Sunday, April 28, 2024
Recent Arrivals: Gary Con Edition
Monday, April 22, 2024
Theatre: The Comedy of Hamlet
Fat Ham by James Ijames, Directed by Timothy McCuen Piggee, Seattle Rep through 12 May.
In a bit of happenstance, this is ALSO a Pulitzer Prize-winning play, winning the year before English did. So I did a little research, to discover HOW one wins a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The award is a juried award, which means that five grey eminences (one academic and four critics) get to make the call based on the year's submitted output (usually New York City based). Their choice can be overruled by the larger Pulitzer Prize committee at Columbia. but usually there is agreement (but there have been some notable exceptions). Just so you know.Fat Ham falls into that category of "Shakespeare Adjacent" plays - Hamlet set behind around a BBQ grill in a black family's suburban home. Juicy (Taj E.M. Burroughs) is our Hamlet. His dad (Reginald Andre Jackson) just died in prison and his mom (Dedra D. Woods) just married his uncle (also Reginald Andre Jackson). Dad's ghost shows up to declare that Uncle Rev is responsible for his death, and demands the son avenge the father.
Familiar stuff, right? Well, Juicy/Hamlet isn't sure about all this avenging stuff. In fact, Juicy is not sure about a lot of things - he's an outsider, a loner, a young gay man in hostile territory. His family loves him but thinks he's soft, effeminate, and too smart for his own good. So he's trying to navigate a dysfunctional family that includes his dead (and abusive) father and his angry (and abusive) step-dad.
And tonally the production is all over the map, skittering from August Wilson levels of subliminal violence to BET Sitcom, then dipping into Shakespeare's original work, then tapping on the fourth wall and finally breaking it entirely. Juicy has his strange interludes, and brings some of the rest of his fam in with him. They make their case to the audience. Its an interesting mix, and in the end, it works.
What also works is giving more for the supporting cast things to work with. The original Shakespeare was all about Hamlet, and how he manipulates the situation around the others. Fat Ham's family all has their own stories, their own histories. We actually get into Tedra/Gertrude's thought processes on marrying her husband's brother. Opal/Ophelia (Aishe Keita) is much more than a tangential love interest that dies in a pond. Tio/Horatio (Chip Sherman) is an overblown, too-loud sidekick, and pulls it off incredibly well, as does Semaj Miller, who is transformative as the jarhead Larry/Laertes. Even Felicia V. Loud, who is pitched as Rabby/Polonius in this to-do, graduates from a stock character on Sanford & Son to a real person.
And the stagecraft for the most of the play actually behaves itself, until it finally cuts the surly bounds of gravity and takes flight itself, moving from earthbound to, well, luminescent.
So, Pulitzer prize-winner. Yeah, I can see it, not for how it hews to the original material, but how it veers away and eventually discards its predecessor. I'll be honest - I liked English better, but this one, over the course of the performance, really won me over.
More later,
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Political Desk: Hyperlocal
So, this one is only for people in Kent School District No. 415 who read this blog. Both of you.
Proposition1 Capital Projects and Technology Levy. Vote YES.
And yeah, you've seen something like this before. It was a bond issue that needed 60% approval (and didn't get it), and then another levy which only needed 50% (and didn't get it). And this one has some modifications to the pitch that reduced it a bit more. It is still pushing replacing the HVACs, roofs, boilers, and putting artificial turf on a couple sports fields. The No faction is upset about the listed priorities, the idea that even the priorities they like can be removed, and that a bunch of politicians are pushing the issue. It is the only thing on the ballot, so the pro and anti messages are in the same envelope with the ballot itself.
The whole thing bothers me in a couple ways that have no bearing on the moneys raised (This blog supported the previous attempts as well). Kent City Council asked the legislature for the ability to raise the sales tax to pay for more police officers (that request failed to get out of committee). But they did approve a raise for the Mayor without a vote. Now, both are worthy causes, but it sort of grinds my gears the we can do that, but whenever we want to push education (which is mandated by our state constitution) we have to get out the begging bowl and stand at the SR 167 exits cadging for spare change.
And this election is sort of out there in the middle of nowhere. I don't support the sudden move to gather all the elections together in one place, but the idea that we need to make this election now (budget timing) is frustrating in that there is nothing else going on. And this sort of thing will happen more often as we move elected offices to even-years only.
But that's just me. I feel like I am an old man yelling at the cloud. But let's do this one before some roofs start caving in around here. Dig out you ballot, Kenters (Kentarians? Kentfolk?) and vote YES.
