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[Ginny]

Ah.....I shall have to look at the music again.

DR GINNY did they always call you when they took publicity pictures?  They must have known about your theatre background.

Not always, DR JRand, but my theatre experience got me in front of the camera during some vendor demo for faculty and staff of a video-taping system they were trying to sell the campus.  One of my colleagues said I was "just like Jane Pauley."

[ChasSmith]

Good photos, DR Ginny.  Always good to pull out these things from the past.  I wish I had many more than I do.

[George]

Finally, here I am, now married and director of the library, demonstrating the OCLC computer system to some students in the first year of "Kids in College" in 1981 or 1982:

Cool!  I still use OCLC!

[ChasSmith]

A question for BK or DR Elmore or whoever feels qualified:

Asking for a friend (yes, really)...

When theater companies wish to mount Sondheim shows using unique staging or casting, to whom do they apply for the yea or nay on that?  Mr. Sondheim himself?  MTI or whoever licenses the show?  What if said unique staging or casting has been done, and this group wants to get a blessing on using the BASIC idea, while not literally copying what the original group did?  Do they (also) apply to that company?  How is this correctly addressed -- again, specifically in the case of Sondheim shows?

[bk]

They'd ask whoever licenses the show - that company would either just say no or pass along the info.

[bk]

We just jumped from 48% to 56% and we're just on day five. 

[elmore3003]

A question for BK or DR Elmore or whoever feels qualified:

Asking for a friend (yes, really)...

When theater companies wish to mount Sondheim shows using unique staging or casting, to whom do they apply for the yea or nay on that?  Mr. Sondheim himself?  MTI or whoever licenses the show?  What if said unique staging or casting has been done, and this group wants to get a blessing on using the BASIC idea, while not literally copying what the original group did?  Do they (also) apply to that company?  How is this correctly addressed -- again, specifically in the case of Sondheim shows?

There's much that's vague here. DR ChasSmith, so I cannot tell what they production would like to do to the show. Iam really not that informed on sucha situation, but I would think all queries should be directed to MTI: they rent the materials and the leasor signs a contract vowing to make no changes to the material. I do remember that a group on Fire Island in the late 1980s wanted to do an all-gay Anything Goes, and I believe that Tams-Witmark and the Cole Porter Trust shut it down.

I also remember a big stink when Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization closed down an Oklahoma! in Atlanta, although there I think the problem was unauthorized rewrites.

[Jane]

DR John did you accomplish everything for your parent's you felt needed doing?  If nothing else, I am sure they enjoyed having you for an extended visit.

No. But it was a good visit. My having to work proved to be cumbersome. Won't someone win that $222 million lottery for me?

A good visit is a big accomplishment

[Jane]

DR JANE on TCM at 6 p.m. EST....so I guess 3 p.m. your time....is a movie called ISLAND OF LOVE made in 1963 that had a lot of location filming on Hydra....you may see something familiar.

We watched some of it and have seen Hydra.  Hydra has changed some since this.  It is recording-thanks.

[Jane]

DR Ginny I am enjoying your photos very much.

[George]

A question for BK or DR Elmore or whoever feels qualified:

Asking for a friend (yes, really)...

When theater companies wish to mount Sondheim shows using unique staging or casting, to whom do they apply for the yea or nay on that?  Mr. Sondheim himself?  MTI or whoever licenses the show?  What if said unique staging or casting has been done, and this group wants to get a blessing on using the BASIC idea, while not literally copying what the original group did?  Do they (also) apply to that company?  How is this correctly addressed -- again, specifically in the case of Sondheim shows?

There's much that's vague here. DR ChasSmith, so I cannot tell what they production would like to do to the show. Iam really not that informed on sucha situation, but I would think all queries should be directed to MTI: they rent the materials and the leasor signs a contract vowing to make no changes to the material. I do remember that a group on Fire Island in the late 1980s wanted to do an all-gay Anything Goes, and I believe that Tams-Witmark and the Cole Porter Trust shut it down.

I also remember a big stink when Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization closed down an Oklahoma! in Atlanta, although there I think the problem was unauthorized rewrites.

