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Arts & Life
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- Written by: Editor
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Art Center invites the public to attend its second opening reception, “Innovative Landscapes,” on Saturday, May 9, from 6 to 8 pm.
The group show features work by 14 local and regional artists that stretch the tradition of landscape to include innovations in format, medium, technology, process, concept or vision. Functional ceramic, glass, and metal pieces by local artists are also on view.
Art works on view include John Hanses’ large format landscape photographs, shot on film and printed using pigment inks, Ricia Araiza and Michal Leventhal’s collaboratively painted abstract landscapes, Mary Mattlage's monotypes in concertina-bound handmade books, Lisa Kaplan’s relief paintings using colorful earth-clay from various elevations in Lake County, and Renata Jaworska’s metal works, bent into soft organic forms.
Alana Clearlake, William Martin, Laura Kennedy, Peter Shandera, Anthony George, Graham Lloyd, Geoffrey Huckabay, Rojax, and Uriah Mills present other intriguing visions, dreamscapes, observations, formats and media that explore “Landscape.”
Recently established by local art professionals for residents and visitors to enjoy, MAC is a vibrant hub for art, art activities and cultural enrichment.
“We look forward to bringing the arts into more people’s lives with each exhibition, event or class” said Renata Jaworska, one of MAC’s founding artists. “It was amazing to meet so many great people at our gala opening in March. Art lovers and visual and performing artists from all over the county came to welcome more art culture into our communities. I am excited to meet more of them on May 9.”
Compelling artwork, friends old and new, musical ambiance courtesy of David Neft, and organic and biodynamic wine poured by Beaver Creek Vineyards, promise a delightful evening of culture and community not to be missed.
MAC is centrally located at 21456 Highway 175, at the junction of Highway 29 and Highway 175 in Middletown, the gateway to Lake County.
MAC is open Thursday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m., and Sunday from 12:30 to 5 p.m.
To learn more about classes and events, to become a member or support Mac with a donation, visit www.middletownartcenter.org or call 707-809-8118.
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- Written by: Editor
UKIAH, Calif. – The Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department will present the 12th annual Festival of New Plays on Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16, at 8 p.m. in the College’s Little Theatre, Room 710 on the Ukiah campus.
The festival features 10 new plays by local playwrights.
Each play is approximately 10 minutes long and will be presented at both performances.
Some of the plays were developed in English professor Jody Gehrman’s writing classes; others were submitted by writers from throughout Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
Gehrman also is the production’s dramaturge, helping develop the scripts.
The plays are directed by Mendocino College directing students under the guidance of theater professor Reid Edelman.
The short plays cover a wide range of topics and performance styles. This year, the festival also will feature original lighting designs and scenic assistance by students in the college stagecraft class, under the direction of instructors Steve Wilson and David Wolf.
According to Edelman, “This annual festival is one of the college theater program’s most exciting projects, and this year’s line-up of plays is a very exciting mix.”
In “Skirt Steak Surprise,” by Kristin Hills, the year is 1958 and a couple is celebrating their anniversary, but there’s more to this “surprise” dinner than meets the eye. The director is Maria Monti; the cast includes Monique Marmon and Charley Sawyer.
Melany Katz is directing Jacquelyn Wells’ play “The Perfect Part,” a look behind the scenes at the inner workings and entangled relations in the theatre. Add in some lost love and a bit of painkillers, and this play is nothing but fun. The cast includes Garrett Schofield, Laurie Cipriani, Jason Davis and Stacey Sheldon.
In Maureen Studer’s play “The Hook Up,” under the direction of Amanda Katz, a suspense-filled comedy ensues when a couple gets a mysterious box delivered to their door. The cast includes Maxwell Hovland and Melissa Chapman.
Set in the late 1980s, Ian Stigliani’s play “Struck by the Love Truck” is a funny, heart-warming look at the innocence of young love and the complications that arise as young Collin learns that being yourself is the first step of attraction. Jason Davis directs a cast featuring Megan Regan and Todd Hale.
