SHAKES @ 400

Pop those corks! William Shakespeare's 400th anniversary is almost upon us!

Okay, the quadricentennial of his birth was celebrated back in 1964. But next week, April 23, is the 400th anniversary of his death (which was also his 52nd birthday, back in 1616), and why wait another 48 years to throw a party?

And there is much to celebrate in a low-born scribe (his father was a glove-maker), with an unremarkable education, whose plays are still being performed with gusto four centuries later—and still strike an emotional chord in audiences worldwide.

As my character Jack Dance, actor-turned-pirate-turned actor, says, in one of my unpublished novels:

"There’s no censure in Shakespeare, and every facet of life is represented— bawds and kings and villains and fools. Everything you could ever think or feel or want, Shakespeare has already written about it. And everything that happens in your own life affects how you to respond to him, so his words always seem new and fresh, however often you play them."

John Gilbert, The Plays of William Shakespeare, 1849.

Not surprisingly, I totally agree! But Jack is only 28 when he says this, so from the vantage point of my own great age, I would add this: as we grow in years and experience, Shakespeare's words become ever more relevant, as we continually view them from our own ever-expanding perspective.

Shakespeare is timeless, in the same way that mythology, folklore, and fairy tales endure. And their timelessness inspires succeeding generations of bards and storytellers to reinvent the stories for their own devices—or eras.

I remember the first time I ever read a review of the Tom Stoppard play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. I remember thinking,  What? Another writer can just appropriate a couple of Shakespeare's characters and make up his own story about them?

What a concept!

Recycled Shakespeare, like retold fairy tales, has become a genre unto itself, and one that I personally love! I've already flailed away on this blog about the fabulous Fool books of Christopher Moore  (which turn several Shakespearean tragedies into fodder for hilarity via King Lear's savvy Fool) and Alan Gordon's Fools Guild mysteries (reimagining Twelfth Night fool, Feste, as a Renaissance secret agent).

Ditto, Elizabeth Bear's gorgeous Ink and Steel duology, which takes Will Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe as its central characters. And we all know West Side Story, the classic stage musical riff on Romeo and Juliet.

But here are five more clever reinterpretations, examples of just how adaptable Shakespeare continues to be:

CALIBAN'S HOUR  In Tad Williams' beguiling revision, the much abused "monster," Caliban from The Tempest makes his way back to Naples one fateful night to confront Miranda, daughter of his tormentor and enslaver, Prospero. Now a fading beauty approaching middle age, with a teenage daughter of her own, Miranda is compelled to hear Caliban's side of the story—and reconsider who he is (and what has been done to him).

QUEEN MAB  Kate Danley dares to imagine a secret life for Romeo's witty, charismatic pal, Mercutio—one of the most lamented murder victims in all of Shakespeare—as well as a delicious afterlife as lover to the Fairy Queen, Mab.

INDIGO From mythologist and fairy tale scholar Marina Warner comes this decidedly rich and strange riff on The Tempest. It's a dark, simmering exploration into conquest, colonialism, and slavery, and their aftermath, not only for those conquered, but for generations of European conquerors as well.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM  Okay, no points for originality in the title department, but otherwise, this splendid episode from Neil Gaiman's long-running Sandman graphic novel series is a completely fresh delight. It imagines a very special performance of the Dream by Will Shakespeare and his company of players on Midsummer Eve before the king and queen of the fairies and all their impish court.

THE LION KING Don't laugh! A murdered king (who later appears as a ghost), a treacherous uncle, a young prince trembling on the brink of maturity, uncertain how to test his power—sound familiar? True, there's not a lot of singing or dancing in Hamlet, but at least the folks at Disney steal from the best!

Celebrations will be global throughout the year. Happy Birthday, Will!

MIDSUMMER DREAMS

Last summer, Santa Cruz Shakespeare gave its last performance under the redwood trees of the Sinsheimer-Stanley Festival Glen at UCSC, its home for over 30 years. It was a sad moment for Santa Cruz theatre lovers.

Especially since this year, 2016, is the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, with hundreds of celebrations planned by the global theatre community. (The anniversary of Shakespeare's birth was back in 1964, but why wait another 48 years to throw a party?)

It was sad to think that our own Shakespeare troupe would not be part of the festivities.

But, soft —do you hear that rustling sound? Forsooth, 'tis the phoenix-like wingbeats of SCS rising once again out of the ashes to reinvent itself—now with a midsummer dream of its own.

In the 7+ months since receiving their eviction notice from UCSC, the company has secured a new performance space in the middle of a pine and eucalyptus grove in upper Delaveaga Park—called (appropriately enough) "The Grove."

The Grove-to-be.

All they have to do now is build it.

