"Shooter" to give "stalking" tips at Nurturing Nature program

by Janet I. Martineau

Phil Stephens, a senior naturalist at Midland’s Chippewa Nature Center, has been “shooting” wildlife since around 1970 -- first with a Kodak Instamatic, on a wilderness Canadian canoe trip, and now with a more sophisticated digital SLR.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 2, Stephens will present an “Introduction to Nature Photography” program at the Green Point Environmental Learning Center, 3010 Maple in Saginaw. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, and free to its members. Others pay $2 at the door.

Stephens says the No. 1 tip he offers is “to be out in nature as much as possible, preferably with your camera.”

Among the other pieces of advice he will offer to budding nature photographers seeking to capture flowers, landscapes and wildlife: Exclude everything that detracts from your main subject, which means paying attention to or manipulating the background and foreground and monitoring the sides of the frame.  Understand the idea of 18 percent gray exposure control.  Go where the nature is.

So where has he been in those 40 years since he took up the craft. “I have photographed in Alaskan glaciers, moose on Isle Royale, mountains in Glacier National Park, bison in Yellowstone, wintry rivers at Chippewa Nature Center, alligators in the Everglades, waterfalls in the Upper Peninsula, pronghorn on the prairies, the moon, the Big Sur in California, frigatebirds in Hawaii, orchids and insects from various locals, and icy Hudson Bay.”

People attending March 2 can expect to see many of these images as Stephens winds through his program.

He says all the seasons have their pluses, although he has not shot as much in winter as in the other three seasons. He says he has no favorite subject but does admit that “shooting from a plane has its own challenges.”

Stephens, also the land manager at Chippewa,  has a master of science in biology degree from Michigan Tech University and for five years worked with the Isle Royale Wolf Ecology Project. He was raised in Grand Rapids, and joined the Chippewa staff in 1982.

So of all those images he has taken, what ranks the highest on his scale?

“It all depends on my mood!  One of the more painful, but beautiful, series I shot was of a sunset in Great Sand Dunes National Park, with amazingly ferocious mosquitoes swamping around me.  

“Also, I was able to get within 20 feet of moose at various times and live to tell the tales.”

Cats amaze, and other critters too, in Midland show

Review by Janet I. Martineau

MIDLAND -- Never thought I’d see the day when an ordinary orange “house” cat traversed a downsized set of parallel bars like an Olympic gymnast....let alone witness upwards of 15 domestic felines scamper across the Midland Center for the Arts stage.

But there it was on Friday night -- the sold out appearance of the Popovich Comedy Pet Theatre, which along with the cats also showcased around 10 canines, one green parrot, a couple of geese, three doves and a contingent of white rats which were herded into a toy train.

Oh, and the orange house cat also pushed a baby carriage containing a much larger dog.

For the legions of pet lovers, this is a show not to miss. And you know the old adage of never sharing a stage with an animal or a kid....well, that is the fate of Gregory Popovich and his small team of human circus performers. When they do an all-human circus or comedy routine, we want to scream, “We’re here to see the animals, not you!”

But we are too polite to do that, and somehow Russian-born Popovich knows that because even in the midst of one of the human acts, it is not unusual to see a black cat streak across the stage -- thus bringing bad luck.

The Popovich Comedy Pet Theater is both thrilling and a bit of a disappointment. Granted it is unusual in its animal focus and warms the heart when told the cats and dogs it in were rescued from shelters. But, well, we were hoping for a little more showmanship from the cats, even though we KNOW that is impossible given their royal attitudes.

Yes they scampered on and off the stage with wonderful obedience. And seeing 15 or 16 of them sitting on perches like the lions and tigers do in shows -- AND STAYING THERE  -- is a remarkable achievement on the part of Popovich. They also were athletic in the way they climbed up those perches or light poles, bobbed in and out of an “apartment” on fire, jumped hurdles, and climbed across a bar upside down. But other than that they did little else other than jump through a hoop or two, spar with each other now and then and just look cute.

The dogs, on the other hand, were much more versatile, compliant, costumed even and thus enjoyable. They fought a fire, visited a doctor with a variety of ills,  gave a school teacher behavior problems, played a game of soccer (with balloons) and caught balls while balancing high above Popovich’s head.

As for Popovich, he is a top-notch juggler, clown and balancing artist.

And you know, the more we think about it .... those cats, well actually they did far more than we thought possible. They were darn amazing, in fact. .

SBSO's "American Valentine" better than a box of chocolates

Review by Janet I. Martineau

What is better, by far, than a box of chocolates for a Valentine’s Day gift?

