-again-movement

New Yorker article on Feb. 23 about high school protester Cameron Kasky and his "Spring Awakening" at https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-spring-awakening-of-the-stoneman-douglas-theatre-kids

The high school's drama club wrote and performed an original song for the CNN-sponsored town hall session Feb. 21. Get more here: http://womenyoushouldknow.net/marjory-stoneman-douglas-powerful-shine-song/

Here are some of the song's lyrics:

But you're not gonna knock us down
We'll get back up again

We need more than sound and fury to defeat the GOP's cruel policies

Chris and I wore tutus to a local bar last Friday night.

Nobody beat us up. 

Our tutus were homemade from strips of tulle and, well, left a little bit to be desired. They were blue and black. We wore them over our jeans. Not as noticeable or as flamboyant as the pink tutus worn by others at Accomplice Brewing Company at the old train station. 

People all over Wyoming wore tutus to work and school and bars on Friday. It was in response to Sen. Mike Enzi's April 20 comments.  

This from the #LiveAndLetTutu Facebook page:

During a recent event at Greybull High School in Greybull, a sophomore courageously stood up to ask Senator Mike Enzi a question -- what he was doing to support LGBT youth in Wyoming? To which Senator Enzi responded, "I know a guy who wears a tutu and goes to bars on Friday night and is always surprised that he gets in fights. Well, he kind of asks for it." This message delivered directly to the youth of Wyoming sends the message that if you're bullied in high school things are NOT going to get better. His comments say that to find happiness you must leave Wyoming.

Patrick and Brian Harrington came up with the #LiveAndLetTutu theme and hashtag. They are creative people in Laramie, You may have seen Brian's excellent photos all over the place. On April 22, he took great shots of Laramie's March for Science. The two brothers are from Greybull. They know some of the stigma attached to people who are a bit different in any small town. That's why Enzi's remarks rankled me. It was if he was proclaiming that there was a correct way to be a Wyomingite and an incorrect one. Many incorrect ones. If you follow any of these paths, you will get your ass beat. Or worse. Remember Matthew Shepard.

This is an era when our differences define us more than our similarities. Too bad, since we have so many things in common. For 25 years, I traveled Wyoming promoting the arts. I met all kinds of people. We talked art and not politics. The two are intertwined, but most people in Wyoming what's best for their families. The arts and arts education mean a lot. I once saw a performance of "Annie Get Your Gun" at Greybull High School, the same one when Sen. Enzi made his comments. The whole town, it seemed, turned out that night. It was a high school performance so not all of the voices were stellar and a few lines were dropped. "Annie Get Your Gun" is a bit dated, what with its portrayal of Native Americans and women and the West. Still, any attempt at high school theatre must be applauded. Most schools in Wyoming still have art teachers but theatre teachers are in short supply. Plays are usually supervised by a local with theatre background or a faculty member who (as I did) played The Second Dead Man in a minimalist version of "Our Town."

An event such as #LiveAndLetTutu" features elements of protest and theatre. Protest is always partly theatre. Clever signs and outrageous costumes play a part. So do music and poetry, as in the recent March for Science in D.C., and our own homegrown one in Laramie.

Is protest as theatre effective? It helps us get our ya-yas out. It does nurture community. But it didn't stop the House GOP from passing the so-called American Health Care Act. The better name is Trumpcare. Or Ryancare. Or Tryancare. More creative challenges for us wordsmiths. The GOP has effectively taken over enough state houses to gerrymander the hell out of many states. Their voter suppression efforts have paid off -- for them, anyway. Margins can be thin when half the electorate stays home because you've made it too hard for them to vote. Or their brains have been turned to mush from too much Fox.

Trump & Company only understand one thing -- raw power. We shut them down by voting them out and changing the laws that feed the oligarchy. This won't be easy as we've grown complacent. The theatre of protest will have some effect. But without serious involvement, I am but

a poor player/That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/And then is heard no more: it is a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing.

Sound and Fury. We need more than that. Much more.

Hurricane Matthew, "Our Town," and Florida memories

Over my second cup of coffee on this beautiful Wyoming Saturday, I wondered why I still had the Weather Channel blaring from my Smart TV.

Hurricane Matthew. Matt, to his friends, which are few after he pounded the U.S, coast and the Caribbean this past week.

I do like the drama of a hurricane compounded by the melodrama of media coverage.

It gets more real when you're there. Many family members and friends were in the path of Matthew. All are fine although much clean-up to do. My brother Tom in Palm Bay has trees down in his yard -- but not on his house.

One of my first experiences as a 13-year-old Florida resident was with Hurricane Cleo in 1964. On my first full day on Ormond Beach, the waves broke big and the current was strong. Our parents warned us kids not to go out too far or we'd be sucked out to sea. My brother Dan and I listened (sort of) and waded into the surf, keeping an eye on (sort of) our younger brothers and sisters, who were many. The sun beat down and we body-surfed, or tried to. We were from Colorado and had never been in the ocean before.

