Janet's Journals

"Books for Breakfast" set for March 3 in Saginaw

2012-02-29T16:43:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

Free books and pancakes are the order of the day Saturday (March 3) when at the 7th Annual Books for Breakfast takes place at the Hunger Solution Center, 940 E. Genesee in Saginaw.

Sponsored by the READ Association of Saginaw County, the 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. event is designed to bring parents, grandparents and families together to celebrate reading and encourage families to read together every day. It includes an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast, a free new book for every child, storytelling, and costumed character mascots from the community.

The cost is $3 per person (under one year of age is free) with tickets on sale the door. Those attending also are encouraged to bring canned goods and receive, in turn, one raffle ticket for each can donated for a chance to win additional books. The canned goods will benefit Hidden Harvest and the East Side Soup Kitchen, which share the Hunger Solution Center facility located between Janes and Thompson.

Staff from the Public Libraries of Saginaw will read throughout the morning as scheduled:

9:30 am, “Like Butter On Pancakes” by Jonathan London and “Pancakes for Breakfast” by Tomie de Paola.
10 am, “Pancakes, Pancakes” by Eric Carle and “The Runaway Pancake” by Peter Asbjornsen.
10:30 am, “If You Give A Pig A Pancake” by Laura Numeroff.
11:00 am, “Hey, Pancakes” by Tamson Weston and “Pancakes for Supper” by Anne Isaacs.

Among the other sponsors of “Books for Breakfast’ are Public Libraries of Saginaw County, Saginaw County Birth to 5 Program and the Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum. And it is funded in part by the Harvey Randall Wickes Foundation.

The READ Association of Saginaw County is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help students improve their reading skills and discover the joy of reading. It currently has more than 500 volunteers who read with 1,100 children one-on-one at 45 locations throughout Saginaw County.

READ also sponsors “DEAR at the Zoo - Drop Everything and Read," which will celebrate its 11th anniversary on Wednesday, June 13, at the Children’s Zoo at Celebration Square.

"Always...Patsy Cline" brings a leading lady back to Midland after nearly 20 years

2012-02-27T12:14:00.001-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

From 1978 to 1993, she was one of the leading ladies on the Midland Center for the Arts stages.

Now, after a nearly 20-year absence, Sally Goggin is making the 90-minute trip from her home in Cadillac to rehearse and perform in “Always....Patsy Cline,” opening Friday, March 9.

“I think this is my favorite role of all the ones I have done,” Goggin says of the two-woman play about the late country singer and her pen pal Louise Seger. “But, then, that may be my memory at work since it is the most recent.”

Sally Goggin, front, and Joanie Stanley rehearse "Always... Patsy Cline"

Indeed.

Her Midland credits: In 1978 Goggin played Eliza Doolittle In “My Fair Lady,” in 1979 Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl,” in 1981 Aldonza in “Man of La Mancha” and Kate in “Taming of the Shrew,” in 1982 Sally Bowles in “Cabaret” and Ophelia in “Hamlet,” and in 1984 Maggie in “A Chorus Line.”

Another biggie to remember is “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” -- with Goggin as the narrator and then-teenager Brian d’Arcy James in the title role. James, a Saginaw native, is now a two-time Tony nominee and is in the cast of NBC’s new “Smash.”

“That was in 1985, and my daughter Sarah, who was 5, had a mad crush on him. He came to her birthday party and gave her a bottle of perfume -- which she never used and kept on display. She came to the rehearsals and just stared at him.”

And who can forget the wild ride of Midland’s 1988 production of “Nunsense” -- the international hit written by Alma native Dan Goggin, the cousin of Sally’s husband Pat Goggin. Sally played Sister Robert Anne in the musical about disorderly nuns.

A year after the 1988 production at the Midland Center for the Arts it entered and won state and regional community theater competitions and placed fourth at the nationals; in 1990 was invited to perform in Saskatchewan and in 1991 was produced at Alma College.

“I think it was in 1993 we did the full show again in Midland... and then in 1996 we took it to Athens, Ga., where one of our tech people had moved. Same cast all the way through.”

By then Sally and her husband had moved to Cadillac, when he was downsized from Dow. They settled into a family cottage owned since the 1940s and started a furniture/art/interior decoration store which they operated for 10 years.

She now works as an interior designer at VanDrie Home Furnishings and directs murder mystery dinner theater shows in a car dealership showroom. “They move the cars out and the tables in.”

Husband Pat is the executive director of United Way in that area. And as a footnote to the “Nunsense” family legacy, daughter Trish Goggin recently played Sister Mary Leo in a “Nunsense” production up in Calumet, where she was attending college.

Which brings us to “Always...Patsy Cline.” Why, Sally Goggin, come back to the Midland Center for the Arts, and that long commute, after all these years?

"Patsy Cline" director Susie Polito with Goggin

Well, after raising her children and selling the store in Cadillac, Goggin began dabbling in acting again -- primarily at the Old Town Playhouse in Traverse City, which is only 50 miles from home.

“I’ve been in four shows there -- “‘Mame,’ a role I alway wanted to play, was one; ‘Into the Woods’ and....in the fall of 2009, ‘Always Patsy Cline,” with Joanie Stanley (of Acme) in the title role.

"Joanie had never sung country music, had only acted in high school, but I convinced her to try out because she is a marvelous singer.

“She listened to several Patsy Cline CDs and just nailed it, the nuances and style, in the auditions.”

So when Sally heard Midland had scheduled it, she placed a call to the director -- Susie Polito, one of her cast mates in that “Nunsense” saga -- and wondered if she and Joanie could audition for her production of it.

Says Polito, “I was down to three women (as Patsy) in the auditions....I turned my back on them and asked each sing a Cline song. So I could just hear and not see. Well, Joanie made me cry. That was it.”

Goggin says “Always” is like “Nunsense” in that wherever it plays it tends to sell out. “Of course part of it is the name Patsy Cline and that it features 28 of her songs. But it goes beyond that. In Traverse City we had people come to it two or three times.”

She tells the story of how her husband read the script and wrinkled his nose, only to become hooked once seeing it on stage. She recalls, in the first show at Traverse City, how “the show started with Joanie singing three Patsy songs, then I came out and started talking, and I could see people in the first row cross their arms and recoil in disgust.”

But soon, she says, “I could tell we had them” -- this true story of Cline the superstar singer and Seger the die-hard Texas fan, the two of them meeting in a honky tonk and becoming close friends via telephone calls and letters. A mix, she says, of comedy, music and conversation with a country music band on stage as well.

Joanie Stanley as Patsy Cline

“The script is based on their letters and Louise’s memory of what happened when they talked on the phone and when they met at the honky tonk. It is written with a great sense of humor; you can just feel the affection Louise had for Patsy. She called her the sister she never had.”

Goggin says she read as much as she could about the real-life Louise Seger “but then I created my own person. Apparently the playwright (Ted Swindley) took liberty with the truth. Louise was, so people say, an elegant woman -- not the outgoing funny character in the script. Louise went to see the show and was not happy.”

What kinda spooks Goggin, however, is the fact that in Traverse City...and Midland is reporting it too....people call to order tickets to “the Patsy Cline concert” and are reminded this is a musical, a play, pretend.

“These people, and I am telling you the truth, think she is still alive and are outraged we have not booked HER.”

Cline died on March 5, 1963, in an airplane crash, at age 30 -- a mere two years after she and Louise met. Louise died in 2004.

And Goggin also tells the story that six months after the production in Traverse City, a woman came into the Cadillac store where she works, demanded to see her and said “I just loved you in the show and I live in Texas most of the year. I just know we can become friends and we need to go to lunch.”

She thought Goggin WAS Louise Seger. Goggin gently broke the news she was just acting the role, “and then the woman said, ‘You don’t even have an accent.’

“I think this is part of the reason I say it may be my favorite role. People just buy into this wonderful story of friendship and I wanted to do it again because the audience seems to have such a good time.

“And since so few people have really seen the show, they have no picture in their mind of my character. It can be anything I want it to be because Louise is bigger than life.”

Performances in Midland are 8 p.m. March 9-10, 15-17 and 3 p.m. March 11 and 18. Tickets are $22 adults and $16 students. To buy, call 800-523-8250 or go on line at mcfta.org.

To “meet” the real Louise Seger and see pictures of her: http://www.comforttheatre.com/htmdocs/louise.htm

Chippewa's Nature Preschool now the topic of a book by one of its founders

2012-02-27T08:26:00.000-08:00

Rachel A. Larimore outside the Chippewa Nature Preschool

by Janet I. Martineau

For five years now, a quiet little success story continues to play over in Midland

Literally play.

And one which is now documented in a book available worldwide, for those who might like to join in on the fun.

It is the Chippewa Nature Center’s Nature Preschool, located in a specially-built 5,000-square-foot building on its property at 400 S. Badour.

“Our kids dig in the mud; in fact they are encouraged to jump in a puddle and get muddy. They visit the wigwam. Build forts. Play in a sand pit. Climb on logs. Go on hikes to find insects and watch maple syrup being made.”

So speaks Rachel A. Larimore, the director of education at Chippewa and the author of the book “Establishing a Nature-Based Preschool” (National Association of Interpretation, 93 pages, $24 paperback and $10 PDF). It is available through Amazon.com.

Open to ages 3 and 4, the school has so far served more than 200 kids, and at the time it opened in 2007 was one of but 12 nature-based preschools in the entire nation.

Today, says Larimore, there are 20 nature-based preschools. And since she helped develop Chippewa’s from ground zero, “and we found out no one had written anything down about starting nature preschools, back then and still today,” she decided to pen her book.

“Once we opened we also were getting more and more calls, and site visits, so there clearly was a need.”

Students enrolled this year come from Freeland, Bay City and Mount Pleasant as well as Midland. They attend half-day sessions, from two to four days a week; 16-18 kids per session with three educators.

And those little ones are not wimpy when it comes to the weather.

“I think there has been only three days when we couldn’t go outside for a session; due to thunderstorms,” says Larimore. “They go out in the worst of winter. Families learn quickly to dress the kids for the weather.”

There are just as many girls enrolled as boys too. “We have lots of girly-girls enrolled, who might wear a tutu, be cinderella princesses, but also pick up worms without any concern.”

Cover of the book

On an average day they start outside in the special play area outside the two-classroom building or go on a hike to explore some of the 1,200-acre Chippewa property -- its forests and meadows, Arbury Pond, Sugarhouse, Homestead Farm with its garden and animals, the wigwam.

Then back inside the schoolthey work on math, literacy and science skills; drama, movement and art; learn more about nature; listen to stories and sing songs; sometimes cook. There is group time as well as individual time.

“At the beginning of the year, you can tell right away the kids who have not played outside,” says Larimore, who was raised on a vegetable farm in Illinois, “and the play is different at the beginning of the year because of that. It takes them awhile to learn to use their imagination; to get comfortable with logs and leaves and rocks and even skulls when we find them.

“It’s fun to see the development; to watch how they learn to love it.”

And some fun anecdotal stories are resulting.

Larimore recalls a speech therapist visiting the school, hearing an unfamiliar sound, and being informed by one of the preschoolers that it was a woodpecker.

Then there is a story of one of the 4 year olds visiting the Dow Gardens butterfly house with a group of third graders ...third graders who could not name all the parts of a butterfly. But she quickly and confidently did.

The nature-based preschool concept grew out of the 2005 book “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder,” by Richard Louv. When Larimore and other Chippewa staff heard him speak, they got fired up to join the then-small nature preschool bandwagon.

As for her book, its chapters cover the need for environmental education, getting a nature preschool started, administrative requirements, programming, and perfecting the programs.

And a healthy appendix section lists programming resources, recommended children’s books, job descriptions for teachers, and research resources.

“It is generally based on what we did, the steps we took. The one thing I stress is to get started on the licensing as early as possible because it takes so much time; paperwork and inspections.

“I think the information in it will stand the test of time. What is does not have is research about the long-term impact on children because it is too soon. There are not enough of us yet. But in the book I do advise we need to consider this in the chapter titled ‘The Next Step.’”

The cover shows a young boy holding a frog, and was taken by his mother at the Chippewa Nature Preschool. Inside are numerous color photos taken at Chippewa as well as visits to four other nature preschools.

“It took me more than a year and a half to write,” says Larimore. “I got the biggest chunks done at the family cabin in Illinois -- away from television and the telephone.” Once done, other staff members at Chippewa, area educators, an employee at another nature preschool “and my parents too” gave it a critical read.

Larimore hopes the book might also appeal to early childhood educators, libraries, and biologists.

“I think from what I have seen, this is one of the most powerful programs we offer at Chippewa due to the length of time they are with us... These children are here every week for nine months of the year.”

For more information about the Chippewa Nature Preschool, log on to http://www.chippewanaturecenter.com/naturepreschool.htm

Mozart and spirituals meld into one piece in unusual Saginaw Choral Society concert

2012-02-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

What could a Great Dane/lab mix named Rex, Negro spirituals, Mozart’s Requiem, storytelling and slide projections of classic art possibly have in common?

Lots, apparently, when they fall under the spell of Glen Thomas Rideout, the Saginaw Choral Society’s ever-inventive and chance-taking artistic director.

It all played out Saturday night at the Temple Theatre in a performance that brought the audience to its feet cheering like it was at a football game.

Dunno what tradition-loving musical purists thought of the venture, but here is what Rideout pulled off: He interspersed BETWEEN every two or three sections of the Mozart piece (which was sung in Latin and totally of the classical genre) a Negro spiritual and one U2 lullaby honoring Martin Luther King (five in all, sung in English and clearly not classical).

The common theme: they all dealt with death and coming to terms with it, and except for the U2 piece they were written in roughly the same time period in civilizations across the pond.

Onto that Rideout layered the classic art projections dealing with that theme, gathered by Kara Brown at the Saginaw Art Museum, and projections of all the texts, Latin and English.

And in my favorite component of this multi-layered concert, the storytelling! Mozart, as just about anyone familiar with the Requiem knows, died before he finished it and Franz Xaver Sussmayr completed the work. But that is about all most of us know.

What Rideout did was narrate Mozart’s story -- the plight of his family as he was dying, why it had to be finished but under secrecy, who Sussmayr was (a former pupil), and why he was chosen for the job.

And then ...then.....those projections with the texts and a few comments by Rideout kept us informed what was all-Mozart, what Mozart drafted and Syssmayr completed and assembled, what was all-Sussmayr, and some of the orchestrations added by a third man.

It was no easy task, Rideout noted, because Sussmayr had to be careful to write in Mozart’s voice and not his own -- so vital it was to keep the secret. Sucker that we are for good stories, this one left me in tears -- and an astonishment at how much of the work is Sussmayr’s.

What part the pup projection played (Rex belongs Rideout) and why the Requiem had to be finished in secrecy, dear reader, remains the property of those who attended and were amused and amazed. All we will say is that this concert was exciting, creative, gutsy, informative and fun.

The spirituals sung by the chorale were a cappella and most whisper soft, contemplative, and thus an interesting contrast to the more “lively” Mozart with a 23-member orchestra. The short “MLK” text was poetic and full of symbolism that still has us thinking. There were times the words in both the spirituals and the Mozart hit very close to modern-day situations -- to which Rideout added some dry wit commentary about “this being our story.”

If there are complaints it was that sometimes the orchestra overpowered the chorale and the four guest soloists (one of them home towner Emily Marvosh, who has a gorgeous contralto voice). There were times some sections of the chorale struggled with the tricky spiritual arrangements. Some of the transitions between the Requiem and spirituals also were less than smooth.

And applause at some points rattled the mood, but it was understandable because of this wild Requiem/spiritual/Requiem/spiritual mix interspersed with the storytelling. Yep. Never ever seen anything quite like this before in nearly 50 years of covering the arts! Loved it.

Greek play lights up the stage at SVSU

2012-02-22T22:40:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Those masks...a marvel.

But there was much else to laud as well Wednesday night when Saginaw Valley State University opened its production of the Greek tragedy “Agamemnon,” penned way back there in 458 B.C.E. by a dude named Aeschylus.

Yes...an actual live, locally produced piece of classic Greek theater in mid-Michigan. ‘Bout as rare as things get in the theater world anywhere anymore, let alone here.

