Geezers at Breaktrough Theater.

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Geezers written by Tommy Lee Johnston is being presented at Breakthrough Theater (419A W Fairbanks Ave

Winter Park,

FL

32789), through June 19th. Jack, (Sean Kenp) is a young aspiring author who takes a job a a retirement home that his mother has worked at before she died. He is socially awkward and not great around people. Gina, (Carol Palumbo) conducts an awkward job interview with him. She has her own issues, having had problems drinking in the past. Her primary concern is the person she just had to let go. He was found trying to have an affair with one of the residents. This is strictly taboo and she tries to find out if Jack might have similar interests.

Though socially inept, Jack has a rare talent for listening to people and asking pointed questions that peal away any layers of artifice to get to the heart of any story. He begins interviewing the residents, and each has an amazing story to tell. Emily, (Mary Lee Stallings) sat center stage hugging a kitten blanket and watching TV for most of the show. She never says a word. Alzheimer has taken her memories. A woman visits who was adopted and she researched to find out that Emily was her natural mother. She reads a loving letter written by Emily shortly before giving birth. The young Emily was forced to give up her child since she wasn’t married. As her daughter read the letter, tears welled up in Emily’s eyes and she mouthed the closing sentence. Memories had flooded back, but she was still trapped from expressing her love.

Each resident shared their story with Jack in turn. Kate, (Vicki Wicks) who gave off the appearance of being a confident sensual actress was actually insecure. Neil, (Gary Norris) was abrasive and cocky, but his story was about being a Vietnam vet who was welcome home to America as a baby killer and how much he missed his wife. Ray, (Larry Stallings) slept through most of the play holding a yellow pillow to his chest. His story was the most unsettling as he related his wife’s battle with cancer.

The play was fascinating to me since I am sitting in and sketching so many oral histories surrounding the Pulse Nightclub shooting. I am working with incredibly talented interviewers who open themselves to allow the stories to unfold naturally. 49 stories remain untold, but family and friends share memories that prove that love is an amazing and universal force. Art is strongest when it expresses empathy. This play shares that empathy in spades.

Tickets are $20.

Christopher Hanson talks about surviving the Pulse Nightclub attack.

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Christopher Hanson grew up in a small town that was just a 20 minute drive away from where Mathew Shephard was brutally murdered for being gay. On a vacation to Orlando her remembered gong to Universal and seeing rows of cherry blossom trees. It was a gorgeous sight and he decided at that moment that he would move to the City Beautiful. To him the trees symbolized universal love.

On the evening of June 12, 2016, he decided to put on his $3 American flag t-shirt and go to the Pulse nightclub for the first and only time to dance. Since the red striped ran vertically he felt the shirt thinned him a bit. He was new in town and hoped to meet new friends. His roommates didn’t want to go. At 11PM his GPS made him pull into the club driveway the wrong way. At 11:08PM he had to pay for a $10 wrist band. He remembers because he had just missed the opportunity to avoid the cover. He walked through a curtain of beads to enter the club. “I want those beads” he thought to himself. He was meeting someone for a date and was an hour late. The gentleman who was a doctor wasn’t pleased and he left. In the Adonis room dancers in jock straps and tennis shoes dances on the bar. “Wow” Christopher thought, “This is the kind of place I love to find.” In a trip to the bathrooms, he thought to himself that the windows were rather small because he couldn’t slip away from his date if he wanted to.

He ordered another double Jack and Ginger. It was Latin Night, so he couldn’t talk to many people, but music is a universal language. He spoke to Kate the bartender. There was an underwear contest and the straight guy won with his denim underwear. After a few drinks and he leaned up against the wall to steady himself. J Low’s song, “International” was playing.  He heard a Pow, Pow Pow sound. He moved to the beat thinking it was the bass. Then there was a repetition of bullets and he heard screaming. There was the sound of the liquor bar glass shattering. People fell to the floor around him and he dropped himself. Blood spattered. He saw the flashes from the barrel of the gun. He wasn’t shot, so he crawled past the bathroom. People were running inside, but he knew that they had no way out. People stepped on him and over him to get out to the patio. The person to the left of him was shot. Outside on the patio, he stood. People were pushing against a fence gate to try and get out. It didn’t open. He was amazed to find that the drink was still in his hand. He put the cup down. People crushed up against the closed gate until it finally gave way. Outside, a police office was pointing his weapon at the nightclub entrance.

