Life in a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. B.M.A.T.C., and Etruscan typewriter erasers. Blogged by David Gorsline.
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Grace, by Craig Wright, directed by Michael John Garcés, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Warehouse Theater, Washington
"How can you know what you need to know, when what you need comes from so far away?" asks Sam, a developer of remote sensing software, in Craig Wright's Grace, presented effectively by Woolly within the confines of the Warehouse Theater. Wright continues his explorations of the idea of turning back time, realized so successfully in The Pavilion and Melissa Arctic, with this new offering. The play brings Sam (Paul Morella) in contact with Steve (David Fendig) and Sara (Jennifer Mendenhall), a married evangelical Christian couple who are putting together a deal to renovate a motel property. They live in adjoining, identical condominium units in Sarasota, Florida. Exactly identical: the staging calls for a set representing one apartment, and at times we're seeing two scenes taking place simultaneously. For instance, Sam (recovering from a gruesome automobile accident which has killed his fiancée) sits on the same couch as Sara (celebrating business success with Steve). Later, as fortunes reverse and Sara and Sam get to know each other, this staging conceit works to great effect. Sara recites a poem by symbolist poet Mallarmé; Sam is there too, but for a deliciously ambiguous moment we're not really sure whether we're watching one scene or two. Shortly thereafter, Sara has a lovely monologue in which she explains to Sam what he means to her, and it's good for a damp eye or two. Wright has chopped the play down to the length of a hefty one-act, and unfortunately some of the transitions are lost along the way. In the run-up to a turbulent final scene whose violence feels unwarranted, Fendig must endure an embarrassing over-the-top meltdown as a result of a mysterious chemical allergy. Michael Willis bookends the show with two scenes as a world-weary but wise insect exterminator. Even if his Hamburg dialect is somewhat muzzy, he succeeds with a war story of loss and reunion. The point of a war story, Wright explains to us, is not a happy ending, but that someone can say, "I understand." Grace is less lyrical, more literal than Wright's earlier work in the way it calls attention to the points in our lives where we make defining choices, and that is its chief disappointment. posted: 8:38:18 PM |
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Happy news from Hopper Mountain NWR: the first wild-born chick of California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) to fly in 22 years has fledged.
Hopper Mountain Refuge provides foraging and roosting habitat. Its condor rearing facility has six simulated nest caves and a flight pen. Condor chicks are transferred to the flight pen when they are 8-10 months old to undergo power-pole aversion conditioning. They stay until they are old enough to be released into the wild.
(Thanks to BIRDCHAT.) posted: 5:49:37 PM |
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Paul R. Gross reviews Young and Edis's Why Intelligent Design Fails, an assessment of the scientific claims made in connection with ID.
Much of this might appear to professional biologists to be nit-picking; and
in a sense it is. But it is nit-picking because the claims of
neo-creationism are mostly nits.
(Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily.) posted: 10:04:08 AM |
 D. Gorsline, Proprietor
   
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