Members of the Greek Chorus

Walking into the night air, a student walking ahead of me suddenly turned and asked “Did you like it?” I confirmed I did. She was all a-twitter, having been assigned to write a paper on it.

Trying to calm her jittery nerves, I explained why she might have concerns, suggested she might want to see it a second and even a third time, waited for an explosion of “are you kidding me!”

Instead, she warmed to the idea.

And that gives hope that classic Greek theater is not yet dead. Something had intrigued her more than just the assignment. Greek theater is an acquired taste, but once it takes a nibble.....

Actors speaking in poetic rhyme some of the time. The wearing of earthy face masks which keep the facial expressions of the cast One Note but also captivating.

The use of the Greek Chorus concept providing background, summary and insight information for the audience, with all or most of them sometimes speaking in unison.

Human stories that are terrifyingly tragic and complex. Scattered words and half sentences.

Mythology mixed with the common man.

Whew! That was lot for director Steven C. Erickson and his cast of 18 students to bite off. And the attempt was valiant. Not perfect, but no disaster either.

The story here concerns the King of Argos, named Agamemnon, returned home after 10 years at war in the famed Troy, the one involving Helen. Left at home was his wife Clytemnestra, a woman with an axe to grind.

In this Erickson adaption, the Greek chorus far outnumbers the lead characters -- 10 of them to 6. And not only that, the chorus carries probably 80 percent of the lines.

On the negative side, their diction is not always razor sharp nor their lines in unison always in synch. The women are a little clearer and more deliberate in their delivery. But, then, learning to speak through a mask and/or in unison must be a nightmare so that they succeed as often as they do is noteworthy.

What they are, however, is superb throughout in the body English department -- hunching over, recoiling and slinking, using their hands to convey what their hidden faces cannot, moving as one when needed but also individually, rapping their canes on the floor, perched on logs. Just a joy to watch. We caught enough of their words to understand what was going on, and as this play continues through the weekend they will most likely improve.

As for the 6 “lead” roles.....holy smokes is Caitlyn Walsh a she-devil as the king’s wife back home. She spits her lines with contemptuousness in every word -- and with every word enunciated clearly, slowly and with sufficient volume. Outstanding performance.

Tillie Dorgan as Cassandra

By comparison, Tillie Dorgan as the captured slave/oracle Cassandra too often hurries her lines into a blur. Cassandra, however, arrives in a high state of anxiety which only keeps building so her character is nowhere near as controlled and controlling as Walsh’s.

As for the three main male roles, they are each so short lived there is little time for them to connect with the viewer other than to leave the impression they are all weaklings undone by war, by women or by both.

Dave Ryan as the title character, Travis Wooley as his unglued herald and Dakotah Myers as the devious man back home all need to stretch more into their characters to deliver more shadings and nuances. They all do speak clearly however.

Elise Shannon’s costumes are perfect for the Greek Chorus and elegant for Cassandra, but a little under executed for the rest. As noted earlier, the masks by Kristen Phillips Gray are winners. The set by Jerry Dennis is, as always, noteworthy -- including, even, a chariot. And the lighting by Karli Jenkins and Eric Lewis Johnson offers some nice shadow play,

Saginaw kid who 'couldn't carry a tune' returns home as guest soloist with Saginaw Choral Society

2012-02-14T09:43:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

Impressive resume, the guest contralto singing with the Saginaw Choral Society on Saturday, Feb. 25, when it presents Mozart’s Requiem.

The Boston area resident has landed roles with Opera Boston, Boston Lyric Opera and Opera in the Ozarks...

Is heard as a member of the Seraphic Fire ensemble on its Grammy-nominated CD...

Played Meg in the New England premiere of the “Little Women” opera...

Sings oratorio and chamber roles across the nation.

And in 1999 this busy Boston contralto, Emily Marvosh, graduated from Valley Lutheran High School in Saginaw -- having that same year won a Saginaw Choral Society scholarship to summer camp at Interlochen.

“And here is a funny story for you,” she says in a phone call. “When I was in the 5th grade at Peace Lutheran, I was cut from the angel choir in the Christmas pageant because I was told I couldn’t carry a tune.”

Contralto Emily Marvosh

She laughs at the memory -- this woman of whom critics have since written is possessed of a “flexible technique and ripe color” and demonstrating “smooth, apparently effortless vocal display.”

So, she says, she is looking forward to the Saginaw Choral Society gig to prove things have changed, having since settled in Boston where she earned her master of music degree in voice at Boston University.

During her Saginaw years, says the daughter of David and Suzanne Marvosh of Saginaw, she was a “nerdy kid” who was in band and choir at the school but not into opera or even acting in plays.

When she went off to Central Michigan University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in vocal performance, the tide turned.

“I enjoyed singing in the choirs there, and got a chance to study abroad in Vienna, Austria. I went to an opera house just about every night...went to 30 operas in one semester. And that experience made it apparent I could make a living at this -- opera, oratorio, solos.”

And so it has come to pass. Two years ago, she says, she quit a full-time job and has keep busy as an employed freelance singer ever since.

“There is a lot of hustle involved in doing that -- outreach programs into schools for one thing. And I also have a Sunday morning church job as one of eight paid core singers in the choir filled out by 20 volunteers. Mixed choirs like that are not unusual in cities like Boston and New York.”

Currently her resume is about split even -- one-third opera roles, one-third solo parts in oratorios, one-third ensemble work.

“I love them both (opera vs. oratorio) for many different reasons. Right now I am doing a lot of concert work, like what I am doing in Saginaw, and right now that is what I love the most. I find it very exciting because you are right there with the conductor and the orchestra. In opera you are up on the stage and the orchestra and conductor are in the pit.

“And there is so much being written for the concert stage and well as the revival of things, like oratorios not heard in 400 years.

“But with opera, there are the costumes....getting to play the role of Meg. What girl did not grow up loving ‘Little Women.’ And with opera there is the long-time commitment -- six weeks of rehearsals and several performances of the same piece of music, so you really get to explore it and the character, the emotions.”

Fortunately, she says, she enjoys the travel aspect of being a freelance singer in this day and age. In the last couple of years she’s been to Arizona, Oregon, Florida, New Hampshire, Rhode Island.

In April she’ll return to Michigan to sing the St. John Passion for the Kalamazoo Bach Festival.

Miami is where the Grammy-nominated Seraphic Fire is located, although it tours as well.

The ensemble is 10 years old, she says, and varies from 12 to 24 singers depending on the need as well as a contingent of instrumentalists. “A quarter to a third of them live in Miami and the rest come from around the country. Getting invited to sing with them is a matter of connections -- they’ve heard of your name or heard you once.” She joined them in 2005.

As for the Mozart Requiem which brings her to Saginaw, it will be her second time performing it. What she loves about life as her career progresses “is realizing you are singing a piece differently than you were singing it two or three years ago because you have changed. And, of course, every performance is different with a different conductor, a different concert hall, a different audience, different soloists you are working with

“What is wonderful about the Mozart Requiem is there is so much ensemble singing between the four soloists; it’s like they form their own little quartet.” Joining her in Saginaw are soprano Mary Martin, tenor Brian Giebler and baritone Steven Eddy -- all working on music degrees at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Every day, Marvosh says, she sings in some way -- rehearsals can run three hours as a program nears; she tries to add in an hour or two at home on her own, learning new material or just exercising her voice; then there are the church choir rehearsals.

Not bad for a 5th grader who couldn’t carry a tune.

The Feb. 25 Saginaw Choral Society concert begins at 8 p.m. at the Temple Theatre, 203 N. Washington. Conductor Glen Thomas Rideout and the singers also will perform some familiar spirituals during the evening.

“With the concert falling during Black History Month, the spirituals became a perfect fit,” says Rideout. “When one attended a Latin Mass during Mozart’s time, the structure and regularity of it were quite predictable. On the flip side, when one attends an African American church service, the spirituals are filled with a type of musical freedom and expression. We want to show the contrast between the two, while also honoring them simultaneously.”

Among the featured spirituals are “Steal Away” and “Ain’t That Good News,” both arranged by Moses Hogan, as well as a piece called “MLK,” written by the rock group
U2 and arranged by Bob Chilcott.

A new post concert activity has been added to this evening as well. After the concert, patrons can walk next door to the Saginaw Club for an afterglow and piano bar with drinks and light munchies.

Tickets to the concert are $25, $20 and $10 -- or buy two tickets and get one free. Students are admitted free with an ID. Call 754-SHOW to reserve tickets.

To read more about Emily Marvosh, check out her website at www.emilymarvosh.com. To hear her singing in a quartet, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsXY6jhzE7w

Midland's 'Treasure Island' filled with really good bad pirates

2012-02-12T16:51:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Shiver me timbers, mates! Can’t reckon when me have seen such fine, fine pirate acting.

And, did ya know, Long John Silver is a Quaker.

Those are the two thoughts that linger after attending a weekend Center Stage production of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s classic novel “Treasure Island” at the Midland Center for the Arts.

While the adventure novel seems, well, a little bit dated now depite this award-winning 2009 adaptation by Ken Ludwig, hats off to director Carol Rumba and her crew for making it fine, fine production.

With a cast of 33 it could have lumbered with scene changes and exits and entrances. Not with Rumba, who uses both wings of the stage as sets, keeps the action flowing from one scene to the next without a pause, delivers a fun center stage surprise as the second act begins, and always, always has some other little bits of action going everywhere even when the spoken lines are taking place where the spotlights shine.

Kyle Bagnall as Blind Pew

There also are props galore, multi-layered costumes, sword fights, real food. The only thing that does not work is the talking parrot effect, the uneven microphone levels and drifting English accents. Nor does the parrot look like a parrot.

Now, to the acting.

With 33 people there is no way to mention each and all, and besides this production is a fine example of ensemble work -- meaning all 33 enter in character, stay in character, layer on bits of business when not speaking, and when speaking speak clearly and with gumption.

That said, we wished for just a little more pizazz from Parker Bradford, cast as the narrator of this coming-of-age story about Jim Hawkins and his marvelous journey. We have seen Bradford excel in other productions, so we know he is capable. He just seems a little too tentative, laid back here.

But nailing it above and beyond are:

-- Kyle Bagnall as Blind Pew in a short but raging scene in which he is a terrifying pirate who swings his menacing cane with reckless abandon. We have seen Bagnall in numerous productions too, and this is his finest. There is not an ounce of Bagnall visible in his Blind Pew. Not an ounce. Even his voice is evil. His body contorting as he “senses” other people in the room. Lord we wanted to see more of him.

-- Adam Gardner as Ben Gunn, marooned on Treasure Island for years, half mad because of it, desperately longing for cheese to replace his oyster diet, his clothes in tatters, and given to crawling and bouncing around the stage like a wild animal. His voice is a half-giggle, which in turn makes the audience giggle. He reminded us of Puck in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

-- Mark Dutcher as Billy Bones, in another short-lived role. He too is a terrifying, bigger-than-life pirate who has in his keep the map where X marks the spot of the treasure. He dies a magnificent death.

-- Jim Royle as Squire Trelawney, not a pirate but the nervous nelly who outfits the ship and its mission to recover the lost treasure. Problem is, most of the crew are pirates in disguise and he suffers greatly, and with great conviction, when that all comes to light and he is forced to battle in an attempt to save his life.

-- John Tanner as the famed leg-impaired Long John Silver, sort of a Renaissance man, one both evil and good; given to quoting Shakespeare and trying to keep his idiot pirates under control. Tanner has some of the script’s finest lines, ones which adults will most appreciate, and he knows how to deliver them with the drollness of a Maggie Smith.

Bravos also to scenic designer Kristen Lences for the excellent and creative set; to costumer designer Laurelei Horton and her extensive crew; to Steve and Mary Rita Johnson for the detail-enhancing props.

But a word of caution. The Saturday afternoon performance had a goodly number of very young (and TALKATIVE and restless) kids in attendance.

This is NOT a show for the very young. This is not a CHILDREN’S show. These pirates are nasty and kill, as do others in the cast; the language/script level is aimed at a coming-of-age age (not early elementary and younger); it does have long passages of talk more than action as it tells a story in which goodness triumphs over evil.

So be warned, mates.

Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra presents a fun ode to Shakespeare

2012-02-11T21:49:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Never thought I’d see the day...the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, actors from Pit and Balcony Community Theatre, a women’s contingent from the Saginaw Choral Society...performing Shakespeare...on the stage of the historic Temple Theatre.

Such was the delight Saturday night when the SBSO presented “Shakespearean Dreams” -- an all-Shakespeare evening that presented three compositions inspired by the Bard’s words; one of them also featuring an abridged semi-staged version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

Tessa Poag all but stole the show as the impish Puck in Shakespeare’s poetic comedy taking place in a fairy-filled woodland. She moved with the grace and agility of a cheeta; spoke her lines clearly, crisply and with dramatic flare; was about as into a role as a character can get.

Also a standout was Christian Schwager as Bottom, the character who literally makes an ass of himself. Long and lanky, he too sold his character -- first under the headpiece of the ass, with body English that depicted a shy living, breathing character; then later in a bit of upstaging duel with maestro Brett Mitchell and the orchestra.

Linda Bush Rebney, who both acts and directs at P&B, directed the abridged “Midsummer” featuring Mendelssohn’s score. And while some of the other seven actors needed a little more diction and total comfort speaking Shakespeare, it was obvious they had been well rehearsed with the score; knowing when to speak at precisely the right moment in amidst the 12 movements.

They moved with a good flow on and off the stage as well -- as did the 27-member Saginaw Choral Society women’s chorus, floating on like the fairies they were depicting. Soprano Nina Lasceski’s solo segments were operaticlly outstanding.

Nice job, too, adapting a play into an abridged version that mostly held its own. There was a bit of blunder when the two couples were put under a spell but we never got to see them come awake and react to the spell. Instead they just got up and walked off. But it was a minor flaw.

Bravo to the costuming, in particular the elegant gown of Titania (Brooke Pieschke), and to the fairyland setting -- drapery front and back, with the orchestra sandwiched in a bunch over at the left. Very pleasing to the eye; understated and creating the needed atmosphere.

And it probably goes without saying now, in his short career here now, that Mitchell conducted Mendelssohn’s wonderful score flawlessly.

The first half of the program was shared by William Bolcom’s Commedia for (Almost) 18th Century Orchestra, with Catherine McMichael on the rude and errant piano, and Gerald Finzi’s “Let Us Garlands Bring,” featuring bass-baritone Timothy Jones in its five songs.

Bolcom, retired from the University of Michigan faculty, displays a whimsical sense of humor in his piece -- pretty, lush orchestral tunes giving way to rude interruptions by the piano and other instruments; an ode here and there to various classical composers of yore; fleeting images evoking the stock commedia dell’arte characters.

Unfortunately, the Finzi piece, sandwiched in between the weird Bolcom and the Saginaw-flavored Mendelssohn/Shakespeare, kinda got lost in the evening.

Loved Jones’ performance, his voice, but the piece about love and death sorta paled between the other two. But “Come Away, Come Away, Death,” the first piece of the five, did conclude with a lovely melding of the singer and concertmaster Sonia Lee.

Great Lakes Bay Alliance seeking Fall for the Arts Festival manager

2012-02-08T14:33:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

People passionate about the arts might like to know about a job opening.

The Great Lakes Bay Arts and Entertainment Alliance is seeking a manager for its 2013 inaugural Fall for the Arts Festival -- a month-long event, in October, focusing on all the Great Lakes Bay region has to offer in its museums, libraries, performance venues, nature centers, architecture and restaurants.

The position pays up to $35,000, with no benefits. The deadline for applications is this Tuesday, Feb. 14.

Following is the job description:

Fall for the Arts Festival JOB DESCRIPTION

POSITION TITLE: Festival Manager

SALARY RANGE: Contract position, no benefits, up to $35,000 annually

REPORTS TO: Fall for the Arts Festival – Committee Chair

FALL FOR THE ARTS FESTIVAL:

The first Fall for the Arts Festival will take place in the Great Lakes Bay Region during the month of October 2013. The focus of this month-long festival during National Arts and Humanities Month will be to introduce visitors from all over Michigan and beyond to the wonderful arts and entertainment events, people and places that make up the Great Lakes Bay Region’s cultural diversity. The Fall for the Arts Festival will introduce people from near and far to museums, libraries and galleries; performance venues; nature centers, gardens and trails; architectural tours and culinary delights; and much more.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Represent Festival in the community and serve as point person for Festival programming.

