Phlip Glass

What do I know about Philip Glass? Random things…So I’ll start with that:

1. He has scored a couple of my favorite movies, “The Hours” and “Notes on a Scandal.” Very cool.

2. I saw “Monsters of Grace,” a film collaboration with Robert Wilson, years ago (1999?) when PICA brought it to town early in PICA history. I remember a packed Schnitzer concert hall, filled with Portland’s leading arts mavens of all generations, all wearing cardboard 3-D glasses for 90 minutes or so. After, I felt sort of stoned, and I wondered if the aforementioned mavens did, too, or if they would use the same description for that feeling?

3. I’ve seen Cocteau’s “La Belle et La Bete,” one of my favorites from when I was a grad student and called it “early cinema.” Okay, that’s not about Philip Glass, but “Orphee” is based on a Cocteau film, and Glass did an opera of “La Belle” as well, right? So — no foul, tangential counts.

4. He was once married to Joanne Akalaitis (sp?), famed experimental theater director, the start of many a theater veteran story: “once, when I was working on a play with Akalaitis…” and the story that follows is usually one of the good ones.

5. I’ve read he describes his music as “music with repetitive structures.”

6. Philip Glass is Ira Glass’ cousin.

6. Philip Glass is Ira Glass’ cousin.

(get it?)

That’s about all I know about Philip Glass.

Here’s what I know about blogging at the opera: Julia brings you nuts and cocktails. Maybe I’ll steal that for PCS…bringing nuts and cocktails to anyone with a laptop in the lobby? hmmmm…. I’m in full doofus mode, but happy to be set up and ready for the tour. 

We’re being taken on a backstage tour of what looks like, from these photos, an amazing set. I’m going to earnestly try to NOT break anything…

Checklist: cool things about this set.

1.  I think it would be a very cool place to live. Great apartment.

2. unlike most stage sets, this one has a rake. We used to use one back in the day, at the Newmark, too… It was a “1 in 12″ which means one inch of elevation per foot. This one is too. Felt a little tipsy just walking on it.

3. Rick Schneider!!  yup, Rick is working on the show. Looking dapper, like a really high class porn star, we all agreed. So did Rick.

4. Great bar set up. The set designer clearly knows the good stuff.

See what I mean?

 5. There’s a ceiling on the set!  Seriously, a ceiling. You just don’t see that on sets. Reminds me of “Citizen Kane,” where one of the unique things was so many camera angles that included shots of a ceiling…you just don’t see that in movies. and you don’t see it onstage. So I’m expecting some interesting lighting angles tonight.

Act one begins in a few minutes, woot!!!  My knowledge of the Orpheus myth is pretty limited…but I do have the basics down, so should be fun to see it played out in the opera tonight…

One martini down….

Orphee at Portland Opera

Hey, I just tweeted, too! full media overload, thank god for the second martini

Okay, that was French…

I sort of rooted for the Princess and the Chaffeur. Hmm…fairy tale disease? They seemed more genuinely engaged in their emotions, and they’re dead… Life lesson there, I think. Could they fall in love with each other, please?

“A poet is almost a writer.” Nice.

I definitely need to ponder this one for a while, but I thought the stage pictures were gorgeous;  loved the movement direction in this, so stunning with the music. The music in Act 2 in particular was quite moving.  And so much of the story here — sacrificing all for art (poetry). Do we think it’s worth it? What price artistic immortality?

phew. The second martini was a great tonic. I think I’ll have more thoughts simmering up with a night’s sleep — expecting interesting dreams….

One last thing — the afterlife is a series of courtrooms?That’s a deep deep circle of hell.

As a way to celebrate the people who support Portland Center Stage in a crucial way, we wanted to highlight Dennis and Jean Wilde, longtime donors of Portland Center Stage. We hope you enjoy getting to know some of the many people who make theater happen in this community.

How long have you been attending Portland Center Stage?
We think we started attending plays at PCS just before Chris Coleman arrived.

Where is your hometown?
We were both born elsewhere, but claim Spokane, WA, as our hometown.

What is something most people don’t know about you?
Dennis: is a minister and performs weddings, baby blessings, memorial services, and the like, mostly for people we are acquainted with.
Jean: is a former tap dancer (in my extreme youth).

Which PCS production has been your favorite throughout the years?
We both agree that “Crazy Enough” is probably our favorite, although the one we sponsored regarding R. Buckminster Fuller is also one of Dennis’s favorites.

Pets?
We have a very adorable dog, named Magy. She is a Lagotto Romangolo, an Italian water dog. We bought her in Italy 7 years ago and had her shipped to Portland. She doesn’t shed, has a wonderful personality, and is a wonderful companion.

What is one of your biggest inspirations and why?
Dennis: This would be the Natural Step, which is how all of our actions need to be in concert with the earth’s capacity.

