Nimes France

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After a week of exploring Paris, Terry and I traveled south to Provence to explore the smaller, and warmer cities. We used Avignon as our home base staying in Lumani, a bed and breakfast inside the ancient Medieval city walls.  One of the owners was a working artist and her studio was at the back of the public courtyard.  One evening it was illuminated and I sneaked in to catch a glimpse of her abstract paintings. Grape vines covered the old stone walls. Nimes was a short ride in our rental car, an automatic Porche, which was a hybrid car that unfortunately lurched whenever the foot was removed from the accelerator. When we got to Nimes, we parked in a shopping district but after examining the street signs, we decided to drive into an underground parking garage.

We walked to this historic Roman Amphitheater, Arenes Colosseum, built in 70AD and remodeled in 1863 to be used for bull fighting.   The ring is used twice annually today for bull fights. Pablo Picasso was inspired to create many bull fighting themed paintings after attending a fight at the Colosseum. The bull fighter in my sketch is a bronze statue and I didn’t catch the name of the artist. One woman approached me asking for a donation for her cause. She would have made a good Public Relations professional. Terry explored the inside of the Colosseum while I sketched the outside. It has seen plenty of wear and tear through the ages, but is just as functional as the day it opened.

Sacred Slave Stories

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“Sacred Slave Stories,” created by Dario J. Moore, tells the stories of actual slaves through original music and the emotional impact of dance. The Center for Contemporary Dance has received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, which it will use to produce Moore Dance Project’s “Sacred Slave Stories” for Orange County schoolchildren. This is the second year that “Sacred Slave Stories” has received a grant through the program. The contemporary dance program will be presented to 1,000 students from Orange County Title I public schools throughout February in partnership with the Wayne Densch Performing Arts Center in Sanford.

Student presentations of “Sacred Slave Stories” are further supported by funding from United Arts of Central Florida, the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs, Darden Restaurants, Inc. Foundation and Target Stores.

I went to the Center of Contemporary Dance to sketch a rehearsal of “Sacred Slave Stories.” The personal stories gathered are harsh and real. A woman related how severe a beating she got when she ate some bread she found while she was cleaning a home. The contemporary dance was narrative and powerful. A dancer raised a fist in anger but was held back by his lover. Male dancers moved huge imaginary loads on their backs, pausing under the weight. The dance is meant to convey hope while acknowledging the harsh and brutal realities of slavery.

The Center for Contemporary Dance 
presented its 2012-2013 Season Preview, which took place 
on Sunday, November 18, 2012 at Trinity Preparatory School in Winter
Park.  This season preview introduced  the organization’s Eleventh
Annual Season of Dance, and included sneak-peek performances of upcoming
works in the 2012-2013 event season.

Eiffel Tower

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Terry and I eventually make it to see the Eiffel Tower. We had seen it in the distance from the other side of Paris from the Pantheon. The whole tower lights up with blinking flash bulbs. We decided to go to the tower at sunset to catch the light show. Neither of us wanted to to go to the top of the tower. Large crowds stood in line at the base of the tower to get in the elevators that go up into the lattice work. The structure was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World’s Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world.

Police were walking along the hedges keeping an eye open for abandoned packages. In the park across the street vendors hawked metal models of the tower hanging from metal rings. I never actually saw anyone buy one of these tourist trinkets, but there were dozens of these vendors aggressively selling their wares. As the sun set, the tower caught the warm orange light as the park turned blue in the shadows.

There must be billions of cell phone photos of the tower. Tourists stood and sat on the stone steps taking pictures of their loved ones with the tower in the background. The steps grew cold as it got darker and we bundled up. Once the sky was dark enough, the tower finally flickered on. The crowd murmured. Terry scrambled to find her cell phone to take a picture. The last time she saw the tower she didn’t have enough  time to take a photo. The blinking light show only lasts for ten minutes every hour to save energy.  

When it was built, not everyone liked the tower. A committee of 300, one member for each meter of the towers height, wrote, “We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of
the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength,
with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against
the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our
arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower
dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its
barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe,
all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream.
And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the
hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal”

Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said
that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A
Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. French hearts in time warmed to the landmark.