Attend planning meetings for the Festival.

Field general inquiries via email and telephone.

Maintain database of arts, cultural, humanities and entertainment organizations.

Work on event-related tasks, mailings and communications.

Maintain regular contact with participating arts, cultural, humanities and entertainment organizations.

Work with CVB to develop all necessary print and electronic marketing materials.

Write and distribute press releases to regional and statewide media.

Work with committee on prospecting and cultivating sponsorship opportunities: writing grants

as necessary.

Attend sponsor and vendor related meetings.

Assist in training and scheduling Festival volunteers for event-related tasks.

Communicate and work with the Dow Event Center and the Great Lakes Bay Region Convention and Visitors Bureau to promote the “big event” through Festival marketing.

Serve as a liaison to Great Lakes Bay Region Convention and Visitors Bureau on all matters related to marketing the Festival.

Attend October 2013 events as the Festival representative.

Perform other tasks as assigned.

REQUIRED SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND ATTRIBUTES:

Experience managing large-scale events and programs.

Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills.

Comfortable speaking in front of a large group of people.

Ability to think creatively.

Ability to manage multiple tasks in a demanding environment. Attention to detail.

Strong work ethic.

Ability to cultivate positive relationships with vendors.

Comfortable working within non-traditional hours.

Must be able to work independently without constant supervision.

A self-starter who initiates tasks and projects.

Knowledge of the Great Lakes Bay Region community and arts, cultural, humanities and entertainment organizations in the area.

Thorough knowledge of Microsoft Office and Excel required; familiarity with web design, social media products and Adobe creative suites helpful.

To apply, send resume, cover letter and three references with name, phone and email to: mlwheato@svsu.edu

DEADLINE TO APPLY: February 14, 2012

'Battling Bullying' initiative to bring author to Saginaw, Midland and Bay Counties in April

2012-02-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

Concerned about statistics indicating one in seven school students is either a bully or a victim of bullying, four Great Lakes Bay region organizations are teaming up for an unusual “battling bullying” initiative.

Titled the Great Lakes Bay Great Read, the multi-faceted program is targeted at 80 middle school classrooms in Bay, Midland and Saginaw Counties.

The students will collectively read the award-winning book “Touching Spirit Bear,” told from the viewpoint of a bully; attend a presentation by the author of that book, Ben Mikaelsen, and then embark on a field trip to see an art project created by a man in response to his lifetime of being bullied.

Their parents and other concerned citizens also will have an opportunity to hear the author, who says he was both a bully and bullied during his school years.

“And in addition, the teachers in those 80 middle school classrooms will attend an in-service workshop with two speakers,” says Carolyn Wierda, the interim associate dean in Saginaw Valley State University’s College of Education.

“Deborah Smith, an associate professor of teacher education at SVSU, will talk about using books to teach about social issues. And Kim Sumerix, a therapist with Child & Youth Services in Midland, will provide examples of how teachers can respond to bullies.

“We have heard from so many teachers who want more help with the issue of bullying,” says Wierda, “so we want to be able to offer them some guidance which they can then take back to their schools to share with other teachers, along with additional literacy strategies.”

Partnering with SVSU on the Great Lakes Bay Great Read project are Saginaw Township Schools Community Education, Bay City Public Schools and Creative 360 in Midland.

Author Ben Mikaelsen

Creative 360, a non-profit arts group, owns and operates what is called the John Pratt Mosaic House, on the western edge of Midland County.

A victim of mental illness most of his life, and picked on because of it, in his adult years Pratt created colorful mosaic scenes on the exterior of the family home in a prime example of what is called folk art. He used broken glass and plates, bottle caps, nuts and bolts, and found objects.

“All of the events will be offered free, to the schools and to the public,” says Steve Elliott, director of Saginaw Township Schools Community Education.

“So far we have raised $24,000 from area foundations to pay for the cost of bringing the author here, the venue rentals for his nine presentations, the teacher in-service session, and some of the 2,500 copies of the books which will go to those 80 classrooms.

“Now we are appealing to Great Lakes Bay Region businesses and groups to ‘sponsor a classroom’ to pay for the bus transportation to see Mikaelsen, the remainder of the books, and the bus trip and art supplies linked to the Pratt house visit.”

Mikaelsen is coming to the area April 17-19 -- speaking to students during the day and the public in the evening on April 17 in Midland, April 18 in Bay City and April 19 in Saginaw.

The students in the 80 classrooms will receive copies of his book on March 1, the same day as the in-service training for their teachers at SVSU. “So far we have 58 classrooms signed up so there is room for more,” says Wierda.

And the Pratt House tours and art project connected to it will take place mid-April through May.

“I have conducted more than 60 student tours to the Pratt property through the years,” says Jan List, a volunteer with Creative 360, “and it is remarkable to witness the reaction. We have done a lot of the tours for at-risk or special needs students, and they so totally connect with this man who was picked on like they are.

“They seem to ‘get’ the idea that sometimes the best way to respond to being bullied is to immerse yourself in a creative way, like John did. With the art project connected to their visit, we give them materials to make their own small mosaics.”

Among the financial support received so far are grants from Citizens Bank Wealth Management, FORCE through the Saginaw Community Foundation, Midland Youth Violence Prevention Partnership, Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation, Harvey Randall Wickes Foundation, Bay Area Community Foundation, Dow Corning and Jury Foundation.

For more information about possible donations and school sign ups, contact Elliott at (989) 399-8029 or saelliot@stcs.org.

SVSU hosting showing of award-winning documentary 'Shakespeare Behind Bars' and visit by its founder

2012-02-03T06:57:00.000-08:00

Special event:

“Shakespeare Behind Bars”

viewing of award-winning documentary

and talk-back with director Curt Tofteland

7pm Tuesday, Feb. 14

Rhea Miller Recital Hall, SVSU

Free

by Janet Martineau

“Murderers. Fugitives. Thieves....Shakespeare would have loved these guys.”

That quote on the jacket of an unusual award-winning documentary says it all. And at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14, theater and film fans alike will witness it first hand when it is shown in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall at Saginaw Valley State University. Free and open to the public.

And sitting in the audience with them that night ... artistic director Curt L. Tofteland, who 17 years ago began in a Kentucky men’s prison the program from which the documentary takes its name, “Shakespeare Behind Bars.”

In that program, each year real-life murderers, child molesters and robbers rehearse and stage one of the Bard’s plays and, in some years, even “tour” it to other prisons.

Viewers of the documentary meet them the year they produced “The Tempest.”

Scene from "The Tempest" in a Kentucky prison

Big, burly, tattooed men. Black and white. Young and old. Having committed crimes, in some cases, that turn the stomach. Cast in both male and female roles, as they were in Shakespeare’s era when women were barred from the stage. Learning lines and speaking the difficult Elizabethan lingo with a side order of raw emotion.

“I have always believed that art, theater and the works of Shakespeare communicate what it means to be a human being,” says Tofteland in a phone call.

“Rehabilitation is impossible for inmates, because they got to where they are by acting out of the morals and ethics of what they knew in their lives.

“But habilitation ... it is possible.”

Tofteland, in an interview, likes to word play like that ... no surprise, since he has acted extensively himself, is a poet and a playwright, directs and was for 20 years the artistic director of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, the nation’s oldest free Shakespeare festival.

“I am also a programming junkie, and every program I have created is to fill a need in the community. I never first create a program and then look for a need to present it. The United States has 6 million in correctional institutions; 1 in 50 Americans; more than any other nation. Even more than were jailed during Stalin’s reign.

“It is estimated 3 percent of the population in our prisons cannot be ‘healed.’ So you keep them safe in a humane setting. But what about the rest of them? We need to get them into programs like this, educate them.”

And before any naysayers get revved up to complain about tax dollars going for this "silly" Shakespeare program in prisons....it is fully paid for through private dollars Tofteland raises.

Tofteland is headed to SVSU for a three-day residency. In addition to the showing of “Shakespeare Behind Bars” and talking with the audience following it, he also will work with SVSU students during a play rehearsal, in an intermediate acting class and for a theater majors master class.

Richard B. Roberts, an associate professor of theater at SVSU, says he first saw “Shakespeare Beyond Bars” five years ago and then later met Tofteland during a theater festival.

Curt L. Tofteland

“I have been trying to get him to come to SVSU ever since,” says Roberts, “to have our students see how theater does matter, how it can make a difference, and get a chance to talk with him about it.

“And I wanted the public to see it too. This film also applies to social workers, the criminal justice people. I hope lots come. I was on the edge of my seat watching it.”

The documentary received its world premiere, in 1995, at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for a grand jury prize.

Since then it has played more than 40 film festivals around the nation, Canada and Great Britain and has won 11 awards.

“I still get e-mails weekly from all over the world,” says Tofteland, “and I try to get to as many college campuses as I can. Churches are also picking up on it; churches with social justice agendas.

“I have also had screenwriters approach me about making a film about my life, but this project is not about me. It is about the guys you see in the documentary .... and about the women’s prisons and juvenile facilities were we also do the program.”

As Tofteland explains it, 20 to 25 carefully selected inmates rehearse each year’s chosen play for nine months. Besides “The Tempest,” over the years they’ve also worked on “Othello,” “Macbeth,” “Winter’s Tale,” “Hamlet,” “Julius Caesar,” “Twelfth Night” and “Merchant of Venice.”

The schedule is rehearsal two days a week initially, for 90 minutes each day, then accelerated closer to show time.

“So what that adds up to is 225 hours of me working with them...and then they independently rehearse another 225 hours on their own wherever they can find a space at the prison (outside in the yard; in maintenance rooms). So each play is a 450 hour investment on their part.”

The filmmakers for the documentary shot 153 hours of footage, which was culled down into the 93 minutes on the DVD.

And what is most remarkable on that DVD is not just the rehearsal process, and the presentation of the play, but private moments during which the men reveal to the filmmakers (and viewers) their crimes. Those moments come well into the film; after we have gotten to know them as thespians, as human beings we like.

“Everything you see (their emotion) is genuine,” assures Tofteland. “Yes they also happen to be good actors, but I know these guys, they are like my brothers. And their grief is real.”

He knows it is real, he says, “because with this program I had the biggest epiphany of my life. I thought empathy was innately born in all of us and that people who did not have it chose to be jerks.

“Now I have learned it is not innate. It comes with your development, how you are raised, and these guys were not raised with it. The good thing is it can be learned.” And, he says, the words and situations in Shakespeare teach volumes about empathy as well as the rehearsal process filled with intense exploration of the characters. “It’s not presenting the play that is important; it’s the process.”

Tofteland left Kentucky and his work there three years ago and lives in Michigan, in Holland, where his wife is teaching in a college. In 2010, Shakespeare Behind Bars became a 501 (c) 3 non-profit and continues to spread its mission into prisons around the nation.

Tofteland is now working at a correctional facility in Muskegon Heights and on Feb. 12 a new program he developed there will celebrate its first anniversary.

“It’s a leadership training program -- still using art and theater but to teach these guys to be leaders and create circles, and step back in society and work with gangs, youths, to give them the right direction.

“They focus on answering four questions about themselves: who am I, what do I love, how will I live my life knowing I will die, and what is my gift to humankind.”

And he also is penning a book about Shakespeare Behind Bars, with 12 of his Kentucky actors each writing a chapter. In his 13 years there, Tofteland says, he worked with 200 men. And long-time studies of those who were eventually released, he says, found only 3.5 percent were repeat offenders -- a statistic far below the average.

Over the years, Tofteland says, his presentations about the program have brought in the doors family members of crime victims. He has even received threats.

“My heart breaks for the victims of these crimes even though I believe in redemption and .the power of good for the people who committed them. For me it’s love the man, hate the crime.”

He then recounts a person telling him “my two sisters were murdered...and thank you, thank you for doing this. It has begun my journey towards healing.” And a reporter “who wrote an amazing article” despite the fact a theater-loving friend had been murdered.

“I love doing this work because I see the miracles.”

SVSU lands regional theater festival for a second stint

2012-01-30T16:54:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

They’re headed here again -- 1,500 college theater majors for a five-day festival hosted by Saginaw Valley State University.

“It’s unusual to get asked to host this again so soon; usually it’s six to eight years between,” says Richard B. Roberts Jr., associate professor of theater at SVSU.

He is talking about the Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival that after eight regionals like the one at SVSU culminate in a national festival taking place at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

SVSU is in Region III, with participating colleges and universities from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin as well as Michigan. Competition can be intense to host the regionals. SVSU got the nod in 2009 and 2010 -- a first for a Michigan school in 25 years. And recently came word they were picked again for 2013 and 2014.

“As I said from the last one, I have never worked harder or had more fun,” says Roberts of the early January festivities.

The upwards of 1,500 theater students are joined by 150 theater professors and theater professionals and collectively view eight full productions, “An Evening of Scenes,” and assorted 10-minute plays as well as attend 100 workshops.

The students also compete for nearly 40 awards -- in acting, directing, reviewing, costuming, playwriting, sound, lighting, make-up and tech -- from which the regional winners are sent on to the finals at the Kennedy Center.

The last two Region III festivals pumped an estimated $2.5 million into the Great Lakes Bay region economy since the students, professors and others attending book rooms in area hotels and frequent restaurants and shops. They are not housed at SVSU.

“The Saginaw County Convention and Visitors Bureau is projecting $3 million for the economy for the 2013 and 2014 festivals,” says Roberts.

Of the eight regionals, Region III attracts the most attendees.

In 2010, SVSU’s hosting of the event won and All-Area Arts Award from the Saginaw Arts and Enrichment Commission.

Pit and Balcony's "The Underpants" delivers naughty giggles

2012-01-30T10:45:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

A boorish macho husband, a pair of plunging panties, two (and maybe three) room renters with ulterior motives, and the wild and crazy Steve Martin combine to make audiences giggle like school children at Saginaw’s Pit and Balcony Community Theatre.

And mostly it’s all in the mind with double entendres galore.

We’re talking about “The Underpants,” which opened this past weekend and runs next weekend as well. It’s based on a German farce/satire written in 1910, “Die Hose” by Carl Sternheim -- with a 2004 adaptation by Martin.

Would love to compare the two scripts -- the 1910 one and the 2004 one -- because this one sounds like all Martin. Comedy light but a little bit naughty too. Clever word play (like a nitwit character “not having a nit to knit wit”). No lasting substance and sometimes a tad plodding. Politically incorrect. But good for a few giggles during these winter months,

Basically the storyline is as follows: A super uptight, macho, wife-belittling German bureaucrat has his own underwear in a bunch because when he and his frau attended a parade for the king her panties suddenly fell to her ankles for all around her to see.

He is sure his job will be threatened by this should word spread; she assures him she had them back up before anybody saw anything; but when some men seek to rent an advertised room in their house, it is clear she was not as quick as she thought.

One is a poet, who will interrupt any rising passion to run off to his room and turn it into a poem. Another is a sickly Jewish barber seeking to hide his ancestry from the militant macho husband by spelling his name Cohen with a K and kosher with a C.

Enter a busybody female neighbor who urges the wife to engage in an affair with one of them since her husband is such a brute.

And that’s about as far as we should go with this description since there are a few twists and turns that are delightful.

Robin Devereaux-Nelson directs with Alex Alexandrou as the husband, Mary Lee as the wife, Michael Curtis as the poet, Jay Glysz as the Jewish barber, Liz Williams as the busybody and Paul Lutenske as a mysterious (and late to the action) man also seeking to rent a room.

Sunday’s performance needed more energy, especially given the fact this is a FARCE, and a more connectedness, engagement between the actors. They do not meld yet like a well-oiled machine. Oddly, too, three of them do not play their roles quite broadly enough given their stereotypical characters; it’s a matter of needed inflections, shadings. detail.

Collectively their timing is good, with lines as well as entrances and exits. But not razor sharp.

That said, the performances of Curtis and Lutenske sparkled, with Williams a close third. Curtis’ poet is a silky smooth sensual character, just delightful with all the right moves. His voice also so totally captures the character. And Lutenske’s way with body English and expressions are hilarious, and then he open his mouth and plops down a line perfectly.

