Into the Woods at the SCERA Center for the Performing Arts

I sometimes get a little bit exasperated because all of the theatre companies near me seem to cycle through the same popular shows (Clue is the current darling) but one show that I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing no matter how often it is performed is Into the Woods. I love it so much because the story is clever, the music is beautiful, and the messages are both incredibly thought-provoking and poignant. I was able to see a production at the SCERA Center for the Performing Arts last night and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Several fairy tale characters must go into the woods to make their wishes come true: a Witch (Samantha Frisby) wishes to reverse a curse, a Baker (Marshall Lamm) and his Wife (Rian Gordon) wish to have a child, Cinderella (Lauren Pope) wishes to attend the festival and meet a prince, Jack (Cole Hixson) wishes to save his cow Milky White (Shannon Follette) from being sold at market, and Little Red Riding Hood (Eliza Johnson) wishes to visit her Grandmother (Shannon Follette). However, having a wish come true does not always result in a happily ever after and actions can have unintended consequences. The entire cast is outstanding, especially for a community theatre, and I was so impressed with the execution of every musical number! My favorite was, as always, "Agony" because Cameron Ward, as Cinderella's Prince, and Isaac Moss, as Rapunzel's Prince, are hilariously overwrought with facial expressions and gestures that are completely over the top! I also enjoyed "It Takes Two" because it is an important turning point for the Baker and his Wife and Lamm and Gordon, who have great chemistry, give very spirited performances, "The Last Midnight" because Frisby sings it so powerfully, and "No One Is Alone" because it is such a beautiful moment and Lamm, Pope, Hixson, and Johnson gave me goosebumps with their moving rendition. The staging is really innovative with lots of fun special effects and I particularly liked the use of books to represent the birds that help Cinderella and the flowers that lure Little Red Riding Hood from the path as well as a beanstalk that actually grows. The set is fantastic and looks like an abandoned house that has been overtaken by a forest (an interesting interpretation that I have never seen before) with ivy covered bookcases in the midst of the trees. The lighting design is dramatic, especially the lanterns, and the costumes are straight out of a fairy tale (my favorites were those worn by the Witch both before and after her transformation). I will always love seeing this show and this production put a smile on my face! It runs through October 7 on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and I definitely recommend it (go here for tickets).

Dvorak's "New World" Symphony

It is opening weekend for the Utah Symphony Masterworks Series and I could not have been more excited for last night's concert because it featured three pieces that I really like!  The orchestra began with Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" by Antonin Dvorak.  It is one of the most popular symphonies performed in this country and it is one of the few that I recognize by name instantly when I hear it!  I especially love the recurring fanfares by the brass which are repeated by the woodwinds in the first movement and the beautiful but almost mournful melodies played by the horns and strings in the second movement.  It was also fun to hear variations of these themes appear once again during the powerful conclusion.  After the intermission, the orchestra was joined by soloist Aubree Oliverson for Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto.  Oliverson made her debut with the Utah Symphony's annual Salute to Youth concert when she was eleven years old so she told the crowd how excited she was to be back.  I really enjoyed her evocative interpretation of this piece, especially the dynamic, almost urgent, rhythms performed along with the woodwinds in the final movement.  I also loved the main theme played by the solo violin along with a playful theme by the piano in the first movement and a plaintive theme played by a solo oboe in the second.  Oliverson received an enthusiastic standing ovation prompting her to play "Por Una Cabeza" by Carlos Gardel (the arrangement by John Williams used in The Scent of a Woman) with the orchestra as an encore.  The concert concluded with Bolero by Maurice Ravel which I was eagerly awaiting all evening because it is the first piece of classical music that I ever loved!  When I was young my Dad had an 8-track tape featuring various classical pieces programmed on a Moog synthesizer.  My favorite was Bolero and I listened to it over and over again (I loved it when the synthesizer simulates applause at the end).  I didn't even know that I was listening to classical music because it was the coolest thing ever!  It begins almost imperceptibly with a snare drum (playing the same rhythm throughout the entire piece in an incredible feat of endurance) and then a melody is played by a solo flute.  This melody is repeated over and over by the various instruments in the orchestra (my favorite is the solo trombone), building in intensity and volume for over fourteen minutes until a dramatic crescendo at the end.  I may or may not have gotten a tad too enthusiastic while listening to this epic performance (I apologize to everyone I was sitting by).  This entire program is amazing, but if you have never heard Bolero performed live, do yourself a favor and get a ticket for tonight's concert (go here).

Note:  The orchestra plays "The Star-Spangled Banner" during the opening concerts of the new season and, for some reason, I find this very exciting!  Even before I became a subscriber I would always try to attend the opening concert so I could hear it!

Yellowstone National Park 2023

I have been wanting to go to back Yellowstone National Park so a couple of weeks ago I spontaneously booked a cabin at the West Yellowstone KOA (I've stayed there several times and I really like it) and planned a trip.  I drove there on Monday (it is about four hours north of where I live) and spent several days at the park.

