Tag: DC

Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberley (NOW PLAYING)

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Droll and delicious, Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberley is a charming, confectionary celebration of fan favorite characters from Pride and Prejudice, multi-generationally honoring the legacy of Jane Austen’s humor, playfulness and wit in a warm-spirited holiday theatrical production. –Gia Jun, DCMetroTheater Arts.com

This holiday tale is a MUST-SEE for Jane Austen fans in the metro DC area!  It can be seen until DEC 23rd at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, MD.  My parents and I went last SUN afternoon; it was one of their pay what you can (PWYC) performances.  The fun, yet still true to the spirit of Austen, story was written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon (two friends/collaborators who have many works under their belts individually). There is only one set, BUT it has sections where various actions takes place.  The costumes look true to the times and very beautiful.    

The time is two years after the end of Pride and Prejudice.  A Christmas tree (a spruce) has been brought inside the house by an excited Elizabeth, which is (at first) quite surprising to the more traditional Mr. Darcy.  It’s a new German custom, she explains, and he quickly agrees that it should stay in the main drawing room. We learn that eldest Bennett sister, Jane, and the still-doting Mr. Bingley (Brandon McCoy, Eli from The Who and The What) are soon to be parents.  Vivacious youngest sis Mrs. Lydia Wickham is ALSO spending this Christmas at Pemberley (oh boy, watch out)! 

Mary, the middle sister of the Bennett family, has grown into quite an young lady.  She is intelligent, VERY observant, and brings interesting points to every conversation.  Lately, Mary has been wondering about her future life, aside from her pianoforte and the books in her father’s library.  However, her choices are limited in this time/society! 

Vaughan’s Arthur is a bumbling scene-stealer, emerging despite his endearing social awkwardness as a young man of principle and deep feeling. His partner in earnest geekiness is Kleiger’s Mary, possessed of a disciplined mind and a restless heart.  -Jayne Blanchard, DCTheaterScene.com

We are introduced to Arthur (a new character, NOT found in Austen) who is the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and cousin to Mr. Darcy.  Arthur is a 25 y.o. who studies at Oxford and is NOT the best at socializing.  Mary and Arthur seem like they could be a great couple!  However, there are a FEW obstacles to overcome first.   

Follow the link below to learn more!

http://www.roundhousetheatre.org/performances/miss-bennet/

The Eudora Welty Lecture Series at The National Cathedral: Salman Rushdie (October 20, 2016)

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Salman Rushdie continues to be a controversial figure, but in today’s world, I feel that voices like his (British, Indian, and atheist) need to be heard MORE than ever!  Depending on your age, you may know Rushdie from the fatwa (which was placed on him by Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran), his cameo on Bridget Jones’ Diary, or his short-lived marriage to Padma Lakhshmi (of Top Chef fame).  Or maybe you have a FEW of his books (BUT are intimidated to read)?  A few years ago, a book club I organized both read Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which is Rushdie’s YA book. 

*NOTE: Special thanks to my friend Lana for above photo and taking notes.

The Beginning of Rushdie’s Life as a Writer:

He realized that he would never write a good book until he knew who he was (not English, but Indian).

He was part of first generation of free Indian Children.

His father told bedtime stories (oral tradition strong in his family)- animal stories; tales of heroes.  His mother told local tales: gossip,  scandal, secrets (when he included  in stories, she said he “got in trouble”).  One of his academic grandfathers took him to university library, where he discovered Agatha Christie.  His other grandfather was a very religious man (prayed 5X/day, fasted, etc.) He was also open to any/all ideas; Rushdie admitted that he didn’t believe in God (age 10).

Read comics from early age.  He was lucky to have a lending library/bookstore nearby where he got into Perry Mason mysteries, Alice in Wonderland.

The Wizard of Oz (film) inspired him to write his first story at age 10.

His family had a tradition of kissing books and bread to apologize to it and place someplace where wouldn’t happen again (food for mind; food for the body).

Left Bombay 1961 for English boarding school at age 13 (his idea, not his parents’).  Maybe he had an”unnoticed love of adventure” b/c was quiet as a child?

Got into Cambridge, but didn’t want to go b/ c of racism faced at boarding school earlier.  He went and enjoyed it a lot; studied history; wrote for student newspaper.  He also got into Borges and Joyce at this time, and learned about incident of satanic verses (in his last semester).

His parents moved to Karachi, Pakistan; this was not an appealing place for him.  His father initially disapproved, but then supported his return to England after he graduated from Cambridge.

Wrote TV commercials and scripts in London for an ad agency (where he worked part-time).  In the early 1970s, he wrote and published, but these works were not successful because he hadn’t known himself enough.  He decided to understand what he was doing wrong and traveled to India, which entered state of emergency (1977).

Midnight’s Children: Started in 3rd person, but then told from Salim’s voice and it was better (voice not my own, but gave me voice).  Kept working  in advertising again to pay bills.  This book took 5 years to write it because was learning how to write.  He also needed to blend news with fiction.

Quotes:

Geography is key [to a person’s writing]. Writers (like Faulkner): Have roots/history and can mine the earth for a lifetime of stories.

