Use the phases of
the moon to work your magic. (Photo: Alexandra Barbu | Dreamstime.com)
Each phase of the moon has its own vibrations and types of spell work that it supports. But that does not mean that you can’t do manifestation work when the moon is waning. If you have an urgent need, no one is going to want to wait for the appropriate day during the appropriate moon phase to do a spell.
If you have a big goal in mind, you can use all the phases of the moon to work your magic for an entire month with one objective in mind. I call this whole moon magic.
The waxing moon phase, which is from the point of the new moon until the moon is full, is a good time to do manifestation work. As the moon appears to grow bigger in the sky each night, your magic and intention is growing along with it. The waning moon phase, when the moon is past full until the time of the new moon, is a good time to do banishing work. The full moon is the perfect time to do any workings, as the full moon lends its potency to your magic. Then there is the new moon. The new moon is when the moon either cannot be seen in the sky or can just be barely glimpsed as a crescent. The new moon phase comes after the waning moon and before the waxing moon. The new moon phase is a time to plan and prepare for your spell work, planting those metaphorical seeds. The new moon is also a time to do shadow work and take stock of ourselves.
You can work with each moon phase individually, but you can also use all of them to really tackle a situation from all sides. To do this, you want to really define what your goal is. It is always good to be specific in your spiritual workings. Let’s use prosperity for this example. Besides, who doesn’t need a little prosperity in their life?
You do not have to wait until the new moon phase to begin; you can start whenever you are ready. For this explanation, we’re going to start at the beginning. During the time of the new moon, you begin defining your goal and making sure you have all the items you’ll need to get started. If we’re working on prosperity, this is when you really figure out what you need. Is it a certain amount of money or an opportunity or a lifestyle you’re trying to create? Once the moon moves out of the new moon phase into the waxing moon phase, you begin to work on manifesting that need. Burn your candles, say your affirmations, wear your lucky socks. Do this as often as you want to for the waxing moon phase. Each phase is around two weeks long.
The full moon adds extra umph to your magic. When the moon is full, you might want to do one last, big manifestation spell for prosperity. Finish burning your money candle, spend some extra time chanting your affirmations, or spend some time in meditation to see if the universe has any guidance for you on your way to prosperity.
From the new moon to the full moon, we’ve been focusing on attracting and manifesting our desires. As the moon moves into the waning phase, we shift from attracting what we want to banishing what we do not want. Keeping our goal of prosperity in mind, when the moon is waning you can focus on banishing debt or getting rid of bad habits that cost you money. This is the time to remove things in your life that are blocking you from your goals.
Working a whole moon cycle allows you to address your needs from all sides. It is also a longer process, which means you are spending more energy on it. Giving all this energy to one goal is one of the best ways to manifest something. It makes sure the universe hears you and lets the universe know you are serious about your intentions. The new moon is coming: Are you ready to work some whole moon magic with me?
Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.
A scene from "Shockheaded Peter" at New Moon Theatre Company (Photo by Gene Elliott).
Ten years ago, New Moon Theatre Company started its annual foray into producing thrills and chills for the Halloween season.
“Everybody involved with the company just loved Halloween,” says Gene Elliott, executive producer at New Moon. Look Away (A Civil War Zombie Tragedy) by Memphis playwrights Zac Cunningham and Stephen Briner had been staged by New Moon a couple of times before the 2011 production that started the annual scare fare.
Elliott says they company has been on the watch for something both odd and beautiful. A mix of plays from creepy to screamy were staged in subsequent years, including Bug, Frankenstein, The Woman in Black, Titus Andronicus, Cuddles, Buried Child, Lizzie the Musical, and The Pillowman.
This year offers, if you can imagine, one of the weirdest yet. Shockheaded Peter (runs tonight through November 14th) is a musical version of an 1845 German children’s book of short stories and poetry about the consequences of misbehavior. The program describes it as a “tale of a childless couple that has their fondest wish granted in the most delightfully dreadful way imaginable, accompanied by songs, puppetry, and vignettes in which the hilariously horrible fates that befall naughty children everywhere are brought to darkly comedic life.”
