Sweet. Concordant. Strings

12/6

Bob Brashear ands Shakespeare ladies Milica Paranosic and Margaret Lnacaster

Steady rain. Stop into the Gate. Pick up a full large pan of Paul’s special shepherd’s pie and cab back to the church for Milica’s Composers’ Concordance concert, Sweet Concordant Strings. Music inspired by Shakespeare on the  450^th anniversary of his birth.

A good house is growing.

Early on, there’s a steady stream of confused folks looking for Stephanie Johnstone’s performance piece in the upstairs gym. Such is West-Park.

It’s a true exposition of the wonderful diversity of what comcon is.

We hear:

1.     The electronic tape of Luening’s sound cues from Orson Wells’ King  Lear.

2.     Joseph Pehrson’s Tempest Fanfare.

3.     Dan Cooper’s Little Water Drops inspired by and dedicated to soprano Eleanor Taylor from the Rape of Lucrece.

4.     The passionate Seguiryas, rooted in flamenco blacksmith music, inspired by a passage of Julius Caesar. Dave Soldier’s composition, Thomas Bo’s interpretation. Singer. Guitar. Cajon. Orchestra.

5.     Back to Julius Caesar again. Dan Cooper’s quirky Ides of march, dedicated to his teacher and mentor, Edward H. Simpson.

6.     Franz Hackl’s expressive trumpet brings to life Gene Pritsker’s wordless expression of two sonnets. After which, who needs words? The trumpet said all there was to say..Except…only when you’ve heard Pritsker rap or his electronic beats or the all in bombast of his take on Brahms’ first can you fully appreciate the simple romantic melancholy of his piece like this with its piercing trumpet vocalization.

7.     Now from the magical Midsummer Night’s Dream, we get Dan Cooper’s Lullaby, from the catalogue of incidental music he produced for Tina Packer’s Berkshires institution Shakespeare and Company at the Mount. Cooper’s Lullaby shimmers and dances like fairies in the liminal space between day and night.

8.     David Gotay’s Nostalgia teases us with a tango while allowing the strings to milk the longing from Sonnet 30.

9.     Milica Paranosic and Margaret Lancaster are an intrepid dynamic duo. They push each other to new places. Daring. Dramatic. Scary. Their Lady M follows Ms. Macbeth through her offstage Act 3. The cumulative effect of her actions finally breaks her. And Margaret walks the tight rope between classical flutist and performance artist. Shatters the night with her scream. Rubs her hands that can never be clean again. And  finally snuffs out the candle. Leaving us in a hopeless darkness. These women are dangerous.

10. The night concludes with Karen Hakobyan’s Blow, blow thou winter winds with its appropriation of Armenian scale system woven throughout its language. And no, I can’t explain what I just said.

I can say that it’s an honor, but more  a pleasure, to welcome the comcon family to the petri dish, incubator and performance space that is West-Park where artists dare to push, expand and obliterate boundaries. The audience includes family, friends, new music professional peers and the occasional quasi-stalker fans that appear as if conjured from Shakespeare’s more fevered imagination. The shepherd’s pie and wine disappear fast.

The shepherd's pie will disappear soon.....

The after party will move on to the Gate where Irish pub manager and patron of the arts Paul will welcome all and West-Park’s resident radio cowboy character and shaman RL will charm Shakespeare’s ladies.

Sweet. Concordant. Strings.

Sam and Ryan wrestled. And won. (Cymbeline....)

8/30

Back to the church in time for the second night of Ryan and Sam’s Cymbeline. As their show opens in the chapel, I can see what they’ve learned from Dzieci. There’s bottles of wine, cold cuts, cheese and fruit. A banjo and a mandolin playing Appalachian music. Sam telling everyone this is a story about his family. And soon enough, the stage set, the play begins.

This is one of Shakespeare’s stranger plays. And that strangeness increases as they lead us from the chapel up to Mc Alpin and ultimately to the 3^rd floor gym.

There’s a place in this play where Shakespeare’s text completely jumps the rails and I didn’t realize it until I got home, but what they did completely got that. When all of a sudden Jupiter appears with lightning bolts and a seriously wtf moment, they launch into a vaudeville song and dance. Which turns out to be exactly right.

I leave thinking about all who have performed in these spaces. The Woodshed summer and fall with the Tenant. John Hudson and the Dark Lady Player’s museum theatre. The amazing show that had a cast of 30 and audience of 1 (at a time.) Jeremy M’s de/reconstruction  with Alivewire of the Crucible over 3 floors. Dzieci. And ReGroup’s Trilogy. And now Ryan and Sam’s Free Theatre. All those spirits remain.

And gentle spirits they were. Respectful. Appreciative. Enjoying RL’s attention and parental concern. And, seriously, no attitude. That says a  lot.

Sam and Ryan have much to feel good about. They tackled a tough play and at least wrestled it to a draw. They treated Shakespeare with the same respect they treated us. They drew full (and overflow) houses. And put on a damn fine show.

They made my day.

Fifth Sunday in Lent: Written on the heart

3/25

Wesley and Antonia are slow moving out this morning. I need to remember to talk to Project Reachout aboiut them.  Rafael is encouraging them to move along. A young former occupier with an aggression problem and a broken hand was also found on the steps this morning but is up and gone. 

