La gentille dame du Job Centre Plus s’étant résignée à me tendre mon chèque de 225 livres toutes les semaines (bon, en fait il arrive par la poste, mais c’est l’idée), elle est en droit de nourrir certaines attentes à mon égard. Par exemple, que je recherche activement un emploi. C’est là que les choses se corsent. Si on entend par « activement » le fait de surfer pendant des heures sur Internet, alors je remplis mon devoir. En revanche, si cela veut dire envoyer des candidatures…. un peu moins. Parce que, pour faire partir des CV, il faudrait déjà que je sache à qui les destiner.

A ma décharge, je fais preuve de prudence : lorsqu’on a déjà aligné trois reconversions professionnelles à 26 ans, il paraît en effet légitime de peser le pour et le contre d’un quatrième revirement. Entre d’innombrables mois de stage et deux ans de CDI, j’ai ainsi été :

- assistante chef de produit marketing pour des biscuits au chocolat : jusque là, rien que de très classique (mais dévastateur pour ma ligne déjà courbe)

- chef de projet dans une entreprise de cours de cuisine : déjà un peu hors des sentiers battus

 - journaliste : c’est-à-dire tellement loin des dits sentiers qu’on pourrait dire que je m’étais carrément égarée.

Le problème, c’est que que je n’ai toujours pas retrouvé mon chemin. Vacances au soleil, vacances à la campagne, pèlerinage spirituel et même coaching… rien n’y a fait. J’ai pourtant envisagé suffisamment de métiers différents pour être en mesure de publier mon propre guide des études : ostéopathe ? Je n’aime pas toucher les gens que je ne connais pas. Institutrice ? Les enfants m’agacent vite, je ne suis pas sûre de tenir quarante ans… diététicienne ? Il ne suffit pas, hélas, d’adorer manger. J’en passe, et des meilleures.

Aucun éclair de génie.

Reprenons à zéro. Je suis diplômée d’une bonne école de commerce, et j’habite à Londres ; le secteur financier serait une solution assez évidente. Le hic, c’est que j’ai déclaré, très jeune déjà, une profonde et irréversible allergie à tout ce qui touche à la finance. Et puis, de toute manière, c’est pas comme si le secteur manquait cruellement de bras en ce moment.

Une seule faible lumière au bout du tunnel : un ancien responsable de stage, avec qui j’ai déjeuné avant mon départ de Paris, m’a proposé de faire passer mon CV au bureau de Londres. Il s’agit d’un cabinet de conseil en ressources humaines, dans lequel je recommencerais tout en bas de l’échelle – pas très gratifiant, mais quand on se reconvertit, difficile de faire la fine bouche. J’attends de ses nouvelles depuis déjà deux semaines, et, en attendant, je postule chez les concurrents. Cela me permet de bercer l’illusion que je veux reellement travailler dans cette branche, et puis ça fera sans doute meilleur effet lors d’un éventuel entretien que de répondre : « ben, comme je suis complètement surqualifiée pour le poste que vous me proposez, je me suis dit que ça ne servait à rien de postuler ailleurs ».

Seulement voilà : en Angleterre, personne ne semble connaître le merveilleux système français des écoles de commerce et tutti quanti. Et encore moins le fait qu’une fois rentré à l’école, personne n’y fout plus rien, profitant à fond des centaines d’associations possibles (du ciné-club à l’aviron en passant par la mission humanitaire au Zimbabwe) et des soirées quelque peu arrosées. Si je n’ai pas à rougir de mon diplôme, il en va donc autrement de mes notes – et c’est un euphémisme.

Telle la cigale ayant chanté tout l’été, je me trouvai donc fort dépourvue lorsque le temps des candidatures fut venu : 

Dans ces conditions, comment convaincre un obtus filtre automatique, et qui a justement pour fonction d’éliminer facilement cancres et benêts, de l’excellence de ma candidature ?

C’est pas gagné, cette recherche d’emploi.

So, I remembered what it was about. Last week I got asked, by a Frenchette no less, to go to “Café español”. In the vain hope of making friends, I instinctively said “Sí…”. So, we arranged it. I was to meet her outside la gare at 19h45, and we would go “Chez Pedro”. As it happens, she did not know where “Chez Pedro” was. Niether did her friend that we happened upon. A few askings later (she did what I would never dare do here – ask a local for directions. I imagine it to be easier, French being her mother tongue and all…) we arrived at “Chez Pedro”. It was a tiny little pub, well, the closest France can get to a pub. It even had a dartboard. It was pleasant. We conversed in Spanish, played “Mikado”, or pick-up-sticks to us Anglosaxons, and played the game where you have to guess who you are (You know the one, where someone sticks a rizla with a famous person’s name on your forehead, and you have to guess who you are). It was most pleasant.

An issue has arisen though. I’m unsure whether to go this week. Tomorrow is a bank holiday (like most Mondays here…), so we are going to all go out tonight. Making the most of no things tomorrow. That said, tomorrow is my day off anyway, so it makes no difference to me. I think I will text Eva and cancel for this week.

