NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department has been invited to bring its fall 2019 production of Jody Gehrman’s new play “Wild Fire” to the Region VII Conference of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival this coming February 2020.

The play was originally produced this past fall semester at Mendocino College as part of the Phoenix Project, a multi-disciplinary arts initiative of artists responding to human-caused climate change.

According to Director Reid Edelman, “This is a great honor for our students and a great opportunity to represent Mendocino College and our community at this nationally recognized festival. Only three plays were chosen to be performed at the festival, out of more than 30 qualified entries. As you can imagine, our students are just beaming with excitement!”

For the students attending, it will be a once in a lifetime experience. They will not only perform their play for theatre students and faculty from all over the region, but they will participate in classes, workshops, and scholarship auditions.

At the festival, students will learn about transfer opportunities and other potential next steps in their education and careers.

The festival brings together college theatre students and faculty from all over the northwestern states, including Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho and Montana.

The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival hosts regional festivals which lead up to a national festival each year hosted by the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington DC.

As a participating production, Mendocino College’s play was attended by two visiting professors from other colleges and considered for inclusion in the festival.

In addition, students in this production and last year’s spring musical “Once Upon a Mattress” were nominated for the prestigious Irene Ryan acting scholarship competition.

For these competitive auditions, five Mendocino College students will be paired with five scene partners who will audition at the festival with scenes and monologues.

College Technical Director Steve Decker, with the help of the production student crew, will be transporting and reassembling the play’s full set, costumes, lighting, and properties at the host theater at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

In all, 16 student actors and crew members from Mendocino College will attend this week-long festival. They will be accompanied by college theatre faculty and staff including Edelman, Decker, Gehrman and set designer/carpenter David Wolf.

“Wild Fire,” written by Gehrman, a Mendocino College professor, transports audiences into the future of Mendocino County in a disturbing look at the cataclysmic future which awaits if we fail to adequately address our human-caused climate crisis.

However, according to Edelman, “It is also an engaging personal story, following a group of interwoven characters and their descendants. The play looks at sacred and artistic elements which define our humanity and make our survival as a species meaningful and worth fighting for.”

Bringing a full production all the way to Colorado will be very expensive. Costs will include airfare, hotel accommodations and festival registration in addition to truck rental to transport the set, props, and costumes.

To fund the trip, the college Theatre Arts Department needs to raise a total of $23,000. Through the help of generous donors, half of these funds have already been raised. To help raise the rest, the students are presenting a tri-tip drive-up dinner fundraiser.

Tickets for the fundraiser cost $60 dollars each and can be purchased at the Mendocino Book Co. and also directly from students participating in the trip.

On Friday, Jan. 24, between 4 and 6 p.m., ticket-holders will pick up a ready-to-eat take-home dinner bag at Mendocino College near the Agriculture Department and Sonoma State Extension Center.

Dinner bags will include a freshly barbecued tri-tip roast for four people, four baked potatoes, four cookies, four dinner rolls, and salad for four.

Sponsors of this event include Raley’s Market, Forks Ranch Market, Coyote Valley Casino, the Broiler Steakhouse, Slam Dunk Pizza, Crush Restaurant, Mendocino College Culinary Arts Instructor Chef Nicholas Petti and barbeque masters Bruce Smith and Matt Hilton.

For more information about the tri-tip drive-up diner fundraiser or the Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The Mendocino College Ukiah campus is located at 1000 Hensley Creek Road, Ukiah.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Symphony’s Christmas concert, set for Sunday, Dec. 22, at 2 p.m., at the Soper Reese Theatre, promises to be an interesting mix, with prolific singer Jude Darrin as the featured vocalist for three selections in the second half of the program.

The concert starts off with a performance by the LCSA Youth Orchestra, conducted by Sue Condit, followed by a selection of traditional Christmas favorites by the full symphony.

Jude Darrin starts the second half of the concert with three custom- arranged selections by local musician and symphony member Camm Linden: “Pretty Paper” by Willie Nelson; “Mary, Did You Know?” by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene; and “Oh, Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” by R. Fisher Boyce.

“Pretty Paper” was written by Willie Nelson when he was a struggling musician, working as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner and encyclopedia salesman.

Frankie Brierton, a local man in Ft. Worth, Texas, was Nelson’s inspiration. Brierton had spinal meningitis as a child and was unable to walk.

