Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Running to Places Theater Company (R2P) opens its new season with its first holiday show: A Christmas Carol, December 15 and 16 at the State Theatre of Ithaca. The beloved family favorite comes alive with rollicking dances and music by the composer of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. The play tells the familiar story of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge who, after being visited by a series of ghosts in the night, opens his heart just in time for Christmas morning.

Co-Artistic Director Gail Belokur promises, “We may know Scrooge's story but this particular production is non-stop energy from start to finish, with poignant moments between characters that span many years. It’s a compelling illustration by Scrooge that it is never too late to change and lead a fulfilling life while embracing those around us.”

Lisa BushlowThis year Hangar Theatre's annual benefit returns as a community charades challenge, Acting Out on the Hangar Stage, a light-hearted FUNdraiser in which local personalities go toe to toe with Broadway stars in an epic battle of charades to support the theatre's artistic, education, and community programs. Four teams will compete by acting out entertainment clues for their teammates and also by fundraising for the event, which will take place at the Hangar Theatre on Sunday, December 2 at 6:30pm.

Acting Out team members include: Karl Gregory (Hangar's Ever So Humble and The 39 Steps), Wally Dunn (Hangar's November and Spelling Bee), Sidney Williams (Hangar's Rounding Third), Christianne Tisdale (Hangar's Titanic), Svante Myrick (City of Ithaca Mayor), Jen Mattison (WYXL97.3 Lite Rock Radio Host), Jean McPheeters (Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce President), and Mack Travis  (Real Estate Developer).

SMART TALK

by Dr. Shirley Glibb



WALKIN'S WELCOME: I needed a cut and perm, so on my day off, I went into downtown Underbelly, Texas to the Fluff 'n' Puff Salon. Imagine my distress at seeing a sign in the front window saying Walkin's Welcome.

Mind you, I'd had a rough week at the Center for English as a First Language treating patients who thought Apple's For Sale was acceptable, so I was a little edgy, I have to say.

Now, I love Barbie Johnson, the stylist. She's a great person, not too nosy, really nice to chat with, and she does fine work with hair. So I became one of the day's walkins. I had a pleasant, relaxing time and came out happy with my do. And I said nothing about her prominently displayed faux pax.

But gosh darn it, the hardworking teachers at both Smith Middle School and Wesson High in Underbelly do a great job teaching what a apostrophe does. In general, it indicates possession, as in Barbie's salon, or letters left out, as in I'd for I had. That's about it.

For plurals, simple: Just add an S, as in apples and walkins. No need to make life complicated.

Maybe Barbie, like many, didn't understand that English class could help make her, well, classy.

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SMART TALK

by Dr. Viva Palaver




OPEN UP: At a recent staff meeting in Strunk Hall, we wondered why "up" can appear after so many verbs when the speaker intends no feeling of direction, and sometimes not even a sense of increase. As staff psychologist, I'm working on a paper about this. It's the kind of discussion that interests therapists at the Center for English as a First Language.

We classify fill up, rise up, stack up, and swell up as impairments because each is redundant. Up adds nothing to the meaning of these verbs. It serves only to reinforce the idea of increase already implied in each verb's meaning. Like running the water during tooth brushing, it makes a scintilla of sense, no more.

But open up? Why open up anything? How does up help here? Sign up, wrap up, clean up, and wash up also puzzle us.

A good way to test a redundancy for silliness is to use a modifier or prefix that means the opposite. Thus postarrange demonstrates that prearrange is pretentious and ignorant. So try adding the antonym to up, and notice how dumb open down sounds. Therefore, open up has no usefulness. Why do cops, gangsters, and millions of citizens engaged in calmer pursuits think it does? Or are they thinking?

Please don't shut up. If any readers have theories about the origin or reason for the superfluous use of up, please write to the Center, care of this publication. I'll add your theory to my paper, and unlike many academic writers, will give you credit.

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Audience favorite Margaret Wakeley returns to the Hangar stage on November 10 at 8pm with an all new cabaret show, Perfect Relationships and Other Romantic Fantasies. Hear Margaret explore ideas of romance from first love to what happens when reality meets happily ever after with select works by Stephen Sondheim, Cole Porter, Ann Hampton Callaway, and more. Audiences can come early and enjoy an art opening in the Hangar lobby featuring the photography of Rachel Philipson at 7pm.

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SMART TALK

by Dr. Shirley Glibb




PREVENTATIVE: Here at the Institute for English as a First Language, we've noticed that this verbal malady is so widespread and commonly used that many think it's OK to use. No. Actually, it's a strong symptom of polysyllabificationitis, brilliantly named by our own Dr. Weiss N. Heimer way back in 1990.

This sad compulsion to add syllables to perfectly adequate words, turning preventive into preventative, often starts with this gateway word and leads to Ecuadorean instead of Ecuadoran and even preprepare in place of prepare.

What's next, spectatator? Or might some extremely poor English speaker commit preventatative? Adding two syllables to a three syllable word, or even adding one, shows that that person needs treatment.

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Aurora, New York— The Wells College Arts and Lecture Series announced a performance of “The Taming of the Shrew” by the Aquila Theatre Company. The show will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 13 in Phipps Auditorium of Macmillan Hall on the Wells College campus. The performance is free.

Set in the idyllic town of Padua, “The Taming of the Shrew” is Shakespeare’s take on the timeless battle of the sexes. Bianca Minola, the beautiful daughter of a lord, is eligible for marriage but cannot be courted until her elder sister, Katherina, finds a husband. Katherina’s quick temper and acerbic wit, however, frighten off every potential suitor. Feeling that they are running out of options, two suitors hire a newcomer named Petruchio to seduce and “tame” Katherina. After their exchanges of wisecracks and double entendres, Petruchio succeeds in dragging Katharina to the altar then away to his country home. Once there, the taming process begins, with both sides unwilling to yield.

Hangar Theatre's third annual fall CabarETC  season  continues with Imagine My Surprise featuring actor and vocalist Erica Steinhagen  in a special one-night-only performance on October 27th at 8pm. Hear her musings on the great unexpected journey of life through the songs of Stephen Sondheim, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Carol King, and Tori Amos, and more.

Offering her debut cabaret performance at the Hangar, Erica reminisces: "It's amazing how things never quite turn out the way you expect. You sit and listen to records as a kid, and you think, 'THIS. This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to play THIS part. I'm going to sing THESE songs.' And then. Life happens. Amazing." If life is a cabaret, then love is a mixed tape.