Don Juan Not Redeemed But Gets Rapt Attention of the Audience

Don Juan Not Redeemed 

But Gets Rapt Attention of the Audience

by

Good News Reporter, Joanne Quinn-Smith

Don Juan Comes Home from the War is a classic case study of the wishful thinking of the world that justice   Pittsburgh Irish Classical Theatre has won another theatrical battle with this one. 
and fair play do exist and that the Vanquisher becomes the Vanquished and in loneliness and despair regrets his folly.

There are two types of regional or local folk heroes.  One of them is being rich and famous and the other is the glamour of being a soldier gone off to war and then again survived.   Add that to well touted sexual charm and conquest and this is the stuff from which legends are born.  In his preface, the playwright Odon von Horvath remarks that it is not known if Don Juan was a real person.  But it is not hard to imagine a man or MEN in such a hedonistic life style as pre war Berlin was famous for breeding not one but several wealthy, seeming gallant A-listing males.  This actually could happen in any decadent society where deeper moral and values pale in comparison with being valued superficially for charm and popularity and excessive self gratification.

My companion for the evening commented that as usual the quality of PICT’s actors was world class but that the play itself made her “Angry at being a woman.”

David Whalen was as usual exceptional as Don Juan.  His cool, detached style as the conflicted anti-hero could not be denied.  Throughout the play Don Juan speaks of always pursuing love and that he feels like he is being punished but he knows not for what.  The playwright seems to want us to believe that the casualties of war are those who SURVIVE.  I think you can extend that to:  “The casualties of a valueless society based on instant gratification are the worst when the willing participants realize that they were victims to loveless, relationshipless pursuits.”

The great seducer in all decaying societies has been “Eat drink and be merry because tomorrow we die.”  But then we don’t and must face the consequences of guilt and self mockery.  Don Juan’s inescapable power over women becomes his nemesis even when he “tries” to be good.  His attempts become a mockery and in the end a final female calls out in the night, “Stay with me tonight and die tomorrow.”

What the playwright never says in the play is that in his pursuit of “love” like so many men and often women who want to be “adored” Don Juan was used as he used and never really loved.

There are no “love scenes” in the play probably for that reason, the closest Don Juan comes to love is jilting his bride at the altar.  There is one brief moment with Elke one of his youthful conquests from the past when you think he might “get it” but shortly after he ends up in the abbey questioning God and ending up mocking him and his nuns for their piety.

There is no resolution for Don Juan, he is not saved, and he is not redeemed.  The playwright would have us believe it is because his reputation “his Past” is too well formed and the pull of the world will not allow him.  But in the end isn’t it all about Free Will and Discipline.  It’s about responsibility to oneself and to others.  There is a passage in the bible, “To whom much is given, much is required.”  There are men and WOMEN who take their charisma to the stage as motivational speakers or pastors or even political figures and there are men who waste it fleetingly taking it to bed.  Don Juan took it to his grave.

For entertainment value Don Juan Comes Back from the War is an amazing piece of theatre art.  But BEWARE it will make you THINK and like me perhaps become a bit didactic.  Ah yes, but for one hour and thirty minutes without intermission, you will be mesmerized by drama and hedonism and above all—stellar performances.  Don Juan will perform through August 31 at the Stephen Foster Memorial and tickets are available at http://picttheatre.org

One more kudo and an aside.  Director Alan Stanford has done a stunning job and once again with minimal costuming. He is to be complimented for having his actors put their close on instead of take them off.  A warning to the puritanical, there is brief nudity in the beginning of the play but quite frankly it is like this comment an aside rather than an issue.  Personally I don't think it was necessary, it did not add nor detract from the overall greatness of the production.

Joanne Quinn-Smith, Award winning internet radio broadcaster, blogger, author  and internet radio and TV network editor and publisher.  Joanne is the owner and CEO, Creative Energy Officer, of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates, a successful Pittsburgh-based marketing company. She is a grandmother and great grandmother, an unlikely trendsetter for online journalism and broadcasting. Joanne is internationally known as the “Get Your Google On” Gal.  But better known as Techno Granny™ to over one million accumulated online listeners worldwide.   Joanne has created a revolutionary online NEW MEDIA platform in Internet broadcasting, blogging and other social media participation that represents the new second generation of World Wide Web interactions, known in technology circles as Web 2.0. JQS is the online publisher of PositivelyPittsburghLiveMagazine.com, an online community magazine to disseminate the Positive News for Positive Pittsburghers.  PPL Mag is Pittsburgh’s First Internet radio and TV network with syndicated channels and online radio and TV capabilities.  Joanne is also the author of "Folly of Marketing Plan in Your Head, 101 Compelling Reasons to Write One."