Saturday night’s “An American Valentine” concert, performed by the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra at the Temple Theatre.

OK, first I need to admit that when this concert was announced,  my heart skipped a beat. Bernstein, Barber, Copland and Dvorak on one bill....my very favorite composers all on one bill!?! And then toss in a new work by Saginaw’s own Catherine McMichael, whose growing resume of work never fails to enchant me. 

Add to that pieces....”West Side Story,” “Adagio for Strings,” “Appalachian Spring” with its Shaker “Simple Gifts” hymn, and New World Symphony with its refrains of “Goin’ Home” and an English horn solo to die for. These are my favorite pieces by those  favorite composers ..and McMichael’s  “Symphonic Dreams” beckoned further by its title alone.

All the orchestra and its maestro Brett Mitchell had to do was deliver on the goods....and oh my goodness did they ever deliver on the goods.

Collectively every single section of the orchestra got its moment to shine, but for my money the night belonged to the woodwinds, in particular English horn player Ellen Sudia-Coudron. But wait...those strings just ached and  shimmered in the Barber...the brass was so bold in the Dvorak...the percussionists bombastic in the Bernstein.

And ya gotta love a conductor who follows the full-of-energy, sassy, jazzy, cocky “West Side Story” overture with the quiet and introspective “Adagio for Strings” that just builds builds from the deepest of the strings to a fevered high pitch of angst so intense one fears the violin strings will snap and break.

The title of the program, of course, refers to the fact that of the five composers, four are American. And Dvorak, a Czech, wrote his Symphony No. 9 (From the New World) during a three-year visit to the United States in the late 1800s.

The McMichael piece, commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversaries of the Midland and Saginaw Bay orchestras, is her tone poem to Midland architect Alden B. Dow and Saginaw’s tall trees of the lumber era and served both themes ever so solidly,

So in one evening the music visited waring gangs in  1950s New York City, a 19th century young couple living on a farm in the Appalachians, the “new world” of Native Americans and Iowa and plantation songs, contemporary Midland and lumber era Saginaw in Michigan,  and, as Mitchell said, wherever each of us wanted to go with the Adagio (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.

Mitchell also noted that in his career of conducting many premieres of pieces, never had he experienced the pleasure of having the composer involved also helping play it  -- as McMichael did, on the piano, in her “Symphonic Dreams.” Yet another musical chocolate served during the rich evening.

"The Vagina Monologues" leaves 'em laughing

Review by Janet I. Martineau

The expressive Debbie Lake

If ever the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” was more true, it is applying it to the Black Box 180 production of “The Vagina Monologues” this weekend at Midland’s Creative 360.

Fortunately, we took our camera along and got some of those pictures as five of the area’s most talented actresses -- Susie Polito, Carol Rumba, Debbie Lake, Marci Rogers and Denyse Clayton -- presented the Obie-winning show about a private part of the human anatomy.

Eve Ensler’s monologues are rip-smart -- full of pathos and heart-break one minute and a riot of laughs another. Saying those words, taken from real-life stories, with the right emphasis is another part of the pie. 

But having seen the show twice now we are convinced that the body English used completes the serving ... and   perhaps is the most important ingredient of the show.

Gales of laughter swept Creative 360’s Friday night performance accompanied by dead silence and gasps during some of the more poignant moments. 

Clayton’s voice ruled in the sarcastic tones required in relaying indignities at the doctor’s office....Lake’s face was a worldwide map of expressions throughout...Rumba charmed as a naive woman with a mirror...all five were in superb form with the sound effects created during orgasms.

Denyse Clayton at work

Without getting too soap box driven, it is a pity that controversy continues to dog this show and that last year another Midland arts entity refused to promote this show. 

Yes, parts of it are a little rough going....but “Vagina Monologues” also does what all good art should and must do and that is challenge the status quo as well as allow us to view things in a new way.

A word praise also to Black Box 180 member Kristiina Pilnik and her decorating crew who turned Creative 360 into a red-hued Valentine’s Day splendor...and created a chocolate-covered strawberries serving area that was humorously suggestive. 

Each table also included fun quote-wrapped napkins and cutouts of the faces of famous women.

The soups from Cafe American were delicious, especially the tomato bisque. And mini-cupcakes from the Gourmet Cupcake Shoppe carried through on the theme as well.

Marci Rogers

Carol Rumba

Midland's "Urinetown" mops up in state theater competition

by Janet I. Martineau

To say Midland’s Center Stage Theatre company all but flushed its competition down the toilet is an understatement.

Bill Anderson Jr. 

