But back to the star crossed lovers. Imogen had a secret which she eventually trusted Connor enough to reveal to him. She’s deaf and wears hearing aids. Of course Connor didn’t mind, because he thinks she’s lovely, so that was alright. Imogen had a far bigger problem in the form of her mother, exercise guru to the stars (school owner Lorraine Donnegan, anyway). Not only did she have a dodgy taste in leotards, she also had a borderline dodgy fancy for schoolboys, in the form of Angus. I mean, totes embarrassing!

Meanwhile there was some business about Michael Byrne and his father. Sian was trying to get them reunited, but I still can’t bring myself to give a hoot about Michael Byrne, so I have no idea whether she succeeded or not. I was busy looking at the comments on Twitter, where opinion seemed divided between those who thought Waterloo Road was well past its sell-by date and those who were harbouring rude thoughts about the actors who play Connor and Angus.

Next time: Janeece’s Cheryl gets chickenpox. Frankly that sounds a bit too plausible for Waterloo Road.

Posted by PLA          (more Waterloo Road here)

I have to say I’m a little concerned about Tariq. The poor lad only broke his back at the start of the summer holidays, yet a mere couple of months later he seems to have been left to fend for himself. When his wheelchair rolled off out of reach while he was in the bath, the poor lad had to haul himself out of the tub and ended up lying on the bathroom floor waiting for Grantly to break the lock and come and help him.  Added to this indignity the fact that his father isn’t speaking to him, his sister Trudi is in Canada with Finn (awww, bless!), the other sister is too young to understand what he’s going though and the Adorable Josh thinks the way to help is to dish out motivational self-help books, and poor Tariq was feeling like he’d be better off as a memorial tree.  

While taking part in kayaking trials (no lifeguards present and a shocking lack of supervision), he upended the boat and attempted to do away with himself in an icy cold loch. Luckily he was within easy worrying reach of Tom Clarkson and Michael Byrne. While Tom stood on the jetty looking tense and shouting, “Tariq!” at regular intervals, Michael Byrne dashed over on a speedboat to the rescue.  Michael Byrne needed a bit of positive karma, because it had just come out that he’d apparently beaten up his own father in a callous and dreadful crime. Only it wasn’t, it was a boy at the end of his tether after enduring too many years of his father beating up his mother. At least by the end of the episode Tariq had got himself a new role in life, that of Man of Peace. When the warring factions of Waterloo Road and The Rival School went head to head in an after school scrap, Tariq was on hand to separate them.

Pale And Interesting Connor was still struggling with his mother, vodka-swilling Jane Beale. She’s refusing any kind of help and advice from anyone, including her colleague the pointy-faced lady, who attempted to empathise. “It must be hard bringing up a teenager on your own,” she said. “What would you know?” snarled Jane Beale. She actually is Scottish, you know. At least Pale and Interesting Connor had a bit of a diversion when he got himself a girlfriend, Georgia Taylor-lookalike Imogen.

Next time: Imogen’s birthday and she has a secret she wants to share with Connor, apparently. Maybe she’s going to tell him she’s running away to be a Georgia Taylor tribute act.

Posted by PLA          (more Waterloo Road here)

Some of the familiar landmarks were there – Tom Clarkson, Grantly Budgen, The Adorable Josh – but we weren’t in Rochdale anymore, Toto, we were within picturesque shimmering distance of the Clyde. Michael Byrne has always spoken with a Scottish accent, what with being Scottish and that, and I expected a certain amount of Scottishness, but certainly not from Jane Beale out of EastEnders, who’s apparently an alcoholic teacher these days. She’s the mother of an extremely pretty son, Connor, who may be easy on the eye in a pale-eyed, alien-type way, but is more than a tad weird. You can forgive him this, what with the alcoholic mother and everything, plus he is not the strangest kid in the school by a long chalk.  

The strangest kid in the school award had to go to Problem Pupil of the Week, the Grace Jones-haired, manically-staring Lula. Turned out she wasn’t mad, or bad, but her uncle thought she was possessed by demons and she’d been pencilled in for an exorcism. This never happened in Rochdale, but you can bet if it had, Tom Clarkson would have sorted it out, like he sorted out poor Lula and her predicament.

This all helped him to get over the guilt he was feeling at the loss of poor Denzil, whose enthusiasm for having his picture taken at the Scottish border had led to him being mown down by a wayward truck (which also put Tariq in a wheelchair). A memorial tree was planted and you had to feel for the absent Rose Kelly – two of her children have now become memorial trees and they’re not even in the same country, never mind the same school playground.

