Jewish Babe of the Week: Kate Hudson

From a review of No Exit

The intimate playing space at the DCAC is put to good use with four strips of white cloth, three garishly colored, uncomfortably angular "divans" (and Merkle's character "hates angles") and an alter/mantle all credited simply to the production company rather than to a designer. Adam Magazine is credited for a very effective lighting design which captures the sameness of the eternal room. Early in the play the characters gaze off into the distance to view life as it goes on back on earth (a phenomenon which can only last as long as people there remember the departed.) Later they are presented with an opportunity to escape to an unknown fate. But the trio rejects this option in favor of their known hell. Magazine?s lighting design and the original music composed by Jesse Terrill subtly underscore those events without distraction.

Here's the last two JBOW's together from the classic film Showgirls

'Flies': Golding's Ageless Lost Boys

By Chip Crews
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 19, 2002; Page C05

"Lord of the Flies" is not an obvious candidate for small-scale dramatization: A plane crash leaves a gaggle of English schoolboys stranded on a lush, uninhabited Pacific island. They attempt an orderly life for a time, but in the end chaos and mayhem prevail. The theatrical challenges -- among them very young, very complex characters and multiple settings as the kids range over the island -- are considerable. But Rorschach Theatre, a young troupe with no taste for the easy way, has taken the bait and delivered a production that scales some of the hurdles and finesses a few others.

Novelist William Golding's stated aim was "to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature," and his parable became one of the more widely read books of the 20th century. Nigel Williams's 1995 adaptation follows the story closely, in both action and theme. The boys -- here limited to 10, two of them played by females -- quickly organize and choose as their chief the straight-arrow Ralph, whose priorities center on building and maintaining a fire that will attract a passing ship. Ralph is challenged and ultimately eclipsed by the more savage Jack, whose lust for blood, both animal and human, intoxicates the others. In this tropical microcosm, Golding argues, lie the roots of our own undoing.

In addition to Ralph (Hugh T. Owen) and Jack (Jason Stiles), the novel's other main characters are all preserved, among them the sad outcast Piggy (Jason W. Gerace), the budding mystic Simon (Karl Miller) and the sadistic Roger (Wyatt Fenner). Williams's script is a feat of compression, and the action proceeds swiftly. But inevitably many nuances are lost, and two or three characters are seriously underwritten.

Since its founding in 1999, Rorschach has sought to make a virtue of its homelessness, successfully staging plays in various "found spaces" as well as more conventional venues. This time the drama is played out in the old sanctuary of Calvary Methodist Church on Columbia Road. It's a narrow room, but set designer Matt Soule has crafted an imaginative vertical playing area that extends, level by level, all the way to the choir loft. Director Grady Weatherford keeps the action boiling, with as many as three plot lines in motion simultaneously. He's abetted in this by Adam Magazine's notable lighting design.

But the space is something of an echo chamber, which often defeats the cast. Much of the dialogue is shouted, youthful passions being what they are, and the words are usually lost once the yelling begins. It doesn't help that the actors' English accents are both generally unconvincing and sometimes hard to understand. (Why is it that an American's English accent is often so much harder to parse than the real thing?)

Golding's Ralph is a lad of 12, and the other boys' ages range downward from there. The cast here, understandably, is older than that -- at least three are college graduates -- but for the most part that doesn't hamper credibility. It is odd, certainly, to hear a character on the cusp of manhood prattle on about building a sundial or, on other occasions, recall the words of his auntie. Still, you don't have to be 12 to be malicious or foolhardy, and the story plays.

The actors mostly perform with a youthful earnestness, neither impeding the story nor particularly enriching it. There are a couple of exceptions: Stiles captures the ferocity of Jack; he's the kind of angry, assertive kid who so often rules a young roost. And Fenner's Roger is pretty terrific. Between the casual pleasure he draws from inflicting pain on the weak and the low-eyed deference he pays to Jack, you can see the fear that lives inside bullies everywhere.