Which is where we come in, Dear Patron. Members of the SCS community are invited to volunteer time, skills, and/or expertise to the actual building of the Grove. Groundbreaking commenced on April 2, and intensive construction goes on for the next 12 weeks.

General contractor Slatter Construction is in charge of the project, but volunteers can help out in everything from clearing brush, hammering boards, putting up drywall, painting, and site clean-up, to the plumbing and electrical departments.

Help build comfy NEW seating!

Unskilled as a laborer? How about providing a pic-a-nick basket of water and goodies for the hard-working crew?

Or become a donating member of the SCS family. The company has already raised more than 80% of the funds needed to complete the project, but a few extra sheckels would not go amiss.

Earn the coveted status of Founding Groundling with a donation of $50 or more. Or commemorate a loved one by naming a permanent seat in the Grove in his or her honor, complete with plaque, for a gift of $2,000.

Meanwhile, plans for the 2016 season are afoot as we speak. The plays have been chosen: A Midsummer Night's Dream —a fan favorite in every incarnation the company has produced. Hamlet—perhaps the poet's most eternal, enduring work. And Orlando, adapted from the gender-bent, time-traveling novel by Virginia Woolf.

J. Todd Adams, The Dream, 2009: fan favorite

(Remember the excellent movie of Orlando from 1992, starring Tilda Swinton at her most androgynous? It will be fun to see what SCS does with the story!)

The 2016 season plays July 12-August 28. Tickets go on sale May 16, although members can pre-order tickets as of May 2.

And fans are invited to the Season Launch Party at the Radius Gallery in the Tannery on First Friday, May 6, to meet and mingle with company members.

Visit the SCS website for more information, or get updates on the SCS Facebook page

Support your local Shakespeare company, and help SCS realize its midsummer dream. Make Will's 400th extra happy!

PIRATES of PODCAST

 This just in, folks: my first podcast!

Last month, it was my pleasure to be interviewed by the effervescent Phil Johnson—stand-up comic and pirate aficionado, proprietor of the salty website, "Under the Crossbones." And now, our podcast is live!

It's a swashbuckling half-hour or so, where we natter on about my pirate books, our favorite (and otherwise) pirate movies, and the allure of all things piratical. Music and comedy round out the broadcast, so hoist a pot of rum and check it out here!

(PS: My interview starts at about the12-minute mark.)

SEX, DRUGS, and ROCKABILLY

Hank Williams inspires flat biopic I Saw the Light


It's tough to get a movie biography right, to find a way to make the messy facts of someone's life as compelling as fiction Last year, the did it in  Steve Jobs, condensing the material into three key moments in its subject's career that charted his personal and professional evolution.

Then there's I Saw The Light, the biographical drama about legendary country singer-songwriter Hank Williams. Writer-director Marc Abraham doggedly trots out the facts of Williams' astonishingly short, and yet productive life (36 hit songs before his death at age 29).

Hiddleston in action.

But the material is presented without much insight, and the storytelling feels flat. It's like watching somebody else's home movies—interesting for awhile, but not personally involving.

Abraham never uncovers the person behind the image; he's content to stick with the persona of the raw talent living the self-destructive honky-tonk life.

Fortunately, the film stars the highly watchable Tom Hiddleston, the accomplished British thesp best known to movie audiences as Loki in the Thor franchise. He may not be the first person you'd think of to play Alabama-born, proto-rockabilly crooner Williams, but Hiddleston has presence to burn, and he looks great in a cowboy hat.

He even does his own singing. With a fresh, honest approach that doesn't try to imitate Williams, Hiddleston sells the music with his laid-back demeanor and killer grin. (Read more in this week's GT)

FASHIONABLE FAIRY TALES

Dom's look: Don't call her 'Tink.'

Once again, it was all about fairy tales Thursday night on Project Runway All Stars.

It was only last September when the regular Project Runway (as opposed to the various Lite and Unleaded versions they now show pretty continuously between seasons) featured a challenge inspired by the hit musical Finding Neverland—a challenge won by a designer riffing on CaptainHook!

So, Thursday night, the challenge for each designer was to take a "literary heroine" and design something modern and fashionable inspired by that character's persona and backstory. 

Character names were drawn out of a bag, with one given to each designer. And it quickly became apparent that all these literary characters were all fairy-tale protagonists.

Which is fine with me; I've been adulterating fairy tales for years! And I applaud any pop culture institution that keeps these eternal tales in the limelight.

Kini's Alice: party in the back.

But it was also just as apparent that all these characters were specifically the Disney version of fairy-tale heroines. How do I know? One of them was "Belle," which was never used as a proper name for the heroine in Beauty and the Beast until the Disney version.

(French versions called La Belle et la Bete, like the Jean Cocteau movie, don't count, since "belle" simply means "beauty" in French.)