So, yes, that explains today’s blogg title.

I found this engine on eBay, and I really like it! The seller claims it’s never been used, but as it has supposedly been stored for years, I’d hardly call it new. I do think it would be a great basis for some customization to bring a bit more authenticity to the look. Perhaps redoing the line to match mine/yours, whatever that may be.

Current price is just over $1K with 5 days left in the auction and 12 bidders. This engine seems to be gathering a fair bit of notice, so we shall see how high the auction goes…

Is it weird that the laziest part of my writing process is filling in the “tags” section? YOU-JEE-AY-CH-UH. I finish writing some 2000 words of gibberish and then I have to write another 20 words. Oh crapes! It is too much I tell you, just too fucking much. Tags “Kristen Stewart wants it”, “Kristen Stewart”, “wants it”, “dinosaurs”, “Martin Luther King, Sr.”, “Euripides”, “propeller planes”, “Twilight”, “Pepto Bismol”, “Marc Bulger”. Seriously, isn’t there a way that WordPress could just key in on heavily repeated words and take a wild guess with all its brainy computer software that that might be an appropriate “tag”? Who the hell am I kidding? WordPress sucks. Roast time!

WordPress’ software is so old Jesus owes it a dollar! WordPress’ software is so stupid it took it 2 hours to watch 60 Minutes! WordPress’ software is so ugly they had to tie a steak around its neck to get the dogs to play with it! WordPress’ software is so fat it went to the movies and sat next to everyone!

Now for the techies…

WordPress’ software is so old Timothy Berners-Lee coded it! WordPress’ software is so stupid it could trip over a wireless connection! WordPress’ software is so ugly even in WQXGA/2560×1600/16:10 aspect ratio it is still fucking ugly! WordPress’ software is so fat I need two TWO monitors to see it all!

Honestly, I should be allowed to stop the post right there. I think I deserve a pat on the back or inner thigh for something that clever. “Yo mama jokes” about WordPress and then the nerd versions of them. Come on! You’re not reading this shit anywhere else on the webz. And it is on fucking Kristen Stewart site. Frustration isn’t the word, but it is damn close.

I had an epiphany this morning that I think no other man on Earth has ever had: I want to hear what a woman has to say.

BOOM!

Craziness, right? Only in America folks! That woman in particular is Kristen Stewart. Well I don’t really want to “hear” what she has to say as much as I can’t hear what she has to say because my work computer that I’m writing on has no sound card, as mentioned one billion times before. Stephen Hawking makes more noise than this computer. So I want to read what Kristen Stewart has to say.

You may have noticed I talk a lot about what Kristen Stewart looks like, what she may be thinking and her wanting it so fucking much that I fear that it will cause a second gravitational force to pull in asteroids, the Moon and nearby planets to dive bomb the Earth. But I have not written in awhile about the words that literally come out of Kristen’s mouth instead of the word’s I imagine come out of her mouth.

I did read that Interview Magazine article, but good Jeepus it is long. It took me longer to read that article than it took Lu Chao to recite the 67,890^th decimal place of Pi. Zing! So, I took a short cut and typed “Kristen Stewart quotes” into Les Googles and I got a result that was fascinating to say the least. Fascinating like blah blah blah blah blah blah Jonas Salk! Wowzers!

What I learned from these classic K-Stew quotes, is that the two of us have a lot more in common upstairs than one would imagine myself (a 26 year old, Jesuit educated Philosophy major, who doesn’t have a drinking “problem”, but a drinking “solution” (keep drinking until you forget about the problem), who thinks Bill Cowher should be canonized, who thinks Phil Anselmo’s scream at the beginning of Great Southern Trendkill is one of the greatest achievements of man, and who has spent somewhere around 200 hours of his life playing Final Fantasy VII and maybe shed a tear or 1200 when Aeris was killed by Sephiroth. SEPHIROTH!) and Kristen Stewart (a 19 year old, fanciful forest elf/human who was bestowed the powers of the Gods to combat the ancient evils of the underworld) would have. Take it away Kristen:

Kristen: (about “Twilight” co-star Robert Pattinson and his female fans) They covet Rob. I think half of them are so jealous that they hate me. Girls are scary. Big groups of girls scare the crap out of me.

There is so much truth in this quote I want to yell it from the top of the Shinra building at the center of Midgar! Ahhhh… kill me. Anyway, what Kristen is alluding to an age-old dilemma of “bitches hatin’ bitches”. This has been discussed on many occasions in my life with Dawgz. Derived from the Latin “bitchius hatinius bitchae”, this phenomenon is experienced in all parts of the world.

The premise: if 2 or more women are present then they hate each other. This hate is only exponentially worse when there are more women and if a male is present.

