The link above is the interview that followed the show. Click on the triangle (the symbol for play) to begin. It’s a heavy subject and the actors appeared to be physically taxed, and I don’t blame them. Hats off to the cast and crew!
You can buy tix by calling the number on the flyer above. Performances are at the Hoover Theatre on Park Avenue in San Jose. Check out the flyer above to get specific info.
It is a moving story based on true events. The story revolves around Blessed Miguel Pro, S.J., during the 1920’s in Mexico during a “revolutionary” period. During this time the government tried to entirely wipe out religious faith and worship. Punishment usually ended in death. The idea behind this “revolution” was that religion was holding back the progress of the society with it’s antiquated beliefs and rules. Father Pro, against advise and numerous requests felt it was his duty to carry out worship without fear of the risk he was taking. He used disguises to get things to people who needed it or to those that needed to confess. It truly pays homage to the old adage “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Thank you to Marie Ballentine for the invite to see the show and talk to the cast after the show on Saturday night.
What I love about this company is that they always look for the stories that haven’t been told about real people doing heroic deeds. The focus is Catholic based, but I love hearing stories of people helping others no matter what the background is. With stand out performances by Alicia Barela, Chris Carter, and Shane Cota, this show is inspiring and informative.
The dialogue of the script is a little choppy in places and there are a couple directorial choices that are clunky, but it is a great story.
Firstly, a MASSIVE thank you to Allworth Press for allowing me the opportunity to review this book. I really appreciate the opportunity. I am really excited because I have been in 4 Barnes and Noble and have yet to see this book on their shelves! Released in May of 2012, do not let the title fool you. Any performer can find the words of wisdom in this paperback useful!.
Secondly, THANK YOU to Mande Dagenais for writing this book!
Starting Your Career as a Dancer is written by award winning author Mande Dagenais, who has worked as a dancer and choreographer all over the world. Along with several interviews with many people in the industry, Mande draws from her experiences to deliver an informative, well written and important guide to everyone who wants to pursue a lifetime of performing.
I love this book. With 18 chapters ranging from goal-setting to attitude adjustments to injury recognition and prevention to career transitions, this book is filled with so much great information. I started reading and couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t only the informative sections that were great. What made me want to keep reading, even through the parts you often see in other career guide books, is her personal experiences. I love to hear other performers’ stories and the writing is so casual and it reads as though we are having a conversation. It just draws you in.
As a performer, one must never stop learning. Learning from corrections, learning from other people’s mistakes or corrections, and learning from other people’s experiences. This book is a whole lot of learning. Right from the get go, you can tell that Ms. Dagenais truly does have a love and passion for her chosen career. Her desire to share her knowledge and experience permeates throughout the book.
Now there are some books that talk about most facets of the business, but Mande breaks it down. Not just breaks it down, but she breaks it down!!
She brings up some really great points that I’ve never even considered, like a choreographer has copyright protection on their works unless the rights are given to someone else. She specifies a number of things that could or should be on your contract. She talks about the mental, physical, and nutritional needs and how they all tie into each other. And I think most importantly, she offers several examples of not only her but other performers who have shifted gears in their careers for a variety of reasons. It’s important to plan ahead and think what will you do when the time comes when you can’t get on that stage anymore. I know I personally don’t like to think about that, but this book has seriously opened my eyes to the many things I could and should be doing to better run my “business.”
So taking all this into account, I have already begun to take steps based on the suggestions she offers. Already I feel like I am making progress. I am so happy that I’ve gotten to read this book.
AND because of the great people at Allworth Press, you can get your hands on it too!!
Dancing is universal. You don’t have to be a professional, you don’t even have to take classes. For the rest of September, let me know about your dancing experience in the comments below. Just let me know why you love to dance and your most vivid memory of dancing. Winner will be selected at random on October 1.
Zomie-O-Rama downtown San Jose 8/31/12 Peter Woolhouse and John Teidmann (We did JSC together what seems a million years ago.)
The last two weeks have been…trying. They’ve been stressful and frustrating as well. First my car broke down. That isn’t SO bad, but then my dad, who isn’t in the best of health, went into surgery for 6 hours for bone spurs on the vertebra in his neck. Then my mother shared some of her own bad news.
Having dealt with THAT, I needed to get away and enjoy something that would inspire and reinvigorate my creative mind to “boot up” once again. Luckily, my friend Jennifer told me about the Zombie Crawl in downtown San Jose. I was so bummed that I had to work the closing shift so I couldn’t get there at the actual start time.
I remember as a kid during Halloween one year trying to figure out what do be. Several of my friends were zombies (this was around the time of the Night of the Living Dead relaunch) and some were vampires. I ended up being a stupid ghost and feeling like a total turd.
As to what the actual “crawl” portion of the event is, I do not know. I believe it’s a route that all the zombies take, but as I am a crawl virgin I am not sure.
In one of the large parking lots downtown, there were a large crowd of people doing various things but mostly milling about and checking out fellow zombies or getting a good spot for the public showing of Shawn of the Dead. I since I couldn’t find my buddy, Jennifer, I assumed that she was out and about shuffling through the streets of the city. After I get my initial sweep completed, I take a moment and grab some dinner while thinking of what I wanted to focus on. Did I want to get a picture of as many of the zombies as possible? Did I want to only focus on the big companies that were there? or Should I just focus on what I found the best?
Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to show the ones that I found most impressive. Although there was a very, very tall man dressed up that held a sign saying “Zombies for Equality” which I thought was clever and hilarious. Get it? Equality because they’ll eat everyone! hahahaha…
So while some of the pics that follow are not just zombies, but I liked the work that when into their costumes. But the ZOMBIES?? There were a few that were great, and I want to share.
These four military men are the newest undead “recruits.”
It’s a little steam punk and a little twisted. I dig the “X”-eyed goggles. The mouthpiece is pretty cool too. It’s got a faux jaw on the right side (well, left side in the picture) It looked like it was burned into the leather of the mask. The puppet is attached to a cane that has a trigger to pull and makes the mouth snap shut.
He offered to slice off a piece of grey matter for me, but I just couldn’t fathom eating brain jello.
While not technically a zombie, I couldn’t tell if this character was dead, undead, or other. I think I would place him in supernatural. Either way, still freaky enough where I wouldn’t want to wake up and see this thing. Would have liked it if this person wore some sort of gloves or painted some details on their hands to finish out the character.
She was FABULOUS!!! From the Tina Turner-esque wig to the totally punk rock costume she was completely IN it. Her jaw pieces are completely hand made by her and are adhered to the area just around her mouth. The top and bottom teeth are fully independent of each other. One of the absolute best for sure. But my favorite zombies of the night were:
These guys were so in character that when I asked for a pic the suit fella just kinda swung his arm to hit the other guy. An up close look at the make up showed that it was much more than mere makeup. There was texture throughout the surface and slight peeling. The blood stayed constantly runny and glossy thanks to a fresh supply in the plaid zombie’s hand. Good ol’ food coloring and corn syrup make for a perfect fake blood effect.
Since I didn’t have time to go home and get ready, I refused to go in a costume. If there is one thing I can’t seem to do, it is to just half try to create a character. I think that one Halloween turd left a left a lasting impression on me that it wasn’t as fun if I couldn’t be as creative as I really want to be. If I find out when the next Zombie Crawl is early enough, I think I will take the whole day off just to work on my makeup.
Have you gone to an event like this in your city or town? What was your experience like? Is it more fun to dress up? Lemme know what you think in the comment section below!
Today, I went to the Sunnyvale Community Players fundraiser at Barnes and Noble. It was great to see so many fellow performers. Hopefully, the fundraiser was a success! Thanks to B&N for being awesome and supporting the Arts!!
One thing I didn’t expect was to run into a former boss-lady from WAY back. I worked with her for almost 12 years ago.
This got me thinking about all the things I did at that job. One of the things I did was similar to one of my responsibilities that I have now. It’s dawned on me that I have just been running in circles “professionally” speaking. My 9-5’s always seem to end up the same.
Figuring out life it tough.
Does anyone have any shortcuts…
The end.
Thanks to Icanhascheezburger.com for the pic. That’s kind of how I felt when I saw her.
In our upcoming election ballot in California, we have Prop 37 that is one of the most hotly contested issue since gay marriage. I know that we are still months away from voting and I know that you aren’t knuckleheads, but in case it must be said…
With the rise of organic farming and backyard edible gardens becoming more and more common, the requests of the public for properly labelled foods is also on the rise. Prop 37 is a proposal to regulate the labels on all foods that consumers purchase to specify if the item has any sort of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) in it.
Eating GMO’s is harmful to people because the immune system attacks our bodies causes inflammation and a bunch of other possible diseases and could affect all bodily functions as well as nutrient deficiencies.
GMO’s are a big money making business and it’s supported by companies like Monsanto, the most hated corporation in the world, Dow, Bayer and BASF.
Opponents of Prop 37 have already raised $25 million compared to the $2 million raised by supporters of the proposition. This means that there will be a ton of ads bombarding the TV or the radio telling you that Prop 37 is a bad deal. In truth it is a bad deal for the GMO business. When doctors make patients remove GMO enhanced foods from their diets, patients get better simply by changing their eating habits. Now you may say that if anyone changes their eating habits then they would get better, but most of the time it is just for blood pressure or weight. I am talking about crazy stuff like this from the Livestrong website: “data showed that genetically modified corn caused severe liver and kidney toxicity. Furthermore, a 2008 study reported by Professor Jurgen Zentek of the Austrian Health Ministry linked genetically modified corn with infertility in rats.” Infertility is a side affect in humans as well.
I find it really REALLY interesting that the CA Republican Party is in opposition to Prop 37…oh, what, it’s a big money business. Nevermind, I understand why. Check out BallotPedia to see what the arguments for and against are and who’s supporting and opposing it.
This report with Jeffrey M. Smith on GMO’s from KPFA’s Guns and Butter is absolutely appalling! YOU MUST LISTEN TO THIS. The ending is a nightmare and terrifying! Another great thing to listen to is today’s news from KPFA by CLICKING HERE. Start listening at 43:14. I don’t watch mainstream media or NPR because they all have someone pulling their strings. KPFA is fully straightforward and don’t have to answer to any sort of politics.
Remember VOTE YES on Prop 37!!!
40 other countries throughout the world already protect their consumers by having this label restriction, why don’t we take the issue into our own hands and protect ourselves from this horrible practice!?!?
The Actorvist 