Notre Dame Cathedral

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The Pont de l’Archevêché bridge over the Seine had thousands of small padlocks, locked onto the iron grating. They sparkled, golden and silver in the sun like so many jewels. Known as Love Locks, the trend took off more than three years ago, thousands of padlocks have been locked to the bridge by lovers looking to symbolize their endless passion. A Paris municipal authority announced that the locks were becoming an eyesore. He further added that the practice “posed the
question of preserving heritage, and that in time the padlocks would
have to be removed”. In May of 2010 all but a handful of the padlocks
vanished overnight from the bridge. All eyes turned to the Mayor’s office, but he denied authorizing the removal. Some suggested the locks were removed during the night to avoid negative
publicity, others speculated that it was the work of scrap metal
thieves. But as soon as they were removed, shiny new locks started to
reappear. I wasn’t about to try and sketch thousands of padlocks, but I felt I had to sketch Notre Dame.

I escaped the crowd on the bridge by walking down the stone steps to the Quai. I set up my artist stool against a tall tree and started to sketch. There was an artist doing an oil painting less than fifty yards away. Restaurant barges dock here and tourists were filing in for lunch. It was rather quiet and peaceful down on the Quai whereas the bridges and the island Notre Dame sat on were a constant mob scene. A group of tourists gathered at the water taxi stop. The trees were turning orange with the first fall chills. I seldom sketch outside in Orlando since is is always so darn hot.  Thus it was a real pleasure to relax in the shade to sketch hundreds of years of Gothic architectural history.

Terry and I did go inside Notre Dame and the Rose windows were gorgeous. The shear scale of the space is humbling. An angry french woman shouted at the tourists in the square in front of the cathedral. In the evening, roller bladers, musicians and performers of all kinds converge on the square to seek tips from tourists. The Île de la Cité on which Notre Dame was built is the true heart and center of Paris.

Bella: The Beauty of ME Dance

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ME Dance, Inc. is the Newest Professional Dance Organization located in the heart of
Central Florida.
I went to one of the final dress rehearsals for Bella by the Marshall Ellis Dance Company.  Bella is the second series of performances by this dance company. When I arrived, dancers were stretching and Marshall was sweeping the stage and applying what I’m guessing was a liquid wax to the flooring.  One dancer was wearing a white tutu and of course I felt compelled to sketch her. She was the first dancer to perform a solo. A large screen was set up onto which a video of this dancer was projected. She walked through a park and then began writing in her note book about life’s challenges and emotions. Each dance was preceded by one of these video segments in which she wrote about various aspects of life as she grew and matured. The human experience of love is designed for the sole purpose of showing you
who you truly are and it is expressed vibrantly through dance.

After a full run through, Marshall Ellis asked the dancers if they could recite the dance company’s mission statement. It is, “To introduce innovative ideas through
dance to create growth in the arts community. Our goal is to enrich the
arts community by providing an outlet to feature talent in art through
entertainment.”  He felt the first run was technically amazing but he wanted to feel that undefinable spark, the magic and joy of fully expressed emotion through entertainment. It wasn’t just about a smile, but about absolute commitment to artistic expression. With another hour to rehearse, the dancers performed a second time. This time they performed “all out”. A high energy 80’s dance number had all the dancers trying to catch their breath. Marshall has invested so much of himself to make ME Dance, the premiere dance company in Central Florida. That takes plenty of blood sweat and tears. As I left around 11PM, the dancers were still hard at work. Art isn’t easy.

Show Times:

November 23, 2012 – 8pm

November 24, 2012 – 8pm

November 25, 2012 – 7:30pm

Ticket Prices:
$20 General Admission 

Venue:
John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center, The Mandell Theatre
Orlando Shakespeare Theater 812 E. Rollins St. Orlando, FL 32803

Play in a Day, Tech

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A flock of 50 artists awake and together at 7AM at the Lake Howell High School Auditorium to start rehearsing for Play in a Day. I got there around 11:30AM or so. I asked Beth where I could find Aradhana’s Cast. She didn’t know where that cast was rehearsing. Different casts had staked out different class rooms. I asked everyone I met where I could find the cast. I had arrived at an inopportune time to sketch because everyone was about to break for lunch. During lunch I found the female actress from Aradhana’s play named Gwendolyn Equality Boniface. She let me know that they were rehearsing in the boys dressing rooms. Of course! Why didn’t I think of that! After lunch she explained that they would be doing tech on the main stage.