As usual, designers responded to the challenge with varying degrees of success. My favorite was Dom Streater, who was given Tinker Bell, described as a punky, impish girl hanging out with a bunch of London street boys. Dom nailed it with patterns and attitude (above). 

I wouldn't wear it, but she totally got the challenge.

I also liked Kini Zamora's riff on Alice in Wonderland—decorous in front, with that demure white collar (wait, isn't that what's usually called a "Peter Pan collar?"), but a crazy touch of Wonderland absurdity in the back with that outrageous, pink-lined ruffle. (One judge called it a "dress mullet.") 

What I really love about it is the white ankle socks in black heels—so perfect for Alice! (A too literal rendition of the classic Tenniel illustrations with white stockings and black flats just wouldn't have had the same panache.)

Neither of these won, of course; I remain undefeated in my inability to think like a PR judge. The winner was Asha Daniel's take on Rapunzel. Not a bad design of itself, but she didn't glom onto the potential of the challenge with the same verve as the other two. 

Asha's look: Towering.

(Although her outfit's columnar shape does sort of look like the tower itself, especially from the back, with Rapunzels long blonde braid hanging down.)

Btw, the dress for Belle didn't really work; nor did designer Layana Aguilar's explanation that she designed it so Belle could wear it when she was whisked off to Argentina to watch a polo match. 

In embroidering this scenario, Layana once referred to Belle's "husband" taking her off on this jaunt. But I think (and I'd have to watch the replay to be sure) that the second time, Layana called him "Beast."

And if "Belle" and Beast (not the Prince he turns into, but Beast himself) jet-setting off to Argentina together as a couple is an acceptable concept, I may be onto something in my own upcoming novel—where Beast gets to be the hero in his own tale!

FOODIE FOR THOUGHT

LA food critic crusades for diversity in lively 'City of Gold'

Whatever you may think you know about Los Angeles, you may find your assumptions challenged by City of Gold. And, no, it is not a movie about the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

It's a fascinating foodie doc by Laura Gabbert about Jonathan Gold, esteemed food critic for the LA Times, whose insightful writing about the culinary scene in LA has earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Journalism.

Gold has not won this accolade by choosing the most exquisite verbiage to describe plates of decadent delights. He's not that kind of food writer. What Gold does is hit the streets in his bottle-green pickup truck, cruising strip malls, ethnic neighborhoods, vendor carts and food trucks all across the sprawl that is LA in search of undiscovered eating experiences.

Jonathan Gold in action: man bites food.

And discover them he does, incredible treasures in the most unexpected places, mostly run by immigrant families who make up the vast cultural diversity of the city and its many, many 'burbs—from Mexican, Thai, and Szechuan, to fried grasshoppers and hot dogs. More of an explorer than a food critic, Gold writes insightful pieces about understanding cultures through the medium of food.

Many proprietors of the eateries he champions (often in hole-in-the-wall storefronts you wouldn't look at twice while driving by) credit him with saving their businesses. Says one observer, Gold brings "value to restaurants and experiences that other people weren't writing about."

At the end of the movie, Gold speaks about the liveliness of the local cultural scene, constantly reinventing itself, with new foods and ideas to share. "We are all strangers together," says Gold.

This is what community is. And when ignorant voices in society talk about closing borders, building walls, and homogenizing our cultural experience, this is what we lose.

(Read complete review)

COPY THAT

In other book news—

I'm thrilled to announce that my next novel, Beast: A Love Story, has been officially copyedited and proofread!

I've been editing this book since July, off and on—mostly on—but I think it's all been worthwhile. My beta reader (okay, it's Art Boy) did a read-through after me, and he says it's honed to within an inch of its life.

So, tomorrow, this minutely marked hard copy goes back to my editor, Kaylan Adair, at Candlewick. Assuming she can decipher my corrections and suggestions (which may be assuming a lot), we are now one big step closer to production!

Which means I can go back to work on my next next novel for Candlewick. I'm working up a proposal and the first three chapters as we speak!

Stay tuned...

BOOK TRAILER!

And speaking of Alias Hook, here's another milestone: my first book trailer!

Big thanks to Flax Glor of Smoothio Films for putting together this very cool book trailer. I love the rousing, swashbuckling music and the distant clashing of swords!

PS: And one more milestone: my first embedded video!

HOOK TO SAIL THE BOARDS!

Coming this summer: Alias Hook makes its stage debut!

I couldn't have been more delighted when Sara Jo Czarnecki contacted me last summer to on behalf of Santa Cruz Parks & Recreation Teen Theatre. Sara had just read my book, and wanted my permission to turn it into a stage production.

Great! My policy as an author is: never discourage anyone who loves your book from spreading the word!

