LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Auditions will be held next week for actor-singers (18 or older) for the original musical “Even In Shadow,” which will be shot on video in Lake County.

You may audition online or come to one of the live auditions.

Live auditions will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 11, and 1 p.m. Saturday, July 13, in the Friendship Hall at Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, 5340 Third St.

The deadline for online auditions is Monday, July 15, at 11:59 p.m.

Information on the production is on the Web site www.eveninshadow.com with a list of characters and their sides.

This play was originally produced in 2002 for Summer Theater Workshop. It has been revised and rewritten by its producers, Carolyn Wing Greenlee and Dan Worley of Kelseyville.

This is a unique opportunity for those who have desired to be involved in making a movie. Involvement also offers profit sharing for cast and crew.

Singers who are non-actors (18 or older) are also welcome to audition for the soundtrack, which will be recorded in-studio before the video is released. This is a great opportunity for singers who don't want to act, or don't match the look or visual age of one of the characters but can deliver a fitting vocal.

Crew members of all skills are also welcome to come out and meet with the producers.

I am often asked if I know of a good poem to be read at a wedding, and here's one by James Bertolino, from his new and selected poems, “Ravenous Bliss.”

Bertolino lives in Washington state and I have been a reader of his poetry for almost 50 years.

When he and I were younger, we often published in the same literary journals, most of which have slipped away into the past.

A Wedding Toast

May your love be firm,
and may your dream of life together
be a river between two shores—
by day bathed in sunlight, and by night
illuminated from within. May the heron
carry news of you to the heavens, and the salmon bring
the sea’s blue grace. May your twin thoughts
spiral upward like leafy vines,
like fiddle strings in the wind,
and be as noble as the Douglas fir.
May you never find yourselves back to back
without love pulling you around
into each other's arms.

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 ©2014 by James Bertolino, "A Wedding Toast," from Ravenous Bliss, (MoonPath Press, 2014). Poem reprinted by permission of James Bertolino 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.

TOY STORY 4 (Rated G)

Launched in 1995, “Toy Story” marked a major milestone in animated moviemaking as the first fully computer-animated feature film. But there’s so much more to the franchise than Pixar’s trailblazing artistic technology.

The character-driven franchise hooked audiences young and old to stay attached to the story of beloved toys like the relatable pull-string cowboy Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), the delusional Space Ranger with an identifiable catch phrase.

That “Toy Story 4” has come to fruition nine years after the third installment is remarkable in that “Toy Story 3” seemed like the end of the line for Woody and company when Andy, heading off for college, no longer needed his toys.

Yet, Andy’s handoff of the toys to live with Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw), a young friend of the family, turns out to be, just like in life, a situation where every ending is a new beginning.

With Woody and his friends moving on, transition is a big thematic piece of the fourth chapter. For one thing, Woody, now consigned to the closet, must adapt to a new role but he makes sure to remain very much in the picture.

Confident about his place in the world, Woody’s priority is to take care of the young Bonnie, and as she approaches kindergarten with a little apprehension, the cowboy stows away in her backpack so that he may stick by her side.

During the arts and crafts class, Woody retrieves a discarded spork from a trash can that enables Bonnie to shape her own toy, Forky (Tony Hale), by adding googly eyes, pipe-cleaner arms, popsicle stick feet and red waxy lips.

Well aware of his origin, Forky declares himself trash and not a toy, leading Woody to show Forky why he should embrace being a toy and give up his desire to jump back into the nearest trash receptacle.

Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang, including newcomer Forky, accompany Bonnie on a vacation road trip to in the family’s RV to the tourist town of Grand Basin to enjoy the big carnival where plush toys hanging in game booths eventually get liberated.

Before reaching this destination, Forky leaps from the moving RV to escape his newfound role of Bonnie’s toy in search of a trash heap, while Woody, adhering to his self-appointed duty as a protector, sets off in hot pursuit.

While Buzz and the other toys fret about losing their friends, Woody and Forky, hiking along a desolate highway, finally catch up to the gang but not without encountering some distractions.

The tourist town has a secondhand store with a lamp in the window that Woody spots as the one from his former home that was adorned with the porcelain doll Bo Beep (Annie Potts), his long-lost friend.

Slipping into the store through a mail slot, Woody and Forky search for Bo Beep but instead, at first, find a host of other toys, including Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), her creepy ventriloquist dummy henchmen, and daredevil Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves).

