Au revoir, Arthur

So saddened to hear about the passing of Arthur Krakower, the 88-year-old wunderkind Peninsula artist. A call or email from Arthur was like a small gem, bright in the palm. He had a way of combining childlike enthusiasm with timeless gentility and kindliness. Manners were never out of style when he was around. And yet he was completely in the modern world. He was even on Facebook.

Arthur's paintings, drawings and prints have wonderful titles. "The Geraniums Were There When We Fell In Love" and "What A Great Day," to name two. No irony there: just the pleasure of finding a third career after two successful ones, of going back to art and immersing himself in it. Retired from retail and real estate, Arthur went back to school and earned a master's in painting and drawing at age 80. What more can one say about dedication?

Last night, Arthur came to my mind at a Music@Menlo concert in Palo Alto. Violinist Joseph Swensen played the elegiac opening of the third movement of Schumann's Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor with such plaintive beauty. I thought of Arthur and of a dear friend who left us two years ago. There was no heaviness about the feeling of loss, though. Rather, I felt the particular warmth that sadness in music can bring, the sense that everyone who is listening to or playing the music, or who wrote it, has moved through the same emotion. Sometimes in a concert there's a feeling of shared understanding in the air. It's comforting.

Then Wu Han took the stage with fellow pianist Jeffrey Kahane to play Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," arranged for four hands at the piano. She is an absolute delight to watch. From back in the audience, I thought I could see her smiling as she found the mischief in the music, and I wouldn't have been surprised to hear laughter from the stage, even in a respectful concert setting.

It wasn't intended that way, but the evening felt like a perfect tribute to Arthur's spirit.

Pictured: Arthur's Facebook profile photo.

Summer Outside

Are you enjoying summer as much as I am? I love living outside as much as possible during the summer months.... From early morning walks to late night suppers. I could spend my entire day outside air conditioned buildings. Most of all I enjoy entertaining outside. It doesn't have to be an upscale formal affair...it's summer ...so make it fun.
Here are a few summer entertaining ideas I want to share. They are creative simple and boast lots of summer style. Much can be done with fabric, twinkle lights and fresh flowers. Add a punch of color and a few candles for late night romance. But most of all... Have Fun!

Elegant and casual....

Colorful tents and candle light are show stoppers to create the perfect dinner atmosphere

If you live in a dry desert climate add fresh flowers to the decor to bring in splashes of color

Start a fire pit early in the evening and it will be ready by nightfall for roasting marshmallows

'Art without inhibitions'

To find the new home of Art For Well Beings, you have to wander a bit. The little art center is, as director Judy Gittelsohn says, "tucked in behind" a cluster of buildings off Palo Alto's Park Boulevard. You cross a small courtyard green with shrubbery, then see the spiky, cheerful cacti lining the classroom windowsill.

I liked this place right away. The room feels peaceful and hidden; I'd never seen the room or the courtyard even though I've walked California Avenue a million times. Judy says that's the whole idea: a space where everyone feels comfortable making art. You don't feel like someone's watching over your shoulder.

Judy, herself a talented painter, is known for her art classes for people with special needs; students may be developmentally disabled, or recovering from an injury. But she teaches everyone, and likes to mix different populations in a class. She had a classroom in a school before (and also teaches at the art center and the art league), but moved onto Park Boulevard earlier this year, enjoying having her own space.

"The special-needs population can teach us how to make art without inhibitions," she told me when I dropped by a few weeks ago. "We can learn freedom. My job is to create a safe place where they can create."

There wasn't a lot of art on the bright white walls (Judy says that makes the room feel more "serene"), but creations by kids and adults, both mainstream and those with special needs, filled the corners. Cut-out fish by 9-year-old Colin Huang were bright with personality; Judy says Colin plans to make a book of Palo Alto birds. Judy also held up a "paint by puzzle" work, in which each student paints a different section. She's planning various one-day exhibits, including Superman-themed paintings by Palo Alto artist Nick Golick.