Although, to be honest, I wasn't really sure how well my book could be adapted for a cast of kids and teens (I believe the program includes ages 12 to 17). Yes, my story takes place in the Neverland, and involves Captain Hook and Peter Pan. But it's not necessarily a book for children, or even Young Adults (as my critics over at the Republic of Goodreads constantly remind me).

Costume design for Stella!

What's more, the fantastical Neverland setting might be a stretch for the stage at Louden Nelson, where the show will be produced. (I'm reminded of the line in Finding Neverland, where the impresario complains to J. M. Barrie, "Mermaids! Pirates! Fairies! It's a play for puppets!")

However, Sara and her co-conspirator, Darwin Garrett, sent me an early draft of the script they've been hammering together, and I'm impressed by the choices they're making. Obviously, they've had to trim away a lot of subplots and backstory out of necessity.

But the essential story is there—the arrival of Stella, a forbidden grown woman, in the Neverland (and her alliance with James Hook), Pan's tyranny, and Hook's desperate gambit to escape. Meanwhile, there are plenty of parts for pirates, natives (Indians), fairies and Lost boys to be beefed up for the youthful cast.

Sure, it seems like a daunting project, but Sara and Darwin are nothing if not fearless: the show they produced last summer for SCP&RTT was Around the World in 80 Days!

Show dates for Alias Hook are Friday, August 19, at 7 pm, and Saturday, August 20, at 2pm and 7pm. for more info and updates between now and then visit the SCP&RTeen Theater Facebook page.

CLASS WARFARE

Jewel Theatre Company offers vibrant 'Master Class' on art and life

You may not think you understand, or even like opera. Still, you might find yourself drawn into the lush world of Master Class, a sharply observed drama about opera and life that's the third offering from Jewel Theatre Company in its new home at the Colligan Theater at the Tannery.

Written in 1995 by Terrence McNally, the play imagines a voice class conducted by iconic diva, Maria Callas, during her tenure as guest lecturer at the Julliard School, New York City, in 1971-72.

Yes, a few snippets of operatic arias are sung during the course of the play, seeded in for maximum effect at crucial emotional moments, and delivered by a cast of excellent singers in the roles of Callas' Julliard students.

What's opera, Doc? Torres Koss and Gallagher.

But fear not; it doesn't matter if your Italian is a little rusty. Callas herself—beautifully played con brio by Patty Gallagher—is onstage throughout to talk us through the passion conveyed in the words. And the way these words reflect the deep passions of La Callas' life, gradually revealed in brief, moving monologues, drives the drama forward.

This production is impressively directed by Susan Myer Silton as a chamber piece for five: Callas, three of her nervous, starstruck voice students, and her piano accompanist (the ever-reliable Diana Torres Koss)—or six, if you count a couple of comic appearances by a surly stagehand (Lucas Brandt). The action takes place over real time, with Mark Hopkins' minimal set of wood-grain panels suggesting an academic lecture hall.

Into this low-key milieu strides Gallagher's imperious, larger-than-life Callas, exuding wry wit, banked fire, and disingenuous modesty. ("We are not here to talk about me," she reminds us constantly.) From her very first entrance, she takes the audience into her confidence, addressing us throughout the play as if we were all students in the lecture hall auditing her class. (Read more)

INCREDIBLE JOURNEY

Cultures collide on the Amazon in haunting 'Embrace of the Serpent'

The journey is definitely the destination in Embrace of the Serpent, a haunting meditation on culture, colonialism, and loss which this year became the first Colombian film to be nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar. Shot in captivating black-and-white, on location in the remote jungles on the banks of the Amazon River, it's an absorbing piece of filmmaking with the power of myth in every frame.

The third film from Colombian director Ciro Guerra, Embrace Of The Serpent is inspired by the published journals of two real-life scientists who visited the Amazon at separate times: Theodor Koch-Grunberg came out from Germany at the turn of the 20th Century, followed by American Richard Evans Schultes some forty years later. Each man recorded what he found in words and drawings, which journals have become the only documented evidence we have left of several indigenous Amazonian cultures that have long since vanished.

Filmmaker Guerra combines these two stories by inventing a character both expeditions have in common: the shaman, Karamakate (the wonderful Nilbio Torres). A young man when Grunberg arrives in 1909, Karamakate is the last of his people, after Europeans destroyed his village in their insatiable lust to harvest rubber from the region. An older, crankier Karamakate is no more impressed with "the whites" when ethnobiologist Schultes appears during World War II, following the course described in Grunberg's book.

In both cases, the shaman reluctantly agrees to guide the travelers along the river. Through his eyes, we see the often devastating disruptions of tribal culture in his lifetime alone, before, during, and after exposure to the outsiders. And yet, Karamakate accompanies each explorer on his mission, hoping to persuade the white men to see, and to "listen," as the journey continues along the serpentine twists and turns of the Amazon into each man's private heart of darkness.

