Frost and Thompson and Brandt and Wordle by Thomas Putnam

The NYT Wordle word the other day was “staid.” I mentioned on FB that I liked the word; it seems hopeful to me, even comforting. A person commented that it's in one of the songs that the Festival Chorus at MU is singing in a few weeks; lyrics a poem by Robert Frost with music by Randall Thompson. It's the last word in the last song of the song cycle called “Frostiana.”

The song is “Choose Something Like a Star” and it ends like this:
      It asks of us a certain height,
      So when at times the mob is swayed
      To carry praise or blame too far,
      We may choose something like a star
      To stay our minds on and be staid.

It could very well be my imagination, but it seems like there is increasing incidence these days wherein the “mob is swayed to carry praise or blame too far.” Public opinion seems to change direction as quickly as the climate-changed wind veers one way and then another way and then back again.

We're producing a play this September called Elephant's Graveyard by George Brandt. It is a disturbing play. It is a play wherein the “mob is swayed to carry praise or blame too far.”

I saw a play at the Geva in Rochester last week about Russian manipulation of American social media in a recent election. Oh, my. It seems evident that our American mob was indeed, swayed.

Frost suggests we choose something like a star. Something steadfast. Something that can use language we can comprehend. This “something” does, indeed, ask a little of us here; we have some responsibility. But, oh to have something we can go to, depend upon; something “to stay our minds on and be staid.”

I hope we can dialogue about this in the coming months. I urge you to join me at the Festival Chorus Concert in late April at MU. I urge you to get tickets to see Elephant's Graveyard in September. I urge you to stop and chat about it when you see me on the street. Heck, I even urge you to play Wordle every morning. And I invite you to “choose something like a star.”

 I'LL BET YOU'LL EXIT LAUGHING  by Barbara Biddison​

On Wednesday night I saw a "next-to-final dress rehearsal" for this Hamilton-Gibson comedy called EXIT LAUGHING There were 4 of us in the chairs that we hope to have filled  on Friday night.  My favorite
comments from two of them when the show was over were variations on "Now, that was funny!"

The three bridge-playing women have been gathering together for years and they have come together to mourn the loss of the fourth  She's gone , but her ashes have arrived and somehow found their way to the house where the foursome played together.  We don't know what the fourth member was like, but we soon see how different the other three are.  It makes for lively and crazy interactions .As well as for wondering how the deceased woman's ashes got there, and  what to do about it.

There is also the daughter who lives in that house, and she makes it clear that her lovelife is in shambles and there is no hope for her to ever have any kind of guy and everything is ruined!  Then in walks a
fellow who has taken on a pretty unusual job in order to earn money for his very ambitious future plans.  These five carry the show  with the help of a cat that we never see and one dead person's ashes.

Now I'm just assuming and hoping that we'll have a fine night for opening on Friday and that this wonderful cast can play to a full house.  I plan to be there.  I should also mention that HG has gone
back to two Sunday matinee shows instead of just one.  I think I'll see it again on the second Sunday just to see what it's like, and because I like to see shows twice.  This is a fine cast.  It's been a while since we have seen Natalie Kennedy,, and it is a pleasure to see Deb Sawyer back on the HG stage again. And a couple first-timers too. I encourage all to step out for an evening of good humor.