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Act One - The Chapel

There is a new venue in town for musicians and artists: The Chapel, located behind Memorial Presbyterian Church on Skinker, across the street from Forest Park.  According to the website, The Chapel is not-for-profit venue, musician and artist centered, providing a venue (as well as beer, wine and soda) completely free of charge.  That means, if a band charges a cover to get in, they take home 100% of the money they bring in.  All in the spirit of supporting the arts and renewing the city of St. Louis.

Act Two - International Justice Mission

These guys are like the James Bonds of Christian missionaries.  International Justice Mission goes into the darkest corners of the world and does what it can to bring about justice.  In their own words:

International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression.In the tradition of abolitionist William Wilberforce and transformational leaders like Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King, Jr., IJM’s work is founded on the Christian call to justice articulated in the Bible (Isaiah 1:17): Seek justice, protect the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

In practical terms, IJM does stuff like infiltrating sex trafficking rings and busts them up.  Amazing work that is desperately needed.

Act Three - The Cathedrals

Hailing from Chicago, The Cathedrals are Jon Baker and Rachel Stewart, who together create simple and intimate music, in the alt-folk tradition.  Two voices and a guitar, do you really need anything else?

Epilogue

So, how does this all come together?  Quite beautifully in fact.  Find out for yourself tonight, when you can see The Cathedrals play at The Chapel at 7:00pm as a benefit concert for International Justice Mission.  Admission is free, and beer, wine or soda (pick your poison) are included in the price of admission - but we hope that once you are there you will find it in your heart to contribute something to such a worthy cause.

Calling all tree-huggers, earth-muffins, granola-munchers and anyone who just thinks this planet of ours is pretty swell!

The 19th annual St. Louis Earth Day Festival will be held this Saturday, April 20th on the grounds of The Muny in Forest Park.

From the St. Louis Earth Day website:

“In Your Own Back Yard,” this year’s festival theme, highlights local initiatives and practical environmental advice that can be implemented in communities throughout our region. The festival will be a channel to connect festival goers with conservation groups, local and regional energy initiatives, native gardening, local food producers, and promote the ideas of healthy, active, low-impact living!

Earth-loving events will include booths from your favorite eco-conscious vendors, hands-on educational activities, an All-Species Parade, a Peace Garden, and various forms of delightful entertainment.  The festival goes from 11:00am to 6:00pm and is free and open to the public, even the “well-behaved and leashed” canine public!

Even if you are the kind of person who is normally scared away by the thought of an evening of Shakespeare, you should really consider going to see Mustard Seed Theatre’s production of Measure for Measure.  This show is not to be missed!  Despite being one of Shakespeare’s most problematic plays - both because of its unbelievable plot contrivances and also because of its questionable portrayal of women - Deanna Jent does a marvelous job of keeping the play light and surprisingly hilarious without losing the deeper questions at issue.  In this production, the play has been relocated to a modern city, complete with drug dealers, prostitutes and karaoke bars.  This is Shakespeare at its raunchiest, but also Shakespeare at its most relevant.  At the heart of the story is the contrast between justice and mercy - a tension that deeply affects all of our relationships with friends, enemies, family, country, and even with God.  Images of political sex scandals (Eliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton, the list could go on and on) may be the first to come to mind.  But really, the play touches on every aspect of human corruption and forgiveness, both in the public arena and on the personal level.

I cannot be entirely objective in reviewing this play since my hubby, Jim Butz, has one of the main roles.  I happened to think that the entire show  was utterly fantastic.  But if you don’t want to take my word for it, then read this review or this review.  Apart from Jim Butz’s fabulous performance (I can’t help it), Jason Cannon as the Duke and Jennifer Theby as Isabella were both particularly outstanding.

If you need last minute plans for tonight, Thursday nights at 8:00pm are “Pay What You Can or Pay with a Can” - in other words, pay whatever you can afford, or just bring a canned good which will be given to a food pantry.  Otherwise, tickets are $20 Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 2:00pm.

Measure for Measure runs through April 27th at Fontbonne University’s Theatre.

“Theatre should show, not tell.”

I don’t know if anyone wise ever said that, but maybe they should have. There is a certain style of playwriting that, in my view, comes closer to storytelling than to theatre. And Mary’s Wedding by Stephen Massicotte, currently being staged by the Echo Theatre Company, is one of those plays. Which is not necessarily a criticism, if you like that sort of thing. The play depicts a dreamscape in which two young Canadians fall in love in the early days of the Great War (that’s World War I for the historically challenged). Both characters, Charlie the farm boy, portrayed by Ben Nordstrom, and Mary the well-bred immigrant from England, portrayed by Magan Wiles, describe most of the action verbally, creating more of a picture in your mind rather than before your eyes. The result is mixed, as there are times when you are starkly aware that you are being talked to by an actor, whereas at other times you are completely absorbed and entranced by the story.

