Helen of Troy, a treat at WCSU

Classic Greek drama visited Danbury Monday night. It questioned the efficacy of violence and the benevolence of the fickle "gods."  The play was Helen of Troy by Euripides. The performers were a professional touring troupe under the direction of Eftychia Loizides.

The play provides an alternate view of Helen. In this version she'd been whisked to Eqypt by Hermes and never taken by the warrior Paris, who instead, stole a phantom of smoke, whipped up a goddess bent on mischief. Yet as we find out - this means all the blood shed, lives lost, agonies endured for the sake of Helen during the ten-year Trojan war, had been offered up in vain....

Literature Professor Donald P. Gagnon, PhD  set the play among Euripedes other works, before the curtain went up on this performance, noting that it was banned for a time some 2400 years after it was first produced, because it was considered too powerful for the situation then.

It took me a while to get used to the stage voices, but after a while I was immersed.  It was tastefully done with a minimal set and some beautiful (haunting) singing.

The production stared Leslie Fray as the beautiful clever Helen, Brian Scannell as craftly but noble Menelaus, the delightfully villainous Chuk Obasi as Theoclymenus, and an equally strong cast of other players including Aaron Barcelo, Nora Aislinn, Katia Haeuser, Stevan Szczytko and Sandra Maren Schneider. (Leonidas Eftychia Liozides Theatre Group)

The production of Helen of Troy was sponsored jointly by Western Connecticut State University and The Deno and Marie Macricostas Family Foundation.

A reception with delicious food, coffee and Baklava afforded an opportunity to chat about the play, with the actors and the sponsors immediately afterwards.  A delightful event, entirely free to the public. Thank you. This low budget person says, Thank you very much.

See also www.loizidis.com and http://helen-oftroy.blogspot.com

File under: Healthcare-miscellaneous discontent

Today I read an opinion piece in the Danbury News Times by Dr. Kenneth Pellegrino, a family doctor in Brookfield. It's one of the best assessments of the current system I have ever seen in such a short space. The title is "The guarded state of American health care: A doctor's diagnosis. Bravo Dr. Pellegrino!!! I read it in the paper paper rather than online.

I borrowed the book  How Doctors Think, by Jerome Groopman, MD from the local library. It reveals an amazing view of what influences a doctor's thought processes, and what reasoning a doctor may use when putting you into a pigeonhole of care -- or instead, actually seeing and speaking with you as a living being..... Eureka!

 I recenty learned there are apparently online "health record vaults" where health records can (supposedly)be shared with insurers or various doctors you might have. Not that you actually would be able to convince anyone to look into it, and it looks like it might be a fulltime job just to get the info up there. And by then I'll be 90.... or not. Sigh.

Women's Voices at the Bank Street Coffeehouse

Four differing voices made an interesting evening for poetry in New Milford last night. The reading, called "Women's Voices" was organized by reporter and poet Susan Tuz, who made the poster on the right.  I snapped the picture as it hung in the coffeehouse window and you can see a faint reflection of the buildings on Bank Street.

The four poets were Susan Tuz, Joan Kantor, Robin Sampon & me. (Mad Mar Walker - no pic of me):

Question the glib backslapper

If anyone claims me as a friend, expresses a vague acquaintance with my story (or even details as they are right here on this blog) don't assume it's true, ask me.

Con men use other people's name's like skeleton keys to unlock the door of opportunity. They climb them like stairs, and from each step leverage access to the next, maneuvering cleverly, to get close to key people who can vet them to others, to get assess to opportunity and funding. We more readily believe a big lie widely told, with ready grins and easy conversation.

If someone comes out of nowhere consider how they appeared and from where...

Bucket & Brush Painting did a nice and speedy job

We a had a good experience with Bucket & Brush recently. Maisy's bedroom and hallway including the cealing needed work to cover insulation plugs in part of her ceiling. They came in at 8am, did the work and were gone by three pm. No hassel at all. It's a nice job too.

This video talks about their services. (Okay - it's an ad, but they did a great job.)

Pop Up Art - fabulous works right in Bethel

Pop Up Art, curated by local artist and poet Mike Seri, had a depth to it, of style and nuance. It had some amazing intricate engaging works, lots of whimsy, and plenty of opportunities to look into the human alter ego as well - in many different media.  I missed the opening, but enjoyed everything so much when I finally got to see it. The video above was produced by Take Notice Productions which has its own Youtube channel.

Artists in the show include: Erin Nazzaro, Frank Foster Post, Tarol Samuelson, Katie Bassett, Juan Andreu, David Teti, Eric Camiel, Leslie Pelino, Bibiana Matheis, Nicole Cudzilo, Juan Andreu, Michael Morris, Joseph Farris, Tara Burgess, Ival Stratford-Kovner, Judith Wyer, Suzanne Ross, Tanya Kukucka, Kathleen Benton, Keith Dube, FranK Kara, Chris Durante, Kenny Hess, Justin Buto, F. Henry-Meehan, Jim Felice

The gallery is opposite the Bethel cinema.

Video no long up I guess.

Watch "Pop Up Art Bethel - Contemporary Pop Up Art Gallery Reception" on YouTube

Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time

Although I've always thought of Marge Piercy, the author of Woman on the Edge of Time,  as a poet -  she is also a novelist.  This particular book is an odd and interesting novel which came out in 1976, one of a half dozen novels she wrote. According to Wikipedia it's "considered a classic of utopian "speculative" science fiction as well as a feminist classic."  (I picked this up this classic at Newtown's annual blow-out used book sale. It's a great sale!)

Woman on the Edge of Time is sort of a sci-fi tapestry woven with intricate anthropological/futurist twists, inner-landscape psychological-chatmeup, environmental philosophy and humanity.  It's not a quick read but I liked the heroine Consuelo, and felt compelled to keep reading.

Much of the plot occurs in some bleak present time in an insane asylum where regard for human rights is not in evidence and the abuse of the powerless by those with sometimes only a crumb more power, is rampant.  The other half  unfolds in fits and starts in a egalitarian argraian New England village in the far future where men and women are equals and balance in all things is important.

And it is a book that requires thinking as some aspects of the plot are not particularly obvious until you ponder them in retrospect. It's ending was not was I supposed.

And in the end it's hard to tell what really happened.  Did Consuelo save the future with her violent eposode in the present?  Was she railroaded by the power structure of patriarchy or was she really crazy?  I was also left wondering if Piercy meant to say that the end justifies the means.  Was it the 60s declaring war on what came before and perhaps what came after?

 Each reader must decide for themselves.
Woman on the Edige of Time at Google Books
Woman on the Edge of Time - Wikipedia
Woman on the Edge of Time - Amazon