The White Rhino Report - “A Marketplace Where Many Diverse Ideas Meet for Coffee!”

Donovan Campbell Returns With "The Leader's Guide" - A Call for Servant Leadership

2013-05-23T14:45:00.003-05:00

Donovan Campbell has built upon the success of his first book, "Joker One," and has turned his focus to examining the nature of effective leadership. "The Leader's Code - Mission, Character, Service and Getting the Job Done" is all about developing a mindset and a heart for servant leadership.

Readers of the White Rhino Report will recognize Campbell from our review of "Joker One." Campbell was also a keynote speaker at The White Rhino Intersection.

White Rhino Report Review of Joker One

The author uses stories from his own experience in the Marines Corps and in the world of business - sometimes to point to success and at other times to confess to failure on his part to always act like the kind of ideal leader he is advocating for in this book. Campbell's transparency is one of the great strengths of this work.

The organization of the subject matter is logical and helpful. Campbell breaks down effective leadership into its component parts - Mission, Humility, Excellence, Kindness, Discipline, Courage, Wisdom, Virtue. Within each chapter he shares vignettes from the lives of leaders - either as examples to emulate or to avoid. He then offers questions that encourage the reader to engage in personal reflection on t he topic covered in the chapter, and then he caps off the chapter with a succinct summary.

This book is a much-needed addition to the growing stack of books that purport to teach leadership. This author has lived and continues to live what he preaches in the book, which sets it apart from many of the other volumes in this genre.

I recommend this book strongly to anyone who aspires to lead others with integrity and effectiveness. I have been privileged to have known Donovan Campbell since his days as an MBA student at Harvard Business School, from which he graduated with top honors as a Baker Scholar. I have seen him wrestle with both the theory and the execution of the principles outlined in this book. This is not ivory tower theorizing, but real leadership lessons refined in the cauldron of the battlefields of war and of business.

Enjoy

Al

Landfill Harmonic: "The Recycled Orchestra" - A Remarkable Story of Music and Reclamation

2013-05-22T10:29:00.000-05:00

The Recycled Orchestra

My friend, Rick Mavrovich, just made me aware of this remarkable project. In a garbage dump in Paraguay, musical instruments are being fashioned from trash and lives are being reclaimed. The project is described below in the Kickstarter campaign description.

A heartfelt & moving story of how instruments made from recycled trash bring hope to children whose future is otherwise spiritless.

Landfill Harmonic reveals a mind-boggling, inventive effort to change that - musical instruments made from trash. In the barrios of Paraguay, a humble garbage picker uses his ingenuity to craft instruments out of recycled materials - and a youth orchestra is born. Music arises and children find new dreams.

About Landfill Harmonic

A film about “The Recycled Orchestra”, a group of children from a Paraguayan slum who play instruments made entirely of garbage. It is a beautiful story about the transformative power of music, which also highlights two vital issues of our times: poverty and waste pollution.

The world generates about a billion tons of garbage a year. Those who live with it and from it are the poor – like the people of Cateura, Paraguay. And here they are transforming it into beauty. Landfill Harmonic follows the orchestra as it takes its inspiring spectacle of trash-into-music around the world.

Production began in 2010 when we traveled to Paraguay to film the children and the orchestra. We returned to the village in 2011 to film and check on the progress of three young children who recently entered the orchestra. We then resumed filming in 2012. We will also continue to follow the story in 2013. Landfill Harmonic shows how trash and recycled materials can be transformed into beautiful sounding musical instruments, but more importantly, it brings witness to the transformation of precious human beings.

Favio Chávez: Director of the “Los Reciclados” orchestra

Check out the Youtube video that gives an overview of this inspiring project.

Youtube.com - Landfill Harmonic

This link will take you to the Kickstarter site that gives a more complete description of the project and its broader vision. The Kickstarter program has been fully funded, so this link is for information only at this point.

Landfill Harmonic Description

I am sending this article to friends around the world hoping that they may be inspired to use the same ingenuity in their developing world communities.

Enjoy!

Al

Some Fascinating Thoughts On The Burial of Tamerlan the Terrorist - from The New Yorker by Daniel Mendelsohn

2013-05-21T11:25:00.000-05:00

Painting by Nikiforos Lytras, Antigone in front of the dead Polynices (1865),
National Gallery of Greece-Alexandros Soutzos Museum.

The current issue of The New Yorker contains an absolutely fascinating article by Daniel Mendelsohn entitled : "UNBURIED: TAMERLAN TSARNAEV AND THE LESSONS OF GREEK TRAGEDY." In the article, the author contrasts the Greek warriors' ethos of respecting the enemy dead as still worthy of burial with the recent controversy surrounding the disposition of the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. I thank my friend Kahlil Tawil for making me aware of the article. Thanks to Mendelsohn's thoughtful words, we have history and art to help us to enter into dialogue about a painful and controversial issue. Perhaps now the conversation can rise above irrational emotionalism and consider thoughtfully both side of the argument.

+ + + + + + + + + +

MAY 14, 2013

UNBURIED: TAMERLAN TSARNAEV AND THE LESSONS OF GREEK TRAGEDY

POSTED BY DANIEL MENDELSOHN

“Bury this terrorist on U.S. soil and we will unbury him.”

So ran the bitter slogan on one of the signs borne last week by enraged protesters outside the Worcester, Massachusetts, funeral home that had agreed to receive the body of the accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev—a cadaver seemingly so morally polluted that his own widow would not claim it, that no funeral director would touch it, that no cemetery would bury it. Indeed, even after Peter Stefan, a Worcester funeral director, had washed and shrouded the battered, bullet-ridden body for burial according to Muslim law, the cadaver became the object of a macabre game of civic and political football. Cemetery officials and community leaders in the Boston area were concerned that a local burial would spark civic unrest. (“It is not in the best interest of ‘peace within the city’ to execute a cemetery deed,” the Cambridge city manager, Robert Healy, announced.) While the state’s governor carefully sidestepped the issue, asserting that it was a family matter, other politicians seemed to sense an advantage in catering to the high popular feeling. “If the people of Massachusetts do not want that terrorist to be buried on our soil,” declared Representative Edward J. Markey, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, “then it should not be.”

And so it went until late last week, when—due to the intervention of Martha Mullen, a Richmond, Virginia, woman who’d been following the story, a practicing Christian who cited Jesus’s injunction to “love our enemies” as her inspiration—Tsarnaev’s body was finally transported to a tiny Muslim cemetery in rural Virginia, and interred there in an unmarked grave. Until then, the corpse had languished for over two weeks—not only unburied but, in a way, unburiable. In one of several updates it published on the grisly affair, the Times quoted Ray Madoff, a Boston law professor who specializes in “what she calls the law of the dead,” about the case. “There is no precedent for this type of thing,” Madoff told a reporter. “It is a legal no-man’s land.”

A legal no-man’s land, perhaps, but familiar territory to anyone even casually acquainted with the Greek classics. From its epic dawn to its tragic high noon, Greek literature expressed tremendous cultural anxiety about what happens when the dead are left unburied. In part, the issue was a religious one: the souls of the dead were thought to be stranded, unable to reach the underworld without proper burial. (And without a proper tomb, or sêma—a “sign” or grave marker—a dead person could not hope for postmortem recognition, some sign that he or she had once lived and died.) The religious prohibition had civic consequences: refusal to bury the dead was considered an affront to the gods and could bring ritual pollution on the community. The right of all sides to bury soldiers who had fallen in battle was a convention of war; burial truces were regularly granted. In myth, even characters who act more like terrorists than like soldiers—for instance, the great warrior Ajax, who plots to assassinate his commanding officers but ends up dead himself—are deemed worthy of burial in the end. Which is to say, even the body of the enemy was sacrosanct.

This preoccupation with the implications of burial and non-burial haunts a number of the greatest works of Greek literature. The opening lines of the Iliad, the oldest extant work of Western poetry, refer with pointed revulsion to the possibility that the bodies of the warriors who died at Troy could become the “delicate pickings of birds and dogs”; indeed you might say that getting the dead buried—even the reviled, enemy dead—is the principle object of the epic’s grand narrative arc. Fifteen thousand lines after that opening reference to unburied corpses, the poem closes, magnificently, with a scene of reconciliation between the grief-maddened Achilles—who has daily defiled the unburied body of his mortal enemy, Hector, dragging it back and forth through the dirt before the walls of Troy—and Hector’s aged father, the Trojan king, Priam. In a gesture of redemption for himself as much as for the Trojans, Achilles finally agrees to release the body for burial. The gigantic epic ends not (as some first-time readers expect) with the Wooden Horse, or the Fall of Troy, but with the all-important funeral of the greatest of the Greeks’ enemies—a rite of burial that allows the Trojans to mourn their prince and, in a way, the audience to find closure after the unrelenting violence that has preceded. The work’s final line is as plain, and as final, as the sound of dirt on the lid of a coffin. “This was the funeral of Hector, tamer of horses.”

As for the Odyssey, it, too—for all its emphasis on its fantastical, proto-sci-fi adventures—reveals a telling preoccupation with this issue. The great adventure epic features an extended visit to the underworld, where, among other things, the flitting shades of the dead express anxiety about their own funerals (and where Odysseus learns how he himself will die, many years hence, “from the sea”); precisely at the poem’s midpoint, Odysseus dutifully halts his homeward journey—and the epic’s narrative momentum—to bury, with full honors, the body of a young sailor who has died in a clumsy accident, as if to say that even the most hapless and pointless of deaths merits the dignity of ritual. And in the work’s final, culminating book, Homer slips in the information, ostensibly en passant but of course crucial, that the bodies of the hated suitors—whose gory deaths we are, to some extent, invited to savor, given their gross outrages against Odysseus and his family—were duly permitted to be retrieved by their families for burial.

* * *

But no work of ancient literature is as obsessed with unburied bodies as Sophocles’ “Antigone,” a tragedy first produced in Athens around 442 B.C.: the entire plot centers on the controversy over how a community that has survived a deadly attack will dispose of the body of the perpetrator of that attack—the body, as it happens, of a young man who had planned to bring destruction on the city that had been his home, who “sought to consume the city with fire…sought to taste blood.”

The young man in question is Polyneices, a son of the late, spectacularly ill-fated king Oedipus who, after a power struggle with his brother Eteocles, fled the city, eventually returning with an invading army (the “Seven Against Thebes”) to make war on his homeland. At a climactic moment in the battle, the two brothers slay each other, but the invasion is ultimately repelled and the city saved. In the opening lines of the play, we learn that the body of Eteocles, the defender of the city, has been buried with full honors, but, according to a decree promulgated by the new king, Creon (who is the young men’s uncle), no one, under pain of death, may bury or mourn Polyneices, whose corpse is to be left “unwept, unsepulchered, a treasure to feast on for birds looking out for a dainty meal.” (The particular horror, expressed from the Iliad on down, that humans could become the food of the animals we normally eat ourselves is noteworthy: a strong signal of a total inversion in the scheme of things of which the unburied body, the corpse that remains above rather than below ground, is a symptom.)

Creon, like the Senate candidate from Massachusetts, cares a great deal about public opinion, as we later learn; but it’s certainly possible to argue that his edict is grounded in a strong if idiosyncratic morality. When confronted about his rationale for enshrining in the city’s law what is, after all, a religious abomination, the king declares that Polyneices’ crime against the city has put the young man beyond morality—that while burial of any dead is a religious obligation, it is impossible to imagine that “the gods have care for this corpse,” that one might ever see “the gods honoring the wicked.” As he sputters his final line in this debate, you sense that he is acting out of a genuine, if narrow, conviction that evil men do not merit human treatment: “It cannot be.” (“It should not be”: so Representative Markey, apropos of the burial that offended the sensibilities of Massachusetts voters.)

But just as strong as Creon’s convictions are those of his niece Antigone, sister to both of the dead young men—Eteocles enshrined in his hero’s tomb, Polyneices lying naked on the ground, his nude, weapon-torn body exposed to the elements, to the ravenous birds. From the moment she appears on stage, outraged after having heard about the new edict, Antigone’s argument is for the absolute imperative of burial—indeed, for the absolute. For her, burial of the dead is a universal institution that transcends culture and even time itself: the “unwavering, unwritten customs of the gods … not some trifle of now or yesterday, but for all eternity.” (She mockingly asks whether these can be overruled by the mere “pronouncements” of Creon.) This conviction is what leads her to perform the galvanizing action of the play: under cover of night she goes to the desolate place where Polyneices’ body lies out in the open and performs a token burial, scattering some dirt on the body.

It is to this symbolic burial that a terrified soldier—one of the guards whom Creon had set around the body, to make sure no one would inter it—presumably refers later on, when he anxiously reports to Creon that someone has performed the rite. Enraged, Creon orders the man to go back and “unbury” the body: to strip off the thin covering of dirt and expose the corpse once more to the elements. It is upon his return to the foul-smelling site that the soldier discovers Antigone, who at that moment is arriving, and who cries out in despair when she sees the denuded corpse. She is taken prisoner, has her great confrontation with her uncle (from which I quote above), and, in one of the diabolically symmetrical punishments so beloved of Greek tragedians, is herself buried alive as punishment for her crime of burying the dead—walled into a tomb of rock, to expire there. (By not actually killing her, Creon, who has the master bureaucrat’s deep feeling for the small procedural detail, hopes to avoid incurring ritual pollution.)

There she does die—imperious to the end, she hangs herself, rather than waste away as anybody’s victim—but not before Creon has been persuaded of the folly of his policy. As often happens in tragedy, the persuasion takes its final form as a heap of dead bodies: not only Antigone’s but those of Creon’s son, the dead girl’s fiancé, who has slain himself over the body of his beloved, and Creon’s wife, too, who kills herself in despair at the news of their child’s violent end. The king who had refused to recognize the claims of family is, in the end, made horribly aware of how important family is.

“The claims of family” is just one way to describe what Antigone represents. The titanic battle between her and Creon is, in fact, one of the most thrilling moral, intellectual, and philosophical confrontations ever dramatized; inevitably, it has been seen as representing any number of cultural conflicts. Certainly in the play there is the tension between the family and the community, but there is also that between the individual and the state, between religious and secular worldviews, between divine and human law, feminine and masculine concerns, the domestic and political realms.

But perhaps a broader rubric is applicable, too. For you could say that what preoccupies Antigone, who as we know is attracted to universals, is simply another “absolute”: the absolute personhood of the dead man, stripped of all labels, all categories—at least those imposed by temporal concerns, by politics and war. For her, the defeated and disgraced Polyneices, naked and unburied, is just as much her brother as the triumphant and heroic Eteocles, splendidly entombed. In the end, what entitles him to burial has nothing to do with what side he was on—and it’s worth emphasizing the play is not at all shy about enumerating the horrors the dead man intended to perpetrate on the city, his own city, the pillage, the burning, the killing, the enslavement of the survivors—but the fact that he was a human being, anthropos. (This tragedy is, indeed, famous for expressing a kind of astonished wonder at what human beings are capable of, accomplishments for which Sophocles uses the ambiguous adjective “deina,” which means both “terrible” and “wonderful”—“awesome,” maybe, in the original sense of that word.) This is why, during her great debate with Creon, while the king keeps recurring to the same point—that Eteocles was the champion of the city, and Polyneices its foe, and that “a foe is never a friend”—such distinctions are moot for Antigone, since the gods themselves do not make them. “Nonetheless,” she finally declares, putting a curt end to another exchange on the subject, “Hades requires these rites.” The only salient distinction is the one that divides gods from men—which, if true, makes all humans equal.