My first stop was at Old Faithful.  It had just erupted when I was parking my car so I decided to wait at the lodge until it erupted again.  It is always so exciting to see it go higher and higher and I loved it when the crowd cheered!

The park was really crowded (I thought September would be a good time to go because kids would be back in school but apparently every other retiree had the same idea) so I couldn't follow my usual routine.  I decided to be flexible and hit the spots where I could find parking (I am not very patient when it comes to parking at national parks).

I spent quite a bit of time at the Grand Prismatic Spring which is one of my favorite places in the park.

I came upon a herd of bison while on a scenic drive and the park ranger got mad at me for getting too close to one of them.

Beryl Geyser

Artists Paint Pots

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Upper and Lower Falls

Roaring Mountain

Mammoth Springs

This was a really fun trip!  I just wandered anywhere I felt like going and ended up taking a lot of different scenic drives which were beautiful.  I also enjoyed being in my cabin at the KOA because it rained every night and I loved listening to the sound while falling asleep,

The Stranger Upstairs

My September Book of the Month selection was The Stranger Upstairs by Lisa M. Matlin (the other options were The Intern by Michele Campbell, Evil Eye by Etaf Rum, You, Again by Kate Goldbeck, and The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger).  I once again defaulted to the thriller and this one is incredibly atmospheric with a huge twist and I couldn't put it down! Sarah Slade is a therapist with a best-selling self-help book and a large following on social media. She decides to buy a large Victorian mansion located in a wealthy suburb of Melbourne because the price is too good to pass up even though the house has been empty for over 40 years because it is the site of a notorious murder-suicide. According to neighbors, Bill Campbell began acting more and more erratically until he woke up one day and bashed his wife's skull with a hammer, attempted to do the same to his teenage daughter who was able to get away, and then took his own life by overdosing on tranquilizers. There are those who believe that Black Wood House drove Campbell crazy but Sarah sees her planned renovations as a great opportunity for blog content and as a distraction from her marital troubles. However, Sarah soon experiences strange and unexplained occurrences while in the house and her life spirals out of control as the many secrets she has tried to hide from her past come to light.  She begins behaving as erratically as Campbell once did but is it the house or her own demons causing her break with reality? The narrative is mostly from Sarah's POV in the present with flashbacks to her past, which definitely kept my interest piqued because I wanted to know more about the disturbing incidents between Sarah and her sister, and newspaper and web articles about events as they happen, which does much to create suspense because they imply that Sarah could be a victim or a villain. I enjoyed Sarah as a character because she is so complex and I was impressed by the fact that Matlin uses her own experiences with mental health to inform her actions and motivations (be sure to read the author's note at the end). I also really enjoyed the house itself as a character because there are some really scary sequences that will keep you feeling very unsettled (just in time for Halloween). I have to admit that I found the resolution to be a bit disappointing because it seems so mundane after all of the build up but then there is a major twist in the epilogue that made me question everything! I've heard complaints from other readers that there are too many loose ends but I liked the open-ended conclusion because it kept me thinking about it for days. This is a unique take on the haunted house genre and I highly recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers.

The Nun II

I'm not sure what possessed me (ha ha) to see The Nun II last night because the first movie was a bit of a disappointment.  I do think this one improves upon the original but I still found it to be underwhelming.  Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) is now in a convent in Italy when she is summoned once again to investigate a series of unusual murders across Europe that could be attributed to the demon who appears in the guise of a nun (Bonnie Aarons).  She travels with a novitiate named Debra (Storm Reid), who is having a crisis of faith, to the site of the most recent murder and, during her investigation, she discovers that the demon is searching for an ancient relic that is located at a former monastery that is now a boarding school for girls where Jacques (Jonas Bloquet), the farmer who saved her life in Romania, works as a handyman and has a proprietary relationship with a teacher named Kate (Anna Popplewell) and her daughter Sophie (Katelyn Rose Downey).  Irene and Debra race to the school for an epic confrontation in which they must save Jacques, Kate, Sophie, and the rest of the students and send the demon back to hell.  The settings are ominous with cobblestone streets at night and dimly lit corridors, staircases, and cloisters in a crumbling Gothic church and I was genuinely scared during a few suspenseful sequences but seeing the image of the demonic nun over and over again becomes tedious (my biggest criticism of the first movie).  Even an intriguing scene featuring a magazine stand becomes boring because it goes on so long (it is a foregone conclusion that the pages will eventually form the image of the nun).  Including the students at the boarding school does create higher stakes but sometimes it seems like there are too many characters and some of them are very superfluous.  The story is both insubstantial and convoluted and not even a great performance from Farmiga could keep my mind from wandering.  I'm sure fans of the Conjuring franchise will like this more than I did but I wouldn't recommend it.