Elliott, who has been involved in all the productions, says when he first encountered it, “I was kind of gobsmacked just watching what videos were available. And I read about it, everything I could. And it was just so wonderfully bizarre and just asking for no forgiveness.”
In other words, perfectly weird.
“It’s not an overly long play,” he says, “but it has so many moving parts. There’s little vignettes — it’s a vaudeville-feeling show. There’s little scenes that happen, but there’s puppets and people doing quick changes into bizarre costumes and it’s just nonstop. There’s 15 people in the show and every one of them are running backstage. It’s chaos and I just kinda sit back and laugh and watch them just running in circles. It’s so cool.”
But if it’s dark and weird, is it OK for children or not?
“It’s kind of like watching Bugs Bunny or the Road Runner,” he says. “Those are just cartoons. We have puppets. The violence is absurd and we’ve had a couple of older children watch it and they were laughing their heads off.”
Thanks to the Great Quarantine of 2020, we don’t get to visit galleries, hang out at juke joints, or take in a play. But creative people are relentlessly creative, so you don’t need to go without, you can just go online.
Here’s a sampling of who is doing creative programming that you can enjoy from home:
The Facebook page of Playhouse on the Square (POTS) is featuring “Story Time in Neverland” with Peter Pan reading the classic story and teaching some choreography to boot. The POTS page also has scads of videos of many of its productions with interviews and performance excerpts.
New Moon Theatre Company has been posting a Shakespeare blowout, full performances of past shows on its Facebook page, from Hamlet to Titus Andronicus (adults only!) to 12th Night and more.
The Memphis Symphony Orchestra’s FB page has plenty to hear, such as the Lockdown Sessions — check out the “Horns in Time of Plague” duet with Caroline Kinsey and Robert Patterson.
Hit up the FB page of the Art Museum of the University of Memphis and you’ll find plenty to see. Artworks, of course (photos by Lawrence Jasud, for example), and interviews (Carl Moore), and an opportunity to be part of the “In 7, 6, 5…” exhibition.
Find our more about the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s Virtual ChalkFest at its Facebook page.
The Dixon Gallery and Gardens virtually continues its weekly Tours at Two with curator Julie Pierotti talking about various works in the museum’s collection. And there are pictures of flowers. So many pictures of flowers.
Art Village Gallery’s Online Viewing Room has the new exhibit “‘Twas Her Undoing,” provocative works by several local women artists.
The Pink Palace is offering its Museum To-Go experience with activities, movies, planetarium shows, and more.
“Nation-wide, it is a period of radical absolutism: unapologetic racism, anti-Semitism, and sexism among a population and leadership struggling with the pervasiveness of one religion (over science) and fighting to prevent immigrants from entering its borders. The government is widely suspected of collusion with foreign adversaries while its own citizens’ rights are drained of protection,” so begins the synopsis to the Tennessee Shakespeare Company’s regional premier of Speak What We Feel, a compiled script subtitled, Shakespeare’s radical response to a radical time.
While the setup may sound familiar, the place that’s being described is Elizabethan England. TSC founding director Dan McCleary will be joined onstage by Stephanie Shine, Darius Wallace, Merit Koch, Blake Currie, Nic Picou, Carmen-maria Mandley, and Shaleen Cholera. Together they will explore Shakespeare’s “radical response,” to all these things and more.
Speak What We Feel employs scenes from Richard III, Measure for Measure, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Coriolanus, The Tempest, Merchant of Venice and Othello.
Here’s a video of McLeary talking about Speak What We Feel:
Radical: Tennessee Shakespeare Gets Active, Playhouse Gets Orwell + More
“Adaptations give us a chance to explore specific narrative threads and shine new light through old windows. In this case, exposing the audience to low grade torture techniques by way of flickering or flashing light, grating inescapable sound, triggering imagery and making us all hold our pee through the intermission-free show, drowns out a more interesting theme struggling to escape a relentlessly bleak event’s sadistic gravity: Are our heroes, villains, allies and enemies all fictional constructs? Have they always been? By the time this idea expresses itself in dialogue, we’re, once again, too agitated to see the elusive bigger picture. Maybe that’s also the point.” [MORE]
“If you want some measure of just how good William Shakespeare was on his best days, look no further than the New Moon Theatre Company’s gag-packed production of Twelfth Night, a romantic comedy teetering at the edge of farce. Jokes can be fragile things, losing their punch with time, as sensibilities evolve. But 418 years after he wrote it down, Twelfth Night’s jokes still land on their feet, and stumble hilariously into pratfall. This latest revival is curiously uneven but still bursts with life and laughter at TheatreWorks.” [MORE]
Those in the mood for something a little less radical and/or Shakespeare related may want to drop in on a completely different kind of classic. Theatre Memphis is staging George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner.
