Boom at Theater on the Edge

Posted on by Thor

 In the Boom pre show, video monitors announced the upcoming performance as if we were in line for a theme park attraction like Carousel of Progress at Disney World. Barbara, (Elaitheia Quinn) is the audience’s guide in her orchestrated show about the end of civilization thousands of years earlier. She begins oddly enough by banging on a timpani drum. She then twists dials and pulls leavers bringing the action to life.

Jules, (Adam Minossora) a grad student in marine biology, and Jo, (Megan Raitano) a journalism student, meet on Saturday night in Jules’s small underground laboratory on a university campus, after Jo answers Jules’s online personal ad offering an encounter that promises “sex to change the course of the world.” Corrugated cardboard was duck taped to the ceiling and an obsessive chart tied together many fragments of research all leading to one ominous vortex. It is the type of chart you might expect from a mad man.

As Jo aggressively invited Jules’ advances, while he tried to quickly fill the awkwardness with fast paced conversation. Both characters were manic and and full of energy. Jo kept flopping down on the mattress on the floor. She spoke with a thick Flushing accent. When the two of them finally kissed it was awkward. It may have been the worst kiss Jo had ever experienced.

There was a small fish tank at the back o the stage. Jules began to explain that his research on a deserted tropical island, uncovered patterns of behavior among the fish that seemed to indicate that they feared extinction. He began his research which verified that the earth would experience a devastating impact from an asteroid similar to the extinction event that wiped dinosaurs off the face of the earth.  So he turned his tiny lab and apartment into a place to wait out the disaster and begin remaking humanity. It turns out that Jules was a virgin and he thought he might be gay. When his research prediction proved to be true, it turned out he must live out his days with a woman who hates him.

Jules and Jo’s dreams and aspirations for freedom seem to mirror Barbara’s feeling of confinement in her dead end job running the museum attraction. When she ignored her duties running the attraction things went haywire. The play seemed to indicate that our differences are minor. We are a mere speck in the universe, yet life finds a way.

Boom at Theater on the Edge (5542 Hansel Ave, Orlando, FL 32809) began November 2, 2018 and runs through December 9, 2018. Tickets are $20 to $32. This is another cutting edge performance that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The Round Building’s brise-soleil was carefully preserved.

Posted on by Thor

On September 18th, I went down to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts construction site to watch as the Round Buildings brise-soleil was removed. The round building was designed in 1963 by Orlando architects Bob Murphy and Frank Sheehy. The design was an exciting futuristic change from the usual cement and stucco monoliths that litter downtown. It sort of reminds me of Disney’s Carousel of Progress which first appeared at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

The precast cement brise-soleil was designed to help shade the windows from the harsh Florida sun. The upper floors were added at a much later date. Commissioner Patty Sheehan was instrumental in the effort to have the unique brise-soleil preserved.  Each individual vertical section had to be reinforced by a steel structure to be sure it didn’t break apart when being transported. They could then be clipped free of the connecting bolts. I sketched for two hours and only one section was carefully removed in that time. Each section was then loaded onto a truck and transported to a city storage yard. Ironically the round building looked like it belonged next to the modern design of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

As of January 5th while forty plus same-sex couples got married at City Hall across the street, the round building looked like it had been hit by multiple bunker busting bombs. The cement shell had been removed and the rest of the building was collapsing in on itself. Someone stopped to admire my sketch in progress. He was the son of Jack Jennings, the local contractor who first built the Round Building. He asked to take a photo of my sketch to remember his fathers legacy. Niles M. Schweitzer Fellows held a design competition to find creative ways to reuse the preserved brise-soleil. There were some incredibly creative designs, but there are no funds to make any of them a reality. It is harder to create than to destroy. Who knows how long these cement sentinels will remain hidden in the city’s storage facility. I remains to be seen what the Next Round for these panels will be.