The next day, Cleo brushed the coast, leaving us inside to watch the rain fall and the wind blow around the big palms. The next day, Dan and I were back on the beach and rarely left it for the next five years. By the following summer, we were surfing. Hodads, gremmies -- wannabe surfers. We moved south to Daytona and surfed with the big boys at Hartford Avenue, a group later known as the Hartford Heavies and included my brothers Pat, Tom and Tim. Hell-raisers and good short-board surfers. They ripped the waves, ditched school for good surf.

Hurricane Dora targeted Daytona in the fall of '64. The illustration on the front of the morning paper showed a swirling storm. On its landward side, an arrow pointed right at me. Our father picked us up at Our Lady of Lourdes Grade School and whisked us off in the Ford Falcon station wagon to a motel on the mainland. Ten of us jammed into two tiny rooms. We watched the rain fall and the palms sway, listened to storm reports on the radio. Dora swerved and hit St. Augustine instead, giving us a glancing blow, a little less severe than the one Matt just delivered.

I lived in Florida for most of 14 years. Those are the only hurricanes I remember. 1964 was an active season, with three of the six named hurricanes hitting Florida. Isbell was the third, cutting across south Florida on its way to North Carolina. Cleo, Dora and Isbell were all retired from the official hurricane naming list, which featured only names of the female persuasion back then.

In the ninth grade, Father Lopez High School put on Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Our director was a woman with Broadway experience. She thought Our Town was just right for a small Catholic school with no theatre budget and no theatre but a serviceable gym. This was the minimalist version, with no stage design, except for a pair of stepladders and a few chairs. And no complicated costumes. I auditioned because I had time on my hands that fall after not making the cut for junior varsity basketball. This particularly irked me after my successful season with the OLL Falcons, runner-up in the 1965 parochial league tournament. I channeled my anger into an unforgettable role as Second Dead Man in the poignant cemetery scene. It was the closest I got to the gym floor all year.

After her funeral, the dead Emily appears at the cemetery.

EMILY: "Does anyone ever realize life while they live it...every, every minute?"
STAGE MANAGER: "No. Saints and poets maybe...they do some.”

They do some. It's pleasant to think so, that poets and writers actually live life and notice it at the same time.

Maybe it helps if you're a saint.

I was dressed in an old suit and pretended to be a dead guy from Grover's Corners. The apex of my acting career. Our Town could be seen as a nostalgic look at life in a quaint New England village. What it does is rip your heart out.

I didn't know that as 15-year-old  Second Dead Man.

I do now.

Lest you deny Wilder's seriousness in this play, he often noted that it was rarely performed correctly and that it "should be performed without sentimentality or ponderousness--simply, dryly, and sincerely."

And this from Wikipedia:

"In 1946, the Soviet Union prevented a production of Our Town in the Russian sector of occupied Berlin on the grounds that the drama is too depressing and could inspire a German suicide wave."

Post-war Germans didn't need yet another reason to end it all.

Today in Cheyenne, the sun is shining, Matthew is on his way to open ocean and Trump will not be president.

A good day to be alive and noticing it.

The Broncos vs. The Bard

A writer, dead for 400 years, caused me to miss the first half of the Denver Broncos season opener.

I know, where are my priorities? William Shakespeare vs. two NFL teams that battled it out in Super Bowl 50?  Denver, our southern neighbor, was at a fever pitch for weeks leading up to the game. My Colorado hometown may no longer be a cow town but it still bleeds orange and blue every fall. Three Super Bowl championships, multiple Super Bowl appearances (we don't talk much about the first three or the one in February 2014), many league championships and wins over the dreaded Raiders. I was a jock in high school and a sports reporter as a young man. Sports are in my blood.

But so is Shakespeare. My accountant father's library still had his college Shakespeare texts but nothing on finance and economics. I was more interested in reading first-hand accounts of World War II. Dad seemed happy that his eldest child loved reading and books. I think he was a frustrated academic, one who would have been more comfortable surrounded by books than IRS rules and regs. Not a teacher but /probably a researcher, as he wasn't all that good with people.

Shakespeare's First Folio is touring the U.S., courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Actually, six of the first folios are touring and one landed at the State Museum in Cheyenne. Published in 1623, it is kept under lock and key in a climate-controlled glass case watched over by a security guard. The pages are open to Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" speech. The text is small and difficult to read, not only because of its size but because the language -- Early Modern English -- is arcane to us. Here's a sample:

A bad quarto was basically a bootlegged copy of the script, written hurriedly by an audience member or recalled later by actors. Think of a bootlegged copy of, say, a Grateful Dead concert in the 1970s. The good quarto was a copy of the play taken from the source. The first folio is the 1623 version that featured 36 plays, 18 of which had never before appeared in print.