More later,
[Update: And the Levy loses again, 57-43%, which is more than last time. Yeah, part of it is that it is by its lonesome on the ballot, and older voters tend to be more represented in the sample as a result. But I think that if they drop the artificial sports fields, they could have notched it up to being competitive]
Friday, April 19, 2024
Life in the Time of the Virus: The Great Forgetting
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Theatre: Language Lab
English by Sanaz Toossi, Directed by Naghmeh Samini, a co-production with Seda Iranian Theatre Ensemble, Arts West, through 28 April.
Another journey to the Junction in West Seattle, and with it yet ANOTHER change is how they handle parking there. Same parking lot, yet every time we're out there, there is a new vendor and/or new process. This one is run by the lot owner themselves, and while we had to work through the menus to park, there was a guy in a hoodie (lot attendant, I hope) walking around and scanning people's plates.
So there's that. But also, we had dinner at our favorite sushi place in the neighborhood, Mashiko. We've been going there for some time, such that the kitchen knows us (and that we always order a salmon tartar that's no longer on the menu). Great food, and settles us well for the theater.
Oh, the play? Excellent. English is takes place within a classroom in Tehran, teaching for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) with a goal of allowing the students to travel abroad. Instructor Marjan (Vahista Vafadari) demands that they are "English Only", but her students slip into their native Farsi easily out of humor and frustration. The students are a mixed bag - Omid (Emon Elboudware) is the teacher's pet, speaking English well. Goli (Newsha Farahani) is the youngest and most eager to learn. Roya (Janet Hayatshahi) is a grandmother who wants to learn English so she can go to Canada and speak with her granddaughter. And Elham (Shereen Khatibloo) is the class rebel - she's failed the final test five times already and hates English and everything connected with it.
And the conceit is that when the cast speaks English, they do so in accented English, but when speaking their native Farsi, the speak in unaccented English. In Farsi, their words and mannerisms are colloquial and natural, while in English is stilted, halting, and unsure. Even the subject matter in English shows a marked difference from reality (Really, how many conversations have you had where you ask "What is your favorite color?") And yeah, I got a bit of High School PTSD from trying to learn French (I tried to hit it head-on, looking at it as a problem to be solved logically, and as a result bounced right off it).
Ultimately, another language is a mask of another culture, and embracing it often challenges one's own inherent presentation and identity. Watching the class struggle with the language, with each other, and with their own desires provides a rich tapestry of choice and thought. Each has to answer the question - why are you doing this? Is it worth it?
The actors are amazing and deep in capturing the dual nature forced on their characters. The stage is a backdrop of school chairs cascading from the ceiling, underscoring the internal chaos within the classroom. The scrim behind them is the blackboard, which echoes Marjan's instructions. Both do a lot to support the actors and their interactions.
This won a Pulitzer. Yeah, I can see that.
More later,
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Recent Arrival: Special Edition
Dark Tower by Jennell Jaquays and others, Goodman Games, Goodman Games, 2024, consisting of a 96-page hardback, a 316-page hardback, a 164 page hardback, additional handouts, slipcased, Kickstarter.
Jennell Jaquays (1956-2024) was an artist and designer of tabletop and computer games. She was brilliant at all these things. I had an opportunity to work with her when she joined TSR as an artist, producing the covers for the Mystara revision, as well as a beautiful piece of a wounded Nautiloid for Spelljammer, and she further immortalized me on the cover of a D&D product - Temple, Tower, and Tomb. She passed on in January of this year. Her work spanned numerous companies, some of which she founded, and she was there when the dawn first broke over the horizon of RPGs with Dark Tower.
Dark Tower was originally produced by Judges Guild, and was a 70-page adventure dealing with a secretive cult of Set that had taken over a small community. The adventure consisted of that small town (called Mitra's Fist), and an extensive dungeon beneath it, filled with traps and creatures. The tower of the title is underground. But what established itself over other adventure models of its era was its non-linear design. There were multiple entrances, multiple passages between levels, and across levels between two sunken towers. This type of design has since been giving many names, but I'm comfortable with Jaqaysing as its nom du design.
Jaquays produces interesting adventures that veer away from standard approaches. For a linear dungeon design (good for tournaments), you move directly from room to room, and from encounter to encounter. One entrance (usually) and one exit from each encounter. There may be nests and complexes, but the assumption is that you cleaned out one room or section before moving forward. Everyone has the same experience. In as Jaquays-styled dungeon, there are multiple ways up and down and across, and there is no guarantee that the adventurers will hit everything. The original Ravenloft would pull off the same trick years later, but Dark Tower was first, and set a high bar.
