jimsjournal

jimsjournal

First snowfall -- 12/04/05

Nancy and I went to URI to see Romeo and Juliet last night.

The set was very good -- nice feeling of sixteenth century Italy -- but the costumes were strange. The various young members of the two families were fine, but both sets of parents and Paris and the Duke were dressed in mid-nineteenth century garb... it looked as if they had wandered in from a production of A Christmas Carol. The actors (college students) were energetic -- and the various fight scenes were nicely fought, really good fencing choreography -- but the more emotional speeches really needed to be cranked down a couple of notches. It was as if every bit of dialog that was not normal conversation absolutely had to be shouted. (I began to wonder if they had used a script that had been printed in all capital letters.) One actor going over the top might be attributed to uncontrolled youthful exuberance, but a dozen actors going over the top has to be blamed on the director. (Fortunately, for the most part, the actress playing Juliet did seem to be able to keep herself from chewing up the scenery.) Interestingly, the Montegue and Capulet gangs were played by a mixture of male and female performers. Thus, Benvolio was played by a young woman (who did a good job). The mixed gender casting worked, the set worked, some of the costuming worked (and some didn't), the staging worked, but the director seemed to be missing in action when it came to tamping down the volume -- a third (at least) of the dialog should not be delivered at full shout.

The Feinstein-Gamm Theatre group in Providence is putting on a Twelfth Night that has received excellent reviews and Nancy and Jill and I hope to go see it next Saturday.

Jill spent Saturday night and this afternoon as an usher at a production at her college. (The ushering was part of the requirements for a theatre course she is taking.) The production was A Little Night Music and from what she retorted back, it was not exactly the best production ever. I'm surprised that they even attempted it -- that is a fairly demanding score. Nancy and I saw it produced many years ago at the Cider Mill Playhouse (in upstate New York) in a production where many of the parts were taken by members of the Tri-Cities Opera -- and when those professional opera singers performed those Sondheim songs, oh, it was just beautiful.

And this morning brought our first snow of the season -- although areas just a little bit further inland had snow on Thanksgiving, this is the first we've had in our neighborhood. This is what it looked like when I went out to bring in the newspaper. We got about another inch or so on top of this and then it stopped.

And here is a trivia quiz which I outright stole from blonde sagacity

(Play fair -- this is a trivia quiz, so use your own memory/knowledge, don't look things up with Google.)

1. After the Lone Ranger saved the day and rode off into the sunset, the grateful citizens would ask,
"Who was that masked man?" Invariably, someone would answer, "I don't know, but he left this behind."
What did he leave behind?_______________________.

2. When the Beatles first came to the U.S. in early 1964, we all watched them on the,

_______________ show.

3. Get your kicks, _______________.

4. The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed ____________________.

5. In the jungle, the mighty jungle,_________________________.

6. After the twist, the mashed potatoes, and the watusi, we "danced" under a stick that was lowered as

low as we could go in a dance called the_________________________.

7. N_E_S_T_L_E_S, Nestle's makes the very best, _____________.

8. Satchmo was America's "ambassador of goodwill." Our parents shared this great jazz trumpet

player with us. His name was, ____________________.

9. What takes a licking and keeps on ticking _________________.

10. Red Skeltons hobo character was _______________________. and he always ended his

television show by saying, "Good night, and _____________________________."

11. Some Americans who protested the Vietnam war did so by burning their_________________.

12. The cute little car with the engine in the back and the trunk in the front, was called the VW. What

other names did it go by?_____________________&_________________

13. In 1971, singer Don MacLean sang a song about, "the day the music died." This was a tribute

to_________________________.

14. We can remember the first satellite placed into orbit The Russians did it; it was called

____________.

15. One of the big fads of the late 50' s and 60's was a large
plastic ring that we twirled around our waist; it was called the __________ ___________.

Okay? Could you answer them? Go here for the answers.

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