Bravo to the detailed set and its design, by Gary Reid, Suzie Reid and Mary Swift. It looks very real and livable and 1910ish.

Duet rocks Saginaw Choral Society Members' Recital

2012-01-29T09:43:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

It’s always fun, attending the annual Saginaw Choral Society Members’ Recital, anticipating which number will rock ya.

The "Suddenly Seymour" number

They’ve done this program eight years now, presenting upwards of 20 numbers featuring choir members and their kin -- solos, duets, trios, quartets, etc; instruments as well as vocals since many are fine instrumentalists as well.

More often than not, more than one of the acts rock ya.

And so it went Friday night (and probably Saturday afternoon) in this year’s installment at new digs, the acoustically gifted First United Methodist Church in Saginaw Township.

Totally nailing it, with the powerhouse delivery of a tornado, were tenor Jim Smerdon and soprano Nina Lasceski in “Suddenly Seymour,” from the musical “Little Shop of Horrors.” Complete with a fun dramatic delivery. Wow they were sensational.

On a softer note was Ah Tempo! (a male sextet) on Kevin Memley’s arrangement of that old classic “Danny Boy” -- with the piano accompaniment, played by Betty Meyer, a seventh voice; a true seventh voice in a gorgeous melding of vocals and keyboard rarely witnessed.

Those were the two standouts, but there were other notables as well:

...Sopranos Haley Honsinger and Nancy Stevenson with Lauren Hill’s “Tell Him,” showcasing lovely duet work.

... Flutist Robert Hart and organist Nicholas Schmelter’s performance of portions of Telemann’s Sonata in G Major. This may have been a matter of where one was seated, as in the middle of the front row for this audience member. Thus the organ’s two sets of pipes were at the almost-immediate left and right with Hart between them but further back, providing a surround sound that delivered goosebumps.

That same seat (usually we sit at the back) also accorded oneness with the various pianists (either soloists or accompanists)....making them standouts in every single number.

... Deanna Popielarz on flute, Jane Bellen on oboe and Catherine McMichael on piano on the sprightly and peppy Trio for Flute, Oboe and Piano by Dring.

The 28-member vocal ensemble at work

... And twice a 28-member ensemble performed, to perfection with direction by Glen Thomas Rideout. “All My Trials” was the standout of the two with “The Rainbow Connection” from a Muppet movie just a cute and fun closer.

If there is a slight complaint, it is that this year’s installment was a tad on the too serious/religious side, except for “Suddenly Seymour.” Memory serves, hopefully accurately, that in years past the performers cut loose a little more.

As usual the dessert smorgasbord reception was a sweet ender

New "Celebrity Corner " TV series heads out to Great Lakes Bay restaurants

2012-01-27T15:12:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

Television premiere:

“Celebrity Corner”

6:30pm Sunday (Jan. 29)

Channel 19/35

Chances are, in the next five months, you might end up appearing on television if you dine out at a Great Lakes Bay region restaurant.

Hint: Molly’s Bistro in Midland is a possibility in March. Frankenmuth’s Bavarian Inn is for sure in February.

“She’s is singer and performs there,” says Saginaw filmmaker Ricardo J. Verdoni of Molly McFadden, who owns and operates Molly’s with her husband Brian.

Verdoni is the creator of “Celebrity Corner,” a half-hour series spotlighting the region’s arts, entertainment and business enterprises and shot on location in restaurants. It debuts this Sunday (Jan. 29) at 6:30pm on Delta College’s Channel 19/35 and is slated to run in that fourth Sunday slot for six weeks, says Verdoni.

The Laurie Middlebrook Band

David Oppermann, the long-time leader of the New Reformation Dixieland Band, hosts each segment -- interviewing the restaurant patrons and the arts/entertainment/business guests.

“The idea is everybody on this show is a celebrity,” says Verdoni, “even the people eating. And I think I may increase the time we spend with them in each segment because Dave is such a natural with them. He can get anybody to talk. And he does not need a script. I just give him some background and off he goes.”

The guests in Episode One are Brett Mitchell, the conductor of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra; Laurie Middlebrook, a country music singer/songwriter/band leader; JoAnn Crary, CEO of Saginaw Future, and Tricia Arner, director of the mobile Saginaw Area Foundation for Eye Care.

And the restaurant is Horizons in Saginaw Township, where Oppermann drops in on members of the 1949 class of Saginaw High School enjoying their monthly lunch.

Mitchell chats about his conducting gigs in Houston, Washington D.C., St. Paul and France and the fact the Saginaw orchestra is recording record audiences these days. Cow girl Middlebrook is seen with her horses.

Arner says the mobile eye bus visits 20-25 sites each year, its volunteer doctors and staff providing eye care, including surgery, to people who cannot otherwise afford it. And Crary says yes jobs are in short supply, but the Great Lakes Bay jobless rate is 8.1 percent to the nation’s 9 percent and then lists a half dozen promising careers in the area.

Thankfully, Verdoni has for years taken his camera everywhere he goes, so he has an ample supply of stock footage on most of his guests or their businesses....and if not, he shoots some for the new series. Middlebrook is seen in several concerts and Mitchell too.

“I don’t like shows with talking heads, so this one will not be that.” He also found that the four guests being interviewed in the first installment seemed more relaxed chatting in the restaurant setting rather than a more formal studio, so he plans to continue that as well -- even though there is at times some noise bleed.

February’s show will head out to the Bavarian Inn, and among the guests are Dorothy Zehnder, the no-spring-chicken founder who still runs the place, as well as Judy Zehnder who oversees the Bavarian Lodge.

Also on Verdoni’s radar, along with Molly’s Bistro, are the Bay City Players -- the state’s oldest community theater. “And I won’t limit the show to just Saginaw, Midland and Bay City. There’s Chesaning... Birch Run.”

Verdoni is an avid supporter of the Great Lakes Bay region and says he pursued doing this show “to show the quality of life, the good stuff in our communities. So many people just don’t seem to know what is happening here.”

Earlier he filmed and aired “Saginaw Celebrates Summer,” a span of three months during which there are dozens of entertainment options.

Channel 19/35 plans to air the six installments of “Celebrity Corner” and then see what the ratings are. Verdoni, who owns and operates Verdoni Productions, adds that he retains the rights to each installment and is open to showing it for clubs and other interested groups.

Rotary clubs in sister cities of Saginaw and Tokushima come to the aid of Japan's earthquake/tsunami survivors

2012-01-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

Nearly a year after the devastating 9.0 earthquake/131-foot tsunami that hit Japan, a 51-year-old international friendship between two “sister cities” is aiding its still-homeless survivors.

An automated external defibrillator

A collaboration involving 12 Rotary Clubs in Saginaw, Michigan, and Tokushima, Japan, raised $76,500 to purchase 36 automated external heart defibrillators for use in temporary shelters housing nearly 13,000 people displaced by the double disaster last March.

Eight of the machines already are in use in four cities with the remaining 28 headed to two other cities by the end of January.

“The six cities where the defibrillators from our project are headed have a population of 370,000, and around 28 percent of the survivors living in their shelters are over the age of 60,” says Thomas W. Cline, a member of the Rotary Club of Saginaw and who served as the liaison between the two sister cities of Saginaw and Tokushima.

Adds Dr. Bala Srinivasan, a retired physician/cardiac anesthesiologist and member of the Saginaw Valley Rotary Club, “Elderly people are prone to irregular hearts which are corrected or converted to regular heart beats by the use of defibrillators, with minimal side effects.

“With the added stress of this big natural calamity, many of the elderly there are even more prone for this cardiac problem, and we are grateful to be of some help.”

Called AEDs, the units contain simple audio and visual commands and are designed for use by laymen rather than the more sophisticated manual and semi-automatic machines used by health professionals.

Tokushima lies about 460 miles south and west of the earthquake epicenter in Sendai, and as luck would have it has a sister city relationship not only with Saginaw but also Sendai.

So when Srinivasan, then president of the Saginaw Valley Rotary Club, suggested last March that the Rotary Club of Saginaw approach its “sister” Tokushima West Rotary Club, asking if there was any aid it could provide, the wheels were set in motion.

“Tokushima conferred with Sendai and discovered the area around it was in need of the defibrillators,” says Evelyn Mudd, who was president of the Rotary Club of Saginaw at the time.

“When representatives from our sister city visited Saginaw in May, the two Rotarians in the group attended a meeting with representatives from the three Saginaw Clubs (Saginaw Sunrise being the third) and an agreement was reached as to details. After that it was a matter of just coordinating everything.”

Mudd recalls late night calls between Michigan and Japan, due to the time differences, as well as translation assistance from Yoko Mossner, a native of Japan living in Saginaw, and William Mahar, an American Catholic missionary living in Tokushima.

Of the total $76,500 project, the three clubs in Saginaw collectively raised $10,000, nine Rotary clubs in Tokushima and one in Sendai itself raised $21,937, two Rotary districts in the two nations raised $20,000, and Rotary International chipped in $24,562.

The city of Tokushima has a population of 267,347 and the city of Saginaw 51,508.

The quake and tidal wave claimed an estimated 6,548 lives in the area where the 36 machines will see duty, says Cline, with 1,257 missing.

Cline says most of the shelters are in schools as well as public halls and citizen centers as clean-up and reconstruction continues.

“Shelter living is in a dormitory setting; large rooms where people place matting on which they place bedding,” he says. “Attempts at privacy are made through curtains, or cardboard partitions. They are served food at central locations.

“The under 60 adults who have employment go to work from the shelter. Those over 60, and the unemployed under 60, remain at the shelter.

“And bear in mind that the loss of housing normally includes the loss of all possessions.”

The project is, says Cline, just a matter of “friends helping friends.”

Rotary International, recognized as the world's first volunteer service organization, was founded in Chicago in 1905. The Rotary Club of Saginaw was the 93rd club founded and in 2014 celebrates its 100th anniversary. There are now more than 34,000 Rotary Clubs in 200 countries and geographic areas.

Top 10 Great Lakes Bay Arts/Cultural Events for 2011

2011-12-29T02:20:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

So ... I decided to make a list ... just how many arts and cultural events did I attend in 2011, in Saginaw, Midland and Bay counties? Plays. Concerts. Lectures. Festivals. Exhibits. Special events, like the October opening of the Islamic Center of Saginaw.

The total came to 94!

And following are my picks for the ...

TOP 10 ARTS/CULTURAL EVENTS OF 2011

Poet David Baker at Dow Gardens Greenhouse

1. "Wake Up! A Grand Gala of Songs,” Saginaw Choral Society

In the first half of this October concert at the Temple Theatre, conductor Glen Thomas Rideout told the story of God’s seven days creating the earth through narration and song -- from Mendelssohn’s mighty and reverent “Thanks Be to God” for The Second Day to Whitacre’s humorous “Animal Crackers” for The Sixth Day (with the singers mooing like cows). In its segments -- starting with a pitch blackness in the theater -- we were treated to eloquent spoken words like God realizing that green and blue (grass and water) are more pleasing to the eye than green and brown (soil), songs about critters like the panther and the firefly, and the sounds of chirping birds and wordless primordal ooze. And then, in the second half, singers from the Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy blew the place apart. It was a goosebump combination of mixed musical bag, church sermon, storytelling, Biblical history, motivational workshop and call to action all rolled into two memorable hours.

2. “From a Greenhouse,” Theodore Roethke Poetry & Arts Festival

Roethke, as poetry lovers know, based many of his poems about growing up amid his family’s greenhouses in Saginaw...so what better setting for a poetry reading by this year’s winner of the Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize than the Dow Gardens Greenhouse in Midland. Caged birds chirped, glasses fogged up amid the humid greenery, water from a fountain gurgled as David Baker read. The entire five-day festival in November, which also included a poetry slam, a “Haunts of Roethke” tour and a concert; in various Saginaw, Midland and Bay City venues, was extraordinary -- due in no small part to the graciousness of Baker.

Chef Roland Mesnier

3. Chef Roland Mesnier, Horizons Town Talk

Gales of laughter swept Saginaw's Horizons Conference Center in March when the 65-year-old former White House pastry chef served up anecdotes galore -- of a playful President Reagan pretending to be drunk and scaring his Secret Service detail, of lonely Bill Clinton during the White House aide sex scandal blowing a fuse when he could not find the second half of a low calorie strawberry cake, of a stinky Carter “signature” dish that was “so God damn bad nobody ever ate it.” French-born Mesnier served five presidents, and his rise to that post was a tear-jerker amid his humor.

4. All-Area Arts Awards Banquet

For 25 years now, the Saginaw Arts and Enrichment Commission has annually honored Saginaw County artists and arts groups with this annual May banquet at TheDow Event Center. This year, however, the sense of nostalgia, the camaraderie, the emotion set the evening apart from the 24 years before it. Perhaps it was because native son Brian d’Arcy James, a Tony-nominated Broadway star, was so eloquent in accepting his special award that night -- naming names in the audience who had helped him along the way. But it was more than that, and impossible to express in words.

5. “American Valentine,” Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra

In one February concert at the Temple Theatre, maestro Brett Mitchell and his orchestra evoked musical images of waring gangs in 1950s New York City (Bernstein’s “West Side Story”), a 19th century young couple living on a farm in the Appalachians (Copland’s “Appalachian Spring”), the “new world” of Native Americans and Iowa and plantation songs (Dvorak’s New World Symphony), contemporary Midland and lumber era Saginaw (Catherine McMichael’s “Symphonic Dreams), and, as Mitchell said, wherever each of us wanted to go with the Barber Adagio for Strings (for many of us, it continues to evoke memories of the President Kennedy funeral in the 1960s). What a marvelous journey across the landscape and through the years.

All Area Arts winners Brian James, Rosalind Berlin

6. “Arty Soil,” Saginaw Art Museum

In June, the main gallery of the museum became a banquet room during an indoors garden party celebrating the life of botonist/photographer/author/teacher Fred Case. Vendors offered garden-related items, framed photos by Case were sold, and a delicious and creative spring crop lunch was served by Zehnders of Frankenmuth.

7. “Wiley and the Hairy Man,” Saginaw Valley State University

Directed by Richard B. Roberts in October, this show oozed with atmosphere, attention to detail and creativity galore -- making it one of the best, if not THE best, children’s theater production ever at the college. I attended one of the student presentations and the kids were sooo quiet and attentive, sooo responsive to it. A remarkable accomplishment in this day and age.

8. Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, Matrix: Midland Festival

For those of us starved for live bluegrass music, imagine this June delight at the Midland Center for the Arts -- Renaissance Man Steve Martin playing a mean banjo with a SUPERB bluegrass band AND cracking just enough jokes to also satisfy those of us who love him as a comedian. Best of both worlds.

9. “Great American Trailer Park,” Pit and Balcony Community Theatre

The cast of characters was pure redneck white trash living in a dumpy Florida trailer park -- and dealing with road kill, a malfunctioning electric chair, adultery, a stripper, a fake pregnancy, agoraphobia and Walmart. Director James Gaertner delivered the goods in this irreverent, quirky, politically incorrect musical comedy, which was staged in October. Actually it was a strong year for comedy at Saginaw P&Bt because also excellent were “Sex Please, We’re Sixty” in March and “The Christmas Express” in December.

10. “Under the Big Top” exhibit at the Castle Museum

Saginaw has a long and distinguished history when it comes to circus acts, and this September-October exhibit celebrated it with an exquisitely detailed miniature hand-carved circus featuring 1,200 pieces carved by one man over four decades and enclosed in a case 24 feet long and 4 feet wide. Circus memorabilia and lectures rounded out the fun exhibition.

Another five arts/cultural events also worthy of mention:

Minnijean Trickey

-- “Sugar Bean Sisters,” Center Stage Theatre in Midland in May.

-- “Carmina Burana,” Midland Symphony Orchestra in April.

-- Singer Glen Thomas Rideout, Concerts at First Presbyterian Saginaw in November.

-- “Return to Little Rock: A Seminal Moment in American Edication and Civil Rights” lecture by Minnijean Brown Trickey, Saginaw Valley State University in September.

-- “Lesser Saints” art exhibition by Steven Magstadt, the Andersen Enrichment Center in Saginaw July to September.

