How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Arts & Life
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper-Reese Community Theatre's Third Friday Live event on March 15 will feature Ukiah's Premier Dance band, the Funky Dozen.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the show taking place from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the theater, located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.
The Funky Dozen blend fun and funk to keep you on the dance floor all night long with high energy tunes from the 1960s, 80s and 90s.
There will be a bistro-style setting with tables and an open dance floor. Snacks and beverages will be available for purchase.
The cost for tickets is $10 per person. Tickets can be purchased from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, at the Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St. in Lakeport; tickets also are available at the Soper-Reese box office on Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., telephone 707-263-0577.
Online ticket purchases also can be made at www.soperreesetheatre.com .
- Details
- Written by: Editor
MENDOCINO, Calif. – The Fort Bragg Center for the Arts will host the Peregrine Trio on Sunday, March 17.
The concert will take place beginning at 1 p.m. in Preston Hall, 44831 Main St. in Mendocino.
The Peregrine Trio with cellist Burke Schuchmann, violinist George Hayes and pianist Jannie Lo will perform trios by Mozart and Brahms and the Kodaly Duo for Violin and Cello.
Tickets are $25 at the door and $20 in advance at Fiddles and Cameras and Harvest Market in Fort Bragg and Out of this World in Mendocino.
For more information visit http://www.fbcamusicseries.com/ .
- Details
- Written by: Editor
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake Community Pride Foundation will present a concert by “The Peculiars” on Saturday, March 9.
The concert will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Lower Lake High School Little Theater, the most intimate Little Theater in Lake County, located at 9430 Lake St. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
The Peculiars is led by musician Ramon McLane who describes the band as “an eccentric mix of music, both modern and old, that will keep your toes tappin' and the rest of your shakin'.”
The group ranges from New Orleans rhythms, Vaudeville, Cajun music, old time gospel, and the modern trends of Tom Waits and the Lumineers.
McLane for 20 years ran a Vaudeville theater in Seattle that he had created. Due to this experience, the evening will prove to be not only musical, but surprising and entertaining. It will be a grand show.
All proceeds go to support youth performing arts in Lake County.
Bring your family, bring a friend come on down to Lower Lake and enjoy the sights and sounds of The Peculiars.
Tickets cost $10 at the door. For tickets and information visit www.aneveningwith.org or call 707-331-8445.
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News Reports
The Lake County Theatre Co. is presenting “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” at the Gard Street School in Kelseyville for three weekends, and there are more performances to go on Friday, March 8, through Sunday, March 10.
I went to opening night, which I rarely do, and I didn’t regret it. I have been disappointed in the past on opening nights by incompletely rehearsed plays, but this was an exception to that, and if the LCTC keeps up this kind of self-discipline, opening night crowds should increase.
I went to see it without having seen the movie (1975) or the play (1963,) or having read the book (1962), so I was spared the distraction of comparing the local production with any of those.
Most people say that the play is very different from the movie, and both very different from the book. The novel was the 20th in a list of the 100 best books of the 20th century, the movie won a number of Oscars and the play was a prize-winner on Broadway.
Being around 70, I remember the furor that Ken Kesey’s bestseller caused when it was published. It was a blazing indictment of the psychiatric institutions of the time, and the methods of mind control used then (and to some extent still) in such places, mostly just to keep the inmates quiet and obedient.
That these methods, including heavy drugging, electro-shock and prefrontal lobotomy, had little or no therapeutic value was a hot topic then, and the discussions in the public arena led to the closing of most mental hospitals in California and the rest of the country in the 1970s.
I remember hearing from my friends that it was a very funny book. It is a funny play. The humor comes mostly from the wit of the leading characters. Insanity is not in itself amusing. If anyone close to you was ever seriously disturbed, you know that they, and all who cared for them, were deeply miserable.
It is not a situation comedy. The plot line is a tragedy, in that the hero, not insane, is destroyed by his own strengths and weaknesses interacting with the institution around him, but there is almost continuous farce on the way to the denouement. The cast performs this tricky balancing act, and the direction is very good. You will laugh and laugh and laugh and in the end you will be shocked and sad.
Armand Plato, the director, is a fresh face around here, but he has been directing small theater productions elsewhere for years, and he has a fine touch.
There are some actors that we have not seen much of before, such as Larry and Zoe Richardson, who we know primarily as very talented dancers. I admire the whole cast, so I will not be itemizing them. Go see the play and take the program home; they are all displayed in it, with photos and much more information than I want to include here.
Tim Barnes as R. P. McMurphy plays the lead with great energy and wit, which is no surprise. The biggest surprise in this cast is Diana Schmidt. We have seen her so often as a ditzy blond bombshell, and to see her here as Nurse Ratched, who is self-righteous, clever, controlling and just generally all-around mean, is quite an illumination. She was in danger of being type-cast. Now we all know better.
Clearly, since I am writing about it at all, I feel that I can recommend this play; I don’t write about productions I can’t recommend. For all the laughter, it is a serious play, and a work of art.
Christian Yeagan is a member of the Lake County Arts Council.