the library

the new central library in minneapolis rocks.
so yes, i'm back in the cities, trying to get organized to head up to l'homme dieu for GODSPELL on saturday, and trying to get things done for a curriculum/season meeting at gustavus adolphus tomorrow.
it's really good to be back in my neighborhood, i'm sad that i'll be moving out of it the end of august, but looking forward to a new environment where i can do good work at this new job. jacob's still looking for work up here, and i'm still looking for that said environment (apartment hunting can be such a pain), so we can both use your good thoughts about any of that....
not much else new to post. pray for peace, and work for it too

hailstorm

yesterday after work we had the most incredible weather i think i've ever seen.
the view from our balcony is of the mountains, i don't really know how many miles away... and i looked out to see that the eastern-most ones were gone, just enveloped in some kind of fog or something. you couldn't even see the streaks associated with a far off rainstorm.
fifteen minutes later, hail the size of golfballs started falling. then it wasn't so much falling as it was hurling horizontally at our balcony sliding glass door...and the wind was sucking the leaves upward. the lightening was like flashes, it was kind of like being inside a bag of microwave popcorn while it was popping. the water started to run down the hills so fast and rushing that it went up and over car wheels and completely swelled over the gutters. my ears popped from the pressure at one point. i read in the paper today that the temperature dropped to 39 degrees during the storm.
the whole thing lasted about half an hour, and it took several hours for the gutters in our townhouse complex to stop gushing water.
at 9pm we went up the hill to get ice cream, at this place called glacier that is just amazing. i had chocolate caliente, which had this slightly sweet chile smokey aftertaste, and a strawberry ice cream with balsamic vinegar in it that made the strawberry flavor so intense. as we walked up the hill, the sidewalks were covered in shredded leaves...the trees had lost a third of their leaves, and the smell of fresh cut green was incredibly strong.
the screen door on our balcony is torn, i think it's the only one of the pictures i took which came out at all.... we saved some hail in a container in our freezer...
here are some photos...

so this is out of focus, clearly (ha!), but what appears to be snow or blossoms, is actually the hail, and beyond that the gutters are flooding


from the front door of our apartment, as the intensity of the hurling hailstones had passed and we were all starting to peak out and figure out what had happened


the balcony across the courtyard from us (i'd say these are the noisemakers, but really let's not limit the rest of our neighbor's abilities to be pains in the ass)


looking down in the courtyard (the red party cup gives an excellent sense of scale, and is sooo telling of the things i hate about living in this complex!)


this is the table on our balcony, these are tiny bits of hail compared to what smacked the window and the screen so hard that it broke:

postcards from boulder

sunset from the balcony of our townhome!
the daylight ones are from a sunday afternoon drive...
i don't know why they're all out of order... peace

BOULDER...and BIGGER NEWS

i can't believe how long it's been since i've posted, and how quickly that time went past...
i too forgot my password to this thing!

arrived in boulder yesterday after a languid road trip, full of good times. met robin's baby alexandra, saw erika and marie and steve in chicago; hung out with matt, mati, and nick in urbana, punctuated by siam terrace and beet chips at crane alley --and the next morning brunch at radio maria in champaign with todd. yum. ... st.louis was a blur of good food and amazing glass (pictures to follow, from jacob's camera, my battery's dead and charger in mpls)...met kell and passed a lovely afternoon with tara in blue springs, followed by a super two nights with aimee and travis...strolling the downtown of manhattan kansas.
got here yesterday, and today was the first day in the shop. feels good, solid. like the vibe of the folks i've been introduced to, very happy to be with becca in a townhouse.
i'm going to learn a lot this summer. right now it's a little like looking into a big, vast.....thing but you don't know what you're supposed to see. it'll be great.

the biggest news EVER POSTED ON THIS BLOG is that i have a new job in minnesota when the summer's over.
last week i was hired at gustavus adolphus college to be the costume shop manager, the resident designer, and to teach one course in the fall. it's a year's position, and i hope i'll get to stay on a few years as it seems like a good, focused, centered place, and one where i can develop as a professor while i help develop their department. i wish i'd had the time to post during the week i got the job --i was so much less saturated and practiced at talking about it for those first days... kept waiting for some other shoe to drop. a solid job, with benefits and a retirement plan. stability with so much going on everyday that i can't imagine being bored. i may not love every day of it, but i won't be bored. and right now, i think i *will* love every day of it.

