Geva Theatre Center Ribboncutting

Geva’s Capital Campaign has exceeded its initial goal (although there are still opportunities to name a seat), and this summer the theatre shut down for a complete overhaul of the public spaces. The theatre was re-dedicated Friday morning, and a decent crowd gathered outside on our first crisp autumn day for the ceremony. A traditional religious invocation started the proceedings (of course, in my head, I was singing, "Gods of the theatre, smile on us..." from Sondheim's The Frogs). It was great to see so many people from the community there to support the theatre, as well as some of the former Geva staff who were so instrumental in getting us to this point (including former Executive Director Tom Parrish).

The new seats in the Wilson Theatre are very comfortable and whisper quiet. But the real transformation is in the lobby and bar, and the addition of a patron lounge in a previously inaccessible space above the entrance and restrooms.

I wish I had taken ‘before’ photos for comparison, because it really is almost like a brand new building. The bar has been relocated (and enlarged) to a more prominent spot along the outer wall, and the theatre now has a real kitchen! Geva worked with Dan Eaton, of TWC “Cooking at Home” fame, to design a menu that is a combination of hot and cold entrees, focusing on local produce, that will make dining there before a show a pleasure. The underutilized gift shop has been replaced with additional seating, which will be in demand with the upgraded food choices.

There is a brand new mezzanine level, overlooking the remodeled foyer and box office. The elevator stops at that level, and there is also a new staircase. Both will allow secondary access to the balcony, which was previously only accessible by stairs through the main entrance to the theatre (which not only created a bottleneck after a show, but also rendered the balcony handicap inaccessible). The balcony access is even more remarkable given that the construction company found a steel beam in the way that had to be dealt with!

A beautiful abstract sculpture, created by RIT graduate student Julia Manson, graces the entryway, directly across from a bank of flat screen TVs that will be used to showcase various Geva events. The lobby is definitely going to buzzing with activity, especially since the bar will remain open during show, as well as after. I can’t wait for the season to kick off – not just because the first show is … Sondheim! (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) – but because the new spaces will be so welcoming and audience-friendly.

For more information on the upcoming season, visit gevatheatre.org

For more about the sculpture, visit: http://www.gevatheatre.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Julia-Manson-Lobby-Sculpture.pdf

Chimney Bluffs

Rarely does Charlie actually congratulate me on my selection of activities for entertaining out of town guests. But on the way home from Chimney Bluffs, I think he said “nice choice” at least three times!

We made a slight detour to the Pultneyville Deli for sandwiches on the way to Chimney Bluffs State Park, just east of Sodus Bay. Although our car’s GPS told us to keep going, we parked in the first lot we came to (that was almost filled to capacity), which put us at the western end of the Bluff Trail. We were lulled into a false sense of security with a wide, paved path, which fairly quickly turned to a narrow earthen path that climbed high above the rocky beach. 

Our friends Theresa and Ryan, visiting from the city, were as awed as we were, although Theresa’s awe was tempered by her fear of heights. Luckily, in many places there are two parallel paths – one that takes you right to the edge (we could hear another visitor caution someone that every year people die falling over – we weren’t sure if that was just to scare a child into behaving!), and another that stays a bit inland, protected from the edge by the trees. But near the edge is where you have to be for the best view of these majestic “chimneys” of earth.

According to the brochure, Chimney Bluffs are the tip of a drumlin – a hill “made of ‘glacial till,’ a mixture of sand, clay, silt, gravel, cobbles and boulder that were scraped, pulverized, pasted, smeared and dumped on the land beneath the passing mountain of ice.” The bluffs have eroded and continue to erode, in some places 3-5 feet annually.

Once we reached the beach at the eastern end of the Bluffs trail, we sat on a fallen tree to eat our picnic lunch and admire the beautiful colors of the rocky coastline. We returned to our car along the beach, frequently stopping to crane our necks up. Many times the chimneys looked almost two-dimensional against the cloudless blue sky, as if they could easily break off with just a little tap. 

We occasionally had to climb around or over large trunks, the result of the slow march the trees are doing over the fragile precipice.

I have to thank my friend Sue for recommending this amazing park. This is definitely a return-worthy destination, especially in the fall, for the colors, and again in the spring, for spotting migrating birds.

