The Nutcracker, a play

Went to a brilliant ballet performance of the Nutcracker. 49 adult ballerinos, a host of children, and phenomenal sets including a massive Xmas tree that grew out of the floor. Just wow!

Of course the ballet starts out with a young girl and her nutcracker doll, who becomes animated and the fanciful story begins. I don't know how such a tiny, well-muscled human could hold some of the stances this "nutcracker" held, but he was truly an artist at body control!

A half hour before the show, an elegantly clad ensemble in gold brocade with white decorative ropes and tall black plush caps played Christmas music in the foyer and guests mixed and mingled, made food and drink purchases, and browsed the many nutcracker dolls to buy as mementos of the play.

The Nightmare before Christmas, a play

The basic story of The Nightmare before Christmas is there once was a halloween character who had heard of Christmas and other holidays, and he wanted to be as popular as the much loved Santa Claus. This was all in the distant and raucous time in the past when people had heard of various holidays but couldn't really distinguish between them or between the characters that played a prominent part during them. So, Mr. Halloween (for lack of a known name) came up with a grand plan to kidnap Santa Claus and then he himself would deliver presents to all the little kids and make them feel joy.

All of Mr. Halloween's friends celebrated such a lively and lovely idea! And they all wanted to play a part in helping Mr. Halloween steal Christmas and make Christmas more to Mr. Halloween's tastes. And let's just say that many of Mr. Halloween's friends were macabre, conniving, and deceitful ... They were not evil per se but they were definitely joyous in their somewhat unsavory ways.

But even in Halloween land, there is love ... and Miss Orange-hair, quiet and shy and demure, really loved Mr. Halloween and would happily do anything for him ... as long as it wasn't too dishonest.

The three most unethical characters were causing problems to Mr. Halloween's plans, such nasty characters that would deceived even each other. So Mr. Halloween decided to recruit their wicked selves and employ their energy in kidnapping Santa Claus. Oh, the wicked unethical trio were delighted ... and came up with some rather unsavory methods for the kidnapping.

Unfortunately, as holiday characters at that time didn't really know each other and therefore were confused about which holiday characters were important on which days, the unsavory trio kidnapped not Santa Claus ... but the Easter Bunny!

This of course was unacceptable to Mr. Halloween and he ordered them to take the Easter Bunny back and release him. They were given a second chance though of kidnapping Santa, who would be easy to spot as he would be wearing a big red suit to cover his big fat belly. The unsavory trio departed ...

Once Santa Claus was properly captured and trussed up like a sack of beans, Mr. Halloween donned Santa Claus's suit and ...

his Halloween minions danced raucously with joy and celebration at the turn of events and what they were sure was to be Mr. Halloween's success at being Santa Claus.

Unfortunately, Mr. Halloween was not so successful. He had trouble flying his sleigh, which was pulled by a little squirrelly dog with a glowing nose. He had trouble with chimneys. And worst of all, he had trouble with the children ... HE TERRIFIED THEM with his unpleasant halloween aspect covered by the sheep's clothing, the Santa Claus suit.

He regretfully decided that he had made a mistake, that his great efforts weren't panning out well.

The play closed with a triumphant ending. Mr. Halloween realized that he could only be appreciated on Halloween, and Santa Claus was too much loved at Christmas for there ever to be a substitute. And through this whole fiasco of kidnapping and concealment, the holiday characters got to know one another ... and respect one another ... and so from that time on, the holiday characters realized that on certain days they would be most visible and loved, but on other holidays it was the turn for other holiday characters to be loved and appreciated.

And like many a good tale, The Nightmare before Christmas had another happy ending. Mr. Halloween realized that he loved Miss Orange-hair like she loved him, and they are living a happy ever ending even now.

And so the Halloween characters celebrated both happy endings with wild, untrained, liberating dancing! And their dancing was not limited to the stage ... but wildly through the whole auditorium, up and down the aisles, and even grabbing audience members to rejoice with them in their grand discovery of many holiday characters who would be celebrated on the many different holidays.