Kristen is in the worst situation of “bitches hatin’ bitches” because she is one girl versus seemingly millions who are all focusing their hatin’ on Kristen because she is with Rob. These women who want Rob and are hatin’ on Kristen have formed the intellectual decompositionist identity against Kristen known as “She think she cute”. This is very hard for Kristen to overcome because once a woman believes that another woman “thinks she cute” she is treated as a hostile combatant until she shows great humility to the female wolf pack.

I agree Kristen. Girls are scary. I fear for Kristen’s safety against the swelling numbers of crazed Rob fans and the burgeoning Taylor fans. She is in the crosshairs of a lot of unstable women who have shrieking powers that when amassed into a Voltron-like capacity in the stands at a red carpet at maybe a teen choice awards could cause such a sonic blast that would be able to blow a hole through concrete. There is a secondary attack in which all the generally rogue women of the world will form as one moving cerebral sexual unit to lure the man away from the woman.

Thankfully, Kristen Stewart has the want. Kristen Stewart’s want is equally powerful in her ability to push and pull. She can use her want to not only counterattack a sonic screech blast from a gaggle of tweens who have discovered “love” in the form of drunken unwashed Rob, but she can use her want to continue to keep hold onto Rob’s inebriated affection.

Kristen (on her favourite designer): Oh, I don’t know­. Anything that’s beat up. I kind of like to look like a hobo.

Excellent. I too like to dress like a hobo. That is, of course, when I’m not forced to dress in suits. I find that I have two looks: 1. suit and 2. dirty clothes. It is an incredible disparity between what I look like at work and what I look like 5 minutes after I walk in the door from work. Immediately to my room I go, off with the suit (ladies) and on with athletic shorts (perfect to lay around in) and an old t-shirt. It is getting colder so sweat pants counteract that well with a sweatshirt or knit shirt that has sleeves that are too long.

Kristen (on wearing pajamas for so long while filming the movie “Panic Room”): Wearing pajamas for four months was weird, but very comfortable.

I know exactly what she means, but that four months of my life wasn’t called Panic Room. It was called “fall semester of freshman year of college”. Followed by “spring semester of freshman year of college”.

Kristen (on how she started acting): I had to act in a school play when I was about ten years old. I really didn’t want to do it. But everyone had to do it so I didn’t have a choice. A talent agent came and watched it and later gave me some work. It’s funny because I’d always known that I wanted a movie career. I just didn’t think that I would be in the movies.

Our lives are nearly identical. When I was in 7^th grade, I acted in a play and I didn’t want to either. It was the Mikado (which I think is pronounced “me-kah-doo”, just a guess) and I played a sort of pivotal role called the MIKADO! Are you fucking kidding me!?! Seriously. It gets better. “Chorus” was mandatory and everyone in “Chorus” had to be in the play. I didn’t want to be in “Chorus” or a play. I’m in 7^th grade and I don’t want to memorize the role of the Mikado so I gladly nominate myself to be the Mikado understudy because there was an idiot kid who actually really wanted to play the Mikado. So I thought I was all set just sleeping in class while everyone went around fagging it up in some play, am I right? But how does an understudy of a play in the titular role for a one time performance end up in the performance?

That fucking kid gets so worked up about stage fright that he throws up the whole night before the show and doesn’t show up to school the next day. I hate that fucking kid! So, I get a call telling me guess what? I have to star in the play that I have looked at the script for in the two months or so they’ve been practicing.

Skip to that night. I’m on stage dressed up as the greatest Chinese stereotype with my script in hand while the rest of the morons are running around saying their memorized lines because they were all the kids who wanted to be in the play and they had been rehearsing. I refuse to see the Mikado still to this day because of that night, but all I remember is standing front and center throughout almost the entire thing with the lights shining such a bright white hole into my retinas that I think my natural color balance is still fucked to this day.

There wasn’t a talent scout in the audience that saw me and then thought I should be in the movies. Instead there was my dad who was videotaping it because my mom was busy for the one time in her life to miss this ridiculous experiment. That night before my mom came home, my dad and I taped Arnold Schwarzenegger’s classic True Lies over my Mikado performance thinking we were taping over the blank half of the VHS tape. All true.

These are some great and profound quotes from Kristen, but how do her quotes stack up against one of the greatest quotists of all times: George Bernard Shaw?

“People always get tired of one another. I grow tired of myself whenever I am left alone for ten minutes, and I am certain that I am fonder of myself than anyone can be of another person.”

BORING! I’m bored already.

“Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.”

True. The U-S-A is the best, but heard it before. Got any new original ideas Bernie?

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

Yuck. Tell it to the judge, am I right? Say it, don’t spray it! Am I right? Am I left?

“The secret to success is to offend the greatest number of people”

This I agree with up until the point where I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life in a mansion full of money and just buying people to entertain me and then sending them away when I’m finished… on second thought that sounds just about perfect! Thanks Georgie.

But I can’t leave off with a slightly stimulating Shaw selection.

Kristen (on pursing acting as a career): I’d like to. But that’s definitely not all I want to do. It’s not the most intellectually stimulating thing that you can possibly do. I want to go to college. I’m going to take four years off. I don’t want to miss that. I want to be a writer. I think that’d be awesome.

