Kitchen Witches

We've been in rehearsals for Kitchen Witches for several weeks now, and I'm really pleased with how it's turning out. We had some very strong actors and actresses turn out for auditions, and we could have cast the show several different ways.

We ended up choosing two seasoned actresses, Barbara Beautrow and Elizabeth Greeley, as Dolly and Isobel, our two rival, bickering, trash-talking cooking show hostesses, and newcomer Brad Mauzerall as Stephen, Dolly's son and the harried producer and director of the cooking shows Baking with Babcha and The Kitchen Witches. Gerry Fields and I knew we were taking a chance by choosing Brad, since this is his first community theater play, but our trust has been well-placed. He learns fast, takes direction well, and asks important questions about his character and line delivery and blocking. He always wants to know how he should be doing something or how he can make it better. Barbara is a natural comedian and is constantly trying new things to get laughs, and Elizabeth keeps adding depth to Isobel, both in her needling of Dolly and her attempts to get close to Stephen.

Last week was our first week off book for Act 1, and considering the heavy line loads everyone has -- it's a three-person play -- I think things are going really well. We go off-book on Act 2 tonight.

One fun element of the play is that the author recommends changing names of cities and businesses to local references. So we've been doing just that and have secured permission from lots of businesses to use their names as sponsors of the cooking show.

One of the biggest challenges is probably going to be the Kitchen Witches Quickies segment, where the ladies perform an Iron Chef-style challenge and each have to prepare three desserts in about two minutes. I looked up recipes and devised shortcuts that hopefully will allow us to pull that off with a minimum of fuss and keep the audience guessing about how we did it -- AND manage to deal with any possible food allergies that our guest judges may have.

American Cockroach

When I first read the name of this Boise Art Museum exhibit, American Cockroach, I thought perhaps this was yet another in a long line of semi-ironic "American" titles, a la "American Psycho," "American Graffiti," "American Splendor" and "An American Werewolf in Paris" (because nation of origin is so important when it comes to movie monsters. God knows what I'd do against a Lithuanian mummy). Turns out, duh, that "American Cockroach" is the scientific term (in English instead of Latin) for the common cockroach. But even if artist Catherine Chalmers didn't really try to make the cockroach seem like something quintessentially American (and to be honest, I'm not sure she didn't intend just that), she has certainly tried to make them seem like something more than the nasty, subhuman insects we typically view them as.

On some level, I think she succeeded.

I'm not saying her films, photos and sculptures of cockroaches being executed by hanging or electric chair or burning at the stake inspired so much pathos in me that I and my boot heel would grant a pardon to a palmetto bug that skittered across my floor. The "Executions" section of the exhibit, though nicely executed -- I loved the dark, moody silver gelatin prints, the quirky giant resin roach in a noose, and the film bits punctuated by bongo beats, squishing noises, eerie wind sounds and the lub-dub of a heartbeat -- was far too amusing to inspire pathos, I thought.

But I had to admire Catherine Chalmers' dedication to her subject. She dressed these roaches in costumes. She painted on their bodies. She sculpted their antennae and wings into pictures. It's nuts.... And yet, trying to imagine her doing it -- trying to imagine her touching these creatures over and over, as she must have to create this exhibit -- I was struck by how human they must have become to her.

And some of that does get transferred to the viewer. Because, make no mistake, Catherine Chalmers' photos and videos of cockroaches are beautiful.

The exhibit consists of three sections called "Impostors," "Residents" and "Executions." The roaches in the Impostors series are photographed wearing pink marabou feathers, peacock feathers, aloe plant spines and painted ladybug spots. The photos have a gorgeous attention to color, crisp details, and, of course, amusing juxtaposition. It's all of cockroaches dressed up as "cuter" insects and birds. Think of it as a reverse Anne Geddes.

Chalmers also has some lovely pop art-style pencil sketches of cockroaches with blue dots, green leaves and pink flowers in the Impostors series, one of which I've recreated above.