I didn't have to read the fine print to know the value of what I saw. The first folio saved 16 of Shakespeare's plays from oblivion. They include Macbeth, The Tempest, Henry VIII and Twelfth Night. Forsooth, what would Hollywood have done without the three witches or Prospero's island? I would never had been treated to a nude version of Macbeth's witches at Gainesville's original Hippodrome Theatre. My life would be leff without it. 

If you want to talk monetary value, a first folio was sold at auction in 2001 for $6.1 million. I'll take two! When it was hot off the presses, a first folio went for about a pound. In today's money, that's somewhere between $150-$250.

But it's not the money really now is it? As the State Museum exhibit points out, Shakespeare and his plays have given us phrases that we use every day and countless hours of entertainment at the movies. I believe that I first heard lines from Romeo and Juliet in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Every state boasts a Shakespeare company, usually one that tours performances every summer. In Wyoming, that's the Wyoming Shakespeare Company out of Lander. I recall a memorable version of King Lear on the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens lawn. Nature provided its own thunder and lightning for the famous storm scene with King Lear and The Fool. Here's Lear: 

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulfurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,
Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once
That make ingrateful man!

Now that's a storm. 

Last night was rounded out with a presentation by UW Prof Peter Parolin: "From the Fringes to the Folio: Crossing Borders with Shakespeare in Life, on Stage, and in the Globalized World." Fascinating talk, and I was surprised on how many stayed after the food and wine and entertainment to hear an academic speak. I had not thought about "migration as one of Shakespeare's principal themes." But Parolin has, at length. He accompanied it with  a PowerPoint presentation, his first, which acted as a helpful assistant to the talk. 

I had not thought of migration and immigration as big Shakespeare topics. But crossing borders happens a lot. The Merchant of Venice and Othello are good examples, with their "foreigners" as key characters. Parolin even quoted a brief snippet from Shylock's speech: "In Aleppo once..." The Syrian city has been in the news lately as it suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune -- and the forgetfulness of presidential candidates. 

Thanks to everyone at Wyoming Cultural Resources for bringing the folio to Cheyenne and staging the event. The First Folio will be in town through the end of September. 

I made it back to my Smart TV to watch the second half, in which the Broncos staged a comeback. With 9 seconds left, the Carolina Panthers kicker nailed a field goal but it was negated by a Broncos timeout. The second kick went wide to the left. That kicker was feeling some slings and arrows last night on Twitter. In Denver, they were partying like Falstaff and Prince Hal in 1402. 

My life and welcome to it -- hard work, persistence and pure dumb luck

According to our insurance agent, it would cost a lot to rebuild our house if it was destroyed by a tornado or other insurable natural disaster. Not a flood -- that's different kind of insurance, as homeowners in South Carolina are finding out this week. Our house was built of brick in 1960. As we all know, they don't build them like that anymore. Bricks are expensive, as are brick masons. You can build a wood frame house with a brick facade for something like $125 a square foot. A brick house would cost us $160-something a square foot. So we pray that no tornadoes touch down on us.

When I was in my twenties, I never thought twice about insurance. Or once. For most of that era, I had no health insurance. Nor did I have life insurance. Only when I was in my thirties and children were arriving, did I have insurance -- and worked a corporate job to get it.

Now I'm insured to the gills. And a good thing too, since gills are expensive. Hearts, too. And knees. Diabetes. Mental health crises. Car accidents. Hail storms. Basement floods. Root canals. All of these have entered my family's life during the past five years. I was insured at various levels for them all. What if I had no insurance, as is the case with thousands of my fellow Wyomingites? Well, Obamacare exists, so that's good. Medicaid expansion does not, which is bad. Before Obamacare, your average uninsured worker in Wyoming was SOL. Now at least they have a fighting chance.

So I am blessed, lucky and I guess you'd say satisfied with my state of being insured. It comes at a cost. If you are an artist or writer, you need a day job. Or a night job -- I hear that Wal-Mart is now open 24/7. When you're young, service jobs don't take the same toll that they do when you're middle-aged or old. You work with other young people and you are all making your way in the world, jumping from job to job, hanging out together after work, making fun of your aging bosses, those overweight jerks with three kids and a mortgage. But that gets old as you keep laboring in the vineyards without actually getting to drink any of the wine. And then you're the one having kids and getting fat and it ain't so funny anymore.

I have been a part of the service industry workforce. I've been broke and the family has been on food stamps (now called SNAP) and the infant nutrition program. My wife and I have declared bankruptcy twice. We lost a house to foreclosure. It's painful. When you get back on your feet, it's tempting to go the Republican route of blaming those people who apparently are too lazy to lift themselves up by the bootstraps and join in the prosperity that is America's middle name. But then you remember how difficult it is to get an education and find the right kind of job and make a meaningful living that also supports a family. If you throw in things such as mental health issues and other health problems and learning disabilities and substance abuse. Well, you know that it ain't so damn easy to be Donald Trump or Gordon Gecko. You can do everything right and still fail.