Oh naïve Kristen Stewart. College is just an excuse to get crazy drunk and have promiscuous sex with young people while having no responsibilities and acting like an arrogant prick thinking you know all the answers to life’s political/philosophical/religious questions because you took the first round of general requirement classes. Kristen you can do all that and probably do all of that already being an actor. It is pretty similar.

And being a writer? That ain’t awesome. Trust me.

Plus you have a gift to want like no other. Don’t ruin that by going to college. Only those trust fund schmucks, scholarship nerds and steroid injected meathead jocks would be able to bathe in the glow of your want. As an actress we all can sharity in your want charity.

So fuck college. Just make a movie about being in college. That’s probably the same thing at this point anyway. They may even give you an honorary diploma for it.

Heraldry was not only confined to Western Europe but to those sections which were feudal in origin and had close links to the Catholic Church. Poland has Heraldry because she is linked with the West through the fact that alone of the Slavic nations she is Catholic, and has thus received western civilization. In Ireland, Wales and the Highlands of Scotland, Heraldry has been imitative, and the arms of ancient Celtic families are found to be much more recent than the pedigrees of these families would seem to warrant. The reason is that the arms have been adopted in the later Middle Ages in imitation of those of non-Celtic families which belonged to the Western feudal tradition.

There is one important exception to the rule laid down above. In Japan for many ages the mon has been used, which corresponds to the crest (part of the coat of arms in Europe) and is the family symbol of the Japanese people. The Mon is depicted in two tinctures, one colour and one metal, with one of the tinctures serving as the field. It is normally constructed of a primary charge group, on occasion surrounded by an annulet or other enclosure. The mon was used as both a badge and a device and represented either a person or (more commonly) a dynastic house. If defined strictly by western heraldic standards, a mon would be considered closer to a badge than a device.

In Japan, the long feudal period during which the Mikado was kept a prisoner under the rule of the Shoguns all the conditions flourished which in Europe made the Medieval period so picturesque and so uncomfortable for peaceful persons. The Japanese knights were certainly no less venturesome than their European counterparts and their ladies no less beautiful, added to which the Japanese had a love of fighting verging on the insane.

so after a bit of driving, i came home and then went out to celebrate my friend’s birthday. his name is mike (michael, whatevers) and he’s a super responsible, hard-working, respectful guy. he’s a great guy minus the fact that he’s a bit short and has weird hair. he’s pretty buff though, so i suppose that makes up for it? anyway, he doesn’t rely on his parents at all. he makes his own money and pays for everything and he just has motivation. plain and simple.

when i compare myself to him, i feel somewhat ashamed of myself because he does everything himself. he’s so mature. and he looks and acts like my cousin too. you know, the smart one? but, damn, he’s an amazing person because his life is actually really hard. like my old friend, suki, he has a brother with ADHD. and not regular ADHD.

this brother always curses and bothers people. especially michael. and i feel so apologetic to him because he has to live with this abuse all the time. and it was his birthday and his brother treated him so badly. he doesn’t even think when he says these kinds of things. i mean, i know that he can’t control it or anything, but where did this come from? it’s just thoughtless blabber.

this wasn’t the only time i have met his brother (he’s 13 btw). some months ago, it was bonodori and while i was on my way home, i noticed the back of michael’s head. and, of course, i walked a bit faster to say ‘hi’. and i did. but then, the kid next to him goes, “hey, are you michael’s bitch?” i mean, what kind of person would say that sort of thing the first time meeting someone? i just thought he was an idiot, but now, i suppose there’s another side of the story.

so michael’s family owns a teppanyaki place down by the supermarket that they OWN. you know, LAM’S SEAFOOD MARKET, hao? hahaha i know you shop there, right? anyway… it was an interesting party to say the least. they closed down the restaurant for his birthday and he invited like 14-15 friends (most guys, 3 girls…) and the other half was his dad’s business associates. i felt apologetic again because michael had to help out at his own party and BLAHHH. he even had to bring out his own cake. i felt that his brother should have carried it out, but he probably would have dropped it… -.-

his dad was super cute though! as mike brought the cake out, he kept banging a gong and banged the gong while we sang happy birthday. HELLA FUNNY. and then, one person i didn’t know told me and mei to kiss him. I WAS DYING!! hahahahahhahahahaha but mei was dying more.

but yes. i really felt that michael deserves so much more respect from his brother. and for a 13 year old, he’s big. and i mean BIG. he’s bigger than michael and he gets to say what he wants, which saddens me. like every sentence, there was cursing and it was hard for me to watch/hear this guy just blab his mouth off. so much, that i had to hug michael several times. lol

AND HIS DOG, SONNY/SUNNY IS SO EFFING ADORABLE. it’s a silky terrier and should have had long hair… until his brother cut off a lot of his hair. -.-;; mike found it on the street like 6 months ago at 1-2 in the morning after work. and he brought it home! ee!! soo cuuute. i kind of felt that sunny didn’t really like the brother because when i held him, i could feel his heart beat quicken when the brother came around.

seriously, what a menace.

this weekend was a good one. 3 days.. ahh… and then, back to school. DAMN! but wednesday is gonna be good because it’s the PSAT for sophomores and juniors. and seniors just have to get to school at 11:30 for 3rd period (5 minutes) and then a froshing assembly and then 5th period which will be set aside to discuss the assembly. and you’d think that it would be the perfect day to skip, but if you don’t go that day, no homecoming for you! i ain’t going anyway. so whatever.

