War is hell, and in Bill Cain’s “9 Circles,” Iraq War veteran Private Daniel Reeves must descend through his own inferno in order to arrive at his only shot at redemption. But are all of the demons he encounters in this hell of his own making? That’s the question that he – and the audience – face in this raw and mesmerizing production at the Gloucester Stage Company through August 26, 2012.
This is the same cast and the same director (Eric C. Engle) that staged 9 circles in its critically acclaimed east coast premiere last year at the Publick Theatre in Boston. If you missed it the first time around, you should grab this second chance.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Reviews, theater | 1 Comment
Tags: 9 Circles, Amanda Collins, atrocities, atrocity, Bill Cain, drama, Eric C. Engel, Gloucester Stage Company, Iraq War, Jimi Stanton, Mark Sardella, play, review, soldier, theater, theatre, war, Will McGarrahan
As you read this, I’m hoppin’ a freight train box car and heading out to Britt, Iowa for the National Hobo Convention.
It’s no joke. There really is a National Hobo Convention. It’s been held in Britt, Iowa on the second weekend in August since 1900.
“The National Hobo Convention,” the description goes, “celebrates current and retired hoboes and the independent lifestyle they lead.” It got me wondering about these “retired” hoboes. Do they get a hobo pension or is there a hobo 401(k) plan?
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion | 1 Comment
Tags: Britt IA, Britt Iowa, Daily Item, hobo, Hobo Convention, hoboes, Mark Sardella, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item
Through August 12, 2012
On those occasions when great writing, stunning performances and superb direction collide on stage, the result can be a theatrical experience from which it can take a while to come down – for the audience as well as the actors.
The current Gloucester Stage Company production of Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold”… and the Boys is such an occasion.
If “Master Harold”… and the Boys were merely about the evils of apartheid in 1950s South Africa, Fugard’s semi-autobiographical play might well be outdated. But the GSC’s current production underscores the play’s timeless themes of humanity’s capacity for good and our maddening tendency toward bigotry and hate.
The opening scene takes place on a wet and windy afternoon in St. George’s Park Tea Room in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Sam (played by Johnny Lee Davenport) is a middle aged black man dressed as a waiter. He sits at a table idly thumbing through a comic book while Willie (Anthony Wills, Jr.), also a fortyish black man, is on his knees scrubbing the floor.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Reviews, theater | 2 Comments
Tags: "Master Harold"...and the Boys, Anthony Wills Jr, apartheid, Athol Fugard, Benny Sato Ambush, drama, Gloucester Stage Company, Johnny Lee Davenport, Mark Sardella, Peter Mark Kendall, play, South Africa, stage, theater, theatre
Marching Orders
I love a parade.
I’m especially fond of the Wakefield, MA Independence Day Parade, having attended most of them since the Eisenhower Administration.
Over the years, I became less interested in the clowns and more interested in the politicians. In other words, my tastes haven’t changed very much. The 2012 Wakefield Independence Day Parade featured pols aplenty. That’s no surprise, given that it’s an election year.
It’s good for people along the parade route to get a chance to see their representatives and would-be representatives in the flesh. It’s not every day that you get to see a US Senator up close, wave to a Harvard professor or have an embattled congressman shake your hand as if he knew who you were.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: Daily Item, Donald Wong, Elizabeth Warren, Fourth of July, holiday, John Tierney, July 4, Mark Sardella, Parade, parades, Peter Koutoujian, politicians, Richard Tisei, Sen. Scott Brown, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Independence Day Parade, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts
Performances July 26, 27 and 28
You might assume that a play set in a beauty salon and featuring all female characters would appeal mainly to women – the theatrical equivalent of a “chick flick.” But after seeing the Next Door Theatre’s production of “Steel Magnolias,” what sticks with you are the play’s universal themes, its humor and the strong performances of the six women in the cast.
Directed by former Wakefield resident Nancy Curran Willis and starring Wakefield resident Margaret McCarty as “Ouiser,” all the action in Robert Harling’s play takes place in Truvy’s Beauty Salon in rural Louisiana.
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Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Reviews, theater, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: actor, actors, actress, actresses, Amelia Broome, Beth Gotha, diabetes, drama, Jackie Coco, Margaret McCarty, Mark Sardella, Melissa Marie Walker, Nancy Curran Willis, Next Door Theater, play, Robert Harling, Sarajane Mullins, stage, Steel Magnolias
The New Drug Culture
Full disclosure: this column was written under the influence of performance enhancing drugs: the caffeine from two cups of Stop & Shop brand coffee.