It was also a sad year with the deaths of conductor Leo M. Najar (and with his death the end also to his excellent Bijou Orchestra), jazz guitarist Ron Lopez and soundman Al Limberg.

But bravo to the U.S. Postal Service for its plans to release a Theodore Roethke stamp in the coming year, and for the fact Center Stage in Midland took its production of “Urinetown” all the way to second place in the American Association of Community Theaters competition.

Percussion Group Cincinnati performance ranged from newspapers to conch shell

2011-12-11T09:32:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Goodness, did The Saginaw News ever get ripped into Saturday night at Saginaw Valley State University.

First it was read...and then shred.

Literally, thanks to the Percussion Group Cincinnati’s hilarious performance of “I Read the News Today, Oh Boy.”

In what has to rank as one of the more unusual performances in the history of the Rhea Miller Recital Series, the percussion trio (Allen Otte, James Culley and Russell Burge, faculty members and ensemble-in-residence at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music) expanded the definition of what qualifies as percussion.

In their case, on three of the numbers it included their own voices -- in the newspaper number, reading rhythmic snippets from the sports, entertainment and hard news sections as they held the sections in front of them and then, well, ripping the paper apart to make percussive noises and in general littering the stage.

Earlier in the piece, one of the three also made like a bird with flapping wings using wadded up newspaper sections.

Yep, it was a weird two hours.

Some pieces were fabulous -- like the delicate and quiet “Mbira Music, Book I,” using the tiny African thumb piano instrument amplified by placing it over drum heads; the lovely sound created by melding piano, marimba and vibraphone on “Balinese Ceremonial Music” (in particular the deep sounds of the piano on the Gambangan movement), and the four “Chilean Songs” with the trio playing on one marimba.

Opening the program was the athletic “Lift Off,” totally on drums and with the sticks moving so fast at several points they created a blurr. It was loud and wonderful and attention-grabbing, and served as a great contrast to the more delicate mbira piece that followed.

And then there was the weird stuff -- not, maybe, totally pleasing to the ears but amusingly creative, like the two John Cage pieces.

“Some of Living Room Music” used a cigarette lighter, beer cans, playing cards and telephone books as well as wordless voices to create its rhythms and “Imaginary Landscape No. 2” was a hodge-podge of tin cans, conch shell, dowl rod, trash can, door bell buzzer, water gong, ratchet, slinky and bass drum (LOVED the conch shell sound).

On the definite negative, at least for this listener, was “From Drama,” using Chinese cymbals in an overly long, repetitious number that failed to impress or entertain.

Saginaw Choral Society's "A World of Carols" dispelled winter gloom

2011-12-11T08:29:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Granted it was a Saginaw CHORAL Society concert on Saturday afternoon at the Temple Theatre.

But it was instruments and visuals that tickled the fancy:

-- of a saxophone player dressed like a snow globe character (Jonathan Hulting-Cohen in the unusual-sounding “Caprice en Forme de Valse”)

-- of a bell choir exquisitely performing two complicated pieces (the Bells on High from First United Methodist Church on “How the Greenblade Riseth” and “Farandole”)

-- of conductor Glen Thomas Rideout performing his own embellished arrangement of “The Christmas Song”/”Christmastime is here” on piano

-- of dozens and dozens of socks donated by concertgoers in the lobby (and headed to warm the feet of the needy)

-- of Rideout dancing out on the stage as intermission ended and the second half began with “Mi Zeh Y’maleil”

-- of two pianists at one piano (Carol Angelo and Betty Mayer on “The Virgin Mary had a baby boy”)

-- and of two conductors conducting at once (Rideout the singers and Catherine McMichael her church bell choir in “Bells in the high tower”).

Add to that the bell-like sound the singers created at one point as the music segued into the bell choir ....well, “A Concert of Carols” was quite an afternoon’s delight.

Rideout’s theme was light -- as in the light of this season as seen by Christianity (the birth of Christ), the Jewish faith (Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights), Winter Solstice (the end of the darkest days) and even Kawanzaa (the light of its seven principles).

And the music he chose? Nigerian, Ukranian, Hungarian, British, West Indian, American; gospel, calypso and classical; very little overly familiar .. as well as teaching the audience four-part harmony and three-part hand-clapping on “Freedom Song.”

No insult intended to the Saginaw Choral Society, but when the more than 1,000 in the audience was set to singing at several points -- WOW, we sounded fantastic.

We may indeed be “In the bleak midwinter,” as the Holst tune said, but things definitely brightened up with this CHORAL concert plus.

Russian movie, Italian painting and Latin hymn light up Saginaw Bay Symphony concert

2011-12-07T00:05:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Maestro Brett Mitchell began this year’s Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra Christmas concert the same way as he began last year’s, as the then just-newly-hired conductor -- with Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” and its cracking whip and horse whinny from his musicians.

A tradition he has in mind, perhaps? Since he also concluded the night with a repeat as well, Anderson's singalong "A Christmas Festival."

Not to worry, because all else in between was new on his program Tuesday night at the Temple Theatre, before a capacity audience.

His “Christmas Around the World” theme featured a delightful mixed bag that included three-horse-sleigh music from a 1933 Russian movie, a tone poem inspired by an Italian painting (a projection of which hung overhead), a traditional Latin hymn and a really nutty arrangement of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” that paid homage to the French national anthem, “Swan Lake” and “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.”

Oh, and the mayor of Saginaw, Greg Branch, narrated “The Night Before Christmas” and at one point in the reading displayed a charming rhythm-like delivery to the poem while the orchestra provided interesting sound effects to those words.

Mitchell was chatty throughout, concluding the night by noting, “ya, classical music is dumb and boring, right?” Nope not at all in this program which yes, showcased four yuletide standards that aren’t exactly 100 percent classical, but also delivered five fine classical pieces not all that familiar in these parts. Great mix.

Our two favorites were Respighi’s “Adoration of the Magi” as inspired by the Sandro Botticelli painting, and Mozart’s Regina coeli, featuring the Cardinal Singers from Saginaw Valley State University.

The former had an unusual old church/Gregorian/mystical sound to it, and some excellent oboe work. And in the Mozart, the 23-member choral group from SVSU delivered a richness of sound that made one feel like he or she was indeed in a Catholic church during a mass.

Pietro Yon’s “Gesu Bambino,” with its whiffs of “Veni, Veni Emmanuel” amid it, featured a duet with concertmaster Sonia Lee and cellist Sabrina Lackey that produced sustained applause.

And who among us ever gets tired of hearing “The Skater’s Waltz” by Waldteufel? It just glides throughout the soul.

The stage, in the first half, featured an eye-pleasing blue and white palette -- white snowflakes hanging on high and sitting on the floor and a white Christmas tree at left with a blue backdrop and what looked like a blue poinsettia in front of Mitchell. In the second half pink replaced the blue.

Michigan Jazz Trail Christmas Show rocks the Temple Theatre

2011-12-04T17:23:00.001-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Well here is something you don’t see often...Santa in his red suit and Lou E. Loon in his green and red suit, both wearing red yuletide hats, working the intermission crowd, at a jazz concert, in downtown Saginaw.

Cameras were flashing all around them....and the birdly mascot of the Great Lakes Loons baseball team....well he is more popular than old St. Nick. People call him by name, have conversations with him even though he remains wordless, hug him while Santa plays second fiddle.

We don’t mean to detract from the formidable talent on the Temple Theatre stage Sunday afternoon at the Michigan Jazz Trail Christmas Show, it’s just that Lou E. and Santa so embody the magical, childly spirit of the season and we were touched by it.

So now to the musicians performing, primarily Great Lakes Bay talent brought together by producer/director Molly McFadden.

Think Lawrence Welk Show with a little Ed Sullivan Show tossed in, for those of you old enough to remember.

Backed up by an impressive 18-member big band (with Manhattan School of Music and Count Basie Orchestra on their resumes), the two-hour variety show served up jazz, blues, calypso, American musical, Christmas classics, gospel and Paul Simon via that big band as well as two instrumental trios with a vocalist, the Mike Brush/Julie Mulady duo, two vocal ensembles, a trumpet duet, three solo singers who also teamed up, and a witty conductor.

Too bad the number of performers on stage nearly outnumbered those in the audience. The rest of you missed a first-ever fantastic concert that served up Christmas in a new and fun way in these parts.

Outstanding moments? So many to list.

...Meridian High School trumpet players Sam Huss and Kyle Tomsich performing “Over the Rainbow.”

... Mike Brush’s sentimental and lovely new song “Christmas Eve for Two,” with him on piano and golden-throated Mulady singing it.

... Mulady and Mary Gilbert teaming up, and harassing the devil out of conductor James Hohmeyer, on “Santa Baby.” These two women need to do a full concert together; their voices meld gorgeously.

... The nine-member Voices of Jazz, comprised of high school students from the three counties, on both “Sing, Sing, Sing” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” When they briefly went a cappella on the second number, the blended sound was magnificent.

... The seven-member, stylishly-dressed, all-female gospel group Bamecians singing “Go Tell It on the Mountaim” in two styles, both of which rocked.

... The Michigan Jazz Trail Big Band on a cooking calypso version of “Feliz Navidad” that was impossible to enable one to sit still.

... The Friends Trio (three instrumentalists and one singer so dunno why the name trio) on “Cool Yule,” a funky, fun song we’d never heard.

The stage was gorgeous -- a mile-high pile of presents on one side, a Christmas tree on the other, and a colorful and ever-changing backdrop.

At the end one and all teamed up on stage for three singalongs -- with Lou E. proving himself an enthusiastic mime.

There were, yes, a few glitches in sound, in smoothness of introductions, in staging, but they were minor distractions -- and probably unavoidable given the number of acts to coordinate and rehearse.

This was the first of three Christmas concerts this week at the Temple, all of which are showcasing what one might call local talent and all promising to be very different from one another.

We are our own best Christmas present.

Downtown Saginaw Farmers' Market eyeing new space, new look

2011-12-03T18:40:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

An artist's idea what the pavilion might look like

One of Saginaw’s success stories is eyeing the idea of a new and improved home.

Julia A. Darnton, the board chair of the seasonal Saginaw Downtown Farmers’ Market at 507 S. Washington, says the open-air market is in need of more room for vendors, improved parking and accessibility, office space for its non-profit management, increased visibility and other amenities.

Speaking at the Rotary Club of Saginaw this week, she unveiled renderings showing plans to erect a permanent open-air pavilion (no tents as is it now, which are vulnerable to winds) directly across the street from the current location.

The new location between Water Street and the Saginaw River would offer 48 vendor stalls (at 10 feet wide, two feet larger than the current 8-foot spaces), office space, a small stage/sound system for performers and cooking demos, restrooms (currently it’s just porta potties), landscaping and a riverside courtyard where people can picnic, level walkways, and 115 parking spaces where the market now exists.

In orange, the new market location; in yellow, the current site

And while there are no plans for a year-round operation of the market, she said the new structure could perhaps expand the current season somewhat and also offer a gathering space for others to use when the market is not open.

"We have not gotten any estimated costs for this building project," she admitted, although they do know the land is available.

"We have not even set a fund-raising campaign yet. But we are estimating $700,000 or less.

"It would be a part of the Riverfront Master Plan, and the Convention and Visitor's Bureau sees this as an asset to the future of the city."

Darnton, by day the community and economic development educator for Michigan State University Extension, also served up some quick stats on the market:

-- It was open 22 weeks (82 days) this May/October.

-- The most recent survey indicates an average of 1,644 customers per day, spending an average of $13.26, for a daily sales figure of $12,019. The market pumps an estimated $1.2 million into the area per year.

-- The number of vendors is going up. 24 in 2009, 28 in 2010, and 31 in 2011.

-- The market's operational costs are met by the seasonal or daily fees charged vendors. This year an occasional fish vendor was added. Vendors selling products they grow or produce are charged $325 a season or $25 a day. Vendors selling products they do not grow or produce are charged $625 a season or $45 a day.

-- And the market provides a fresh food/expanded use of money option for a variety of food programs operating in the area for the poor and underserved.

Pit and Balcony's "Christmas Express" a charming ride

2011-12-03T15:15:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

As a play, it is lightweight, predictable and overly sentimental.

But I liked it, I really liked it ...Pit and Balcony Community Theatre’s production of “The Christmas Express,” which opened Friday night.

Because, first and foremost, it is something newer and different in the Christmas collection, not overly done like “A Christmas Carol” and “White Christmas.”

Second, its script by Pat Cook is smart -- full of puns, one-liners, funny situations and nutty characters, making it a comedy amid its sentimentality about the power of hope in our lives.

And third, director Jessica Asiala has assembled a worthy cast -- none of them overplays or underplays his or her character; none is a standout but collectively deliver a solid ensemble feel; their characters are convincingly played as small-town hicks -- lovable despite being eccentric.

Asiala also knows how to block what is essentially a one-set play, taking place inside a train station with only its ticket booth, one bench and four doors behind which we never see. This could have led to a deadly stagnant play, but she keeps the 10 characters moving in a natural yet active flow.

While we are tempted to share some of the witty lines and puns, we will not so you can enjoy the discovery. Except to tease you to think about how one might play. The small town is Holly (and how appropriate, eh, that Michigan really has a small town named Holly not too far from Saginaw).

Anyway, the town is Holly. One of the characters purchases something at the town’s pawn shop. Now, guess the name of that pawn shop. It’s an old groaner.

The storyline finds these residents of Holly in a pre-Christmas funk -- especially the train station manager, a female Scrooge played by Judy Harper. Business is down, the station’s radio does not work, all she gets is junk mail, she hates Christmas.

“She’s in a mood,” other characters keep noting when she goes off on a tangent.

Enter a white-haired old gentleman who says his name is Leo Tannenbaum (played as ever-so-kindly by Michael Olk) ...and suddenly strange things start happening, strange POSITIVE things to the radio, the attitudes of the people, and even set pieces which seem to magically appear.

Harper is hilarious throughout, and particularly when she is assigned one of the parts in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”

It is the singing of this song that provides one of the two best-played ensemble moments, with every cast member involved in it clicking on all cylinders.

The song is conducted by city hall worker Linda Rebney, a rather uptight woman who suffers fools badly and dresses badly. Add in Kevin Profitt, the station’s handyman who ain’t too bright; mail carrier Amanda Houthoffd, a kinda naive sort, and newspaper reporter Mary Margaret Fletcher, not too bright herself because she forgets to ask the name of Tannenbaum when she interviews him.

By the time they are done butchering “Twelve Days,” and Rebney trying to cope with it, we will never hear it again without laughing.

The second best-played ensemble moment involves Fletcher and Profitt again, with the rest of the cast reacting to them on target.

In it, Pamela and Tim Barnes, a real-life married couple, portray a Holly couple splitting up. She is at the station to buy a ticket and go home to mother.

Tannenbaum is trying to get to the bottom of their marital distress by talking with them, is making little headway on what caused the Big Spat, and then, out of nowhere, Fletcher (25 years absent from the stage) and Profitt (in one of his best acted roles at Pit) act out what probably happened -- their voices rising in heat as the pretend battle ensues and the rest of the cast watches in amazement. It’s a sidesplitter.

Opening night had some issues with the train sound effect, a couple of microphone cues and the sound coming out of Houthoffd’s microphone. Other than that, nothing to complain about.

Come early to the show to enjoy some hot chocolate and Christmas cookies, then sit back and enjoy some great laughs.

SVSU's 'It's a Wonderful Life' radio show still relevant to today's world

2011-11-30T23:35:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Ah, there is nothing like watching a live radio play.

Yes, WATCHING. And yes, LIVE and PLAY. On radio.

For the second year, the Saginaw Valley State University Theatre Department has recreated an old-time radio show as a holiday production.

Last year it was “A Christmas Carol.”

This week (Wednesday and tonight, Thursday) it’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” that old Jimmy Stewart movie classic about a discouraged man contemplating suicide until an angel -- a second class one -- intervenes.

What is fun about these recreations is the story within a story -- the actors milling about on stage as themselves before the play airs live or during commercials and then snapping magically into their characters.

This outing, set in 1945 as was the movie, tested them. The ensemble of 14 plays a variety of characters in the large cast its detailed story requires, from old folks in Bedford Falls to kids. We were going to keep count, but got too wrapped up in the storytelling and lost count. Whomever they were at any given time worked just fine for us.