“Sheridan Whiteside’s fall while dining at the home of prominent socialites makes him an unexpected guest for six weeks of recovery. The hosts, however, are most in need of recovery as Whiteside invites in the glamorous and famous as a three-ring circus of comic chaos grows to include a luncheon for homicidal convicts and a complete children’s choir.”
Whiteside is a critic, naturally, and based on Alexander Woollcott, the ostensible leader of New York’s Algonquin Round Table. Whiteside’s played by Memphis actor and director, Jason Spitzer.
Susan Brindley, Mariah Chase and Kim Justis Eikner
To understand Agnes of God, a “psychological/supernatural thriller” from 1979, maybe it’s helpful to look a little harder at the more ancient and epic battle it represents. On the surface, John Pielmeier’s drama seems to be a psychobabble-laden tug-o-war between believers and a damaged, analytical mind fallen away from the church. Structured primarily as a series of arguments between a nun with secrets and a shrink with secrets, Agnes of God may not be about the innocent, simple-minded young sister who appears to have murdered an unwanted baby. Sure, that’s the show’s sensational hook, but this highly actable, if frequently problematic script, wants to grow into a full throated Platonic dialogue rehashing the 500-year-old grudge match between empirically verifiable “facts” and that which was once determined by the church to be “truth.”
Even with all the news about “fake news” we take the primacy of facts for granted these days, but all in all, they’re a relatively new concept. As emerging sciences elevated empirical knowledge during the Renaissance the very idea of fact-based learning challenged and chipped away at the church’s supreme authority. Progressive minds were often imprisoned or excommunicated or worse for subverting “truth” but little by little all absolutes buckled under the terrible weight of relativism and “facts” emerged as the frequently assaulted measure of everything that matters. To this end, Agnes of God seeds its struggle between faith and scientific inquiry with doubt, bias, and a great deal of manipulative woo-woo! A critic writing for The Chicago Reader once called it the “anti-Inherit the Wind,” and while I might be a bit more charitable, the description’s not so far off base that I’m not going to appropriate it. And like the American criminal court system, the script’s apparent aim isn’t to prove that divine miracles can happen, only to insert a gore-spattered habit’s worth of reasonable doubt.
More frustrating: As the play’s ancient polemic reveals itself, the more apparent it becomes that Agnes, a helpless creature who’s been raped by her author if by nobody else, has little meaning to either side of this debate outside of how she might serve self interest or self-preservation. To that end she’s both the title character, and a walking, talking McGuffin. This makes it exceedingly difficult to like anybody in this play enough to care about who wins the fierce debate. It’s pretty evident from the beginning that whether Agnes is declared competent to stand trial or not, it’s certainly not going to be this doe-eyed and free-bleeding jumble of ignorance and anxiety who may or may not be a virgin mother and saint.
What Agnes of God does that we can all be thankful for is provide three women with some extremely showy acting opportunities. New Moon Theatre’s cast and crew delivers all the fireworks you could possibly hope for. It’s a remarkable convergence of talent with Kim Justis stepping into the part of Dr. Livingston, Susan Brindley as Mother Miriam, and Mariah Chase as Sister Agnes. Bringing these three strong performers together under the direction of Pamela Poletti, is a special occasion to be celebrated, even if the material’s more sensational than satisfactory.
