Dela-Where? I Am Okay With That…

So I know Delaware is technically not in the DC vicinity but as many know who live here it is almost a requirement to go for a weekend over the summer. The most popular places are Bethany Beach, Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach which are all located within about 15 minutes of each other on the ocean. And, I can now say that I have been to all three. The boardwalk in Rehoboth is excellent, the bar scene in Dewey is great fun and the serenity of Bethany is fabulous. Last year I there for Labor Day Weekend. It was a great, great weekend, lying on the beach, drinking Dogfish Head beer, hanging out with good friends and even now, I think of that weekend every time I hear All I Do Is Win by DJ Khaleb.

So, this past weekend was my second time out to good ol' D.E. As I now have permission to use this individual’s name in the blog (kind of), this weekend was thrown together by none other than my dear friend, Kate. Her cousins allowed her to have their home for the weekend and Kate invited five of us to join her. Sadly, due to the chilly weather there was no lying on the beach though. We attempted to sit on the beach but there was a fierce wind requiring us to all sit facing the same direction to avoid eating a mouthful of sand. In addition to it not being conducive to having conversations, it got real cold, real fast. At one point I was laying face down, hood over my head trying to hide from the sand/wind. I was doing an excellent job of practicing for my dream role of being one heck of a dead body on SVU. But as proven again this weekend, the beach is not required for a fantastic “beach” getaway.

Yes, the house was pristine (there was flip-flop everything—adorable). Yes, the dead-end street along a small body of water was delightful (minus the creepy life-like kid sculpture). And yes, the little grocery store/ bakery within walking distance of the house had the greatest pastries and coffee (excellent morning/afternoon treat). But, the true asset to this weekend was the women themselves. I drove to Delaware having never met three of the ladies who came to play. One thing I think I like most about DC is with it being a transient city, people are constantly coming and going, therefore, many are open and accepting of brand new people they have never met before. I am not saying that the friendships are better or worse than those I have made elsewhere but they seem to be made within a much shorter timeline as so many others are seeking new friends as well.

This past weekend I hung out with five fabulous women and bonus, I was not secretly wishing one or all of them weren’t there. I simply spent the majority of the weekend laughing. One of my favorite conversations was the discussion over guys making a phone call versus simply sending text messages—hilarious.  Pick up the damn phone and call us, boys! We do not want to be asked out via text or have hour long plus conversations texting back and forth J Everyone had hilarious tales to tell, some stories were a little graphic, Pole Pressure tracing lives on and I think I have five new career coaches. Best suggestion, by far, was for me to share my passion for my ebook-reading device by becoming an Amazon Kindle salesperson.

So overall conclusion, whether it is with this group or another, I highly recommend getting out of the DC area and going to Delaware for a beach weekend. Beyond the location, the best part for me was when I looked around the room this past weekend realizing that I was hanging out with some pretty awesome, single (as in unmarried), successful, intelligent, 30 plus (gasp!) women who were not talking about marriage or babies (not that there is anything wrong with that…love you all out there with that in your world). But where I currently am, I know that I am going to hit the big three oh this year without having either of those in my life and you know what? I am okay with that.

Hi. I'm in Delaware.

For Those Who Enjoy Opera…

I recently saw Washington National Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly at The Kennedy Center. Overall, great show, production and cast. For those who are unfamiliar with the synopsis of Madama Butterfly it is the story of East meets West. If you don’t want to know the whole story, skip to the next paragraph. Quick version: A sailor, Lieutenant Pinkerton, buys a home in Japan for him and his soon-to-be Japanese wife, Butterfly. Butterfly 15 at the time, yeah statutory rape, rejects her entire family and religion to marry Pinkerton. Pinkerton seems to simply be sexually attracted to her and eventually leaves to return to America after he gets himself some. Butterfly waits for him and becomes broke while waiting and pining. Pinkerton eventually returns with a new wife hoping that Butterfly forgot about him. Men. Pinkerton learns he has a son with Butterfly. And then Butterfly kills herself—The End.

