Natalie Steers is pursuing a double major in English and Creative Writing as well as a Minor in Business. She's always had a passion for the arts and her favorite pastimes generally include practicing yoga, reading realistic fiction and fantasy novels, listening to NPR, drinking hot chocolate, and constantly reteaching herself how to knit.
Carrie Smith, Residential College and UofM alumna is returning to the campus Thursday night! She will be reading from her latest novel, Silent City, in the Benzinger Library at 7:30 pm. Silent City is Smith’s first crime book. Her protagonist, Detective Claire Codella, lands a high profile case and must fight for her life, in more ways than one.
While Smith currently is Senior Vice President, Publisher of Benchmark Education Company in New York, she grew up in Detroit. While studying in Ann Arbor she majored in Creative Writing and Literature. It’s fitting that she will read from her most recent work in East Quad, which houses the Residential College (RC), and her former community. I myself am a proud member of the RC. As someone who hopes to work in publishing one day, I can’t wait to meet her. If you like crime fighting, come listen to Carrie Smith’s story and hear from our fellow Wolverine!
Saturday night the RC Players presented “Red Eye”, their 24 hour theater spectacular. During the last 24 hours the members wrote, produced and rehearsed two original shows, so that by 8 pm they were ready to perform. Well, almost. Due to technical difficulties the show didn’t begin until almost 8:30 pm. Though they played catchy tunes, by the time it started the audience was getting a little restless.
The performance got underway with a piece called “Berning the Matriarchs”. And yes, Bernie Sanders was featured as the kidnapped president. In addition, this show drew on a wide collection of female symbols of American nationality (our matriarchs), as well as a slightly confusing “Batwoman”, to create a play that was against corporations and pro Bernie Sanders. In an almost counterproductive measure the villain of the story was also a woman, who fought against the “matriarchs”. The person who saved the day was a man named Carl; he just wanted to dance and not get pushed around by the mean matriarchs anymore. It was a funny show that incorporated a lot of chicken based puns (which makes since because the villain was a half-chicken woman…I think), political riffs, and elaborate dance moves. While I don’t think the show was as feminist as it was trying to be, as none of the women in the show were characters I could root for, it definitely promoted sexual orientation inclusivity (two of the matriarchs finally admitted they still had feelings for each other), and smashed big businesses, namely KFC.
These seemed to be the common themes of the night. In “Love is a Battleship”, the show consistently put down the Bath and Body Works franchise and ended with two women getting married. The story consisted of an interesting combination of mice and men (this allusion was mentioned in the show) and women. And a cyborg named Boobies. It capitalized on physical humor at moments while also still getting to its message about freedom and acceptance. No character exemplified this more than the Owen Wilson impersonation that just about stole the show. Performed by Sara Head, her Wilson, his daddy issues, and the repeated catchphrase of “woooow” had people rolling in the aisles.
Overall, despite the slow start, it was a fun evening! “Red Eye” continues to show the amazing amount that one can accomplish in just 24 hours and I can’t wait to see what they turn out next semester.
Friday night, calmly sipping hot chocolate, having sufficiently braved the cold walk I was at Literati for a reading in their poetry series. Both were Michigan poets, and even after struggling through traffic jams due to the snowy weather, they expressed their happiness in being in Ann Arbor. After being introduced by one of Literati’s booksellers, John, Zach Tomaszeski read first.
All Things Dusk is his first book and he read a number of pieces from it Friday evening. I found his poems to be very relatable. He spoke about a variety of topics from farms, siblings, grandparents to the desire to become an astronaut. Apart from never wanting to be an astronaut (the concept of space is kind of terrifying and mind-boggling to me), I could relate to the instances he
captured. They were extremely vivid and clear moments. Even if I didn’t want to be an astronaut, I remember being a kid and feeling like I too could climb, the “ladder of clouds”. One of my favorite lines was in a poem about his brother and ice cream. They were at the dinner table and “two years sat between us”. I think this is a really great line because it almost sounds like a sentence people would use in everyday life. But actually he’s personifying time, it “sat” between them, and this word choice makes the difference in age a physical thing between them.