And fun, too, is watching the sound effects team...like when one of the actors gets supposedly slapped, only it is the sound effects guy several feet away who makes the skin hitting skin sound with his two hands. Or, when the actors are walking down a street, it’s the sound effects people doing the audible walking. One of the sound effects trio also has, shall we say, a little drinking problem in progress (one of those story within a story moments).

Last year’s production featured SVSU theater professors in the cast amid their students. So too this year, and in the major roles this time. David Rzeszutek is George Bailey, the man who is doubting the path his life has taken. Ric Roberts is the kinda naive rescue Angel, Clarence. And Steven Erickson is Mr. Potter, a grumpy old villain. All three are superb, and we applaud this idea of SVSU theater students getting to see if their teachers have any acting chops.

Providing chuckles are the announcements and commercials. Listen for references to Lionel trains at Brasseur’s, Potter Street Station, Seitner’s, the Savoy Grill and Ippel’s Department Store -- some of which still exist but some of which are somewhere back in time in Saginaw history. And the costumes are vintage-looking.

Wednesday night’s opener had a few sound problems. The actors sometimes had an echo quality and the organ was faint. Roberts when he was an announcer was barely audible; fine when he was the angel. Methinks one of the sound effects folks also made a goof...or maybe he was supposed to as part of the fun.

But it was a great way to spend an hour, and to realize that wow, does the story and the message of “It’s a Wonderful Life” ever ring true for these hard times. Kinda spooky at how relevant it remains.

Roberts has promised to make this radio show recreation thing an annual outing, and has picked some Christmas short stories for 2012. Myself, an actor/sound effects person doing old time radio shows with an acting troupe in Midland, well, I can’t wait. They are ever so much fun (and I always pick up tips from what SVSU does!)

Welcome to 'Jill's World' on the 2011 Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra's Holiday Housewalk

2011-11-25T23:49:00.000-08:00

Roses abound in Jill Garber's home

by Janet I. Martineau

Roses. Mirrors. And countless collectibles.

Those are the images that endure after visiting the tucked-from-view Hope Willow Farm home belonging to Jill Garber and her husband Mike Kavanaugh.

That and the graciousness of Garber herself, who has transformed her Thomas Township dwelling into an atmosphere evoking the Edwardian era of “Somewhere in Time” juxtaposed with a contemporary California seaside cottage.

“I am romantic and sentimental,” admits Garber, the sister of Saginaw Spirit/Garber Management’s Richard J. Garber.

“I like to create sentimental vignettes and nostalgic displays,” she says of the French furniture, vintage linens, Hollywood costumes, rose-motif wall paper, English porcelain, sterling silver perfume bottles, limoges china, and cut crystal powder jars.

“And I like to collect -- to buy and sell. I started collecting when I was age 10 or 12, with my allowance; the first thing I bought was a stained glass lamp at a barn sale.”

The mantle festooned with trees

Every room has at least one mirror in it to increase the sense of space. The oak flooring is created to look like driftwood -- hence the seaside beach house palette.

And this time of year, added to all that is Christmas galore -- including bottle brush trees, vintage glitter houses, and 100 velvet-trimmed egg shell ornaments she and her grandmother made when Jill was around 7.

Garber’s home is on the 2011 Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra Holiday Housewalk tour this year, one of seven Saginaw County and Bay County homes and condos open to visitors on Thursday, Dec. 1.

“For the tour, expect the unexpected,” says Garber, the owner of Le Noveaurose and Jill Garber Design. “The house will look like a Christmas package.”

But first a word about the nine-room structure itself -- situated beside a pond, 10 miles from downtown Saginaw, at the end of a quarter-mile winding driveway, with 50 acres of farm fields surrounding it.

The egg shell ornaments made by Jill and grandma

The original two-bedroom wooden bungalow and its garage were built in 1914 on a lot where the Covenant medical complex now stands in downtown Saginaw, says Garber.

One day, in the 1980s, her widowed mother Geraldine spied the house and garage, knew they were slated for demolition during the hospital expansion, bought both, and had them moved down State Street and over the bridge to what was then a remote location on Summerfeldt Road.

The family had, in the 1960s, bought an old farm house on the property as a weekend retreat and working on it became a family project “to keep the family close and us kids busy.”

Her mother, says Garber, “was a Katharine Hepburn type of person” who remodeled homes, painted oils, worked as a costume designer in Los Angeles, was active with the Saginaw Art Museum “and taught her (three) kids and grandkids how to use tools.”

Over the years mom greatly changed the look of the transplanted bungalow as did Jill, when she returned to Saginaw in 2004 after 30 years of working in California. Rooms were altered, added and remodeled, with Jill making sure “every single room is open to the outside” as well as colorful with a “garden feeling. People often remark to me, ‘it’s so colorful in here.’

One of the many trees in the house

“I like to say mom created the space and I created the environment people will see on the tour,” says Garber. “I created a Jill’s World that hopefully makes people feel good, brings the sun into their lives.”

Everything is “real (and mostly antique) stuff,” says Garber, from found treasures like a portion of a carousel to things passed down through the family to a a 58-pound mounted tarpon Jill caught in Florida when she was 16 to a Sophie of Saks dress from the 1940s.

“My mom was a collector too -- antique pottery, art, oriental rugs. My grandmother as well. And I brought a lot from my home in California, but you have to realize I lost all the breakables I had collected through the years in the California earthquake of 1993. So people will see I lost no time collecting again.”

Just inside the front door is a black walnut inlay on the oak floor, reading Hope. That was, says Jill, her mother’s middle name and her daughter’s way of creating a double meaning to “keep Hope alive.”

Tickets for the SBSO Holiday Housewalk are $17 in advance and $20 the day of the event. They are on sale through the symphony offices, Meijer stores and a variety of other venues around the two counties.

The houses and condos are open from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. that day. Bus service is available ($20 additional, limited, lunch stop included, call 755-6471). Ticket holders also are invited to enjoy a buffet lunch ($13) or a from-the-menu dinner at the Saginaw Country Club, 4465 Gratiot, and the Bay City Country Club, 7255 South Three Mile Road, the day of the housewalk (reservations advised).

Saginaw Eddy Band's Christmas concert features a trio of mimes

2011-11-24T21:43:00.001-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

What do the Saginaw Eddy Band and three mimes have in common?

They’ll share the stage Saturday, Nov. 26, in a Mannheim Steamroller band arrangement of “Silent Night,” with the mimes reenacting the story of the birth of Jesus Christ.

It all begins at 7:30 p.m at TheDow Event Center, 303 Johnson, when the Saginaw Eddy Band presents its 17th annual Christmas concert.

The mimes are Todd and Marilyn Farley and their daughter Malia Farley.

Todd Farley this year became the minister at First Congregational Church in Saginaw and he comes to Saginaw with an unusual and impressive background.

As a teen-ager, in 1978 he joined a mime troupe at his church in Washington and for three years toured the west coast with its Rainbow Players -- and the church’s pastor as the lead mime.

By 1980 Farley had created his own solo show combining mime and religion, and from 1984 to 1987 studied in Paris under the legendary Marcel Marceau -- sessions which included ballet, jazz, fencing, aerobics, commedia dell’arte, drama. and physical theater.

In 1985, Farley co-founded Mimeistry, a mime/arts/creative preaching program which for nearly 25 years reached people in more than 40 nations, and in 1989 he was officially ordained as a minister.

As performer, Farley has toured the world, with the Sydney Opera House in Australia and David’s Citadel in Jerusalem among his credits, and he has worked with Ballet Magnificat, the BBC and ABC.

Farley is also on the board of directors for the Michigan Conference of the United Church of Christ and has taught or lectured in colleges and seminaries.

James Hargett and Paul Lichau co-conduct the Eddy Band, which in the summer presents a series of free concerts on Ojibway Island.

Art Lewis of WSGW-AM will serve as the master of ceremonies for the concert Saturday night at The Dow.

Also on the program: Terry Lenz will narrate “The Night Before Christmas,” and among the band selections are Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride,” “A Canadian Brass Christmas,” James Curnow’s “Finale for a Winter Festival,” a Robert Shelton arrangement of “A Most Wonderful Christmas,” a medley of popular seasonal tunes, Masamicz Amano’s new arrangement of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and a Christmas singalong.

Admission is free, with a request that audience members in exchange bring a non-perishable food item for the Salvation Army’s Food for Families project.

For a look at Farley as a mime, log on to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etYr12qvaJk

SVSU's "Incorruptible" delightfully irreverent and well acted

2011-11-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Make no bones about it, Saginaw Valley State University’s production of “Incorruptible” is delightfully irreverent.

It is about bones, see. The ones of Catholic saints who supposedly work miracles when the faithful pray before them. Well, make that the bones supposedly of saints.

Seems some desperate monks in a 1250 French monastery come up with a money-raising scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.

Nuf’ said, in case you go to see this show running through Sunday in the Performing Arts Theatre. It’s a comedy, a kinda dark one, filled with slapstick, double entendres, a nun gone wild and, as noted, irreverence.

Dakotah Myers, Cassidy Morey and David Ryan

Director David Rzeszutek’s program notes simply state “this sort of thing really happened.”

Whatever the case, he has directed a strong production.

The cast of eight is strong, speaking clearly and loudly for the most part and with all the high energy the show requires.

Set designer Jerry Dennis (a real-life miracle maker) has created a set oozing with monastery atmosphere -- dark and kinda dank, crosses everywhere, flickering candles.

Pre-show and at intermission monk music plays. And Elise Shannon’s costumes look very monk-ly as well.

What we are not sure about is the haircuts on the monks....are they real and these poor students have to walk around campus like this until they grow out, or are they theater magic. Sure look real.

As for the performances, as we said all eight are superb. But three are a cut above.

Cassidy Morey has a small role as a caustic and elderly Peasant Woman seeking to pray before the bones of a departed saint. Except she does not have the 1 cent that requires. Turns out Peasant Woman will appear off and on and is more related to the developing story than first thought. And from start to finish, Morey nails this teetering but testy old character rock solid in her voice inflections and body English, with every word spoke crystal clear. Delightful performance.

Rustin Myers is one of the four monks, named Charles. As an actor, Myers consistently has a wonderful stage presence. He never hurries his lines, even when he is in the midst of a panic. He is stately, assured, has a deadly sense of timing, never drifts too far abroad in his characterization as some of the other cast members do on occasion. He is so very real and so very funny as a result.

And then there is Mykaela Hopps in a very short role -- as Agatha, an abbess from another church and who happens to be the dreaded sister of Charles. Agatha is the nun from hell -- a screaming, in-your-face, domineering woman in a habit who, at one point, all but rips apart the stage in her rage.

Can’t ever recall seeing a character in any play I have seen erupt with such rage and fury all in the name of comedy, At the zenith of her rage, Hopps blurs her lines. And in some aspects she is more caricature than character. But who cares. The physicality of her performance is what we remember.

Kudos too to David Ryan as Olf, the monk who is not too bright but whose body strength comes in handy. Ryan plays him tenderly. And kudos as well to David Milka II, a one-eyed minstrel-become-fake-monk. He starts out a little slow as the minstrel (at least he did Thursday night), but at the slapstick end he is a whirlwind of energy and timing.

Fun show.

In Saginaw for a talk, Lorretta Swit says she has no problem with her "Hot Lips" fame

2011-11-16T15:17:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

Ask Loretta Swit if she is weary of forever being identified as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan of “M*A*S*H” fame and she, well, gets a little testy -- just like Hot Lips herself.

Loretta Swit in a 2006 photo

Despite the fact she has acted in more than 40 television and theatrical movies and still leads an active life in live theater?

“To always be best remembered for a show that was a phenomenon,” she huffs followed by a withering glance. “What do you mean? A long-running classic that was so exceptional, written so well, its ensemble so gifted? One of the most honored shows ever on TV?

“It’s terrific. Nothing wrong with that.”

So it went when Swit took a few minutes to talk backstage before her appearance Tuesday at the Horizons Town Talk series in Saginaw Township -- and having to fly out soon after her speech because she had to perform in a play in Chicago that same night.

She went on to further note that when its final episode aired on Feb. 28, 1983, after an 11-year run on CBS, the U.S. House and Senate shut down so members could watch. Fans gathered for “M*A*S*H” parties in bars and restaurants that night. And all across the United States, sewer systems struggled when, at commercial breaks, an estimated 125 million viewers ran to their bathrooms.

“Ever since we began in 1972, ‘M*A*S*H’ has never been off the air. By the third season we began syndicating the series and it has never stopped. We are in our third generation of viewers, of fans, now. Of people who were not yet born when we were shooting the show.”

So no, she is not tired of always being linked to the dark sitcom set in a 1950s Korean War Mobile Army Surgical Hospital medical unit. And she is not alone. Lucille Ball was always linked to “I Love Lucy” and James Arness to “Gunsmoke” and Msrlon Brando to “The Godfather,” she said, despite having varied other credits.

Swit, 74 now, was one of only three cast members with the series from its pilot to its finale. And she ranks second only to Alan Alda as Hawkeye as appearing in the most episodes -- 260 for him and 243 for her.

She recalls creator Larry Gelbart saying to her in the first season or two “we don’t know where we are going with you, your character, yet but please stick with us as we develop.”

What that ultimately meant, she said, was that the stable of scriptwriters “observed us and got to know us well, as ourselves” and then worked some of that into the characters. She, for example, said Swit, is a long-time animal rights activist so, came an episode, when the camp dog is killed by a jeep “and Hot Lips, always so together, loses it.”

The "M*A*S*H" cast

The writers also, she said, allowed the actors to look over a script and then offer their opinions if something did not ring true. “I would say, ‘This is how I see her going’ and they would change it.”

Few fans may have known, but the writers also kept interviewing real-life Korean War “M*A*S*H” unit doctors and nurses through the years “so many of the episodes were based on real stories.

There was one where Hawkeye and Trapper John (Wayne Rogers) were doing surgery on a critically wounded soldier and while they were at it they gave him a smaller nose. Based on a true story.

“My landscape artist told me about a soldier, a concert pianist, who had lost an arm in that war and we turned it into a story where (cast member and classical music fan) David Ogden Stiers brought the soldier in sheet music for one-handed players.”

And while some critics might have thought the antics of the doctors and the nurses were a little over the top, “some of the Korean War doctors told us we were not insane enough.”

As for Hot Lips, the head nurse of the unit, fans often said they wished she had a better sense of humor. So the writers created a visit by a classmate who recalled Houlihan as a cut-up, zany and fun-loving “until she was put in charge of 25 nurses, in a combat zone, all of whom had to to work at their zenith and she felt she had to protect.”

That, says Swit, was the hallmark of the show -- zaniness yes but also deeply human. Humor and enlightenment. Showcasing for the first time, she said, doctors who did not cure everything, did not always have the answere and often lost patients.

“It showed how ugly war is and characters so crazed by everything they did crazy things.”

From day one, she says, the cast bonded and always accepted added newcomers readily. “Alan once got us T-shirts that read ‘The Happiest Crew in Town.’ And we were. It was like no other set. It was like an ongoing party. I don’t have any bad memories in those 11 years.

Her animal activist “career” is a vast one -- encompassing at least a dozen organizations from training search/rescue dogs to dealing with caged farm animals, puppy mills, abandoned exotic pets.

“I don’t eat them and I don’t wear them,” she says with conviction. “We murder a million cats and dogs a year (in homeless shelters) so we don’t need puppy and kitten mills; we need to educate about spaying and neutering. Pet stores should not sell animals. We need to adopt them.

“There is a lot out there that people do not realize, so I work in educating them. I’m also an artist, and one of my pantings, called ‘The Rookie,” is about labrador puppies who are trained as search and rescue animals. It sells for $200 (at www.SwitHeart.com) and helps fund a training center in California.”

Saginaw's Temple Theatre inaugurates restored organ with a special guest

2011-11-15T13:07:00.000-08:00

by Janet I. Martineau

Way back in 1977, theatre organist Donna Parker performed her first concert in the Midwest in what has since evolved into an international career.

That was at Saginaw’s Temple Theatre, on its 1927-vintage Barton organ.