Despite the limits of the style, Nordstrom and Wiles are absolutely two of the finest actors St. Louis has to offer, and they do marvelously with the script given them. They make full use of the beautifully minimalist set, as well as clever and evocative use of their bodies. The chemistry between Charlie and Mary is believable and palpable. Nordstrom and Wiles both succeed in endearing themselves to the audience with a mixture of humor, sadness and the awkward delightfulness of new love. I was particularly charmed, and convinced, by the delicate Wiles’ portrayal of the crusty old Sergeant.

Mary’s Wedding runs through April 20^th at the Johnson Hall Theatre in the Third Baptist Church. Tickets can be purchased online, for more information call 314.225.4329.

Ready to dip your toe into a little local political activism? Do you feel strongly that we should do whatever it takes to provide for a cleaner Missouri? Are you in favor of getting your energy from cleaner, alternative sources? Well here is your chance to really do something about it!

Renew Missouri currently needs volunteers to collect signatures to get a Renewable Electricity Standard for Missouri on the ballot so Missourians can vote on it. To get an initiative on the November 2008 ballot, 130,000 voter signatures are needed statewide.

If you are interested in volunteering, there are two upcoming training events (from an email from Renew Missouri):

Signature Gathering Happy Hour, Friday (TONIGHT!), March 21 at 5:30 p.m. at CooperElla

Meet us in the heart of Maplewood, at CooperElla, on Friday, March 21 at 5:30 p.m. for a signature gathering happy hour. We’ll conduct a short volunteer training, and support this locally owned business. They offer sandwiches, coffee, teas, wine, and Schlafly beer products. We can practice our petitioning best practices around downtown Maplewood after the event.

Cooper Ella is located at 7401 Hazel, Maplewood, MO 63143 Click here for maps and directions.

To RSVP, please Jessica Post at 573-230-9807.

Signature Gathering Training at Wash U, Monday, March 24 at 7:00 p.m.

Join the best students activists in the region for a signature gathering training on the Wash U campus. The training is 7 pm on Monday, March 24 in Friedman Lounge, which is in the Wohl Center on the South Forty (accessible via Shepley Drive).

Nonstudents can park in metered spaces on the Wash U campus, on the left before the Wohl Center. For a campus parking map, or for questions, call Brian DeSmet at 314-727-0600.

Heartbreakingly beautiful - that’s how I would describe Rabbit Hole, the latest production in the Studio series of Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. This Pultizer Prize winning play by David Lindsay-Abaire depicts the unique suffering endured by parents who have lost a child. A topic like the death of a child can be risky; its difficult to avoid sentimentality or heavy-handedness; this production manages to pull it off with rawness and with grace. The old cliche “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry” is unapologetically true of this difficult story. One thing is for sure, if you allow yourself to be swept up into the story, you’ll leave exhausted and devastated - but also thoroughly satisfied.

The performances were quite impressive all around. Caroyln Swift was a powerhouse as the sassy Nat; she was hilarious without resorting to a caricature, and she conveyed deep sorrow without being chessy or pathetic. Victoria Adams-Zischke and Timothy McCracken were just marvelous as the grief-stricken parents - they mastered the whole range of emotions, from fear to rage to numbness with gritty reality. Ashley West at times needed to turn it down just a notch, but overall she was solid. Special congratulations to Adam King, student at the Webster Conservatory of Theatre Arts, for his finely-tuned performance.

This was not a perfect production. But its excellence far outweighs any flaws that I could point out. And frankly, when such fine performances are wedded to a sacred subject, nit-picking would feel petty and inappropriate.

Rabbit Hole runs through March 30th at the Emerson Studio Theatre in the Loretto-Hilton Center.

*As a reminder - students can get rush tickets on all Rep shows that haven’t sold out for $8.00 with a valid student ID one half-hour before the production begins. You can’t beat that deal with a stick.

I cannot speak highly enough about Mustard Seed Theatre, one of St. Louis’ newest theatre companies.  Besides the fact that they are filling an important niche (it’s a loosely Christian company producing shows that focus on issues of faith and justice), and besides the fact that they are committed to social and environmental justice, they are also doing some amazing theatre.  Their recent production of Remnant was astonishingly powerful and, despite being their inaugural full-length production, it racked up an impressive 6 nominations for this years Kevin Kline Awards.