Assassins at Blackfriars Theatre

The first time I saw Assassins, a dark musical by Stephen Sondheim, was when I dragged Charlie to a small production above some bar in London, 16 years ago. The second time was a Broadway revival 12 years ago, with my friend Theresa. So the stars aligned that Theresa (and another friend, Ryan) would be visiting from the city when Blackfriars was presenting their production, and they could both see it together with me! (There is almost no Sondheim show that I would miss seeing again and again if I had the opportunity…)

Blackfriars is an intimate theatre on Main Street, and I’d only been there once before, to see a nice production of Grey Gardens, when I first moved to Rochester. They have since updated the theatre, and our audience was only the second to sit in the comfortable, brand new seats. A bonus is the free parking lot. I chatted briefly with Mary Tiballi Hoffman, Development Manager, who informed me that our performance was completely sold out!

This creative production is set in a carnival, which begins as you approach the theatre, where you can pose as a bearded lady for a photo to post to twitter. Once inside, you are invited to come on stage and try your hand at various carnival games. Charlie tried his hand at knocking down the bottles, but his strategy didn’t work well, so no prize for him.

I’m usually not a fan of the recent phenomenon of the actors doubling as the orchestra; it normally ends in a compromise of one talent (singing/acting) or another (playing an instrument). In this case, the fact that the horns and woodwinds weren’t always spot on felt in keeping with the carnival atmosphere. But I was impressed with the talented musical director, Andy Pratt, who not only played the (sometimes rolling) piano beautifully and occasionally conducted, but also had a wonderful voice as The Proprietor. Matt Wegman (who reminded me of Neil Patrick Harris) was excellent in the Ensemble and at the piano, and I was rooting for him to draw the straw that decided who would play Lee Harvey Oswald that night (three different Ensemble actors share that role, and the night we saw it one of the women won the honor). Other standouts were Abby Adair Reinhard, owner/president of GP Flooring Solutions by day, as Squeaky Fromme, and John Winter, as Leon Czolgosz.

The musical definitely resonates in today’s political environment. It runs through September 24, and tickets are still available. For more information, visit their website:

http://www.blackfriars.org

Ganondagan State Historic Site

The Visitors' Center

My friend Theresa is visiting from the city, and suggested we do things over the weekend that I hadn’t done before. So I went through my to-do list, and offered her the Ganondagan State Historic Site, in Victor, where a large Seneca village once stood. It currently consists of a visitors’ center, a reconstructed Long House, and various trails over 200 acres. So what were the odds that, at the start of the Labor Day weekend, we would choose the only day they were spraying herbicides to eradicate swallowwort, and the Long House and all of the trails would be closed? And could they have told us that before we bought our tickets?

The first thing we did was peek in the little gift shop, and decided we’d buy some native hulled white corn on our way out. The clerk quickly informed us that Washington had burned all of the corn in a war against the Seneca. As we were headed to the exhibits, a staff member finally informed us about the closures, and explained what there was to see in the building, oddly starting with an auditorium that could be rented for special occasions, a classroom that was currently in use, and finally the “15 exhibits.” She also threw in that Washington had burned all of the corn. As Theresa and I entered the exhibit space (one large room with, perhaps, 15 different sections), we remarked that we never knew this evil side of our first President!

Ganondagan Man
17th c. comb fragment

a model of a Long House

We seemed to be the only visitors that afternoon, so we had the gallery and the docent’s attention all to ourselves. There were some interesting artifacts, and several exhibits on lacrosse, which I learned had evolved from a game originally played by the Iroquois. There was a long explanation of how the Iroquois Nationals were denied access to a 2010 competition in Britain, which didn’t recognize their Six Nations sovereign passport. And we watched a short film of a woman telling of the 1687 war against the French, as part of the Beaver Wars, and how the French burned all of the stored and standing corn. Which led Theresa and me to wonder why, if Washington wasn’t the perpetrator (and in fact, wasn’t born till 45 years after this war), the staff were promulgating that misinformation (we should have challenged them, but didn’t bother).

I bought some corn on my way out, and we drove down the road to Fort Hill, the only trail open for the day (I guess it was high enough that the winds spreading the herbicide wouldn’t reach there). We had a nice little hike up and back down the hill, and encountered only two other people on the trail.

I'd like to return to hike the trails, and it might be fun to go on one of the days when there’s an event hosted by the Friends of Ganondagan, and ask them again who burned the corn…