This Sunday, Nov. 20, she returns to officially inaugurate the organ following a $30,000 restoration effort focused on its console. The concert begins at 3 p.m., and tickets are $10 at the door, 201 N. Washington.

Donna Parker

“I remember the beautiful theatre, the first Barton I had ever played, and the audience being very warm and welcoming,” says Parker, who lives in Oregon.

“Absolutely Saginaw is fortunate to have its very own theatre organ in its original theatre setting! So many of these beautiful instruments have been destroyed over the years, and it is only in the last 50 years that saving and treasuring them has come into vogue. But not fast enough. We have lost far too many.

“The theatre organ holds a unique place in American music history. It is only one of two musical instruments to have its origins here in the United States. The other instrument is the banjo.”

Parker says she will play a mixed bag of music, from classical to pops, “because the theatre organ is such a versatile instrument, and it is not limited as to the music styles it can effectively perform. I think it is the best kept musical secret, unfortunately, and more people should know about it.”

She tends toward playing “anything that has heart and feeling, whether it is upbeat or a ballad. I love to play pieces that people don't expect the theatre organ to perform.”

A native of Los Angeles, Parker began organ studies at at 7 and four years later was introduced to the theatre organ. She made her first recording at 15, and was appointed the first official organist for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.

While in high school, she appeared at Universal Studios in Southern California, providing holiday season entertainment, and combined her love of sports and music by serving as organist for the Los Angels Sports Arena, playing for professional ice hockey and tennis teams.

Now more than 40 years into her career, Parker also has played classical organ concerts with symphony orchestras in major recital halls and more popular fare in casinos, national parks and organ-equipped restaurants -- among them The Roaring 20s in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Paramount Music Palace in Indianapolis, Indiana; The Organ Grinder in Portland, Oregon; Uncle Milt’sin Vancouver, Washington; and Organ Stop Pizza in Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona (seating capacity 700).

“Gosh, where has the time gone,” she says when reminded of her long resume and asked to name a favorite performance or two. “There are many wonderful moments to recall, but I think making people happy and forgetting about their troubles for awhile is no small thing.

“I have had two instances where people (one a child and one an adult) who have not spoken in years have suddenly started telling me about how wonderful the music is. When I discovered the music had reached them in such a profound way, it made every bit of work and toil through the years worthwhile.”

What makes her choice of instrument a challenge, she says, is “with the magnitude of this instrument (we cannot carry it around in a music instrument case from place to place), we organists must go in and quickly learn what each unique instrument will do.

The Temple Theatre Barton Organ

“No two are alike, so a quick assessment must be made of sound resources, the condition of the console, and the room acoustics. It is a different challenge and experience each time.”

Parker is currently on the board of the American Theatre Organ Society -- she joined at age 10. And she also is a member of an unusual chamber concert group -- Trio con Brio.

“We’re three organists playing three organs, or a combination of organs/pianos/keyboards. There are not a lot of venues that can host this experience, so it is unique.”

As for the restoration work on the Barton console at the Temple, in January it was dismantled and sent to the Helderop Pipe Organ Company in Detroit.

During the next five months, says Temple Theatre Organ Club curator Ken Wuepper, the console was cleaned and refinished and old cotton insulated wiring was replaced with new fire retardant insulated wire. The leather parts were recovered with new leather and the keyboards were recovered in bone to replace the original imitation "ivories.”

In May it was returned to the Temple and additional work continued until its completion in October. Additional restoration of the mechanisms and electrical systems will continue under the supervision of Wuepper.

Glen Thomas Rideout delivers three new surprises during Concerts at First Presbyterian

2011-11-12T05:19:00.000-08:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

OK, so we knew he could sing, the new Saginaw Choral Society artistic director/conductor Glen Thomas Rideout. With a gorgeous baritone voice.

And that he has a definite flair for programming clever and thoughtful programs.

On Friday night, at a Concerts at First Presbyterian Saginaw concert, we learned three other tidbits -- he arranges familiar songs like “Misty” into something fresh, is graceful at the piano keyboard in playing them ....and is quite the humorous actor. Or, as m.c. Greg Largent put it, “he sings in Technicolor.”

All this combined in around 90 minutes.

In the first half, classical and sung in foreign languages, Rideout took us from a sweet lovestruck teen-ager in love with a mill maid (playing both parts) to a drunken, aging Don Quixote too long in the bar.

And yes, while the baritone was rich and the words enunciated sharply and crisply, it was the body English that sold the songs by Schubert and Brahms. Not overstated, mind you, but just enough to bring alive words we could not translate.

Just before he got drunk too, Don Quixote sang a prayer to St. Michael that was quite solemn -- and lovely.

In between was a trio of nature-driven songs, by Brahms and Schubert, about a nightingale singing, about looking over the treetops and an earth at rest, and about resting on the grass and looking at the brilliant blue sky -- delivered with all the tranquility that implies, with minimal body English.

After intermission (and a change of outfits from formal to more casual) Rideout delved into, in honor of Veteran’s Day he said, contemporary music composed by Americans.

That is where “Misty,” by Erroll Garner, came into play as Rideout took to the piano for his own jazzy arrangement of the classic, and well into it sang it as well. OK, next time Concerts at First Presbyterian books him, demand a piano concert please.

This set also included John Musto’s “Litany” (text by Langston Hughes) with Rideout looking upward in awe as, he said, the singer saw the Statue of Liberty for the first time.

And the totally animated closer was Paul Bowles’ ragtime driven “Sugar in the Cane,” with goofy text by Tennessee Williams, of all people.

Accompanying Rideout was Allison Halerz (except for his “Misty” solo of course). She also showcased her solid talent with solos on two Debussy pieces in the fist half and Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm” in the second.

Ah yes, this evening was nourishment for the soul.

"League of Their Own" baseball player to speak at Riverside Saginaw Film Festival

2011-10-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

by Janet I. Martineau

A classic baseball film and a classic baseball player are headed to this year’s Riverside Saginaw Film Festival -- running Wednesday, Nov. 2, through Sunday, Nov. 6, at the Temple Theatre.

Penny Marshall’s 1992 drama “A League of Their Own” plays at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5. And all softball/baseball players showing up in their 2011 team uniforms/jerseys -- from Little League players to the Saginaw Old Golds -- will receive a free ticket at the box office.

Actually, members of the league-winning Old Golds, who play by 1800s baseball rules, will serve as greeters and ushers that day.

Penny Marshall, left, and Mary Moore in 1992

The movie tells the story of the women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, formed during World War II as a way to keep baseball alive while the majority of able-bodied men were serving in the military. The league existed from 1943 until 1954.

Starring in “League” are Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna and Rosie O’Donnell. And appearing in several scenes at the beginning and the end of the film is Michigander Mary Moore, who played for two teams during the league’s existence.

Following the showing, 79-year-old Moore will appear on stage to tell stories about life in the women’s league and to answer questions.

She played second base between 1950 and 1952 -- leading the Springfield Sallies in hits, home runs and RBI’s in 1950. The Lincoln Park native played two additional seasons with the Battle Creek Belles before an ankle injury cut short her career. And in 1988 she was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

“It was great doing something you loved and getting paid for it,” she recalls of those three years. “The pay was good, $25 a week with the Sallies, then $55 a week with the Belles, and $21 a week for meals. Plus traveling all over the country (22 states and Canada). Also the life-long friendships that were made.”

But the players also were kept on a short leash, she says, subject to chaperones, curfews and bed checks. And whenever they appeared in public, they were required to wear skirts.

Mary Moore greets a runner at second bcase

Moore, who now lives in White Lake, says as a kid she played the game in vacant lots, with the boys, and in high school for a fast-pitch team in Wyandotte. She was only 17 when she joined the Springfield Sallies.

One of the highlights in her three years with the league, she says, was playing in Yankee Stadium before one of the Yankee games and meeting Casey Stengel, Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford and Billy Martin.

After her baseball career ended, Moore worked for Michigan Bell for 35 years, as a central office supervisor -- and continued to play for amateur fast-pitch and slow-pitch teams.

The showing of “League” and Moore’s visit is sponsored by the Public Libraries of Saginaw.

The movie repeats at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 -- but not with the free admission for players or Moore. However, Lou E. Loon of the Great Lakes Loons will greet people at the door that day.

This year’s Riverside Saginaw Film Festival is showing 25 independent, foreign and documentary films on four screens at the Temple, 203. N. Washington. Single tickets are $6 and festival passes $40.

For a list of the films, show times and other information, log on to www.riversidesaginawfilmfestival.org

Three award-winning Michigan films playing at Riverside Saginaw Film Festival

2011-10-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

by Rob Drew

"Annabelle and Bear"

In 2008, Amy S. Weber was talking with a friend about the creative limitations of her commercial video production work. Weber spoke about her dream of making a real film someday. “Make your film,” the friend said.

Later that same day, Weber was driving with her two-year-old daughter when a burly biker pulled up alongside them. “I wonder what his story is,” Weber said. She started thinking aloud about the idea of such a character being forced into the role of father to a little girl.

Soon she had the whole story worked out in her head. She called her writing partner, Tracy Sims, and told her the story. Before long they had a screenplay, and eventually a film.

Weber’s resulting “Annabelle and Bear” is one of three Michigan-made films playing at this year’s Riverside Saginaw Film Festival, which runs Wednesday through Sunday, Nov. 2-6, at the Temple Theatre in downtown Saginaw.

“Annabelle” is scheduled for two screenings, at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and at 11 a.m. on Sunday, with Weber attending the Saturday screening and talking about her film and moviemaking in the state.

“Annabelle” tells the story of an introverted biker known as Bear whose former girlfriend shows up at his doorstep with their daughter, Annabelle, whom he’s never seen. The girlfriend is strung out on drugs and insists that Bear take the little girl. He does, hoping to foist her off on his mother. But before long, Annabelle and Bear begin to bond.

Olivia Walby, who plays Annabelle, was only 2 when the film was shot. “She steals the entire movie, she breaks your heart,” says Weber, who was amazed by Walby’s maturity. “She was improvising. There’s an entire scene where she and Bear have this little tender moment talking about Bear’s dad. It was not scripted.”

Weber used all Michigan talent, including many non-professionals. Weber’s company, Radish Films, opened its doors for Michiganders to be part of the filmmaking experience.

“Most of them were volunteers, electricians, people who had worked on the line and were laid off,” says Weber. “Even though we had a lot of people who had never worked on a film before, these were incredibly talented people who made a film that was equal in production quality to any motion picture.”

Weber also made an effort to highlight Michigan-made products. Velvet Peanut Butter, Faygo Pop, Better Made potato chips, and Made in Detroit sportswear all receive name checks or free product placement.

Weber is hoping “Annabelle” will receive wider distribution. “We just need one person who has a lot of power to fall in love with it and see its potential.”

In the meantime, it has won awards at the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival, East Lansing Film Festival and Midwest Film Festival.

"Myth of American Sleepover"

Two other Michigan-made films on the Riverside Saginaw schedule are “Myth of the American Sleepover” and “Where Soldiers Come From.”

“Myth,” directed by David Robert Mitchell, tells the story of four Michigan suburb teens celebrating the last night of summer before the new school year starts.

The film was an official selection at Cannes and a special jury award winner at the South by Southwest Festival. It is scheduled to screen at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday and again at 11 a.m. on Sunday.

"Where Soldiers Come From"

“Where Soldiers Come From” is a documentary about three friends who joined the National Guard after graduating from their Upper Peninsula high school in Hancock -- enticed by a $20,000 signing bonus and college tuition support.

Sent to Afghanistan, and assigned to sweep for roadside bombs, they become increasingly disillusioned. Director Heather Courtney follows the young men’s story there and back.

“Where Soldiers Come From,” too, was a winner at South by Southwest as well as the Traverse City Film Festival. It will play at 8 p.m. Wednesday and at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.

In addition to the three Michigan films, this year’s Riverside Saginaw Film Festival is showing 25 independent, foreign and documentary films on four screens at the Temple Theater, 203. N. Washington. Single tickets are $6 and festival passes $40.

For a list of the films, show times and other information, log on to www.riversidesaginawfilmfestival.org.

Midland's "Annie" a delightful romp ....despite some painful emotions

2011-10-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

by Janet I. Martineau

“Annie,” the musical -- it’s supposedly a children’s show, right?

What with all those cute little orphan girls, a couple of dogs, adults being outwitted.

Heck, when I fell in love with it back in the late 1970s it was because it awoke the kid in me again, the naive and rebellious kid in me, and I was cheering those orphans on every time they ganged up on mean Miss Hannigan.

This time, with the Midland Center for the Arts production which played this past weekend and this coming weekend, well, wow, it sucker punched the adult in me and I got all emotional and teary eyed before I decided to belt out, and believe in, “Tomorrow” at its end.

It’s because, as director Bill Anderson wrote in his well-put program notes, this darn musical about life during the Great Depression rings far more true in today’s world than in the affluent 1970s when it debuted.

Gobs of us have lost our jobs (myself included). The angry song “Hooverville” might be reworded “Obamaville.” “Hard Knock Life” isn’t quite as funny anymore. And some of the lines Daddy Warbucks and President Roosevelt utter are sooooooo contemporary to today’s situation that is called a recession but plays more like a depression (and we heard the adult laughter at Sunday’s show when those lines hit home).

Which is my long and overly political way of saying, “Annie” played totally differently to me than it did 30 years ago -- but no less enjoyable, thanks to director Anderson and choreographer Kelli Jolly. And that is the test of a good musical, its relevancy through time and audience ages.

Yep, “Annie’s” not just a children’s show. In fact we might even argue that the older you are, the better it seems to play,

Aside from an anemic, unattractive, sometimes awkward and too center-focused set (thanks probably to some serious set design and set building issues at the center) and a distracting red wig on Annie that looks ever so cheap and fake, this production continues the short but impressive Anderson legacy.

It moves fast, what with the the cast members moving set pieces in and out as the action continues, and themselves entering and exiting quickly and gracefully. Not an ounce of stagnation anywhere.

The singing voices of Dale Bills as Daddy Warbucks and Jennifer Kennedy in her short Star-to-Be segment are outstanding (and kinda amusing since they are father and daughter).

Jolly’s choreography is ever-so-pleasing to the eye, in particular when the orphans do a Rockettes maneuver and also with the patterns in the “N.Y.C.” number. She just plain moves people well.

Performances are solid throughout, especially with the versatile 22-member ensemble playing various parts and yet always in character as if the story was real. They are, in many ways, the true strength of this production. We wish we could name them all.

And as for the excellent nine orphans, we were always pulled into watching Kostandi Stephenson, who put her whole body and soul into the part with marvelous expressions.

Non-ensemble standouts.....

.... Carol Rumba as the boozy floozy Miss Harrigan, made to look the ugly hag she is not. Tons of line inflections, body English galore, fine singing voice as well. We’ve seen Hannigan played a variety of ways, and this one was delightfully mean.

.... Betsy Miller as Annie, a mere 10 with stage savvy beyond those years (especially when dealing with the reluctant Sandy the dog) and great expressions. Sometimes her singing voice was a little tenuous, but good grief she is only 10.

... Adam Gardner as Rooster for his rubber body and great voice in “Easy Street” and ability to nicely play a character within a character.

.... The aforementioned Bills, so in tune with Daddy Warbucks that to us he IS Daddy Warbucks.

... Kyle Bagnall in the short Bert Healy radio show host role, Healy being a bit overdramatic and goofy.

Adding to the enjoyment are numerous sight gags (the Warbucks staff member with the phone, trying to keep up with a pacing Warbucks for one), the fine array of period costuming, and Jim Hohmeyer and his orchestra in the pit.

Saginaw Choral Society's "Wake Up!" concert was out of this world

2011-10-23T08:31:00.000-07:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

Inside the Temple Theatre on Saturday night there was a void....a moment of pitch blackness.

An from that void, from that void was created one of the most enjoyable, inventive and inspiring concerts EVER in Saginaw, Michigan.

It was a goosebump combination of mixed musical bag, church sermon, storytelling, Biblical history, motivational workshop and call to action all rolled into two hours.

We’re talking about the Saginaw Choral Society’s 2011/2012 season opener, titled “Wake Up! A Grand Gala of Songs.”