So color me grateful as I sneak up on 65 and I am a person of some means but not mean-spirited. I'm not taking an around-the-world trip anytime soon. But I am taking my wife to Italy in the next few years. God willing and the creek don't rise or a tornado knocks my manse off its foundation. Insurance will help with those things. As for the others, well, that's hard work and persistence and just dumb luck.

I should end my ruminations there. Writers should know when to quit. But another thing occurs to me. I'm a liberal but also a fiction writer. I know that "stuff happens" (tip of the cap to JEB!) in this world. You can be in a classroom at an Oregon community college, dreaming about Friday,  when a fellow student walks in with a gun and blows your dreams to shit. You can be a loving parent, just going to work and thinking good thoughts for your kids, when you get the call that it's your kid who's massacred nine people and killed himself. You can go for a run in the park before work one sunny morning and the next thing you know, you're being hauled off to the ER with a massive heart attack.

Aren't I a Debbie Downer this morning?

Monty Python got me thinking this way. Chris and I saw the local production of "Spamalot" last night. "Always look on the bright side of life" is the show's theme song. King Arthur's time is filled with war and pestilence. People die by the cartload -- "bring out your dead!" -- but Not Dead Fred is having none of it ("I'm not dead yet."). We loved Monty Python for its irreverent, nonsensical humor. In the 1970s, we were living in irreverent, nonsensical times. The art we liked reflected that. The Python, Firesign Theater, "Catch-22," George Carlin, Frank Zappa, National Lampoon, the Furry Freak Brothers, etc. When reality is the exact opposite of what your leaders tell you, the time is ripe for satire. If you revel in satire ("let the revels begin!") then you have to believe that nothing is sacred (sing it -- "every sperm is sacred") or out of bounds. While it is hugely entertaining to lampoon the fundies and Tea Partiers, I can't forget that there are liberal true believers that deserve an equal dose of barbed humor.

"Always look on the bright side of life." It doesn't mean the exact opposite -- that's too easy. It means what "We'll meet again some sunny day" means at the end of "Dr. Strangelove." Or the same as Professor Pangloss's catch-phrase in "Candide," that this is "the best of all possible worlds." It's that sliver of hope that exists in the face of humankind's rampant stupidity.

There's no insurance for that. Insurance itself is absurd in the face of this life that is uninsurable.

For that, we have humor.

Mark Twain really liked Anne of "Anne of Green Gables" -- and so did I

Most people consider "Anne of Green Gables" a children's book, specifically, a book for girls.

As a child, I didn't read it. I read a lot. Sci-fi classic. Classics for boys, such as "Treasure Island" and "The Three Musketeers." The Hardy Boys mysteries. Tom Swift adventures.

But "Anne of Green Gables" or "Little Women" or "Little House on the Prairie?"

Not this cowboy.

My loss, as it turns out. Artificial barriers delineating what you should or shouldn't read does nobody any good.

I was charmed by the staged reading of "Anne of Green Gables" put on by the Next Step Performance Company this weekend at the LCCC Playhouse in Cheyenne. Small theatre, big cast. Next Step puts on productions that raises money for scholarships for students majoring the fine arts. Cast and crew are all volunteers, which allows ticket sales and auction proceeds to go to scholarships.

"Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery is a serious story. An aging duo, brother and sister Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, are getting too old to do all of the chores required by Prince Edward Island farmers in 1908. Matthew is in his 60s and Marilla in her 50s. Had automation come to the farm in 1908? Matthew has heart problems. His solution for cardiac arrhythmia is to get back to work. Marilla does all of the cooking and cleaning. Darns socks. Makes clothes. Bakes pies. On PEI, you have to make hay while the sun shines, which is does about the same length of time as it does in rural Wyoming.

They decide to adopt a 13-year-old male orphan to help out around the place. Orphans must have been a dime a dozen in 1908. Unfortunately, Matthew arrives in his buckboard at the Avonlea train station to find a scrawny 11-year-old girl waiting for him. The taciturn Matthew is kind of taken with the talkative Anne "Anne with an E" Shirley. The practical Marilla, not so much. "What good is a girl on a farm?" she asks. Anne must go. A neighbor says she will take Annie. The neighbor it bitchy Mrs.Blewitt, who has a zillion little kids and goes through hired help like there's no tomorrow. Marilla knows that Mrs. Blewitt probably will work Anne to death, which wouldn't have been much of a crime in an era of widespread child labor. She lets the lively Anne stay at Green Gables. Matthew is pleased. Anne gets into some minor-league scrapes. She stands up for herself with the town gossip, Rachel Lynde (played with aplomb by my one-time arts colleague, Rita Basom). Matthew spoils her with little gifts. Marilla gets on her case but you can see her attitude softening as time goes on.