Overall it was a great show. The only thing that bothered me was the casting of Butterfly. I know that this is going to sound very shallow but the actress just looked all wrong for the role. I’ll start by saying that I am not a big fan of the soprano voice/sound to begin with so that didn’t help her case. But, the woman playing a supposed gorgeous, Asian teenager looked 40 and was very obviously not Asian nor all that attractive the night we went. This miscasting was only made more obvious by the role of Lieutenant Pinkerton being played by a guy who looked to be in his early twenties. It was very awkward when Pinkerton was singing about his inappropriate, sexual love for a child and all I could think was he should be singing about his inappropriate love for his mother. But beyond the appearances, Butterfly’s voice was great for a soprano and I understand that there is a maturity required to have a voice that can hit those notes. It was just so hard to watch this woman in a role that she so obviously did not look the part for.

With all that said though, as previously mentioned, the show was incredible. There is this one moment where Butterfly’s servant, Suzuki, Pinkerton and Sharpless, the American consul, are all singing at the same time. There are no words to describe the true awesomeness of that unified sound. It truly gave me chills.

Sharpless was definitely my favorite character and this was all due to the actor, Hyung Yun. He gave a fantastic performance. His baritone voice was spot on. And in addition to the voice, he had the most perfect expressions and mannerisms that subtitles where not required to know what he was saying or implying. Hyung Yun was quite brilliant and I do hope to see him in another performance.

Finally, there was an additional bonus to this particular performance as we as an audience had the honor of seeing Plácido Domingo conduct the orchestra. For those who do not know who he is or why that is a treat, I highly recommend Google. My date for the evening was so excited to see Plácido that she told me that she would do her best to contain her Justin Bieber enthusiasm. He's old and tubby? Most of us ask.  Fine, she says—“more Plácido for me”. Conclusion: I highly recommend Madama Butterfly, especially the cast that we saw on March 8, for all those who enjoy opera and maybe even those who don’t.



A Unique Theater Experience…



Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream



I will start by admitting that this is not my first performance that I have seen presented by the Synetic Theater. Prior to moving to DC, I was treated to their rendition of Antony & Cleopatra. The play I saw most recently was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For those who are unaware of what exactly Synetic Theater is it is somewhat hard to describe and better to just go see. Synetic Theater is a physical theater company that was founded in 2001. The name is the combination of the two words, synthesis and kinetic. The shows are acted without words in a highly dramatic manner. The stories are told through movement, dance and instrumental music. The music is constantly changing to convey what is going on with the actors’ pantomime. You’ll occasionally hear a grunt or other such noise but there is no spoken word. It is really quite interesting. I understand that it is not for everyone but it should be noted that it is anything but boring. The two shows both completely held my attention the entire time.

The group’s mission is “to advance and enrich the theater arts in the Nation's Capital through its unique performance style, which fuses the classical elements of drama, movement, dance, mime, and music into a distinct form of non-realistic theater. This form is simultaneously avant-garde and accessible, with a broad appeal to a wide, culturally diverse, and cross-generational audience.” (Quote from http://www.synetictheater.org/).

Looking at the similarities between the two shows, their performances have overlapping casts as this is a theater company. The woman who played Cleopatra in Antony & Cleopatra was also Titani in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is actually one of the co-founders with her husband who is the director. A friend’s favorite cast member was Antony in the first show I saw and later became Oberon in the second one. Looking at the differences, for A Midsummer Night’s Dream I went to the actual Synetic Theater in Crystal City, VA rather than where I saw them first at the Shakespeare Theatre located in downtown Washington, DC. The theater in Virginia is quite small and cozy with images of their past performances in the entrance way.

Another reason I returned is that their original production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream received many award nominations for direction, choreography, acting and lighting, sound and costume design so; I was told that I just had to see this performance. I actually stalked their website waiting for the tickets to go on sale as it only returned for a very short while. Lucky for me I had a friend who was even more on top of it and had purchased five tickets for a group of us to go.

Personally, I very much enjoyed both performances as the storytelling was excellent and distinctive from what I am use to seeing at the theater. Therefore, if you are interested in seeing truly intriguing physical theater or are even just curious to see what it is, I highly recommend seeing a Synetic Theater performance. You are in for quite a unique theater experience…

Antony in Antony & Cleopatra