The movie too glides elegantly in and out of its dual time frames as the parallel stories unspool. Guerra's dreamlike pacing and sensuous imagery are often enthralling, and the grandeur of the natural world that Guerra captures so well make this a journey worth taking. (Read more in this week's Good Times)

DAMNED YANKEES

Psychological dread amps up eerie 'The VVitch'

From January to Oscar night, the movies are in the doldrums. The last few Oscar contenders are trickling into neighborhood theaters, along with a few lumbering misfits that are not now, nor have they ever been worthy of any kind of awards push.

But it's a very fertile time for horror movies, the traditional antidote to feel-good holiday fare, and the gnarlier, the better.

So you don't expect too much from a movie called The Witch (or, to be true to the advertising campaign, The VVitch). Its early colonial America setting suggests the Salem witch trials, satanic rites, vintage Hammer horror films.

But this movie is nothing quite so cheesy, nor as gory, as you might expect; it's an often squirmingly intense psychological drama of hysteria and religious fanaticism.

It's still plenty scary (at least, very, very creepy), but it's fearful anticipation that propels the narrative, not in-your-face violence.

Like the best horror/suspense movies (think of the original The Haunting, from 1963), The VVitch plays mercilessly on our dread of what might be lurking in the shadows, rather than actually showing much onscreen—and is all the more effective because of it. Oh, yes, there's blood, but not so much of the usual fx gore-mongering.

Set in New England, ca. 1630—60 years before the famed Salem witch trials—The VVitch is rich in period detail, meticulously researched by rookie writer-director Robert Eggers. It concerns a family cast out of the community to make what living they can on a distant, isolated tract of land at the edge of a sinister wood.

At the center of the tale is eldest daughter, Thomasin (lovely Anya Taylor-Joy). A psychic firestorm seems to be brewing around her that gradually engulfs the entire family. The hysteria and paranoia levels rise to fever pitch, even as the movie's visual focus becomes smaller, more claustrophobic and intense. The action is staged in cramped quarters by flickering firelight, a shadowy barn, or deep in the dense, dark woods.

Subtitled A New England Folk Tale, the film conjures classic images from fairy tales and folklore. Whether or not The Devil is loose among this family, or they're preyed on by devils of their own making, Eggers leaves it up to the viewer to decide. (Read entire review in this week's Good Times.)

Btw: about that title. Filmmaker Eggers says that during his research, he ran across various pamphlets and tracts on witchcraft like this one (from 1643). In the early days of printing, when supplies were often short, if a printer ran out of the letter "W," he might substitute two "Vs" instead. "I thought it looked transportive and exotic," Eggers has said in interviews, "so I used it."

BOOK THAT BEAST!

In the movies, they say "Cut! Print!"

(Oh, wait, that was back in the days when they used to print images on actual film.)

Well, whatever they say nowadays, in the publishing world, there are  more arcane ways to mark the time it takes a book to trundle its way from final draft toward publication. And my book, Beast: A Love Story, just passed one of those milestones.

Last week, I got the second check from my publisher. According to the fine print, this is the portion of the advance to be paid "on acceptance of the finished manuscript." Which means Beast is officially finished! Yay!`

We are still on track for a Spring, 2017, publication date from mighty Candlewick Press. But my work is done. They employ professionals for the current copy-editing phase (a good thing, as anyone knows who's ever had to wade through the minefield of typos in one of my raw drafts).

And, of course, they employ professional artists for the cover design, and I can't wait to take a sneak peek at some of their ideas! Not that I'm likely to have a vote in the final design, but it'll be fun to see some of the concepts.

Until then, my Pinterest page for all things Beast-related is full of goodies.

Here's one I just recently discovered: illustrations by Gordon Laite (1925-1978) for The Blue Book Of Fairy Tales from Little Golden Books. (First edition: 1959.) This is certainly not my Beast, nor my Beauty, but I love the energy in this image, the expressionistic castle interior (and the exterior seen through the window), and, of course, that fabulous peacock-feather gown!

More Beast news as it happens. Stay tuned!

OSCAR BARBIE REDUX

Just when you thought it was safe to return to the blog—oh no! Oh yes! It's the Return of the Oscar Barbies!

Okay, one of these days, I'll decide I'm too cool to do this.

But this is not that day. The urge to dress up my collection of vintage Barbies as Academy Award nominees is proving to be a hard habit to break.

A lot depends of whether the nominees are visually interesting. Historical and fantasy costumes are the most fun to try to replicate, but you can't always depend on those actors scoring nominations. And while I used to try to confine myself to Best Actress nominees, sometimes I'll throw in a Supporting Actress nominee if she'll be extra fun to do.