* * *

It was hard not to think of all this—of the Iliad with its grand funereal finale, of the Odyssey strangely pivoting around so many burials, and of course of “Antigone”—as I followed the story of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s unburied body over the past few weeks. I thought, of course, of canny politicians eyeing the public mood, and of the public to whom those politicians wanted to pander. I thought even more of the protesters who, understandably to be sure, wanted to make clear the distinction between victim and perpetrator, between friend and foe, by threatening to strip from the enemy what they saw as the prerogatives of the friend: humane treatment in death. The protesters who wanted, like Creon, not only to deny those prerogatives to an enemy but to strip them away again should anyone else grant them—to “unbury the body.” I thought of Martha Mullen, a Christian, who insisted that the Muslim Tsarnaev, accused of heinous atrocities against innocent citizens, be buried just as a loved one might deserve to be buried, because she honored the religious precept that demands that we see all humans as “brothers,” whatever the evil they have done.

This final point is worth lingering over just now. The last of the many articles I’ve read about the strange odyssey of Tsarnaev’s body was about the reactions of the residents of the small Virginia town where it was, finally, buried. “What do you do when a monster is buried just down the street?” the subhead asked. The sensationalist diction, the word “monster,” I realized, is the problem—and brings you to the deep meaning of Martha Mullen’s gesture, and of Antigone’s argument, too. There is, in the end, a great ethical wisdom in insisting that the criminal dead, that your bitterest enemy, be buried, too; for in doing so, you are insisting that the criminal, however heinous, is precisely not a “monster.” Whatever else is true of the terrible crime that Tamerlan Tsarnaev is accused of having perpetrated, it was, all too clearly, the product of an entirely human psyche, horribly motivated by beliefs and passions that are very human indeed—deina in the worst possible sense. To call him a monster is to treat this enemy’s mind precisely the way some would treat his unburied body—which is to say, to put it beyond the reach of human consideration (and therefore, paradoxically, to refuse to confront his “monstrosity” at all).

This is the point that obsessed Sophocles’ Antigone: that to not bury her brother, to not treat the war criminal like a human being, would ultimately have been to forfeit her own humanity. This is why it was worth dying for.

* * *

Sometimes, a less elevated instinct, a raw practicality, could lead the characters in Greek plays to a version of the same conclusion: that because we will all want to be treated like human beings at some unimaginably low moment—because we all die—we must treat the “monsters” thus, too. This, too, is a possibility worth considering right now.

It is, in fact, the point of the tart ending of another play by Sophocles—one he wrote about Ajax, the good soldier turned evil terrorist. At the end of this tragedy, written not long before “Antigone” was composed, a conflict arises over whether the body of the criminal should be buried. His enemies—Agamemnon and Menelaus, the leaders of the Greek expedition, whom Ajax had plotted to murder—insist, of course, that his body be cast forth unburied, like the body of an animal, “food for the birds.” (Again.) Yet unexpectedly, there springs to his defense a man who also had been his enemy. That man is Odysseus, who in a climactic confrontation with the two Greek generals—who are his allies and commanding officers—persuades them that to pursue their hatred after death would be grotesque. Rather typically for this type, the swaggering Agamemnon worries that to relent would make him appear “soft”; but Odysseus, wily as he always is, argues that “softness” is nothing more than justice—nothing more than acting like a human being. Then he makes his final, stark point, one with which, you suspect, even Creon wouldn’t argue:

AGAMEMNON: You will make us appear cowards this day.
ODYSSEUS: Not so, but just men in the sight of all the Greeks.
AGAMEMNON: So you would have me allow the burying of the dead?
ODYSSEUS: Yes; for I too shall come to that need.

Or, as Antigone put it, “I owe a longer allegiance to the dead than to the living, for in that world I shall abide forever.”

Daniel Mendelsohn is the author, most recently, of “Waiting for the Barbarians: Essays from the Classics to Pop Culture,” a collection of his essays for The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books, which was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award. His other books include two memoirs, “The Lost” and “The Elusive Embrace”; a translation of the complete works of C. P. Cavafy; and a study of Greek tragedy. He teaches at Bard College.

New Yorker: Unburied Tamerlan Tsarvaev

The White Rhino Report Spawns A New and Complementary Blog

2013-05-20T11:45:00.000-05:00

I am pleased to announce the launch of a new and complementary Blog that will stand beside The White Rhino Report.

See below for a link to the URL of the new Blog - White Rhino Chronicle:

URL for White Rhino Partners Chronicle

With this inaugural post, I introduce a new Blog - White Rhino Partners Chronicle - that is being created as a complement to The White Rhino Report. From now on, I will use this Blog to highlight issues that are primarily relevant to the professional part of my life - recruiting, career counseling, leadership development, Renaissance Men and Women in the business world, transitions from military leadership to leadership in the private or social sectors, professional book reviews. In addition, I will use the Blog to make readers aware of specific searches that we are undertaking, or to share success stories from recent searches, consulting engagements and career counseling relationships.

I will continue to write posts in The White Rhino Report that are of a more personal nature - the arts, sports, fiction book reviews, faith, travel, language. On occasion, when an article stands at the intersection of both worlds, I will cross-publish that article in both Blogs.

Over the next few months, I will republish in WRP Chronicle articles previously posted in the The White Rhino Report that I deem worthy of repeating or refreshing. I look forward to continuing to dialogue with readers of both Blogs.

If you would like to be aware of new article in both Blog, feel free to add WRP Chronicleand The White Rhino Report to your RSS reader. Or, send me a note and asked to be notified on new posts. I will continue to post links to new articles on FaceBook andLinkedIn.

Thank you for your loyalty and readership.

Al Chase

Shipshape on The Lyric Stage - Review of "On The Town

2013-05-17T11:31:00.000-05:00

Phil Tayler, Zachary Eisenstat, John Ambrosino
by Mark S. Howard

On the left bank of the Charles River audiences are being treated to a wildly entertaining production of "Pirates of Penzance." On the right bank in the Back Bay, the Navy has landed for 24 hours on the town in New York, New York. I guess we can conclude that the Boston/Cambridge theater scene is shipshape at the moment.

At the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Artistic Director Spiro Veloudos once again manages to squeeze a great deal of action and entertainment onto the poop-deck sized stage, utilizing in this production additional spaces in the aisles and upper reaches of the house. "On The Town" has opened for a run that will last through June 8. If the enthusiastic reaction of last night's full house audience is any indication, this show is going to prove popular and tickets may be hard to come by.

"On The Town" is a fascinating show at many levels. The story was originally a ballet by Jerome Robbins that Bernstein decided to turn into a musical with Betty Comden and Adolph Green not only writing the book and lyrics, but appearing on stage as two of the characters. The finished show feels like a ballet still struggling to emerge from its balletic chrysalis to grow into a full-fledged musical. Given the historical context, 1944 was early in the development of the musical theater genre, and there is a still a lot of music hall revue feel to the musical numbers rather than the more sophisticated plot-advancing numbers that would emerge in the next decade, beginning with Rogers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma." Many of the Bernstein musical motifs that would fully flower later on in "Candide" and "West Side Story" are in evidence as buds just beginning to bloom in "On The Town."

Here is the simple plot: three navy swabbies who are buddies hit the streets of New York in the summer of 1944 on a 24-hour shore leave and are determined to each find the girl of his dreams. Then there is also the more complex and subtle subplot: these three sailors are Jewish at a time in history when Jews were struggling to survive. More about the subplot theme later.

The creative team at the Lyric have created a credible microcosm of Manhattan in the '40's using video projection and vintage photo projection (by Seághan McKay), simple props, a wonderfully cartoonish Yellow Cab, and stunning period costumes (by Kathleen Doyle). Musical Director Jonathan Goldberg has assembled a zestful group of musicians who render beautifully the 40's style music with a hint of Klezmer effects (again with the Jewish subplot!).

The cast explodes with energy, managing the sweeping full extension leg kicks and jaunty bell kicks of the Ilyse Robbins choreography (based on the original Jerome Robbins ballet) in cramped quarters that do not in any way manage to cramp their style. Let's begin with the nautical trio of Ozzie, Chip and Gabey. Ozzie is played with just the right mixture of neanderthal bravado expected of an "anthropological specimen" and awestruck wonder at being in NYC by Zachary Eisenstadt. Phil Tayler adds depth and texture to Chip, the organizer who thinks he has the whole day mapped out for them, using a guide book that is a decade out of date. One of the visual and dramatic highlights of the show is the duet that Chip sings with Hildy, the randy cab driver who Shanghais the sailor and takes him for the ride of his life. Their rendition of "Come Up To My Place" while lurching in the Yellow Cab from one spot to another is memorable visually and vocally. Michele A DeLuca as Hildy dives deep into her family heritage in the Bronx to come up with her interpretation of a character that must have scandalized audiences of the 1940's. Hildy is a female cabby whose meter is always running! Once she gets Chip to actually come up to her place, she delivers one of the show's iconic numbers, dripping with the gravy of double entendres - "I Can Cook Too." Given DeLuca's mastery of New York attitude, I had expected her rendition of this number to be a bit more provocative and raunchy. I am hoping that as she settles into the role, she will allow the temperature gauge on her oven to be turned up just a few degrees hotter for this number.

Phil Tayler, Michele A. DeLuca.
by Mark S. Howard

Then there is Gabey, played as if he were born for this role by John Ambrosino. Boston audiences know John's work in "Avenue Q," "Rent" and countless other productions. Those who have not yet seen him perform are in for a treat. Think of a young Frank Sinatra in "From Here to Eternity" with a touch of Matthew Broderick in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and you will begin to approximate the charm that allows Gabey to win over the iconic "Miss Turnstiles" - Ivy, played beautifully by Lauren Gemelli. When it looks as if Gabey will not be able to have his promised date with Ivy, his buddies and their girlfriends try to cheer him up with the jaunty song "Ya Got Me." He is not buying what they are selling, and his forlorn, hangdog expression sitting at a table in the nightclub is the very picture of despair. The expression fits the mood that he had set earlier in the show with his lament "Lonely Town." In the words of another member of the cast, Ambrosino's voice is "like butter."

Zachary Eisenstat, Phil Tayler, Michele A. DeLuca, John Ambrosino, Aimee Doherty
By Mark S. Howard

The rest of the cast fill their roles ably and with just the right forties flair. Aimee Doherty stands out as Claire, the repressed anthropologist who gets "Carried Away" in falling for Ozzie, much to the eventual chagrin of her long suffering fiance, Judge Pitkin. The cuckolded judge is played by J.T. Turner with a ridiculous patience that gives way to vengeful superciliousness. His "I Understand" is a highlight of the show. Sarah deLima as the ditsy and dipsomaniacal voice teacher Maude P. Dilly is a hoot in her bohemian garb and pedagogical indiscretions. Additional delights are offered by singers and dancers Pim van Amerongen, Rishi Basu, Cameron Benda, Kayla Bryan, Lisa Dempsey, Christina English, Caleb Dane Horst, Lenni Kmiec, Maurice Emmanuel Parent, Daniel Forest Sullivan, Jeremy Towle and Ceit M. Zweil.

At last evening's performance the audience was almost equally divided demographically between those who may have been alive in the '40's and those who are still in high school. Both ends of the age spectrum seemed equally delighted with the goings on upon the Lyric stage. Younger audience members seemed fascinated and titillated at the naughtiness and boldness of these ghosts of a long ago generation that seemed so much more innocent on the surface than our more liberated age. The silverbacks among the audience surely were remembering both their own youth and the ethos of the time. As the play reaches its denouement, it is 6:00 AM. The 24-hour leave is over, and our three sailors return to their ship - and to a very uncertain and dangerous future in a Navy that is still at war in Europe and in the Pacific. And the older audience members would have been subliminally aware of the subplot. These three Jewish sailors represent 6 million European Jews who also face an uncertain and dangerous future as the Holocaust rages on. "On The Town" entertains, but it also provokes deep thought and reflection.

Enjoy!

Al

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

On The Town

Book & Lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Music by Leonard Bernstein

Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, which includes one intermission.
Box Office: 617-585-5678 | boxoffice@lyricstage.com

Meet Chip, Ozzie, and Gabey – three American sailors with one day in New York City to see the sights, meet a special someone, and have the time of their lives. The light and humorous score of Leonard Bernstein (Candide, West Side Story) melds perfectly with the sharp and witty book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green (Singin in the Rain, The Will Rogers Follies) to create an uplifting and exuberant musical experience including such memorable songs as “New York, New York” and “I Can Cook, Too.”

“Gloriously bright, witty, and off-the-wall!” – New York Times

Join Us For P.S.: On Sunday, May 19 at 5pm, join us for the P.S. On The Town event, with choreographer Ilyse Robbins. RSVP recommended but not required.

Lyric Stage.Website

The Loeb Drama Center at the A.R.T. Has Been Overrun With Pirates - To Everyone's Delight: Review of "Pirates of Penzance"

2013-05-16T11:18:00.001-05:00

A Chicago-based theatrical troupe that call themselves The Hypocrites set sail for Boston Harbor with a mission to scrape the barnacles off of the keel of the good ship HMS Gilbert & Sullivan. They piloted (or pirated!) that vessel up the Charles River to Harvard Square where they slapped on a new coat of pastel paint and some glitter. They now set sail from the Loeb Drama Center nine times each week until June 2 on a thoroughly delightful cruise to nowhere - and everywhere.

This delectable production is the brain child of Saugus-born Sean Graney, Artistic Director of The Hypocrites. He describes his vision for the show in this way: "Pirates is completely hopeful, yet with such amazing precision of wit it manages to comment on the faults of society without the heavy hand of judgment." As director for the show, he does indeed wield a light and deft hand. Surely Mr. Graney must have been born close to the brackish banks of the Saugus River near where it debouches into the Atlantic Ocean. So, in a sense he has come home - geographically and artistically. His take on the often calcified G & S Pirates of Penzance is salty and campy - irreverent without being disrespectful. It is a pastiche rather than a parody of the more staid D'Oyly Carte productions of yesteryear.

The Pirates make their entrance.
Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva

Emily Casey, Sean Pfautsch, Matt Kahler, Ryan Bourque, Dana Omar.
Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva

In keeping with the vision and philosophy of A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus to involve the audience members as much as possible in each A.R.T. show, the Loeb has been transformed into a beach party. There is a dock that extends to downstage right, with action taking place in every nook and cranny of the theater. Patrons have a choice of buying tickets to sit in traditional seats, or in the Promenade Section - basically on stage and in the middle of the action. I chose the Promenade, and for the entire performance, cast members were promenading behind me, in front of me, gently moving me aside so they could mount the bench upon which I sat. Other audience members took their place in beach chairs, on picnic chests or inside kiddie swimming pools. It sounds chaotic, and it is - but in a fun way. From my place in the Promenade, I could see Director Graney sitting on the floor taking in the frenetic action. I could not tell during the course of the evening who was having more fun - Graney or the grinning audience members. Each time I looked around at the faces of the men, women and children in the audience, there was laughter and sheer joy.