Adaptations are tricky. Yes, they should be judged independently of their source material, and no, that's not entirely possible. Clearly Williams approaches "Lord of the Flies" with the utmost respect; his goal is to present Golding's story in another form. And on that basis, admirers of the book may feel a twinge on behalf of poor Piggy. The character, perhaps the most pathetic on the island, is not just a myopic fat kid. He's fussy, indignant, demanding, humorless -- an orphan who's known little besides rejection and has no tricks to counter it. You may wince at the way he's treated, but then you wince again, realizing you probably wouldn't like him either. Most of that is missing from the play -- here he's a rather odd chubby guy who can't see without his glasses. And also missing is a lot of the character's significance.

But there is other significance here. This cautionary tale was first published nearly a half-century ago, and the headlines tell us that it's no less immediate today. Rorschach Theatre's production is not a perfect thing -- it looks a lot better than it sounds -- but it grasps the story and holds on tight.

Lord of the Flies, adapted by Nigel Williams from the William Golding novel. Directed by Grady Weatherford. Costumes, Ivania Stack. Sound design, Brian Keating. With Maggie Galuber, Evan Casey, Adam Jurotich, Sean Robinson and Meredith A. Kiffer. Approximately 1 hour 50 minutes. At Calvary Methodist Church, 1459 Columbia Rd. NW, through April 6. Call 703-715-6707.

It's known as the lucky bag in Australia.

Jewish Babe of the Week: Gina Gershon

I don't get why people are so upset about the INS issuing visas to the Al Qaeda terrorists. Dead men fly no planes.

Imaginary Babe of the Week

Jade Fontaine

Click here to see the 2002 Helen Hayes Award Nominees.

Jewish Babe of the Week : Elizabeth Berkley

Itaian Rockstar Babe of the Week

Ilaria Senesi

The Baroness' Sucky Bed

Great at parties. Everyone wants to try it!

Transparent Latex only,Vacuum not included

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This vacuum powered bag hugs every inch of your
helpless body while you breathe through a tube. Add a little lube for a new sensation.

OUR INSANE ATTORNEY GENERAL:

Staff cry poetic injustice as singing Ashcroft introduces patriot games

Julian Borger in Washington
Monday March 4, 2002
The Guardian

Since John Ashcroft became US attorney general last year, workers at the department of justice have become accustomed to his daily prayer meetings, but some are now drawing the line at having to sing patriotic songs penned by their idiosyncratic boss.

Mr Ashcroft, a devout Christian and a grittily determined singer, went public with one of his works last month, when he surprised an audience at a North Carolina seminary with a rendition of Let the Eagle Soar, a tribute to America's virtues, which continues: "Like she's never soared before, from rocky coast to golden shore, let the mighty eagle soar," and so on for four minutes.

The performance (which can be seen and heard at cnn.com/video/us/2002/02/25/ashcroft.sings.wbtv.med.html) was accompanied only by taped music, but Mr Ashcroft's staff are complaining that printed versions of the song are being distributed at meetings so that they will be able to join in.

Everyone said that September 11 would change everything. It didn't.
If Bush really meant what he says, he wouldn't be trying for more tax cuts for corporations and the rich. He would raise taxes. War is expensive, and we always raise taxes when we are at war. But September 11 changed nothing.
If September 11 changed everything, then corporations would keep factories open in the US and not ship jobs to countries with cheaper labor. But patriotism evidently stops when the commercials go off the air.
If September 11 changed everything, we might think twice about supporting oppressive regimes (Saudi Arabia, China, the Stans) and right-wing death squads (Colombia, the Philippines). But evidently September 11 did not change everything.
If September 11 changed everything, we might realize that all Americans are part of the nation. But the reaction to Tom Daschle's mild comments shows that the belief that liberal=un-American still holds.

Should the next Jewish Babe of the Week be Nell Carter? She is Jewish. And she is a babe.

A new feature: Jewish Babe of the Week.

This week:Monet Mazur. See her in Forty Days and Forty Nights.