What other organizations do you support in Portland?
Caldera, The Natural Step, Cascadia

How did you get introduced to theater as an art form?
Friends inviting us to productions, probably first in Ashland.

Hobbies?
Dennis: likes to bike, fish and spend time with our grandkids.
Jean: likes to walk, read and spend time with our grandkids.
We are also love to travel. We just returned from a trip to Namibia and South Africa.

What do you think sets Portland apart from other cities?
There is a great deal of awareness of our city and how it fits into our environment.

Why is philanthropy important to you?
It is important for all of us to have a means to give back to the community.

What is your favorite children’s book?
Favorite children’s book would be all the Dr. Seuss books.

What is it about theater that inspires you?
It contemporizes stories of human struggles and triumphs.

If you could give one piece of advice, what would it be?
We’re too old to give advice. Life has taught us not to give advice, so the best advice we have is, ask questions.

Weird coincidences start happening once you determine you are going to write like mad for thirty days.

Example: the first year I did NaNo, I began to flounder halfway into it. I went for a run along the Esplanade downtown, to clear my head. Running along the west side of the river, I naturally looked over at the east bank. And there, painted in two-foot high (at least!) bright white letters was a name: FRANCES. Frances was the name of my novel’s main character. The name had not been there the day before, and, thanks to Portland’s crack team of graffiti-removal artists, it was gone soon after.

Example: looking around this morning for word-count type texture, I saw a woman dressed entirely in purple, including a pair of purple leather boots. THEN, I saw a completely other woman, running for the bus and dressed head to toe in GREEN, and carrying also a green leather tote.

Another one: A writer I admire, Ron Carlson, said when he begins writing a story, he uses the names Mickey and Doris, at first, just to keep things moving, and he changes the names later, when he knows the characters better. So, I was putting a new character into a story, and I called him Mickey. THE NEXT DAY, I meet this woman, and she introduces herself as Mickey. Then she calls someone over, and she says, “I’d like you to meet my husband, whose name is also Mickey.” I fully expect to meet Doris one day soon.

Finally, my friend Wendy gave her characters, a married couple, some unusual names I can’t remember at the moment, but let’s say they were Mortimer and Crissy. Very soon after that, a couple walks in to where Wendy works, and signs in: Mortimer and Crissy. The pair of them, together. No joke!

I could go on. I have another example about pajama sightings in public.

How about you? Any weird coincidences to report?

LIVE MUSIC EVERY SATURDAY!
PCS & Music Millennium, the place where people and music still matter, invite you to  SOUNDS. LIKE. PORTLAND—our new early evening showcase of the best in local music, every Saturday from 5-7 pm.

November’s artist-in-residence is vibrantly talented Ali Ippolito.

Ali Ippolito (of Heroes and Villians, Nick Jaina fame) writes music with a haunting poetry and quiet authority that simultaneously tugs, pulls, coaxes, vexes, and inspires.

A mezmerizing singer, Ippolito accompanies herself on piano, accordion, and the curious banjolele, giving us fading, sepia-tinged sonic postcards of love and loss. This is music that, to paraphrase the poet Mina Loy, “infects us with unendurable ease/touching nerve-terminals.” And that’s a good thing, folks

Join us THIS Sunday, following the 2 p.m. matinee of Josh Kornbluth’s Ben Franklin Unplugged for Formative Stages: Theater and the Life of the Mind, copresented with The Oregon Psychoanalytic Center.

For this installment, Dr. Nancy Winters will delve into issues of independence, family and parental disappointment, and self-reliance in Kornbluth’s play. Winters quipped that Kornbluth’s play is “a great example of psychotherapy in action,”  encouraging, as it does, Josh’s journey to find his own inner Ben Franklin.

One-part cocktail conversation/one-part talk-back session, the lively series, now in its third year, puts theater on the couch and the audience in the conversational driver’s seat for post-show discussions that reveal that the world on the stage is truly a glorious microcosm of life. Join us for this field trip into the nooks and crannies that theater inhabits—from humor and mannered whimsy to the insatiable lust for life to the menage-a-trois between power, justice and truth, to idiosyncratic family dynamics and taboo.

Formative Stages: Theater and the Life of the Mind
Nancy Winters, MD on Josh Kornbluth’s Ben Franklin Unplugged
When: November 8, 2009 (following the 2 pm matinee)
Where: Ellyn Bye Studio , Gerding Theater at the Armory

Discussions take place in the theater directly following the 2 pm matinees. Free with theater admission

Another exciting  IDEAS IN PLAY program
IDEAS in PLAY are free public programs offered by Portland Center Stage that bridge conversations around theater and the arts, sustainability, history, and community. How can we use the lens of the theater to talk about who we are, what we believe and how we connect to one another? IDEAS in PLAY inspires stories to come to life in unexpected ways through conversation-based programs that ask: what’s the big idea here?

more posts about Ben Franklin: Unplugged || Get the Details on the Show || Buy Tickets