In center Robert McLean (Pirate King), Matt Kahler (Major General), Zeke Sulkes (Frederic).
Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva

Pirates of Penzance has a plot that is as gossamer thin as the wedding veils that appear in the final scene of the operetta, but it does not matter. It is the wit of the puns and the patter songs and the relentless energy of this wonderful ensemble cast that make this evening at the theater a day at the beach. Basically, Frederic, played with panache and an eye patch by Zeke Sulkes, has been mistakenly apprenticed to a pirate rather than a pilot! The fateful mistake was made by Ruth, played wonderfully by Christine Stulik, young Frederic's one time governess and nurse, who promised Frederic to the Pirate King, played by Rob McLean and then joined the group herself. McLean's telescopic cigarette holder is a fun addition to the action. Many years later, Ruth has fallen in love with the 21 year-old Frederic, who thinks he may love Ruth, but he is not sure because he has not seen another female face. He has no way of knowing that this "Gothic ruin" of an Old Maid of a certain age is not quite as winsome as she claims to be. Frederic's eyes are opened when the lovely daughters of a Major General show up. The iconic role of the Major General is handled with appropriate bluster and roguishness by Matt Kahler, who is, indeed "the Very Model of a Comic Major General." The daughters, played by Kate Carson-Groner, Emily Casey and Dana Omar, are bedecked in coral-like bathing caps and frilly petticoats and skirts.. Complications ensue involving Leap Year and an over-weaning sense of DUTY.

This truly is an ensemble piece, so allow me to highlight the other colorful members of the cast who have not already been mentioned. Each cast member doubles as part of a roving band, with chimes, guitars, ukuleles, mandolins, flutes, clarinets, accordions and other noise-makers (like the kiddie pools) being employed to underscore the familiar Arthur Sullivan tunes, harmonies and rhythms. Shawn Pfautsch, Doug Pawlik and Ryan Bourque each add their own piratical idiosyncrasies to the proceedings.

The ensemble.
Photo by Evgenia Eliseeva

One of the beautiful aspects of this production is that it seems to be equally delightful to families with small children as well as to sophisticated theater aficionados and lovers of Gilbert & Sullivan.

American Repertory Theater

in Association with the Loeb Drama Center

presents

The Hypocrites’

PIRATES OF PENZANCE

by Gilbert and Sullivan

in a new adaptation by Sean Graney & Kevin O’Donnell

directed by Sean Graney

Loeb Drama Center

May 10 — June 2

American Repertory Theater

Go - bring friends and family. Be prepared to be both entertained and tickled. I hope you enjoy this show as much as I did.

Succeeding As Civilians - A Recent 60 Minutes Segment About Veteran Entrepreneurs

2013-05-15T10:35:00.000-05:00

A friend just made me aware of this recent 60 Minute Segment. The show aired this past Sunday, and anchored by CBS reporter Sanjay Gupta, the segment addresses the needs of returning veterans to learn the basics of business before launching themselves as entrepreneurs. The show does an excellent job of addressing the frustrations of wounded veterans in securing jobs, and the hope that is provided by the innovative Entrepreneur Boot Camp for Veterans, now being offered at several business schools and in on-line configurations.

Succeeding As Civilians

May 12, 2013 4:00 PM

Disabled veterans are getting help finding work in a tough job environment. Air Force veteran Mike Haynie has created a course to teach vets how to launch their own businesses. Sanjay Gupta reports.

cbsnews.com - 60 Minutes - Succeeding As Civilians

The report makes clear that there is a need to scale this program and those like it beyond the hundred who are being served to the tens of thousands of returning vets who need these services.

Entrepreneur Boot Camp for Veterans

I encourage you to watch the video, and then to ask yourself the question: "Is there something I can do to help to scale this program to make it available to vets in my community?"

Al

Soaring to New Heights at the Boston Center for the Arts - SpeakyEasy Stage Company's Boston Premiere Production of "In The Heights"

2013-05-13T14:25:00.000-05:00

It is a wondrous thing that the iconic “A Train” stopped by Boston Conservatory to pick up a load of talented passengers on its way to Washington Heights! The cast of the current SpeakEasy Stage Company’s Boston Premiere production of “In The Heights” features, by my count, no fewer than eleven actors who are either current BoCo students or recent graduates. The other performers come from a variety of backgrounds, including Broadway, National Tours and Off-Broadway credits. The resulting mixture of energetic young talent and more seasoned veterans is a tasty pico de gallo mixture that Sunday’s Press Opening audience found irresistible.

I have come to expect nothing less than excellence when I walk in the door to enjoy any SpeakEasy Stage Company production. They did not disappoint this time around. Let’s begin by talking about the foundation upon which this soul-stirring production is built. The musical was conceived by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the book and lyrics and created the role on stage of Uznavi,the protagonist and ringmaster/rapper. (The fascinating derivation of the name “Uznavi”is revealed as the narrative unfolds). Ms. Quiara Alegria Hudes wrote the book, which very deservedly was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She also won a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical. Under the imaginative direction of Paul Daigneault and inhabiting the picture-perfect set designed by Jenna McFarland Lord, the cast transforms the proscenium stage in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA into a very credible facsimile of Washington Heights, with its sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and complex interplay of hope and despair.

How do I even begin to do justice to describing the work of this cast? There are no weak links; each member of the ensemble gives of her all or his all in every gesture, every sneer, every smile, every note. The principals each deserve to be highlighted, so I shall try to do so.

Diego Klock-Perez is captivating as Uznavi, the struggling bodega owner. Much of his dialogue and soliloquy are in rap format. I am not a huge fan of that particular art form, so I was wondering how I would handle a show that is in part driven by rap exposition. Diego won me over. I was on the edge of my seat seeking to absorb not only the content of the message but the strong ethos behind it. Señor Perez nails this part, and is in many ways the epicenter of the production.

Nina and Benny

The luminous Santina Umbach plays Nina, the great hope of the neighborhood, who has returned to NYC from Stanford University after losing her academic scholarship. How does she tell her parents and her neighbors that she has failed? And what does she do with Benny, the young African-American employee of her father’s car service, for whom she has feelings? Played by Jared Dixon, Benny is just the right mix of dangerous street smarts and vulnerable diamond in the rough. The chemistry between Umbach and Dixon is palpable and very believable. Their nascent romance against racial odds brings a wonderful West Side Story element to this tale – complete with balcony scene. Their balcony duet “Sunrise”opens Act 2 on a high note, their voices and spirits blending seamlessly.

Carolyn Saxon anchors the neighborhood’s sense of family and community as Abuela Claudia – everyone’s grandmother figure. She cooks, she advises, she reminisces, she plays the lottery. Her hauntingly beautiful song, “Pacienca y Fe” (“Patience and Hope”) is an emotional highlight of the play.

Uznavi and Abuela Claudia

Nina’s parents, the Rosarios, are torn over how they should address their daughter’s setback at Stanford. The marital tension is palpable, and convincingly portrayed in word and song by two strong actors - Tony Castellanos as Kevin and Nicole Paloma Sarroas Camila. They each have a signature song that advances the plot and deepens the sense of place and history. Kevin’s “Inutil” (“Useless”) is a heart-rending cri de coeur. And Camila’s “Enough” throws down the gauntlet to both husband and daughter to find a way to reconcile their differences. The song left the audience breathless.

Three women work in the beauty salon that is ground zero for neighborhood gossip. The three of them are perfect in their portrayals, played with zest and gusto by Jasmine Knight as Carla, Alessandra Valea as Vanessa, and the incomparable Merissa Haddad as Daniela, the proprietress of the shop. All three women shimmer in their roles, with Daniela being given a little more freedom to strut her stuff with attitude and fire.

Jorge Barranco’s portrayal of Sonny, the malcontent young cousin who works in Uznavi’s bodega, is a source of constant delight and wonder. His mischievous faux innocence and over-the-top attempts at seducing every señorita within the 10033 Zip Code are right on target.

Adding texture to the neighborhood are Anthony Alfaro as the Piragua Guy, and Sean Jones as Graffiti Pete. Alfaro struggles to sell his shave ice treats – a throwback to the “old country” – amid a mounting threat of competition from the Tastee Freeze truck. Graffiti Pete at first appears to be a nuisance with his omnipresent spray painted messages, but in the end, his work of art becomes pivotal to the denouement of the plot.

Christian Bufford, Sarah Crane, Lauren Csete, Melanie Porras, Chris Ramirez and Adrian Ruz round out the cast of neighborhood denizens, and they add a nice picante zest to the proceedings through their dancing and singing.

I must add that during Sunday’s performance, the power to the light board appeared and disappeared intermittently. The cast soldiered on as if nothing had happened, and the technical glitches did not in any way detract from the audience’s enjoyment of the show. Whenever the energy provided by N-Star to light up the stage proved to be unreliable, the incandescent energy generated by the all-star cast more than made up for the lack of candle power. The cast handled it all with “Pacienca y Fe” (“Patience and Hope”)!

This is a show that must be seen. Ticket sales have been robust, and the run of the show has been extended through June 16.

Book your tickets now and be lifted to new heights of empathy and understanding of those who have come to this country to make a new life and a new dream, but who hang on with all of their might to the customs and memories of the old homes in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Cuba. Ascend to The Heights!

SpeakEasy Stage In The Heights

Enjoy!

An Elite Runner Reflects on Running the 2013 Boston Marathon - Craig Leon

2013-05-10T14:19:00.000-05:00

Among the reflections I have shared with readers of The White Rhino Report regarding the Boston Marathon bombings and the aftermath, there has been little in the way of hearing from the runners. A few days ago, one of the elite runners, Craig Leon (10^th place overallthis year in Boston) shared on his website a very detailed and thoughtful recounting of his entire experience of running Boston for the first time in his career.

I was privileged to get to know Craig the night before the race as I served as a member of the cadre of volunteers who welcomed the elite runners and their coaches to the spot within the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel where we collected the special bottles that the world class runners had prepared for each of the 5K water tables set along the race course.

Lost amid the uproar set in motion by the two explosions is the sense of what an amazing athletic event is the Boston Marathon. Craig’s piece (highlighted below with a link to his website at the end) paints a very moving and eloquent picture of the overall experience of a world class runner coming to Boston to run the course for the first time. In reading his account, I almost felt as if I were on the course running alongside of him and his fellow athletes.

I actually was on the course - not running, but helping to man the hydration tables at the 40K mark. Craig refers to the moment when we locked eyes as he approached the 40K water tables. I think that moment is forever etched in both of our memories.

Here, in his own words, are Crag’s reflections of Boston 2013

+ + + + + + + + + +

My 2013 Boston Marathon experience: irreplaceable highs & unfathomable lows

By Craig Leon

It was shortly before 1 p.m. on a sun-soaked, and perfectly vernal, Patriot’s Day in Boston. I had just wrapped up a post-race massage and was making the short walk from the finish line area over to the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel. Thirty minutes earlier, I was busy putting the finishing touches on what was about to become the best race of my running career. As I rounded the corner on Hereford Street, making the historic left-hand turn onto Boylston Street, these were the five thoughts bouncing around in my head:

§ I am already at mile 26? Damn! That was the quickest 2-hour run ever.

§ I can’t believe I am at mile 26 and feel this good. My hamstrings are still functioning!

§ The crowds are really big and really loud.

§ I wonder what place I am in, anyway?

§ This is the most fun I have ever had running. I wish anyone who has ever run a step in his or her life could experience finishing the Boston marathon like this. I can’t believe I get paid to do this!

The official Boston Marathon program will forever show that I finished in 10^th place, with a time of 2:14:38, at the 117^th rendition of America’s oldest footrace. Not too shabby for a kid who couldn’t even crack the top-10 of Ohio’s division 2 state championships his senior year (I finished 11^th place in both cross country and track – 3200m) and for a guy who left college with a 10k PR north of 30:00 (I ran 30:0x three times).

However, the 2013 Boston Marathon will forever be remembered for reasons far greater than a finishing place or time of anyone who ran that day. The lives of innocent spectators, individuals who may or may not have known anyone personally running the marathon that day but decided to join alongside so many others to cheer on the masses, were forever changed by the malevolent acts of two deranged men.

For me, that has been the hardest thing to try and comprehend, and process, about the events that took place on Boylston Street that afternoon. Running is such a shared experience. In the months leading up to this year’s Boston Marathon, thousands of runners spent their time doing exactly what I did everyday – training – with the hope of reaching whatever goal they had set for themselves. The winner of the race and the last person to cross the finish line share similar experiences. That communal experience is transferred over to the spectators who show up at races to cheer on complete strangers. As runners, we rely on those uplifting cheers of encouragement to help bring out the best in us. The folks at LetsRun.com acknowledged the reciprocity between runner and spectator in their race recap:

“One unintended consequence of the bombings was they just reinforced and reminded us what a wonderful event Boston is. Hundreds of thousands of people go and line the streets to cheer for loved ones and people they do not even know who have spent months of their lives training for this day. A marathon is a celebration of community, and the Boston marathon is such a celebration on a grand scale.”

It has taken me a few weeks, along with an impromptu trip home to Ohio, to finally begin separating all of the positive moments of the weekend from the senseless events of Monday afternoon. Although I don’t feel like I will ever truly be able to celebrate my accomplishment without there being some sort of void, I am thankful to have received some many congratulatory and concerned messages. Every phone call, voicemail, text, email, tweet, and message has helped me arrive at a point where I now feel like sitting down and writing about my experience, and all the positives that I will take from a weekend in Boston that will not be soon forgotten.

. . . When we got to the start line and I took my first strider towards Boston, I was stunned by the major downhill looming 50 feet in front of me. You hear everyone tell you about the downhill start, but it doesn’t hit home until you actually see the dang thing. They allowed us another minute or so of warmups, before they lined everyone up for introductions. As we stood on the start line, a human-chain of retired Massachusetts track officials formed in front of us to keep us at bay. So there I am, a minute away from the biggest race of my life staring right into the eyes of a 80-something-year-old. And you know what his parting advice was to me? A handshake, and a reminder that “Bahston’s thataway!” (pointing over his shoulder to the East). 30-seconds later, we were off.

Down the hill, we lead the charge out of Hopkinton. The fear at Boston is that you will tear through the first mile, but I was surprised how relaxed and easy I felt as we approached the first mile marker. Then I saw our time – 5:15 – direct feedback as to why I felt so good, we were crawling! Everyone was still bunched together, feeling each other out. Boston, unlike many of the major marathons, is run without pace-makers, which changes the entire complexion of the race. The top runners cannot simply tuck in behind their designated “rabbits” and run; they have to race.

. . . Shortly before the half marathon mark, a few more guys came up from behind us and joined our group. All of the sudden we were 7-9 strong, feeding off each other and the crowd, tearing through the streets towards Boston. Our group really got a jolt when we descended upon Wellesley. The all-girls college has earned the reputation of loudest, and craziest, fans along the Boston Marathon course, and they did nothing to dissuade that theory as we rolled through; my ears were ringing! I remember telling Daniel Tapia after we passed, “that was awesome.” He looked at me, smiled, and agreed. This is why you run the Boston Marathon!

We were entering the critical juncture of the race: miles 16-21. The Newton Hills, followed by Heartbreak Hill. I remember telling myself around mile 15 to stay focused and hang with the pack these next 5 miles, and then reassess where things stood at 21. There were probably a half-dozen guys still a part of the group as we made our way up the first hill. To my surprise, by the time we crested that initial hill, our group was more or less cut in half. The reason for surprise was because I felt like we didn’t push real hard on that hill, so it was a bit shocking – and at the same time, encouraging – to see some of the guys fall back. I kept with my pre-race strategy for each hill – there are 4 in all – which was to not press too hard on the uphills and take advantage of the downhills on the other side. When I crested the top of Heartbreak, I was out in front of the two guys who were still around, and at this point, I could finally see some of the guys up ahead in the distance. That was all I needed to be re-energized!

. . . By this time, I was rapidly approaching downtown Boston, the crowds were growing in number with each passing kilometer, and I had things dialed in. I was running side by side with Daniel as we approached the 40k mark, our final fluid station before the finish. As I pulled off to the right side of the road to pick up my bottle, I spotted one of the race volunteers [The White Rhino] who I had met the previous day. When our eyes met, we shared a symbiotic smile, he gave me a thumbs up, and I was on my way. It was a small gesture, but to me, that man represented all of the people who have helped me along this journey. That moment will stick with me for the rest of my life. This is why I ran the Boston Marathon!