Work we do about the past, changes the future.

 As we discover, we remember, as we remember, we discover.

Stories are not true- but can make you know truths that truths cannot tell.

Can’t write until you hear people speak, because can’t tell their story if you don’t hear their voice.

I think the greatest gift my family gave me was freethinking. 

[On his trip to India when writing Midnight’s Children]: From childhood, dig out memories from attics of mind.  Healing of rift within myself that separated me from my past…  drank deeply from well of India. 

Write what you know, but only if what you know is interesting. 

The More the Merrier (1943) starring Jean Arthur

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Do you realize that practically most of the trouble in the world comes from people lying to people? Just take Hitler, for instance.  -Dingle on morals

This funny and VERY well-written romantic/screwball comedy, directed by George Stevens (A Place in the Sun, Giant) is a MUST-SEE for any fan of classic film!  I saw it for the first time (on TCM) last week, then wondered why I’d never heard of it before. 

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Damn the torpedoes – full steam ahead!  –Dingle on seizing the moment

In WWII era Washington, DC, there is a housing shortage and “8 women for every man,” BUT Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) ends up w/ TWO unwanted roomies.  First, there is retired industrialist, Benjamin Dingle (James Coburn- Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner), then mechanic-turned-soldier, Joe Carter (Joel McCrea).  Mr. Dingle sublets half of his room to the younger man, considering him “a high type, clean cut, nice young fellow.” When Dingle plays (unlikely) matchmaker, hilarity and romance ensue!  

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There are two kinds of people – those who don’t do what they want to do, so they write down in a diary about what they haven’t done, and those who are too busy to write about it because they’re out doing it! -Dingle on life

 

 

“All the Way” (Arena Stage)

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LBJ meets w/ MLK in the Oval Office.

Johnson had civil rights. And voting rights. And Medicare. And a Constitutional Amendment which eliminated the poll tax, a device white politicians used to keep poor blacks out of the voting booth. And a Constitutional Amendment which provided a means to fill the Vice-Presidency, something we needed a scant five years after he left office. And the war on poverty. Incidentally, he appointed the first African-American Supreme Court Justice.

He was, first of all, rude, earthy, blunt and to the point, which is to say he was an American.

-Tim Treanor (DC Theater Scene.com)

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All civil rights leaders (you read about as a kid) did NOT agree w/ what tactics to use!

All the Way by Robert Schenkkan won the Tony, Drama Desk, among other awards.  It also broke Broadway box office records in 2015. The playwright is currently adapting this play as a feature film for HBO (produced by Steven Spielberg and starring Bryan Cranston). Robert’s previous Broadway experience was the Pulitzer Prize-winning epic The Kentucky Cycle (a series of plays which my mom and I saw MANY years ago at U of A).

The play tacks a ton of dialogue into the one hundred sixty minutes traffic of its stage… and to complicate things further the story is told in short scenes, necessitating the rapid movement of actors and scenery on stage and off.  This director Kyle Donnelly accomplishes with military efficiency, but sometimes the actors seem like they are declaiming, rather than in the moment (an occupational hazard, perhaps, in a play with so many speeches).  -Tim Treanor (DC Theater Scene.com)

The play peers at the leadership of Dr. King as he struggles to keep his own movement intact. Stokely Carmichael and SNCC head Bob Moses clamor to take to the streets, while conservatives like NAACP head Roy Wilkins and Rev. Ralph David Abernathy prefer a slower approach.  This for me was the MOST interesting part of the story.  This was NOT only an educational play, it was VERY funny!

 

Arabian Sights Film Festival (OCT 16-25)

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Hey all,

It’s Fall, which means cooler weather and better movies than the past Summer (which is generally geared toward 12 y.o. boys).  It’s also time for film festivals (here in the DC area)!  Last December, I reviewed Rock the Casbah, which was one of the films in the Arabian Sights Film Festival.  Omar Sharif has a cameo in the film.

Official web site of the festival: http://www.filmfestdc.org/arabiansights/index.cfm

*NOTE: All films will be shown at AMC Mazza Gallerie (5300 Wisconsin Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20015); metro riders need to get off at the Friendship Heights station and walk out using the Western Ave exit.

Below are trailers/some info re: the films that I’m MOST interested in:

The Intruder (SUN, 10/18, 5PM)

A Dutch cop of Moroccan descent goes deep undercover to infiltrate a drug-trafficking Moroccan family. The deeper he embeds himself in the family’s inner circles, the more he realizes a sense of belonging and a feeling of brotherhood that has until now eluded him. It is then he begins to question his allegiance to the police force he pledged to serve. 

Eyes of a Thief (FRI, 10/23, 6:30PM)

After ten years in prison, Tarek is desperate to find his daughter who was an infant when he was imprisoned. A lawless lifestyle seems to have seeped into ten-year old Malak, whom Tarek suspects is his estranged daughter. But her adoptive mother is being forced into an arranged marriage with the town’s main businessman with whom Tarek seems to have unfinished business.

Spread the word to those who enjoy intelligent, international cinema!

Thanks for reading,

EMMA