Beth Marshall was being interviewed by a new video blogger who was asking her questions about Play in a Day. She pointed out that the high school venue had the advantage of offering young aspiring actors the chance to work beside and learn from seasoned actors. The first play on stage for Tech was a CSI themed play that showed a manic, stupefied playwright seated behind a computer with Mountain Dew cans strewn all over the stage. A female officer examined a can by picking it up with a pen. The playwright shouts out “They want me to write another play!” His face twitched. Another officer explained the horrifying specifics of the crime but it could best be summed up as play in a day. A prisoner in a jumpsuit whispered, “No one should try and produce a play in a day, it isn’t humanly possible!”

Aradhana’s five minute play was the next play on stage. Chelsea Adams Locklear directed the piece. A high school girl, played by Gwendolyn, was doing pleas to stretch before a dance rehearsal with her flamboyant boyfriend played by Cory Price.  She muttered “Owe” after each squat. The boy teased her until she admitted that she shaved herself. He said, “I hope you don’t catch a cold.” and he made sneezing gestures with his hand pointing at her crotch. “A chew! A chew!” She wanted to go home but he was depending on her. A teacher tried to find out what was wrong and he reassured her saying “It is only natural.”  Her friend laughed, saying, “He thinks your having your period!” She was mortified. I liked how the short play resolved itself with the two friends on the edge of the stage blowing bubbles. She had shaved to feel more like an adult but as a result she felt more childish than ever. The two friends playfully chased each other off stage. There was an innocence despite the uncomfortable subject. I was glad I got to see what had been typed out the night before as I sketched the playwright Aradhana Tiwari. I couldn’t stay for the show because I had to do a live projected sketch performance at a concert. I packed up to leave once the actors took their bows.

Money raised from Play in a Day went towards first annual Beth Marshall Presents, District 3 Thespian “Wild Card” Scholarship, which will be awarded to an emerging theater student.  Aradhana won the voter choice award for Revolution which was her one minute production at Play in a Day.

Play in a Day

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Play in a Day involved 12 plays written, rehearsed, and then performed in front of a live audience in less than 24 hours! At 6PM on Friday November 9th playwrights met at Lake Howell where themes are announced and logistics discussed. Producer Beth Marshall announced that the five minute theme would be “High School” and the one minute theme would be “The Aftermath”. Then all the playwrights left to start writing. They needed to finish a one minute and five minute play by 6:30AM the following morning.
Then all the directors and actors would meet up Saturday Novovember10th at Lake Howell for solid day of rehearsal. In the past, Play in a Day was produced at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater, but this year it would use the much larger stage of Lake Howell High School‘s auditorium. Since authors are often the unsung heroes in this 24 hour production marathon, I asked Beth if I could sketch a writer at work and I was assigned to sketch Aradhana Tiwari. 

I was late to the writers meeting on November 9th. Aradhana texted to let me know she was doing research for her high school themed piece. The parking lot at Lake Howell High School was jammed. I thought to myself, “There can’t be that many playwrights in Orlando.” Then I heard the piercing screech of a whistle. Aradhana was getting her research and inspiration from a high school football game.  After several texts, I found her in the home team bleachers. She was eaves dropping on a group of four teenagers seated in the bleachers behind her. Then she interviewed the kids, asking them about their teachers, friends and relationships. It was a cold night for Orlando and she had on sandals so at half time she let me know she was ready to start writing. Actually the one minute piece was written in her head as soon as Beth announced the “Aftermath” theme. A character sat at a table devouring Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets as another character glowered at him. This piece turned into a political debate the next morning because Beth refused to allow Chick-fil-A chicken on her stage. She is boycotting the restaurant chain because of their anti-gay stance. Aradhana had to scramble for some other processed chicken sandwiches the morning of the show.