Defending the Caveman, Battle of the Sexes Will Never Go Out of Style

What a pure psychological funfest.  The only monosyllables here were in the Caveman banter and the terse remarks of Vince Valentine responding to his buddies.  This longest running solo play in Broadway history is filled with psychological nuances and text book truisms turned into hilarity.  There was something for everyone from steel worker to college professor.  From female executive to mother, and grandmother, everyone was laughing.  It’s a tossup as to who laughed harder, the men or the women.  

Whether you’re in a relationship or know someone in a relationship, Defending the Caveman will have your roaring with laughter and nudging each other affectionately as you recognize yourselves or friends.  There is no topic sacred or untouched as this one-man blitzkrieg tackles contemporary feminism, masculine “sensitivity” and even the erogenous zone!

You just cannot resist being pulled in to the caveman history of the show relegating men to hunters and women to gatherers.  The writer Rob Becker delved into a lot of socio-primitive history books for this one and a few psychological journals also.  

Laughter aside, I think a few couples left the theatre with just a little more understanding of each other.  Comedy can be therapeutic and also enlightening and Vince Valentine drew you in with his hilarious facial expressions sometimes expressing real pain and confusion.  Are the comical case studies like men falling asleep after sex trite?  Absolutely! Is there anything new about men going right for what they want in a store, “buying” and women “shopping” falling back on their hunter gatherer, rolls?  Hell no!  But the journey that Rob Becker and Vince Valentine take you on will meander through your whole body, mind, heart and soul if you let it.

A “middle aged” gentleman in front of my guest and I laughed so hard that I thought he might crack a rib.  We watched men pulling their wives a little closer to them and women doubled over in hysterics.  Few in the audience were untouched even by the ending when Vincent sits in his armchair designed like hewn rock to simulate his “man cave” and pontificates about his confusion sometimes and trials in his marriage.  Often

Vince Valentine in his Rock Chair with Hunter's Spear, BASIC!

during the performance his hat is off to his wife who is a multi talented multi-tasker as most women are.  And Rob Becker does have a tendency to celebrate differences between men and women much in favor of women.  But if the ladies were listening they found a new understanding out of humor for the things that often cause challenges in relationships because men are “not just different but often have much simpler needs and definitely a simpler agenda.”  I know I did which definitely shed some light on both past and current relationships.  Thank you Rob Becker for your insight!  Thank you Vincent Valentine for your often frantic but very deft interpretation and thank you to the Pittsburgh CLO for understanding that the “battle of the sexes” is age old and will never go out of style!  

You can see Vincent Valentine in Defending the Caveman at the very intimate Cabaret Theatre through September 8 and John Venable in the same roll from September 11 to October 20.  Don’t miss it if you want a deeper understanding of your male/female relationships or if you just want some deep belly laughs and a rollicking good time. 

Joanne Quinn-Smith, Award winning internet radio broadcaster, blogger, author  and internet radio and TV network editor and publisher.  Joanne is the owner and CEO, Creative Energy Officer, of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates, a successful Pittsburgh-based marketing company. She is a grandmother and great grandmother, an unlikely trendsetter for online journalism and broadcasting. Joanne is internationally known as the “Get Your Google On” Gal.  But better known as Techno Granny™ to over one million accumulated online listeners worldwide.   Joanne has created a revolutionary online NEW MEDIA platform in Internet broadcasting, blogging and other social media participation that represents the new second generation of World Wide Web interactions, known in technology circles as Web 2.0. JQS is the online publisher of PositivelyPittsburghLiveMagazine.com, an online community magazine to disseminate the Positive News for Positive Pittsburghers.  PPL Mag is Pittsburgh’s First Internet radio and TV network with syndicated channels and online radio and TV capabilities.

3,000 Pairs of Trousers, Gyrating Parts and Rock n Roll

Andy Christoper as Buddy Holly

When the fateful plane crash that took 3 Rock n Roll icons including Buddy Holly in 1959 I was ten.  But my Aunt Mimi was 23 so I did not miss much of Richie Valenz, the Big Bopper or Buddy Holly.  It is amazing to me how Buddy Holly’s success stretched far beyond his  death. 

 

Although his success lasted only a year and a half before his death in an airplane crash, Holly is considered the single most influential creative force in early rock and roll.  It was quite refreshing to watch the show depict Buddy as chafing against authority long before it was popular and prefacing the sixties mantra of “You Can’t trust anyone over thirty.” The back story is always interesting and this musical told it well, seeping each song in its own history.  It was interesting to note that "Peggy Sue" was originally written as "Cindy Lou" (after Holly's niece), but Holly changed it prior to recording as a tip of the hat to Crickets drummer Jerry Allison's girlfriend, Peggy Sue Gerron.

Kurt Jenkins as Buddy Holly, Joe Cosmo
Cogen as Jerry Allison & Sam Weber
as Joe B. Mauldin

What a night!  It  was hard  for the audience to sit still in their seats.   We rocked out with the stars that night to the rockabilly swagger, of Buddy Holly and the Crickets.  Buddy explodes onto the stage in a jukebox musical fully loaded with classics  “Oh Boy,” “That’ll Be the Day,” “Well All Right,” “Not Fade Away.”