The Residents series, as you might guess, shows photos of cockroaches making themselves at home with humans, huddling around teddy bears and staring into tiny vanity mirrors. The film in that portion of the exhibit, "Crawl Space," shows cockroaches crawling up from drains, clambering through vents, getting into potato chips and brie and plopping into a glass of wine, accompanied by riveting Dmitri Shostakovich music.

The films in the Executions series were nicely done, each seeming to have its own narrative. The one with the cockroach burning at the stake had particularly interesting visuals to tell the story -- the cockroach's legs and antennae writhing as the flames licked upward; the smoke wailing around the body in ghostly shapes.

This is a great exhibit if you're looking for something offbeat, clever, entertaining and imaginative. And if you want to squick out your friends by describing some of the pieces to them later.

Roundup

July

• July 18: Closing night of The Idaho Shakespeare Festival's production of All's Well that Ends Well at the amphitheater on Warm Springs in Boise. A romantic comedy about a woman determined to track down her husband in war-torn Europe. Times are 8:00.
• July 18-19: Closing weekend of CAN-ACT's Same Time, Next Year, a comedy about a man and a woman, both of whom are married, who meet by chance one night and have an affair, then agree to meet again the same weekend next year, and the year after that.... The theatre is at 603 Everett St., Caldwell. Times are 2:00 Saturday and 8:00 Friday and Saturday.
• Now through July 23: The Idaho Shakespeare Festival performs The Crucible, Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witch trials, at the amphitheater on Warm Springs in Boise. Dates are July 19-20 and 22-23. Times are 8:00 Tuesday-Saturday and 7:00 Sunday.
• Now through July 26: Stage Coach Theatre presents Greater Tuna at the theater at Orchard and Overland in the Hillcrest Shopping Center in Boise. This satirical comedy about small-town morals and mores stars two men in about 20 roles. Show dates are July 18-20 and 24-26. Times are 7:30 Thursdays, 8:15 Fridays and Saturdays and 2:00 Sundays.
• Now through July 26: Boise Little Theater opens The Pirates of Penzance Junior at 7:00 at the theater on Fort Street in Boise. The Gilbert & Sullivan musical about sentimental pirates, dim-witted young lovers and an eccentric major-general runs July 18-19 and 24-25 at 7:00 and July 20 and 26 at 2:00.
• July 31: Climbing Tree Productions opens Boys' Life at 8:00 at the Visual Arts Collective on 3638 Osage Street, Garden City, near the Woman of Steel Gallery on Chinden. The show runs Aug. 1-2 at 9 p.m. at the Visual Arts Collective and Aug. 9 at 7 p.m. at Neurolux in downtown Boise.
• Now through July 31: Company of Fools presents Collected Stories, a tale about a short story writer and teacher and her hero-worshipping graduate student, at 8:00 at Liberty Theatre on Main Street in Hailey. Show dates are July 18 at 8:00, July 20, 23 and 31 at 7:00, and July 27 at 2:00.
• Now through Aug. 2: Company of Fools presents Violet, a coming of age story about a girl growing up in the Deep South during the early Civil Rights Movement who goes on a journey of self-discovery, at Liberty Theatre on Main Street in Hailey. Show dates are July 24 and 29 at 7:00, July 20 at 2:00 and Aug. 2 at 8:00.
• Now through Aug. 3: Company of Fools presents Noises Off, a farce about a theater production gone haywire, with 17 false entrances, 73 flubbed lines, 46 miscues and a missing plate of sardines, at 8:00 at Liberty Theatre on Main Street in Hailey. Show dates are July 22, 27 and 30 at 7:00, July 19, 25 and 26 and Aug. 1 at 8:00, and Aug. 3 at 2:00.
• Now through Aug. 21: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley. Show dates are July 18, 22, 25, 28 and 31, and Aug. 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 and 21. Times are 8:00.
• Now through Aug. 22: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley. Show dates are July 23, 26 and 29 and Aug. 1, 4, 7, 13, 16, 19 and 22. Times are 8:00.
• Now through Aug. 23: Starlight Mountain Theater presents Crazy for You, a musical about a stagestruck New York City playboy in a Nevada mining town, at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley. Show dates are July 19, 21, 24 and 30 and Aug. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 20 and 23. Times are 8:00.
• Now through Aug. 24: The Boise Art Museum hosts an exhibit by illustrator, painter and sculptor Frederic Remington called Frederic Remington Makes Tracks: Adventures and Artistic Impressions.
• Now through Aug. 29: Bogus Creek Outfitters is hosting a Western action adventure melodrama, The Jerseys Done It! Show dates are July 25 and Aug. 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29.
• Now through Aug. 31: Idaho Shakespeare Festival presents Into the Woods, a Stephen Sondheim musical about what happens after "happily ever after" in several classic fairy tales, at 8:00 at the amphitheater on Warm Springs in Boise. Show dates are July 24-26 and Aug. 7-8, 12-13, 16-17, 21-22, 26-27 and 30-31. Times are 8:00 Tuesday-Saturday and 7:00 Sunday.
• Now through Sept. 14: The Boise Art Museum hosts Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping, an interactive braid sculpture by Oregon artist MK Guth. Woven into the sculpture are ribbons on which hundreds of people have written their answer to the question, "What is worth protecting?"
• Now through October: The Boise Art Museum is displaying Gerri Sayler's exhibit Ad Infinitum. It consists of more than 900 glistening strands of sculpted hot glue.
• Now through Nov. 9: Boise Art Museum hosts an exhibit by photographer and sculptor Catherine Chalmers called American Cockroach.

