I'm an OLLI @ ASU Member

One of the best perks of turning 50 is now I can enroll in the OLLI at ASU program.  I first heard about Osher Lifelong Learning Institute last year and immediately wanted to join and start taking classes, but I wasn't 50 years old yet.  But now I am. :-)

The other great perk is starting this Fall, ASU will be holding classes at the brand new Maravilla in Scottsdale.  They held an open house at Maravilla on Monday to talk about the program coming to Scottsdale.  Even Mayor Jim Lane was there speaking on how happy he is to have this type of program being offered in Scottsdale.  Besides having several speakers, they served  a nice lunch, had gift giveaways, and entertainment too.  Matthew Weiner, artistic director from Actors Theatre was on hand to talk about his company and brought along actor Ron May to perform a piece from his one man show, The Agony and Ecstacy of Steve Jobs. 

What I like about this program is the classes are geared towards cultural exploration, plus they usually are only 4-weeks long, and 90 minutes each.  Each semester the program will partner with a few cultural institutions to offer workshops and classes.  This Fall you can take different types of art classes at Phoenix Art Museum, music workshops at the Musical Instrument Museum, or the craft of storytelling with Childsplay Theatre.

The BEST part of the program is that there are no books to buy, homework assignments, or tests to take...only fun to be had while broadening your spectrum. 

A Streetcar Named Desire @ Desert Stages Theatre

Chad Krolczyk as Stanley
 



Marlon Brando as Stanley
 

 

Kellie Dunlap as Stella
 

I LOVE movies, but I will admit that I have never been a huge fan of old movies, and therefore never have seen too many of the oldies, even the classic ones.  I felt there was just too much over acting back then.  But now that I'm older, I have a greater appreciation for the older films, and enjoy watching them.  I still think they over act, but it does not bother me as much.  I guess I've mellowed as I've aged. lol

Last week we saw Sunset Boulevard at Fountain Hills Theater, so I got a copy of the movie which it's based on at the Phoenix library since I had never seen it before.  This week we saw A Streetcar Named Desire at Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre which was turned into a movie based on the Tennessee Williams play.   Again, I never saw this old classic movie before this week nor the play.    The library had the two-disc special edition with the original director's version, plus a second bonus disc with 5 new documentaries about the Hollywood film, the play on Broadway, censorship, the music, and Marlon Brando.  I'm happy I watched the film and all the documentaries before seeing Streetcar this weekend...it enhanced my enjoyment and appreciation for this classic play.  I'll admit I'm more familiar with John Travolta's character Vinnie Barbarino from Welcome Back Kotter performing the famous STELLLAAA scene than with Marlon Brando.  Sad, but true.  lol

I really enjoyed the play, even more than the movie.  The cast was PERFECT, and perfectly cast.  Chad Krolczyk even had those Marlon Brando smoldering eyes. 

Ballet Under the Stars

Okay, I am already breaking my own rule for my third year of Artist's Dates...I am posting about something I do yearly, and is not new to me...but I don't care.  I will now post on an Artist's Date if I have a new thought or perspective on it...even if it's something I do on a fairly regular basis.

Okay, so we went to Ballet Under the Stars in Fountain Hills on Thursday night.  We picked up some Italian subs at Quiznos and brought a bottle of Chianti from home, got to Fountain Park early and had a nice dinner while watching the ballet dancers warm up.  It was a very inexpensive, relaxing evening, and we enjoyed the gorgeous scenery of Fountain Hills along with a beautiful performance by Ballet Arizona.  Even if you are not a ballet fan, there is no way you could not of had a nice relaxing enjoyable evening. 

Okay, now for my new perspective on this Artist's Date.  I know of several people who were out of town this week...either out of the city, state, and even the country because they needed so desperately to go somewhere else to de-stress.  But these same people never, and I mean never do anything relaxing right in their own backyards...like going to Ballet Under the Stars.  I guess I don't understand why some people never take advantage of all the great things that are offered here in the Valley of the Sun, but feel the need to go somewhere else to do nice relaxing enjoyable things in order to de-stress.

Okay! Whatever!

