Three Stage Shows and a Funeral

Well, that was silly.  I just wrote an entire entry sparked by a photo on Facebook and when I went to google something in the entry, discovered that I wrote almost exactly the same entry a little over a year ago and when you google the subject, you get my entry. 

So it's back to the drawing board with the entry I started out to write before I got distracted by the photo on Facebook!

What I started to say before I so rudely interrupted myself was that it's been a busy weekend.  I normally don't like 3-show weekends because it seems that you don't get a weekend at all (despite the fact that when you are retired, every day is a weekend day!).  But the first show was on Thursday, the second on Friday and the third on Saturday, so I had today all day free, if you don't consider having to write three reviews as being "free."  I didn't have to put on shoes, comb my hair and go out, though.

The first show was the Federico Garcia-Lorca play at the University.   Yes, I did stay awake.  That's one of those reviews where you have to sound somewhat literate, and I haven't quite finished it yet, though it's almost finished.

Then there was Fred's funeral, which involved a drive to the Bay Area and back.

That was followed by Leading Ladies at the Winters Community Theatre, which maybe my favorite community theater just because they are so darn earnest and such lovely people.  This show was fun for all sorts of reasons.  They had a good cast and it was a funny show.  But I also sat with Debra LoGuercio DeAngelo, the editor of the Winters Gazette, the Winters equivalent of The Davis Enterprise, for which I work.  The two papers work together and, in fact, Deb and I sub for each other when one or the other of us is unable to review a show.

We had been joking on Facebook about her bringing a flask of vodka so we wouldn't have to drink the champagne they serve on opening nights...and she did!   Grey Goose mandarin orange flavored vodka, which was definitely better than the Cooks Champagne and maybe part of why we both liked the show so much!

Saturday it was off to Woodland to review South Pacific.   The best of the 3 shows, by far, but you know, those old Rodgers and Hammerstein classics can be so dated.  The theme of racial prejudice which dominates this show is something one would hope we have resolved, though we have substituted other prejudices for the shock and horror of discovering someone had been previously married to a Polynesian woman, who died.

Dated or not, one of the songs still rings true in this day and age.

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

We are still passing prejudices down to our children, which is why President Obama has been so hated by some since he was elected, why there is a middle east crisis, why Jews are so hated by so many, why gays are bullied and killed, and why there is no simplistic solution to the problems.  All those kids are still being "carefully taught" by their parents and, in turn, they will teach their own children.  It's very depressing.