SPIRIT WEEK!

monday – office day
tuesday – would you still be my friend if i wore this? day
wednesday -pajama day
thursday – senior citizens day
friday –  purple and white!! w00000000000t

it’ll be great, yes? but happy birthday michael.

Quer und kreuz

Da bin ich aber nicht rauf …

Musical Theatre: The Mikado at Artisan Center Theater

by Christopher Soden

Ah the lofty hi-jinks of Gilbert and Sullivan. The insouciant erudition. The crafty wink and tongue set firmly in cheek. Certainly these two brought comic opera to new heights, spoofing grandiosity and tortured melodrama. They had a flair for poking fun at the pompous and the precious, the vain and the quaint. Their genius lay in their ability to celebrate and yet deflate their subjects, all with a completely straight face, and all in good fun. Their operettas felt light, and yet something nudged them to realms beyond cleverness. Not that they ever lacked for wit. Perhaps it was the simple strategy that each character took themselves seriously, with gusto, even in the context of a world that makes them seem absurd.

A possible exception is the “Three Little Maids” from The Mikado who understand their role in society includes : “girlish glee” and the detachment of a line like : “Life is a joke that has just begun.” While they gamely understand that life is far too important to be taken at face value, they too, understand their function is key. Even if that function is to be wise and foolish (the definition of sophomoric). After admittedly seeing The Mikado for the first time, I wasn’t altogether sure that Japanese culture and Gilbert & Sullivan were a neat fit. To put it differently, you don’t always know where G & S are coming from (those sly boys) and they probably loved it that way.

It’s one thing to exploit the foibles of your own culture, quite another to risk condescension towards one that may seem (in some ways) inexplicable. I’m not suggesting xenophobia here, only that Gilbert & Sullivan’s habit of working up the eccentricities of a character or culture might not work as well here. Seems when you give your characters names like Nanki-Poo, Yum-Yum and Pish, Tush and Pooh-Bah you’re sending signals to the audience, but again, G & S were certainly never hesitant to skewer British culture in shows like H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. The Mikado then would seem to be a concoction comprised of fantasia, congenial musical comedy and social whimsy. Trust me, I’m just trying to keep score.

As I have tried to explain, G & S often transcends the genre of comic opera, but every component : delivery, demeanor, tone, orchestration, has to be meticulous and contingent on the others. It’s a lot more difficult than it appears. There is a lot to enjoy and appreciate in ACT’s Mikado, the staging (and choreography?) by Director John Wilkerson, the playful, sometimes lavish, humor is fun and the proceedings are kept lively, jaunty and personable. The canned music (used for practical reasons I’m sure) is not successful here, though the timing of the performers is fine. I got the impression some of the cast members had a more intuitive grasp of the loopy, deadpan content. I daresay even when the waters are choppy Mr. Wilkerson’s instincts are good.

Artisan Center Theater’s production of The Mikado has been double cast, so I will list the actors I saw Saturday night, September 5th, below. (Illness has kept me from providing them with a prompt review and for this I am humbly begging their pardon.) The Mikado features a valiant, diligent cast. Especially noteworthy were Lauren Morgan (Yum-Yum), Amira Sharif (Pitti-Sing), Bob Beck (Pish) and Jonathan Kennedy (The Mikado). Brian Hales as Ko-Ko, The Lord High Executioner and Chelsea Duncan as Katisha, were quite delightful, bringing lots of wry gumption and mastery to their characters.

The set design, by John Wilkerson and Jason Leyva was practical, but still imaginative and eloquent, with a bridge, brook and fountain, a palace and turntable stage, as well as delicate, tranquil murals. Jennifer and Nita Cadenhead’s costumes were wonderfully varied and appealing to the eye, whether using elaborate weaves and patterns, or bold, striking monochromatic fabrics. These ladies knew how to incorporate the outlandish and other-worldly in their designs, which only enhanced the jubilant aspects of the show. Special praise must go to Ryan Smith for the hair and make-up design. Considering the need for numerous wigs and exotic cosmetic creations, Mr. Smith’s job must be painstaking indeed.

Artisan Center Theater of Hurst presents; Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, playing September 4th – October 10th. 418 East Pipeline Road, Hurst, Texas, 76053. 817-284-1200. www.artisanct.com. Box Office Hours: Monday-Friday : 10AM – 6 PM, Saturday : 10 AM – 2 PM.