Case in point: this year, I got to do both Alicia Vikander AND Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl! Who could resist?

Sadly, my Barbie wardrobe does not include any outfits from the 1920s, but I did have a kimono and a bohemian drape to swath them in. And it's all about the props anyway: a cigarette holder and a painter's palette. And with a Barbie-sized red wig I happened to have lying around, "Eddie" was good to go!

Carol was cause for happy-dance time in Barbie-land, since so many of my antique doll clothes are vintage 1950s. Both lead actresses scored nominations: Cate Blanchett for the extravagantly stylish Carol, and Rooney Mara, as the awed shopgirl and amateur shutterbug (notice her box camera) swept away by her.

(If you saw the movie, you'll understand the Santa hat.)

The only other nominees I decided to do were Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn (also set in the '50s), and Brie Larson in Room. I knew Larson would win, so I thought it would be churlish not to include her—even though modern-day outfits aren't nearly as much fun to do.


(Also, for those of you keeping score at home, I was 12 for 13 in my fearless and/or clueless Oscar predictions this year.

The only one I missed was Sylvester Stallone NOT getting a make-up Oscar for playing the aging Rocky Balboa in Creed—40 years (!) after he first introduced the character in the original Rocky. No one was probably more surprised than the elegant Mark Rylance, who scored the upset win for Bridge of Spies.)

Btw, slaving over a hot doll table for a couple of hours yesterday really made me appreciate the care and quality that went into the Barbie phenomenon when the doll was first launched ca. 1960.

Those early clothes have teeny tiny buttons the size of pin heads, miniscule hooks-and-eyes, inch-long zippers. It's a skills test manipulating them for a person of a certain age (like me), let alone for kids.

But that quality era didn't last long. In later years, items of Barbie clothing were made to be stepped into or pulled on overhead; their closures were snaps, not buttons.

This probably coincided with the era when all Barbie packaging went bubble-gum pink, and all accessories became plastic—no more cork soles in the wedgies; no more straw hats or handbags.

These days, Barbie clothes come in in neon colors, attached by Velcro. Except here, in the exclusive sorority of Oscar Barbies, where my collection of little Miss Havershams still get to wear their antique clothes, ever ready for their next close-up.

BOYS TOWN II

Predicting Oscar gold in a 50-Shades-of-White year
   
You don't need to be psychic to predict that, come Sunday night, Oscar gold will be bestowed on a movie whose cast, filmmakers and subject matter are mostly—how can I put this?—white and male. Because what else is there to choose from?

(Btw, don't you love this year's poster? A savvy, yet obvious attempt to defuse the issue of color—or lack thereof.)

Over at Boys Town (aka: the Motion Picture Academy), white male ensemble casts were almost the only nomination-worthy movies of 2015. Still there's less consensus than usual about front-runners this year, which might lead to some surprises in the otherwise cookie-cutter sameness of the field overall.


BEST PICTURE Spotlight This is really a close call. But out of the eight contenders, we can eliminate the three films whose directors didn't get nominated (adios Brooklyn, Bridge of Spies, and The Martian), and further weed out Room, which hasn't garnered any pre-season buzz in this category.

White men (and one token woman) to the rescue.

Which boils down to three buzz-worthy contestants: The Revenant, The Big Short, and Spotlight, each of which has earned some pre-season love. (As has Mad Max: Fury Road, although I don't think Academy voters will take it seriously in this category.)

On the strength of Leonardo DiCaprio's almost certain lock on the Best Actor prize, The Revenant looks like the one to beat—except that director Alejandro González Iñárritu already won for best film and director last year for Birdman.

But I'm betting that even if he does score a second consecutive Best Director award, Oscar gold will still go to Spotlight, the kind of smart, hard-hitting issue movie that Hollywood likes to applaud itself for making.

Iñárritu and Leo: Boys Club.

BEST DIRECTOR Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant. Okay, I wasn't that crazy about the movie, but it was a pretty amazing directorial achievement. Iñárritu has been cleaning up, pre-season, and my hunch is his winning streak will prevail over Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), Lenny Abrahamson (Room), George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road), and Adam McKay (The Big Short).

BEST ACTOR Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant. I don't get it either, how 2 1/2 hours of grunting through the wilderness counts as acting; DiCaprio has given far better performances, where he actually spoke dialogue. But, hey, it's his turn.

Plus, the Academy won't be able to resist putting Leo up on the podium with Kate Winslet (just in case she wins Supporting Actress for Steve Jobs—as she deserves to), 20 years after Titanic. I'd vote for Bryan Cranston (Trumbo), or Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs); Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl) and Matt Damon (The Martian) round out the category.