This past weekend’s American Association of Community Theatre/Michigan festival, taking place at the Midland Center for the Arts, resulted in 10 awards for Center Stage’s production of “Urinetown: the Musical” -- as well the production being selected as one of two shows to advance to the regional competition.

The 10 awards were:

-- Outstanding production.

-- Outstanding ensemble production.

-- Outstanding musical direction to Jim Hohmeyer.

-- Outstanding choreography to Kelli Jolly.

-- Outstanding direction and outstanding set design to Bill Anderson Jr.

-- Outstanding costume design to Laurelei Horton.

-- Outstanding lead performance to Erin Southwell as Hope Cladwell.

-- Outstanding character performance to R. Jeanne Gilbert as Josephine Strong and Adam Gardner as Hot Blades Harry.

“We didn’t win all the awards, but we won 10 out of the 17,” says Anderson. “The second place team got only two.”

That would be Old Town Playhouse of Traverse City which competed with “Doubt,” a dramatic good vs. evil story set in the Catholic church. “Doubt” won awards for outstanding staging and outstanding supporting actor and also will compete in the regionals since two shows are advanced from the state competitions.

The regionals are April 29-May 1 in Columbus, Ohio, and feature two teams from each of the state competitions in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin as well of Michigan. Should “Urinetown” win there it would then be the sole show to advance to the June nationals in Rochester, N.Y.  AACT is comprised of 10 regions.

Anderson admits he’s still on cloud nine from the weekend, calling it “surreal” -- a fitting comment given the topic of “Uninetown.” It in people living in a drought-plagued town are assessed a $5.80 governmental fee each time they need to relive themselves. And since they can only do their business in sanctioned public loos, long lines result.  The Tony-winning show also spoofs other musicals, satirizes politics and its filled with outrageous characters.

“I have no formal training as a director,” says Anderson, who does have a list of more than  75 acting and backstage credits in his native Midland . “What this win does is validate my commitment to the craft. And it also shows the importance community theater has.”

Center Stage, a recent joining of what was the Midland Music Society and Midland Theater Guild, competed against The Farmington Players of Farmington Hills. South Haven’s Ichabod’s Little Theater in the Hollow, Players de Noc of Escanaba and the Monroe Community Payers as well as the Traverse City group.

Each team was alloted 10 minutes to set up its set and 10 minutes to tear it down and in between 60 minutes of performance time. Anderson and others had spend months paring down the full-length “Urinetown” for the competition.

Anderson directed the full production of “Urinetown,”  which won critical praise, at the Midland Center for the Arts in  April of 2009.

In the 1980s  a Midland production of “Nunsense” took third place in the national competition. The competitions take place every other year.

Anderson and his team now need to rise $5,000 to help pay the costs of sending “Urinetown’s” 35 actors, musicians and production staff to Ohio.

"The Vagina Monologues" plays Creative 360 dinner theater series

by Janet I. Martineau

Chocolate-covered strawberries to eat, cosmopolitans to drink and overheard candid conversations about a private part converge at Midland’s Creative 360 with a dinner theater presentation of “The Vagina Monologues.”

Presented by Black Box 180, the award-winning show stars Denyse Clayton, Susie Polito, Marci Rogers and Carol Rumba of Midland and Debbie Lake of Saginaw Township -- who collectively portray a six-year-old girl, a septuagenarian New Yorker, a vagina workshop participant, a woman who witnesses the birth of her granddaughter, a Bosnian survivor of rape, and a feminist happy to have found a man who “liked to look at it.” 

“The title alone gets people talking,” says Clayton of the show penned by Eve Ensler. “What it does is show that 'vagina' is not an ugly, shocking word. In fact women of all ages and races can relate to at least one or more of its monologues and can walk away feeling proud to be a woman.”

Clayton consider the show both comedy and drama --  “both heartbreaking and hilariously heartwarming” -- as it deals with sex, relationships and violence against women as well as slang, a visit to the OB/GYN doctor and simple physical aspects of the body area.

But beyond that, she says, “Eve has raised millions of dollars from this show in the hopes of raising awareness and to end violence against women all over the world” when the show is staged as a benefit for local groups, shelters and crisis centers.

Toward that end, a portion of the proceeds from the 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 11-12, shows at Creative 360 will be donated to Shelterhouse, a non-profit serving Midland and Gladwin counties. Shelterhouse provides safety, shelter, advocacy and counseling to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. 

Tickets are $26, which includes soups and salads provided by Cafe American, chocolate covered strawberries and the play. A cash bar will serve beer, wine and the cosmopolitans.

Clayton says Ensler conducted hundreds of interviews in writing the show, which won an Obie in 1996. “Basically the monologues wrote themselves.”