. . . Final Thoughts

Prior ever completing the Boston Marathon, the event had such a profound draw to me. Finishing 10th in my Boston Marathon debut, made the event even more special. But in light of what happened later that afternoon, I now feel like I share an inseparable bond with the race. The marathon is such an emotional event because you become so invested in your one chance. I knew going into this year’s race that I had a once-in-a-career-opportunity, especially when a few of the top American men withdrew with injuries, and when you get those chances, you have to be ready to capitalize. Sure, I’m a little fortunate with how things played themselves out, but I wouldn’t have had the chance if I failed to adequately prepare myself. And that’s what I am most proud of. The race itself was good, but I did everything I could from a physical and mental standpoint to prepare. Whether it’s in running or every day life, you have to be ready for when those opportunities arise! It doesn’t hurt that I got some amazing help along the way, especially from my coach, Ian Dobson.

I hope to be back racing again in a few weeks, with some shorter stuff, as I build towards the US Half Marathon Championships in Duluth, MN. Over the next month, I’ll also be working on plans for a fall marathon; I know there’s a 2:12 floating around inside me if I find the right race. And as for next year’s Boston Marathon, I hope to be invited back, because I want to be a part of what will be a very special event!

Craig’s thoughtful piece gives us a small glimpse into the impact that this race and our city can have on an athlete who has dedicated many years to preparing for this brief moment in time. Plan now to come out next year when the race will be run again . Run the race if you are able. If not, join us in cheering on these remarkable men and women who inspire us.

I encourage you to read Craig's piece in its entirety.

Craig Leon Running - 2013 Boston Marathon Experience

Foundation for Haitian Development: The Road to Progress in Rural Haiti - The Road to the Village of Robert

2013-05-09T13:34:00.000-05:00

Most readers of the White Rhino Report are aware of my deep connection with Haiti and my love for the land and its people. I serve as an advisor to an organization called The Foundation for Haitian Development. A key focus of FHD is the ambitious project of building a road to the remote village of Robert in the southwest of Haiti, not far from the historic fishing port of Jeremie.

I want to make you aware of a current need to move the project forward to enable a full site survey to be conducted of the proposed route that the road to Robert will follow up the mountainside. I also want to ask you to consider joining with me and many others in making a financial contribution to this project.

Here is an advance peak at an appeal that will go out to those of the FHD mailing list in the next few days.

When I Survey . . . . . . . The Road to Robert - and Beyond

In 1707, Isaac Watts penned the words to a hymn that many of us have grown up singing: “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

For those of us at the Foundation for Haitian Development, it is our awe and wonder at the power of the Cross that has prompted us to commit ourselves to put the power of the Gospel into action on the ground in Haiti.

When we survey the Cross of Christ . . .

· We feel compelled to put His love into action in practical ways

· We feel called to provide a path to community development for the town of Robert in the southwest of Haiti and the surrounding area

· We feel called to work with the citizens of Robert to build an actual road to the town that will give them access to jobs and commerce with the outside world.

· We feel called to take the next step and engage a team of professionals to conduct a detailed survey of the site of the proposed Road to Robert

When we survey the site of the Road to Robert . . .

· We will know the scope and total cost of the road building project

· We will be able to continue partnering with the people of Robert, other committed Haitians, partner churches and organizations, and engineers from Northeastern University and Port-au-Prince to plan and construct the road.

We have an immediate need to fund the Survey before the next rainy season arrives in Haiti.

Our goal for the Survey project is $10,000 – well below the projected cost if we were not using God’s people to provide volunteer labor for planning and coordinating this survey project.

We are asking for your support – as an individual, a congregation, a service club. We need your contribution on or before June 1.

Foundation for Haitian Development Website

For more information, contact:

Jaresiah J. Desrosiers
Founder and President
president@fhdnonprofit.org

Reginald G. Rose
Vice President/Administrative Officer
vicepresident@fhdnonprofit.org

God bless you as you choose to stand with us in this important endeavor for God’s people in Haiti.

Stopping by the Memorial at Copley Plaza - Some Personal Thoughts + Boston Globe Article

2013-05-05T09:32:00.000-05:00

SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFFBrianna Flynn (left) stopped to reflect at the ever-expanding Marthon memorial at Copley Square

I was walking down Boylston Street this week when I noticed a commotion near the temporary Marathon memorial that has been growing daily at the northwest corner of Copley Plaza. A fire engine and ambulance had just arrived, so I crossed the street to see what was happening. I saw them attending to the needs of a young woman - perhaps someone overcome by emotion during her visit to the graphic site that contains thousands of items - flowers, flags, running shoes, notes, votive candles, Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins apparel, stuffed animals, written prayers, and countless iterations of the "Boston Strong" message. I spent time slowly walking among the artifacts and talismans of remembrance, allowing it all to slowly sink in. The crowd was somber and respectful.

As I turned to leave, I was approached by a reporter from the Boston Globe. My answers to the reporter's questions make up a small portion of this article below that appeared in Friday's paper.

By Evan Allen

| GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

MAY 03, 2013

Kevin Brown sees the same faces again and again: Pilgrims come to Copley Square to pray, to light candles, to sing in English and in languages he does not understand.

Brown, 59, has tended the Boston Marathon bombing memorial since Boylston Street reopened last week, and even as he meets hundreds of new visitors every day, he takes special comfort in shaking hands and sharing a few words with a returning cast of mourners who come regularly to pay their respects.

“It’s quite a sight,” said Brown, clad in an American flag shirt on a recent day.

He said he arrives at the site around 10 a.m. every morning from his home in Brockton to water the mountains of flowers and refresh the poster boards left out for people to write messages.

“I never thought it would be as big as it is, and it’s still growing, after all this time.”

SUZANNE KREITER/GLOBE STAFF

The memorial, which began as many makeshift shrines scattered across the city just after the April 15 bombings, has grown steadily since city workers relocated it to Copley early last week. While city officials say it is still too soon to talk about any plans for a permanent memorial, the temporary Copley location shows no signs of fading.

The air is fragrant with thousands of flowers. Running shoes, stuffed animals, candles, crosses, sports caps, and pinwheels spinning red, white, and blue were piled at the center of the memorial and stacked along its perimeter. Handmade signs — “Istanbul stands with Boston,” “Nashville Believes in Boston” — offered prayers and solidarity. The trees within the plaza were draped with rosaries and paper cranes.

“It’s like this big huge outdoor cathedral,” said Sally Graham, of Dorchester, who fought back tears as she spoke. “I’m just drawn here. ... In some ways it says to me good does outweigh evil.”

Graham said she had come to a smaller memorial at Boylston and Berkeley Street the Sunday after the explosions; she is hoping the city erects something permanent, but she was not sure what it should be.

Since the bombing, she said, Bostonians seem gentler to one another.

“I mean, the drivers are back to driving the way they usually do,” she said, smiling. “But it feels kinder.”

As people wound their way through the memorial, Jimmy Costigan, 59, played “Amazing Grace” on his harmonica from the sidewalk.

Costigan, whose lap was covered with booklets of Bible verses, said he was just behind the Boston Public Library when the bombs went off, and as he watched people flee, he saw a man running with an American flag covered in blood.

Like Brown, Costigan said he has been to the memorial every day since it opened to the public.

Amazing Grace “is one of my favorite songs. I tried so long to learn how to play it," he said. “Up there, at the bomb site, it just came to me. Weird, huh?”

Many, however, are still coming to visit the memorial for the first time.

Al Chase, a Marathon volunteer of 15 years, arrived Thursday evening wearing his bright yellow Marathon volunteer jacket; he tried to visit the day the memorial opened, he said, but was overwhelmed by the crowds.

He spent 15 minutes Thursday reading the messages people have left.

“The whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts,” he said.

Around the two bombing sites blocks away from the Copley memorial, life has largely returned to normal, and restaurant patios were packed this week with people enjoying the sunshine. On Monday night, the Marathon finish line was quietly repainted, as it is every year after the Marathon, according to a spokesman for the Boston Athletic Association.

It is partly the solace of the Copley memorial that has helped the city heal, Brown said.

“They say this is needed for Boston,” he said. “Who knows how long it’ll be here? I guess until people stop coming. But they’re not.”

Correspondent Gal Tziperman Lotan contributed to this report. Evan Allen can be reached atevan.allen@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @evanmallen.

Boston Globe Marathon Bombing Memorial Grows

Orion Griffiths - From Boston Street Performer to Broadway - By Geoff Edgers of the Boston Globe

2013-05-02T12:07:00.000-05:00

Orion Griffiths in Pippin - Opening of Act II

Geoff Edgersof the Boston Globe has written a wonderfully insightful feature article about current Pippin cast member, Orion Griffiths. I am pleased to offer the full text below, as well as a link to the original story that appeared in the May 1 edition of the Boston Globe, just below the fold on the front page.

Let me add a few additional personal comments to the vivid picture that Mr. Edgers has painted of Orion. I have come to know Mr. Griffiths quite well in the past few months. I recall watching him perform with his siblings in front of Quincy Market. He and I have shared coffee and meals together on several occasions – both while he was in residence with the Pippin company at the American Repertory Theater, and since the show has moved to Broadway.

Orion is everything the article indicates – and more. After his sister Vicky’s accident, Orion’s parents we forced to stop performing to be able to be at their daughter’s bedside as her life hung in the balance for many months. Orion, as a 12 year-old, took to the streets to begin performing so that he might support the entire family. When you look at his picture, you see physical strength; those of us who have had a chance to look at the person inside see even more impressive strength of character.

The feat that he performs to open Act II of Pippin as “The Rolla Bolla Man” is an astounding acrobatic achievement. It is also a metaphor for the many countervailing forces that this young man has learned to balance in his already storied life.

By Geoff Edgers

NEW YORK — It was a chilly night on Broadway when Orion Venture Maximillian Fitz Griffiths emerged from the stage door of the Music Box Theatre, shuffled past fans waiting to meet the stars, and began his nightly walk to his temporary flat.

He wore a T-shirt, no jacket, but the cold didn’t bother him. It’s no wonder. For his Broadway debut in the musical “Pippin,” Griffiths wears a skimpy vest and a pair of red leathery shorts that could make a Chippendales dancer blush.

“I had them put one more seam on the bottom,” the longtime Boston street performer said, laughing. “Now they don’t ride up my leg so much.”

Dealing with a Broadway wardrobe is not the only first for Griffiths, who spent much of his life on the road in his family’s traveling circus. At 25, he’s finally got a bank account and a place to stay that isn’t on wheels. Griffiths is one of seven acrobats in the revival of “Pippin,” which originated this season at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, opened on Broadway last Thursday, and earned an impressive 10 Tony Award nominations on Tuesday, including one for best revival of a musical. The show has generated considerable buzz for its cast and its Tony-nominated director, ART artistic director Diane Paulus. In his review, New York Times critic Ben Brantley called the musical’s acrobats “pretty astonishing.”

· Acrobatic street performer appears in ‘Pippin’

§ ART production of ‘Pippin’ gets 10 Tony Award nominations

JENNIFER TAYLOR FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Orion Griffiths, a longtime Boston street performer, is one of seven acrobats in the revival of “Pippin.”

Many Bostonians would recognize Griffiths. He’s performed to thousands at Faneuil Hall as part of the Sardine Family Circus. And the ART sold out the more than six-week run of “Pippin” that ended in January. But for Griffiths, the show is more than a big break. It’s a complicated break, giving him a chance to move into the spotlight but forcing him to alter his life. This is the first time Griffiths has left the family behind. It has also meant delaying his dream of competing in the world’s premier circus festival in Monte Carlo.

‘The proudest part of circus performing is the bow. . . . It’s like the payment. Your bow is getting paid by the crowd.’

Which is why, when Griffiths was invited to join “Pippin” without an audition — he’s that good — he, at first, dismissed the idea.

“I’m a circus performer” is how Griffiths remembered responding at first to the offer.

He eventually changed his mind and joined the production, which stars Patina Miller, Matthew James Thomas, Terrence Mann, and Charlotte d’Amboise. Though Griffiths has fewer than a handful of lines, he’s onstage for much of the two-plus hours of the musical.

Gypsy Snider, the veteran circus director in charge of “circus creation” for the “Pippin” revival, calls Griffiths her “saving grace.”

“Orion’s kind of a legend in the circus world,” said Snider, who hired Griffiths for the show last year. “He’s one of those performers who is so multitalented, who really knows how to sell the merchandise on the stage. He has a rare and wonderful talent.”

When he talks of the circus life, Griffiths doesn’t mean Ringling Bros. or Big Apple. His universe is about the smaller troupes that began emerging in the 1970s: talented, close-knit crews inspired by European circuses that drew on showmanship and athleticism to capture audiences on street corners.

Griffiths’s skills perfectly suit “Pippin,” which uses the circus motif to reshape the Bob Fosse-directed 1970s musical about a young prince searching for the meaning of life. In the show, even seasoned Broadway stars have learned to flip, fly on a trapeze, or ride a unicycle. As Pippin’s grandmother, Andrea Martin has brought down the house by dangling in the air with a muscled circus performer.

But for those who know him, Griffiths has pulled off the biggest trick.

For most of his life, home was Holland, Spain, Alabama, California, England, or just about anywhere the Sardine Family Circus rolled into town. His parents, John and Pauline, founded the troupe in the mid-1980s. Typically, they stayed on the road, never in one place for more than three to six months.

“I climbed on the roof of a train.’’

That’s how older sister Vicky begins the story of the accident that changed their lives.

Griffiths as a child in Amsterdam. For most of his life, home was Holland, Spain, Alabama, California, England, or just about anywhere the Sardine Family Circus rolled into town.

GRIFFFITHS FAMILY

The Sardine Family Circus was in Austria, performing, when the the 9-year-old girl decided to play in the old railroad station. It was a snowy day in October, and she hit a live wire, shot into the air, and had 75 percent of her body burned. Doctors had to amputate her right arm, and Vicky stayed in the intensive care unit in a medically induced coma for six months.

Only a few months after she got out of the hospital, John Griffiths taught his daughter how to ride a unicycle again. Then he heard about the Shriners Hospitals for Children, where Vicky could get free treatment.

That’s how the family ended up in Massachusetts. To date, Vicky has had 52 operations, the most recent two months ago. And it was in the parking lot of the Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield that Orion Griffiths met his future wife.

Karly O’Keefe, 12 years old at the time, spotted Orion, then 14, doing handstands from her house, near the parking lot. She came out one day and did somersaults.

“I remember being admitted and Rion telling me about this girl he had just met and how pretty she was,” said Vicky, using the family’s nickname for Griffiths. “Once I was discharged, I met all of the O’Keefe family. Really awesome people.”

These days, Springfield is the closest thing Griffiths has to home. Vicky and sister Keleigh, each married, remain there. So does the O’Keefe family. And it was Karly who urged Griffiths to realize just what the “Pippin” offer meant when he wavered.

“I thought: Oh my God, this is huge. I don’t know why you’re looking past this. You need to think about this,” said Karly, who had married Orion last May. “And he did.”

When he was young, Griffiths remembers, he often looked at the other kids, with their toys and bedrooms and television sets, and thought, “Why can’t my life be like this?” The only life he knew was the circus.

“But by the time I’d reached 15,” he said, “I had such an overpowering love for the life, I couldn’t think of any other way.”

