Enzian’s Makeover For 2013

Posted on by Thor

For 28 years, the Enzian has shown thousands of great movies to millions of people in an environment that encourages friendship and community. The annual Florida Film Festival brings famous and infamous film directors, producers and actors to Central Florida. Between screenings, if you turn to your neighbor at the Eden Bar, there is a good chance they are in the business of making films. At the lavish parties at the Enzian, people have met, fallen in love and formed lasting friendships.

The theater is however showing its age. The curtains are torn, the chairs are worn and the carpets have certainly worn from thousands of feet and spilled drinks. The theater is getting a makeover. Everything that is worn out or broken will be replaced. New carpets and curtains have already been installed. New furniture will allow the service staff more room to take orders and serve food while also improving sight lines for the audience. Technological advances, already in place, have improved the movies picture and audio.

In 2013 the Enzian Theater will continue to renew, revive and refresh. The makeover will enhance the movie viewing experience without detracting from the unique character of place. The theater will still have a cozy feeling, where you can enjoy films with friends. Large semi circular seats will be replaced by lighter more streamlined seating. Circular tables will be replaced by more compact and ergonomic square tables saving space. Benches will be added to the back of section C again saving space.

I was hired to do a sketch of the theater as it will look after renovations. I sat up in the projection booth and sketched as the theater filled with patrons for a screening. The projectionist introduced herself and she reached over me to press a button. As the theater went black, I turned on my book light and continued to paint. I used a computer rendering from Raleigh Design to place new tables and chairs into my location sketch.

The Enzian is inviting patrons to be part of the enduring legacy by investing in the makeover. For as little as $25 you can “own a piece of the Enzian” and express your appreciation for this unique cultural icon.

$5,000 makes one booth a reality.

$3,000  makes a banquet seat and a table a reality.

$1,000 makes a chair or 4-top table a reality.

  $500 makes a 2-top table a reality.

  $250 makes a coffee table a reality.

    $25 makes one square foot of carpet a reality.

All donors of $250 or more will be recognized by name on a beautifully crafted commemorative plaque that will be permanently displayed at the Enzian.

Best Sketches of 2012

Posted on by Thor

Vote results are in for the best sketches of 2012.

1. July 18, (the Parentheticals),  nominated by, Mathew OGrady with 54% of the votes.

2. Oct 10, Blog Con, nominated by Bess Auer with 12% of the votes.

2. (Tie) Oct 24, Sunday in the Park with George, nominated by Zac Alfson with 12% of the votes.

3. Feb 21, Night of Fire. Analytics nominated post. With 4% of the votes.

3. (Tie) May 18, The Eighties Strike Back. Analytics nominated post. With 4% of the votes. 

3. (Tie) December 13th,

Last Tango in Paris. Nominated by Hengua, with 4% of the votes.

3. (Tie) June 6, NAMTA. Nominated by Analytics, with 4% of the votes.

 

3. (Tie) September 4, RAW: RADIATE. Nominated by Analytics, with 4% of the votes. 

 3. (Tie) January 5, We Buy Gold, Nominated by Analytics, with 4% of the votes.

To maintain the one a day posting schedule, here is a sketch of a Mall window display from the AADW Archives. The writing was on the window of a Saks Fifth Avenue store. The display was designed by Shepard Fairey of Studio Number One. Shepard was best known for doing the red white and blue Obama campaign poster.

A City Beautiful Christmas

Posted on by Thor

I got an invitation from choreographer Holly Harris to see a City Beautiful Christmas at the History Center downtown. A City Beautiful is a recently formed church that doesn’t have a permanent brick and mortar home yet. I witnessed a fabulous celebration at the Lake Eola band shell. Cole Nesmith welcomed me when I arrived at the History Center. Much of the service would be happening inside the Orlando Regional History Center. Then the congregation would walk out into the park for an arts performance. The performance is what I planned to sketch, so I leaned against one of the tall pine trees and started blocking in the stage. There was an hour to show time.

White gossamer fabric hung from pine boughs.  The fabric glowed yellow in the street lamp light. Two sculptures of alligators are permanent residents of the park and they overlooked the proceedings. A grey bearded man with a sleeping bag slung over his shoulder was talking to Holly for the longest time. He was invited inside but he preferred the outdoor air like me. He was to thin to be Santa Claus. He stood a short distance from me and watched me intently. He struck up a conversation, letting me know he was from Ohio. Distracted and lost in the sketch, I answered his questions but kept my hand and eyes busy. I’m a bit rude when working, and he soon wandered off.