August

• Aug. 1: The Idaho Shakespeare Festival opens Macbeth, a tragedy in which Shakespeare's Scottish anti-hero lusts after power and ultimately commits regicide, at 8:00 at the amphitheater on Warm Springs in Boise. The play continues Aug. 2-3, 5-6, 9-10, 14-15, 19-20, 23-24 and 28-29. Times are 8:00 Tuesday-Saturday and 7:00 Sunday.
• Aug. 7: Encore Theatre Co. opens Once Upon a Mattress, a musical comedy based on the story of the princess and the pea, at the Northwest Nazarene University Brandt Center in Nampa. The show continues Aug. 8-9. Show times are 7:30 each day, with a 2:30 matinee Aug. 9.
• Aug. 29: Stage Coach Theatre opens Kitchen Witches, a comedy about two cooking show hostesses who have hated each other for 30 years who are forced by circumstance to share a cooking show produced by the long-suffering son of one of the women. It's all he can do to rein them in when the insults and the food start flying. The show continues Aug. 30 and Sept. 4-7 and 11-13 at the theater on Orchard and Overland in the Hillcrest Shopping Center in Boise. Times are 7:30 Thursdays, 8:15 Fridays and Saturdays and 2:00 Sundays.
• Aug. 29: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents Let's Murder Marsha, a comedy about a housewife who becomes convinced her husband is plotting to murder her and hatches a plan to thwart him, at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley. The show continues Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, 5-6 and 12-13. Times are 7:30 Fridays and Saturdays and 6:30 Monday.
• Aug. 30: The Boise Art Museum opens Upstream Fly Fishing in the American West, an exhibit of photographs by Charles Lindsay.

Greater Tuna

If you want to see a show with great production values, I would advise against seeing Greater Tuna at Stagecoach Theatre. The set is nothing but a cheap table, cheap chairs and a cheap cloth-wrapped double-wide podium with felt call letters to indicate radio station OKKK, all backed by some of the most eye-assaulting, obnoxiously painted walls you will ever see. As for costumes ... while the costume changes obviously had to be rushed -- it's a two-man show with 20 characters -- I have seen good drag. This is not good drag. In fact, one look at Rob Tromp in his costume for Charlene Bumiller could put you off crop tops forever.

