RPO Around the Town

The RPO on stage and RocMusic in the pit

This week brought the RPO to three different venues around Rochester – the David F. Gantt Center on Tuesday, Franklin High School on Wednesday, and the Edgerton Center on Thursday – all for free. My friend Kitty and I attended the Franklin High performance, and were delighted and disappointed. Delighted, because the RPO played as beautifully as they do for a concert at Kodak Hall. And because they played some interesting pieces that would never make it onto a program at Kodak Hall. And because they partnered with the RocMusic students on several songs, and it was heartwarming to see and hear them play (RocMusic is a collaborative program to bring stringed-instrument instruction to Rochester city children, directed by Alexander Peña). But it was disappointing, because the large auditorium was sparsely filled, and we suspected that many in the audience were connected with RocMusic, rather than from the immediate surrounding community.

 Alexander Peña introducing the RocMusic students   

It’s too bad, because the music selections were very accessible, with a theme of Dances Around the World. Guest Conductor Boon Hua Lien did a wonderful job of explaining each piece, from the formality of Tchaikovsky’s “Polonaise” from Eugene Onegin, to the Spanish rhythms and use of the tambourine in the selections from Bizet’s Carmen. Even without his introduction to Dance of the Yao People, a lovely piece by Liu Tieshan and Mao Yuan, you couldn’t help but picture a rural Chinese scene.

There were about 30 RocMusic students who assembled in the pit to accompany the RPO on a number of songs, and it was a joy to watch them, the intensity on their faces, many of them proudly wearing their RocMusic tuxedo t-shirts. The final piece was pure fun – an arrangement of Gahu Songs by Bill Cahn, a former principal percussionist with the RPO. RocMusic, originally focused on teaching students stringed instruments, has recently expanded to include percussion and drumming, and they really excelled at the rhythms, especially one young girl who played with gusto and attitude, almost dancing in her seat along with the beat.

Kitty commented that it’d be nice to have a crystal ball to see what these kids are doing 25 years from now. We can only hope that programs like RocMusic succeed in broadening their horizons and giving them a sense of discipline, teamwork, and accomplishment that will help ground them, enable them to graduate high school, and to go on to long, productive lives.

Geva’s Regional Writers Showcase

This was my first time attending Geva’s Regional Writers Showcase, an annual collaboration between Geva Theatre and Writers & Books. They invite writers from a 6-county area to submit plays of any length, and select a lucky few to present on two nights of readings. The purpose of the program, according to Jean Gordon Ryon (Geva’s New Plays Coordinator, and the facilitator of the evening), is to provide support, insight, and development to the writers, and to give them a chance to hear reactions to their work from a live audience. I tend to think of a play as a gift from the playwright, but Jean actually remarked that for the Showcase, the audience is giving “a great gift to the playwrights by being here,” and through “the quality of our listening and attention.” It was an evening not just for the audience’s enjoyment – we had a role to play, as well, as there would be post-performance conversations between us and the playwrights.

I happened to sit next to the director of the first play: Phone Call, by Phyllis Peters. Lara Rhyner gave me a bit more insight into the program, and said her cast (Gus Cuddy, the Executive Director’s son, who recently appeared in A Moon for the Misbegotten) had only had about two hours of rehearsal for the 10-minute play. Gus’ portrayal of a son talking to his dad (who turns out to be the devil – you had to be there…) on the phone didn’t betray any lack of preparation. At play’s end, Jean and Phyllis took the stage, and Phyllis thanked Geva for this platform for unknown writers. The audience was very engaged and happy to share their opinions and reactions (ok, yes, I jumped in as well). Phyllis nodded a lot as audience members spoke, even when they said things that seemed a bit off the mark.

The second play was a longer one-act: Fielder’s Choice, by David Andreatta. That had been the hook for me – I look forward to his incisive columns in the D&C, and I knew if his play was as smart and funny as his reporting, we’d be in for a treat. His play, coincidentally, was also about a father-son relationship, and I agreed wholeheartedly with two other audience members who commented at the end: “don’t change a thing.” David had been concerned about the authenticity of the dialog, but he needn’t have been. He told us it had been helpful to see our reactions as the play unfolded, and he also nodded as the audience shared their opinions, thanking them for the helpfulness of their comments.

Both authors deserve a lot of credit for their courage and grace in sharing their new plays with us, as I imagine they must have felt a bit vulnerable up on stage receiving feedback, even though we were a very friendly crowd. It’s not too late to get (free) tickets for the second reading next Monday: https://tickets.gevatheatre.org/TheatreManager/1/login&event=0

Roycroft in East Aurora

“Phone rings, door chimes, in comes Company!” And thank goodness, because company is what motivates me to widen my “things-to-do” radius. NYC friend Mary Beth visited last weekend, and we had the perfect weather for a road trip to East Aurora.

