Cheers for Chekhov

It's theater in the key of Chekhov on the Peninsula this September: Both the Pear Avenue Theatre and Dragon Productions are taking the Russian playwright for a whirl. First "Three Sisters" opens at the Pear on Sept. 7, and then "Chekhov in Yalta" by John Driver and Jeffrey Haddow bows at Dragon on Sept. 21.

Meredith Hagedorn calls the pairing "an interesting confluence." And she's a link of sorts between the two plays: Besides being Dragon's founder and executive producer, she's in the Pear production, playing Olga.

"Once we realized the coincidence, we felt it was an opportunity to highlight the continuing popularity of Chekhov and his work," Meredith said in an email to me. "His plays are particularly relevant today, as the U.S. deals with its fading international image and a future fraught with unsettling change.

"The fact that he labeled his haunting works 'comedies' is a challenge for producers -- not to get caught up in the malaise of the characters, but to maintain sufficient critical distance to illuminate their plights with a comic tinge."

The Driver/Haddow play, by the by, is set in Chekhov's Yalta villa at the turn of the century, covering four days in the playwright's life.

Pictured: Clockwise from top left: Liz Coy as Masha, Sarah Cook as Irina and Meredith Hagedorn as Olga in The Pear Avenue Theatre's production of "The Three Sisters." Photo by Shannon Stowe.

A letter to the president

Everyone's got something to say about the president, but Stanford student Jeff Mendelman penned a whole hip-hop song about it. Here's "Dear Mr. Bush" by JeFFHH, as he's known in the hip-hop community.

Jeff will also be on the Weekly's cover tomorrow, accompanied by a terrific story about him by Elizabeth Obreza.

Art anywhere

The Houston Zoo has painted rhinos, zebras and peacocks on its restroom stall doors, which just goes to show that you can put art anywhere. Locally, I got inspired to shoot this video by an underground parking garage.

I spend half my life in galleries and museums, but a visit to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation reminded me that art is often sweeter in unexpected places. A garage there features a cheerful three-part trompe l'oeil mural of waterways, Mediterranean architecture and plants. It's thanks to Los Gatos artist John Pugh, whose acrylic mural "Banos del Cielo (Baths of the Sky)" was finished last year with the help of philanthropic gifts.

"Our donors realized that the majority of patients come into the building through the garage and that entrance is not welcoming at all," said Anne Jigger, the foundation's vice president for philanthropy.

Kudos. May I suggest some other places in town that could benefit from this philosophy?

Also in my video is a recent photo exhibit at Keeble & Shuchat Photography. Shows hang out in a sunny conference room upstairs, a place you may never have seen even if you're a K&S regular. There's often one going on -- follow the stairs in the back of the shop. The exhibit shown was by the Santa Clara Camera Club, and I particularly liked "Flying Egret" by Li Li (the one with the swoopy white bird).

Lastly, one of my favorite pieces of public art, the cat sculpture in the tucked-away Seminary Oaks Park in Menlo Park. The park is worth tracking down to see this work by Belmont artist Robley Browne, who was on the Weekly's cover last year. Both cat and bowl were sculpted in clay and cast into bronze as a tribute to Catherine Birdsall Johnson, who lived on the land in the 1800s and loved felines. Wooden steps represent the stoop of the old house that was once there.

The music in the video is by Woody Herman & His Orchestra. It's "The End Of The Rainbow" (1940), found at www.jazz-on-line.com.

What's new

It's doubtful that Scarlett O'Hara would have decorated Tara with paintings of melting clocks. But actress Vivien Leigh is surprisingly striking (look right) in the rapid-fire and sometimes surreal brush strokes of artist Gilbert Marosi.

I interviewed Marosi and his son Robert Marosi Bustamante, a fellow artist, at their enormous Los Altos studio last year. Then, Marosi was focusing more on images from the music world, as well as scenes in the Wild West or busy cities. It's interesting to see him going in a new direction with his "Old Hollywood Reborn" series.

And this series isn't just about the classics you think of first. Bogie and Bacall are there, sure, but so are "Young Frankenstein," "The Beverly Hillbillies" and Steve McQueen.

Whenever I've got a free moment I like to check in with some of the people I've profiled in the past. Another visual artist who's always doing something eye-catching is Palo Alto's Kenney Mencher, who was in the Weekly in January.

He's known for his theatrical paintings of people in quirky, perplexing situations (props such as a half-full glass of water can figure prominently). Now his work includes something different, faces painted in oil on vintage attache cases. Personal trappings are tucked inside the cases: perhaps an antique pen and a letter, or a pair of wire eyeglasses.

The works seem to be piecing together forgotten worlds. And since these personal props are so small, one also feels a pang at how fragile life is, and how quickly it can pass us by.



Pictured is Mencher's work "R.R.Z.," an oil visage on a monogrammed attache case. Inside are what the artist calls "found ephemera": a vintage watch, a Playboy magazine from 1968, receipts from about 1956, and a letter written on stationery from the Vendome Hotel.

Steam heat

I had the best time researching this week's cover story. Getting to ride in a 1924 Stanley steam car on a summer afternoon was a true thrill. It was a waltz into the past, when the roads were calmer, life was quieter, and a Sunday drive was a treat. And it was also pretty cute to watch photographer Norbert von der Groeben practically crow with excitement at the prospect of riding in the antique car.

I could definitely see why Jay Leno raves about his own vintage auto (check out a video of it here).

Fortunately, our drive was not as eventful as some of the early steam-car excursions. Here are some anecdotes from the Stanleys' early days, as recounted in the book "The Stanley Steamer: America's Legendary Steam Car," by Kit Foster:

"Everything went to perfection till he got to Kennebunk Port. There his steering bar broke while he was going at high speed, and the carriage ran plum into a ledge breaking both front wheels and damaging the body badly. Frank jumped, landing in a brush pile and escaped uninjured."
-- An 1898 letter from F.O. Stanley, who with his twin F.E. (Frank) developed the Stanley Steamer

"The press had a bit of a field day March 4, 1898, when former Mayor H.E. Hubbard of Newton was injured while riding with F.E. Stanley in the motor carriage. Headlined as an 'explosion' by both the Newton Graphic and Watertown Enterprise, it was nothing of the sort. Instead, the burner had 'puffed back,' and flame flashed against the car body. Afraid that an explosion was imminent, Mayor Hubbard panicked and jumped from the car, breaking two bones in one leg."
-- Kit Foster

"A lady can very easily learn to steer it. ... (I)t is steered by a handle bar very much as you steer a bicycle. ... She must know enough about its workings to instruct the stable boys whom she would have to hire to take care of it and clean it at the stopping places on the journey. Even without this knowledge she could, if the machine were in perfect order, take a ride of fifteen or twenty miles just as well as a man."
-- Flora Stanley, F.O.'s wife, 1899

Pictured: The 1924 Stanley Steamer owned by Palo Altan Channell Wasson. Photo by Norbert von der Groeben.