Refusing to use a wheelchair, he crawled, wearing thick gloves and knee pads made from old tires. He was determined to live an independent life, so Brierton would sit near a busy intersection outside Leonard’s, a mega-sized department store in Ft. Worth, where he sold pencils, ribbons and wrapping paper during the holidays to passersby for a penny.

Nelson would pass by on his sales route and wrote his song after seeing Brierton hawking his wares and calling out, “Pretty paper, pretty ribbons!”

“Mary, Did You Know?” was a joint effort by Mark Lowry, a gospel songwriter and comedian, and his friend, Buddy Greene. Lowry wrote the lyrics to this song as the program for a living Christmas tree performance in 1991.

Seven years later he rediscovered the script, converted the lines into a poem, and asked Greene to put it to music. It took Greene just 30 minutes to compose the haunting minor-key accompaniment.

For this piece, sign-language aficionado and good friend to Lake County’s deaf community, Jaerae Berton, presents a signing interpretation of the lyrics and music.

“Oh, Beautiful Star of Bethlehem” was written in the early 20th century by a Tennessee dairy farmer, R. Fisher Boyce, who loved to sing while working in his milk barn. He was an avid shape-note singer and eventually held “singing schools” to teach others how to read the distinctive, geometrically shaped note heads that indicate which tone on the musical scale to sing.

For this piece, Sing Napa Valley! – a full soprano, alto, tenor and bass chorus – will provide the harmonies reminiscent of the shape-note tradition.

The concert will end with the traditional Christmas carol sing-a-long with the audience, Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” by the orchestra and the “Hallelujah Chorus” with the audience.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 Main St. in Lakeport. Tickets may be purchased at the door the day of the concert the LCSA Christmas Concert is especially popular and it is advisable to order tickets online in advance at www.soperreesetheatre.com.

For those on a tight budget, the dress rehearsal starts at 11 a.m. for only $5 for adults and no charge for those under 18. Come early to ensure a seat.

Here's a poem about something that each of us receives, though only once. If you didn't get yours written into a poem, you've got it put away somewhere.

Wyatt Townley lives in Kansas, and "First Kiss" is from her new book, “Rewriting the Body,” from Stephen F. Austin State University Press.

First Kiss

Here you are forty years
later in a white coat
examining my ears.

All I can think
is how your tongue once
turned in the tunnel

you're peering into. The
fault is not in my ears,
but between them!

No one can see that far.
But could we gaze back
through the years and dead stars

to the doorstep of my parents' house,
you bending down with your tall mouth
to make the softest landing on mine,

having thrown off my balance
so tenderly, can you explain,
good Doctor, how to regain it?


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Wyatt Townley, "First Kiss," from Rewriting the Body, (Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Wyatt Townley and the publisher. Introduction copyright @2019 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.

‘THE IRISHMAN’

Let’s face the fact that director Martin Scorsese knows more than a little something about delivering mob-themed movies. After all, he was raised in the Little Italy neighborhood of New York City that inspired several of his films.

Italian heritage is hardly the measure to explain Scorsese’s success with mob dramas. His talent was evident in “Mean Streets,” one of his earliest works about a small-time hood aspiring to work his way up the ranks of the local mob.

Scorsese’s “Goodfellas,” which starred Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci as two gangsters ascending the hierarchy of the Mafia, depicted serious violence. “Casino” is another great gangster film that also starred De Niro and Pesci.

The point of revisiting the prolific director’s mob hits is not just that he has a proclivity for using the same actors in key roles, but to underscore that he’s the best candidate to adapt Charles Brandt’s “I Heard You Paint Houses” book about a Mafia player.

The titular character of “The Irishman,” based on Brandt’s book, is Robert De Niro’s Frank Sheeran, who began his career as a truck driver and worked his way up to being a confidante to Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), the powerful leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union.

Delivering meat products for a trucking company, Sheeran had a fortuitous encounter when he met mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) while having engine trouble at a Texaco gas station.

One may ask, what exactly is the meaning of the title of Brandt’s book? In his first conversation with Sheeran, Hoffa says “I heard you paint houses,” to which Sheeran replies in the affirmative, adding that “I also do my own carpentry.”

Painting a house is when the hitman splatters the blood of his victim on the interior of a building. Doing one’s own carpentry refers to the disposal of a body. Think of the effort necessary to prepare a pine box for a funeral service.