Rock-and-roll was barely old enough to drink when somebody asked playwright Sam Shepard his opinion about the rock musical. I’ve not been able to run down the exact quote, but the Shepard, who sometimes drummed with The Holy Modal Rounders, thought rock musicals and operas would remain theoretical until somebody composed one that was as “violent” as “a Who concert.” As someone who tends to rate concerts by the degree to which they’ve “ripped my head off,” or “melted my face,” I’ve always agreed with Shepard’s assessment. By that measure, it’s probably fair to note that, in spite of the city’s storied music history, the rock musical didn’t arrive in Memphis until October 2018 when Lizzie — the Lizzie Borden ax-murdering musical — opened at TheatreWorks. I say this as a veteran of Hair, American Idiot, Rock of Ages, Rocky Horror, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and a dozen more electric guitar musicals. But when it comes to pure rock concert muscle, New Moon’s Lizzie kills the competition. Dead.
The story of ax-murderess Lizzie Borden (and her famous 40-whacks) is sung, shouted, and shrieked at the audience by a strong, all-female cast of 4. The book strays far enough from the facts as we know them to qualify as historical fiction, but the details of what actually happened when Mr. & Mrs. Borden were murdered, are beside the point in this bloody portrait of a place where sexual abuse and the status quo walk hand in glove. Director Kell Christie keeps the sex and money elements of the narrative front and center while making the overall experience more like an arena concert than a piece of musical theater. Melissa Andrews’ lights are on point, and Eileen Kuo’s music direction drives hard without sacrificing dynamics. A nearly perfect ensemble showcases the acting and vocal talents of Christina Hernandez, Annie Freres, Joy Brooke Fairfield, and Jaclyn Suffel.
Lizzie closes Sunday, Oct. 28, so there aren’t many chances left to witness this dreadful tale of horror and woe. You don’t want to miss this one.
You know what? As long as John Maness wins something, I don’t care about anything else this year. If the Ostrander committee misses all the rest by miles and miles, I’ll be satisfied for the ounce of justice done. Because … holy crap! After this season, the O-committee should consider a “John Maness hardest-working-person in Memphis Theater” trophy. With a roll-up-your-sleeves work ethic married to the soul of a magician and escape artist, he hammers out one unique character after another and vanishes inside them. I mean, who the hell does this guy think he is, Erin Shelton?
Nevertheless, the time has come, once again, for shade to be cast and predictions made in regard to this year’s crop of nominees and nominees that might have been if only the universe wasn’t so frequently unfair. It’s the season when the Intermission Impossible team wonders what it is our tireless, too human Ostrander judges might be smoking. When we ask the one question on every right-thinking thespian’s mind — “WHO GOT ROBBED?”
I want to see J. David Galloway take home the set design for New Moon’s lovely, immersive, and necessarily inventive design for Eurydice. I’ve been frustrated in the past by designers who quote or wink at surrealism when what’s needed is something approaching the real thing. Not every aspect of Galloway’s design was as dreamy as it might have been, but the microbudget masterpiece engaged imaginations, enabling the kind of stage magic money can’t buy.
[pullquote-1] That said, bigger, better-funded companies still have advantages in design categories and I suspect the judges may prefer Jack Yates’ outstanding work on The Drowsy Chaperone or the ordinary otherworldliness of Tim McMath’s design for Fun Home at Playhouse on the Square.
But what about the eye-candy that was An Act of God (also Yates)? What about 12 Angry Jurors, an environment so real yet another confounded patron tried to use the onstage bathroom (also Yates)? If it sounds like I’m arguing for more Jack Yates nominations, maybe I am. But I’m also making a case that there’s been some good design this season, and given a different set of sensibilities, this category might have swung another direction entirely. There might have been nods for the elegant emptiness of Bryce Cutler’s Once, at Playhouse on the Square, or the grubby, unfussy realism of Phillip Hughen’s design for The Flick at Circuit Playhouse. I look forward to seeing how this category evolves as New Moon continues to mature, and smaller Memphis’ companies leverage thoughtfulness against more tangible resources.
Falsettos.
It’s wrong that Mandy Heath wasn’t nominated for lighting Falsettos but I can live with the slight as long as she wins the prize for Eurydice. That’s really all I have to say about that.