Women readers know this story. I don't. No less a literary personage than Mark Twain thought that Anne was "the dearest and most moving and delightful child since the immortal Alice." The book has sold 50 million copies in 20 languages during the past 107 years. That's 500,000 copies annually, give or take. The author's home and the green gables farmhouse on PEI is a literary tourist stop, visited by scores of loyal readers from all over the globe. The town of Cavendish, the model for Avonlea, plays up its legacy. Nearby is a national park dedicated to Montgomery's works.

I didn't know any of this until I saw the staged reading and conducted a Google investigation of "Anne of Green Gables." Amazing story, really. We writers secretly yearn for our legacy to outlive us. I don't have much of a legacy. I visit those old homesteads and birthplaces of those who do. The best example I can think of is Nebraska's Willa Cather and her town of Red Cloud. The entire town is dedicated to Cather and her books and stories.A wonderful places to spend a warm spring day.

Living writers are learning how to enhance their local brand. Buffalo's Longmire Days celebrates the mystery novels and the TV series spawned by Craig Johnson's fiction. Carbon County celebrates  the fictional creations of native son C.J. Box. This is a trend that will only get bigger as the "local" craze grows. If you're a locavore, you should be devouring the creations of local writers, artists and performers.

WYO Shakespeare Festival Company explores "the quality of mercy" Saturday in Cheyenne

Shylock, Portia, Antonio and the crew from the Wyoming Shakespeare Festival Company come to Cheyenne Saturday for a production of "The Merchant of Venice." Curtain rises outdoors at 5 p.m. in the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens. It's free -- bring friends, a picnic, folding chair and an umbrella.

The WSFC works out of Lander and tours the state each summer with a different offering of The Bard. Friday evening, the troupe faced severe thunderstorm warnings in Torrington. But nature's elements don't faze the WSFC. Last July, the players were soaked to the bone as they weathered Cheyenne's only serious thunderstorm in the summer of '12. "King Lear" never looked so good or so wet.

The players are led by Diane Springford, who received a Governor's Arts Award for her efforts. The players are volunteers who devote many hours to rehearsals and travel. Have you ever been involved in local theatre? I have, and am continually amazed by the devotion of actors, directors, costumers, back stage crew, set builders, ticket takers, etc. It takes a village to put on a show. The reward? Putting on a great show. It feeds the ego and challenges you in ways you never anticipated. As in any artistic pursuit, there are good performances and bad ones. You get this sinking feeling when you blow a line or miss a cue. A good performance brings applause and euphoria. 

Shylock is a controversial figure among Shakespeare's characters. This intro was on the title page of the first quarto:  

The most excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. With the extreme cruelty of Shylock the Jew towards the Merchant....

Shylock, the Jewish money lender, is seen through the eyes of a playwright in 1596 Christian England. In the play, set in Venice, Shylock can only be redeemed by converting to Christianity. At the time, the Inquisition was still in effect in Italy and most of Catholic Europe.  

I see the play through the eyes of a 2013 American, one who knows about pogroms and the Holocaust. Today's audiences have to push beyond ourselves to experience the lives of these historic characters and to marvel at Shakespeare's language. As Portia says:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes...

Mercy.

See you in the gardens this evening. 

Back by popular demand: "Cotton Patch Gospel"

A troupe of local musicians and actors resurrected the "Cotton Patch Gospel" last fall for a series of SRO performances at the Vineyard Church downtown. The book was written by Tom Key and Russell Treyz, with music and lyrics by Harry Chapin. Read my post about the play's origins here. 

The "Gospel" returns July 12-13 and 19-20, 7 p.m., at Cheyenne First Baptist Church, 1800 E. Pershing Blvd. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children. You can buy tix at the door. All proceeds benefit Convoy of Hope Christian Outreach.

The cast features "The Cotton Swabs" made up of Kevin Guille, Brad Eddy, Randy Oestman, Jerry Gallegos, Kevin Uhrich and Bob Fontaine.

FMI: 307-638-8700

Gregory Hinton's "Waiting for a Chinook" explores small-town newspapers of the West

"Six Against the Blaze," 1960. Photo by G.C. "Kip" Hinton

Talked to my colleague Gregory Hinton in L.A. last week. He'll be in Laramie in July for the debut of his play, Waiting for a Chinook: A New Play About Old Newspapers.  It runs July 9-13 at the Fine Arts Studio Theatre at the University of Wyoming. Tickets are $7-$10 and available at the UW Fine Arts Box Office. Here's a short description of the play:

Waiting for a Chinook follows Vince, a disillusioned city reporter, who returns to his boyhood Western town to search for place and meaning in the writings of his late father, Cliff, a Wyoming country editor.

Greg's father, G.C. "Kip" Hinton, was the editor of small town papers, including the legendary Cody Enterprise, established by Buffalo Bill and once owned and edited by the indomitable Caroline Lockhart. Editors such as Greg's father knew every part of the business -- reporting, photography, advertising, layout, typesetting, distribution -- because they had to. Most of these papers were one-person operations, or employed just a few people. Greg's father started his career at 15 as a printer's devil and moved up from there.