Other projects in the works include "A Meal To Remember," a fund-raising dinner at East Palo Alto's Four Seasons Hotel, in which 20 girls will create paintings to illustrate a menu at the hotel. The painters will be from Girls to Women, an East Palo Alto youth organization.

Meanwhile, Judy and other teachers offer a range of classes at Art For Well Beings, including parent-and-child classes and sessions with collage and charcoal drawing. Some, like "Art in French," haven't taken off yet, but she's optimistic. "It's not as full as I would like," she said of the roster of students, "but I'm getting an inquiry every other day."


Pictured: Top: Fish by Colin Huang. Above: Judy Gittelsohn with a "paint by puzzle" work. Photos by Rebecca Wallace.

Puah on ice?

Our show is back from Louisville, but it's not curtain down yet on "Puah's Midwife Crisis." Director/writer Cheryl Goodman-Morris has been getting queries about producing the musical in other locations, including Michigan. From Portola Valley to the South to the Midwest?

Meanwhile, back in California, several "Puah" cast members are reporting theater anxiety dreams. We didn't have time to worry before; our schedule in Louisville was what Cheryl called "exquisitely challenging." Now we can take a breath, miss each other already, and have the occasional actor's nightmare.

The Pharoah's daughter dreamed she had to make an entrance on a skateboard. Another actor imagined that the Actors Theatre people interrupted one of our performances to set up an ice-skating rink on stage. Still another dreamed about doing the entire show without remembering a single one of his lines.

Hey, if we wait until winter, I bet an ice rink will play really well in Sturgis.

Pictured: Don Gustafson, left, as Pharaoh with Susan Squires Cox and Betsy Burdick as his evil advisors. Photo from www.puahthemusical.org.

The quotable Louisville

You can forget that not everywhere is California. The other day in a restaurant near the Ohio River, one of my fellow Bay Area actors asked, "Is the fish fresh?" The waitress retorted, "Louisville is a UPS hub."

Best quotes from our time in Louisville, though, are theater-related. There's a wall backstage at the Victor Jory Theatre at Actors Theatre that's covered with graffiti. As you climb the stairs next to it, you find more and more to read (if you can handle getting close to the blazing July-afternoon roof).

I jotted down a few bon mots. Judging by the last one, crew folks were probably responsible:

• "I love this business! It's the only truly accepted medium to convey our spirits to this tight-ass planet. Lose theatre, we'll lose our spirits."


• "Good, but it's not 'Three Sisters.'"


• "When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout."


• "All the world's a stage, but I wouldn't want to mop it."

Pictured: Lunchtime in downtown Louisville after a summer thunderstorm. Photo by Rebecca Wallace.

Putting it together

"It's gonna go places," a woman just said in an affectionate Southern drawl to one of my fellow "Puah" actors. Hey, our show is already going places. From Actors Theatre over to the huge church convention, then back to Actors Theatre, then back to the convention, then back to Actors Theatre ... aw, grits; you get the idea. Yesterday we did a full tech rehearsal at the convention, then a matinee at the theater, then an evening show at the convention. Or was that the day before? We've been rehearsing and teching and making last-minute changes for days, and this show-on-the-road-thing can make your head spin.

But audiences are loving "Puah's Midwife Crisis." People are telling us we're going places. People are laughing and crying (The Actors Theatre space is small. I saw them.). From my point of view, it's a thrill to see how much the musical has grown and improved since we performed it back in Portola Valley in March. Its creators have been refining it: adding songs, changing staging, etc., while we actors are finding new bits, new motivation, new meaning in our words.

Puah originally started the show with a long monologue about the Biblical saga that led our story to this point. It was informative and she sold the heck out of it, but it was exposition-heavy. So the creators, Cheryl and Karen, replaced it with a new song for Puah that they penned in their spare time. Tells the story in a cheerful way, works in an "oy vey" every now and then, and gives actress Emily Greco yet another opportunity to hold the room.