Outside on a curb, Christopher helped a Spanish speaking man named who was shot twice. He took off his bandana and shoved it into a bullet hole to help slow the bleeding. Blood was bubbling up, boiling. He used his phone to call his dad, saying, “I’m alive.” A girl was lying on the grass. She said, “Get me out of the grass.” There were no medical gloves. She had been shot in the arm and back. He didn’t know about the wound in her back but after he cradled her in his lap, he realized that the pressure from his legs might have slowed the bleeding from her back wound. Mina Justice was in the street looking for her son who was inside in the bathroom. She got a text from him that said, “I love you.” “I’ll never forget her face,” Christopher said, “I remember passing the bathroom and thought, there is no way out.” I hugged her and had to say, “It will be OK.” He knew it was not going to be OK, and he sat down and broke down for the first time.

Orlando One Year Later

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The Orange County Regional History Center has mounted an exhibit entitled “One Year Later” that showcases a fraction of the items collected from the various memorial sites around Orlando in the aftermath of the Pulse Nightclub shooting tragedy that took 49 lives. The exhibition commemorates one year of pain, grief, loss, love, fear, resilience, coping and community. The exhibit recalls the heroes in our community who banded together in defiance of hate, who support all those who continue to live through the nightmare, remembering those murdered and holding the victims families in our hearts.

I sketched on the final day of the exhibition install. Museum staff were putting up the final vinyl lettering on the walls and making sure everything was in its place. Over 5000 items were collected from memorial sites. This exhibit encapsulated the shear volume of what was left. Rather than showing just one rosary, there are twenty, instead of one t-shirt there is an entire wall. One wall is covered with a sampling of the hundreds of paintings i have done at vigils and fundraisers since that fateful day last June 12th. Also on display are the original paintings and sketches done by local artists in one evening of the 49 victims of the attack. I hosted the evening and felt it was important to do the work in one evening since all 49 lives were taken in one night of terror.

Above the Angel Action Wings, built from PVC and white fabric, there was a quote… “I don’t have money to give, but I can spread love and I can spread hope. I was waiting for the opportunity to use the one thing I do have, which is the skill to sew, I can sew like the wind.” Jeannie Haskett, a theater seamstress and Angel Action Wings volunteer, to the Miami Herald.

I made my way through the exhibit reading every panel, circling the huge room counter clockwise. At the entrance there was a long platform with artificial grass covered in candles, rainbow pinwheels and flowers. The pinwheels spun in the breeze, recreating in a a memorial site in a ghostly way. The room is organized into sections, each honoring members of the Orlando community. There was a wall for first responders, a wall showed the worldwide response and outpouring of love after the tragedy. There were lines of prayer flags, and a floating wall of stars decorated with rainbows and messages of hope. An Ikea couch was covered in messages as well as the water cooler that was filled daily by church volunteers for people who were visiting the Pulse memorial site. In the corner of the room was a gorgeous dress made from a rainbow of hearts. In a secluded alcove, were the 49 crosses that were left at the Orlando Regional Medical Center. All the crosses grouped together in the tight space, left me feeling overwhelmed by the loss.

There was an opening for the families of victims and survivors. It was incredibly well attended. Probably over 500 people attended the opening night. This was an opportunity for families to get out and see items left in honor of their loved ones for the first time. There were 20 therapist at the opening wearing bright yellow shirts that said, Feeling sad? Lets talk. With so many therapists, it must have been difficult to grieve in peace, let alone move around the exhibit. One therapist handed out stress balls any time there were tears. There were also 11 therapy dogs on hand who performed their jobs with honor.

In my sketch, Whitney Broadaway is putting up vinyl lettering that encourages viewers to use #OrlandoOneCollection when posting information about the show online. Her baby bump proves that new life begins as tragedy ends, just as baby Cory Connell was named for his heroic uncle who died at Pulse. A large interactive area encourages people to write notes on a six foot square sheet of paper with permanent markers. Messages of hope and condolences are added every day. The exhibit runs from June 12th to June 17th when it has to come down for a wedding ceremony. This is an incredible, moving and inspiring exhibit, and I encourage anyone who feels they are a part of the Orlando community to get down there to experience it. The museum is open from 10AM to 7PM each day and admission is free.

