LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper-Reese Community Theatre's popular “Third Friday Live” event will feature the Fargo Brothers April 19.
The performance will take place from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the theater, located at 275 S. Main St. in Lakeport. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
The Fargo Brothers deliver a brand of blues and roots rock and roll with a fire and intensity that only three decades and more than 3,000 live shows together can bring.
The theater has an open dance floor and table or loge seating. Snacks and beverages are available for purchase.
Tickets are $10; there is open seating.
Tickets are available online at http://www.soperreesetheatre.com ; in the box office on Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., telephone 707-263-0577; at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; at the Tallman Hotel, 9550 Main St., Upper Lake, telephone 707-275-2244; and at the door.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Theatre Co.’s production of “Rumors” by Neil Simon is scheduled to open at Gard Street School Auditorium on April 26.
“Rumors” is a comedy. “You start laughing at the beginning of the first act and you never stop. That’s why I am in it,” said Tim Fischer.
Who is Tim Fischer? In this show, he is Lennie Ganz, husband of Clair Ganz (played by Jenna Radke).
“Tim has a face that is made out of putty. He can make it do anything he wants it to do. Just looking at him makes me laugh,” said Radke. “He is a natural.”
Perhaps this is the reason that Fisher chose to get a degree in Theatre Arts from Sonoma State.
“I couldn’t get enough of being on the stage,” he confessed. “I learned all the technical aspects of stage craft but getting a reaction out of an audience as an actor is what I lived for. That’s what still turns me on. When you know you have given an audience just what they came to see, that is a thrill.”
When Tim Fisher is not on the stage, however, he teaches English at Lower Lake High School. How then did a young man who is so enamored with theatre become a teacher? He discovered another passion, “almost by mistake.”
“I was living in Southern California, hoping to do something with acting but being a fry cook instead. I hated it,” said Fischer. “I saw an ad for a private school that needed teachers and I applied. They hired me as a sub … and I loved it. After a while, I went back to school and got my master’s in education. I found out that teaching was a calling I didn’t know I had until quite a way down the road, but it’s great. The kids are great. I get the same satisfaction out of reaching them that I get out of reaching an audience when I am acting. In a way, the two passions are sort of knitted together.”
The versatility of Tim Fischer is not confined to teaching and comedy. Recently he played Harding, a dramatic role in ”One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” He will also be remembered as the irrepressible Frenkenfurtur in LCTC’s version of “The Rocky Horror Show.”
Fischer is a happy man right now. “I am in a great place where I can do both of the things I love at the same time. Life is good.”
“Rumors” will run at Gard Street Auditorium in Kelseyville from April 26 through May 12, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets are available at Wildhurst Tasting Room in Kelseyville, 707-279-4302, and The Party Shop in Lakeport, 707-263-7800). Online purchases of general seating may be made at www.lakecountytheatrecompany.org .
There’s something wonderful about happening upon a musician playing for his or her own pleasure, completely absorbed in the music. Jeff Daniel Marion is a fine poet from east Tennessee. And here’s a woman playing the bagpipes.
Playing to the River
She stands by the riverbank, notes from her bagpipes lapping across to us as we wait
for the traffic light to change. She does not know we hear— she is playing to the river,
a song for the water, the flow of an unknown melody to the rocky bluffs beyond, for the mist
that was this morning, shroud of past lives: fishermen and riverboat gamblers, tugboat captains
and log raftsmen, pioneer and native slipping through the eddies of time. She plays for them all, both dirge
and surging hymn, for what has passed and is passing as we slip into the currents of traffic, the changed light bearing us away.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2012 by Jeff Daniel Marion, whose most recent book of poems is Father, Wind Publications, 2009. First appeared in Still: The Journal, an online publication, Winter 2013. Poem reprinted by permission of Jeff Daniel Marion. Introduction copyright 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
If you are an aspiring fashion designer, craftsman, or other type of creative artist, the California State Fair wants you to participate in the State’s largest showcase of creative arts. The deadline to apply is April 19.
The California Creative Arts exhibit will present a showcase of crafts and textiles created by California residents.
Competitive divisions include creative arts, handcrafts, fiber art, needlework, quilting, scrapbooking and card crafting.
The California Creative Arts exhibit is part showcase, part competition.
