Week of Dec. 5

Blogging has been urged by everyone who interviewed me on blog talk radio, as well as those whose books I review and whose dance events I cover for Art Times Journal. I have finally succumbed. stages and pages sums up my professional life and interests, so it seemed a natural name

STAGES..

I start after seeing A Free Man of Color and Time Stands  Still on stage and the film of Hereafter.

I learned to love history since I left school, having found 1776 a fantastic source of history and a wonderful theatrical experience. I cannot say the same for A Free Man Of Color, a meandering history lesson which never caught my interest. The sets and costumes had color but the script held grey foggy confusion. I've loved many a Guare play - but this one, even free, was not worth two hours in a theatre.

Hereafter was not the film I expected, but it had the fascination of a jigsaw puzzle and philosophy to which I can easily acquiesce. I’d been warned the ending was weak, but I found it romantically satisfying. Overheard one woman at the private screening saying it was a waste of time. Sorry she felt that way - I found it time entertainingly spent and hoped it would open a few closed minds which hover behind religious doors.

Time Stands Still, by Donald Margulies, which I read a week before, did not disappoint. Laura Linney created the character much as I imagined her. The men portrayed their characters with the proper  blandness. Neither the editor nor the writer was meant to have half the strength and color of character as the photographer, and so they played it. Christina Ricci did a great job of maturing as a woman during the course of the play. It depicts the dilemma of women with ambitious dreams and the truth that love is not always enough to make a great relationship.

Let me know your thoughts on these presentations.

PAGES

Favorite book of the year so far is KALEIDESCOPE by Paul Gehrman, which I read for the Bay Area book contest.  In fact, I think its the ATLAS SHRUGGED of the twenty-first century.  It is always exciting when a fellow author reflects and proclaims ideas you hold dear and the thought that too many people don't think for themselves but blindly follow dicta is certainly dear to me.