Superior Donuts at Theater On The Edge

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I attended a dress rehearsal for Superior Donuts written by Tony
Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Tracy Letts at Theater on the Edge, (5542 Hansel Avenue, Orlando, Florida 32809). The theater is small but I am always excited to see how the stage has been transformed. The small space places the audience right in the midst of the action on stage.

The play opened with the house lights going black and then several people dressed in black vandalized the shop writing “pussy” in the wall and shattering glass and throwing donuts everywhere. It was rather uncomfortable to watch, I wanted to get up and intervene. The theater lights came up to show the carnage. Arthur
Przybyszewski who owns the decrepit donut shop in the Uptown neighborhood of
Chicago, entered and started cleaning up. Police showed up and tried to determine who might want to do so much damage. A Russian neighbor entered the shop blaming blacks despite the fact that one of the officers was black himself.

Franco Wicks, a black teenager enters and starts telling Arthur how he should fix the place up. The whole time Franco is cleaning up and helping out. It is a rather direct and inverted job interview and he becomes Arthur’s only employee. The first act has several monologues in which Arthur reminiscences about his past. His fathers disappointment in him, and his own disappointment at the loss of his marriage and daughter, hint at why he takes the young Franco under his wing. Franco is young and sure of himself, having written what he feels may well be the great American novel. Arthur has sort of settled into the routine of his donut shop and has few ambitions. He lazily smokes weed blowing away his ambitions.

Arthur reads Franco’s his novel which is hand written out on many note pads. He is amazed to discover that he absolutely loves the story. When he tells the aspiring author they both get swept up in the dreams of aspirations that might become true. Arthur then snaps back to reality and yells at his employee that dreams never come true.It takes hope to raise a child, and all of Arthur’s hopes were dashed when his wife left him, forever separating him form his daughter Jamie.

It turns out that Franco has a huge gambling debt. He started working at Superior Donuts to escape his past but it catches up with him. A horrific act of violence dashed his dreams as he is physically mutilated and his book is destroyed. Arthur can’t stand to see his young friends dreams destroyed so he personally pays the debt. A huge fight was treated like a school yard brawl but the stakes were very high.

This comedy-drama explores the
challenges of embracing the past and the redemptive power of friendship. I had a blast and was often laughing out loud and then choked up as I saw dreams fade from youthful and middle aged eyes. The cast of nine hit so many strong emotional notes right on the money. I left feeling hope can always survive as long as you have friends.

The show runs from Sunday June 8th to Sunday July 2nd. Tickets are $19, $22 and $24.

One Orlando Collection at the Orange County Regional History Center.

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About 50 Analog Artist Digital World paintings will be part of the expanded One Orlando Collection on display at the Orange County Regional History Center for one week (June 12th – 17th). The paintings document Orlando’s attempts to heal after the Pulse Nightclub attack. Also on display are the original 49 portraits created by local artists in one evening shortly after the tragedy. Curated pieces from the One Orlando Collection will feature items left at memorial sites around the city, collected directly, and images that showcase the wide-ranging support that was received following the tragedy.

The amount of work that goes into a museum exhibition like this is quite staggering. First, the exhibition space needs to be prepped. All the walls need to be patched and painted from previous use, as well as temporary walls installed designed specific to the exhibition. Memorial items, artifacts, art, photographs, and more, are measured individually and images are placed in a scaled Adobe Illustrator file exactly as they will appear on the walls. Everything is planned out, including electrical outlets and fire boxes so that there are no surprises during installation. As an entirely bilingual exhibition, copy (the text of the exhibit) has to first be written in English before being translated into Spanish.

Copy is printed on vinyl, different colors for each language, cut on a vinyl cutter, weeded of negative space, before transfer tape is applied for placement on the wall. Photographs are also printed on vinyl and then mounted on gator board. The 49 portraits are mounted behind plexiglass with the names printed in black vinyl on the front. Layouts for each wall are printed and artifacts, copy, and images are measured, leveled, and adhered to the walls. Individual cases are spread throughout the space and are carefully arranged with a variety of artifacts. Typically the staff has two weeks to install and then to de-install an exhibition. However, due to scheduling, they have one week to install and three days to de-install ‘One Year Later’. The show must come down for a wedding.

The overall theme of the exhibition is to share the shear magnitude of the worldwide love and support after the Pulse Nightclub shooting. If there is one t-shirt, there are 15 on display. One rosary, there are 50. One silicon bracelet, there are 29. The Center has collected thousands of items that reflect this support, but only a fraction can be shown within this space.