Five minutes may seem like a short time, but for a writer, it is an eternity until the pieces all fall in place. I met Aradhana at a Olive Garden Restaurant on Colonial Drive which is where she began to write. She ordered a bowl of black olives and a red wine. She put ear buds in her ears so she could listen to music as she worked, drowning out the clatter of all the bustling tables around her. At times she smiled and laughed to herself as she wrote. Shattered fragments of dialogue began to form. Most authors write comedy for Play in a Day, but her work tends to be more dramatic. She read to me some of what she had written. “This is either really good or really bad.” She said. As in viewpoints, there would be no safe middle ground. The title of the play took me by surprise. A high school girl  stretched for a dance performance, she was very uncomfortable in her leotards. She was rehearsing with a flamboyant boyfriend who teased her until she admitted she had shaved. He teased her about her prickly situation.

Aradhana left to continue writing at home. I lingered, continuing to work on the sketch. I always need to finish what I start, even as life rushes by. At 2AM in the morning, Aradhana panicked and threw out everything she had written. The deadline was just four hours away and she began all over again from scratch. She finished the play with just minutes to spare and rushed the script to the theater. She was awake for 37 or so hours straight. As a student said in the bleachers, “We are fire breathing dragons!“

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

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As Dorothy Massey who plays Yitzhak and Brian Thompson who plays Hedwig sat on the tailgate of the van filled with costumes, Dorothy lamented that the show had a hard run. Some nights they had performed with only 3 people in the audience. The night before closing night they had 15 people. They always gave their all regardless.

After sketching back stage, I settled in at the back of the small Majestic Theatre and Lounge inside the Revolution Nightclub (375 South Bumby Avenue). It is actually the perfect venue for the show, being small and intimate with flaming touches of gold opulence. Hedwig is a Punk Rock princess in search of someone to complete herself, her other half. In search of validation and love, Hedwig had an operation in Germany that left him with an angry inch to express her sexuality. A small group of tattooed punk teens filled the front row. They shouted and talked on their cell phones. Hedwig shouted back, “You came here to see ME, darlings!” I thought they were part of the show at first, but Ally Gursky confided that they slipped in late without paying. They were gone by the second act.

Hedwig treated Yitak as his male side kick whom he berated and joked about as he talked about Tommy Gnosis, a boy he loved who went on to become a rock super star with the songs Hedwig helped him write. Dorothy as Yitzak was sullen and angry for most of the show.  When Hedwig stripped off his woman’s clothing standing naked and sweating before the audience they went wild, over his song of acceptance and affirmation. We all hide a part of our true selves but he finally realized he needed to love himself before he could find acceptance and love from someone else.


Dorothy came out, this time dressed in a bright pink form fitting sequin gown and a blond wig. She sang Midnight Radio, a song of love, joy and acceptance. The room filled with an awe inspiring energy. Everyone raised their hands, waving them above their heads. Tears rolled down Dorothy’s cheeks as she sang. I turned to look at Director, Tara Corless, who was aiming the huge theater spot light. She was in tears as well. Ally was rushing down the isles with her hands raised and beaming.  The audience was on fire. This was not your average performance. This was an overwhelming emotional catharsis on the closing night of the show. I was swept along with tears of joy and I put down my brush and raised my hands to clap loudly. After the show Tara got on stage to thank the audience. She got choked up as she said, “We’ve had a tough run, but you were the audience this show deserved.” A performance like this affirms the absolute undefinable magic of theater when an audience and cast are one.

Hedwig Manifestation

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Director, Tara Corless, invited me to sketch as actor Brian Thompson got ready for the final night’s performance of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Majestic Theatre and Lounge inside Revolution Nightclub ( 375 South Bumby Avenue). I arrived a bit early and all the doors to the club were locked. A fellow with long dark hair was waiting in the parking lot. It turned out he had left his cell phone in the club from the performance the night before. He had been waiting since 4PM and I believe the performers started arriving around 6PM. The lead actor and actress, Dorothy Massey who plays Yitzhak, and  Brian, who plays Hedwig, pulled up in a van. All the costumes were piled up in the back and they opened the tailgate and started eating their takeout Chinese food. Andy Matchett pulled up, rolled down his car window, and he asked if anyone wanted a drink since he was making a drink run. Dorothy began relating Saint Augustine ghost stories as the sun set. Every fifteen minutes or so, Cessna airplanes would swoop down over the Club on their approach to the Executive Airport.