Directed by John Wilkerson, The Mikado stars : Brad Stephens (Nanki-Poo), Lauren Morgan (Yum-Yum), Amira Sharif (Pitti-Sing), Arlette Morgan (Peep-Bo), Bob Beck (Pish), David Priddy (Tush), Gary Payne (Pooh-Bah), Jonathan Kennedy (The Mikado), Brian Hales (Ko-Ko, The Lord High Executioner), Chelsea Duncan (Katisha), and The Chorus : Jessica Peterson, Jennifer Cadenhead, Randal Jones, Mary Kreeger, Amy Jones, Lori Jones, and Traysa Waak. Set Design : John Wilkerson and Jason Leyna, Costume Design: Jennifer Cadenhead and Nita Cadenhead, Hair and Makeup Design, and Set Dressing : Ryan Smith. Lighting Design : Jason Leyva

Theater Review: The Mikado

by Clyde Berry of John Garcia’s The Column

Having been out of town all summer, I was excited to return to the Metroplex for a brief period where I was able to review Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in Denton. I was equally excited to be able to return to the Artisan Theater Center in Hurst. Sadly, I was not back in time to be able to see what I heard was a very good West Side Story. So it was with delight that I requested to review their The Mikado.

I admire Artisan for their company’s mission principles, and do think they are successful in producing an incredibly full season of programming for both adults and kids, of both musicals and straight plays. After all, there I was, sitting in a space that a week earlier had been a completely different production. That sort of turnaround is not easy. I also rarely see empty seats at Artisan when I go there.

While I’m not convinced that their double casting really works, I do appreciate the fact they’re doing it offers opportunities to a great deal more folks to be involved on stage, which I do like. I’m also not a fan of scrubbing a script for content, but am very cognizant that you have to grow your target audience and not offend them with content that is not the family friendly programming you guarantee that you have.

That’s why The Mikado is an excellent choice of show for Artisan. This operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan is a delightful tale full of witty banter and lovely singing. There is no content that is offensive, and there are lots of great messages to be found. The Mikado was written to satirize English politics and manners. By setting their tale in Japan, the authors made it safe to poke fun at their own society without offending. You’ll also recognize many of the tunes, such as “Three Little Maids,” “Tit-willow,” and “A Wand’ring Minstrel I.”

In Mikado, Nanki-Poo, the heir to the throne of Japan, has fled the royal court and an arranged marriage. He ends up in Titipu where he falls in love with Yum-Yum, who is already engaged to Ko-Ko. Ko-Ko is the town executioner, also condemned himself to be executed for flirting. Unable to kill himself first, he cannot execute anyone else, therefore keeping the town safe. When Ko-Ko receives word from the Emperor that he must carry out an execution, or the town is doomed, complications emerge. Who will get executed? Will Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum get together?

This is a beautifully designed production! The entire space has been lovingly covered in murals by Michelle McElree and Lilly Strapp. Their color pallet and images are quite striking and do well to set the scene and generate excitement about where we will be transported to in the story. Jennifer Cadenhead, Nita Cadenhead, and Ryan Smith have the daunting task of creating numerous elaborate Japanese period costumes, which they successfully accomplish. Each performer looks wonderful in their outfit, and the choices of color and character touches are entirely appropriate and fun. No one seems to have received the bad or leftover pieces, a testament to a thorough design.

Ryan Smith’s hair and make-up designs are well researched, period appropriate, and quite delightful. I’m sure his wigs have to serve multiple performers, no easy design task. His make up design, as fun as it is, could use a supervisor on sight, as there was not uniformity in its execution amongst the cast members.

John Wilkerson and Jason Levya’s set and light designs are simple and fun. The Artisan challenge is, as always, staging in the round. This is never easy, and these gentlemen have put together an effective design that should serve the production well. There are two buildings in corners, a lovely garden bridge in another, and a simple circular platform unit at center. This unit also works when it was used as a revolver a few times within the show.

As to the execution of the story, I was disappointed. While I am not a fan of musicals done to tracks, I understand the inability to afford a pit. I don’t understand the lack of a musical director for an operetta. One was neither listed in the program, website, nor acknowledged as being overlooked in the curtain and intermission speeches. Almost every song had difficulty, mostly with performers missing the first line of a song and coming in late. Diction was also inconsistent. There were also several instances where folks were ahead or behind the track, or forgot lyrics altogether. That is not to say there were not good vocal performances in the piece, but a great deal of cleanup, would really help sharpen things.

A decision could also have been made for folks to either affect British accents or not, since there’s a mix of British and Texas accents.

There were questions I had about John Wilkerson’s direction. The overall production struck me as an opportunity to show off “bits.” We move throughout the evening from bit to bit at the sake of the overall story. In fact, during the intermission raffle, the staff person running the raffle spent a great deal of time bantering with the young raffle ticket puller about how it took him numerous times to figure out what the story is, and that he still wasn’t sure. (Joking or not, I’m not sure I’d want the audience to think about that too much.)

