On The Road — Page 86

Moody Skies

September 18, 2013 at 9:05 am by Claudia

It’s no secret that I love to take pictures of the sky. Ever changing, it fascinates me. Though I love a blue, blue sky with fluffy white clouds, I also love what I call moody skies. Monday was a moody skies day.

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It looks like it’s going to storm, doesn’t it? It never happened. The sky kept shifting, changing, throwing a spotlight on certain buildings while others were in shadow. It was amazing. Part of the sky was full of dark clouds. Part of it was a beautiful blue.

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Maybe I could make a name for myself as The Sky Photographer. All skies, all the time. What do you think?

These were shot with my iPhone, which has turned out to be very handy for those times I don’t want to lug my Canon around.

lunch

I’m dieting, my friends. I want to lose about twenty pounds. Maybe more. No more sweets (it’s been four days without them.) More exercise. A small salad for lunch. No more ice cream. You’d be proud of me – it sits in the freezer, untouched. I’m not especially enamored of the aging process, but why make it harder by carrying around extra weight?

For most of my life I was tall and thin and could eat anything. In fact, I was so thin that one of my professors in grad school asked me if I was anorexic. Uh….no. But I was forced to exercise in that program, there were lots of movement classes and pilates (before they became all the rage) and I was as toned as I was ever going to be. Until I hit my fifties, I could pretty much eat anything I wanted without gaining a pound.

Those days are over. So I’m going to be mindful about what I eat. I’m going to walk more. I don’t kid myself that I will go to the gym, because I won’t. But walking? Yes.

On my walk through the park the other day, I gathered some natural beauty for the apartment:

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The trees are beginning to change around here, ever so slightly. There is a nip in the air. The nights are cooler. Summer, I don’t want you to leave, but apparently you are going to whether I like it or not.

Happy Wednesday.

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Stagecraft on Exhibit

September 17, 2013 at 8:42 am by Claudia

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I took a long walk yesterday, which was my day off. I was doing my best to delay adding up all my deductions for our tax return (we always file an extension.) It’s all very complicated, my coaching fees, my living expenses out of town, and now, ad income and Etsy income. Yikes. I don’t like doing this kind of stuff. I’m not someone with a head for figures. I’m in the Arts, remember?

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Anyway, I took lots and lots of iPhone photos which I’ll share with you throughout the week. First stop? My favorite place in Hartford – the Hartford Public Library. Honestly, if I could work anywhere (besides the theater) I’d work here. It’s my dream library; airy, full of windows and books and computers and research materials, with a café and art exhibits.

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The café, called The Kitchen. Look at those very stylish chairs I see all over Blogland. This library is hip. I must grab a meal there this week.

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I didn’t come to the library to check out a book. I came for this exhibit: Hartford Stage Stagecraft. It’s the 50th anniversary of Hartford Stage and it’s being celebrated all year long. It was founded by Jacques Cartier, who, as it happens, is a former colleague of mine. We were on the faculty of the School of Theater at Boston University. I worked with him for five years and coached several of his productions, both at BU and at the Huntington Theater. We had a little reunion last spring when he attended a performance of Twelfth Night.

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This exhibit highlights some of the props, set designs and costume designs from the past 50 years.

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Beautiful dress, right? It’s made out of paper. It’s called The Map Dress. Here’s the story behind it:

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A close-up:

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Stunning.

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For the character of Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals.

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For Ariel in The Tempest, a production that I coached.

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For Hartford Stage’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird – costumes for Atticus and Scout. Be still my heart.

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A display centering on the current productions in The Rep: Macbeth and La Dispute.

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And a lizard costume for Edward Albee’s Seascape.

This exhibition will be touring throughout the area during the course of this 50th Anniversary Season. If you live nearby, I think you’d find it fascinating. Even I, who have seen more costumes than I could ever begin to count, find this part of the creative process fascinating. I am in awe of costume designers and the people in the Costume Shop who bring those designs to life.

Plays, Books & Baseball

September 14, 2013 at 9:31 am by Claudia

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A coolish Saturday, thank goodness. The weather broke yesterday and the apartment is a much more tolerable place to live. No, the A/C hasn’t been fixed yet, but someone did come by and a new compressor has been ordered. It’s a heat and A/C unit, so I, knowing nothing about these things, wonder if the compressor is needed for the heat as well? If so, I feel that all my nudging on getting this unit fixed will benefit the next occupant of the apartment, most likely someone in the cast of A Christmas Carol.

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We’re officially into preview performances now. La Dispute has had two previews with audiences. Tonight, Macbeth begins previews. Previews are performances with an audience that occur before the official opening. I think that each of these plays will get a total of eight previews. While a play is in previews, rehearsals still go on in the afternoons – tweaking of the staging or the lighting or the sound happens, sometimes things are reblocked, actors get notes from the director and me and everything is finely tuned so that by the time the plays officially open, everything is about as perfect as it will ever be considering theater is a live, never-the-same-way-twice, medium.

The Red Sox are playing the Yankees this weekend, and somehow their schedule fits into mine. I caught the beginning of last night’s game and got home in time to see the last three innings. (We won.) Today’s game is in the afternoon. Perfect. Sunday’s game is at 8:00 and since there are two performances of Macbeth tomorrow, I will take notes on the matinee and will be able to see the game. The actors don’t need notes from me twice in one day, believe me. That would be annoying.

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I just finished A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny. I’ve started the next book in the series, The Brutal Telling. I know I have written about these books before on this blog, but I am simply blown away by Penny’s writing. What makes her mysteries different, what sets them apart from many other books in this genre, is her examination of the human heart. The characters in the town of Three Pines are featured in some way or other in every book. They have flaws. Sometimes those flaws are exasperating. But Penny, with true compassion and understanding, takes us on a journey of discovery. She knows that we are all damaged in some way; she uncovers the fears and pain and petty jealousies that we all have deep within us, brings them to the light and by doing so, sets both the characters and us, the readers, free.

Penny slowly and patiently weaves her stories; with intricate plots, with some things revealed and others yet to be revealed in another book. Not only is there the arc of an individual book, but there is an overall arc in the series. She does this so skillfully that I feel like a resident of Three Pines, that little town in Quebec. I care for those characters. I get angry at them. And, because of her key protagonist, Inspector Gamache, I learn to see them with compassion. To stop judging. To understand.

When I finished the book yesterday, I had tears in my eyes. I learned more about myself. I vowed to be a better person.

That’s powerful writing, my friends.

Happy Saturday.

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Moody Skies

Stagecraft on Exhibit

Plays, Books & Baseball

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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