Campus Entertainment

 

A play within a play

The Play that Goes Wrong
Review by the campus newspaper here.

Men's basketball, away

Women's basketball, at home

Not only did I enjoy this concert, 

I enjoyed it in Garrison Theater,
a very nice venue that is close to home.

It is nice to live in a college town.

60th Anniversary

 On August 16th I ordered tickets for this event. The production was free and I was afraid of missing out.

60th Anniversary of Garrison Theater featuring Bespoke Mosaic Shakespeare by Ophelia’s Jump Productions

Join us for an unforgettable night celebrating 60 years of Garrison Theater, where we’ll honor its rich history showcasing special performances of Bespoke Mosaic Shakespeare directed by Beatrice Casagran, founder and artistic director of Ophelia’s Jump Productions.

At the time I did not know we would be invited to a dinner across the street and I was a little uptight about the timing. Surely we should not get there at the last minute. I wanted to have decent seats.

Showing up on time meant standing around and listening to speeches!

After the speeches each actor had a brief introductory soliloquy.

Everyone headed inside and I really hoped to get a good seat. No problem because the theater was about ten percent full, at most. I suppose I should say that is a good thing because we had great seats, but I am sorry so many people missed a fantastic performance. A small set actors performed each scene portrayed by the Millard Sheets mosaics shown above.

There were plenty of party favors to go around.

sticker on the left, pin on the right

based on artwork inside the theater

From the unveiling in 1963, found on this site.
Photos are by Russell Lapp and there is a whole series from the event.

Lucky Me!

view from inside
I had never been to the Mark Taper Forum 
(or Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or Ahmanson Theatre) and 

I had barely heard of What the Constitution Means to Me, 

so when a friend said she had an extra ticket I jumped at the chance to go.
There was no intermission, which made sense for a one-hour play, I thought.
Then I looked at my watch and realized it had been almost two hours!

I wish I could take the rest of the family to see the play! I wish I lived closer to the major LA theaters! I wish I had unlimited money for buying tickets! Those wishes aside, I am so glad I went.

November Leftovers

Loving ofrendas in the village

High school production of 26 Pebbles

Another work picture

One of the four polling places in town had limited parking so a shuttle was set up.

Such teeny tiny pots, thrown on a teeny tiny wheel.

I saw the artist painting this truck at the beginning of the month and

then saw the finished product a week or two later.

Organized wrapping paper and ribbon drawer.
Very satisfying task.

Imagine you can see the snow on the mountains in the background.

I have been wanting to take this picture for a while. There was a house here that is now on the Pitzer campus, but some day they may also take away the step that has the house number embossed in the concrete. For now it is still an empty lot.

Did I mention the avulsion fracture and seven stitches?

Why was I worried that we would not have enough food?

Theater

Soon we will see the musical Newsies at the local dinner theater. 

Last month the same venue hosted the regional repertory company's
production of the musical Fun Home, but without dinner.
We had both read the book but I still cried at the end.

A couple days later we drove out to the Sierra Madre Playhouse to see my high school classmate. It was a great performance and definitely worth the drive. A friend who had been there the week before recommended a post-performance visit to Mothermoo Creamery. David had basil ice cream on a brownie and I had a scoop of a slightly tart and very delicious passion fruit sorbet.

It is great to get out and about sometimes!

Books I Haven't Read

But plays I have seen!

The high school production was entertaining because
we knew some of the kids on stage, some of the kids behind the
scenes, and a lot of members of the audience.

The next night we saw a professional production of this play,
which is the musical version but adapted to be more true
to the book. It was not particularly upbeat, but the
acting and singing were great, along with clever sets.

This weekend it is time to cheer on all the P-P Sagehens in the SCIAC basketball tournament.

Miscellaneous from October

Entertaining! 

SpaceX launch

Homecoming parade

Genius spouse rigs tandem roof rack to garage ceiling

Volunteering at pie day (not to be confused with pi day) at the high school.

Not shown - lots of voter engagement activities. How will I fill my time after the election??

Summer

The weather has been great and the pace of life has been great, too! The World Cup is over so we have time to do other things.

Time for a two-sided jigsaw puzzle. The other side has political stamps.

Time for a picnic and Shakespeare under the stars.

Two of us tried a group ukulele lesson.
The person who plays the cello picked it up very quickly!

photos from Getty Images
And two movies!

Not shown - swimming, cycling, and watching the Tour de France.  Also not shown, summer homework and summer research. Wish you were here!

Full Weekend

The past weekend started with a high school theater production.
I wonder if the kids understood the humor about slide shows and a white Ford Bronco.

Saturday included the grand re-opening of a local grocery store.

I could write a whole post about Eurovision (including having to watch the Swedish and German broadcasts), but I think have done that each year. I did love chatting with friends in Denmark and Estonia during the event, along with some follow up with our former Finnish student and former teacher in Argentina.

 The event started with a singer from Ukraine coming out of a coffin,
which turned into a piano, and by the end was in flames. Perfect Eurovision song!

At the beginning of the evening the singer from Cyprus was picked by the bookies.

photo credit The Guardian
The eventual winner was the Israeli singer doing the chicken dance,
along with other Eurovision-like bits added in.

It ended just in time for me to get down to Pomona to watch the seniors march through the gates they had walked through at the beginning of their freshmen year. It was sweet to watch so many happy parents!

Sunday was graduation and A. joined me to watch the procession.

Afterward we wandered around Michael's and they gave me a purple iris, my favorite.

What a great day! I enjoyed spending time with A. and chatting with R. No need to cook or wait at a restaurant since dinner was at the dean's house, which was a good chance to chat with friends and wrap up the semester and the weekend.

Only twenty more days of high school. Time to start dreaming about summer.