Larson: buzz-worthy

BEST ACTRESS Brie Larson, Room. The no-brainer of the year. She's already won every other award in this category, over Cate Blanchett (Carol), Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn), Charlotte Rampling (45 Years), and Jennifer Lawrence (Joy).

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Sylvester Stallone, Creed. For the same reason as above; plus, this is the award they never gave him for Rocky when he was in his prime. Sorry, Christian Bale (The Big Short), Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies) and Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight). Possible (but unlikely) upset: Tom Hardy, The Revenant, (although it would only be a backhanded nod to Mad Max: Fury Road.)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl. Odd, that she was nominated in the supporting category, since her bewildered, yet fiercely loyal artist wife of a transgender pioneer was the heart of the movie.

But with four high-profile films this year, Vikander deserves to win something. I'd give her the Best Actress prize and give this Oscar to Kate Winslet, for her pithy, Polish gal-Friday in Steve Jobs, over Rachel McAdams (Spotlight), Rooney Mara (Carol), and Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight).

SHORT TAKES: Look for Spotlight and The Big Short to win their respective Original and Adapted Screenplay awards. (MIA: Aaron Sorkin, unnominated for his smart, literate script for Steve Jobs.)

My guess is Inside Out will trump Anomalisa for Best Animated Film, and the Hungarian drama Son of Saul will crush the Foreign Language competition.

Expect the vast snowscapes of The Revenant to earn Cinematography gold, while Mad Max: Fury Road speeds off with the Costume and Production Design awards that I would give to The Danish Girl—if only they had asked me!

Danish Grrls: it won't win, but how gorgeous is this production design?

ANATOMY of a MARRIAGE

Time, longing infuse nuanced marital drama '45 Years'

Less is definitely more in the haunting marital drama 45 Years. Small in size, subtle in effects, and short on action, Andrew Haigh's quietly realized tale nevertheless broadens in scope, frame by frame, as its story of a married couple on the eve of their 45th wedding anniversary plays out. The film covers less than one week in its characters' lives, yet it's so infused with feeling, it manages to convey a lifetime of unspoken longing, mystery, compromise, and regret.

Writer-director Haigh adapted the material from a short story by David Constantine, and the film retains the sense of spareness and close observation of that fiction format. At its center are Kate and Geoff, a somewhat tweedy English couple living in quiet retirement in the Norfolk countryside. Kate (Charlotte Rampling) is a retired schoolteacher. Geoff (Tom Courtenay) was a foreman at a factory in a nearby town.

Theirs is a comfortable life, puttering around their home and grounds out in the country, walking the dog, and shopping or meeting their friends down in the village. They are tidying up the last few details for their 45th anniversary party, to be held in town on the upcoming Saturday, when Geoff receives a mysterious letter. It pertains to an accident that befell a woman Geoff was traveling with in Europe fifty years earlier, as a very young man, long before his marriage to Kate.

Courtenay and Rampling: nuanced.

 This is not a murder mystery, or a hothouse melodrama. But, as things play out, it becomes very much a story about the effects of age and time. The spot-on music used throughout—"Happy Together," "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," "Go Now"—locates the couple's youth in the 1960s, and it's a shock to realize that properly middle-class Kate and Geoff are products of that radical era. (Read more)

FOND AND FUNNY

Centurion Clooney: epic.

Coens salute vintage Hollywood in sly comedy Hail, Caesar!

The more you know about Hollywood in the so-called Golden Age (roughly late 1930s-early '50s), the bigger kick you're likely to get out of Hail, Caesar! This latest comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen is a fond and funny Hollywood farce about a day in the life of a studio troubleshooter trying to ward off scandal, and keep the stars out of trouble.

The story unfolds ca.1950, the heyday of the studio system. And what really sells the movie is the Coens' elaborate recreation of snippets of popular movie genres of the era—a stunt-filled chase scene from a cowboy movie, an elegant drawing-room comedy, a musical production number, a Biblical epic, and even an Esther Williams-style aquatic ballet.

Johansson: aquatic.

Not to mention the fun of playing spot-that-star with George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson, Ralph Fiennes, Channing Tatum, and Tilda Swinton, among others, popping up as the stars, starlets, and studio bigwigs of the Coens' fictional Capitol Pictures.

Front and center is Eddie Mannix (a solid turn by Josh Brolin), the studio's hired gun. With his own office on the backlot, his mission is to keep Capitol personnel from embarrassing the studio, making daily phone reports to an unseen mogul whose name sounds a lot like "Mr. Skank."

Tatum channels his inner Gene Kelly.

It's a 24/7 job, whether he's breaking up an ingénue's late-night photo shoot for a girlie magazine, or neutralizing damaging stories before they become fodder for waspish, rival twin sister gossip columnists named Thora and Thessaly Thacker (both played with relish by Swinton).