As a selling point for moving to Rochester, my husband comforted me with the promise that distances would feel shorter. No longer would a 40-mile drive take 1 to 2 hours (which it could, to get into the city); he assured me if it was 60 miles to somewhere it was generally 60 minutes (depending on the weather…). The roughly 80-mile trip to the Roycroft Campus took a bit longer than 80 minutes, because we took a slightly off-Thruway scenic route, through the roller-coaster hills of Genesee and Wyoming counties, and past the roller coasters of Darien Lake. And we had to stop to take a picture of a wacky house near the theme park!

We arrived in East Aurora in time to get an orientation from the Visitor Center before having a wonderful lunch at the Roycroft Inn (highlight: the truffle potato chips with smoked Gorgonzola). 

Everyone was extremely friendly, and the front desk even accommodated our request to see a room – they gave us the key to #201, a very comfortable 3-room suite that I could easily imagine booking (and using as an excuse to have both dinner and breakfast in the restaurant). The rooms are decorated with historically accurate effect – wooden blinds, Stickley furniture, period lamps and wall sconces, and wallpaper in the style of William Morris. The large reception hall is ringed with stunning, recently-restored murals, by Alexis Jean Fournier.

Murals in the Roycroft Inn

The campus itself isn’t much to visit, although it was interesting to learn about. It was founded by Elbert Hubbard (a disciple of William Morris), in 1895, modeled on England’s guilds (printers, metal smiths, furniture makers and other artisans). “With the establishment of the Roycroft community, Hubbard had fulfilled one of the dreams of the Arts & Crafts philosophers: a self-contained and self-supporting community of people living, working, and playing together.” Sadly, Hubbard died prematurely in the sinking of the Lusitania. Some of the buildings currently house offices and artists’ studios, but what we mostly witnessed were shops. I’m not a huge fan of the Arts & Crafts style, but I did managed to find a hand-made hanging metal and glass piece that will look pretty in a window, and Mary Beth took home some lovely pottery, and some prints by Laura Wilder.

Room 201 at the Roycroft Inn

We had hoped to wrap in a visit to the Elbert Hubbard Roycroft Museum and the Millard Fillmore House, but both are open only in summer. Oh well, that’ll be a reason for a return visit (and more potato chips?).

Political Rally - John Kasich

I have never lived in a city where a candidate for President held a rally, so I was curious to go to one. I would have liked to go to Clinton’s, but I was busy Friday night. I had a ticket to Trump’s rally at 3pm on Sunday, and was all set to go, until I saw on the noon news that there were already thousands of people lined up in the cold and wind to see him. No tickets were required for Sanders, but his Tuesday-morning event had an even greater early turnout, and parking and traffic were a mess. So I was stuck with just seeing Kasich, the candidate least likely to be nominated.

waiting to enter the center

The rally was held in the Greece Community Center, and it was standing room only. But not because all of the seats were taken – there were no seats! I arrived at 10:20 for the 11am event, and had a prime spot on the balcony of the basketball court where it was taking place. I noticed the lack of racial diversity, although all ages were represented, and thought Greece was perhaps a poor venue again, but then again, it is prime Republican territory. I estimated there were one to two thousand people there in total (a police officer I asked estimated 3000). It didn’t appear that anyone was doing a real headcount.

The crowd was patient and respectful, and Kasich finally appeared at 11:30, promising “to bring America back together again,” and “make America safer” (I don’t think he was talking about gun control…). He spoke at great length about his background, and his audacity as a college student, securing a meeting with President Nixon. He appealed to the audience not to “close the door to immigrants,” although he proposes a path to legalization, not citizenship. He invoked religion quite a bit. He called his audience “God-fearing, common sense” people, who were “made special for a purpose… a God-given purpose.” He, himself, “got a call to run for governor – it (was) a beautiful thing.” And his policies are “what the Lord wants.” At one point he started singling out people near him, calling them “special” and unique, and broadening this to say that all people are special (is that like everyone in Lake Wobegon being above average?).

Like the other candidates, his platform contains broad measures that a President with or without a divided Congress has little chance of enacting: “common sense” regulation (he didn’t suggest which regulations he would unwind, but he did use that term, and I could just feel the target on the back of the EPA), lowering taxes on businesses to keep them in the US, making the tax code simpler, transferring power back to the states, and increasing defense spending (this got the most applause and in this era of fear, is actually quite likely).

there were seats in the overflow room, where
Kasich could be heard, but not seen.

By 12:30, well into the Q&A, my legs were killing me from standing so long, so I relinquished my spot to the young man behind me, and bolted for the parking lot. It was definitely an interesting experience, but not one that I’d be in a rush to repeat, without taking a folding chair with me…