Apologies, because this should have appeared here on Monday - two days ago - but something called ‘real work‘ kept getting in the way.

We needed something to wrap up Spoleto ‘08 nicely, and what else but an acceptance to the Finale Picnic Judging competition. So Geoff, our intrepid ‘video guy’ gamely stepped up to the challenge, and mingled with the picnickers at Middleton Place on Sunday afternoon …

As this will probably be the last post for this year (sob!) we’d like to say ‘thanks’ to y’all for checking out the SpoletoToday.com blog for the past three or so weeks. Our stats tell us there’s a healthy number of you out there that have enjoyed the coverage, and we’ve certainly enjoyed putting it all up here for you.

We just hope that we’re still around to do it all again next year …

With Spoleto wrapped, I’m left with a blur of memories, impressions and observations on the festival. Here are just a few of them.

An audience member filming Harvard Sailing Team’s opening night with her cellphone, distracting the people sitting behind her (including me) as she emailed the hilarious sketches to her friends…

Oversized patrons at the Chapel Theatre, trying to squeeze into the small seats. Some of the grossest guests had to ride side saddle.

Rodney Lee Rogers sitting patiently behind a small curtain for 45 minutes, the audience gathering around him before The Tragedian.

Two old dears I met at the first performance of A Devil Inside who’d been to so many shows that they couldn’t remember what they’d seen the night before, and started arguing about it. The festival had been running for two days.

The miserable actors in This War is Live who were fed up with the show and its technical hiccups… one complained about his simplistic character, while another called the whole experience “torturous.” He should have counted himself fortunate – he wasn’t sitting in the audience…

Sitting next to two of the playwrights of Under the Lights: 10×10 – and trying to make mental review notes without making them feel uncomfortable…

Jay Clifford courageously performing at the American Theatre despite suffering from some debilitating lurgy. After the first night, he conked out in his truck… on the second night, his manager Vance McNabb picked up his bug. They put on a great show, they’re both feeling better now and they’re no longer contagious (I hope).

Watching rehearsals with Chen Shi-Zheng, director of Monkey: Journey to the West… and being invited to look at the aftermath of The Great War after Hotel Modern’s show was over. I witnessed chaos on a model train scale.

One of my favorite elements of the festival, though, was bumping into the various local and national theatre performers, artists and filmmakers who collaborate to help make the festival function. Without their hard work and the overwhelming enthusiasm of the audience, there’d be no festival… thanks to them all.

There’s two more videos from Geoff to come, here’s one of them - some quick clips from the Piccolo closing ceremony on Saturday.

The musical finale for Piccolo Spoleto Festival 2008 was in Hampton park Saturday evening but the big laughs were at Theatre 99 as improv ruled . Upright Citizens Brigade did their 7:30 show and contributed greatly when they provided zany merriment to the 2-hour Grand Finale at 9:30. The group, who has been learning to live on The Edge Of America at Folly Beach, opined that Charlestonians like their city and like to get drunk.

Mary Theresa Archbold, JAZZ HAND, reprised two skits and the stars of the Cody Rivers Show - both of them - joined the gang onstage as the audience relaxed with some cold brews and threw out suggestions.

Running gags kept on running all evening long, popping up unexpectedly, to the delight of the jam-packed room.

The show touched many, many bases and you would have had to have been there to understand the juxtaposition of hollow-boned birds, bearded predators and Girl Scout outings.

More Chucker on Spoleto at Chuckography.

Fringe is an exciting part of the annual Spoleto Festival and often provides some pleasant surprises.

JAZZ HAND, Tales Of A One Armed Woman, starring Mary Theresa Archbold and her husband Pat Shay, is a great example.

“Jazz Hands” is the name of a famous dance number from the Bob Fosse musical “All That Jazz.”

Mary Theresa - born without her left hand and forearm - provides many variations of events in her life relating to that missing limb.

Some are awkward, most are funny and ALL are inspiring by a lady who’s getting along with her life.

Here she is pictured, dancing with God, who answered her musical question “Why didn’t You Make All Of Me?”

She announced there are two more performances at the American Theatre. Do yourself a favor. Go see her.

Applaud with BOTH hands.

More Chucker on Spoleto at Chuckography.

Who hasn’t heard of “The Have Nots!” ??? Its seems they are everywhere…including all over this year’s festival, calling their shows “Piccolo Fringe” and “Piccolo Cheap Laughs”. Last night I got to see the latter in the last running of “Big Dicktionary” (” Stars Bar”; American Theatre) put on by funny men Timmy Finch and John Brennan, who not only hung out greeting every single audience member as they strode past with their tickets and beer in hand, but afterwards offered up an invite to anyone interested in drinking with them (”So…uh…we like to drink…“).

Sitting on a plush over sized blue couch with their comrade, fellow “Have Not”, Andy, and “Have Not in Training”, Meaghan, I realized how much of a family these guys really are. It isn’t all about the laughs. Its about performing, learning from, and supporting the whole troupe.

“Big Dicktionary”, I learned quickly, was entitled as so because the entire show was based on words randomly selected from a (guess?) big dictionary. Ahem, and please note the spelling. I was simply amazed at how two people could keep an audience in an uproar over the words (in order) Physiological Psychology, Quasar, and Emissary.

Favorite quotes:

“I was down at Eric Clapton’s place in Jamaica where its okay to smoke reefer…just as long as it’s not heroine.”

“Here at Outback we offer the ‘Dingo’ (drink)…it’ll kill your baby.”

A theme throughout the entire show was the significant discovery of the irreversible ailment caused by drinking “Dingos”: Thinking Through Your Thighs (which also in turn causes talking through them as well). Don’t ask…I wouldn’t do it justice.

Best parts?