But if you're looking for a good laugh, it's hard to do better.

I've seen Greater Tuna before, but some things never get old:

The Rev. Spikes' (Ben Hammill) eulogy, which uses every cliche in the book, with a few commercial slogans thrown in for good measure.
Bertha Bumiller (Hammill) ostensibly reading a National Enquirer while voicing Yippy the dog from behind its salacious pages.
Vera Carp (Tromp) explaining to members of the Smut Snatchers that they can't censor the word "snatch" in the Tuna high school library along with "clap," "deflower," "knocker" and "nuts" because the group can't afford to change its letterhead.

I was impressed by the delineation in characters, a crucial factor since each actor had ten characters to portray.

Tromp in particular excelled at creating wildly different voices and mannerisms for each of his characters, particularly the socially inept perennial mayoral candidate Phinneas Blye, the awkward, hapless humane society volunteer Petey Fisk, and the innocent, eager Jody Bumiller with his eight to ten dogs in tow. However, he was occasionally too shrill to be heard as Charlene.

Hammill spent a lot of time as his two female characters, harried mother and community volunteer Bertha Bumiller and spunky yet crotchety old Pearl Burras (who probably didn't need that cane), and does a wonderful job with them. I also liked his portrayal of shifty, good-old-boy Klan member Elmer Watkins -- God knows why, but I did.

A few gags went on a little long -- for instance, radio personality Thurston Wheelis (Hammill) probably didn't need to ogle Charlene quite so blatantly or so constantly -- but for the most part, the jokes are fresh and funny and, frankly, quite relevant. Are the bits about the Smut Snatchers censoring dictionaries, Romeo and Juliet (for portraying teenage sex and disrespect for parental authority) and Roots (for portraying only one side of slavery) so far off, when the Meridian Public Library is purging unrated DVDs and the Nampa Public Library has pulled The Joy of Sex and The Joy of Gay Sex from its shelves? And with the Bush administration advocating waterboarding and stress positions and fighting to keep from granting habeas corpus to detainees -- not to mention Idaho Congressman Bill Sali making idiotic comments about Muslims and Hindus -- are winning essay titles like, "Human Rights -- Why Bother?" and "The Other Side of Bigotry" that far from the mark?

Greater Tuna is a very funny look into small-town red-state life. For those of us in small towns in red states, sometimes it's good to get to laugh.