Greg lives in the big city these days but he was born on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana and grew up in Wyoming and Colorado. He has a fondness for small-town western life that, frankly, I don't share. I like the West all right -- I've lived here most of my life -- but I prefer cities as do most contemporary Westerners. Wyoming has two cities, as defined by a metropolitan statistical area: Cheyenne (pop. 61,000-plus) and Casper (pop. 57,000-plus). If you're feeling generous, you might throw in the state's micropolitan statistical areas: Sheridan, Gillette, Riverton, Evanston, Laramie, Jackson and Rock Springs.

When Greg began his research, he discovered that community newspapers have been able to weather the storm that has closed their big-city rivals. You know the story. Technology and the 2008 economic downturn closed a slew of newspapers and caused others to move entirely online, with mixed results. At least one daily -- the Chicago Tribune -- fired all of their photographers and told their reporters to use smart phones for photos to accompany their stories. Now they will all get the chance to experience life as a small-town reporter.

Another problem -- bloggers like me think they know everything and readers listen to us even when they should be turning to real news reports. I was trained as a journalist and I've worked as a newspaper reporter and editor. But Hummingbirdminds ain't no newspaper and doesn't pretend to be.

I try to be accurate. But actual newspapers have to report what happens at the city council meeting and at the Friday night high school football game. It has to spell correctly the head of the local Rotary and the garden club. It has to support itself with ads from Joe's Garage and Jean's Bake Shop. Sometimes editors write columns blasting a county commissioner. They know that soon they will run into that commissioner at the bank or on the street corner. It's a small town, after all. 

Back in the 1950s and 60s, Cody was smaller than it is now. Greg's father was called away from family events to report on car crashes and storms and fires. He shot a famous photo (see attached) of a tanker explosion. Not only was he covering the fire, he was putting out the fire as a member of the volunteer fire department. When the fire exploded, he was almost enveloped by the flames. As one of his fellow fire fighters recounted years later, he thought that Kip Hinton was a goner.

But he wasn't. He lived to report on other fires and natural disaster, rodeos and ball games, boring meetings galore.

Take some time and go over to UW July 9-13 to see Waiting for a Chinook. You'll get some insight into what makes these small-town editors tick, why they do the job they do. You will also experience the creative talent bred in the West's small towns. Some of our most talented writers, artists and musicians may be "Big City" now, but the influences of rural childhoods are still in their blood.

To read the UW press release about Waiting for a Chinook, go here. 

Invest in a few hours of "Rent"

Chris and I attended the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players production of "Rent" on Saturday night at the Historic Atlas Theatre.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that this won't be a critical review of the musical due to the fact that I've been a player in CLTP productions. I've served as emcee at the Old-Fashioned Summer Melodrama. Technically, I'm not a member of the cast but I keep the show moving along with witty banter and wry observations. Chris and I also volunteer for various CLTP plays. Chris usually staffs the box office and has to deal with a computer ticketing program, phone calls from lost patrons and, sometimes, complaints from disgruntled customers. I sometimes am house manager engaging in witty banter and wry observations with loitering theatre-goers. I often have to flick the house lights five minutes before show time. Sometimes I go up on stage at intermission to draw the winning ticket for the 50/50 raffle. They only choose the most trusted volunteers for this job.

I have some emotional capital invested in community theatre. I know the time and commitment that goes into each production. The "Rent" cast rehearsed for almost eight weeks. Sets had to be built by John Lyttle and crew; costumes made by Dana and Katie Heying; music rehearsed by Dr. Judy Ransom and the band. A decision was made to go with wireless body microphones on all of the cast. They were expensive, and the cast had less than two weeks to get used to them.

I also must admit that I have never seen "Rent," neither the play nor the movie. Because I work in the arts, people think I've seen every play in the book, possibly on Broadway. I do know people who take yearly trips to The Great White Way. But I've never been. Most of my theatre-going has been of the community variety. I've made the 90-minute trip to Denver for "The Book of Mormon" and other DCPA offerings. After a slow start, I am on a lifetime quest to see every play and concert and art museum exhibit that I can reasonably afford. As a writer, I've spent most of my life buying books and attending literary events. Writing, too -- can't forget that. It's time to branch out.

So, you may ask, should I go see "Rent" during the remainder of its run.

Yes.

Get tickets here.

Gregory Hinton returns to Shepard Symposium for performance of "Diversity Day"

Gregory Hinton is a Montana native who grew up in Cody. He now is the creator and producer of Out West at the Autry, a historic public program featuring a series of lectures, plays, films and gallery exhibitions dedicated to shining a light on the history and culture of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender & Two Spirit (GLBT2) communities in the American West.

I first met Gregory a few years ago when he performed his play "Beyond Brokeback" at the Shepard Symposium for Social Justice in Laramie. The play was based on online testimonials by GLBT2 people responding to "Brokeback Mountain," the Ang Lee film based on the short story by Wyoming's Annie Proulx.