But a problem arises that even Eddie might not be able to fix when one of the studio's biggest stars, Baird Whitlock (Clooney), disappears off the set of the epic Hail, Caesar.

As Eddie visits one soundstage after another, searching for clues, we see snippets of Capitol movies in production, replicated by the Coens with adroit authenticity, and tongue in cheek. (Read more)

LOCAL LEGENDS

Funny how time flies!

10 years ago, Art Boy and I were honored with a Gail Rich Award for our various attempts to muck about in the Santa Cruz arts community. (We were a twofer!)

We were thrilled to join an illustrious group of artists, writers, musicians, performers, movers and shakers recognized every year in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, to be profiled by Wallace Baine and photographed by Shmuel Thayer (two local legends in their own right).

Mucking about in the arts.

Flash forward to now. The "Gailies," as they're called, are celebrating their 20th anniversary! And here's something I've discovered as a Gailie recipient: It's not only an honor, it's a lifetime commitment!

Okay, once a year, we go to the Gailie Awards at the Rio to cheer on the new inductees, sip free champagne, and nibble on chocolates and cookies.

But this year's list of events keeps expanding. An exhibit of 20 years of Shmuel's splendid portraits of Gailie recipients opened last week at the Cabrillo Gallery, beautifully curated by Rose Sellery.

Also, in honor of the 20th anniversary, 2016 recipient Jana Marcus spearheaded the book, The Creatives Among Us, a coffee table-sized paperback devoted to all of Shmuel's fabulous photos and Wallace's witty words. As a time capsule of 20 years of the Santa Cruz arts scene, it's irresistible. Order yours today! 

But wait: there's more!

This Saturday night, there will be a special The Creatives Among Us performance at the Crocker Theatre, Cabrillo College, featuring an unheard-of treasure trove of Gailie-winning local legends in concert—singers, musicians, dancers, drummers—onstage together.

Everyone from Santa Cruz Ballet Theater to Watsonville Taiko; from Pipa Pinon, Ginny Mitchell, and Mary McCaslin to Tammi Brown, Eleazor Cortes, and The Great Morgani.

And so many more, some 30 acts in all.

One night only!

Cruise over here for the complete line-up, and ticket info. You don't want to have to tell your grandchildren you missed it!

Gailie class reunion and photo shoot from September, 2015, by Kevin Johnson.

ALL THAT JAZZ AGE

Jewel Theatre Company stages fizzy '20s farce Fallen Angels

The latest production from Jewel Theatre Company is as light and bubbly as the champagne the characters quaff incessantly onstage. For the company's second offering at their new home, the Colligan Theater at the Tannery, Artistic Director Julie James has chosen Noel Coward's crowd-pleasing farce, Fallen Angels.

The play's subject matter—that women might be capable of having sexual lives outside of marriage—was considered quite racy in its day. Even though its day was 1925, smack in the middle of the postwar, anything-goes Jazz Age, when sexuality was obviously a fact of life, it was still not something usually discussed onstage.

But Coward got away with it with his trademark wit and grace by not depicting an affair, but its aftermath, providing wry commentary on what happens when the wild past of two proper, married English ladies comes back to haunt—and entice—them.

Doukas and Pizzo: waiting for Maurice

The production is directed by Art Manke, veteran of both Santa Cruz Shakespeare (last summer's hilarious The Liar), and JTC (the equally hilarious What The Butler Saw).

Manke has also directed nine productions of Coward's work, and it shows in the fleet pacing and style he brings to this vivacious show. His Fallen Angels combines elements of the cult TV hit, Absolutely Fabulous—with its two dizzy, champers-swilling girlfriends—with plenty of 1920s chic.

Julia (Nike Doukas) has been happily married to Fred (Kit Wilder) for five years. On the morning Fred is leaving on an overnight golfing trip, they congratulate themselves that they still love each other, but they are no longer subject to the rash throes of being in love.

Torres Koss: extra fizz

Fred heads off to the links, and Julia looks forward to a weekend of amusing herself—until her best friend, Jane (Marcia Pizzo), rushes in with shocking news: a Frenchman named Maurice, with whom both ladies dallied seven years earlier, before they had even met their current husbands, has come to town.

Desperate to keep their youthful indiscretions secret from their husbands, the ladies also fear that now that their marriages have become so settled, they won't be able to resist the Frenchman's charms.

Special kudos to longtime JTC diva Diana Torres Koss' scene-stealing turn as Julia's ferociously competent new maid. She's a riot throughout, sneaking over to the piano when no one else is about, entertaining the audience between scenes.

She brings a little extra fizz to Coward's sparkling cocktail. (Read more)