Scorsese frames the film from the point of view of the titular character. Having outlived just about everyone connected to the mob, Sheeran reminisces in his old age at a Catholic retirement home, showing few regrets other than a failed relationship with one of his daughters.

The criminal life comes easily to Sheeran as he soon starts selling meat products from the back of his truck to Philadelphia gangster Skinny Razor (Bobby Cannavale), who facilitates an introduction to crime boss Angelo Bruno (Harvey Keitel).

Meanwhile, these mob connections also bring Sheeran back into contact with Bufalino, leading to new work collecting cash payoffs in shakedowns. Stationed in Italy during World War II, Sheeran’s ability to speak the language ingratiates him to his new mob associates.

Sheeran’s family life gets complicated, particularly when his young daughter Peggy (Lucy Gallina) realizes something ominous about her father when he viciously beats up a grocery store owner who had mistreated her.

Later in life, the adult Peggy (Anna Paquin), knowing her father’s volatile temper and suspecting the worse, can only blankly stare at him during family gatherings, and his attempt at reconciliation even at the end of his days is met with stone-cold silence.

Upon Bufalino’s recommendation, Sheeran advances into a position of trust within the Teamsters Union to intimidate those who might pose a risk to Hoffa’s leadership and the use of the pension fund to finance mob-owned hotels in Las Vegas.

Unmistakably, during the ‘50s and ‘60s, Hoffa loomed large as one of the most powerful men in America, given that the Teamsters Union controlled the distribution of goods throughout the country with a tight grip on the trucking industry.

The film targets the political scene during the 1960 presidential election, noting the mob support that factored into John F. Kennedy winning the White House with ballot tinkering in Illinois and other campaign activities.

Things get ugly when the newly-elected president appoints his brother Bobby (Jack Huston) as Attorney General, who without missing a beat charges hard against Hoffa’s union for corruption.

Hoffa also has an enemy with the hotheaded union rival Anthony Provenzano (Stephen Graham), known by the moniker of “Tony Pro,” who disrespects the Teamsters leader by showing up late to meetings dressed like he’s going to a pool party.

Scorsese has packed the film with so many hoods it is hard to keep track. Amusingly, the introduction of new characters is accompanied by captions such as “shot eight times in the head in a Chicago parking lot” and “shot three times in the face.” Death by natural causes is rare.

Given that “The Irishman” is from the point of view of Sheeran, the historical accuracy of this mob tale is in question, particularly as it relates to the disappearance of Hoffa in 1975 without any apparent trace.

Watching “The Irishman,” which runs at three-and-one-half hours, is a serious time commitment, but the effort is worthwhile because this film ranks in the top tier of Scorsese’s work. “Netflix” offers the comfort of viewing this epic at home.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Konocti Art Society ends 2019 by donating proceeds from its annual Kelseyville Pear Festival art raffle to the Lake County Art Council’s Summer Youth Art Program.

Each year KAS artists create pear-related art projects which are raffled at the Kelseyville Pear Festival.

Many of the KAS artists donate their time and expertise teaching art to Lake County youth.

Barbara Funke, Annette Higday, Jeanne Landon-Myers and Gerri Groody were happy to present this donation. Artists of KAS not shown in picture are- Leah Adams, Phyllis Thiessen, Patty Oates, Karen Magnuson, Judy Cardinale, Jo Bergesen, Jan Hambrick, Carolyn Morris, Diane Stawicki, Diana Liebe, Barbara Kossen, Karen Hook, Gay McComb, Iman Griffith, Linda Crayne and Lucia Boyle.

Sometimes a poem can seem to be like a jeweler's setting, in which a gemlike image is presented.

This one, by Chase Twichell, who lives in upstate New York, has one of those perfect gems of observation in the "cinnamon swirls" of sand on the surface of the road. I'll never seen sand on the road again without thinking of this.

It's from her new book, “Things as It Is,” from Copper Canyon Press.

After Snow

I'm the first car after the sander.
The cinnamon swirls of fresh sand are intact.

Except for that—the sand and the road—

The woods look as if they might have
a thousand years ago, except for

the absence of tracks.

American Life in Poetry doe not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2018 by Chase Twichell, "After Snow," from Things as It Is, (Copper Canyon Press, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Chase Twichell and the publisher. Introduction copyright @2019 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.