Ed Notes Online: Final Days of Guys and Dolls at the RTC - Entire Run of 10 Shows Sold Out

Friday, July 17, 2015

Final Days of Guys and Dolls at the RTC - Entire Run of 10 Shows Sold Out - David Bentley Reviews Show

The rowdy esprit de corps that permeates the wonderful ensemble efforts of this cast is highly visible in the interactions of these lovable gangsters. A standout in that regard is the

brilliant performance of Chazmond Peacock in the role of Nicely-Nicely. His joyous delivery of the show’s Act Two blockbuster, “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat,” was a Broadway-caliber performance.

Chazmond Peacock in the role of Nicely-Nicely, Photo: Courtesy of RTC, John Panepinto
And if you think gangsters can’t dance, think again before you see the talented guys in this cast do their stuff while gambling their way through numbers like, “Oldest Established,” and “Luck be a Lady.” (Choreographer, Nicola DePierro-Nellen).

Miss Byrne is sensational as this adorable nightclub singer who is losing patience at being “engaged for fourteen years,” and having to make up stories in order for her mother to believe that she and Nathan are already

married with children. Byrne’s terrific voice and flair for comedy would have carried this role on any stage, anywhere, and Broadway audiences wouldn’t have hesitated to declare her a star. Whether leading the talented Hot Box Girls in both “Bushel & a Peck,” and the uproarious, “Take Back Your Mink,” or joining in brilliant duet with smooth-voiced Smilardi for the savage, “Sue Me,” or better still, knocking the ball out of the park with the hilarious, “Adelaide’s Lament,” this gal has it all. Wow!

... David Bentley, www.ThePeoplesCritic.com

Those long days (matinees) and nights are coming to an end this weekend at the Rockaway Theatre Company after 3 months of intensity - set building,

Photos by John Panepinto

almost daily rehearsals and spending almost 5 hours at each performance. Even after getting home at 11 I am too keyed up to sleep. I now understand the fascination some people have with being involved in theater work and the immense amount of time they put in. Above are John Panepinto's (who plays Nathan Detroit and a crap shooter on alt days) super photos he took of the entire cast, including me in my 2 roles (I have no lines to remember thank goodness.)

Tonight MORE and ICE pal Yelena Siwinski and her boyfriend are making the trek out to Rockaway to see the show, as is former colleague and fellow writing group member Mary Hoffman.

Last week another former colleague and theater critic (www.ThePeoplesCritic.com) and Rockaway resident David Bentley came to see the show and his review was picked up by The Wave: http://www.rockawave.com/news/2015-07-17/Weekender/Summer_Fun_from_Guys__Dolls.html?pk_campaign=Newsletter

He sent me an advance copy which was sent to the cast and they were thrilled. He sent this message with other links to his review.

I am happy to report the GUYS & DOLLS review now resides in two locations. You may have already seen it if a subscriber to my website, but if not, just check out the lead story at:

www.ThePeoplesCritic.com

In addition, the story was also picked up by the BroadwayStars website in New York where it now tops my listings there at:

https://broadwaystars.com/index.php?author=David+Dow+Bentley+III

David is an interesting story. He was my teaching neighbor just down the hall for 25 years and preceded me as chapter leader - and was a Unity Caucus member who often fed me info -- I first heard the name Randi Weingarten from him when he told me there was some resentment over her being pushed ahead of others. He took the 1995 buyout at age 50 and went back to his first love - the theater - by becoming The Peoples Critic, reviewing plays from his second home near Houston and on his travels back and forth to Rockaway and upstate NY where he hails from.

I'm so glad I found this opportunity so close to home. Most people involved come from outside Rockaway and travel through big traffic jams to get there. Yesterday one of our dancers, a native of Japan, had to take a cab to make it on time. And I feel so at home with so many teachers involved.

Master builder Tony Homsey,

who plays a few roles in the show, is already at work building the set for Little Shop of Horrors, opening in August. We are building a turnatable to revolve the set and I'm heading over now to put the thing together. Monday we strike the set and Tues be start building in earnest.

2 comments:

NYC Educator said...: Can't wait to see it tonight!; Saturday, July 18, 2015 at 11:52:00 AM EDT
Pete Zucker said...: Break a leg; Saturday, July 18, 2015 at 5:38:00 PM EDT

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Friday, July 17, 2015

Final Days of Guys and Dolls at the RTC - Entire Run of 10 Shows Sold Out - David Bentley Reviews Show

2 comments: