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Rossmoor N ews • August 5, 2015
Eugene O’Neill Festival will be held in Entertainment Notes September, special offered on tickets Two Fun-Filled Musicals
With nearly a dozen events planned for the 16th annual Eugene O’Neill Festival in Danville from Sept. 4 through Oct. 4, the Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House, is offering an all-inclusive ticketing package through Aug. 24 that provides a savings of over 20 percent below regular price. Highlights of the festival include stage productions of O’Neill’s “Desire Under the Elms” at the Old Barn at the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site in the Danville hills (Sept. 18-27), and a production of Tennessee Williams’ classic “A Streetcar Named Desire” at the Village Theatre in downtown Danville produced by Role Players Ensemble, in association with the Town of
Danville (Sept. 4-19). The theme of this year’s O’Neill Festival is “A Season of Desire,” examining the drives behind desires through the eyes of two of America’s greatest playwrights. In addition to the two plays, the festival features several free and low-cost events to explore this theme. The festival will include a panel discussion, “100 Years of Desire,” as depicted in theater, cinema and literature over the past century, along with a screening of the 1951 Academy Award-winning film classic “A Streetcar Named Desire” with Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh and Kim Hunter. The Eugene O’Neill Festival is presented each year by the Eugene O’Neill Founda-
tion to celebrate the life and work of the playwright who lived at Tao House in Danville from 1937 through 1944, where he wrote his most notable plays, including “A Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “The Iceman Cometh.” O’Neill received four Pulitzer Prizes and is the only American playwright to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (1936). The full schedule of all festival events is available online at the O’Neill Foundation’s website, www.eugeneoneill.org. Ticketing for all festival events, including the all-inclusive package, is available through the town of Danville’s box office, online at www.villagetheatreshows.com, or by phone at 314-3400.
RAA to hold Asian brush-painting class, will begin next Wednesday Celia Chow-Huddleston will teach an Asian brush painting class for the Rossmoor Art Association (RAA). Classes are Wednesdays, Aug. 12 through Oct. 7, from 9:30 a.m. to noon in Art Studio 2 at Gateway. Students will use ink on rice paper to explore and expand basic knowledge about line drawing and working with big strokes in ink. An avid gardener, Chow-Huddleston loves nature. The class will focus on painting birds (from the sparrow to the eagle). She grew up in China and later moved to Taiwan to pursue her studies in art. She found her love for art at an early age when she did a portrait of the country’s president. Chow-Huddleston earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art from Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan. She taught art to junior high school students in Taiwan for 14 years. She currently teaches in an East Bay adult education center. In October 2014, her lifelong dream to showcase a collection of her artistic journey was realized. Her art book and artworks were show-
cased at the Chinese Art Show in the Chinese Art Gallery in San Leandro. In November 2014, she had another art show at the Lindsay Dirkx Brown Art Gallery in San Ramon. Her work is available at Realm Gift Shop in Los Angeles. To preview some of her work, go to her website at www.shunghwachow.com. The class cost is $120. Reservation checks, payable to RAA, should be mailed to ChowHuddleston at 4229 Null Drive, Antioch, CA 94509. Be sure to include your telephone number, email address and note the title of the class. The class is limited to 12 students, so early registration is recommended. The cut-off date for registration is Monday, Aug. 10. Students must be a member of the RAA. Annual membership is $10 a person. To join, mail a check, payable to RAA, to the RAA at P.O. Box 2070, Walnut Creek, CA 94595. For information, email Chow-Huddleston at shunghwa@comcast.net. Visit www.rossmoorart.com for more about RAA events and classes.
Ballroom dance classes taught Wednesdays Ballroom dance lessons for both beginning students and more advanced continuing students are offered on the four Wednesdays in August in the Diablo Room at Hillside. Both classes will learn foxtrot and bolero. One hour classes for beginning students will start at 2
p.m. The more advanced class for continuing students will begin at 3. Classes are taught by Gail Enright, a well-known Bay Area ballroom dance teacher. New students who know some of the basics of the foxtrot and bolero are welcome in any class. For information
about the classes, contact Enright at 284-1003 or by email at gail@sfwaltzingsociety.org. Cost for a single drop-in class is $10 or save with two consecutive classes for $15, three consecutive classes for $20 and four consecutive classes for $25. Private lessons are also available.
Four-week Ballroom Dance class starts Monday The Ballroom Dance Club is sponsoring a new four-week Monday ballroom dance class starting Aug. 10, and continuing Aug. 17, 24 and 31. The classes will concentrate on American tango and East Coast swing and will run from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Diablo Room at Hillside Clubhouse. Instructor for this class will be Alberta Bagneschi, who has been teaching ballroom dance in the Bay Area for over 25 years. She
is known for her teaching skills for beginners and her challenging patterns for the more advanced dancer. During these classes students will learn the basic steps for tango and East Coast swing and more advanced dancers will add new patterns to their repertoire. Cost for this four-week course is $50 per couple. Beginning students must pre-register with Bagneschi at 682-5270.
Ceramics Arts Club news and activities Continued from page 26A
Note: the identifying slips for pieces, which are to be filled out by the artist, are found in the blue sale folder kept between the two display windows. Instructions are in
the blue folder with the slips. For information, contact Joy Hicks, 939-3316. CAC recommends that members and interested individuals check the studio’s website at www.rossmoorce-
ramics.com to see up-to-date information regarding studio membership and a section called “The Scoop” featuring photos of activities going on in the studio. Contact: Shulenberger.
By Charles Jarrett
I
f you love music and comedy and fun-filled entertainment then the two shows I saw this past weekend will be right up your alley. “Smokey Joe’s Café” is playing in Castro Valley at Chanticleers Theater and “H.M.S. Pinafore,” which I saw in Walnut Creek, will be at the Livermore Bankhead Theater later this month. The Chanticleers Theater is a venue that I know a number of Rossmoor residents attend fairly frequently, as the theater always thanks me for getting the word out to residents. I’m sure residents will love the delightfully upbeat and high-energy musical, “Smokey Joe’s Café.” This show first ran on Broadway in 1995 and became the longest running revue in Broadway history, continuing for 2,036 performances. If you’re like me, you probably grew up enjoying rock and roll, rhythm and blues and the pop chart music of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. “Smokey Joe’s Café” is a fast-moving memory filled evening of songs and music from the golden age of rock. The musical was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who had 70 chart-topping hit song collaborations for many different entertainers, including the Coasters, the Drifters, Elvis Presley and Phil Spector. In this show there are approximately 40 cleverly choreographed and wonderfully presented songs that can take us back to those days of our lives. The songs cover a broad range of my favorites including such very well know songs as “Kansas City,” “On Broadway,” “Hound Dog,” “Loving You,” “Fools Fall in Love,” “Spanish Harlem,” “In the Neighborhood” and “Yackety Yack,” to name a few. The show covers a broad cross-section of many different styles. There are 11 singers who make up this wonderful cast. These talented song stylists include Gemma Bulos, Chris Ciabattoni, Kaylyn Dowd, Zachary David Marshall, Larri Patterson ParmsFord (yes, this is all one name), Robert Sholty, Shauna Shoptaw, Elmer Strasser, Noel Thomas, Mary Troxell and Tyrone Woodbrow. Since this is a musical revue, there is no story to tie the numbers together, but the choreography under the direction of Krista Samboy keeps the evening fun-filled from start to finish. The band, under the direction of Dean Starnes, is so good and perfect for this style of music.
I would love to join them anytime just to dance the evening away. Band members include director Sta r nes on piano/ keyboards, Cedric L. Lee on drums, Mike Adam on bass, Kevin Williams on guita r and Ronald Kerst on reeds. “Smokey Joe’s Café” continues through Aug. 30 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 6. The show ticket prices are $24 for adults and $20 for seniors. Tickets are available online at www.chanticleers.org or by calling 510-SEE-LIVE (733-5483). For a fun extra option, Chanticleers is offering a special pre-show dinner on Saturday, Aug. 8, at 6 p.m. at the Silver Spoon Gourmet Restaurant located at 3563 Castro Valley Blvd. in Castro Valley. The price for dinner is set at $21 each. Just mention “dinner group” when making reservations. Following dinner, the group will proceed to the theater. “H.M.S. Pinafore” Lamplighters presented “H.M.S Pinafore,” an upbeat, silly, lighthearted, fully engaging operetta, at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek this past opening weekend, for one weekend only. If you like Gilbert and Sullivan’s campy, fun-filled operettas, then by all means plan to see it when it opens in the beautiful and comfortable Bankhead Theater on Saturday, Aug. 22, at 2 and 8 p.m. and again on Sunday, Aug. 23, at 2. This company performs in four different theaters in four different areas over a course of one month and the Livermore Bankhead Theater is the nearest theater to our community where the musical will be presented again. Once again, Lamplighters presents the best quality, highly entertaining professional level productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s masterpieces that you can find anywhere in California. The Lamplighters have won awards for being the best of the best, again and again and this show is no exception. If you are not familiar with their musicals, then you might plan to see the show in Livermore in three weeks, as it is superb entertainment. All of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals are silly and outrageously child-like story wise. This story tells of Captain Corcoran (Jonathan Spencer) and crew of the good ship, H.M.S Pinafore, and the captain’s plans to approve the marriage of his beautiful daughter, Josephine (Jennifer Ashworth) to the prestigious and wealthy First Lord of the Continued on page 31A