Jaquaysing does have some challenges. A linear dungeon works for linear storytelling. You can feed the player characters information over time. Under a non-linear dungeon, encounters and clues may be missed entirely, so creating a strong story sense can be a challenge to the DM. In Dark Tower, the players slowly piece together what is going on, and may not engage with the entire story, depending on their choices.
In addition, in this form of dungeon, adventurers can quickly find themselves in over their heads, particularly if the dungeon levels are set for different character levels John "Sacnoth" Rateliff ran us through it in preparation of his essay (which is included in the deluxe edition), and I ended our experience suddenly when I accidentally used the door from a Robe of Useful Items to open a passage into the high-level final boss fight room. OK, maybe it wasn't totally the dungeon design's fault, but it did have the potential to go casters-up and then did.
The cover of Temple, Tower & Tomb. I'm the one screaming. |
Volume 2, by Chris Doyle, is a massive translation of the original adventure in 5th Edition D&D (though the game is not directly referred to as such). The text has expanded, and the appendices are almost twice the size of the original, But it brings the classic adventure forward for more modern audiences. Plus there is more on the overworld around Dark Tower.
Book 3 by a number of folk, is a continuation of the story at the post-12th level, continuing the themes of Mitra versus Set through a number of smaller dungeons. There is definitely a feeling "But wait, there's more" going on here, but it is all begun with Dark Tower, which remains the centerpiece of the project.
This is a Goodman Games production, which means it has old-school black and white interiors and there are numerous player handouts and character sheets (also part of the Kickstarter). The art is solid and evokes the rough edges of the earlier editions of D&D and maps look good and complete (the originals were pretty spiffy as well). The combined projects both show where we have been in design, and where we have grown, and are playable in either configuration.
In short, they did well by Jennell, and the revised, updated, and expanded Dark Tower is as challenging and engaging as the original was. It is an excellent testament to her contributions in RPGs.
More later,
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Theatre: Dreams and DREAMers
First off, parking stories continues. We did get reasonable parking through the theater app, but it was across the width of Seattle Center, which was a long walk for folk of our age, even taking it in multiple stages. On the parking lot elevator, we encountered another grey-haired couple in the elevator who were also attending the same play.
SHE: What do you know about the play?
ME: I don't know much. I tend to go into these things blind.
SHE (Poking her husband): HE'S the same way!
And yeah, we have season tickets, so we're going, even though the matinee has been moved up to noon and we had Daylight savings time to boot.
Anyway, Sanctuary City. It was very, very good.
The play divides into two neat, well-produced halves. The Boy, simply identified as B (Junior Nyong'o) and the Girl, G (Emilie Maureen Hanson) are both Millennials in Jersey, underage and illegal in a post-eleven America that does not want them. Their situations are not exact, but they team up as friends, G crashing at B's place to avoid a violent stepfather. We follow them through their high-school years in a scattershot of short, short vignettes, the actors dipping in and out of repeated sequences to set up the pattern of their life from school through graduation. On a bare stage, the short vignettes, slammed into each other over the course of years, like the kids are workshopping their adult lives and what they're going to do. Spoiler - one gets legal, and promises to marry the other, regardless of the personal risk.
And it works surprisingly well. Director Chiang tried this sort of thing in Constellations, which did not work, but here, under the fire and talent of the leads, it powers through effortlessly grabs the audience and does not let go.
And probably if that was where it ended, it would have rewarding but not enough to justify a full production. But, then, everything changes, the black backdrops rotate (a deft use of the Rep's often-overplayed stagecraft), to transform into an apartment over the New Year's break, three years after the promise. Things have changed, and the kids have moved from sharp, all-elbows and worry to long-term angst and stress. Their lives have changed. G visits and discovers B living his lover (a sharp Josh Kenji). Relationships are tested, and the characters have to face a no-win situation, that, regardless of the choice, someone will have to sacrifice their future.
And it is sad and beautiful and honest. Hanson and Nyong'o grow up (and apart) before our eyes. And while delving into the depths of the political situation of the age (post WTC, pre-cell phones), it is political but never weighed down by the overwhelming politics of the era instead concentrating on the characters' own situations. They take the politics and make it personal, and in doing so conquer their lives.
Yeah, I liked it. Glad I went in blind, because it left me wondering how it would all turn out, and it was sad and funny and damned good writing with damned good actors. More of this, please.
More later,