RAS Concert: Painted Notes

"Painted Notes" is a musical series in progress. It is being composed by Michael Sydney Tipson (손마익). Two pieces of the series were played: Glow for 18-string gayageum, violin and janggu (2012) and Color for 18-string gayageum, violin, guitar and djembe. The series are works based on the paintings of Kim Suntae, 김선태 작가. The paintings are of hazy colors and images overshadowed by glaring light, and the unclear image is represented musically by distant sounds that gradually feel closer. 

Players for this performance were:

Mi Young Kim (violin; not pictured) - Born in Seoul, and recipient of the Prix de virtuosite, the highest degree at the Conservatoire de Musique de Geneve where she studied. She also holds a "Soloist Diploma" from the Bern Conservatory.

Jung Yeol Kim (guitar) - Holder of the diplom K.A. from Hochschule fur Musik Koln in Germany and is fascinated with the interpretation of Baroque music as played with the 8-stringed guitar, which has an extended bass range.

Jocelyn Clark (gayageum) - Born in Juneau, Alaska, she began studying koto at age 18. 1990-1 studied zheng at Nanjing Academin of Arts in China, and also in New York. 1992-4 focused on gayageum performance at National Gugak Center in Seoul. Holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University where she wrote on the relationship of literature on orality, focusing on the use of primarily Tang poetry in the lyrics of pansori. 1999-2009 founded and directed the new music festival CrossSound in Alaska. Currently works as a professor of East Asian Studies at Pai Chai University in Daejeon where her most recent writing is focused on culture loss, race and class, and national identity/branding.

Race, a play

David Mamet, play writer, is a master at unsettling his audience, and in his play Race, he introduces several contentious characters who expound deep but very controversial issues, satirizing society with their pointed ideas on race and gender but how those ideas change or deepen into extreme conflict as tensions become abrasively verbalized when taking a crime to trial.

The basic plot is two lawyers, one white and one black and both in their mid-40s, are debating accepting a case in which another man, a wealthy white in his mid-40s, is accused of raping a young black woman. The two lawyers start out arguing the point in defending a man who is almost assuredly guilty, so they wonder how they can win, because the arrogant wealthy accused just as much as said he had committed the crime. The problem was how to win the case as they had a good record of winning, and that was a heavy marketing strategy for them. Besides, they get more kickbacks when they win. But how to win when the accused is not really the one on trial, but the issue of race itself will be on trial.

The two lawyers then set about with a plan to enact in the courtroom: Susan, their young assistant lawyer newly hired, in her 20s and also black, was to wear a red sequined dress like the young woman who says she was raped. Susan was to be thrown on the floor, the sequins would of course scatter, and then the jury would clearly visual what the wealthy white man did to cause the sequins to be thrown all over the room where the crime was to have been done. Of course the two lawyers would be defending him but their reputation would remain intact when they lost as race was on trial more than the wealthy man. Politics. Sexual politics.

Susan, the young black lawyer, wasn't going for it. She did some secret sleuthing on her own to expose the white man, as, since race is on trial and she was practically being volunteered to play an active role in the reenactive of rape, and her body like many black women in history was to be a tool, she found condemning evidence and quietly tipped off authorities to the incriminating evidence. Her seniors in the office, the other two lawyers, were livid and in anger raged against each other about why she, a black had been hired, and other racial slurs thrown around.

Throughout the play, racial slurs were made. The accused white man didn't even realize that many of the statements he made on postcards were racially condemning as he regarded them as just good fun and laughs with his white cronies. The black lawyer had ordered a background check on Susan before she was hired as he said young black female lawyers (himself being black also so he would know) might have issues. The white lawyer was the one who wanted Susan to wear the red sequined dress in the courtroom and have a rape scene reenactment. Susan didn't say much, but her presence and her subtle workings behind the scene brought race issues to the surface that both the older white and black lawyers did not want in the trial.