A box sat at the center of the staging area. A tech tested it out. With the lid off, it erupted, sending up a large plum of fake snow lit from below. Dancers all dressed in black began to form themselves on the grid of the stage. They all held candles. White paper bags with candles inside illuminated the path from the History Center leading people to the staging area. I had assumed everyone would sit on the grass to watch the show. I had guessed wrong. Everyone stood, and I lost my view. I had only sketched half the dancers. I could see one or two dancers between peoples heads. A fellow in front of me apologized, I told him not to worry. I’ve learned to accept any staging difficulty. I decided to relax and start painting. Catching the magical candle light at night would be a challenge.

Music was playing that sounded like Danny Elfman‘s sound track to Edward Scissorhands. Since I couldn’t see the dancers, I imagined ice sculptures forming with the chips floating in the air like snow. The luminescent pillar of snow blew skyward up above the wall of backs. For a magical moment, it was snowing in Central Florida. Air and Cole spoke messages of love, acceptance and Christmas joy, as I presume the dancers performed. Everyone in the audience was issued a candle. One single flickering flame became two, then four then a sea of light. Everyone’s voice was raised in song. There would be a second performance, so  the lights were extinguished as the crowd dispersed, I continued to sketch. The sketch felt complete even without the full cast. The gator looked hungry enough. With another hour till the second performance, I decided to pack up and head home.

Caroling

Posted on by Thor

Gailanne Amundsen sent out an invitation for her annual Christmas Caroling.
As she said, “This is how it works….we pick a place, bring cookies, apple cider, good shoes, a pal, a flashlight, and then we all mob up and sing house to house.

it’s always great so you should come!” I drove up to Mockingbird Lane in Altamonte Springs and parked behind a big yellow family van that had just parked. Gailanne piled out holding Maya, Julie Norris’s child. Everyone mingled in the driveway. It was Gailanne’s grandmothers house and her brother in law was working in the garage. He was busy planing and sanding a kitchen counter top.I figured it would be difficult to sketch carolers who would sing one song at each house and then move on, so I decided to sketch them as they mingled around the cookies and cider. The carolers soon left, but I decided to finish the sketch.

The motorcycle was a recent purchase and it was bought for a song. This family had a wild assortment of pets. Two tortoises were brought out so that their plastic wading pool could be cleaned. Holes were drilled into the bottom of a plastic garbage can and the water from the pool was poured in. The garbage can made a perfect sieve, catching all the solid detritus. White rats and some mice, were in glass aquariums. The rats were fed to a snake inside the house. The male rat understood his fate when he was put in with the snake. He jumped and struggled to find a way out. For some reason, the snake refused to eat the panicked rat.

With the sketch done, I walked the suburban streets in search of the carolers. I used my GPS to follow their most likely route. At several intersections, I just had to guess which way they went. I figured I had a 50% chance of finding them. When I got to Lemonwood Court, I was shocked to see that every house had an amazing assortment of Christmas lights. It was overwhelming. Although it was a dead end, I had to walk down this winter wonderland. Arches covered in lights invited me to down the sidewalk stroll. Soon enough, I found the carolers. Of course they were here. I joined them singing carols. Maya and another girl would go up to each door and ring the doorbell before we sang. Strangely although the house was covered in lights, no one came to the door. This happened repeatedly. Our luck changed when a bus driver stopped beside us and asked us directions to the lighting display. It was a bus from a retirement home, and we sang to the passengers parked curbside.

From that point on, people came to their doors and windows, grateful for the Christmas cheer. It was fun finding my voice in the harmonies. Cookies and hot cyder greeted us on the table in the driveway when we got back. This was a Christmas tradition well worth repeating.

The Nativity

Posted on by Thor

I went to the final dress rehearsal for the Nativity at
Pinocchio’s Marionette Theater in the Altamonte Mall. It was a few days before
Christmas and the Mall was overrun with shoppers. I had to drive up and down
about ten parking isles before I finally found a spot in the parking garage
next to the movie theater. There was panic and road rage among the cars
searching for spots. It was a freezing cold night and I added my windbreaker to
my arsenal of coats. The security gate was closed when I found Pinocchio’s. I
went to the backdoor entrance and started firing of texts to people I hoped
were inside. With no return texts, I decided I might have to sketch the theater
from the children’s play area. I set up my stool and was about to start
sketching when I saw Sean Keohane open the gate to get in the theater. I
scrambled, gathering my supplies and I ran to the theater just as he started
lowering the gate. He saw me and reversed the motor.

