Cultural upbringing, its effect on who I am today

A class discussion this week asked me to consider a way that I was influenced by my cultural upbringing. What came to mind for me were my mother’s efforts to bring me to our local library, and to take me to live performances.

‘Better Nate Than Ever’ by Tim Federle

Reading this book, I could thoroughly relate to the protagonist, Nate. I’ve never auditioned for a Broadway performance, but I’ve been on job interviews where a lot was at stake — including the chance to entirely change my career from that of journalist to librarian.

Coming from that background, I could appreciate the suspense as Nate went through the process — anxiously waiting for a call-back and wrestling with the anxiety of what would happen next.

I also sympathized with Nate for what New York seemed to represent, a place where boys didn’t have to live up to a narrow standard of masculinity, where they could talk about the things that Nate cared about, and could even dance together, without being targeted by bullying.

(Bullies frequently target Nate for his perceived sexual orientation, but he describes himself as having an “undecided major” at the College of Sexuality. As Nate puts it, “Macaroni and cheese is still my favorite food — how would I know who I want to hook up with?”)

Nate, himself, is exuberant and irrepressible, truly a delightful narrator.

This book speaks to a wide range of backgrounds and relateable circumstances that readers can bring to the experience of reading it. And I was intrigued to see that it is first volume in a series. I look forward to continuing with Nate’s adventures in the series’ subsequent books.

‘Stories Alive,’ student writings in Bellview library

A beautiful bound collection of students’ writing, circa 2016, can be read in Bellview library courtesy of “Stories Alive.”

‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’: Recommendations for reading play

The Barnes & Noble blog cites sales figures to project “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” may “be among the most widely read plays of all time.”

But because reading a play is “a little different from reading a novel,” B&N has compiled tips for getting the most out of reading “Cursed Child.”

I love the idea of people assigning parts and reading aloud together; my family and I have read aloud to each other for years.

With a professional repertory theater company only two miles from our home, it’s especially easy to “Add to the experience” by going to see a play. “An evening at the theater will familiarize you with the tropes and rhythms of plays, which will help inform the experience the next time you read a play.”

‘Station Eleven’ by Emily St. John Mandel

In Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (Vintage, 2015), a deadly virus has wiped out nearly all of the earth’s human population. Its survivors group in pre-industrial settlements in former strip malls, airports and schools.

A troupe of actors and a symphony orchestra travel among these settlements, performing Shakespeare’s plays. When they arrive at one settlement, they discover that it is under the control of a religious cult. A couple who settled there to have a baby have now disappeared and headstones mark their empty graves in the settlement cemetery. The couple’s last-known destination was the “Museum of Civilization.”

Cuesta College internship: Recent highlights

My Cuesta College internship has taken me to several elementary schools in Medford School District 549C in Jackson County in southern Oregon. According to the district website, its 14 elementary schools range in size from 150 to 630 students.

Season opening at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

This guest post is by Patricia Feldhaus, a theater reviewer based in Chico, Calif. I know Feldhaus through my tenure producing an arts and entertainment section for the Lake County Record-Bee.

The role of women, Black Power and a Shakespearean tragedy herald the opening 2013 season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Music plays an integral role in the fast paced, high energy, entertaining production of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.” Director David Ivers combines rock and roll with country music to provide a 1950s-inspired look and sound. He re-imagines Padua as a seaside amusement park with ferris wheels, roller coaster and a boardwalk.

There’s a great deal of verbal sparring between the two protagonists since Kate is renowned for her acerbic tongue and Petruchio is determined to “wive and thrive in Padua as best I can.” Petruchio is “kated” after he claims her as his bride: “I will thee wed.”

Meanwhile, younger sister, Bianca, has three suitors vying for her hand in marriage. In the course of impressing her father. their offerings are very effectively projected on a large screen.

August Wilson’s “Two Trains Running” depicts multiple facets of everyday life converging in a 1969 Pittsburgh diner composed of the owner, cook/waitress, bookie, undertaker, recently released convict and others who dwell on past injustices. Most of them have consulted 349-year-old Aunt Esther, whose spirit permeates each of Wilson’s 10-play Century Cycle. One bit of her advice: “If you drop the ball, you have to go back and pick it up.”

Lou Bellamy, artistic director of the Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, Minn., has directed all of Wilson’s plays. Bellamy said that “Two Trains Running” “portrays ordinary people dealing with racism as capable of having intelligent conversations.”

Two grand pianos and a cast of twenty provide the well-known Lerner and Loewe tunes for a spectacular tour-de-force performance of “My Fair Lady” based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion.”

Amanda Dehnert, director and musical director, wanted to show that life and theater are not clean and tidy; therefore, she exposed the audience to what usually happens off stage by “seeing how people transform into workers, servants and gentry through the power of imagination and the adding of a glove or apron.” It was amazing to see proper hats being lowered from above stage.

Even though Shaw stated that “Pygmalion” was a political and feminist play, not a love story, the original actors changed the ending so that Higgins and Eliza ended up together.

Artistic Director Bill Rauch chose a contemporary approach in the intimate round seating of the Thomas Theatre for Shakespeare’s tragedy, “King Lear.” He cast two actors to alternate performances, divided the play into three segments and also left some often-cut political machinations intact. Program notes say that he is fascinated how Shakespeare's work operates on so many planes at once: metaphysical, psychological, social, spiritual and political.

“Lear” deals with truly dysfunctional families. After King Lear leaves his lands to his two eldest daughters, he discovers how pernicious they are. In the second section Lear struggles against the elements and a group of treacherous villains when he says, “I am a man more sinned against than sinning.” In the final part, everyone comes together in Dover where there is reconciliation before death.

“Shrew” and “Fair Lady” play in the indoor Angus Bowmer Theatre through Nov. 3. “Two Trains Running” will be in the Bowmer until July 7 and “Lear" is in the Thomas Theatre through Nov. 3. For further information and tickets, visit www.osfashland.org or call 800-219-8161.

Poetry is constantly evolving

One of the lasting benefits to my having volunteered producing a newsletter for the Lake County Arts Council is the periodic bulletin I get from the California Arts Council. Of particular interest to me is arts coverage in the media.