Tom gave a rubbish eulogy, such was the depth of his guilt and grief, and sniffed the blossom of the Denzil Memorial Shrub in a moody fashion, but there wasn’t much time to dwell on the sad loss of such a young life, because he had an exorcism to interrupt and fights were breaking out among various Girls With Grudges.

The whole thing is just a bit weird. “Weird,” is, of course, Waterloo Road’s default setting, but everything looks so different it’s all a bit (more) surreal at the moment. And I haven’t even mentioned the ultra-bizarre boarding house thingy, presided over by Grumpy Grantly and the dinner lady.

Next time: Tariq takes up kayaking, probably too late for this year’s Paralympics, and a secret about Michael is revealed.

Posted by PLA          (more Waterloo Road here)

Interesting research has shown that households where the television and computers are in regular use don’t communicate effectively:

Jane Beale, a speech pathologist on the NSW central coast, said previous work focusing on television usage in the US had shown that, in households where TV usage was minimal, about 6000 words per day were spoken by the home’s occupants. That compared with the 500 words spoken in homes where TVs were on for most or all of the day.

“More and more now we have got not only TV and video games, but we have iPhones and iPads, and we have parents spending time on iPhones and iPads rather than engaging directly face-to-face . . . with their child,” Ms Beale said. “Because these devices are so tantalising to children, they are spending long periods of time with these devices if their parents don’t regulate that.”

Other speech pathologists agreed that, while there was as yet no evidence that devices were causing language delays, there was a developing suspicion that a link did exist.

Adelaide speech pathologist Debbie James said she “took a more cautious view” because of the limited evidence, but said there was “pretty clear evidence there’s about 20 per cent of children that have delayed speech and language skills”, compared with other children of the same age.

Her research had found a “strong association between the frequency with which parents speak with their children when they were nine months old, and the child’s language skills two years later”.

Click on the link to read The Top 50 Best Apps for Children

Click on the link to read Smartboards Must Become More than Just Classroom Decoration

Click on the link to read There is Still Some Love for the Forgotten Class Whiteboard

Synopsis:
The New York Times announces that — in a lavish ceremony attended by New York’s Who’s Who, Sheldon, a wealthy philanthropist, marries Jennifer, a successful Park Avenue psychiatrist from a well-bred family and the finest schools. There’s only one problem….Jennifer isn’t any of those things. Inspired by actual events, this dark comedy explores the cult of fame and lengths one woman will go for it.

Filmmaker Richard Atkinson collaborated with Ronnie Cohen and Jane Beale to adapt their play Dogs Lie, into the screenplay for the film starring Samrat Chakrabarti, Frank Boyd and Ewa Da Cruz. The film has garnered numerous awards including an Honorable Mention at the Los Angeles Movie Awards; Best Film USA Award at ITN Distribution Film and New Media Festival, NYC; Audience Award for a Feature Film at the ITN Distribution Film Festival NYC.

JANE BEALE (co-playwright) Jane’s interest in the theater started early, back in her hometown in Ohio, but her writing career began over lunch with long-time friend, Ronnie Cohen. They were moved to write their first play ever based on an incredible item in the NY Times: a new bride was “outted” for lying about her credentials in a splashy wedding announcement. That collaboration became Correction, which had a reading way off-Broadway in 2004. The success of Correction led Jane and Ronnie to write the musical The Street, which won some festival awards and was later produced, off-Broadway. The inspiration for Back Bay Nights was a scary, funny, ultimately successful night Jane spent at a New York sleep clinic. She was there to deal with a marriage-bending snoring problem. She left exhausted, with gummy fixative in her hair and funny stories for her writing partner Ronnie. While Jane was still recovering from the experience, Ronnie had gone into plot and character overdrive. This story was too good not to exploit. So the one-act play, Dogs Lie, was conceived. It was a big hit at the Midtown International Theater Festival, won some awards and was granted 6 additional productions. Jane’s husband missed a performance to attend a Leed’s University alumni gathering, and there met Richard Atkinson of Top Movie films. The rest, as they say, was history and Richard executive-produced and directed the film version of Dogs Lie. There are several other projects on the table for Jane and Ronnie, and they look forward to continued collaboration.