Once is a stunt musical — and what a terrific stunt! It’s part concert, part narrative drama, with the actors doubling down as their own orchestra. The three-chord score’s not Sondheim but casting players who are also, well… players isn’t easy. And pulling off a piece musical theater where the songs feel more like barroom romps than show tunes, requires a different kind of sophistication. I suspect the thrice-nominated Nathan McHenry will take this prize. He should take it for Once.
Who got robbed? Maybe nobody this year.
For excellence in sound design there are a few nominees, but really only one choice. Joe Johnson’s dreamy original score for Eurydice didn’t enhance the designed environment. It completed it.
I was happy to see choreographers Ellen Inghram and Jared Johnson nominated for the wit and wisdom permeating their work on Falsettos. It would be nice to see them win over the flashier entries in this category. No robberies here.
When it comes to the non-musicals, best female lead and supporting roles are almost always the toughest category to call because year after year they are overstuffed with contenders. While Kim Sanders was her usual perfect self in both A Perfect ArrangementandLaughter on the 23rd Floor, the double nomination in the supporting category may not double her odds against commanding, emotionally wrenching turns by Jessica “Jai” Johnson inRuined and Erin Shelton in All Saints in the Old Colony. Kell Christie was the best Emelia I’ve ever seen and a perfect match for John Maness’ woman-hating Iago in New Moon’s Othello.Any other year Christie would be my #1 pick. She’s a longshot compared to Shelton and Johnson and I’m hard pressed to say who’s more deserving of the honor.
Opera 901 Showcase
Who got robbed? Although FEMMEemphis’ productions aren’t under consideration, basically the entire cast of Collective Rage. Quark’s similarly out of the running but in the young company’s very adult production of The Nether, young Molly McFarland stood shoulder to shoulder with grownup co-stars and delivered a brave, polished performance. As the youngest of the Weston daughters in Theatre Memphis’ tepid August: Osage County, Emily F. Chateau was damn near perfect — as fragile as Laura Wingfield’s glass unicorn and as likely to cut you if broken. ROBBED AS HELL!
Anne Marie Caskey does consistently professional work but she seemed miscast in Theatre Memphis’ not altogether successful production of August: Osage County. Ostrander loves Caskey (as do I) and her inclusion here might seem less bewildering if not for the absence of Michelle Miklosey’s pitch perfect Eurydice Tracy Hansom’s good old fashioned curtain chew inStage Kiss. Were I one of these two ladies, I’d take The Oblivains strong advice and call the police. Because, ROBBED! OMG ROBBED!
Some of the best female leads this season did their thing just outside Ostrander’s natural reach. Jillian Baron and Julia Baltz were equally badass in FEMMEmphis’ Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief. But let’s be real. All this talk of robbery is purely academic because each of these fantastic performances paled next to to Maya Geri Robinson’s larger-than-life depiction of a Congolese Mother Courage in Ruined at Hattiloo. And Robinson’s performance may have only been the season’s second best. I can’t say with any confidence that I’ve ever seen an actor own a show like Morgan Watson owned Sunset Baby, also at Hattiloo.
Emily F. Chateau. The F stands for F-ing ROBBED!
The list for Best Supporting Actor is strong. It’s so strong I’m picking Bertram Williams for Ruined even though I started this column cheering for John Maness in anything. The list of nominees might also have included nods to Jeff Kirwan for his performances in New Moon’s Buried Child, Eurydice or both. It’s worth noting (yet again) that every performance in All Saints in the Old Colony approached a personal best and Marques Brown was ROBBED!
I don’t know what the theater judges had against Buried Child but James Dale Green’s Dodge is a glaring best actor omission. So is Emmanuel McKinney, who gave a knockout performance as Muhammad Ali in the uneven Fetch Clay, Make Man. Both of these men should post on Nextdoor.com right away to let everybody know they were ROBBED! Once that’s been done, can we please all agree to give this year’s prize to John Maness? And can we go ahead make it for everything he touched this season? I say this with deep appreciation for and apologies to All Saints’ Greg Boller and Jitney’s Lawrence Blackwell who both delivered special, award-worthy performances in a season where the competition happened to be a little stiffer than usual.
I take it from the sheer number of nominations in the category of Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, the Ostrander judges liked Fun Home. Me too. But maybe not enough to give any category a near sweep. Especially when it might be appropriate to co-nominate Fun Home’s small and medium Alison in order to make room for Falsettos’ Jaclyn Suffel and/or Christina Hernandez who were both ROBBED!