Roundup

July

• July 11: Stage Coach Theatre opens Greater Tuna at 8:15 at the theater at Orchard and Overland in the Hillcrest Shopping Center in Boise. This satirical comedy about small-town morals and mores stars two men in about 20 roles. The play continues July 12, 17-20 and 24-26. Times are 7:30 Thursdays, 8:15 Fridays and Saturdays and 2:00 Sundays.
• July 11: Idaho Shakespeare Festival opens Into the Woods, a Stephen Sondheim musical about what happens after "happily ever after" in several classic fairy tales, at 8:00 at the amphitheater on Warm Springs in Boise. The play continues July 12-13, 15-16 and 24-26 and Aug. 7-8, 12-13, 16-17, 21-22, 26-27 and 30-31. Times are 8:00 Tuesday-Saturday and 7:00 Sunday.
• July 11: CAN-ACT opens Same Time, Next Year, a comedy about a man and a woman, both of whom are married, who meet by chance one night and have an affair, then agree to meet again the same weekend next year, and the year after that.... The play continues July 12 and 17-19 at the theatre at 603 Everett St., Caldwell. Times are 8:00 Fridays and Saturdays, 7:00 Thursday and 2:00 Saturday July 19.
• July 12: Starlight Mountain Theater opens Crazy for You, a musical about a stagestruck New York City playboy in a Nevada mining town, at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley. The show continues July 16, 19, 21, 24 and 30 and Aug. 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 20 and 23. Times are 8:00.
• July 12: Company of Fools opens Noises Off, a farce about a theater production gone haywire, with 17 false entrances, 73 flubbed lines, 46 miscues and a missing plate of sardines, at 8:00 at Liberty Theatre on Main Street in Hailey. The play continues July 16, 22, 27 and 30 at 7:00, July 19, 25 and 26 and Aug. 1 at 8:00, and July 13 and Aug. 3 at 2:00.
• July 12: Boise Art Museum opens an exhibit by photographer and sculptor Catherine Chalmers called American Cockroach. (You better believe I'll be going to this one.)
• July 17: Boise Little Theater opens The Pirates of Penzance Junior at 7:00 at the theater on Fort Street in Boise. The Gilbert & Sullivan musical about sentimental pirates, dim-witted young lovers and an eccentric major-general continues July 18-19 and 24-25 at 7:00 and July 20 and 26 at 7:00.
• July 17: Closing night of Starlight Mountain Theatre's production of the musical comedy Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley. Show starts at 8:00.
• July 17: The Boise Art Museum opens Ties of Protection and Safe Keeping, an interactive braid sculpture by Oregon artist MK Guth. Woven into the sculpture are ribbons on which hundreds of people have written their answer to the question, "What is worth protecting?"
• July 17-18: Closing weekend of The Idaho Shakespeare Festival's production of All's Well that Ends Well at the amphitheater on Warm Springs in Boise. A romantic comedy about a woman determined to track down her husband in war-torn Europe. Times are 8:00.
• Now through July 23: The Idaho Shakespeare Festival performs The Crucible, Arthur Miller's play about the Salem witch trials, at the amphitheater on Warm Springs in Boise. Dates are July 19-20 and 22-23. Times are 8:00 Tuesday-Saturday and 7:00 Sunday.
• July 31: Climbing Tree Productions opens Boys' Life at 8:00 at the Visual Arts Collective on 3638 Osage Street, Garden City, near the Woman of Steel Gallery on Chinden. The show runs Aug. 1-2 at 9 p.m. at the Visual Arts Collective and Aug. 9 at 7 p.m. at Neurolux in downtown Boise.
• Now through July 31: Company of Fools presents Collected Stories, a tale about a short story writer and teacher and her hero-worshipping graduate student, at 8:00 at Liberty Theatre on Main Street in Hailey. Show dates are July 11 and 18 at 8:00, July 15, 20, 23 and 31 at 7:00, and July 27 at 2:00.
• Now through Aug. 2: Company of Fools presents Violet, a coming of age story about a girl growing up in the Deep South during the early Civil Rights Movement who goes on a journey of self-discovery, at Liberty Theatre on Main Street in Hailey. Show dates are July 13, 17, 24 and 29 at 7:00, July 20 at 2:00 and Aug. 2 at 8:00.
• Now through Aug. 21: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley. Show dates are July 15, 18, 22, 25, 28 and 31, and Aug. 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 and 21. Times are 8:00.
• Now through Aug. 22: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley. Show dates are July 11, 14, 23, 26 and 29 and Aug. 1, 4, 7, 13, 16, 19 and 22. Times are 8:00.
• Now through Aug. 24: The Boise Art Museum hosts an exhibit by illustrator, painter and sculptor Frederic Remington called Frederic Remington Makes Tracks: Adventures and Artistic Impressions.
• Now through Aug. 29: Bogus Creek Outfitters is hosting a Western action adventure melodrama, The Jerseys Done It! Show dates are July 11 and 25 and Aug. 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29.

