Is He Dead at HCT

Hale Theatre always likes to ring in the new year with a comedy and this year they certainly picked a good one!  Is He Dead? is an absolutely hilarious farce and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it last night!  I can't remember when I've laughed so hard!  In the mid-1800s, Jean-Francois Millet is a destitute painter living in Paris.  He, along with his fiancee's father, is in debt to his coniving art dealer, Bastien Andre. Millet tries to sell his paintings to pay the debt but soon realizes that his work isn't worth much because he is still alive. Millet's fellow painters, Agememnon "Chicago" Buckner, Hans "Dutchy" Von Bismarck, and Phelim O'Shaughnessy, convince him to fake his own death and pretend to be his fictitious twin sister, the widow Daisy Tillou. Chaos ensues! All of the characters are completely over-the-top, the dialogue is fast-paced, and the physical comedy is so much fun to watch. I laughed out loud when Dutchy and Phelim try to teach "Daisy" how to sit properly!  I really enjoyed the entire cast (for some reason the performers last night were a mix of the MWF and THS casts) but I had a few favorites. Ben Abbott is brilliant as Jean-Francois Millet/Daisy Tillou! His comedic timing is perfect and I loved all of his facial expressions. David K. Martin is absolutely frenetic as Chicago and there is never a dull moment with him leaping around the stage. I am a huge fan of Brandon Green (he played the sinister Jonathan Brewster in HCT's production of Arsenic and Old Lace) and it is equally fun watching him mince around as Phelim.  I loved all of Daisy's costumes ("Do you know how much equipment I am wearing under here?") and, as usual, the sets (both Millet's garret apartment and Daisy's opulent Parisian drawing room) are spectacular!  I loved this show and I highly recommend it as a fun night out (especially during the long winter months).  Go here for tickets and information.

Quarters for Christmas

This year the HHS student body officers chose KSL's Quarters for Christmas as the recipient of their school-wide holiday service project.  For one week they went around to fourth period classes and sold paper links for 10 cents.  Not only did Hunter High look quite festive with red and green paper chains in every classroom, but the SBOs were able raise $1500 to donate!  I am really proud of that total because it is all from students!  We did not have corporate sponsors or receive large parent donations.  In fact, most of the money came in the form of crumpled dollar bills and coins.  KSL invited us to make an on-air donation on the first day of winter break and it was a great experience!  Here are some pictures of our visit.

In the lobby of KSL Broadcast House.

We got to go right on the floor during a broadcast.

We got a tour of the newsroom.  Whenever we walked through an area, our guide would announce our donation and people would clap for us! Everyone treated us as if we had donated a million dollars!

Getting ready for the broadcast.

It was really fun to go behind the scenes to see what goes into a news broadcast.

During the broadcast.  Vincent and Evelyn did such a great job on the air!

The HHS graphics teacher made us this large check to present to KSL.  It was a big hit. (We gave them a real one, too!)

Posing with Deanie Wimmer!  She was so nice and very genuine.  I was quite impressed with how much time she took with us in the middle of a live broadcast!  KSL is definitely a class act!

I am so proud of my SBOs for all of their hard work in making Quarters for Christmas such a success this year!  You can go here to find out more about KSL's Quarters for Christmas program.

Ice Skating Downtown

On Friday I took Sean and Tashena ice skating at Gallivan Plaza.  It has become one of our winter break traditions (but I think they like the hot chocolate more than the skating).

2009

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New Year's in Vienna

While it would have been amazing to spend New Year's Day listening to the Vienna Philharmonic play their annual concert featuring the music of Johann Strauss, his sons, and his contemporaries, I saved quite a bit on airfare and attended the Utah Symphony's version last night.  My sister was one of the winners of my ticket giveaway for this concert and she took my mom, who absolutely loved it!  She recognized most of the pieces and thought they were all very stirring!  So did I!  The orchestra began with Dmitri Shostakovich's Festive Overture, Alexander Borodin's "Poltovtzian Dances" from Prince Igor, and Shostakovich's Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra.  I especially loved "Waltz 2" from Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra.  I really liked the theme played by the solo saxophone, and later echoed by other instruments, because it was very playful and I kept imagining women in white ball gowns twirling around an opulent palace.  After the intermission, the orchestra played "Hungarian March" from La Damnation de Faust by Hector Berlioz, Kunstlerleben by Johann Strauss, Jr., Champagner Gallop by Hans Christian Lumbye, "Sehnsuchtswalzer" from Drei Walzer by Wolfgang Rihm, and Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms.  The concert concluded with In Krapfenwald'l and Eljen a Magyar! by Johann Strauss, Jr. All of these pieces were absolutely enchanting and sometimes it seemed as if the audience wanted to get up and dance (or maybe that was just me).  I especially loved the popping of the champagne corks in Champagner Gallop and all of the bird whistles (including a rubber duckie) in In Krapfenwald'l.  So much fun!  It was such a lovely way to begin the new year, especially with my mom and sister (a huge thanks to the Utah Symphony for allowing me to give away tickets to this concert).  These pieces will be performed again tonight and I highly recommend getting a ticket!  Go here for more information.

Unbroken

My book club chose the book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand several years ago.  I didn't know much about it so I decided to check it out of the library instead of buy it.  I was number 315 in line to check it out so I didn't participate in my book club discussion.  I had forgotten all about it by the time I got the notification that it was my turn and I really didn't know what to expect.  I read it in one day and I was so incredibly moved by Louis Zamperini's courage!  When I found out that Angelina Jolie was directing the movie adaptation, I knew I had to see it!  The day after Christmas, Marilyn and I took our Mom to see it (my Mom was thrilled to be going to a "late" movie) and I was, once again, so moved by Zamperini's story (I cried through most of it).  It is not any easy film to watch but it is absolutely beautiful.  It begins with Zamperini as a bombardier on a mission in the Pacific.  Then it flashes back to his difficult childhood as an Italian immigrant in California.  His brother trains him as a long distance runner as a way to keep him out of trouble and he eventually makes it to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin (I loved the scenes at the Olympics, especially the 360 view of the stadium after the race).  Back in the present, Zamperini goes out on a reconnaissance mission over the Pacific with a sub-standard plane and eventually crashes.  He survives on a raft for 47 days until he is picked up by the Japanese and sent to a POW camp where he is repeatedly tormented by the commandant of the camp, Mutsuhiro "Bird" Watanabe, until the end of the war.  I think it is a great adaptation of the book, even though Jolie has been criticized for leaving out Zamperini's conversion to evangelical Christianity which some feel is the climax of the story.  In my opinion, the climax of the story is when Zamperini lifts a giant piece of wood, proving to "Bird" that he can't be broken.  I think Jack O'Connell does an amazing job as Zamperini and I also was very impressed with Miyavi's performance as Watanabe.  You hate Watanabe so much for what he does to Zamperini but Miyavi gives him a kind of vulnerability that makes you understand why he does what he does.  The scene where he breaks down after Zamperini lifts the piece of wood is incredible.  I loved this movie and I highly recommend it!

Today is the last day to enter the giveaway for a $50 gift card to Megapex Theatres.