My favorite poem of the night by Tomaszewski was “The Composer Sheds Her Sheet Music”. Here’s a link to it. Throughout the piece there is nice imagery about birds and music. The ending I thought was particularly good: “the composer holds us- but we are the music- we are leaves and we are let go-”. It brings the audience into the poem which I think works really effectively. He also gave us a little peak into one of the things he’s working on now. Tomaszewski lived in Ireland for a time (which coincidentally is where I will be spending my summer!). He stated that he’s working on a poem describing a man he met there who worked, and still does, on the “haggards”. I can’t wait to see what else Tomaszeski turns out!
The second to read was Dennis Hinrichsen. His poems were very different from Tomaszewski’s, and though I sincerely enjoyed both, I liked the style of Hinrichsen’s a little more. They felt more raw and he really has mastered the art of gut-punching last lines. His daughter and wife seemed to be large inspirations for many of his pieces; so again family was a large part of his work. He also used allusion in his poems often, mentioning everyone from popular movie actress Kathleen Turner to the Minotaur. Adding another interesting element he spoke a lot about music and its relation to poetry for him. In the first piece he read Friday, he said that his four chord was “blue” and that his five chord was the “idea of cut” which he used to shape his construction of the poem’s melody. This poem was also written after he had done some reading on queer theory. He named the poem “Queer Theory” and it was a really beautiful piece about identity and desire. Here’s a link if you’d like to check it out for yourself: Queer Theory
Another of my favorites was Hinrichsen’s “Piece for Prepared Piano with Devil in a Black Dress, or Prostate Cancer Blues”. A few years ago he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and this was one of the pieces he wrote to help relieve his anxiety. He has now been cancer free for a year. This piece once again brings in his interest in music, as can be seen just from the title. One of my favorite moments is the repetition of “the Devil and me go walking”. The Devil is further personified as the Devil also tells him riddles, talks to him and goes walking with him. It’s a really interesting piece and if you follow this link you can even listen to Dennis Hinrichsen read it!
It was a really great night of poetry. Check out Literati’s upcoming guests if you want more events like this!
24 hours of theater! That is what awaits the participants of this semester’s “Red Eye” hosted by the RC Players. Twice a year they write, produce, cast, and rehearse two original pieces within 24 hours. Everyone arrives at 8 pm Friday, February 12th. After a sleep-deprived day they then perform these productions for the public at 8 pm Saturday, February 13th. It is always a fun night and has become an RC community classic. Come enjoy an evening of laughs at the Keene Theater!
Doors open at 7:45. This is a FREE event but arrive early to guarantee the best seats!
With Valentine’s Day coming up it’s the perfect time for an evening of poetry! Friday at Literati Z.G. Tomaszewski and Dennis Hinrichsen will be presenting their work. They’re both native Michigan writers! And the best part: Tomaszewski lives in my hometown, Grand Rapids MI (best known for its annual Art Prize competition).
Tomaszewski is a man of many talents, including writing, poetry, and music. He is a co-director of Lamp Light Musical Festival and helped found Great Lakes Commonwealth of Letters. He won the 2014 International Poetry Prize for his first book, All Things Dusk. Hopefully we’ll get to hear a section of it Friday night!
Dennis Hinrichsen lives in Lansing and is the author of a number of works. Certain poems of his have recently been included in certain anthologies such as Poetry in Michigan/Michigan in Poetry. He has also received multiple awards, the most recent including co-winning the 2014 Michael Waters Poetry Prize.
The reading will begin at 7:00 pm on Friday, February 12th. Literati will host the event in their upstairs cafe (I can attest to the excellence of the beverages). So come brave the cold, listen to some fabulous poems, and warm up with hot chocolate!
This weekend I attended Basement Arts’ production of “Closer”. Settling into my straight black plastic chair in the Walgreen Drama Center’s Acting for the Camera Studio, I looked around at the set. It was sparse and had a minimalist vibe that fit my expectations for an edgy, content driven play.There were two projectors (admittedly sitting rather awkwardly at the front of the stage, dead center), two screens, a couple chairs, a few square stools, one table, and some odd and end filler pieces.
Photo courtesy of Basement Arts CLOSER event page
Considering the intimacy of the small studio, a minimalist set was a practical option. The space contained only 40 seats total, lining three of the four walls so the play was almost in-the-round. This venue worked for the story, which had only 4 characters whose lives interconnected more and more intricately as the play went on. Certain scenes had all characters on at once, usually acting out two separate scenes within the same space. As an audience member I felt and saw for myself how trapped the characters felt. My favorite scene, and use of space in the show, was when Anna is telling Larry she’s leaving him for Dan. Dan is simultaneously telling Alice he’s leaving her for Anna. Alice runs from the room and Dan dashes after her right between the argument Anna and Larry are having; he was both physically and figuratively coming between the couple. It was a moment of symbolic genius.
Throughout the show props were brought on and off by the actors as they sat unobtrusively in seats at the corners of the stage when not performing. As there were no wings, they occasionally changed clothes discreetly in their sideline seats for the next scene. They also played an important role in setting lighting for the show. Between scenes they quickly clicked on and off living room light fixtures, the mellow illumination adding to the intimate vibe.
Despite pictures being projected on the screens to give us a sense of place, it was often very confusing as to when they were. The play spans a significant length of time, with characters changing their romantic partners on a rotating basis, making it all the more complicated to gauge when a situation was occurring. There would occasionally be line references but at that point in a scene I was usually too far into the dialogue and lost as to how much time had passed. While the previous scene might have taken place within a day, the next might not be until a year later. A simple fix, I believe, would have been to use the projectors a bit more and add a date in the corner of the scene’s image.
This difficulty with the conception of time also made the few flashback scenes in the show doubly difficult. There was no change in the actors’ personas when a flashback occurred and with the already ambiguous time frame, it was a game of guess work with the audience as to what made up the flashback and what was happening in “real” time.
Photo courtesy of Basement Arts CLOSER event page
As to the show’s actual content, I wanted it to be more feminist than it was. Women were treated, as Larry stated in the show, as the valued “territory”. The women pursued the men just as avidly as the men pursued the women but there was a sense of uneven power (weighted in the men’s favor) that pervaded the play. While its depictions of sexuality, desire, and relationships were refreshingly frank, Patrick Marber, the playwright, looked only through the lens of heterosexuality. While one can’t expect a single play to do everything, I personally feel Marber’s message about love and sex could have benefited from some diversity.
Those, however valid, are script critiques and not matters of performance choices. This show did give both women and men some agency and freedom to express sexual desire. Though it cast a slightly ghastly portrayal of humanity’s carnal nature, there was also a lot of humor splashed throughout the play. The cast really capitalized on those moments, almost springing them on us with their casual delivery, and made them all the more surprising and delightful because of their unemphasized delivery. Some of the humor wasn’t even lewd or morbid.
It was not a happy play and by the end of it I was emotionally exhausted. Because of this, I consider the cast’s performance a success. There was chemistry among all four actors. The sex, betrayal, lies, frankness, and brutal honesty of the show were handled by an unflinching cast. They tackled the gritty nature of this play with an odd eagerness; perhaps because it allows us to voice and actually discuss some of the taboo subjects about life and love society has decided we shouldn’t.
Check out this video with some highlights from the show!
Detroit. While studying in Ann Arbor she majored in Creative Writing and Literature. It’s fitting that she will read from her most recent work in East Quad, which houses the Residential College (RC), and her former community. I myself am a proud member of the RC. As someone who hopes to work in publishing one day, I can’t wait to meet her. If you like crime fighting, come listen to Carrie Smith’s story and hear from our fellow Wolverine!