Gregory's been back in Wyoming several times since, most recently to serve as a research fellow at the Buffalo Bill Center for the West in his old stomping grounds of Cody. This week he's in Laramie for a Shepard Symposium performance of "Diversity Day" in the Wyoming Union's Yellowstone Ballroom on Friday, April 5, 1:30-2:45 p.m. 

This is a one-hour staged reenactment—with voluntary audience participation— of combative public testimony adapted from Missoula City Council Minutes to add anti-discrimination protection for the LGBTQ community, a first in Montana history.  Footage of the original April 12, 2010 hearing will screen silently as testimony is read. A workshop and discussion will follow.

After Mayor John Engen of Missoula declared April 12, 2010 “Diversity Day,” six hours of powerful public testimony was heard prior to a Missoula City Council vote to add sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to the city’s existing antidiscrimination ordinance – a first in Montana state history.

'Diversity Day’ offers a frank glimpse into the day-to-day lives of Montana’s LGBT community and those who oppose their call for anti-discrimination protection.”  

"Diversity Day" was first presented at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival – Region 7, (KCACTF-7) in Ft. Collins in February, 2012.  It was then presented in June, 2012 at the West Hollywood Library as a featured event of West Hollywood’s One City/One Pride Culture Series. In association with the National Coalition Building Institute it will be presented in Missoula on April 12th, 2013 and in Billings in association with ACLU Montana the following weekend.  

Hinton has produced and directed stage readings of the AFER and Broadway Impact marriage equality play ‘8,’ both at KCACTF-7 in Ft. Collins and at the Bozeman Public Library.  Written by Academy Award winning Dustin Lance Black, ‘8’ is adapted from the transcripts of the 2010 California Prop. 8 trial where cameras were barred.  

For more information about "Diversity Day" or Out West programming, please contact Gregory Hinton at 323.876.9585 gregoryhinton@earthlink.net

Tickets now on sale for Cheyenne Little Theatre's production of "Rent"

"Rent" casts rehearses title song at Historic Atlas Theatre. "Rent" opens April 5.
Get your tix here.

"Rent" auditions set for Feb. 3-5 in Cheyenne

Auditions for the rock musical "Rent" will be held on Sunday, February 3, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Monday, February 4, 4:30-6:30 p.m., and  Tuesday, February 5, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Call-backs will be Wednesday, February 6, 6:30-8:30 p.m. All auditions held at the Historic Atlas Theater in downtown Cheyenne 

Here's more info from the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players web site:

To audition, we ask that you sing a song from the show "Rent" or another contemporary musical. You may bring your own accompanist or an accompanist will be provided. There will be no cold readings of dialog. We may ask you to sing a song from the show after your initial audition. You will also be learning and performing a short dance. For call-backs, we will be assigning songs from the show "Rent," including duets.  

IMPORTANT!! The Director, Brenda Lyttle, is looking for singing actors who are confident and fearless. "Rent" is an adult show with adult roles, language and situations. The characters must be believable and real. The singing must be strong and confident. This show is set in the Lower East Side of New York City. Racial diversity is crucial. We strongly encourage singing actors of African-American and Hispanic descent to audition.  

Go to this link for more details: Rent Auditions

Singing songs from "Rent" at Broadway Karaoke Night in Cheyenne

Celebrate Mardi Gras without leaving Cheyenne

The Cheyenne Little Theatre Players will raise some funds and have a great time on Feb. 2 at the Atlas Theatre downtown. Get a little taste of New Orleans at the Mardi Gras Bash.  

Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" opens Nov. 30

The Cheyenne Little Theatre Players opens a new show this Friday at bthe Mary Godfrey Theatre. It's Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers." It's directed by John Lyttle.

Here's a cast list:

Grandma - Lois Hansen
Bella - Paige Bowman
Louie - Rory Mack
Eddie - Ryan Braman
Gert - Erin Kendall
Jay - Mac Rogers
Arty - Brendan Threewitt

Here's a description of the play from the CLTP web site:

Neil Simon’s LOST IN YONKERS is a coming of age tale that focuses on brothers Arty (13) and Jay (16), left in the care of their Grandma Kurnitz and Aunt Bella in Yonkers, New York. Their desperate father, Eddie, works as a traveling salesman to pay off debts incurred following the death of his wife. Grandma is a severe, frightfully intimidating immigrant who terrified her children as they were growing up, damaging each of them to varying degrees. Bella is a sweet but mentally slow and highly excitable woman who longs to marry an usher at the local movie house so she can escape the oppressive household and create a life and family of her own. Her brother Louie is a small-time, tough-talking hoodlum who is on the run, while her sister Gert suffers from a breathing problem which cause is more psychological than physical. 

Show dates: November 30-December 16; Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 PM; Sundays at 2 PM
Tickets: Adults: $21; Students & Seniors: $16; Children: $11
All Matinees: $2 Off
Special Discount Thursday December 6 at 7:30 PM when all tickets are $10.
Order tickets online here.