These bits often interrupt songs, bringing them to a grinding halt for a moment of shtick. Any sense of pacing is lost for the sake of these bits, which more often than not, are not successfully pulled off. The best example of this was the audience participation madrigal in Act II. Three volunteers were brought out of the audience to sing. No one readily volunteered to go, and those that did couldn’t read the music and did not know the song. So we awkwardly watch them stand and politely smile until the number is over.

The overall pace of the show is just slow enough to prevent laughs from the witty back and forth in the dialog, and many scripted jokes are lost, or not set up properly because of inserted material. Odd that for a show that has so much inserted into it, I was surprised that no significant changes were made to “As Some Day It May Happen” the “list song,” especially with the current political craziness. Then again, the style of presentation had little to do with making this a mock play of manners, which again, was the author’s intent.

For example a line about “The Japanese don’t use pocket handkerchiefs!” is said after several cast members have been using them to blot their faces, and someone is holding one at that exact moment. The cast, however, is able to move along without problems. They jump in and out of the songs as best they can, not letting frustration show for late vocal entrances or synching problems. They execute the bits they are staged to do, and could pull off many more of them, getting the laughs they are shooting for, by speeding up. People seem to be enjoying themselves and having a good time.

While there was no men’s chorus (two men does not a chorus make), several leads sing the opening number “If You Want to Know Who We Are.” Why not have the double cast male leads serve as chorus on their non-lead nights? The ladies of the women’s chorus are quite good at being enthusiastic and attentive. They move through their repetitive blocking (there was no choreographer) energetically and their “Comes a Train of Little Ladies” was one of the best numbers in Act I. They also do well reacting to the events around them in the end of each act.

For a production that was severely short of men, I was curious as to why the character of Pish-Tush was split into two roles: Pish and Tush. The men were neither “twins,” nor spoke in unison, thought they did split lines occasionally in quick succession. Bob Beck as Pish and David Priddy as Tush go above the call of duty filling in chorus singing and completing business that a gentleman like Pish-Tush would never do in other productions. Their pitching in gives them a lot more to do in this show, and they do it well.

As the Mikado, Jonathan Kennedy leers and sneers as he should. Chelsea Duncan’s Katisha is well matched to Kennedy, however it would have been more fun to see more of the rivalry between their two characters, especially during their joint entrance. Duncan sounds nice, and is well prepared for her solos.

Playing two of the three maids are Amira Sharif as Pitti-Sing and Arlette Morgan as Peep-Bo. These ladies are bright and work nicely as a group with Yum-Yum. They have some cute moments teasing Pooh-Bah and the other men.

On my evening Bill Sizemore played the officious Pooh-Bah. Sizemore is well cast in this role and has created a nice all around performance. His low voice was fun to listen to, and he is solid as the snob. He has some challenging dialogue, rolling off all his titles, and this will likely become a scene stealing moment by the end of the run.

Playing the lovers Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum are Craig Moody and Lauren Morgan. There is good chemistry between them, and they do well capturing their character’s youthful innocence. Morgan does a particularly fine job in her Act II solo “The Sun, Whose Rays Are All Ablaze,” bringing a nice moment of simple solid characterization.

Brian Hales plays Ko-Ko at every performance. His Ko-Ko is a lovable doddering goof. Hales is comfortable as the anchor in this production; and his standout moment in this production is the hilarious and desperate proposal of marriage to Katisha.

If you’re keeping a little list of shows to see at the end of your summer, The Mikado runs at the Artisan Center Theater through October 10.

John Wilkerson

by  Joy Donovan

John Wilkerson takes his bow, a deep Japanese bow, as Artisan Center Theater’s new artistic director by successfully bringing “The Mikado” to the Hurst theater for a multi-week run.

Wilkerson has assembled a talented lineup of actors to play an array of Japanese parts in this famed musical operetta written by Gilbert and Sullivan. Set in the town of Titipu, “The Mikado” features characters with such fanciful names as Yum-Yum, Ko-Ko and Peep-Bo.

“The Mikado” centers on Nanki-Poo, a young man who has banished himself from the town of Titipu. Nanki-Poo has fallen in love with Yum-Yum, a beautiful young lady unfortunately engaged to be married to her guardian, the tailor Ko-Ko. The plot twists and turns through circumstances that could only happen in a town where flirting is considered a capital crime.

Stealing the show is Brian Hales, who deftly plays Ko-Ko as a breathless buffoon in the mold of the late comedian Red Skelton. Artisan Center Theater’s production is double cast, but every audience will be treated to Hales’ droll wit since he takes the part for both casts.

Also a bright spot was Gary Payne in the role of Pooh-Bah. For a character who defends his personality with the line “I can’t help it; I was born sneering,” Payne is appropriately and amusingly haughty. Other standouts were the strong-voiced Brad Stephens as Nanki-Poo, the soprano Lauren Morgan as Yum-Yum and the droll Jonathan Kennedy as The Mikado.