Ostranders 2018: Picks, Pans, and ‘Who Got ROBBED?!?!’
A taste of Once‘s pre-show jam. Like I said, Ostrander very clearly likes Fun Home this year with the odd exception of adult Alison, Joy Brooke-Fairfield. So, individual nominations aside, I’m predicting a joint win for the two Alisons. Of course Annie Freres was a force of nature as the title character in The Drowsy Chaperone. All else being equal, she was probably the most outstanding nominee in a field of outstanding nominees.
Best Female Lead in a Musical is a heartbreaker category because everybody nominated is ridiculously talented. Nobody in town has pipes like Dreamgirls’ Breyannah Tillman, who’s also proving to be a formidable actor. But Emily F. Chateau also had an amazing year and may have been better in Falsettos than she was in August: Osage County. Gia Welch is a precocious powerhouse. She was great in Chaperone, but might also have been nominated for work on 42nd Street or Heathers. Meanwhile, Once’s Lizzy Hinton and Shrek’s Lynden Lewis occupy opposite corners of this playing field. The former helped build a complete world out of song and mirrors.The later was almost buried in spectacle but made heart and soul so much more important than green makeup and ogre costumes.
Let me let you in on a secret: Like Lena Younger’s striving son Walter, Patricia Smith was ROBBED! She should have gotten a nod for her work in the musical adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun. I’m gonna talk about Raisin later on in this seemingly endless column, but frankly, that whole cast might want to call a personal injury attorney because they were dealt a disservice up front then ripped off by out appraisers!
Given all of Fun Home’s nominations in other categories, the omission of Joy Brooke-Fairfield feels oddly pointed. Fun Home’s a show that might challenge traditional gender divisions in these kinds of awards and when I didn’t see the older Alison included in this category, I so I double checked the whole list to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. But there was no Joy to be found anywhere, and that sentence is every bit as sad as it sounds. ROBBED!
I’d like to see Joshua Pierce win the Best Supporting Actor in a Musical category for Theatre Memphis’ superlative take on Falsettos. But I missed First Date and Dreamgirls this season and, truth be told, I don’t understand Shrek’s appeal. Too disoriented by this category to make a fair call. That almost never happens. Y’all tell me.
Best Leading Actor in a Musical is yet another heartbreaker category. Shrek’s never going to be my thing, but it’s very clearly Justin Asher’s, and he was a mighty fine ogre, loving every second of big green stage time. Stephen Huff was so at home in Fun Home it’s now almost impossible for me to imagine anybody else in his role. And I kinda feel the same about Jason Spitzer’s near definitive take on The Drowsy Chaperone’s Man in Chair. But I’ve gotta say, having been underwhelmed by his pitchy turn in Heathers, I was most impressed by Conor Finnerty-Esmonde’s take on the hard-luck musician in Once. But when I filter out personal taste in music and storytelling and just let myself focus on the difficulty and potency of the performances represented here, one actor’s work really stands out. Villains are fun to play but nothing’s harder than a complex character who’s hard-to-like but can’t be allowed to become a villain. Cary Vaughn, in his finest of many fine performances, plowed through Falsettos like a steamroller. Still standing. Still applauding this entire cast.
Eurydice — Awfully good looking.
But what about Kortland Whalum? Where is his name? I’ll be the first to admit, Raisin was tragically underproduced. The scenic environment felt unfinished, and in an intimate space like Hattiloo, nothing sucks the soul from musical performances like warm bodies performing to cold tracks. But somehow, in spite of everything the actors had working against them, Raisin’s cast collectively overcame. I can’t blame the Ostrander for not rewarding the production, but when you factor in the odds against, no cast was more ROBBED than this one. I’ll brook zero argument: No actor deserves to this category half as much as Whalum. Folks are welcome to disagree on this point, but folks who do are flat wrong. ROBBED!