You don't have to get scared this week to have a good time in Cheyenne

When you talk about fall arts events, you have to include several local haunted houses. It takes good theatrical skills to scare people. The Cheyenne Knights of Pythias "Nightmare on 17th Street" has been voted one of the scariest in the region and won't admit young children and pregnant women. The next performances at 312 1/2 W. Lincolnway will be Oct. 19 and 20, 7-11 p.m. A portion of the ticket price goes to local orgs such as The Boys and Girls Club.

If you don't want to get really scared but still want to be entertained, get out to the final performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" at 2 p.m today at the CLTP's Mary Godfrey Theatre. I saw it last week and it's terrific. In case you don't remember, the musical has a famous haunting scene, in which the ghost of Fruma-Sarah (played convincingly by Dana Heying) scares Golde into agreeing to let her daughter marry a poor tailor. Oy vey! Call 638-6543 for tix.

Also at 2 p.m. today (and on Oct. 19, 20 and 21) is "Cotton Patch Gospel" at Vineyard Church, 1506 Thomes Avenue downtown. I wrote about the musical here. It's free with a donation of food for the needy, but you have to call 638-8700 to RSVP.

Wyoming's opera shortage is partially alleviated today with "An Afternoon of Opera" from 3-5 p.m. today at the Plains Hotel, 1600 Central Ave. It features the Opera Colorado Young Artists Reception, concert arias and ensembles. Free but a $10 voluntary contribution is appreciated. FMI: 514-2236.

Next Sunday, Oct. 21, 3 p.m., my daughter Annie will join her fellow LCCC music students for the "American Tapestry" concert at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, 1908 Central Ave. It features the LCCC Collegiate Choir, Cantorel and newly formed men's and women's ensemble. Free, but donations will be accepted for the Veterans Memorial Medical Center for veterans recovering from overseas deployments. FMI: 778-1158.

Mt. Sinai Synagogue sponsors "Jews from Eastern Europe" exhibit, Jewish cuisine and a post-show talk Sept. 29 at "Fiddler on the Roof"

The most powerful musical theatre has origins in human misery. "Les Miserables" centers around survival on the mean streets of Paris and the struggle for freedom by the disenfranchised masses. "West Side Story" is about New York City street gangs and immigration. "Fiddler on the Roof" is about pogroms targeting Eastern European and Russian Jews. Lurking in the background of "Fiddler" is the eventual extermination of The Six Million. 

The Cheyenne Little Theatre Players will open its production of "Fiddler on the Roof" on Friday, September 28. The show will run for 10 performances: September 28, 29, 30 & October 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 14, 15. Tickets are going fast so call the Box Office at (307) 638-6543 today or order online at www.cheyennelittletheatre.org.

There are several special events/activities associated with "Fiddler on the Roof." One of them is sponsored by the Mt. Sinai Synagogue. Several members of the Mt. Sinai congregation are in the cast. The Synagogue will present an exhibit of local Jews with families from Eastern Europe, compiled by Mt. Sinai Librarian and Historian Dorothy Feldman. The exhibit will be on display in the lobby of the Mary Godfrey Playhouse at Pershing and Windmill throughout the run of the show. It opens September 28.

On Saturday, September 29, Mt Sinai Sisterhood will offer Jewish treats (Hamantashen, Rugelach, and other baked goods) at 6:30 P.M. before the 7:30 P.M. show. Donations will be accepted which will benefit the Cheyenne Little Theatre. Then, after that show, a free "Talk Back" session will be presented by the cast and Mt Sinai's Rabbi, Harley Karz-Wagman.

No hurricanoes for "King Lear" but plenty of rain

Yesterday I joked about watching King Lear rail against "thunderbolts and hurricanoes" while the real thing was happening. The Weather Channel predicted a 60 percent chance of rain with possible flash floods.

The Wyoming Shakespeare Festival Company did perform "King Lear" yesterday evening at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens during a rapidly escalating storm. The lightning and thunder did arrive before cue -- act one instead of act three -- but it only added to the anticipation. The actors persevered as the rain waxed and waned and finally just poured down. The bodies of Lear and Cordelia and all the rest (living and dead) were soaked by the time the curtain came down about 7:15 on the 13th season performance of the Lander company.

The audience was a bit drier under umbrellas and ponchos. We were appreciative, giving the cast a rousing round of applause before we headed to our cars. Thanks to Diane Springford and her cast for a great performance and a demonstration of what it takes to be part of a traveling acting troupe. The show must go on!

A final note: Botanic Gardens Director Shane Smith introduced the performance and spoke about the upcoming vote Aug. 21 for additions and renovations to the facility. Interesting to note that interior spaces large enough for theatre performances are included in the plan. Although Shakespeare in the rain is an experience not to be missed, it would be nice to have a place to keep performers and audience members warm and dry. A number of people gave up and left midway through the play, which was a shame.