My favorite change has been the end of Act I. Originally the act ended just after Puah and her fellow midwife, Shiphrah, sang a ballad called "Your God is My God, Too." Powerful, regardless of your religious preference, but some people thought the end of Act I also needed more of a suspenseful kick, to make the audience come back from intermission wondering what would happen next. After all, Pharaoah has handed down an untenable edict: P&S have been ordered to drown all the Hebrew boy babies as soon as they're born. P&S have disobeyed him, but they've been caught. We needed the feeling that this is a turning point not only for S, who discovers God, but the whole world of Jewish slaves struggling to survive.

Now we all come out on stage at the end of Act I, dressed as slaves, fearful and trying to keep our faith with our eyes turned toward the future as we sing: "Are we chosen? If we're chosen, what will be our cue? Can God lead us out of slavery? Hard to see the view..." The staging is stark and our movements slow and simple.

This afternoon is our last matinee at Actors Theatre. While performing in front of 3,000 people at the convention was a hoot (especially having our faces blown up on Jumbotron-sized screens), I'm going to miss the theater the most. There's a proper theater smell of paint and sawdust. The tech folks here are welcoming; the lighting is bold; and the angles are wonderful. The audience seats slant up toward the ceiling. Everywhere we turn on stage, there's a face following what we do, learning and feeling and living the story we're telling.

Pictured: Director Cheryl Goodman-Morris, right, working with actress Ginger Holt in the Actors Theatre. Photo by Rebecca Wallace.

Water Gardens

Water gardens are extremely refreshing in the heat of July no matter where you live. Here in the mid-Atlantic states water features come in many styles and designs. If you're a traditionalist and have a classic brick walled garden plantings and a wall fountain soften the garden while adding a focal point. For the modern approach glass tiled walls and a linear spout bring in a Zen feel. Anything you absolutely love can add visual interest as a water feature....just make it happen

Earthquakes in Kentucky?

We're well into tech rehearsals at the Actors Theatre now -- it's great to be in the new space with lights and sound and the musicians who just flew in. Amazing how a drum kicks up every song and the energy of every drooping actor.

One big change is that we've moved from a proscenium stage to a three-quarter thrust. So now we have the audience on three sides. Intimate and elemental; we'll be able to better feel the energy of the crowd, breathe it in. Plus since my character is a flirty, rather clumsy chick who's not too bright, I just may have to stumble dangerously near an audience lap during the pregnant aerobics scene.

(Happy to have a director who lets us break the fourth wall in this show...)

Yesterday the theater's operations manager gave us a safety lecture, which, interestingly, included an earthquake warning. The other big announcement is that we are nearly sold out.

Apparently when one is telling an obscure story about acts of civil disobedience in the Bible, it pays to have a huge church convention nearby.

Pictured: Rehearsal in the Actors Theatre. Photo by Rebecca Wallace.

Off to the Actors Theatre

Most days I write about other people having arts adventures. Now my show is going on the road. Hey, I hear Kentucky is the new Broadway.

I've been performing in a new Portola Valley musical, "Puah's Midwife Crisis," and next week we'll have the great privilege of doing the show at Actors Theatre of Louisville, a hot spot for new works. We'll also be taking the stage at a huge church gathering, which is fitting because the musical is based on an Old Testament story.

Our sets, costumes and props have already taken a road trip to Louisville, with the actors following by plane. Friday and Saturday should be a flurry of dress and tech rehearsals as we get used to our new spaces. And the heat. Later in the week, it'll be thunderstorms.

Puah (played by the magnificent Emily Greco, above) is a novice midwife trying to make her way in an Egypt ruled by a Pharaoh with untenable edicts. Her story is uplifting and dramatic, with book and music by Cheryl Goodman-Morris and Karen C. Russell. I can't imagine there are too many midwife musicals out there, so maybe we'll find an extra niche market.

My character, Neferdotti (yep, she's dotty), is part of the comic relief. Whenever the plot gets really heavy, we, the Egyptian ladies-in-waiting, come in and sing. There's a girl-group tune, a blues song, an aerobics number. We wear giant pregnant bellies, and I sing while being pushed around on a rolling chaise longue. Sometimes we fall down.

More later from the road...



Pictured: Top: Emily Greco as Puah. Above: The ladies in waiting (I'm in the center) do a girl-group number. Photos from www.puahthemusical.org.