If Jamel “JS” Tate doesn’t win Best Featured Performer in a Drama for Jittny I’m personally calling in the FBI. Annie Freres is likely to win Best Featured in a musical for her flashy roll-on as the Dragon in Shrek. Or maybe it will go to Breyannah Tillman, who stuck the landing in her role as The Drowsy Chaperone’s show-stopping aviatrix. But James Dale Green stopped time with nothing but his weatherbeaten tenor, a strummed mandolin, and a compelling story to tell. That sounds like a winner to me. Who got Robbed? Once’s Chris Cotton, that’s who.
I’m totally happy if the Ensemble award goes to All Saints in the Old Colony, Falsettos, Fun Home, Jitney, or A Perfect Arrangement. All are deserving, though Jitney may be just a little bit more deserving than all the rest. But how in the blankety-blankblanblank did Once not make this list? The cast doesn’t just act together, they also make music together — acoustic music. Music largely unaided by electronics and amplification. Music so thoroughly human it connects past and future like a time machine made of skin, bone, wood and string. I’m happy if the award goes to any of the fantastic nominees, but no matter who wins the judges lose on this account. Once was the season’s ultimate ensemble show, and POTS’s ensemble crushed it. The pre-show hoedown was worth the price of admission. BOO!
As long as I’m complaining about the judges, OMG! Why is Tony Isbell nominated for excellence in direction of a drama for Death of a Streetcar Named Virginia Woolf? Don’t misunderstand, I come to praise this year’s lifetime achievement honoree, not to dis him. Isbell absolutely should have been nominated in this category, but for his work on The Nether (not eligible). Or his work on Years to the Day (also not eligible). Or maybe even his work on Stage Kiss (eligible and solid but fuck-you ignored). I’d go so far as to say he got ROBBED! in spite of bing nominated. This insubstantial work is a jarring inclusion next to Dr. Shondrika Moss-Bouldin’s unflinching approach to Ruined and the inventiveness of Jamie Boller’s Eurydice. Not to mention the hyper-detailed character development, and ensemble work Jeff Posson oversaw for All Saints in the Old Colony and the flawless world-building of Steve Broadnax’s Jitney. I’m calling this one for Posson, but it could go in almost any direction.
Best production of a drama? I like Jitney, though I’ve not pegged it as a winner in many other categories. Sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that’s the case here, though the parts were also quite good. Should All Saints in the Old Colony win, it’s every bit as deserving and, being a new script and the underdog here, maybe even more deserving.
I’m betting the darkhorse for excellence in Direction of a Musical and calling this one for Jerry Chipman and Falsettos. Everything else was bigger or flashier or more current in some way or another, even the stripped down Once. But life’s about balance, and Chipman’s production had nary a hair out of place that wasn’t supposed to be out of place.
Ostranders 2018: Picks, Pans, and ‘Who Got ROBBED?!?!’ (2)
Looking at the nominee spread, my gut tells me Fun Home was the judges’ favorite musical this season, and why wouldn’t it be? It was flawlessly cast, and beautifully performed. But this wasn’t the best work I’ve seen from director Dave Landis. I saw the performance with two companions. One wept openly, responding to the story and the characters. The other complained all the way home about the musical’s almost complete lack of action and visual/physical dynamics. I became the most unpopular person in the car when I said I thought they were both 100-percent right to feel the way they felt. Up to this point I’ve been #TeamFalsettos but I’m calling this one for Once. The other shows were great, but they were shows. Once was an event.
“Theaters not actively engaged in creating new material are passively engaged in their own obsolescence.” — Me.
Yeah, I totally quoted myself, but there’s not much I believe more than that. It’s one of the reasons I think the Ostrander Awards for Best Original Script and Best Production of an Original Script, may be more important than nice. In the future, judges might even consider beating the bushes a little on this front, and looking beyond the usual qualifying companies. All Saints in the Old Colony is a fantastic new script. It will win these categories, and it will know productions and awards beyond Memphis. But now would be a good time for all the folks who contributed words and music to Opera Memphis’ all-original 901 Opera Festival to cancel their credit cards because they have been ROBBED! OM might not be under consideration, but if we’re looking for superlatives, I can’t recall a more impressive example of new musical theater in the 901. Not
Tony Isbell in ‘Red’
since OM’s 2014 production of Ghosts of Crosstown heralded the rebirth of a neighborhood.