Two thoughts come to mind from witnessing it: one, new conductor Glen Thomas Rideout is a genius when it comes to concocting a concert with a storyline and understated special effects and two, somehow we have to convince the members of the Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy Choir to join the Saginaw Choral Society roster.

If you like to read reviews because of the negative comments, read no further. This one will probably overstate the case that “Wake Up!” took both the choral society and the audience to new levels on Saturday night.

What Rideout did in the first half was to loosely tell the story of God’s seven days creating the earth through well scripted narration and song -- from Mendelssohn’s mighty and reverent “Thanks Be to God” for The Second Day to Whitacre’s humorous “Animal Crackers” for The Sixth Day (which had the singers mooing like cows).

In those eight segments (it started with Darkness, that pitch blackness in the theater), we were treated to eloquent spoken words like God realizing that green and blue (grass and water) look better to the eye than green and brown, and songs about grass, water, critters like the panther and the firefly, chirping birds, the sounds of wordless primordal ooze.

Rideout often used his hands to add impact to his spoken words. The lighting on the backdrop reflected the colors being sung about -- the yellow of the sun, the green of grass, the blue of water and even the stars and moon being created.

None of the songs was familiar (always a plus for this critic); most of them were difficult, pushing the singers to new heights (and deliver they did).

When all on earth was created, it was celebrated with Hailstork’s gospel infused “Wake Up, My Spirit,” during which pianist Carl Angelo nearly flew off his bench accompanying it.

And then, just like God did on The Seventh Day, Rideout and his singers rested (as in intermission), and an audible buzz of excitement began rippling through the audience.

The second part of the program was no less spectacular with its half-dozen inspirational and uplifting songs -- and the appearance of that exquisite SASA choir. When they joined the choral society in three songs the sound was so full and lush it led to the wish they become permanent members of the choral society.

And when they soloed on Bestor’s a cappella “Prayer of the Children” -- oh my God! Every word crystal clear, harmonies right on target, performance value in the adult range not just kids. Bravo SASA conductor Jeremiah Kraniak. Cheers erupted.

Choral Society member David Brown and SASA student David Horwath teamed up on the Beatles standard “Let It Be” -- with Horwath creating a buzz in the audience for the deepness and maturity of his voice.

Other noteworthy soloists were soprano Darlene Mikoleizik, tenor Joe Madison, and whistler Pat Shelley -- and Rideout himself.

In amongst all this “Wake Up!” music, preacher/inspirational speaker Rideout delivered a dual theme. Yes the concert was about the creation of Earth and the need for songs to shore us up when we are feeling down. But it also was a (sometimes overstated, for just one tiny complaint) message to Saginaw, its residents and overcoming its negative issues.

Granted Rideout was speaking to the choir (the people in the audience) because they were, for the most part, Saginaw believers. But it's just nice to have someone else, from outside, say they believe in our town too. And it was fun to listen to the muttering when he scored a particular point or two.

And then we were all sent into the night with a bag of animal crackers (in deference to that trio of songs sung during the The Sixth Day of creation) and a realization that Rideout’s tenure here is going to make for one hell of a ride.

25 films on the Riverside Saginaw Film Festival roster, Nov. 2-6 at the Temple Theatre

2011-10-17T07:34:00.000-07:00

by Rob Drew

Three of the 25 films playing the Riverside Saginaw Film Festival in early November were made in Michigan -- and each of them is an award winner.

“Annabelle and Bear” tells the story of a burly biker and his 2-year-old daughter. “Myth of the American Sleepover” finds four teens celebrating the last night of summer before the new school year starts. And “Where Soldiers Come From” is a documentary following four Upper Peninsula friends serving in Afghanistan.

Collectively the three won honors at the Midwest Film Festival, South by Southwest Film Festival and Traverse City Film Festival. And Amy S. Weber, the writer/director of “Annabelle,” will visit Saginaw during the festival to talk about filmmaking in Michigan.

In its fifth year, the Riverside Saginaw Film Festival runs from Wednesday, Nov. 2, through Sunday, Nov. 6, at the Temple Theatre, 203 N. Washington -- showing on four screens within the complex.

On the bill are independent, foreign and documentary films from around the world.

Among other feature film highlights are:

"Win Win" with Paul Giamatti

-- “Win Win,” from writer-director Tom McCarthy. Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”/”American Splendor”) stars as a luckless lawyer who scams an elderly client. Soon, however, he comes into contact with the old man’s grandson, a wrestling prodigy and a perfect candidate for the high school wrestling team Giamatti’s character coaches, and the complications begin.

-- “Attack the Block,” a British science-fiction comedy from first-time director Joe Cornish. The film opens on a dark street in a dicey part of London where a young nurse is walking home and finds herself surrounded by a gang of young thugs. The thugs are about to mug her when something shoots out of the sky and lands in a nearby car.

As a result, she and the boys are fleeing an invasion of pitch black, glow-eyed aliens who seem to be targeting them.

-- “Beginners,” Mike Mills’ comedy starring Ewan McGregor as a graphic artist who must learn to cope with his father’s surprising revelation. Christopher Plummer stars as dear old dad.

-- “Another Year,” a domestic comedy from Mike Leigh, the British director behind “Happy Go Lucky” and “Secrets & Lies.”

-- “The Guard,” a transatlantic buddy pic teaming Brendan Gleason as a decadent Irish cop and Don Cheadle as a straitlaced FBI agent taking on international drug smugglers.

Four other documentaries are on the bill along with “Soldiers.” They include:

-- “The Interrupters,” directed by Steve James, who is best known for “Hoop Dreams,” the Chicago basketball saga often ranked among the best documentaries ever made.

In “The Interrupters,” James follows the efforts of CeaseFire, a Chicago conflict mediation group seeking to break the cycle of violence that infects the streets and neighborhoods of the Windy City. The film focuses on the complex stories of former gang members who now devote their lives to interrupting gang violence, often at great personal risk.

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams"

-- Werner Herzog’s “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” which provides a rare look inside the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc. This hidden wonder was discovered by three French cavers in 1994 and is home to stunning wall paintings which are among the planet’s oldest known works of art.

The cave was closed off to tourists soon after its discovery, yet Herzog convinced the French government to allow him to plumb the cave’s depths with a small film crew and a team of researchers. Herzog’s voiceover brings an appropriate mix of wonder, humor and sheer craziness to the project.

Also showing during the festival is the 1992 Penny Marshall classic “In a League of Their Own” -- a story of the real-life World War II-era All American Girls Professional Baseball League. League player Mary Moore, now 78, will speak about her career as a special festival guest.

Single tickets are $6 and festival passes $40, on sale at the Temple Theatre and at www.templetheatre.com. For a list of the films, show times and other information, log on to www.riversidesaginawfilmfestival.org

Among the major festival sponsors are Hemlock Semiconductor, Saginaw Arts and Enrichment Commission, Citizens Bank Wealth Management, Temple Theatre, Delta Broadcasting, Public Libraries of Saginaw, WNEM-Channel 5, the Harvey Randall Wickes Foundation and the Jury Foundation.

Two garden projects in Saginaw receive beautification awards

2011-10-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

Joy Walter, Greg Largent with their awards

By Janet I. Martineau

An 1800s church with 10 gardens around its exterior and a private home where grass is at a premium are the winners of the 2011 Women’s National Farm & Garden/Saginaw Branch Beautification Award.

The business/community garden category winner is First Presbyterian Church, Court at Harrison.

One church garden

The church occupies an entire block, and around it are 10 garden beds “adopted” and maintained currently by seven church members.

One of the beds is in such a hot spot, the spring bulbs bloom in February.

Begun 25 years ago by minister of music Gregory H. Largent and two church members, Fred and June Ostler, Largent reports the gardens remain an ever-changing work in progress.

He says when he came to that church those 25 years ago, he was “deeply offended” by the existing yew-filled landscaping. Thus began a colorful transformation to perennials, roses and flowering shrubs showcasing what he calls the beauty of God’s world, of making the inviting life of the inside of the church also inviting outside.

Receiving the residential garden category award is Joy A. Walter of Saginaw Township, who apparently never met a perennial she didn’t like because she counts 97 different KINDS of them flouring in her garden -- along with a fish-stocked pond and assorted shrubs and small trees.

Joy Walter's back yard

And when it comes to just ONE of those 97 KINDS of perennials, well, she tends to 38 clematis.

This landscape in which grass does not stand a chance was created out of nothingness when Joy and her husband moved to their home in 1982.

Joy is a retired language arts teacher, serving 30 years at Arthur Hill High School and North Intermediate. She is the current president of the Apple Country Gardeners in Freeland. And this year she began work on what she calls a Fairy Garden of miniature plants.

“I can’t resist new plant each time I go to a nursery,” she admits.

The awards were given at the Oct. 12 meeting of the club. Greg and Joy each received notecards with a picture of their garden, and the other seven nominees also received a packet of notecards showcasing all the nominated gardens.

SVSU's "Wiley and the Hairy Man" a perfect show for children

2011-10-11T06:10:00.000-07:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

If ever there was a perfect production with which to introduce a child to theater, it is SVSU’s currently playing “Wiley and the Hairy Man.”

Directed by Richard B. Roberts Jr., this show oozes with atmosphere, attention to detail and creativity galore -- making it one of the best, if not THE best, children’s theater production ever at the college ... although “The Hobbit” still ranks way up there.

I attended one of the student presentations and the kids were sooo quiet and attentive, sooo responsive to it. A remarkable accomplishment in this day and age. And I, well, I was just as attentive and responsive.

Two public performances remain -- at 8 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday (Oct. 12-13). Make sure you attend, even if you are an adult.

Set in a mysterious southern swamp, it tells the story of a young boy, his lazy dog, his conjuring mother and this bad guy trickster named Hairy Man. If the kid can find a way to trick the trickster three times, then he will forever vanish and threaten the scared kid no more.

Ya, there is a moral to the story, a script telling youngsters kids to overcome their fears with their wits. But basically it’s just a great piece of theater full of invention, humor and some mildly scary stuff.

Before the play ever starts, these eight black-clad, faceless creatures are on the darkened set -- up its trees, on the ground, undulating and making weird noises amid taped noises of real-life critters.

And then as the play runs, they become tables and stoves, alligators and snakes (thanks to clever costuming and black light), sticker bushes and rocks, a rhyme-speaking chorus, and with their voices sound effects like cooking food, wind, gulps and whispers.

That these eight are primarily freshman bodes well for the next four years of theater at SVSU because they are magnificent.

So too is freshman Lexee Longwell as the conjuring mother (she knows how to project and speak with a rock-solid dialect). And freshman Blake Mazur is hilarious as the dog who is lazy...until he catches sight of Hairy Man and takes barking and growing pursuit, often bringing back some part of the poor man.

Rustin Myers as the hunching Hairy Man delivers just the right amount of menace -- not too scary, since this is a children’s production, but just enough to keep things interesting in a Halloween kind of way.

Lanky Raheem Saltmarshall is physically effective as Wiley, in what is a highly physical role, but sometimes does not project and/or mumbles. Small complaint.

Kudos galore to Roberts for his incredible direction and sound design, to scenic designer Jerry Dennis for the swampy atmosphere, to Elise Shannon for the fabulous and inventive costuming, to lighting designer Tom Klonowski for added atmosphere.

For more information or to order tickets, call 989-964-4261.

"Antique Apples" topic of talk at Green Point -- along with samples to taste

2011-10-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

by Janet I. Martineau

Jacklynn Earley with antique apples and granddaughters

Ahh...fall is here and there is nothing like crunching into a crisp and freshly picked Alexander, Dean Watt Scion, Winter Banana, Cox Orange Pippin, Gravensteins, Pearmains, Transparents, Sheepnoses, Reinettes, Codlings or Greenings.

Those are just a few of the antique or heirloom apples Jacklynn Earley will discuss -- and show, with sampling allowed -- during her Wednesday, Oct. 5, Nurturing Nature series program on “Antique Apples.”

Her presentation begins at 7 p.m. at the Green Point Environmental Learning Center, 3010 Maple, and concludes with the serving of apple-oriented goodies.

Earley, a Midland resident whose nickname is Garden Grannie, got interested in old-time apples four years ago when her brother and sister-in-law bought an antique apple farm and orchard in Wheeler.

“I would drop by to see what was being restored and just fell in love with the diversity and history of apples. Each day in the orchard a different apple will ripen and it becomes my favorite, till the next day when I eat a new apple.”

There are, out there in the world, thousands of old-time apples, but Earley has been exposed to only “1,200 or so” at the Eastman’s Antique Apple Orchard her relatives run.

“We consider antique/heirloom apples to be apples grown, developed and remembered but very hard to find or almost extinct. They are dated to the time prior to the ubiquitous used of the refrigerated boxcar. The theory behind this is that refrigerated boxcars brought about the development of fruit genotypes focused on surviving the rigors of travel, not focused on flavor. So an heirloom apple could date to well before the discovery of the New World.

“They also are the apples folks remember from their childhood when most had a tree or small orchard in their yard or nearby.”

And while known for their outstanding taste, she says, their looks are another matter. “They are not always what some consider attractive or beautiful.”

Earley quips that she will talk apples to anyone willing to listen and has done programs and apple tasting events at the family orchard as well as for garden clubs and herb societies.

Case in point, she continues, “the Roxbury Russet is the oldest apple variety of North American origin and was discovered and propagated in Roxbury, Mass., about 1640. Roxbury Russet is still regarded as a fine dessert apple, although no longer found on the commercial markets.

“And Newtown Pippen from 1759 is the best known colonial apple in North America; the known favorite of Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.”

Admission to “Antique Apples” is free to members of the Friends of the Shiawassee National Refuge and $2 to non-members. Support for the series is provided by the Jury Foundation, the Martineau Family Foundation and the Saginaw Branch of the Woman’s National Farm & Garden Association.

Pit and Balcony's "Great American Trailer Park" a good night of redneck fun

2011-10-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

review by Janet I. Martineau

This here musical that opened Friday night at Pit and Balcony Community Theatre, well, it’s ain’t your “Sound of Music” kind of show. Even thought it’s about family...more precisely kin.

Nope. It’s about road kill, a malfunctioning electric chair, adultery, a stripper, a fake pregnancy, agoraphobia and Walmart -- all set in a trashy trailer park in Florida.

We’d call its cast of characters redneck white trash. But, ya know, they kinda grow on you.

It’s titled “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” and it is irreverent, quirky, kinda profane, NOT politically correct ...and way loads of fun as directed by James Gaertner.

It’s cast of seven stays in glorious seedy character (just barely on the safe side and not caricature) and high energy throughout. The ever-changing costuming is clever and appropriately cheesy as is the trailer park set. Brian Farnham’s choreography moves things along very well and also is clever, particularly in “Flushed Down the Pipes” and “The Great American TV Show.”

Just add on that wacky script and score, by David Nehls and Betsy Kelso, and whatta ride. One sample of the lyrics: “Like clothes from Walmart, my life is falling apart.” And the musical styles include blues, gospel, country rock, rhythm and blues.

If there is one criticism, and we might as well address it now, it is DICTION. Since this is a show that is primarily sung rather than spoken, and the real humor lies in its lyrics, making sure every word is crystal clear is paramount.

Jessica McFarland as the timid housewife afraid to leave her trailer and Christy Horn as the brassy stripper understand that and deliver. But the rest of the cast needs work slowing down just a bit and enunciating more clearly -- particularly the lawn-chair sitting Jessica Booth-Asiala, Lucy Malacos and Brooke Pieschke, a Greek chorus providing commentary and playing assorted mini-roles. Each of them has moments of great clarity, but then are given to mush.

Speaking of McFarland and Horn, they are the brightest lights in the show with the best of the singing voices and playing two diverse characters that break our heart.

Horn’s pole dance shows early on she has locked into her character totally while with McFarland we watch with tender concern as her sadsack character inch by inch leaves the trailer.

And when they duet on “But He’s Mine” they deliver goosebumps for their emotions, vocal prowess and ability to nail a song in unison.

Then Horn returns to sing -- make that spit out with seething raw emotion -- about getting on with her life and the goosebumps fester.

So give this show a try. It ain’t intellectual and profound and big ticket like the big-name musicals. But it sure is fun.