A vintage pull-string doll, Gabby Gabby has a manufacturing defect in her voice box that has left her sounding anything but adorable, and hence a toy that would not be inviting to be adopted by any child.

Gabby Gabby proves to be borderline creepy herself when she takes Forky hostage because she has the misguided notion that if she could purloin Woody’s voice box that she would finally get the love and affection of the store owner’s granddaughter.

The antique store is the closest thing to a chamber of horrors for any toy so unfortunate to be trapped by Gabby Gabby and the foreboding ventriloquist dummies who patrol the premises with a looming quietness that is inherently unsettling.

Meanwhile, Bo Beep has left the old lamp behind, transforming into an adventurer to enjoy life on her own terms as she rides around in fake skunk mobile with her diminutive sidekick Giggles McDimples (Ally Maki).

The reunion between Woody and Bo Beep is arguably the emotional core of the story, where the cowboy stands tall, just like the hero of any Western, and the porcelain doll, unlike a fairy-tale character, is a free spirit whose strength and sarcasm belie her delicate exterior.

The magic of the “Toy Story” franchise comes in large part from the view of the world from a toy’s perspective, with Woody being the wisest one of the bunch and Buzz probably the most comical.

Welcome additions to the series include the carnival prize stuffed animals Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele) and Canadian action figure Duke Caboom, who imagines that he has the fearless confidence of doing Evel Knievel-style motorcycle stunts.
“Toy Story 4,” perfectly flawless family fare, appears to be likely the franchise’s fitting last chapter suffused with genuine feelings of love, friendship and loyalty that deliver the proper coda of a masterful animated franchise with astonishing heart and soul.

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 1939 classic, “The Wizard of Oz,” starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, July 9, at 1 and 6 p.m.

Entry to the film is by donation.

This adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s fairy tale has something for all ages: strange lands, funny moments, scary moments, a dazzling assortment of imaginative characters, songs that take us over the rainbow, a peerless Judy Garland performance, and meaningful messages in abundance.

Continuously enthralling, this is one hardy perennial you will never tire of watching. It’s a must-see on the big screen.

The movie is sponsored by Jean Mead and Vivian Wilson.

Rated G. Run time is 1 hour and 47 minutes.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Actor-singers age 18 or older are invited to audition for the original stage musical “Even In Shadow” which will be shot on video in Lake County.

Actor-singers and singers who are non-actors (18 or older) also are welcome to audition for the soundtrack, which will be recorded in-studio before the video is released.

This is a great opportunity for those who may not match the look or visual age of one of the characters but can deliver a fitting vocal.

Information on the production is on the Web site, www.eveninshadow.com, with a list of characters and their sides.

You may audition online or come to one of the live auditions listed below.

Live audition dates are Thursday, July 11, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, July 13, at 1 p.m., at the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church Friendship Hall, 5340 Third St.

The deadline for online auditions is Monday, July 15, at 11:59 p.m.

I’m afraid that if I’d asked my grandparents what the past was like they’d say it was “hard,” and that would be it.

But Megan Arlett is privileged to have a grandmother who knows how to enchant us with colors and odors and sounds. Arlett was born in the U.K., grew up in Spain, and now lives in Texas.

I Ask My Grandmother What Trinidad Was Like in 1960

Paradise with a thousand stings, she replies.
Deep blue and blazing sky. Incessant cicadas,
scuttle of bug and roach. Fleas, mosquitos,
the threat of scorpions. Men leaning on doorposts,
crowding the bar. Smoking, drinking,
laughing descendants of slaves. Fire coral burns,
reef-edge barracudas. Truly lovely.
Matriarchal, she says, women with eight children
by many different men. The men would leave
as the spirit took them. I want
to know all the forces one can call spirit.
Tall, swaying fronds of the sugar cane fields.
Distant roar heralding a downpour. Snapping turtles.
Nearby shanty town, she says,
streets full of rubbish, rats in the gutter.
I admired the colonial-style homes, she says.
Colonial, I say.
Separate servant quarters and grounds
filled with samaan trees, the balconies overflowing
with hot-colored orchids and the locusts drawn close
by the palatial lights, colorful and clawing,
their hooks sunk deep into the bare skin of a sweating back.

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 Megan J. Arlett, “I Ask My Grandmother What Trinidad Was Like in 1960,” from Third Coast, (Spring/Summer, 2018). Poem reprinted by permission of Megan J. Arlett 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.