Water Puppets, Hanoi, Vietnam

Vietnam Water Puppets began in the Red River Delta in the tenth century, with the oldest troupes in Nguyen Xa commune, Dong Hung district, Thai Binh province. This unique art form reportedly appeared during the 15th century, when artists who were also farmers gathered to perform and unwind after the harvest. Therefore, the cultural traits of the inhabitants in this area are firmly embedded in water puppetry. Many Red River Delta towns still practice the ritual because Vietnam ancients believed ghosts ruled over all elements of their lives, from the kitchen to the rice terraces. That is why the farmers in this area created entertainment and worship to appease these spirits.

Farmers who spend their days in flooded rice fields came up with the idea for water puppetry. They eventually realized that water was an excellent medium for puppetry since it not only masked the puppeteers' rod and string apparatus but also created stimulating effects such as waves and splashes.

Areas of importance to depict below, and A number of performances can be performed in sequence in one: The "Four rural occupations" group: fisherman, woodcutter, plowman, and herdsman The "Five occupations" group: scholar, peasant, worker, trader, and soldier The "Farming" group: plowing, harrowing, hoeing, rice transplanting, and tending animals.

The Book of Mormon

I know that I am late to seeing this show, but in my defense, I was not alone.  The eight shows that ran recently in my small college town were sold out each and every one, so there is still interest in this wildly entertaining musical.  I knew remarkably little about the show.  All that I really knew was that it made fun not just of Mormonism, but really all religions, because for any given part of the play you can substitute some other tenet of some other religion and it sounds just as far fetched.
So imagine my surprise when I loved it.  Not that I am one to be offended by irreverence, I am not, but I usually do not find it funny.  This play is all about playfulness and while it uses some language that falls well within Donald Trump's much touted foul mouth repertoire, that doesn't offend me either.  I was very much entertained throughout the show, and a little bit let down when it all came to a well drawn conclusion. I would really recommend this and was quite pleased that I ventured back into the realm of the touring Broadway play (something I have not done in at least a decade, I am afraid).

Step Afrika!

When my spouse and I were negotiating the decision about what tickets to buy for the upcoming theater season at our wonderful local venue, we each chose something that we wanted to see based on the description but in reality  knew nothing about. Step Afrika was my choice.
There were two things about this that worked very much in my favor.  One is that the group is a step group--I did not know that from the short identifying paragraph about them in the season's program, but both I and my youngest son love to watch step dancing in movies, and it was even better in person.  The other was that given the fact that I was buying tickets early, I was able to get truly excellent up close seats, where we could be absorbed in the pieces.

I really loved everything about the performance.  The group did interpretive dances, some with music and some without, and all were based on the paintings of Jacob Lawrence.  Lawrence's sixty or more panels worth of paintings about the African American migration northward in America won him recognition at a very young age, and images of the paintings that inspired each dance sequence were projected on screens behind them.  Stunning.  And the history of the migration and the changes that came about as a result are important to remember and think about as we move forward in a time renewed visible racial discord in our country.