Especially when it comes to caffeine, the drug culture has come out of the closet. Just look at the advertising campaigns for caffeine containing products. They are now promoted far more for their stimulating buzz factor than for their taste.
You never hear the highly caffeinated Red Bull touted for its delicious taste, only for the fact that it “gives you wings.”
Similarly, 5-Hour Energy is not marketed for its mouthwatering flavor. Each 2 oz. dose is packed with 138 mg of caffeine, about the same as cup of strong coffee – without all that nasty hydration.
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Keep Neighborhood Polling Places
Largely ignored in all the excitement over the margin of victory in the June 9 Special Election was the fact that the decision to build a new Galvin Middle School was made by a minority of the town’s voters. Less than one-third of those eligible weighed in with a vote. If you count only the “Yes” votes, barely a quarter of Wakefield’s registered voters pulled the lever for the $74 million building project.
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Tags: Daily Item, election, elections, Galvin, Galvin Middle School, Galvinize, Galvinize Wakefield, Mark Sardella, polling places, Proposition 2 1/2, school, schools, tax, taxes, vote, voters, votes, voting, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts
One Issue Wonders
Every time a special interest group manages to pack Town Meeting to ram their pet measure through, local government geeks find themselves wondering if there will be some long-term residual benefit, some lasting silver lining to this cynical exercise.
Surely, they imagine, out of this great mass of people here to vote on their one and only issue, a few dozen – or maybe even a hundred – will find themselves so taken with this grass roots form of democracy that they will become regular attendees and participants at Town Meeting.
Hope springs eternal, as they say.
A recent example occurred on Monday, May 14, in Wakefield, Massachusaetts. “Galvinize Wakefield,” the group pushing a debt exclusion for the purpose of building a new Middle School, packed Town Meeting with over 1,330 supporters.
Alas, by the following Monday, May 21, the Galvinizers’ passion for the purest form of democracy had apparently waned, as the vast majority of them stayed home, leaving the usual 166 regulars to deal with the remainder of the Town Meeting warrant. They want you to care deeply about their single issue. But when it comes to the other articles of business on the Town Meeting warrant, they really can’t be bothered.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: ballot, ballot question, debt exclusion, election, Galvin Middle School, Galvinize, Galvinize Wakefield, June 9, Mark Sardella, new Galvin Middle School, property tax, Proposition 2 1/2, rebuild, school, school building project, school construction, schools, taxes, Town Meeting, vote, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
With a cast of 15, the Quannapowitt Players‘ “The Diary of Anne Frank” captures the terror, tension and tenderness experienced by two Jewish families being hidden from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II, as told by Anne Frank in her diary of her family’s two years in hiding.
The production is directed by former Wakefield resident and 1965 Wakefield High School graduate Nancy Curran Willis.
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Tags: Anne Frank, Becky Klein, community theater, Daily Item, Diary of Anne Frank, drama, Nancy Curran Willis, play, QP, Quannapowitt Players, Quannapowitt Playhouse, Reading, Reading MA, Reading Massachusetts, stage, theater, theatre, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts
Galvinizers’ Night Out
Pro-debt exclusion crowd dominates Wakefield, MA Annual Town Meeting
The Monday, May 14 Galvin Gala was scheduled to begin at 7:30, but if you arrived later than 7 p.m., you may have found yourself parking, as I did, in Victory Village down off Richardson Street.
Packing the Galvin Auditorium and the cafeteria, the crowd of 1,400-plus, some sporting their “Galvinize Wakefield” pins, formed exactly the kind of village that Hillary Clinton said it would take. They were there to make sure Article 5 passed Town Meeting, sending a debt exclusion question to a June 9 ballot on whether the Town of Wakefield should build a brand new new $74 million middle school.
Sensing that there were a lot of Town Meeting newbies in the house, Town Moderator Bill Carroll attempted to instill some sense of decorum from the start, reminding people that they had to be seated and quiet.
“We don’t talk during Town Meeting like a lot of you are now,” Carroll admonished after gaveling Town Meeting open. “You will not cheer and you will not clap,” Carroll warned. “This is not a pep rally.”
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Tags: Bill Carroll, Daily Item, debt exclusion, Galvin, Galvin Middle School, Galvinize Wakefield, Mark Sardella, property tax, Proposition 2 1/2, school, schools, taxes, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
Mark Sardella 