ok,
photos from the chihuly exhibit (at the missouri botanical gardens, thru Oct 31st... check it out if you can!!!)

new work

on tuesday i'm starting a stitching job at the channhassen theatre, which should rock.
40 hours a week at a decent wage (a little more than i'd gone in expecting, actually), working on SINGING IN THE RAIN...fun little 20's and 30's numbers, working from renderings, taking pieces and making something whole, making the magic, wholly better for me than a lot of other things i've been doing for income outside of design. work to keep me busy until i leave for colorado may 19.
for now... working on a few home projects i'd been pokey about but now must get in order before starting a full time gig (with a 45 min each way commute), and i'm off to galesburg to spend easter with jacob and his family...hoooray!

sweet! CROCUSES! CROCI??

i don't know what the plural of crocus is, but having returned from a week in temperate, green and blooming st. louis and louisville, i returned reluctantly to the frozen north to discover that IT'S NOT FROZEN ANYMORE! i'm actually a little disappointed that i wasn't here when the first little purple something peaked out of the dirt, but coming home to an entire side yard covered in it was really not bad at all. the lakes are melting too, at least the little one (probably a pond, not really clear on that definition) in loring park is thawed.
the conference was a lot to take in, and although overall the trip was not the restorative miracle i was hoping for, a sharp break from the insanity of march was very necessary, and i'm never happier than to come up for air with jacob.
now it's just one show before i leave mid-may, and sorting through the strikes of the last shows, and making baby quilts for friends. and hopefully feeling less strapped in general.
hope all is well with all of you.....

A PIECE OF MY HEART

here are pictures of Shirley Lauro's A PIECE OF MY HEART, produced at the playwright's center by theatre unbound.
based on a book by the same title, it's the story of women in vietnam, and the playwright was there opening night --called it one of the most moving producitons she's seen (also said in a post show talk that since 9/11 this is the third most requested show from samuel french).... at the end, i've posted a review that i couldn't find a link to.
it's two army nurses, a navy nurse, a red cross donught dolly, an army intelligence officer, and a USO girl (and one talented man who plays all the GIs, officers, and civilian men they come in contact with). the first act is how they got there, and their experiences in vietnam, and the second act deals with coming back and re-aclimating. it's bookended by them attending the dedication of the wall
it was set in the round, with platforms that had images from the war on them...with puzzle pieces missing. theatre in the round is an intense experience, and especially beautiful in this case, when on opening night there were so many veteran's there whose reactions became a part of the experience.



at The Wall Ceremony


the last image of the play, finally recognized and welcomed home


Mary Jo Kincaid, lead singer of the Sugar Candies All Girl Band, on the last night in SF before the USO tour


singing the Air Force song on the flight into Vietnam ("we'll live in fame, or go down in flames..."


a Head Nurse describes the series of Quanset Huts set up for the hospital

a series of descriptions and reactions to Tet:




they form intense personal relationships...




and they have good times too...

Mary Jo and the "Sugar Candies" performing "Proud Mary" for a group of Marines... you can see how the other actors flow in and out of supporting roles, it's an interesting challenge for costumes.

and then they come home to another life, and other expectations


The Sugar Candies are told by their agent that he can barely reimburse them for airfare, never mind the $1,000 a month they were promised


"in Vietnam, I was treated different, trusted." Martha and Leeann discuss the treatment they get in hospitals stateside, not being allowed to hang an IV, being trained in CPR



Leeann is met at the airport by a Gold Star father, who lost his only son in Nam and meets incoming flights to help returning vets make their planes. (if you think that's my dad's windbreaker, you're right)



Martha's army father assumes she'll stay in the Navy for the benefits and a career...she's unsure



they find therapy groups, ways to talk about things no one understands...they respond to commute traffic helicopters, the color khaki green, christmas songs...nothing is the same for them.