In addition to the comedy that borders on a delightful silliness, highlights included musical numbers, especially the very feminine “Three Little Maids From School are We,” featuring the trio of Yum-Yum, Peep-Bo and Pitti-Sing, and the amusing “I am So Proud,” spotlighting a humorous male quartet. The two-act operetta features dozens of songs, so casting requires strong vocalists to carry the show. For the most part this worked well, but occasionally voices were overwhelmed by the musical accompaniment, and that musical track presented some distracting technical problems.

Costumes featuring kimonos, kabuki-style makeup, Asian wigs and pretty parisols help transport the story to another time and place. The set features Asian images, too, surrounding the Artisan’s theater-in-the-round with this foreign culture.

“The Mikado” is an old, old tale. The show premiered in March of 1885 in London, and it opened later that same year same year in New York. But the humor stands up well, even more than 100 years later. Artisan Center Theater’s current production, continuing through Oct. 10, will bring a smile to your face, and that’s worth a Japanese bow or two.

Rapidshare:
http://rapidshare.com/files/277661789/MKD-010.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/277661722/MKD-010.part02.rar
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http://rapidshare.com/files/277661992/MKD-010.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/277662249/MKD-010.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/277662095/MKD-010.part10.rar

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The Artisan Center Theater opened its production of The Mikado over the weekend.  Tonight I make my debut as Nanki-Poo in the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.  My wife, Arlette Morgan, is making her musical theater debut this production as well, playing the part of Peep-Bo.  Thankfully, we are in the same cast so we have actually gotten to spend a little time together during the hectic rehearsal process.  Come on out and see us!

Take a whimsical trip to far-away Japan and enjoy The Mikado, a deliciously tangled love story which is actually a satire of senseless laws, self-important officials, and political “spin.” The Mikado features those favorite G&S characters, Yum-Yum, Nanki-Poo, and Ko-Ko, the Lord High Executioner with his “little list” of potential victims, not to mention the fearsome Katisha, the hilariously ridiculous Pooh-Bah, and the emperor himself, with his own list of punishments to fit the crime.

Gilbert’s lyrics and Sullivan’s melodies have delighted over one hundred years of operetta lovers but they are still as fresh as “the flowers that bloom in the spring.”  Widely agreed to be Gilbert and Sullivan’s masterpiece, The Mikado is said to be the most popular operetta ever written.

After practicing his craft in New York City for many years, Broadway veteran and Mikado director John Wilkerson, along with his wife Margaret Shafer, relocated to Dallas to be closer to family. He completed his graduate work in vocal performance at the State University of New York and place third in the Metropolitan Opera competition. In working with some of the finest performers, directors, choreographers, musical directors, and technicians from the Broadway and British stages, he has worked at every level of performance from major concert halls to cruise ships, Broadway shows, national tours, Las Vegas, and overseas.

Running through October 10, this production is double-cast so I trade off performances with Craig Moody, a splendid talent whom has been a joy with which to work.  I generally perform in all Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evening shows.  Please check my event calendar to confirm my performance dates.  Tickets may be purchased online at www.artisanct.com.

This blog is mainly about business topics which interest me, but at the same time I think I am entitled to indulge some of my other interests from time to time.

I am a fan of Gilbert & Sullivan. This liking was inherited from my father who had a collection of LPs of D’Oyly Carte performances of a number of the operettas. My taste includes a number of the more updated versions since the original copyright expired. In particular I remember the version of the Mikado, set in a colonial outpost, re-titled The Black Mikado and starring Michael Denison amongst others.

The patter songs of course have been reworked many times, partly because the nature of them lends the style and music to such re-working. Yet many songs retain an appositeness still.

This all came to mind when I read this Telegraph article on G&S and how the author had once seen a performance by Americans in Bangkok. This reminded me of seeing Pinafore in Bermuda many years ago.

Furthermore it called to mind Mike Leigh’s affectionate homage in his film Topsy Turvy starring amongst others Jim Broadbent and Timothy Spall.

I was going to use a clip from Topsy Turvy, but then I came across this modern updating which is really rather fun and has some good topical references, but it does repay careful listening, enjoy. Listen for the Mariah Carey quip.

It shows how versatile and timeless the G&S canon is.

Oh, and do we not all have our own little list?

ScreenShot:
http://hot-img.com/viewer.php?file=91428504735938708819.jpg

RapidShare:
http://rapidshare.com/files/262807406/MIKADOv8.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/262807400/MIKADOv8.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/262807402/MIKADOv8.part03.rar
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http://rapidshare.com/files/262807562/MIKADOv8.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/262807580/MIKADOv8.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/262807787/MIKADOv8.part09.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/262807718/MIKADOv8.part10.rar

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Millennium Park

Saw the music from The Mikado performed at the amphitheater at Millennium Park when my parents were in town. I’m not one for theatrical music but the park and amphitheater are an incredible place to see a show. A must see in Chicago.