The museum will be open and free to the public from 10AM-7PM Monday, June 12, and 10AM-5PM Tuesday – Saturday, June 17th for the exhibition.

Titus and Andronicus Holiday Special at Fringe.

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Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare‘s bloodiest play. I had never seen the play but that didn’t stop me from seeing the Fringe Holiday Special based on the be headings and mutilations. Knowing nothing about the Shakespeare play was a definite drawback. I was quite honestly lost for most of the production. I sketched as the barest of set pieces were being assembled. Producer Albert Pergande whacked someone with a pole as they were setting up the makeshift fireplace. This sort of real life slapstick was also to be found in the play as several puppets with Beavis and Butthead voices raped and dismembered a female puppet. There were moments of laughter, but I suspect they came mostly from audience members who appreciated the references to the Shakespeare play.

An applause sign hinted at the desired audience response. Bloodshed was combined with Christmas Carols, but I’m not sure why. The production was so Fringe that I didn’t know what to make of it. I was happy for the opportunity to sketch people wearing togas. Now that Fringe is over, I kind of miss seeing people wearing sheets in public.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for June 10th and 11th.

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Saturday June 10, 2017

9AM to 11AM Free. Bloomingdale’s Pride Opening. Bloomingdale’s at Mall of Muillenia, 4152 Conroy Road, The Mall at Millenia, Orlando, FL 32839. Painting from Analog Artist Digital World of Pulse vigils and fundraisers will be on display through July 5th. Rainbow flags will line the cosmetics section and the Orlando Gay Chorus will be singing at the opening.

4PM to 6PM Free. Young Voices. JB Callaman Center 102 North Parramore Ave Orlando FL. Teen Open Mic Every second Saturday of the Month.

10:30PM to 12:30AM Free but get a drink and or bite. Son Flamenco. Hot blooded Flamenco dancing to live guitar. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL, United States. 

Sunday June 11, 2017

10AM to Noon. Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources. 

7PM to 9PM  Free. Human Rainbow for Pulse by BASE Orlando. The Other Bar, 18 Wall St, Orlando, FL 32801. BASE
Orlando is creating another Human Rainbow with 49 painted bodies to
represent the lives lost last year during the Pulse Tragedy. We
will be gathering at The Other Bar on Wall Street and then walking over
to take a group photo at the park near the Orange County Regional
History Center. We already have the BASE artists lined up for this event. Special thank you to Fairvilla for sponsoring our paint and The Other Bar for hosting us!

7PM to 9PM $20 O-Town Voices of Orlando. Orlando Shakespeare Theater, 812 East Rollins Street

Orlando, FL 3280. O-TOWN Voices from Orlando. A World Premiere Event. One Night Only.

The entire collection of monologues performed together for the very first time

A Very Special performance on the eve of the One Year Anniversary of the attack on Pulse Nightclub.

This performance will be at The Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Loch Haven Park.

David Lee,
recipient of the 2016 Orlando International Fringe Festival’s Lifetime
Achievement Award has created an original theatrical event that shares
stories and experiences from the days, weeks and months following the
aftermath of the Pulse nightclub attack that occurred in Orlando on June
12th,
2016. Interviews, blog postings and stories from the Orlando Sentinel
newspaper come to life on stage in a very personal and intimate way
through a company of 18 local Theatre Artists.

A Special One Night Only Performance will take place on the eve of the One Year Anniversary of the attack on Pulse Nightclub on Sunday June 11th@ 7pm in The Margeson Theater at The Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Loch Haven Park. Tickets are $20 General Admission and $50 for VIP Reserved Seating. All net proceeds from this event will benefit TheonePulseFoundation. Tickets.

Emotions Dance Company presents Element Earth.

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Emotions
Dance Company explores the relationship we have with each other as well
as with our planet using the elements of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air.
This professional performance carries a message of perseverance of the
Earth and of dance as an art form. Emotions Dance Company founder, Larissa Humiston did much of the choreography, and the guest choreographer was Carrie Crawford (Crawford Jazz Project).

I went to a dress rehearsal to sketch. The dance routines revolve around the elements of Earth, Fire, Water and Air.  There were 15 dance routines in all, some involving much of the company to an exhilarating solo performance called Last Breath. I am always looking for dancers who are able to express emotions through their facial expressions as well as their movements and some dancers performed above and beyond. Dancers in the sketch were pulled from various dance routines over the course of the run through. 