The dressing room was maybe 10 feet square and the entire cast had to use the space. I found a spot to sketch from, and I checked with Dorothy to make sure I wasn’t blocking anyone. It would take a full two hours for Hedwig to manifest and transform himself into a woman. His eyebrows were already shaved which would save time. Dorothy explained that her transformation to a man would take much less time. Stage manager, Ally Gursky, arrived with a container of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. She had skinned her knee the night before and somehow every piece of musical equipment carried through the dressing room managed to bonk her raw knee. Being insensitive, I couldn’t help but chuckle.  On her iPhone, she played a wonderful video that pointed out the obvious and hilarious reason to be supportive of gay marriage. Then Tara arrived with containers full of red white and blue cupcakes left over from Veterans day no doubt. Dorothy straddled Brian’s lap and started painting decorative swirling eyebrows. Andy arrived with a bottle of Burbon. He said to me, “Care to take that sketch to the next level?” He filled my cup and asked if I wanted some Ginger ale to water it down. I decided to taste the burbon first. My throat lit on fire and I whispered, “Yep, I need some ginger ale.” My lines loosened up with each sip. Dorothy started dancing in wild abandon to “Do It With a Rockstar“.

One of the Guitar players started to thank every one. “I started this show tentative and unsure, but you all made me feel at home. Thanks you everyone for your friendship and support, I’m going to miss you all when this show is over.” Andy said, “No problem, Uhm, what is your name again?” Everyone laughed. Tara circled everyone up for a pre-show ritual. Half of the cast circled up their index finger and thumb creating a cavity in their palms while the rest of the cast inserted their index fingers in the warm cavities. All their hands and wrists intertwined. Ally shouted, “Five minuted to show time!” actors shouted back, “Thank you 5!” There was an electric excitement in the air. Tara announced that they had 30 people in the audience, that was the largest audience they had in the entire show’s run. Andy claimed that on some nights they performed with only three people in the audience. This was a case off life imitating art imitating life,  The band went on stage and  a flash of electric music filled the theater with the Origin of Love. These rock stars were ready to raise the rafters!

Ghost in the Machine

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Timothy Stulman the president of Central Florida Composers Forum invited me  to be part of a concert on November 10. I suggested I could do a digital sketch live of the performers and project it during the performance at the White House November 10th. I figured that a sketch being created with the hand unseen would tie in well with the Ghost in the Machine title. I arrived early to set up. Timothy greeted Terry and myself at the door. He had a square three foot white canvas on the stage with an easel. The problem was there were computers and sound mixers in the way of the projector. I wanted the projection to be bigger, so I took the tablet and projector to the second floor. The projected image filled the ceiling. The color would be a bit off, but the audience could see themselves and the performers appear on the ceiling from this God’s eye view. At one point I panicked because I couldn’t find the brushes window. In the digital world, things always seem to crash or disappear into the ether. I tend to work slower digitally since I’m constantly trying to find windows and tools. Too much time is spent searching instead of sketching. At least in the real world, I can leave a brush in my lap and I’ll know where to find it. I felt I ran out of time before I was done, then again, that is why it is a sketch. Of course it will always be fun to brag that I’ve drawn at the White House.

All compositions in the concert contained an electronic element, ranging from interactive computer patches, to surround sound, to recorded ambient noises. One composition was affected by people’s tweets which scrolled across the top of the flat screen TV. I couldn’t help but be reminded of Brian Feldman‘s performances of TXT. People laughed at the tweets as they scrolled. One read, “This is my first tweet, ever!” The concert featured several premieres, including Charles Griffin’s Enfold Us Beneath Open Wings, John Alvarez’s Fermions and Gauge Bosons, and a new work by Thomas Owen. Other featured composers are Thad Anderson, Keith Lay, and Timothy Stulman. The concert also featured the talents of vocalist Michelle Amato and Julie Bateman, saxophonist Timothy Rosenberg, and percussionist Nick Strange.

The concert was part of the Accidental Music Festival, and was free and open to the public. As is the White House tradition, audience members were encouraged to bring a beverage or snack to enjoy before or after the concert. After the concert, several people asked me what software I had used, as if it was the machine that had created the image.