Two of my favorite parts were the spotlight interposes at corners of the stage of the various DJ’s that promoted Buddy and the Crickets.  I also love the scene when the Crickets play the Apollo in Harlem.  I loved it when the band arrived at the Apollo Theater, where Buddy and the Crickets realize they have come to "a colored theater," and the all-black audience is shocked to see that the guys they have been enjoying on the radio are white. Surprise! Surprise!

This show was two hours and 30 minutes of both high energy fun and drama. It was only marred by the one liners from some of Holly’s songs, but the mini concert at the Apollo simply “rocked out.”

Ryan G Duncan as the Big Bopper

Here’s a fun fact culled from the CLO website:  Over 3,000 pairs of trousers have had to be replaced from extensive Buddy knee-sliding across stages around the world.  That should give you an idea of how much fun the audience had watching the team of Kurt Jenkins Buddy Holly, Joe Cosmo Cogen as Jerry Allison and Sam Weber as Joe B. Mauldin in Pittsburgh CLO's "Buddy -- The Buddy Holly Story,"Also although he only appeared at the end Ryan Duncan was spot on as the Big Bopper.

Joanne Quinn-Smith, Award winning internet radio broadcaster, blogger, author  and internet radio and TV network editor and publisher.  Joanne is the owner and CEO, Creative Energy Officer, of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates, a successful Pittsburgh-based marketing company. She is a grandmother and great grandmother, an unlikely trendsetter for online journalism and broadcasting. Joanne is internationally known as the “Get Your Google On” Gal.  But better known as Techno Granny™ to over one million accumulated online listeners worldwide.   Joanne has created a revolutionary online NEW MEDIA platform in Internet broadcasting, blogging and other social media participation that represents the new second generation of World Wide Web interactions, known in technology circles as Web 2.0. JQS is the online publisher of PositivelyPittsburghLiveMagazine.com, an online community magazine to disseminate the Positive News for Positive Pittsburghers.  PPL Mag is Pittsburgh’s First Internet radio and TV network with syndicated channels and online radio and TV capabilities.

Keeping It Classy, Led Zeppelin at the Symphony???

 

Keeping It Classy, Led Zeppelin at the Symphony???

by 

Josh Kurnot, WVU Student

School of Engineering

A hodgepodge group of music connoisseurs and rock lovers alike gathered in Pittsburgh at Heinz Hall the night of Thursday July 18^th to celebrate the one-of-a-kind symphonic rock show that was scored, transcribed, and conducted by Brent Havens of Windborne Music. Since its debut performance with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra in 1995, The Music of Led Zeppelin has thrilled it audiences with the excitement of legendary classic rock musicians and the POWER of the symphony orchestra. The crowd was

composed of some loyal symphony subscribers, families including their children, and of course a few of those who showed up wearing their tie-dyed t-shirts and dreadlocks. Compared to the crowd who came see Warren Haynes perform Gerry Garcia’s music, the audience was extremely mildly mannered and actually refrained from ‘lighting up’ in the middle of the theater. Although the show did not include any pyrotechnics, the theater’s stage lights emphasized the emotion of every song and even encouraged audience participation by flashing the house lights when they should be inclined to join in.

Doing justice to the original vocals and incredible range of Robert Plant, Brody Dolyniuk stepped in for Randy Jackson who usually performs with Windborne Music. Brody from the Las Vegas group Yellow Brick Road took charge leading the show with his fanatical stage antics and by antagonizing his cohorts on stage to join in. Some of the songs performed included Kashmir, Black Dog, All of My Love, and Stairway to Heaven.

 Even if Brody tried to steal the show, no one could take their eyes off Allegra playing her custom, Viper, five string, electric, violin strapped to her neck like an extra appendage. Playing seamlessly with the strings in the orchestra, Allegra formed the perfect bridge between her rock band members and rest of the white coats on stage. Like their rock n’ roll mother, she made those who were unfamiliar with the new sound of the rock symphony feel absolutely comfortable in their seats. For anyone looking to keep it classy while still experiencing a twist on some good ole rock n’ roll, you better catch this show next year when it returns to Heinz Hall.

I was so excited to be present as the Pittsburgh Symphony once again goes "Out of the Box" to engage a slightly different genre of fan while still delighting subscribers and regular symphony patrons.

 

Josh Kurnot is a student of engineering at West Virginia University in his senior year.  He loves to visit relatives in Pittsburgh and attends as many cultural events as he can.  He is an award winning photographer whose photograpy was featured on PositivelyPittsburghTV in a video, Roving Pittsburgher and Mountaineer Cheerleader, Josh Kurnot Tour the Strip.