The Griffiths children were all skilled, but it was Orion, born to British parents in Holland in 1987, who pushed a little harder.

“Anything he ever touched, he had to be perfect,” John Griffiths said by phone from San Francisco, where he, Pauline, and two of their children live in the family RVs. “Regardless of what our program was at the time, he always got up at 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning and worked out for a couple of hours.”

John Griffiths remembers the boy scrawling a message wherever he could when he was just 4 or 5.

“On walls, on his schoolbooks, on a foggy window, he’d write, ‘Rion is the best,’ ” he said.

In those days, the Sardine Family Circus was 10 strong, the eight children and two parents playing streets, city festivals, and occasional tent shows. They were never anywhere for long, and while the children didn’t have much formal schooling, they developed a work ethic and focus beyond their years. The big change came in the mid-1990s, when Vicky had her accident. Three siblings headed off on their own. By the time the Sardine Family Circus moved to Springfield permanently in 2003, the Griffithses were down to five children in the troupe.

As John and Pauline stepped back from performing, Orion developed a three-person act with his sister Meisje and brother Alex. In the show, Meisje, a contortionist, would be largely silent. Alex, a masterful unicyclist, generally played the clown. Orion served as ringleader, charming the audience, playfully mocking those not paying proper attention and building suspense as they worked toward their best tricks.

“He makes a show out of everything and everybody,” said Paula Davis, a retiree from California who came upon Griffiths performing alone last summer in San Francisco. “He did tricks, he would tell jokes, and at first there was hardly anyone there, but he pulled everyone that walked by in with his sense of humor.”

Griffiths was living in San Francisco with his family last year when Snider called him.

She had hired six acrobats for “Pippin” and needed one more. But Snider was having a difficult time. “Finding a big guy who is also a talented acrobat, who can flip, who can hand-mount, it almost doesn’t exist,” said Snider.

Her family had founded the Pickle Family Circus back in the 1970s in San Francisco, so Snider began calling people she knew there.

“Instantly, Orion’s name came up,” said Snider. “In fact, one of the acrobats I had already hired said, ‘Oh my God, I trained with that guy and he’s amazing.’ ”

When Griffiths told his father about the offer, John got upset.

“I cannot deny it,” he said. “I hang on to my kids. But when it became a reality, I did everything I could to help him out. Got him to airports. Made sure he had money. Not that I was happy about it. The fact of the matter is this is not the apex of where Rion can go. If he were the star of the show, I would agree, and Rion is the star of every stage he’s on. That’s where he belongs.”

The father isn’t the only one torn.

Griffiths misses his family. He also isn’t ready to give up his street act.

Earlier this year, after “Pippin” wrapped at the ART and before rehearsals began in New York, he and Karly drove an RV to Florida so he could play to the crowds in Key West. He plans to find a spot in New York this summer where he can put on a show.

On the street, he’s reminded of what he misses the most in “Pippin”: the chance to take a solo bow.

“The proudest part of circus performing is the bow,” said Griffiths. “You gave something which is something you worked your whole life on, your act, the crowd accepts it and is now giving it back to you. It’s like the payment. Your bow is getting paid by the crowd.”

Though he’s getting paid by the Broadway production, Griffiths isn’t changing the way he operates. He doesn’t drink or smoke, and he avoids sugar. While some cast members have rented pricey apartments near the Midtown theater, he and Karly found a place in the Bronx for $1,200 a month. She works as a nanny for Andrew Cekala, the 12-year-old Weston boy who is in the cast.

Performing in “Pippin,” Griffiths said, has been exhilarating. He loves being onstage, and he’s proudest of the moment, right after intermission, when he shows off his specialty, the rolla bolla. That act requires him to balance on a narrow board atop stacked, moving cylinders.

It is a highlight of his street show, and it wasn’t originally in “Pippin.” Then, one day during a rehearsal, Snider asked the acrobats to demonstrate their chops.

“I said, ‘Orion, just do it like you’re on the street,’ ” she remembered. “He just entertained the whole cast. People were just laughing and actually were really touched. It was so endearing. He started talking about his family and that he would never leave them. And of course, in many ways, he is leaving his family. But he really needed us to understand that he’s not the one who deserts people. It was just so moving.”

When he left San Francisco, Griffiths made a promise to younger sister Meisje. He would one day reunite with his siblings and they would perform again as the Sardine Family Circus. It is a promise his father expects him to keep.

“For me, it’s not a hope,” said John Griffiths. “It’s a question of when. Whether Pauline and I will still be alive to watch it, it will happen. They’ve got too much power when you put them together.”

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com.

bostonglobe.com - From Boston Street Performer to Broadway

Enjoy!

Al

Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage at the A.R.T.'s Oberon

2013-05-01T16:19:00.000-05:00

It has taken me some time to be able to sort out my thoughts and feelings about this production of Beowulf at the A.R.T.’s Oberon to be able to put together a review worth sharing with the readers of The White Rhino Report. A review is by nature a very subjective description of a theater-going experience. This review will be even more subjective – and shorter – than usual.

The problem lies with the “baggage” that I brought to the theater the evening that I saw Beowulf performed. It was only a few days after the Marathon bombings,and I simply was not ready to process this production’s dramatic imagery of dismemberment and mayhem. (See poster art above) Through no fault of those working valiantly to tell the epic story of Beowulf, for me it was the wrong play at the wrong time. I walked away at the end of the play as numb as I had felt on the the sidewalk on Boylston Street the Monday of the Marathon – not sure what to think and feel.

Having given you my personal response, let me add that the artists – actors and musicians especially – labor stalwartly to present material that is not easy to digest. Most of us wrestled with reading Beowulf in high school. Facing that “elephant in the room” squarely, this production pokes fun at the difficulty of gaining access to the epic tale, and begins with three very stereotypical academics opining about esoteric aspects of the tale and its meaning and application to the modern world. These nerdy professors transform into characters in the tale. The musicians are on stage and some also serve as characters in the play.

Each of them is to be commended for their work.

Trombone	Jen Baker, Andy Strain
Academic 1	Rick Burkhardt
Academic 3	Lisa Clair
Beowulf	Jason Craig
Warrior Vocals	Anna Ishida, Shaye Troha
Academic 2	Jessica Jelliffe
Guitar	Sam Kulik
Clarinet/Bass Clarinet	Mario Maggio
King Hrothgar/Piano	Brian McCorkle
Bass	Blake Newman
Drums	Peter Wise

The play will run through the end of this weekend. Now that the smoke has cleared and life in Boston is returning to some semblance of normalcy, this may be a better time to see the show and allow the arts to help with the healing and the processing of difficult images in trying times.

American Repertory Theater - Beowulf

Al

Boston Strong – Army Strong: Some Additional Thoughts on the Aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombings

2013-04-26T15:34:00.001-05:00

This picture has become one of many iconic images that show the devastation and the courage that were in evidence in the moments just after the twin explosions ripped through the heart of Boylston Street just yards from the Finish Line of the Boston Marathon. When I first looked at this photo, I knew right away that the two men giving aid to the fallen victim had to be among those representing Team Red, White & Blue at the Marathon.

Mission/Vision

Team RWB’s mission is to enrich the lives of America’s veterans by connecting them to their community through physical and social activity.

Team Red White & Blue website

I have been aware of Team RWB’s mission and its effectiveness from its inception, being familiar with several of the key founders and leaders, including Mike Erwin and James McBride. It was only a few days after the Boston Marathon that I learned that one of the soldiers pictured above is a friend of mine. Not only did he not allow his name to be given to the press, he was even quiet about his heroism among his circle of friends. I will honor his desire to remain anonymous, but I will presume to speak about the kind of heroism that he reluctantly represents.

My soldier friend had volunteered to be one of a relay team of runners to aid a blind athlete in completing the full Marathon course. The soldier and the runner he was accompanying were near the Finish Line between the two bomb sites when the explosions occurred just seconds apart.

Having served in combat, this active duty Army officer had come to the Boston area for graduate studies. As some who had experienced several deployments in war zones, he fully expected that life for him and his family in Boston would be more normal and peaceful. Yet when a war zone erupted around him on the race course, he immediately switched back into combat mode, diving into the carnage and offering first aid and triage. He was one of many heroes who put aside thoughts for their own safety to come to the aid of the fallen.

Here is how the Boston Athletic Association, the Boston Marathon’s parent organization, described the situation in a press release:

“Others were as reluctant to step into the spotlight. One is simply being referred to as ‘the man who gave the shirt off his back.’

An active-duty service member, he was at the finish line as the bombs exploded Monday. He was photographed wrapping the red shirt he wore during the Boston Marathon around the bloody leg of a woman at the blast site. He does not want to be recognized. He wants only prayers for the victims.

‘That’s him: ‘This is not about me. Focus on what’s important.’ That’s just who he is,’ said Larry Olson, spokesman for Team Red, White & Blue, a veterans advocacy group who had 17 participants in the marathon, including the man who offered his shirt to stop the woman’s bleeding.”

Several days after the Marathon, my friend and another Army veteran planned to attend a Red Soxgame, and asked me to join them. They were several innings late in arriving at Fenway Park, which I thought strange, because these warriors are usually quite punctual. I learned that on the way to Fenway, my friend had received a text from one of the victims he had helped at the site of the bombings. This person was in his hospital room with several family members who were visiting. They had done some research and had discovered who it was that had helped him. The patient asked my friend to come to his bedside so he could thank him and introduce him to the family. Pretty good excuse for missing a few innings of baseball.

Boston Strong – Army Strong!

My friend is one of the many nameless heroes – first responders, police, firemen, EMTs, doctors, nurses, soldiers, Marathon volunteers, runners and civilians - who saw a need and responded quickly and selflessly. We are blessed to call them our neighbors.

Boylston Street recently re-opened. Yesterday I made the trip from Arlington St. up to Massachusetts Avenue, pausing to visit the Memorial that has been set up in Copley Plaza. I also stopped in front of the two bombing sites. Hundreds of people were strolling, taking pictures, dining and drinking in the many fine establishments that line Boylston. The City is inching back to a more normal pace of life.

Boston Strong!

We rightfully take pride in our city’s resilience. As we do so, let’s continue to remember to be thankful to those who served on Patriots’ Day, and who continue to serve. And let’s continue to be more patient, courteous, kind, thoughtful and present with one another – to friends, family and strangers alike. Being strong can sometimes mean being gentle!

God bless.

Time To Keep Living - A Life Lesson From Pippin's Grandmother - Some Birthday Reflections

2013-04-22T10:13:00.001-05:00

If you have been reading any of my Blog posts in the past few months, you will be aware that the Broadway hit, Pippin, has become one of my favorite shows of all time. I can't stop thinking about it, talking about it, and even singing about it.

Today is the 40th anniversary of my 26th birthday! Why do I choose to express it in that manner? Well, a few days ago I was a having a conversation with a young friend. Somehow the subject of my age came up, and my friend said: "Yes, but you live life as if you are 26, so your chronological age is insignificant!" I love that thought, and have taken it to heart.

In the first act of Pippin, the young prince's grandmother is philosophizing with him about their very different perceptions of time. The grandmother, Berthe, mother to Charlemagne, launches into the iconic song "No Time At All" with lyrics and music by the brilliant Stephen Schwartz. I can only use these lyrics with precision once in my life, so I am pleased to share them as some of my thoughts for today:

Oh, it's time to start livin'
Time to take a little from this world we're given
Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all....

Here is a secret I never have told
Maybe you'll understand why
I believe if I refuse to grow old
I can stay young till I die
Now, I've known the fears of sixty-six years
I've had troubles and tears by the score
But the only thing I'd trade them for
Is sixty-seven more....

Oh, it's time to keep livin'
Time to keep takin' from this world we're given
You are my time, so I'll throw off my shawl
And watching your flings be flung all over
Makes me feel young all over

In just no time at all....

Thank you to family and friends for making life such a joyous adventure, and for sharing it with me in so many meaningful ways.

God bless.

Al

A Timely Look at the Monsters That Would Seek To Frighten Us – Company One Presents “She Kills Monsters” at the Boston Center for the Arts

2013-04-18T12:47:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend, I was privileged to attend the Press Opening performance of “She Kills Monsters,” presented by Company One at the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre.

I have waited a few days before offering my thoughts on this remarkable play and production. I wanted to have an opportunity to sort out my feelings in the wake of Monday’s Marathon bombings and the aftermath. I wanted to be sure that I was able to articulate those thoughts and feelings in a Blog piece before returning to the more “normal” activity of reviewing a play. I think I have enough of a sense of perspective now to offer by thoughts on “She Kills Monsters” seen in retrospect in light of the attack on our city.

In that larger sense, this play is here for us at a perfect time, for its themes speak directly to the challenges that we face as a community and as individuals in light of the “monsters” who chose to attack us and try to diminish us.

Here are some ways in which I see intersections between the play and our real life tragedy.

A teenager named Tilly dies along with her parents in a car accident, leaving behind an older sister, Agnes, who had never really understood her little sister. Agnes is experiencing a combination of survivor’s guilt and regret at never having taken the time to explore who her little sister was.
Agnes becomes aware of a notebook that contains a private scenario for a Dungeons and Dragons game that Tilly had designed as a way to cope with her status as a geek and outsider. In that private game, Tilly has created a character with powers to fight the “monsters” that haunt her in real life – cliquey cheerleaders, an insipid guidance counselor, and the usual assortment of denizens of a high school who can make life miserable for a kid who is slightly different.
Agnes grows throughout the play as she is catapulted out of her comfort zone and into her sister’s fantasy world and quest. In the process, she faces real fear and learns to understand both her departed sister and herself in new ways.
Like Agnes, many of us have been wrenched from our comfort zones this week and forced to face the consequence of having been attacked, instantly losing loved ones whom we may not have fully appreciated while they were with us.
We have been forced to reflect on what is means to come to really know and to value another human being, as well as to consider how to appropriately grieve a tragic loss.
Like Agnes, we also need to wrestle with the painful questions of how to move on while confronting the lingering demons and monsters of fear, doubt, regret and uncertainty.

The playwright, Qui Nguyen, has crafted a brilliantly designed play. I was not sure what to expect, having known a bit about D&D from my sons who were big fans of role-playing games. The best things I can say about the script without giving away too many details is that the author sets up the audience brilliantly for a wrenching roller coaster ride that runs the full spectrum of emotions. I laughed uproariously at the intentionally sophomoric presentation of the high school kids creating and playing out their quest in Tilly’s private D&D scenario. And then the tables quickly turned from comedic to poignant as Agnes begins to process the depth of her loss. She has an ever-deepening sense that she never really took the time to know, or to even see, Tilly for who she was. And she grieves the loss of her sister and the opportunities she let pass when Tilly was alive. A writer who can make me laugh and cry within moments is either very manipulative or very clever. I choose to applaud Nguyen’s cleverness and sensitivity.

The company of actors assembled by Director Shira Milikowsky brings Nguyen’s script to life in a wonderful way – full of energy, camp, irony and passion. Throw in wonderful puppetry effects, great scenic (Erik D. Diaz) and lighting design (Justin Paice), and you have a formula for a moving night at the theater.

Jordan Clark as Tilly and Paige Clark Perkinson as Agnes anchor a cast that creates just the right balance between parody and tragedy. Mike Handelman also stands out as Chuck, the Dungeon Master. They are ably supported by a strong ensemble that includes Noam Ash, Jamianne Devlin, Jacqui Dupre, Adobuere Ebiama, Meredith Saran, Stewart Evan Smith, Jordan Sobel and Katee Tredway.