A theater group in Seattle (the no longer existing Alice B. Theatre) did a production of Company where one of the couples was played by two men, one of the couples was played by two women, and one of the "girlfriends" was also played by a man ("it's ah-PREEL").  They didn't ask permission, but there was a letter in the lobby from Sondheim saying that they could finish their run because they had already started.  I got to see that production and it was very well done.  Here are a couple of articles about it:

http://articles.latimes.com/1995-12-24/entertainment/ca-17256_1_l-a-theater

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950628&slug=2128615

However, THIS article says that the theater group actually did get permission to do it:

When Alice B. director Andrew Mellen suggested updating the setting of "Company" to 1995, Narver [Allison Narver, the director of the production] decided it didn't work. But she did agree to other controversial shifts.

In most productions it is assumed Bobby is heterosexual. In Narver's, he realizes he's gay. To buttress that concept, the genders of two other characters have been switched from female to male - a move that certainly tilts matters.

"We're not making that many changes," Narver notes, adding that Alice B. secured permission from the show's publisher to make adjustments. "It's not like we're setting it on the space shuttle for no reason.

"It just works remarkably well this way. The show runs on the energy of sexual tension and hysteria. We see Bobby figuring out he's gay in a much more oppressive time, in 1970 when homosexuality was still listed as a mental illness by the American Medical Association."

Hmm.

[bk]

Mr. Appliance Man is here - he found the problem with the washer leak but it's a rusty pipe so Mr. Plumber Man has to come tomorrow to do that.  But Mr. Appliance Man is fixing the fridge - the ice water machine hasn't worked in eight years - old filter now replaced, leak being fixed, and then I'll be able to get clean, cold water anytime I want it, and I'll also be able to make ice again.

[Jrand73]

Ice for everyone!

[Jrand73]

I do not like directors who "change" or "modernize" things to fit their own agendas.....the material is there: use it OR choose another play/musical.

There is NO play/musical that can survive a boneheaded director.

[Jane]

Behind the Scenes of Island of Love:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LwCFXYHHRc

[John G.]

A question for BK or DR Elmore or whoever feels qualified:

Asking for a friend (yes, really)...

When theater companies wish to mount Sondheim shows using unique staging or casting, to whom do they apply for the yea or nay on that?  Mr. Sondheim himself?  MTI or whoever licenses the show?  What if said unique staging or casting has been done, and this group wants to get a blessing on using the BASIC idea, while not literally copying what the original group did?  Do they (also) apply to that company?  How is this correctly addressed -- again, specifically in the case of Sondheim shows?

There's much that's vague here. DR ChasSmith, so I cannot tell what they production would like to do to the show. Iam really not that informed on sucha situation, but I would think all queries should be directed to MTI: they rent the materials and the leasor signs a contract vowing to make no changes to the material. I do remember that a group on Fire Island in the late 1980s wanted to do an all-gay Anything Goes, and I believe that Tams-Witmark and the Cole Porter Trust shut it down.

I also remember a big stink when Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization closed down an Oklahoma! in Atlanta, although there I think the problem was unauthorized rewrites.

I remember R&H closed down a production of South Pacific that had been set in a psych ward.

[John G.]

We just jumped from 48% to 56% and we're just on day five. 

That's great news.

[John G.]

Came home to a basket full of mail.

[John G.]

Most of it was junk, but there were two packages from Kritzerland that I look forward to playing.

[John G.]

There was also a $30 gift card from some home delivery service of freshly made food.

[John G.]

And the DVD of Intervista, one of my favorite Fellini movies.

[John G.]

George, the last 15 minutes or so of Miles Ahead is nothing but music. I think your father would like that.

[John G.]

I don't know how factual the script was but Don Cheadle is amazing.

[George]

George, the last 15 minutes or so of Miles Ahead is nothing but music. I think your father would like that.

Cool...thanks for the info.

[George]

I don't know how factual the script was but Don Cheadle is amazing.

I'd read that he'd been trying for years to get this movie made.

[George]

Well, it's time for me to leave.  I need to go to Costco, then I'm meeting a friend for dinner.

Be back later.

[John G.]

I think that the character who should be Cicely Tyson has become a dancer in this film.

[John G.]

See you, George.

[John G.]

Can we move on?

[John G.]

One more.