August

• Aug. 1: The Idaho Shakespeare Festival opens Macbeth, a tragedy in which Shakespeare's Scottish anti-hero lusts after power and ultimately commits regicide, at 8:00 at the amphitheater on Warm Springs in Boise. The play continues Aug. 2-3, 5-6, 9-10, 14-15, 19-20, 23-24 and 28-29. Times are 8:00 Tuesday-Saturday and 7:00 Sunday.
• Aug. 7: Encore Theatre Co. opens Once Upon a Mattress, a musical comedy based on the story of the princess and the pea, at the Northwest Nazarene University Brandt Center in Nampa. The show continues Aug. 8-9. Show times are 7:30 each day, with a 2:30 matinee Aug. 9.
• Aug. 29: Stage Coach Theatre opens Kitchen Witches, a comedy about two cooking show hostesses who have hated each other for 30 years who are forced by circumstance to share a cooking show produced by the long-suffering son of one of the women. It's all he can do to rein them in when the insults and the food start flying. The show continues Aug. 30 and Sept. 4-7 and 11-13 at the theater on Orchard and Overland in the Hillcrest Shopping Center in Boise. Times are 7:30 Thursdays, 8:15 Fridays and Saturdays and 2:00 Sundays.
• Aug. 29: Starlight Mountain Theatre presents Let's Murder Marsha, a comedy about a housewife who becomes convinced her husband is plotting to murder her and hatches a plan to thwart him, at Starlight Amphitheater in Garden Valley. The show continues Aug. 30 and Sept. 1, 5-6 and 12-13. Times are 7:30 Fridays and Saturdays and 6:30 Monday.
• Aug. 30: The Boise Art Museum opens Upstream Fly Fishing in the American West, an exhibit of photographs by Charles Lindsay.
• Now through October: The Boise Art Museum is displaying Gerri Sayler's exhibit Ad Infinitum. It consists of more than 900 glistening strands of sculpted hot glue.

Metapost

I'm taking a camping trip this weekend, and have to prepare for it tonight and tomorrow night. When I get back, I'm going to be pretty busy weeknights because I've agreed to co-direct and stage manage Kitchen Witches at Stagecoach Theatre.

The good news is that I'll try to use my backstage vantage point to pass on some tidbits from Kitchen Witches on this blog. (I just won't be reviewing it, because of my massive conflict of interest.)

The bad news is, between the camping trip and rehearsals, which start next week, I'll be missing several First Thursdays and at least a few plays I would otherwise have seen (I had hoped to see All's Well That Ends Well at the Shakespeare Festival before closing night, but it looks like I won't even be able to see it closing night, and since Boys' Life by Climbing Tree Productions runs only one weekend, I won't get to review it before closing night). I'll try to get to a few galleries and plays on the weekends so things don't dry up here too much.

Ad Infinitum by Gerri Sayler

My description of Ad Infinitum, the exhibit by Idaho artist Gerri Sayler has stated that it consists of hundreds of strands of sculpted hot glue. Which doesn't really do it justice. If you've perused the photo on the Boise Art Museum site, it gives you an idea of the curling, spiderwebby, intricate shapes. But it doesn't give you a great idea of the scope. This is in the wing of the Boise Art Museum that leads out to the sculpture garden. The ceiling is huge, and these strands hang from the ceiling practically to the floor in rows and columns that form sort of a synthetic hedge maze.

I didn't know from the museum's description exactly how the exhibit would be installed. I guess I was picturing it being connected to the walls -- again, like a spiderweb. But the fact that it was hanging like a veil or a waterfall from the ceiling makes it a far more interesting exhibit than I would have guessed. You can walk through sections of the strands, like you would with a hedge maze, and even though you're not touching the exhibit, it moves with you. Your motion, the breeze you create by walking -- even your breath, it seems -- causes it to react. It's this organic, interactive feel that made the exhibit fascinating.

It only takes a few minutes to absorb it, but it's a nice diversion -- it feels like you're stepping into something alive and breathing.

On a side note -- kudos to the Boise Art Museum and the artist for having a few short strands of twisted hot glue separate from the rest of the installation that museum-goers are allowed to touch. I think anyone who says they've never been tempted to touch a sculpture is probably lying. Thanks for allowing tactile people like me to get it out of our systems.