Over the years such stars as Melissa Etheridge and Whoopie Goldberg have been cast members, and it has even been performed in Muslim countries where staging it was risky. And every year Ensler pens a new monologue to highlight a current issue affecting women around the world. 

Clayton and most of the rest of the cast also performed the show last year at the Midland Center for the Arts, and response was so strong they decided to restage it at Creative 360, formerly Creative Spirit Center, 1517 Bayliss.

She and others formed Black Box 180 at Creative 360 “to do something empowering, not just cookie cutter shows.  Communicating the way we know best, through theatre to raise awareness for issues that are all too often overlooked.”

Last year the company debuted with a murder mystery, written by Clayton’s brother and with the audience trying to solve who done it.

For reservations to “The Vagina Monologues,” call  (989) 837-1885, or you purchase tickets online at www.becreative360.org.

Creative 360 to honor Patricia Shaheen as its 2011 "Arts Sweetheart"

by Janet I. Martineau

A Saginaw Township arts patron with an unusual claim to fame is this year’s recipient of Creative 360’s Art Sweetheart Award.

Patricia Shaheen will be honored on Monday, Feb. 14, during a 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. luncheon at Creative 360 (formerly Creative Spirit Center), 1517 Bayliss in Midland.

The award, which was begun in 2003, honors a mid-Michigan resident for his or her exceptional contributions of vision, leadership and commitment to the the arts for at least a decade.

Patricia Shaheen

So what is Shaheen’s unusual claim to fame? The women’s bathroom at the historic Temple Theatre in downtown Saginaw -- among many other things.

The Shaheen family has a long history of purchasing old structures and giving them a new lease on life. The ornate Temple, built in 1927 as a vaudeville house and movie theater, was in decline when it was purchased by the Shaheen family in 2002. The family’s firm spent $7 million dollars in restoring the 1,800-seat structure with adjoining ballrooms and bringing it up to code.

While her husband, Dr. Sam Shaheen, focused on the rest of the building, it is no secret Patty, as she is known, advocated for potty parity and helped design one with an unusual elegance. 

Earlier this year, the women’s bathroom at the Temple was named the best bathroom in the nation in an “Enjoy the Go” competition sponsored by Charmin. No surprise, given its chandeliers and marble tile. In fact, tours of the Temple always include the bathroom.

The Shaheen family recently “donated” the Temple to the newly formed Temple Theatre Foundation. The Temple is home to the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, Saginaw Choral Society, Valley Concert Association and Riverside Saginaw Film Festival as well as other local events and touring shows.

Patricia Shaheen, a native of Springfield, Mass., also is a member of the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra board and from 2004 to 2006 served as its president, a period when it successfully overcame a $280,000 debt.  For the past 10 years she also has chaired the orchestra’s annual Holiday Housewalk fundraiser. 

She is a founding member of the Art in Public Places project, a series of art exhibits and an annual statewide competition hosted at the Saginaw Township Hall. In 2008 she chaired Saginaw’s “A Night With the Hemingways” event as a part of the first Great Book Read sponsored by the Michigan Humanities Council and also serves on the humanities council board.

And this year she joined the board of the Michigan Jazz Trail Festival, a Midland-based organization committed to celebrating the rich heritage of Michigan jazz by linking local festivals throughout the state. 

In 2008, Mrs. Shaheen received the Governor's Award for Arts & Culture, Michigan's premiere state-wide celebration of arts, culture and creativity hosted by ArtServe.  In 2004, she and her husband  received the All-Area Arts Award 

given by the Saginaw Arts and Enrichment Commission. 

Shaheen also has served on the Saginaw Art Museum board and chaired its first endowment campaign; has served on the Saginaw Community Foundation Board, and in her early years here helped create a script and served as a puppeteer for a Mr. Yuk touring poison prevention program.

Horizons Conference Center in Saginaw Township is catering the Feb. 14 luncheon. Horizons, a former K-mart, is another Shaheen enterprise. 

Tickets are $45, with reservations due by Thursday, Feb. 9. Call (989) 837-1885 or register online at www.becreative360.org.

Previous Art Sweetheart honorees are Dorothy Yates, Virginia (Ginny) Morrison, Barbara Prince-Sovereen, Sally Moss, Judy Rapanos, Nancy Barker and Ruby Iwamasa, all of Midland, and Janet I. Martineau of Saginaw Township.

Creative 360 is a not-for-profit community arts, humanities and wellness organization.  It  was incorporated in 1994. Its mission is to help people of all ages  experience the creative process through classes, art exhibits, events, concerts, speakers and outreach programs.