Plan to be dazzled by the Santa Cruz Symphony’s 68th concert season, starting in October with Rimsky-Korsakov’s dreamy Scheherazade, featuring the violin of Artist-in-Residence Nancy Zhou. The entire year is filled with orchestral music that is both accessible and thrilling, including November’s The Planets by Gustav Holst, the December Holiday Pops Nutcracker Suite, and in March the Family Concert, a week of educational programming culminating in the brilliant Carnival of the Animals, complete with an instrument “petting zoo” afterwards, where children will get introduced to a variety of musical instruments.
In late March the actors of Santa Cruz Shakespeare will once again join the Symphony for a blend of Mozart’s music with narration from Peter Shaffer’s play, Amadeus. Rounding out the season is Beethoven’s majestic Symphony No. 9, which will showcase the Cabrillo Symphonic Chorus and its brand-new director. Join fellow music-lovers and maestro Daniel Stewart for many evenings of great live music performed at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium and the Henry Mello Center. Given the ongoing funding cuts to the arts in this country, now is exactly the time for you to make your plans to keep symphonic music alive and robust in our town. santacruzsymphony.org
Inter/Action With a Poet
A maverick poet and rodeo queen, part Walt Whitman, part Patti Smith, Dion O’Reilly will read from her latest collection, Limerance. With her cowboy boots, Cyndi Lauper hair and movie star glasses, this exciting Santa Cruz/Seattle-based poet is a performance even before she speaks. The event, Inter/Act Spoken Word, takes place Sept. 16 at Satori Arts, 815 Almar, No. 9, Santa Cruz. dionoreilly.com/events
Mini-Playwriting With a Pro
From prolific writer, director, teacher, poet and playwright Wilma Marcus Chandler comes the chance to tackle your ideas for creating a short play. Specifically, Writing Your 10-Minute Play, the title of a four-part workshop that begins on Sept. 20.
Ten-minute play festivals began on the East Coast with Actors’ Theatre of Louisville and on the West Coast with Santa Cruz Actors’ Theatre. Since then they’ve blossomed all over the country. If your inner playwright has ideas, this workshop might be just the ticket. Workshop topics include Developing Your Ideas, Characters, Plot line, Settings, Style and Genre, plus Pitfalls, Formatting, Table Reads, Submission Opportunities. The real nitty-gritty stuff. The playwright shares her perspective on the mini-play phenomenon:
GT: Why are ten-minute plays so popular?
WMC: They fulfill several needs. In one evening of ten-minute plays, they can offer a wide variety of experiences, a diverse array of audience reactions and responses, such as humor, pathos, mystery, etc., and they create the opportunity to see many different actors, directors and playwrights at work.
Do they attract larger audiences than full-length properties?
Theater itself has always attracted audiences to see the immediacy and risk of action on stage. Both are loved.
Were you a writer of short plays before the Actors’ Theatre seasons began?
Yes. The Actors’ Theatre adopted the ten-minute format from work we had done at Cabrillo College for many years, starting in the 1980s with many Dream Theater shows and one-act play events. We owe gratitude to the Actors’ Theater of Louisville for spearheading this entire idea.
What do you love about these tiny gems? As a viewer, and as a playwright?
In both capacities, I envision each ten-minute play as a window into a situation or circumstance that is “in progress.” We are ushered into that state of affairs and share in its unfolding.
How are ten-minute works more effective than long plays? What can they do, and how does their impact work?
I would not say they are more effective. Both are powerful and fruitful. Both are legitimate conveyors of life experiences, of hearing and witnessing people speaking to each other and resolving situations and unexpected crises. The value and perhaps the popularity of the ten-minute play, however, is that we see many experiences in one evening. We are into the center of each one immediately.
Chandler’s workshop takes place over four Saturdays, Sept. 20–Oct. 11, 11am–12:30pm, at the Actors’ Theatre, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz. $50. Email sc**************@gm***.com.