Puppeteers were given dark olive green long sleeved shirts
which would help blend them into the background as they worked the rod puppets
designed by Jane Henson. Sarah Lockhard who plays the Virgin Mary wasn’t at the
beginning of the rehearsal, so the smaller puppets used in the actual nativity
scene rehearsed several run-throughs of that scene. Sean boomed out his lines
as the voice of God from the back of the theater. God speaks in Latin, it turns
out. Herod hatched his evil plot to kill the new born King using the three
Kings as his henchmen. Joseph was shocked when he discovered Mary was pregnant
and he understandably doubts her story of divine birth. He still vows to
protect his young bride.

My favorite part of the play is when a banner is waved
majestically over the manger. The puppeteer looks up at the banner making it
wave in slow motion as if in a breeze using two rods. It is the puppeteer’s
concentration and complete absorption in the process that I admire, and this
was one moment where the puppeteer was in plain sight. Three musicians
performed live, playing medieval music. The rest of the puppeteers remained
hidden behind the stage front and faux rock work. They  had knee pads on, yet several times I heard
loud thumps back stage. Edna Bland iced her leg from one of those bumps
during a break. There were two weeks of these back breaking rehearsals for two
performances. Art isn’t easy.

The Art of Public Space

Posted on by Thor

On November 27th, I went to Urban ReThink for one of their “ReThinking the City” presentations. Award winning artist Gillian Christy and her husband, urbanest Russell Preston discuss the art of creating great public space. Russell showed slides of empty public spaces in Boston that became vibrant community meeting places thanks to simple inexpensive urban design and public art. Gillian does large scale public art, so together they make a great team. Public space design should be about creating authentic community’s with people being the first consideration. An active public space inspires art to be in it. Gillian and Russell were the first resident artists at the steelyards in Boston. Huge industrial smoke stacks were modified by adding art to them. Gillian said that her work is about connectors, things that connect people. The redesigning of vacant spaces was referred to as “Tactical Urban-ism” by Russell. Design was done lighter, quicker and cheaper. Short term action resulted in long term change.

 Ed Green from “Rebuilding Together Orlando” and its program, A Door to a Good Night’s Sleep, that helps needy children in our community.The organization offers hope to people in hopeless situations. The last Saturday in April will be a construction day in which people come together and help rebuild home in desperate need of repair. To raise money for this effort,
Rebuilding Together Orlando partnered with Home Builder’s Institute, The Mustard Seed, and
a major pharmaceutical company to build bunk beds for children in
Orange County. The bunk beds were built with recycled wood doors and
“upcycled” materials such as bed frames. They then created “A Door to a Good Night’s Sleep” by embracing the talent of local artists to create works of art on the headboards.

They have been beautifully painted and are showcased in an online auction. So far 11 headboards have been painted. Anyone can bid on these works of art.

The Nativity Rehearsal

Posted on by Thor

I went to the Henson’s Pineloch warehouse on December 12th to sketch a rehearsal of The Nativity. Rehearsals were held most weeknights for two weeks from about 7:30 to 10pm. All of those rehearsals were for two performances on December 22 at Pinocchio’s Marionette Theater in the Altimonte Mall. The oldest story in Christian history was made new in this retelling with live music, and the gorgeous puppets from IBEX Puppetry and the Jim Henson Company. This puppet production was spearheaded by Jane Henson, the wife of Jim Henson of Muppet’s fame.  Jane helped Jim in the early days of television production but then abandoned puppetry to raise her family. He youngest daughter, Heather Henson helped her bring this production to life.

The warehouse was cavernous, filled with boxes and bins full of foam, fabric and assorted puppet parts.  There were woodworking benches and large kites suspended from the ceiling. If you were to imagine Santa’s toy factory, this would fit the bill. I decided to sit behind the table where the performing puppets were stored. Gabriel with his gossamer wings dominated the table. A dark sinister and conniving Herod stood beside him, visible through his transparent wings. Mary, Joseph and the three kings also waited to begin their performances. A train rumbled by adding an industrial edge to this period piece.

From this angle, I could see the puppeteers who had to crouch down behind the stage setting to stay out of the future audience’s view. Sean Keohane, the director corralled the cast and explained how important the telling of the story would be. It was something parents could share with there children. Sarah Lockhard worked with the Virgin Mary rod puppet. Her face expressed every emotion as she moved the puppet. It was fascinating watching actors become lost in the subtle performers.  The word, marionette, 
means “tiny Mary” and  was derived from the puppets used in medieval mystery
and miracle plays.