“Disturb the Universe,” written by Ukiah High School creative writing teacher Michael Riedell and directed by Chelsea Lovell, involves two men on a roof, each one convinced he needs to save the other. The cast includes Will Schlosser and Zeek Hadar.
In Jane Futcher’s “Oogitty Boogitty,” leaping to conclusions, missed connections and mistaken identities lead to amusing and mind-altering events in a hospital room shared by two older women. Virginia Hanley and Gabriel Suddeth are the co-directors. The cast includes Janet Denninger, Libby Guthrie, Ari Sunbeam, Marco Orozco and Sierra Alexander.
Don Samson’s “The Blind Date” shows what might happen when a no-longer-young woman snares a much-younger man using her much-younger photo online. Jonathan Whipple directs a cast featuring Jan Michele, Thomas Kenney, Pete Winslow and Gabriel Suddeth.
“The Bone Key: A Fractured Fairy Tale,” by Roseanne Wetzel, is a sequel to the Hansel and Gretel story – eight years later. The witch has changed the ending; she is still holding them captive, and has switched bodies with Gretel, who is determined to escape. The director is Mary Buckley. The cast features Ayla Decaire and Ellen Weed.
In Virginia Guleff’s “The Wellness Motivational and Proactive Living Hotline,” a distraught man calls a suicide hotline and is connected to a girl on the first day at her job. The play is both humorous and heart-breaking. The director is James Blake. The cast includes Jason Edington and Melany Katz.
Finally, the play “Auction Day,” by Scott Lummer, is a roller coaster (with its wheels about to fall off) ride for the headmaster of a private school, trying to keep standards high while keeping parents happy on the day of the school’s biggest fundraiser. The director is Jason Edington. The cast features Will Schlosser, Meghan Baker, Brad McClanahan and Kristin Hills.
Tickets are available for purchase in Ukiah at Mendocino Book Company and the Mendocino College Bookstore, and online at www.ArtsMendocino.org .
This production is recommended for ages 14 and up, as some of the plays are for mature audiences and include disturbing themes.
Admission is $10.
This production is expected to sell out quickly, so audience members are encouraged to purchase tickets soon.
For more information, call Reid Edelman at 707-468-3172.
Mendocino College is located at 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah.
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- Written by: Editor
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Unitarian Universalist Community of Lake County will hold a musical fundraiser on Saturday, May 30.
The folk and Americana coffee house concert will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Kelseyville Senior Center, 5245 Third St.
The event will feature performances by Don Coffin, Andi Skelton, Three Deep, Andrea Blair, Jim Williams and Joel Diamond.
There also will be a special guest – Lake County Poet Laureate Casey Carney.
The cost is $20 per person. Tickets will be available at the door only.
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- Written by: Ted Kooser
Seventy years ago, when I entered Beardshear Elementary in Ames, Iowa, the school employed a custodian, Mr. Shockley, who had for an office a closet under the stairs.
I wish I could thank him for mopping up all our vomit and helping us buckle our galoshes.
Here’s a fine poem about custodians by David Livewell, from New Jersey, whose most recent book of poems is Shackamaxon (Truman State Univ. Press, 2012).
Custodians
Retired from other trades, they wore
Work clothes again to mop the johns
And feed the furnace loads of coal.
Their roughened faces matched the bronze
Of the school bell the nun would swing
To start the day. They limped but smiled,
Explored the secret, oldest nooks:
The steeple’s clock, dark attics piled
With inkwell desks, the caves beneath
The stage on Bingo night. The pastor
Bowed to the powers in their hands:
Fuses and fire alarms, the plaster
Smoothing a flaking wall, the keys
To countless locks. They fixed the lights
In the crawl space above the nave
And tolled the bells for funeral rites.
Maintain what dead men made. Time blurs
Their scripted names and well-waxed floors,
Those keepers winking through the years
And whistling down the corridors.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2014 by David Livewell, “Custodians,” from Southwest Review (Vol. 99, no. 2, 2014). Poem reprinted by permission of David Livewell and Southwest Review. Introduction copyright 2015 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.