Now you can be on the Ferguson Grand Jury

  What happened in Ferguson that makes ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬ a lie and "Hands up don't shoot" a fake? This is all a myth - an evil nasty story that has no relation to the truth, but has led to the deaths of many police officers and life time crippling injuries of others.

There was a Grand Jury investigation into the shooting and that has been made into a play. It is verbatim eyewitness testimony with nothing added. It's the truth. Now you can judge. But it is an hour and 22 minutes, but riveting. The set and costume design are amazing, as are the actors. The creator--the man who used only the words of the testimony--is Phelim McAleer and it was performed by professional actors on stage in Los Angeles. Now you can see it on YouTube.  But you can also see how witnesses see things differently, and how some are mentally unstable or frightened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBVNATEyF_g

"If Michael Brown had just stopped running, it could have ended another way." Eyewitness

Ferguson the play

LOS ANGELES (March 30, 2015) — Would you indict Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown? The controversial shooting will be reenacted on stage in FERGUSON, a new play based on actual grand jury witness testimony. Written by journalist and documentary filmmaker Phelim McAleer and presented by Theatre Verité Collective, four performances of FERGUSON take place as a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre, April 26 through April 29. The audience is the jury. How will you vote?

Crowd funding. If you contribute, you get a copy of the script—which is the actual words of testimony.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ferguson-the-play

                    

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Community Theater

Last night we drove 62 miles (round trip) to see the premiere of David Meyer's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Condominium Association, Inc." performed by the Pickerington Community Theatre at the Violet Grange in Pickerington, Ohio. It takes a lot to get me out at night, and Pickerington seems like we're driving almost to Wheeling. Only for a friend. However, we had a good time and enjoyed the show. I think community theater is great fun, and I love seeing people I know on stage (David had a cameo appearance at the end). It's a perfect Halloween vehicle, too, with all the Sleepy Hollow stuff and Rip Van Winkle and a headless guy. Auditions for the next production, Godspell, will be January 4,5, and 6, for performances March 21-31 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

One performer, Karen Haueise, who played Madame Perdieu/Roz Purdy was so gifted and natural I inquired about her and was told she had never been in a theater production before. I think some people can fill a stage without overdoing it or stealing attention from other actors and yet make it all seem real. I hope she continues to do community theater.

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Sometimes I have trouble with English, too

Perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised if newspapers are shrinking or folding and people are communicating in text messages with no capital letters, numbers for words, and no punctuation. English is a world-wide language, can be difficult, and each culture puts its own slant on it. I use English all the time, and sometimes I struggle. (I have a problem overusing adverbs and parenthetical statements.) Yesterday I was reading Terry Teachout's theater column in the Wall Street Journal (you can see part of it here on his blog). I don't do theater, although I did see a matinee in New York about 50 years ago, but I like to keep up. Please don't misunderstand; he's a superb writer, but I'm out of practice. It's like reading some of the old research articles from the 20s or 30s in JSTOR--it's good exercise, but tiring. Maybe it's my age, or the age we live in age in which we live. I was exhausted by my own pauses: read, reread and ponder the meaning. I knew the idioms and phrases weren't critical to the sense of the essay, that he was just enjoying being playful, but still. . . I love words, language and meaning, and it shouldn't be so difficult. For instance:

"not excluding," does that mean "including?"

"repays careful watching," does that mean you get back the time if you pay attention?

"a couple of much-admired revivals not with standing," does that mean yes, the play has had revivals that were good?

"it goes without saying," I know that means "I'm going to say something you'll agree with, but I'm saying it anyway," but . . . it's still confusing to say you're not going to say it and then you do.

"an actor who sings not a singer who acts," would mean one is better at cross over than the other?

"can't be anything other than gorgeous," means very pretty, but why do so many of our idioms use the negative to be positive? Do Greeks or Cambodians do this? Probably, if they speak English.

"would that this tale were something other than an ordinary celebrity vehicle," What do you call that construction of, "would that. . .were. . .other than"? Future pluperfect past something?

"deliver the goods with postage to spare," must mean it's beyond successful, but I'm not familiar with the phrase. Is it theater English? New Yorker English? An idiom from his school days? Pony Express?

"so transparent as to be but invisible" I'm sure this construction has a name (so . . .as to be . . .), but it's been a long time since English class.

"a pair of golf-playing straw businessmen in bespoke suits" Yes, I did have to look up "bespoke" which is past tense of "bespeak" which is a British tailoring term meaning you choose the material. And I know a straw man is something made up to knock down. But strung together (a play about African Americans), I'm a bit confused.