Review from Matthew Everett

Review - A Piece of My Heart
Filed under 5 Star Shows - Best I've Seen

They have plenty of Kleenex on hand in the lobby at Theatre Unbound's
production of Shirley Lauro's testament to women caught up in the Vietnam
War, A Piece of My Heart. And by the time the play is done, those tissues
are needed.

A sensitive acquaintance of mine had to leave at intermission - even though
the part of the play dealing directly with the war was over, and the
characters were headed back home. He's a gentle soul, and the first half of
the piece was powerful enough that he had to step away and process it all.

The playwright herself, in town for opening night, described this
presentation as "one of the top regional productions I have seen." A Tony
and Drama Desk Award nominee, produced both around the country and around
the world, Ms. Lauro's seen quite a bit of her work on stage.

There's a reason for these strong reactions. This is a powerful production
of an equally powerful play.

Inspired by the book by Keith Walker, A Piece of My Heart follows the
journeys of six women into the war - four as nurses, one as an intelligence
officer, one as an entertainer - and back out again.

This was in a time before the notion of "support the troops," whether or not
you agreed with the war itself, was not commonplace. The great crime is that
even after surviving a harrowing tour of duty in Vietnam, just like the
soldiers, when these women came home, they were still not safe. The first
peril was physical, the second and more long-lasting trouble, which followed
them home, was psychological.

It is strange to say - or perhaps good to say - but no one performance in A
Piece of My Heart stands out, apart from the others. The stories, and the
performances, are all interwoven, though they each travel very different
paths. This is truly an ensemble effort. It is the collective weight of
these six stories that packs an emotional punch. This group effort is the
commendable work of both the cast and the guidance of their director, Maggie
Bearmon Pistner.

There is the military brat (Beth Chaplin) who followed in her father's
footsteps and lived to regret it. There is the singer (Mary Jo) who gets a
lot more than she bargained for when she goes to entertain the troops. There
is the small town girl (Anna Olson) who just wants to get out and see the
world. There is the intelligence officer (Lori M. Neal) who has her valuable
insights devalued because she is a woman. There is a well-bred young woman
(Angela Marsh) who volunteers with the Red Cross in order to change her
sheltered existence. And there is the Asian-American pacifist (Sophronia
Liu), in search of a place where the majority of the other people look like
her for a change.

All of these women find what they're looking for, but it comes at a high
price. It is only by coming together again, and reopening the old wounds,
that they can begin to heal, and make something of their shattered lives.

This is strong stuff, but worth it.

The set (by Mark Koski), props (by Roxanne Skarphol) costumes (by Andrea M.
Gross) and sound (by Montana Johnson) are all deceptively simple. The stage
is a series of small platforms of different heights with spaces in between.
On the surface of the platforms are old military posters and other artwork,
broken down into puzzle piece form, always with a couple of pieces missing
or misplaced. The props are few. The clothes offer only a couple of
different looks. From this most basic of foundations, the cast creates
multiple characters (many supporting roles surrounding the primary ones) and
multiple locations over time. Fully engaging the audience's imagination with
these raw materials, the production works its considerable magic.

Mention also needs to be made of Edward Linder who plays all the men - and
there are many of them - that pass through the lives of these women before,
during and after the war. Keeping the many soldiers and civilians from not
blending together is tricky work, and he handles it well.

There's not a weak link in the bunch.

In a time when our country is once again questioning the motives and tactics
of a war in another part of the world, this production is especially timely.
But even if we weren't in such a time, this play would still resonate. In
order to avoid making the same mistakes again, we need to see them clearly.

Shirley Lauro's play, and Theatre Unbound's staging of it, show us a
troubled time without flinching. It's the kind of thing that a live
connection with an audience does best.

Highly recommended.

A Piece of My Heart runs through March 18, 2006. All performances are at The
Playwrights' Center - 2301 Franklin Avenue East, Minneapolis Tickets are $16
- Discounts for students, seniors, veteran/active military & groups - Info:
www.theatreunbound.com - Reservations: 612-721-1186