Christmas at the Movies

Posted on by Thor

For the second half of the choral concert at Northland Church, (530 Dogtrack Road, Longwood FL), I sat as high as I could so my book light wouldn’t disturb anyone around me. There was a Sleigh Ride Medley, a White Christmas Medley and plenty of dancers with hyper Disney pep in their steps. I identified best with the deep throated baritones singing, You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch. From my elevated perch, I looked down on all the Who’s in Whoville singing on the stage. Even my jaded heart gave a subtle twitch.

The last Central Florida Community Arts Concert I saw in this venue had beach balls that floated down on the crowd from the rafters.  Beach balls might not be appropriate for Christmas. Then I wondered why no one ever created giant inflatable snow flakes. I just might have to put that on my to-do list. There were projections of snowflakes on the screen behind the singers and sometimes on the walls of the hall.

I really liked the quick paced performance by Jimmy Moore and Melissa Mason Braillard when the presented “Christmas Story” in three minutes or less. When Melissa acted as Ralphie helping his dad change a tire, it was extra funny when she dropped the lug nuts shouting F—! Jimmy clapped his hand over her mouth just in time before she soiled the sanctuary. Later they presented “Christmas Vacation” in three minutes or less, but many of the references were lost on me since I didn’t know the movie as well.

Merry Christmas

Posted on by Thor

Ron Lister‘s home at 1642 Sunburst Way, Kissimmee is a true marvel. His home is adorned with more than 50,000 lights synchronized to music, which plays through your car radio. Reader’s Digest magazine named it one of the country’s best holiday displays in 2009. He even has his own website.  Work began to set up the display back in October. Ron has been putting up this display for the past 25 years.

I arrived one hour before sunset to start my sketch. I used the final moments of daylight to block in the sketch with black line work on my tablet. As the sun set, I dimmed the screen and started painting. Mosquitoes buzzed in my ears. Ron came out and added Joseph and Mary to the inflatable manger scene. Then the lights flickered on. What makes this display so unique is the amazing amount of work that went into synchronizing the lights and music. Ron used a computer program that resembles an Excel spread sheet. Each row represented a colored string of lights. The program allowed him to turn on and off each set of lights in time to the music. It was much like the amount of work that goes into editing a movie.

The A frame above the garage had CDs that acted as reflectors for red bulbs. Ron said the center hole is the perfect width for the bulbs. The two palm trees are actually just PVC strung with icicle lights to create the illusion of palm fronds.  The large Christmas tree is a series of hoops suspended from a pole capped with a large star. Periodically, cars would stop in the street and people would pile out to take photos of the display. Ron was there to answer anyone’s questions. Sometimes he would ask a driver to turn off their headlights to avoid blinding others. He pointed out to me that the singer of one of the carols had just performed live in Celebration Florida. She travels the country performing at amazing Christmas displays.  A sign in the driveway asked visitors to vote for this house in the Old Navy Griswold Lightacular Challenge. He got my vote.

Fringemas

Posted on by Thor

Fringe is pulled out all the stops for the December First Monday Happy Hour. In the round Patron’s Room in the Lowndes Shakespeare Center there were tables set up with silent bidding items. George Fringe Wallace directed me to the Margeson Theatre, (orange venue) where the various performers were working on last minute tech issues. Laney Jones and Matt Tonner set to play guitar and ukulele. I had seen Laney perform twice before, both times in parking lots, so it was nice to see her on the stage. She has a sweet voice and her original folk tunes are humerus and heart warming. She sang a song about how she loves her therapist since he always listens and he has been her longest relationship. It was hilarious.

The announcers, Santa and Mrs. Claus (Michael Wanzie and Mitzi Morris) introduced each act. Joan Crawford offered a raspy and funny rendition of the 12 days of Christmas. The PB&J Theater Factory performed a crazy skit in which Brandon Roberts came out as a Gumbyesque foam Christmas Tree. The first time he appeared, he looked like a sad phallic shaped tree. Everyone laughed as he did an unenthusiastic dance. The tree costumes eventually got fuller and his enthusiasm, livelier.

A Varietease dancer performed a subdued strip tease, but a wardrobe malfunction had everyone in tears laughing. Pepe acted as a guest announcer and he kept the irreverent proceedings quite lively. The set was for “The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of ‘A Christmas Carol”. Try and say that five times fast! The audience was full of performers who will have shows in this year’s Fringe. Joe Rosier sat in the front row making a rather believable Santa with his real beard.