As we continue to bind up our wounds inflicted by the still faceless and nameless “monsters”who chose to attack us on Monday, a few hours of reflection and entertainment in the company of Company One could be quite therapeutic. “She Kills Monsters” - I recommend it.

She Kills Monsters tickets

SHE KILLS MONSTERS

A New England Premiere by Qui Nguyen
Directed by Shira Milikowsky
Fight Direction by Robert Najarian
April 13 – May 11, 2013

After the totally-weird Tilly dies, oh-so-average Agnes doesn’t know what to make of the geekery her sister left behind. In an effort to understand the gulf between them, she embarks on a quest of Tilly’s own design, rife with hostile faeries, randy ogres, awkward high schoolers, and broadswords. Will Agnes discover her inner badass, or will the bugbears get her first? Qui Nguyen, resident playwright of Brooklyn’s Vampire Cowboys theatre, serves up a comedic nerdgasm – an homage to the outcast in all of us.

Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre
539 Tremont Street
South End, Boston, MA

Some Personal Reflections on the How We Should Respond To Events Surrounding the Boston Marathon Bombings

2013-04-17T15:41:00.003-05:00

I have been wondering how to process my thoughts and emotions after Monday’s horrific events at the Finish Line of our beloved Boston Marathon. I have volunteered at the Marathon for the past 15 years, so I feel a close personal connection. Part of my job as a volunteer is to help to greet the Elite runners before the race as they come with their coaches to bring their special hydration bottles so that our team can place them on the race course at the appropriate spot at the appropriate special water stop. So, I have come to know many of the lead runners. I also am part of the team that mans the Elite water tables at the 40K stop, about a mile from the Finish Line. I often get a smile of recognition from the runners that I know as they sprint past me as they pass this final water stop. I was on my way from the 40K Stop towards the Finish Line when I heard the news about the bombing. Bottom line – I feel a close personal connection to this world class raceand this world class city.

The first few hours after the event were full of numbness and anger and pain and denial and wondering what would come next. I began to feel encouraged when I learned that the MFA (Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts) had offered to open the museum for free access to the community.

“MFA admission will be free today. We hope the Museum will be a place of respite for our community.

The Museum’s galleries and special exhibitions will be open. Drop-in programs, including art-making activities, tours, and story hours for families and children, will also be available.”

I wrote on FaceBook: “Let the MFA and the arts in general be a place for solace, reflection and healing.”

I just received this e-mail letter from Spiro Veloudos which embraces the same spirit I was wishing for. I am pleased to share it with readers of The White Rhino Report:

An open letter from Spiro Veloudos

President of the Producers Association of New England Area Theatres

My Friends, Colleagues and Patrons

The horrendous events surrounding the Boston Marathon have given us all great pause. We would like to extend our heartfelt condolences and prayers to the victims of Monday’s events. Those events have caused us to reflect on our community and our companies.

I have been reflecting on the events of 9/11 in regard to this week’s tragedy. On 9/11 the Lyric was rehearsing Sunday in the Park with George. We called the company and gave them the option to NOT come in. Only one person (then a spot operator but now still a friend) didn’t come in. Her brother was in the military. Upon later reflection, we all thought that being together, doing something that we love in preparation for an audience, was extremely healing for us.

Last night, we began rehearsals for On the Town. There was a very emotional moment during that rehearsal as we began our work on the wonderful song of love and loss, Some other Time. This morning I received a picture of Leonard Bernstein, the composer of On the Town, with the following words:

This will be our reply to violence:
to make music more intensely,
more beautifully,
more devotedly than ever before.

— Leonard Bernstein

Just exchange the word music for theatre and I think you have what most of us in Boston Theatre are thinking today.

The Lyric Stage Company will, during this weekend’s performances of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, be taking collections for OneBoston.org, a clearing house for donations, created by Governor Patrick and Mayor Menino, which are being solicited in support of the victims of Monday’s tragedy. Our neighbor, The John Hancock Insurance Company, has committed to $1,000,000 for the fund. Assuredly we will not even approach that figure, but as all of us in the not-for-profit sector understand, “every dollar counts”

As President of The Producers Association of New England Theatres, I am asking my brother and sister theatres who are currently in production to do the same. It is my hope and challenge that not only the NEAT theatres, but all theatres — commercial or not-for-profit, mainstream and fringe, large or small — will also consider doing a similar appeal. Individuals can also make a contribution directly to the website: OneFundBoston.org

www.OneFundBoston.org

Terrorism wins when we stop living our lives. The week following 9/11, every theatre and performing arts group assembled in what was a parking lot (now the W Hotel) in the theatre district. We raised our voices to sing “God Bless America” and “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” two songs that mark what I certainly believe in and live for.

On behalf of the Board and Staff of The Lyric Stage Company we offer our sincerest sympathies to the victims of this truly senseless act.

Sincerely,

Spiro Veloudos

President
The Producers Association of New England Area Theatres

Producing Artistic Director

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston

In like manner, the worldwide sports community have opened their arms wide to our city. The Yankees had fans at The Stadium sing our iconic Red Sox anthem, “Sweet Caroline.” It seems to be a small and symbolic gesture, but somehow it feels like one small suture in the long process of binding up our wounds.

The City of Boston has a very strange vibe today – part war zone, part ghost town, and part small village. As was the case for a short while in NYCafter the 9/11 attacks, individuals are far more aware of the need to reach out to one another with a word, a smile, a gesture of support. It did not take long for the city of New York to return to a more “normal” approach to living lives of more quotidian isolation and hustle and bustle. It is my hope and prayer that here in Boston, we can learn from our brothers and sisters in NYC. I pray that we will see the opportunity to build bridges of trust and humanity and love to one another – not merely in the few hours and days after we came under attack, but for the foreseeable future.

Our city has indeed come under attack, and many of us are feeling – individually and collectively – as if we are struggling up our own Heartbreak Hill. Let us not allow the forces of hatred and darkness to overcome our common decency and humanity. At the end of the day – at the Finish Line of our race together, let it be declared that LOVE was the winner.

Being there for one another and living in a more connected and loving fashion with one another is not a short term challenge. Dare I say that this challenge is not a sprint; it is a MARATHON! Keep pressing on.

Allow me quote part of a familiar passage written by the Apostle Paul to his followers at the Church in Philippi:

“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me . . .” (Philippians 3:13, 14a)

God bless.

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston Presents the New England Premiere of "By The Way, Meet Vera Stark"

2013-04-03T15:17:00.001-05:00

On Sunday, I joined a house full of enthusiastic audience members for the Press Opening of the New England Premiere of "By The Way, Meet Vera Stark," written by Lynn Nottage. The play is being presented by the Lyric Stage Company of Boston. The work is written in a complex format, mixing live action scenes from the 1930's and 2003 with film and video clips shot to appear as if they also had been recorded in the 1930's and the 1970's. The over-arching theme is the "peculiar institution" that was the system that limited the careers of Black actresses in Hollywood, marginalizing them to playing slaves, maids or performers. In Nottage's nimble hands, the play evokes deep thinking amid the many laughs as the gifted actors and actresses present their own caricatures of caricatures. I found the play very engaging and moving.
Upon reflection, it strikes me that the theme of the play struck a very personal note, so please allow me a personal side journey before I return to describing the nuts and bolts of this fine production.

In the lobby of the Lyric Stage Company's performance space on Clarendon Street, the company has mounted a photo montage of Black women who acted in Hollywood during the "Pre-Code Era." As I perused the display, several familiar faces jumped out at me - Josephine Baker, Theresa Harris, Hattie McDaniel, Butterfly McQueen and Ethel Waters. It was my tangential connection to Ethel Waters that gave me the emotional context for connecting with the substance of this play. Ethel Waters not only performed in films and on Broadway, she was an acclaimed singing star on the Harlem Circuit, and made a major impact on the Harlem Renaissance. One of her co-stars at the Apollo Theater and elsewhere was the singer Frances Austin. Years later, in the 1950's and 1960's, Frances made her home in my hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts, where she worked as laundress for a wealthy family. She also sang in the choir of the Baptist Church that I attended. I took violin lessons from the woman for whom Frances worked, and I had many opportunities while waiting for my lesson to hang out in the laundry room while Frances would tell me stories of her days in show business. More than once we combined on a duet version of Ethel Waters' iconic hit: "His Eye Is On The Sparrow."

So, you see, my personal history with Frances Austin as a "Mammy" figure in my life set me up to resonate with the story of Vera Stark.

The cast members in this play are required to play multiple roles, and they handle them with panache and aplomb. Kami Rushnell Smith is saucy and memorable as Vera Stark, pushing the boundaries of a character who grows in a number of ways during the arc of the story. Hannah Husband plays Vera's boss and eventual "co-star," Gloria Mitchell, "America's Little Sweetheart." She brings just the right combination of melodrama and vulnerability to a role that could have been played as a cartoonish figure, but is much more than that in Husband's capable hands. Terrell Donnell Sledge is Leroy and Herb, and is believable as both men, who are quite different from one another. Lyndsay Allyn Cox plays both Lottie and an academic named Carment Levy-Green. Her performances in both roles are pitch perfect, especially when embodying the author's send-up of a meretricious academic. She plays her roles with a wonderful stage presence and superciliousness. Kris Sidberry is hilarious as the chameleon Anna Mae who tries to pass as Latina, and as the dashiki-wearing activist and feminist, Afua Assat Ejobo. Kelby T. Akin is Mr. Slasvick and Brad Donovan, a TV show host. Gregory Balla is the egotistic film director, Maximillian Von Oster and stoned-out 70's rock musician, Peter Rhys-Davies. These two men round out a very capable ensemble cast.

left to right - Lyndsay Allyn Cox as Lottie,

Kami Rushnell Smith as Vera Stark,

Kelby T. Akin as Slasvick

Kris Sidberry as Anna Mae

At the end of the day, while offering up hilarious pillorying of the Hollywood system, racial stereotyping, slick TV talk shows, fatuous academic poseurs, and anyone else who might be tempted to hide behind a mask or a false identity, the play asks serious questions. This is a solidly directed and acted production of an intriguing play. You have until April 27 to take advantage of your own opportunity to "Meet Vera Stark."

Enjoy!

Al

http://www.lyricstage.com/

Great Job Opportunity for IT Field Applications Engineer - East Coast

2013-03-29T08:17:00.000-05:00

A client company of White Rhino Partners is looking to hire a Full-time Field Applications Engineer.

The ideal candidate could be former military with some IT Field Engineer experience or Data Center experience.
Conversational level Japanese is highly desirable to be able to speak with technical staff at the company headquarters in Japan.
The right candidate can live anywhere from the Carolinas to Norfolk, D.C./Beltway, Baltimore, Philly, NYC/NJ, Boston
Will work out of the home and travel as necessary client sites, primarily in the Northeast

· Base up to $90K + bonus structure to bring total close to $125K. Opportunity for advancement within the growing company.

Field Applications Engineer - Full-time, permanent employee

Position Description

As a Field Applications Engineer based in the North Eastern US, you will have responsibility for the following as it relates to our Wide Area Optimization Controller (WOC) suite of products.

Provide pre-sales technical customer application qualification for the company’s Networks, sales channels.
Provide product demonstrations and/or evaluations for technical and non-technical customers.
Provide remote and/or on-site post-sales technical support and training for WOC products.
Technical product collateral development in terms of application notes, white papers, presentations, etc.
Ability to build credible technical relationships with customer base and Sales Channels concurrently.
Work with US-Field Sales teams, and Japan based Engineering and Customer Support teams to create solutions to End-user issues.
On-site responsibilities include troubleshooting and installation of all products, answering all technical and product related questions.

Position Requirements

· Documented knowledge of WAN Controller fundamentals required

· Thorough knowledge of WAN Controller architectures and techniques (i.e. Deduplication, TCP protocol, Protocol Acceleration, Caching, Traffic Shaping) required

Demonstrated knowledge of IT, Enterprise and Data Center Architectures required
Exceptional communication and time management/organizational skills
Exceptional self-motivation and self-management skills.
Demonstrated successful performance in a dynamic, multi-task environment
Previous experience as a Field Application Engineer or Technical Support Engineer desired.
Cisco CCNA certification desired
Experience with WOC systems such as Blue Coat Systems, Riverbed, Silver Peak, Cisco (WAAS), F5, or Infineta Systems highly desired.
Japanese language conversational fluency highly desired

Willingness to work out of home on the Eastern Seaboard, and willingness to travel to client sites several days per week.

Competitive salary and bonus structure.

Qualified candidates, send resume and cover letter to Dr. Al Chase: achase47@gmail.com

Please forward this information to any persons in your network whom you feel may be interested and qualified.

Thank you.

Al

"Diane Paulus Brings Her Magic to Pippin" by Rob Weinert-Kendt

2013-03-26T17:25:00.001-05:00

Diane Paulus, center, directs the Broadway revival of Pippinleft, Patina Miller as Lead Playerright, Matthew James Thomas as PippinPhotograph: Kevin H. Lin

Broadway is abuzz and atwitter with the arrival of Pippin back on The Great White Way after an absence of over 30 years. The first NYC audience to experience this re-imagined production could not contain themselves on Saturday at the initial preview performance. Previews will continue until the official Opening Performance on April 25.

I received a call last evening from one of the cast members who has become a friend. According to him, this is what transpired on Saturday night:

"The audience stopped the show twice in the first Act with standing ovations. The first time was after the opening number, 'Magic To Do,'. Cast and audience members were in tears. The second time was after Andrea Martin sang 'Just No Time At All.'"

I do not recall ever attending a Broadway show in which the show was stopped twice in the first Act for the audience to acknowledge their delight. Something similar happened during Pippin's first performance at the A.R.T. After hearing the familiar opening chords of the orchestra's brief prelude, the audience spontaneously break into a round of applause. It felt that, as one, we were all saying to the show, to Stephen Schwartz, to Pippin: "You have been away too long, friend; we have missed you. Welcome back!"

In today's online edition of Timeout New York, Rob Weinert-Kendt has written a wonderful article about how Director Diane Paulus has developed her vision for this production of Pippin.

Diane Paulus brings her magic to Pippin

The innovative director behind Hair and Porgy and Bess infuses the Broadway classic with circus thrills.

by Rob Weinert-Kendt

You’d think Assassins would hold the distinction of being the first Broadway tuner with a number inspired by Charles Manson. That honor goes to the epic 1972 pop musical Pippin, whose first Broadway revival, now in previews, opens April 25. Its lavish ode to war, “Glory,” climaxes with a gruesome battle tableau, accompanied by a sinuous, wordless soft-shoe by the show’s hat-and-cane-wielding MC, the Leading Player, and two chorines in boaters and breastplates. For reasons that may have been clearer to audiences at the time, this unmistakable bit of Fossean irony has always been called “the Manson Trio.” (Bob Fosse was the show’s original director and, in many ways, a coauthor with songwriter Stephen Schwartz and playwright Roger O. Hirson.)

Maybe it wasn’t so clear to 1970s theatergoers, actually. Although she saw the original production three times as a kid, Pippin director Diane Paulus (Hair, Porgy and Bess) admits that she never got the Manson reference. She finally asked Chet Walker, an original cast member now serving as the revival’s choreographer, about the curious name of the iconic jazz-hands interlude.

“I asked him, ‘Why’s it called the Manson Trio?’ ” Paulus recalls. “He said, ‘Because Bob was very interested in Charles Manson.’ It was the idea of the Leading Player as a kind of charismatic leader, kind of a cult leader. That’s a particularly dark way to see it, but it was really illuminating to understand that reference had significance for Fosse: the juxtaposition of song-and-dance and people being killed.”