Mustard Seed’s next offering is a dramatic reading of an intriguing play, The Unseen, written by Craig Wright, who has written for TV shows Six Feet Under and Lost.  In the play, two men, Wallace and Valdez, befriend one another in the midst of being imprisoned by a powerful regime.  Apparently in neighboring cells, they have never seen each other or anyone else besides their torturing interrogator, Smash.  And they don’t know why they have been imprisoned.  When an “unseen” person begins communicating with them in code, Wallace and Valdez have to deal with issues of faith, reason, hope and despair when the possibility of escape becomes real.

Mustard Seed Theatre is producing this dramatic reading this weekend only - Saturday  the 23rd and Monday the 25th at 7pm, and Sunday the 24th at 2pm at Fontbonne University’s Theatre.  To puchase tickets by phone, call 314-719-8060.  And don’t just come to be passively entertained - stick around after the show for discussion with the cast and fellow audience members.

This month’s StLGreenDrinks will be screening a 20-minute film, “The Story of Stuff,” which deals with the ‘underside’ of the cycle of production and consumption. In other words, we all have too much stuff; but where is it all coming from and where does it go? So don’t just sit back on your consumerist butt - put your earth-loving cap on, and come out for drinks and discussion!

The wheres and whens: February 19, 2008 at the Macklind Avenue Deli (4721 Macklind Avenue, at Nottingham). The event starts at 6:30pm, but if you want to order food and drinks you need to be there by 6:00pm. There is a suggested $3.00 donation to keep StLGreenDrinks afloat.

[Little Bit O’ History - GreenDrinks is a worldwide phenomenon that started in London in 1989. A group of environmentally-minded people got together on a monthly basis to imbibe and informally discuss eco-issues. The concept caught on, and has now spread to 321 cities all over the globe.]

I went to the St. Louis Rep with high expectations, since Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose happens to be one of my most favorite plays, second perhaps only to Hamlet. And the famous film version starring Henry Fonda also happens to be one of my favorite films.  For those not familiar with the story, the entire show takes place inside a jury room as the jurors deliberate the verdict of a murder case involving a 16-year old kid accused of stabbing his father in the chest. What seems to be an open-shut case turns out to be a bit more complicated when one juror stands alone in doubting the boy’s guilt.

It is hard to tell what makes this show so fascinating and enjoyable. Is it the sleuthing, worthy of Sherlock Holmes or CSI? Or is it the psychological drama which so poignantly reveals human nature at its best, worst, and hardest to pin down? Perhaps its the brilliant and natural dialogue which effortlessly and efficiently presents us with 12 unique characters, not 12 caricatures. Either way, this show is taut enough to keep you interested, but its intensity varies enough so as not to leave you exhausted. It will leave you impressed and thinking hard about justice, doubt, prejudice and the deception of appearances.

So, as I said, I had some pretty high expectations. And I am happy to say that for the most part, The St. Louis Rep’s production met those expectations. The set was just right - a drab and ordinary jury room, without ornamentation or distraction, made for the perfect blank canvas. Kudos need to go to the director as well for the astounding choreography needed for this show. Maneuvering twelve men around the stage in a way that is both natural and fluid and fits with the dialogue is no small feat. However, most of the credit goes to the actors who all did a superb job in bringing these characters to life; with the exception, that is, of Juror #8, played by Jeff Talbot. It is unfortunate that the most pivotal character of the play was the least convincing; Talbot’s acting style was stiff and unnatural. He never seemed to actually ground himself in the action, but instead remained above it - reciting memorized lines and gesturing dramatically rather than genuinely interacting with his fellow jurors. Too bad. The rest of the actors were just wonderful, most notably Steve Brady as the bigoted Juror #10, Richmond Hoxie as the logical Juror #4, Dane Knell as the elderly Juror #9, Jerry Vogel as the German-American Juror #11 and Gary Wayne Barker as the prim Juror #2.

Twelve Angry Men, presented by The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, runs now through March 2, 2008 at the Loretto-Hilton Center.

There is a good chance that at some point you have seen those words “Go See a Play” on a blue bumper sticker while driving around town. Good advice, easier than ever to take. If you are a theatre lover in St. Louis, you have had much to rejoice about in the last few years - eight new theatre companies have come on the scene in the last three years alone! St. Louis has become a sleeper city of serious theatrical talent.

Just about a week ago the nominees for the Kevin Kline Awards were announced, and this year’s bunch of nominees might be the best so far in the last three years. If you fancy wearing a tuxedo or evening gown, you can actually go to a honest to goodness awards show - ticket info available on the website.

One such show that might be nomination worthy currently in production is Cherry Docs - playing through February 10th, presented by the New Jewish Theatre. I have actually read Cherry Docs, and the story, while compelling, is a bit contrived. Fortunately the New Jewish Theatre consistently produces excellent work. So I am hoping the talent of those involved will improve on a play with potential - potential to be really good or really bad.

Extra credit - Don’t suspend you disbelief any longer: KWMU review of this current production.