Sunset Boulevard @ Fountain Hills Theater

Kyle Bennett plays out-of-work screenwriter Joe Gillis,
and Val Stasik is aging silent-film star Norma Desmond 

On Saturday night hubby and I went to see Sunset Boulevard at Fountain Hills Theater.   We have  never seen this musical before, but always wanted to. The traveling production came to the Civic Opera House in Chicago in the Spring of 1997, but at that time we were already too busy making plans to move here to Arizona, so we never did see it.   That's probably a good thing because then I was only 34 years old and would not have appreciated it as much as I did now that I am 50 years old.   I could relate more now to the Norma Desmond's character, plus and even more importantly what is going on today is much like what happened back then.  Times are a changing...and if you don't change with the times you are left out in the cold.  Just like in the Oscar winning film The Artist, Norma Desmond the silent film star does not make the transition into talking films.  Her industry changes, but she does not.  Today, every industry is changing in a BIG way and it will continue to keep changing at a rapid pace.  People who are stuck on the old ways of doing things will be the ones left in the cold just like Norma Desmond.  The Norma Desmond story is more relevant today than ever. 

I never even saw the 1950 movie the musical is based on until just this past week. I got the DVD from our library and watched it, plus all the extra bonus features. I'm really glad I saw the movie first, because with my very poor hearing I really struggle with trying to figure out what the words are, especially when being sung. I have hearing dyslexia and tinnitus.  So knowing what the story was about helped me follow the musical along much better.

I was telling my sister I got a copy of the movie so I could follow the story of this musical better. She reminded me of that funny episode on the TV show Wings where Antonio played by Tony Shalhoub is playing his guitar for Helen and sings the first American folks song he learned when he was a kid growing up in Italy.

He starts singing the following to the tune "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore."

My goat knows the bowling score.
Hal-le-lu-ia.

Helen then tells him the correct words to the classic song, and Antonio says, "Get Out!  The meaning changes."

I found a Youtube video of this classic scene.  I have to admit, I am very much like Antonio even though English is my first language.  lol  I just blame my bad hearing.

I LOVED this musical, and the always stellar Fountain Hills Theater and cast did a marvelous job.  BRAVO!

 

The Artist's Way - Year Three Begins

I started The Artist's Way 12-week course on September 11, 2010 and also wrote my first blog post.  After completing the The Artist's Way 12-week course, I moved onto Julia Cameron's other books...Walking in This World, and then Finding Water...all the while blogging on this site.  I took a few month break from blogging over the summer then started blogging again in September 2011 when I started her other book, The Vein of Gold. The first year I pretty muched blogged about every thing I did.  The second year I blogged about almost everything I did...not all.  Now I am about to start year three even though I am not participating in any of Julia's Cameron's courses.  I still do morning pages most mornings, which I love.  I still go on weekly Artist's Dates, not all by myself, but still many.

So for the third year I decided I am only going to blog about anything new I have seen or done.  I am no longer going to blog about the same things I see or do year after year.  I mean how many times can you blog about going up to the el Pedregal to hear a concert, or visit one of the many art festivals around the valley.  Year three is only about NEW.  If it is not new to me, then there will be no blog about it...period.  I will only blog about anything I have seen for the very first time, or have done for the very first time.   So I may have a lot of new posts on my blog, or only a few.  Only time will tell.

High School Musical @ Desert Stages

 

 

 

On Saturday afternoon I attended Scottsdale Desert Stages Children's Theatre production of Disney's High School Musical.  The children's productions are not only entertaining...they are just so much fun.  They could have called this one High School Musical Jr. lol   Out of the 44 or so performers, my guess is that more than half of them are not in High School yet.  The real little, little kids who played the jocks, cheerleaders and brainiacs were great at keeping up with the older ones, and they were the most fun to watch. Very, very CUTE!

 



The Secret Garden @ Hale Center Theatre

I went for the first time to the Hale Center Theatre in Gilbert and saw The Secret Garden.  I particularly wanted to see this musical because I wrote a 10-minute play awhile back and one of my characters favorite books as a child was The Secret Garden.   The funny thing is that I had never heard of this book before writing my play.  I just Googled cult classic books, and this one came up on the list. The theme of the book just fit my play best.  My play was about three woman who were all dealing with the loss of their mothers very differently.   The character who loved The Secret Garden as a child was the one who was receiving messages and signs from her departed mother.   So when I saw Hale Theatre was doing The Secret Garden, I knew I had to see it.

I got a DVD of the movie last week at the library and watched it before seeing this musical.  I actually liked the musical version much better.  The musical version was more woo-woo, which suits me better.  

The production at the Hale Theatre was outstanding.  The acting, singing, costumes...everything was top notch.   Another magical day seeing LIVE theater. And yes, I was crying at the end.