One dance called Forest Fire had two dancers in red tights acting as flames that then consumed two dancers in neutral colored tights who were the trees. Elements 1 and Elements 2, were full company productions in which dancers personified all the elements that were used as inspiration throughout the show.

The performance of Element Earth is Friday, June 9th from 8PM to 9:30PM. Orlando Shakes 812 E Rollins St, Orlando, Florida 32803. Tickets are available at the door for $20 and $15 for students.

Commencement at Fringe.

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Commencement written by Clay McLeod Chapman was brought to this years Orlando International Fringe Festival by Beth Marshall Presents. Beth had wanted to bring the play to past Fringe Festivals, but it was never picked in the lottery.

The play began with the mother of the shooter (Beth Marshall) seated on stage among the ephemera of youth in the children’s wing of a hospital. A teddy bear leaned innocently against a plastic crate filled with toys. A jack-in-the-box sat on a small table next to her as she spoke. She recounted the tale of her son swallowing marbles to win the favor of a popular student. He nearly choked to death but his esophagus closed up forcing him to stop. It became clear that her son had been picked on his whole life. Beth was clearly emotionally shaken and on the verge of breaking down at any moment. She said she was sequestered away from the other moms, unable to share in their grief.

The mother of a shooting victim, (Jamie Middleton) took to the stage after Beth left. Jamie had lost a daughter. She was angry and bitter. Social workers and politicians had offered condolences but their words of comfort were not for her. She just wanted her daughter back. She had gone to the school commencement ceremonies to watch the other students graduate, she felt terror when her daughter’s name was skipped over. Her daughter had written an inspired commencement speech that she could never deliver.

In stark contrast, a student school library volunteer, (Rose Helsinger) bounced onto the stage with youthful vigor. She knew the shooter better than anyone else since he was well read. He used to write notes in the margins of books and she decided to become his friend by writing notes in response in the margins herself. They had a long clandestine conversation in the margins of multiple books throughout the shelves. It was a romantic meeting of minds, but she never acknowledged him in the halls. The thrill came from the mystery of their relationship. She recounted the fateful day when she heard a series of pops as she sat in class. It could be the drum corps but the rhythm was sporadic. She was surprised to see her mystery library pen pal enter her classroom. He wasn’t in her class. She thought he might have discovered who she was. There was an innocent thrill. But then she saw the gun and students dropped to the ground around her. She realized he didn’t know who she was and then she felt a tightness in her chest.

The young girl’s mom insisted that the shooter’s mom read her daughter’s commencement speech. In tears, Beth tried to read. This play is so powerful as it hits home in a community still recovering from the Pulse Nightclub shooting. The number of students shot was never clear but one number always came to my mind. The sadness was overwhelming. The performances stellar. A sobering show like this proves that the Fringe Festival isn’t all about fun and games, it also is a showcase for inspired serious theater.

Evacuated at Fringe.

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Erika Kate MacDonald told an unforgettable story of her time in Indonesia as an exchange student at Fringe this year. She recreated the bustle and excitement of the crowded city, often stopping to explain what some exotic word might mean. She was so well versed in the language and culture that she might forget to explain every nuance.

To explain the beauty found in the culture she decided to sing a song about a popsicle.  The song was so lyrical and moving but was only about walking with a frozen desert. 

Erika described an evening as she tried to go to sleep. In the corner of the room was a strange scraping sound; something was trying to climb the wall. it would get half way up and then collapse back down to the ground. She lay in bed terrified not sure what to do. So, she decided to research what it might be. She never found the answer but the book fell out of her hands and crushed whatever it was. 

She described an evening swimming in the pool with friends and seeing what looked like shooting stars. The flashes came at regular intervals until she finally realized that they weren’t stars at all. The flashes were actually bats flying through the spot lights. There was magic and mystery all around her.

Then came a day when all the TV stations showed news of uprisings in Jakarta. In a particularly jarring scene with flashing colored club lights, Erica recreated a plea of a woman telling everyone to get out of the country, that foreigners were not welcome. Foreigners had to be evacuated. The exchange students went to the airport as fast as they could with the help of others, but flights were booked. They returned day after day trying to escape. The uncertainty and fear of the students and parents became visceral in her telling.

This show had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. This kind of straight forward storytelling is why the Fringe Festival is so magical. Personal experience can come alive when played out on the stage.