RONNIE COHEN (co-playwright) Ronnie and her co-writer Jane Beale have been friends for over two decades. They first met in Boston where they were working for the same crazy ad agency and living around the corner from one another in Back Bay. They started writing together in 2004. Their first comedy, Correction, about a fancy Park Avenue couple who lie about everything, became a Finalist in the Siena College International Playwright’s competition in 2005. The screenplay version of Correction was recently selected as a finalist in the Beverly Hill Film Festival, 2012. Their next comedy, Getting Into Harvard (Country Day), morphed into the musical, The Street, which Ronnie wrote and produced in 2007. The Street is about two women who take on the big guns of Wall Street. It won 6 “best of” nominations including best musical and best lyrics/score, which Ronnie had also written, from the MITF. Following, Ronnie & Jane wrote a short one-act play, Dogs Lie, which had its first showing July 2009 followed by a longer repertory run in November. It was then picked up by Richard Atkinson for Top Movie and Ronnie & Jane found themselves writing the screenplay for Dogs Lie. Dogs Lie made its way through several film festivals including LA Femme, Filmi in Toronto, The Big Apple, ITN and others winning several awards including BEST FILM USA (!) It has been released into distribution by Vanguard and available from Amazon.com. Currently, Ronnie and Jane are working on Witnessed By The World, a thriller about Jack Ruby and a team of screenwriters who get caught up in his story. In their spare time, they write tv comedies, such as, “Back Bay Nights”, which they recently pitched in Los Angeles.

Other Articles by Lia Chang
Party Photos: Richard Atkinson’s DOGS LIE, Starring Samrat Chakrabarti, Frank Boyd and Ewa Da Cruz
DOGS LIE, Starring Samrat Chakrabarti, Frank Boyd and Ewa Da Cruz, Nabs ”Best Film (USA)” and ”Feature Film Audience Award” at 2011 ITN Distribution Film and New Media Festival
Samrat Chakrabarti in Ajay Naidu’s Ashes, Italo Spinelli’s Gangor and Shome Banerjee’s Hotel New York 2012 at Washington D.C. South Asian Film Festival (DCSAFF 2012)
Daniel Hsia’s Shanghai Calling, Simon Yin’s Supercapitalist & Michael Kang’s Knots to Screen at 35th annual Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) in New York, which runs July 25 – August 5, 2012
35th Asian American International Film Festival Line-up in New York
Janet Yang to receive 2012 Asian American Media Award at AAIFF’12 Opening Night Presentation of Shanghai Calling on July 25, 2012
NYMF: Prison Dancer starring Jose Llana, Jeigh Madjus, Marc delaCruz, Catherine Ricafort, Moses Villarama, Cosmo Clemens, Enrico Rodriguez, Albert Guerzon, Andrew Eisenman and Nathan Ramos at Theatre at St. Clement’s, July 20-28, 2012
Three Year Swim Club, Encounter, TEA, Christmas in Hanoi and Chess set for East West Players 47th Anniversary Season
Photos: All-Access Pass to Disney’s Aladdin at The Muny with Thom Sesma, Francis Jue, Robin De Jesus, John Tartaglia, Jason Graae, Curtis Holbrook, Eddie Korbich, Samantha Massell and Ken Page
Rick Shiomi helms Mu Performing Arts’ Asian American Cast of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, July 17-August 5, 2012
Performing Arts Images from the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection on Display at the Library of Congress to Celebrate APA Heritage Month
Photos: Yellow Fever Playwright Rick Shiomi Explores New Territory with An All-Female Cast
Photos: BD Wong, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Brandon Victor Dixon, Tom Viola at “Passing It On: An Evening of Mentorship to Benefit Rosie’s Theater Kids”
Photos: Highlights of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan (3pm) with Andre Bishop, Mary Beth Hurt, Jennifer Lim, Angela Lin, Philip Kan Gotanda, Thom Sesma, Sab Shimono, Richard Thomas, Jay O. Sanders, and more
Photos: Highlights of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan (8pm) with Oskar Eustis, Patti LuPone, Lisa Emery, Ann Harada, Paolo Montalban, Thom Sesma, Sab Shimono, Henry Stram, Richard Thomas, John Weidman and more
Photos: In Rehearsal with Director Bartlett Sher and the cast of Shinsai: Theaters for Japan
David Henry Hwang Set as Signature Theatre’s Residency One Playwright for the 2012-2013 Season
Photos: In Rehearsal with BD Wong at Dixon Place for Live Concert Recording of Herringbone
Photos: David Henry Hwang, Oskar Eustis, BD Wong, Brian d’Arcy James, Francis Jue, Jennifer Lim and Leigh Silverman at WNYC’s The Greene Space
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Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist.
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