Eight people arriving late, being put on the spot, having imaginary roses strewn at their feet, and watching Timmy and John recount for them the entire show thus far…in fast-forward (it involved several fabulous impressions of the space monkey who’s head exploded and later was transfered through a telescope, “Coco”)

A standing ovation and the “first ever experienced” improv encore for Timmy and John, rightly deserved because I think they possibly played 15 different characters each, interchangeably, and with great gusto.

If you can’t fit in any laughs in the remaining few days of Piccolo, don’t forget that Theatre 99 regularly hosts improv. Check them out at: www.thehavenots.com

I’ve been running caption contests online and in the print edition now since March 2007, but this is our first contest to be Spoleto-themed and cross-posted on two blogs. Vote for your favorite, and read the rest of the entries here.

I had never visited the Village Playhouse before tonight, but upon entering was pleasantly surprised to find it was perfect for a show based on the life and music of jazz/scat artist, Louis Prima. Crushed velvet flowed over walls of purple, red, and sea-foam green. Tables were topped with vases filled with peacock feathers which surrounded the main area filled with lush pleather seats and metal fold-out chairs alike…nice.

The stage was backed by brick walls and in its center a screen. The show itself consisted of a montage of historical monologue, film clips and sound bytes, and enthusiastic performances by four female and two male singers. The best part? The show was accompanied, well rather…based on, a live jazz band.

All in all, I was very pleased with the whole production. At first I felt the acoustics were off, but as soon as the singers began to use hand held microphones it was easier to get into the acts as the lyrics were no longer drowned out by the amazing band. Things really started to get “swinging” after the intermission. The performers came out into the audience and danced and things really livened up.

It was a show that left the audience singing on their way out with smiles on their faces.

The best part for me, were my “table mates”; two couples who were in the midst reminiscing about their younger years when EVERYONE lived downtown (West Ashley was the country), and Louis Prima was still on TV. Rick, Marleen, Louis (who says he’s “King Louis” at the house), and Rosemary all tapped their feet and clapped their hands the entire time. They thought it was great that a young person like myself enjoyed Prima’s work so much. My simple answer was, how could I not when he did a voice over for one of my all time favorite Disney character’s? Almost immediately after I explained my interest, it was brought up in the production. Apparently being “King Louis” in Disney’s The Jungle Book, was one of the last things Prima did before he died of a brain tumor. I feel blessed to have had an opportunity to get to know him through his music…and think it’s amazing that he was able to reach so many generations.

Oh yes, before I forget…Rick asks, “Give a shout out to my peeps.”

How can you not love that? Hooray Spoleto.

No, this is NOT a story about a restaurant diner who pulled a gun and refused to pay for his meal.

It is the headline I saw several years ago over a story about the eating habits of pandas. This was prompted by a terrific Piccolo Spoleto Fringe show I enjoyed last night at Theatre 99.

It was called “I Eat Pandas” and featured two VERY imaginative - and energetic - young ladies and their off stage piano player.

The hour improv presentation started with a 30-minute skit inspired by the audience suggestion of “laundry.” A large clock on the stage allowed the audience to do a “count down.”

Glennis McMurray (L) (blonde) and Eliza Skinner then did an hiliarious 15-minute reprise of the main characters and, finally, a 5-minute wrap-up of what had become a musical. No, really. Both ladies sang well and the piano/harmonica accompaniment was excellent.

On the keyboard was Jonathan Wagner, a last-minute fill in, and - he said - a member of Second City.

They announced they were doing two more shows at the Meeting Street venue so go check them out. It’s a nice “Fringe” benefit.

More Chucker on Spoleto at Chuckography.

“Monkey: Journey to the West,” this year’s Spoleto talker, is a visual feast. It gets the kitchen sink treatment in the numbers and kinds of Chinese performance arts thrown in. I saw Friday night’s performance. A few thoughts …

Supertitle translations show that Monkey is quite funny. The 500-year old folk story of a spiritual quest is full of natural and supernatural people and beasts.

It’s 2 hours with no intermission, the anime is great, costuming outrageous (and sometimes scary … plus, Monkey looked like he’d just played basketball), painted sets interesting, and physical performances … martial arts, sword fighting, gymnastic aerials, high wire flying, plate-spinning, silk panel aerials, bamboo pole acrobatics, body contortion, fire stick twirling, umbrella spinning … amazing. Your eye doesn’t know where to go, and if you drink any alchohol before the show you might get dizzy. For me, it was a preview of some of the things we will see in opening ceremonies for this summer’s Beijing Olympics … on a smaller scale of course. For the Olympics, there will be hundreds of acrobats, scores of plate-spinners, thousands of singers …

The orchestra is amplified and so are the singers, so if you have a sensitive ear, take earplugs. The performance is not that loud but Chinese music’s forms and some of the rock repetition of rhythms, plus the squeals the monkey makes (I wanted to wring his neck) and the whanging of sticks on the stage floor (amplified by the wireless mics) can be jarring to a Western ear. (My ear is so sensitive that those things made me feel like I was losing my mind.) Mandarin itself, in fact, can be jarring to a Western ear.

Sometimes you just have to let art wash over you.

(See Alan Hawes’ photo gallery here.)

Robert Behre is one of the most talented and well-rounded men you’ll meet in Charleston. He writes the P&C’s always-illuminating Monday column on architecture and preservation and covers practically everything else as a reporter.

But his hidden talent? Robert is the staff’s undisputed master of light verse and sly wit, and he has been for years.

His latest offerings:

It’s hard to make Spo
Ku about the Memminger
Auditorium

It’s also hard to
make a Spoku about the
Carolina Choc—

Water bottles are
no longer the greenest choice.
Correctly, I thirst.

Get off the damn floor,
Child for whom I just purchased
Expensive ticket

Read the rest of this entry »