That may not cover every category, but it’s all I’ve got for now. Who did I forget?
Also, stay tuned for a Q&A with lifetime achievement honoree Tony Isbell.
That seems to be a running theme for The New Moon Theatre Company. The scrappy indie staged a fantastic production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman last season and followed it up this spring with a competent and mostly compelling production of Shakespeare’s King Lear. Both plays revolve around characters that are studies in arrested development, brutal portraits of men who grew old but never wise. Shakespeare’s monarch and Miller’s “low man” have even more in common. Both have a weakness for material things and are easily confused by superficial praise and popularity. The two plays are classic tragedies with tragically modern implications.
The story of Lear in brief: an ancient king of ancient Britain, looking to insure a stable path to succession, announces his retirement and also his intention to divide the kingdom equally among three daughters, Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia, his favorite. Before gifting the lands he asks his daughters to say how much they love him. The elder two shower down praise while Cordelia, who feels much but speaks only according to her needs, says she loves him only as much as a daughter should love her father. Lear misunderstands Cordelia’s modesty and the not altogether subtle criticism of her lying sisters. Furiously and foolishly he disowns the “thankless child.”
As any generous father might Lear assumes he’ll be able to spend his twilight years living with his two loving daughters and their happy families. He asks only for 100 attendent knights. He’s denied everything, and turned out to fend for himself in the wilderness. War begins to rumble through the land.
In Act IV the homeless, ragged, angry Lear encounters Gloucester, a nobleman betrayed by his bastard son, then blinded and banished. Gloucester is lead by his legitimate son Edgar, disguised as poor Tom, the mad beggar who’s even more ragged than the king.
“Through tattered clothes small vices do appear,” Lear says of Poor Tom. “Robes and furred gowns hide all.”
Wisdom arrives too late. In one unassuming line the old blustery King summarizes the moment his life fell apart, offers searing commentary on a sheltered, hypocritical ruling class, and describes, quite clearly, a remarkable modern dilemma. Read any comment thread regarding the Memphis and Shelby County school muddle to and be amazed by the language of blind privilege and pretty ideas used to disguise age-old biases.
New Moon’s stylized modern dress production opens strong and finishes strong but loses some momentum along the way.
Bill Baker, who founded the Our Own Voice Theatre Company and works with Playback Memphis is an animated and elfish Lear. Baker is accustomed to working in a more experimental vein, but it’s always nice to see him tackle something a bit more straightforward. The broad physical work he’s championed over the years serves him well here. The old king’s horse-voiced tantrums are childlike and explosive but the language is always crystal clear.
Director Anita “Jo” Lenhart has assembled a strong supporting cast. Kell Christie and Christina Wellford Scott as Regan and Goneril (both powerhouses, both excellent), the always effective Bennett Wood plays Gloucester, and Greg Boller, who played the titular character in Theatre Memphis’ interesting if weirdly misguided Richard III, does some of his most nuanced work yet as Kent, who believes in Lear and remains loyal even after his banishment.
Lear is, among many things, a play about fools and the various meanings of foolishness. Cordelia (an understated Heather Malone) plays the part at times as does Kent, Edgar (Michael Bolinski), and even Lear himself. But nobody out-fools Lear’s court fool played here by,James Dale Green, a versatile character actor who, as a youngster, played Puck in the celebrated Theatre Memphis production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, staged by Ellis Rabb. Green’s Fool is a sad-faced clown in the spirit of Emmett Kelly, and his delivery couldn’t be simpler or more effective. “I’d rather be anything than a fool,” he says to Lear. “But I would not be you, nuncle.” And there’s no doubt that the little tramp means it.
It’s been 50-years since a theater in Memphis last mounted a full run of King Lear. Why that’s the case is a real head-scratcher, all things considered. The show may be more didactic and less nuanced than Othello or Hamlet but, as George Bernard Shaw once noted, one would be hard pressed to craft a more perfect tragedy. This unassuming, if occasionally shocking production may not be perfect, but it’s often very good, and scarcity makes it absolutely precious. Catch it while you can.
Chase Yarwood-Gustafson 
New Moon 