If the ghost of the late director-choreographer hovers, Cheshire cat–like, over Pippin, Paulus was determined to face it head-on. “When I talked to Stephen Schwartz, I told him that I wanted to deal with ‘the Fosse,’ because his influence is inextricably linked to the memory of this show,” says Paulus, who originated the current revival at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is artistic director. “I knew it was not my strength to re-create a museum replica of a production, so my interest was: How do I make this production feel necessary? Why bring it back?”

In addition to enlisting Walker to preserve some of the Fosse moves, Paulus brought on Gypsy Snider, a founding member of Les 7 Doigts de la Main, the Canadian circus company behindTraces, to give the show a new layer of movement—and danger.

“I was totally turned on by 7 Doigts; it’s acrobatics, but actor-driven, human-scaled, very emotion-based acrobatics,” Paulus raves with the signature enthusiasm that surely helped land her a gig directing a tent show for Cirque du Soleil (Amaluna, now in Seattle and slated for Randalls Island in 2014). She’d been looking for an excuse to work with 7 Doigts when Walker happened to mention another Fosse obsession. “He said, ‘You know, Bob was fascinated with circus,’ ” says Paulus. “ ‘He loved Fellini, and taking this show to a world of circus feels very natural.’ Circus is almost in Pippin’s DNA.”

The musical may not have three rings, exactly, but its main story—about the peripatetic coming-of-age of the title character, the son and heir of Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne—is framed as a show-within-a-show, performed by a troupe of traveling players. Adding acrobats to the mix was easy enough, but they bring more than cheap thrills.

“What I love about circus is that it’s all a metaphor: Walking a tightwire is a physical metaphor,” says Paulus. The physical part is the key, she adds: “In theater, I always say you live in the moments where things don’t go according to plan, because then all of a sudden everybody wakes up and says, ‘Wait a minute, this is live theater!’ In the circus, that’s always happening. When we execute some of the moves in this show, it is real, real, real. And the audience is there, living and breathing with them.”

Though she doesn’t plan to literally invite the audience onstage, as she did in her 2009 revival of Hair, Paulus says that in Pippin, “your presence is highlighted: We’ve made an effort to show that you’re in the world of the show.” Summing up what could be both her ethic and her aesthetic, Paulus adds, “I guess I’m a junkie for visceral theatrical experiences, you know?”

Complete Timeout.com/newyork Piece

Pippin is in previews at the Music Box Theatre. Click here for tickets.

Enjoy!

Reluctant Pilgrim - Stephen Schwartz Sings His Own Songs

2013-03-26T13:47:00.002-05:00

Lately I have been in a Stephen Schwartz state of mind. There is a myriad of reasons for this turn of events.

I have always been a fan of his musicals. I discovered Godspell when I was still in my post-college rebellious phase; its music and ethos fit me like a glove. Then I discovered Pippin, first hearing the music and then seeing it on Broadway. Wow. I was still trying to find my corner of the sky, so it really resonated with me at that stage of my long trek that has been a life-long pilgrimage. I have worn out my CD of the original Broadway cast.

I saw The Magic Show starring Doug Henning, and wondered anew how these two magicians - Schwartz as composer and Henning as illusionist - were able to pull off their feats of stunning prestidigitation. Then I saw an early performance of Children of Eden, and I marveled at how this Jewish guy from New York had chosen to write and to combine these two stories of parenthood and rebellion from the Old Testament. As a father, I was able to relate to Adam and to Noah. I grew to love that show, and have subsequently seen many more productions and have worn out yet another CD.

On a trip to London a few years ago, I managed to snag a reasonably priced ticket to see Wicked in the West End. My American theater-going friends were green with envy! Then, not long after this London trip, I met Mr. Schwartz briefly when he was involved behind the scenes with an A.R.T. production of a show called The Blue Flower. The two of us had several conversations, and so I began to know the man behind the music. And then last year I learned that Diane Paulus at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge was developing a new production of Pippin for the 40th anniversary of its debut on Broadway. She was collaborating with Schwartz and with Gypsy Snider to add new layers to the telling the story of the young Prince who traveled through life wondering what price he might be willing to pay to be extraordinary. And my repeat visits to the Loeb Drama Center at the A.R.T. gave me a few more occasions to converse with Mr. Schwartz and his wife, Carol. And then one day after a final Cambridge performance of Pippin prior to its departure for Broadway, I was backstage waiting to see some of the cast members I had come to know. There and then I met Carol de Giere, Schwartz's biographer and author of "Defying Gravity." In the course of reading Carol's chronicle of Schwartz career as a a composer and writer, I also learned that he had a parallel life as a singer/songwriter.

Thus, I became aware of several albums that Schwartz has recorded of his own songs. Thus, I entered a new phase of my appreciation of his artistry. While I write these words, I am enjoying the wonderful assortment of songs in his CD, "Reluctant Pilgrim." In wrapping up, let me share some of the lyrics from the opening song, Dreamscape:

Time to sail, reluctant pilgrim

My fear is all I've got to lose

Life is nothing

Nothing but a dreamscape

And the dream is mine to choose.

I am racing down a corridor

Endless doors on either side

I could open any one of them

Step on through and change my life

Sometimes I pause there on the threshold

Afraid to leave my bright familiar hall

Sometimes I spend my days running by so quickly

I don't see the doors at all.

Step on through, reluctant pilgrim

My fear is all I've got to lose

Life is nothing

Nothing but a dreamscape

And the dream is mine to choose.

This is beautiful and evocative songwriting gently sung. Schwartz is a very good singer; he could have been cast in his own shows! Enjoy this album as much as I am enjoying it.

"May the . . .

Enjoy!

Al

Perfection of Form and Execution - Review of "Clybourne Park" by Bruce Norris - Presented by The SpeakEasy Stage Company

2013-03-25T14:28:00.000-05:00

Michael Kaye, Thomas Derrah, Marvelyn McFarlane, DeLance Minefee, Paula Plum, and Tim Spears in a scene from SpeakEasy Stage's production of Clybourne Park, running March 1-30 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. Tickets/info at speakeasystage.com or 617.933.8600. Photo by Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo.

Before I delve into the specifics of my review of the current SpeakEasy Stage Company production of "Clybourne Park" at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion, allow me a few moments to philosophize about the nature of "Perfection." Plato devoted a great deal of time and writing to his concept of perfection, especially as he discussed ideal forms. To Plato, everything that exists has a form of perfection for itself. All things work, in their existence, to approach their ideal - to move toward their perfection. An object, living or dead, always works in some manner to realize its intrinsic nature. Thus, there exists, according to the Platonic way of thinking, a perfect ideal of "The Play." I believe that the current SpeakEasy production of "Clybourne Park" comes as close to achieving the level of that hypothetical Platonic ideal as any play that I can recall seeing. If I were handed a magic wand that would enable me to make improvements on this play as written and as acted, I would simply lay down that wand and say, in effect, "If it ain't broke, . .. "

Everything about "Clybourne Parks" works like a well-oiled machine. It is no accident that Bruce Norris has received universal accolades for the script - Tony Award, Pulitzer Prize, Olivier, et al. I saw the Broadway production of this play last year, and was deeply impressed and profoundly moved. When I learned that the Boston premiere would be taking place at the Boston Center for the Arts, I wondered how our local theater professionals would be able to match the high level of the New York production. I need not have worried. In every aspect, this present production either matches or exceeds the level of professionalism and artistry of the Broadway version. Director M. Bevin O’Gara has selected a cast of men and women who are simply flawless in the execution of their challenging dual roles.

In his play, Norris weaves together threads from a rich variety of social themes - racism, prejudice, gentrification, property, the importance of place, the nature of community, communication and barriers to communication, post-traumatic stress disorder, resiliency and the question of “who is my neighbor?” In the hands of someone with less of a nuanced ear for dialogue and a less well-developed feel for dramatic arc, the scrambled themes could have devolved into a tangled hodgepodge. Norris has crafted a tapestry that is awe-inspiring and deeply troubling.

“Clybourne Park” stands proudly on the shoulders of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic “A Raisin in the Sun,” and picks up the action of that play in 1959 as a black family is about to “break the color line” and move into an all-white community. As Act I unfolds, it is slowly revealed that the white couple who are selling their home, Bev and Russ, are selling because of a family tragedy that has shaken them and their marriage to its very foundation. The neighbors are disturbed by the decision to sell to a “colored family,” and escalating confrontations take place among Bev, Russ, Rev. Jim and Karl and Betsy. Adding spice to the awkward conversations are the maid, Francine and her eager-to-please husband, Albert. At the end of Act I, Bev and Russ are ready to move and the neighborhood is about to change.

In Act II, the tables are turned. Fifty years have passed, and Clybourne Park has long since become a run down all-black neighborhood. Because of its strategic location near downtown office spaces, the neighborhood becomes the target of affluent white families who are eager to buy up the undervalued properties and “re-gentrify” the old neighborhood. A white couple, Lindsey and Steve, are planning to tear down the original house and replace it with a much larger structure that threatens to ruin the architectural and historical integrity of the neighborhood. The African American leaders of the neighborhood association use many of the same arguments that Karl had used fifty years ago to justify keeping the neighborhood as it is. After several scenes in which the characters dance around the issue of race with euphemisms and evasions, the issue finally explodes into shouting and insults that leave the audience breathless.

The two acts are the obverse and reverse sides of the same coin. The author has done a masterful job of stitching together the two halves using several brilliant techniques. The actors who had played roles in Act I return in Act II to play very different roles. The continuity and the contrasts provide creative tension that adds to the play’s overall effect. As Act II develops, it becomes clear that the characters of Tom, Lindsey, Steve, Kathy, Kevin, Lena and Dan have personal histories that intertwine with the house or with the neighborhood in ways that tie the actions of 1959 and 2009 together. In addition, the writer uses a mysterious trunk – buried in Act I and disinterred in Act II – to tie together the tragedy that haunts the house and its inhabitants.

The acting by this cast is a series of revelations of dramatic storytelling at its finest.

Paula Plum plays the beleaguered and long-suffering wife, Bev, in Act I. In Act II, she is Kathy, Lindsey and Steve’s lawyer, trying to resolve issues around zoning and historical commission regulations. She is heart-breaking as Bev with panic threatening to break through at any moment her carefully preserved patina of normalcy and calm.

Thomas Derrah and Paula Plum in a scene from SpeakEasy Stage's production of Clybourne Park, running trough April 6 at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. Tickets/info at speakeasystage.com or 617.933.8600. Photo by Craig Bailey/Perspective Photo.

Thomas Derrah plays Russ, whose world has been shattered by the family tragedy, and who resists relentless efforts by his wife, the minister and his “friends”to get him to "move on" beyond his debilitating grief In Act II, he plays Dan, the working class contractor tasked with building a trench in the back yard of the house now undergoing renovation and enlargement. His portrayal of Russ pulsates with despair and eventually with rage.

Marvelyn McFarlane plays Francine, the “colored maid.” in Act I. In Act II, she portrays Lena, a member of The Property Owners Association, and a great-niece of the woman who had bought the property in 1959. Her facial expressions, both as Francine and as Lena who is trying to get to speak her piece and is often interrupted, are priceless. Her encounters with her husband in both scenes add a significant layer of subtext to the plot.

DeLance Minefee is Albert, Francine’s husband, and Kevin, Lena’s husband. He balances beautifully the tensions within each character between deferential respect and repressed rage.

Michael Kaye is Karl, head of the Neighborhood Association in Act I, and Steve, the buyer of the house in Act II. This actor revels in the challenge to play two very different kinds of clueless men, both hiding behind a flowing torrent of words to conceal ignorance and confusion.

Philana Mia plays the role of Betsy, Karl’s deaf wife in Act I, and Lindsey, the frustrated buyer and Steve’s wife in Act II. She is brilliant in both roles. Betsy’s deafness is used to great effect as a metaphor for the inability and unwillingness of most of the characters in this play to truly hear one another.

Tim Spears is bromide-spewing and smarmy Rev. Jim in Act I, and Attorney Tom in Act II. Both of his characters serve to keep the action moving and to remind the others that it is almost 4:00 and almost time to wrap things up. He has a bit of physical theater in the first act that cuts the building tension with some well-timed comic relief.

Each actor excels in their individual performances, but the strength of this cast is their ensemble work, playing off of one another’s provocations, moments of awkward silence, glances, sneers and circumlocutions.

Norris wields a whole tool chest full of literary devices to tell this story. At times he is as subtle and nuanced as a scalpel, and at other times, he uses brute force to pry open the audience member’s minds and hearts in much the same way that Dan uses bolt cutters to break the lock on the mystery chest as the play reaches its denouement.

Sense of place comes through as a familiar motif. Russ’s reading of National Geographic allows him to expand his knowledge of world capitals – Ulan Bator! – while simultaneously hiding behind the magazine to conceal his inner crumbling topography. The identity of the capital of Morocco becomes a key point of contention in Act II. The importance of place takes on an even deeper sense of poignancy when one considers that the location of the BCA in Boston’s South End is a neighborhood that has seen its own cycles of change – decay and re-gentrification.

It would be a “perfect” shame for a lover of theater to miss out on seeing this superb production. Audience members have been storming the box office and filling each seat. As a result, the run of the show has been extended to April 6.

Enjoy!

SpeakEasy Stage Company Website

"I Feel So Much Spring!" - Moonbox Productions' "A New Brain" at the Plaza Theatre

2013-03-23T13:54:00.000-05:00

In the past few weeks, I have seen and reviewed a lot of theatrical productions in and around Boston and Cambridge. Those who do not know me well may imagine that I could be close to overdosing on live theater or becoming jaded when a particular production or individual performance falls short of perfection. On the contrary, I am becoming more and more impressed by the depth and breadth of live performance options that the theater-going public in Greater Boston has available to us. The choices are myriad.

They range all the way from . . .

A steady stream of Tony Award winning artists coming to town in national tours of Broadway shows playing in the grande dame houses in the Theater District. . .
To the A.R.T., that seems to be spawning Broadway-bound hits more often that salmon swim upstream to deposit their fertilized eggs . . .
To the Equity houses like the Huntington, the Lyric Stage, Stoneham, New Repertory, Actors' Shakespeare, Commonwealth Shakespeare, Central Square Theater, et al. . . .
To the smaller theater companies - professional, fringe, semi-professional troupes laboring in small black box spaces or full proscenium stages . . .
to the Main Stage and student productions at our amazing assortment of universities, colleges, conservatories and institutes that are training the next generation of creative talent.

Everywhere I turn, I see a wonderful admixture and co-mingling of veteran talent with budding new actors, theater craftsmen and women, creative technicians, writers, dramaturgs, directors, producers and stage managers. The future is bright and the present situation is an embarrassment of riches for those of us who have acquired the life-long and insatiable hunger to experience story telling at its finest through live drama and musical theater.

In this rich firmament, Moonbox Productions shines brightly. It's current production of "A New Brain" can be seen at the BCA's Plaza Theatre. The show was written by Natick native William Finn as he convalesced from a life-threatening neurological condition. He collaborated with James Lapine on the book. The show ultimately evolves into a life-affirming climax, but there are bumps along the road, or should I say, some rough seas during the voyage.

Director Allison Olivia Choat has assembled a marvelous ensemble cast who work well together, with some truly memorable moments in which individual voices and performances shine through. The story is written as a blend of realistic and real time action interspersed with some surreal moments when Gordon Schwinn's medical condition causes him to dream or to become befogged (and "befrogged") in delusions. Hopping in and out of both types of sequences is children's TV character, Mr. Bungee, a solitary amphibious green Greek chorus, commenting relentlessly on Schwinn's failure to achieve success as a song writer.