Crafters and artisans will compete for cash prizes and special awards, and award-winning entries will be put on display for the public for the duration of the State Fair.
All adult California creative artists are invited to apply for this exhibit.
Entry fees may be required depending on the competition entered.
For more information on the California Creative Arts Competition, visit www.bigfun.org or contact Stephanie Jurkowski, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 916-263-3194.
The California State Fair will run July 12-28 at Cal Expo in Sacramento.
As a fan of baseball, I eagerly anticipated “42,” knowing that the legend of Jackie Robinson is more than a great sports story; it’s a critical turning point in race relations leading up to the Civil Rights era.
Celebrating the life of a true sports hero, “42” does not disappoint. Though it has the look and feel of an old-fashioned sports drama, this film has an elegant grace and beauty for its realization of the post-war period.
Most baseball fans love nostalgia, particularly for old ballparks now long gone, like Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, Forbes Field and Crosley Field. With the help of CGI, these ballparks are lovingly recreated.
The visual appeal of “42” is stunning, and great pains were taken to bring realism to all facets. Even the magnificent Dodger Blue team bus pulling into a Philadelphia hotel parking lot is a gem.
The Jackie Robinson story is well-documented and given the fact that his uniform number 42 has been retired throughout Major League Baseball, there are few surprises about the first African-American to break the color barrier.
Writer and director Brian Helgeland, an obvious admirer of the titular character, focuses his homage to Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) on a tight schedule of the ballplayer’s quick move from the Negro Leagues to the Major League during the period of 1945 to 1947.
Not to be overlooked is the love story subplot in which Robinson, then playing with the Kansas City Monarchs, proves his devotion to his lovely future wife Rachel (Nicole Beharie), a stabilizing, supportive presence.
The central character pushing Robinson’s advancement into the Major League ranks, thus breaking baseball’s segregation, is Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), a cigar-chomping crusty old white guy who sees Robinson for the talented ballplayer that he is.
To be sure, Rickey wanted to integrate baseball and he settled on Robinson, not just for his athletic abilities, but for his temperament and strength to endure the vitriol and abuse to follow.
Well aware that his move to change the sports world was fraught with risk, Rickey wanted a player with the “guts not to fight back” when provoked. He needed someone with the fortitude to endure the hateful taunts.
To his credit, Helgeland does not gloss over the sheer animosity and ugly fury that would greet Robinson playing with white players, even in Northern cities where race relations were supposedly marginally better.
The news of Robinson’s arrival on the Dodgers team is not greeted with enthusiasm by the white players. Almost to a man, they sign a petition that asks for the black player to be excluded from the team.
An underutilized Dodgers team manager Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni), with one forceful outburst of vocal support for a talented player of any color, proves as great an influence as the vaunted Branch Rickey.
Proving to be an enthusiastic hustler on the field, gifted base-runner and capable hitter, Robinson slowly wins over most, though clearly not all, of his recalcitrant teammates.
Yet, there is no greater unifying force than a common enemy. In this case, it’s Phillies manager Ben Chapman (Alan Tudyk), a racist so vile that his vicious epithets hurled at Robinson turns the tide of public sympathy to the hero’s direction.
Frankly, Chapman’s on-field tirade, whenever Robinson is up at bat, is not only humiliating to the black player, but it comes off as uncomfortably disturbing for the prolonged nature of its loathsome depravity.
While some teammates remain indifferent or subdued, some players, like Ralph Branca (Hamish Linklater) and Pee Wee Reese (Lucas Black), embrace Robinson for being a great team player who badly wants to win for his club.
In fact, Pee Wee famously put his arm around Robinson on the baseball field at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field, showing his solidarity for a teammate abused by the taunts of the ballpark crowd.
Playing it safe in many respects, “42” is a thing of artistic beauty for its celebration of Jackie Robinson, a fitting tribute to a real hero that Major League Baseball honors each year on April 15.
Yet, unlike its namesake, “42” doesn’t take many creative chances in telling what should be a very complex story. Both Robinson and Rickey come off like candidates for sainthood, as if any character flaws should be ignored.
The star of the show is Chadwick Boseman, a name unfamiliar to most. His Jackie Robinson captures the grace, dignity and athletic prowess of a true American hero. “42” is all the better for his presence, and he makes this film well-worth watching. In baseball parlance, “42” hits a home run.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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