Steve is helping to get the place ready. Candles placed and lit. I’m off to pick up the bulletins.

At least three visitors this morning. A mother and her boy. A young  African-American woman. A young woman who Andre guesses is an actress.

Amy can’t come today. Andre not here yet , so I start the service alone.  John reads the passage from Jeremiah 31 about the new covenant. Andre has arrived. We do Psalm 51 together. Andre leads us in O for a closer walk with God. Marsha reads our epistle from Hebrews. Our Gospel this morning is John 12: 20-33. 

I ask if anyone knows about the vilage of Le Chambon sur lignon.  During the time of the Nazi occupation, (back when that was only a negative word), beginning in 1942, this town, of  maybe 2600 people , under the leadership of pastors Andre Trocme and Edouard Theis,  saved between 3000 and 5000 Jews  That means every person saved at least one or two people, hiding threm in  in their  homes, their barns. When the Nazis were nearby, their gusests would hide in the forest. And when the Nazis left, they would walk into the forest singing a hymn to let them know it was safe to return. 

The pastor’s cousin,  Daniel Trocme, was sent to the Maidenank Concentration Camp where he was executd. Otherwise, the people evaded the Nazis. How did this happen? Why did they react this way? For one thing, they were Huguenots, Protestants. They were  different.Used to ostracism, prejudice, themselves. Outsiders. The French filmmaker Pierre Sauvage, was one who had been saved as a child in this village. His film, Weapons of the Spirit, was created to find that answer. The people of the village wanted no credit for simply doing what was right.  Finally one pointed to the words above the door of church:   Little children, love one another...He asked, How could we see this every week and  do other?

We are talking about a New covenant.  One that is written not on stone, not in a book but written on the heart, this time...they shall all know me....There is no precondition, no obedience required..It’s not a new Torah,  but one put in a different place...In those days the heart was the home of will and intelligence. Feelings came from  the guts...

And it was to be inclusive, from youngest to oldest, and ALL classes....So what does it mean to be written on the heart? 

I recalled my conversation with Eugenia. Her lifetime of commitments, involvements. What she learned from being raised in this church...The VALUES that were communcated. Like with the people of Le Chambon. It’s the same thing week after week until it becomes a  part of you. 

The Gospel seems to be about preparing for something coming. And seeds. I recall our potatoes from a week ago. Wonder where we might plant them. Planting seeds..there is this idea that something must die first...

Some Greeks have come to see Jesus. (Most likely this is to show us that he was to be here for Gentiles as well) Strange, they seem disappear from the story. Still waiting at the door as the others go on with their discussion. 

There are these troublesome words in 12:25   Those who love life,will  lose it, who  hate life, keep it...I want to say no, that’s wrong...I don’t want you going around feeling my life sucks...Andre says, that’s not what it’s about...

Look, even Jesus would just as soon avoid what’s coming if he could. But he knows that facing that moment is why he’s here. No its about all those fears that keep us from doing the right thing. That keep us from taking the risk. What the people of le Chambon were able to overcome. 

Jesus says that when he is lifted up (remember last week?),people will be drawn to him irresistably...That’s part of how it gets written on your hearts, by seeing it. In Latin America we used to talk about the propaganda of the deed, acts whose meaning were  so inherently clear that everyone would immediately understand. 

That is what can defeat the ruler of this world. That is the forces of intimidation, seduction, manipulation, anything to take you away from your values. 

That’s the greatest thing we can do for our children, is to live our life here in such a way that they will understand what is expected. That the covenant will be writtn on their hearts. That when their moment comes, they will do the right thing. 

Today we finis with O Jesus I have promised and then  we make our cirlce and sing Amen. 

The young woman is an actress, from West Virginia, come to the city to study theatre. We introduce her to Don.

Jamie wants to talk  with Don about possibilitities, but we have to have a meting  with Rev. Sekou about the upcoming event with Cornell West and him on Thursday. So I let them go wishing I could be part of their  conversation.

After our meeting with Sekou, I stick around for Jane’s service.  I had agreed to be ready to preach for her  if she was not able to make it back form the coast, but she’s here. It’s their fifth month anniversary and the  thanks to West-Park and me were effusive. In my brief reflection, I reference the Jeremiah covenant on the heart and le Chambon. 

Late in the afternoon, the Dark Lady Players are celebrating Our Lady Day, the Day of the Anunciation  with their production of Four Comic Anunciations to the Virgin Mary by William Shakespeare. Four scenes from Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Twefth Night and Hamlet. Each, in their view, a parody of the  Biblical anuniciation story. 

DLP has drawn a good audience for a late Sunday afternoon. In the 40-50 range. Given the fact that it’s not a bad draw for any off-off Broadway production, even Shakespeare straight up, this is a real sign of progress for DLP. They have set themselves a daunting task. For a company that is not only experimental but esoteric Shakespeare, they are beginning to establish a place of awareness in the general and theatre going public. Inch by inch, step by step,  through persistence, hard core rigorous scholarship and boundary pushing creative work, they are gaining a foothold. They still have to struggle with how to make it entertaining, fun, beyond the didactic exploration of what’s beneath the surface. It’s a task not unlike trying to reinvigorate a small but detrmined congregation, bring the center into being  and restoring a wounded building while trying to particpate in the birth of a new way of being church. We’re in this together.