Finn's work includes the trilogy of plays that were compressed and presented as Falsettos. Finn had a Broadway hit in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee." His works is often described as strongly autobiographical. This may be the problem with the writing of "A New Brian." He wrote many of the lyrics and much of the music in the months after undergoing brain surgery. While there are some truly magical moments and moving songs, the writing is uneven, with some sequences and lyrics that are simply painful and insipid. Perhaps one of the reasons that this show has never made the leap to Broadway is that the play's book and lyrics need a good "show doctor."

Finn's protagonist, Schwinn, writes songs for a children TV show. He hates the work, and is using it to pay the bills so he can write something truly meaningful and memorable. His life partner, Roger, who loves sailing, is delayed in rushing to Schwinn's hospital bedside because he has been "becalmed in the lee, in the lee, in the lee . . . of Cuttyhunk." Schwinn's composing career seems equally becalmed in the lee of Mr. Bungee. Finn has written songs and scenes that parody the simplistic and often inane nature of songs composed for children's TV, including "The Yes Song." The problem seems to be that in his early stage of recuperation, Finn was not able to clearly discern the line between parody of the children's show within the play and the need to write more complex and compelling lyrics and three-dimensional characters for the play outside of the Mr. Bungee TV show. As a prime example, the character of the mother, Mimi Schwinn, is written as a caricature of a controlling, interfering Jewish mother. Much to her credit, Shana Dirik adds her own special sauce to what could have been a thankless role, and makes Mimi an almost sympathetic character.

Tom Shoemaker is perfectly cast as Schwinn. The show is written as a through-composed piece (think of RENT or Les Miserables) with little dialogue. So the singing voices are key in the creation of believable characters. Shoemaker's voice flows between subtle and vulnerable to a few special moments when he shows off his rock star chops with some full-throated fortissimo phrases. Equally impressive in his vocal virtuosity is Ross E. Brown as Roger. His opening number, as he arrives from his sailing junket off of The Cape, has moments that are breathtaking in their beauty. Another voice that stands out from an impressive crowd is that of Lori L'Italien as Homeless Lady. The ensembles singing, especially in the production numbers "Heart and Music" and "I Feel So Much Spring" are electric. The blend of voices and the balance of voices with orchestra is spine-tingling.

Music Director, Dan Rodriguez, has assembled a wonderful group of musicians. The problem is that except for the numbers in which the band complements the ensemble singing, they are so loud that they often overwhelm individual voices. I was sitting in the third row, and had to strain to hear some of the more subtle and potentially-moving musical moments, especially when Mr. Shoemaker was appropriately using his "inside voice." The creative team have made the appropriate choice to have the actors sing without microphones, which should work fine in such an intimate performance space. The band somehow needs a little "less Spring" in their step to allow the individual voices to blossom!

The cast is rounded out with fine work by David Carney as Dr. Berensteiner, Shonna Cirone as Rhoda, Peter Miller as the Minister (he has a fun Gospel shtick in one number), Aaron Michael Ray as Nurse Richard, Allison Russell as Waitress and Nancy D., and Matthew Zahnzinger as Mr. Bungee, a wonderful blend of Barney and The Misanthrope!

Despite the few quibbles I have shared regarding the writing and some of the technical challenges, the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. The play - and this particular production of the play - is, at the end, a life-affirming anthem to not giving up on dreams or relationships. At one point in the evening's activities, audience members were clapping along with the cast. It is live theater with all of its glories and challenges. This show is worth seeing and feeling and experiencing. I left the theater humming "I Feel So Much Spring"!

Moonbox Productions Website

The show runs through April 6 at the Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA)

Enjoy!

Mini-Review of "Story" by Robert McKee, The "Godfather of Screenwriting"

2013-03-21T12:09:00.000-05:00

I just had a fascinating conversation with a warrior who has deployed twice to Iraq. He is writing a screen play about the experiences that he and his troops faced in that ancient land between two rivers - Mesopotamia. In the course of our freewheeling conversation, I mentioned Professor Robert McKee and his iconic work. "Story." It occurred to me that when I read this book by the "Godfather of Screenwriting," I had not taken the time to review the book here in The White Rhino Report. I would like to eliminate that oversight by offering a "mini-review" here.

Simply put, McKee offers principles and formulas for screenwriting that have become the Bible of the industry. The vast majority of men and women who have won Oscars for screenwriting in the past generation have been students of McKee. There are those who have accused McKee and his disciples of being too formulaic. I disagree with that criticism. Any good artist masters the basics and then makes creative choices to depart from the standard and the orthodox to push the envelope of creativity into new territory. Picasso mastered realistic painting before veering off into Cubism. Mckee and his book allow the writer of a screen play to master the basics.

Donald Miller, one of my favorite authors, was moved to write to write "A Million Miles In A Thousand Years" after attending a seminar offered by McKee.

Whiterhinoreport Review of Miller's Book

To anyone who wishes to become a better writer of screenplays, fiction, Blog posts, and other literary forms, McKee's book is a great tool to add to the arsenal of literary weapons you have already amassed.

Enjoy!

Al

If You're Busy, You're Doing Something Wrong - from the Blog "Study Hacks" by Cal Newport

2013-03-20T15:03:00.000-05:00

In a recent FaceBook message, Boris Taratunin shared a link to a Blog by Cal Newport. This remarkable article chronicles the implications of data derived from a study of gifted and average violin students in Berlin. The results are counter-intuitive and have tremendous relevance to how we plan to spend our "productive time."

If You're Busy, You're Doing Something Wrong

Cal Newport

In the early 1990s, a trio of psychologists descended on the Universität der Künste, a historic arts academy in the heart of West Berlin. They came to study the violinists.

As described in their subsequent publication in Psychological Review, the researchers asked the academy’s music professors to help them identify a set of stand out violin players — the students who the professors believed would go onto careers as professional performers.

We’ll call this group the elite players.

For a point of comparison, they also selected a group of students from the school’s education department. These were students who were on track to become music teachers. They were serious about violin, but as their professors explained, their ability was not in the same league as the first group.

We’ll call this group the average players.

The three researchers subjected their subjects to a series of in-depth interviews. They then gave them diaries which divided each 24-hour period into 50 minute chunks, and sent them home to keep a careful log of how they spent their time.

Flush with data, the researchers went to work trying to answer a fundamental question:Why are the elite players better than the average players?

The obvious guess is that the elite players are more dedicated to their craft. That is, they’re willing to put in the long,Tiger Mom-style hours required to get good, while the average players are off goofing around and enjoying life.

The data, as it turns out, had a different story to tell…

Decoding the Patterns of the Elite

We can start by disproving the assumption that the elite players dedicate more hours to music. The time diaries revealed that both groups spent, on average, the same number of hours on music per week (around 50).

The difference was in how they spent this time. The elite players were spending almost three times more hours than the average players on deliberate practice — the uncomfortable, methodical work of stretching your ability.

This might not be surprising, as the importance of deliberate practice had been replicated and reported many times (c.f., Gladwell).

But the researchers weren’t done.

They also studied how the students scheduled their work. The average players, they discovered, spread their work throughout the day. A graph included in the paper, which shows the average time spent working versus the waking hours of the day, is essentially flat.

The elite players, by contrast, consolidated their work into two well-defined periods.When you plot the average time spent working versus the hours of the day for these players, there are two prominent peaks: one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

In fact, the more elite the player, the more pronounced the peaks. For the best of the best — the subset of the elites who the professors thought would go on to play in one of Germany’s two best professional orchestras — there was essentially no deviation from a rigid two-sessions a day schedule.

This isolation of work from leisure had pronounced effects in other areas of the players’ lives.

Consider, for example, sleep: the elite players slept an hour more per night than the average players.

Also consider relaxation. The researchers asked the players to estimate how much time they dedicated each week to leisure activities — an important indicator of their subjective feeling of relaxation. By this metric, the elite players were significantly more relaxed than the average players, and the best of the best were the most relaxed of all.

Hard Work is Different than Hard to Do Work

To summarize these results:

The average players are working just as many hours as the elite players (around 50 hours a week spent on music),
but they’re not dedicating these hours to the right type of work (spending almost 3 times less hours than the elites on crucial deliberate practice),
and furthermore, they spread this work haphazardly throughout the day. So even though they’re not doing more work than the elite players, they end up sleeping less and feeling more stressed. Not to mention that they remain worse at the violin.

I’ve seen this same phenomenon time and again in my study of high achievers. It came up so often in my study of top students, for example, that I even coined a name for it: the paradox of the relaxed Rhodes Scholar.

This study sheds some light on this paradox. It provides empirical evidence that there’s a difference between hard work and hard to do work:

Hard work is deliberate practice. It’s not fun while you’re doing it, but you don’t have to do too much of it in any one day (the elite players spent, on average, 3.5 hours per day engaged in deliberate practice, broken into two sessions). It also provides you measurable progress in a skill, which generates a strong sense of contentment and motivation. Therefore, although hard work is hard, it’s not draining and it can fit nicely into a relaxed and enjoyable day.
Hard to do work, by contrast, is draining. It has you running around all day in a state of false busyness that leaves you, like the average players from the Berlin study, feeling tired and stressed. It also, as we just learned, has very little to do with real accomplishment.

This analysis leads to an important conclusion. Whether you’re a student or well along in your career, if your goal is to build a remarkable life, then busyness and exhaustion should be your enemy. If you’re chronically stressed and up late working, you’re doing something wrong. You’re the average players from the Universität der Künste — not the elite. You’ve built a life around hard to do work, not hard work.

If You're Busy You're Doing Something Wrong: The Surprisingly Relaxed Lives of Elite Achievers

These results and recommendations are very consistent with the findings laid out in Frans Johansson's most recent book,"The Click Moment."

Blog Review of "The Click Moment"

The White Rhino Report - “A Marketplace Where Many Diverse Ideas Meet for Coffee!”

Donovan Campbell Returns With "The Leader's Guide" - A Call for Servant Leadership

Landfill Harmonic: "The Recycled Orchestra" - A Remarkable Story of Music and Reclamation

About Landfill Harmonic

Some Fascinating Thoughts On The Burial of Tamerlan the Terrorist - from The New Yorker by Daniel Mendelsohn

The White Rhino Report Spawns A New and Complementary Blog

Shipshape on The Lyric Stage - Review of "On The Town

The Loeb Drama Center at the A.R.T. Has Been Overrun With Pirates - To Everyone's Delight: Review of "Pirates of Penzance"

Succeeding As Civilians - A Recent 60 Minutes Segment About Veteran Entrepreneurs

Succeeding As Civilians

Soaring to New Heights at the Boston Center for the Arts - SpeakyEasy Stage Company's Boston Premiere Production of "In The Heights"

An Elite Runner Reflects on Running the 2013 Boston Marathon - Craig Leon

Foundation for Haitian Development: The Road to Progress in Rural Haiti - The Road to the Village of Robert

Stopping by the Memorial at Copley Plaza - Some Personal Thoughts + Boston Globe Article

Copley Square a place to mourn, heal after bombings

By Evan Allen

Orion Griffiths - From Boston Street Performer to Broadway - By Geoff Edgers of the Boston Globe

From Boston street performer to Broadway

By Geoff Edgers

Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage at the A.R.T.'s Oberon

Boston Strong – Army Strong: Some Additional Thoughts on the Aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombings

Time To Keep Living - A Life Lesson From Pippin's Grandmother - Some Birthday Reflections

A Timely Look at the Monsters That Would Seek To Frighten Us – Company One Presents “She Kills Monsters” at the Boston Center for the Arts

Some Personal Reflections on the How We Should Respond To Events Surrounding the Boston Marathon Bombings

An open letter from Spiro Veloudos

President of the Producers Association of New England Area Theatres

This will be our reply to violence:
to make music more intensely,
more beautifully,
more devotedly than ever before.

— Leonard Bernstein

www.OneFundBoston.org

President
The Producers Association of New England Area Theatres

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston Presents the New England Premiere of "By The Way, Meet Vera Stark"

Great Job Opportunity for IT Field Applications Engineer - East Coast

"Diane Paulus Brings Her Magic to Pippin" by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Reluctant Pilgrim - Stephen Schwartz Sings His Own Songs

Perfection of Form and Execution - Review of "Clybourne Park" by Bruce Norris - Presented by The SpeakEasy Stage Company

"I Feel So Much Spring!" - Moonbox Productions' "A New Brain" at the Plaza Theatre

Mini-Review of "Story" by Robert McKee, The "Godfather of Screenwriting"

If You're Busy, You're Doing Something Wrong - from the Blog "Study Hacks" by Cal Newport

The White Rhino Report - “A Marketplace Where Many Diverse Ideas Meet for Coffee!”

Donovan Campbell Returns With "The Leader's Guide" - A Call for Servant Leadership

Landfill Harmonic: "The Recycled Orchestra" - A Remarkable Story of Music and Reclamation

About Landfill Harmonic

Some Fascinating Thoughts On The Burial of Tamerlan the Terrorist - from The New Yorker by Daniel Mendelsohn

The White Rhino Report Spawns A New and Complementary Blog

Shipshape on The Lyric Stage - Review of "On The Town

The Loeb Drama Center at the A.R.T. Has Been Overrun With Pirates - To Everyone's Delight: Review of "Pirates of Penzance"

Succeeding As Civilians - A Recent 60 Minutes Segment About Veteran Entrepreneurs

Succeeding As Civilians

Soaring to New Heights at the Boston Center for the Arts - SpeakyEasy Stage Company's Boston Premiere Production of "In The Heights"

An Elite Runner Reflects on Running the 2013 Boston Marathon - Craig Leon

Foundation for Haitian Development: The Road to Progress in Rural Haiti - The Road to the Village of Robert

Stopping by the Memorial at Copley Plaza - Some Personal Thoughts + Boston Globe Article

Copley Square a place to mourn, heal after bombings

By Evan Allen

Orion Griffiths - From Boston Street Performer to Broadway - By Geoff Edgers of the Boston Globe

From Boston street performer to Broadway

By Geoff Edgers

Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage at the A.R.T.'s Oberon

Boston Strong – Army Strong: Some Additional Thoughts on the Aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombings

Time To Keep Living - A Life Lesson From Pippin's Grandmother - Some Birthday Reflections

A Timely Look at the Monsters That Would Seek To Frighten Us – Company One Presents “She Kills Monsters” at the Boston Center for the Arts

Some Personal Reflections on the How We Should Respond To Events Surrounding the Boston Marathon Bombings

An open letter from Spiro Veloudos

President of the Producers Association of New England Area Theatres

This will be our reply to violence:to make music more intensely,more beautifully,more devotedly than ever before.

— Leonard Bernstein

www.OneFundBoston.org

PresidentThe Producers Association of New England Area Theatres

The Lyric Stage Company of Boston Presents the New England Premiere of "By The Way, Meet Vera Stark"

Great Job Opportunity for IT Field Applications Engineer - East Coast

"Diane Paulus Brings Her Magic to Pippin" by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Reluctant Pilgrim - Stephen Schwartz Sings His Own Songs

Perfection of Form and Execution - Review of "Clybourne Park" by Bruce Norris - Presented by The SpeakEasy Stage Company

"I Feel So Much Spring!" - Moonbox Productions' "A New Brain" at the Plaza Theatre

Mini-Review of "Story" by Robert McKee, The "Godfather of Screenwriting"

If You're Busy, You're Doing Something Wrong - from the Blog "Study Hacks" by Cal Newport

This will be our reply to violence:
to make music more intensely,
more beautifully,
more devotedly than ever before.

President
The Producers Association of New England Area Theatres