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The annual Mendocino College New Play Festival is a homegrown feast of local talent. Photo courtesy of Mendocino College.
NORTH COAST, Calif. — After a two-year hiatus, the Mendocino College Theatre Arts Department will present the 16th Annual Festival of New Plays on Thursday, April 7, through Saturday, April 9.

The performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Center Theatre at the Ukiah campus.

This festival marks the return of a beloved Ukiah theater tradition, which was put on hold due to the COVID pandemic.

This year's festival features eight new plays by local playwrights. Each play is approximately 10 minutes long and will be presented at each performance.

The plays were selected from among over 80 scripts submitted by writers from throughout Mendocino and other nearby counties.

The play directors are students in the Mendocino College theatrical directing class taught by Professor Reid Edelman.

Festival actors include students in the college’s conservatory cohort group, as well as other local students and community members.

The short plays cover a wide range of topics and performance styles. The festival also features original set designs, lighting and technical support by students under the direction of college Technical Director Steve Decker.

In particular, student Jordan Wegner, a student in the college’s new Technical Theatre certificate program, is designing lights for the full production. Music and sound effects edited by Theatre Technician David Wolf will help sustain the high-energy spirit of the production.

“This annual festival is one of the college theater program’s most exciting projects, and we are delighted to be able to bring the event back to life once again,” Edelman said.

This year’s festival opens with Logan Silva’s stylized comedy "All Power to the McSoviet" in which Vladimir Lenin spars with an American capitalist in a fast-food restaurant, raising questions about whether any ideology can ever really benefit real people. The director is college theater major Alexander Marsh; the cast includes conservatory cohort students Ari Sunbeam and Dakota Laiwa McKay as well as Julayne Ringstrom and Madison McDonald.

Next, “Little Book of Fears” by David Burton explores the layers of a troubled marital relationship. The cast includes Andrea McCullough and Pat Nunes under the direction of conservatory cohort student Gwendolen van Wyk.

Kyle Whitrock’s play “Match Made” evokes the feeling of a classic black and white Christmas movie as two angels come back to earth to arrange a romance for their surviving boyfriend and brother respectively. The cast includes Dakota Laiwa McKay, Brisa Yepez and Ari Sunbeam. Christian Avalos is the director.

Phaedra Kincaid Swearengin is directing Michael Riedell’s play “Crazier Train Fundraiser” in which a young man hides out in a tax office after the jewelry heist to fund his musical pursuits goes wrong. The cast features Matt McClelland, Maria Monti, Pat Nunes and Gwendolen van Wyk.

“Mari,” by Shannon Sawyer, powerfully and personally confronts the issue of mental illness and its impact on a relationship. The cast includes Joni Marie McLeod and Jasmine Norris. The director is Brittani McKemy.

In Natasha Yim’s comedic play “Salsa Dancing” three generations of characters confront relationships and the enjoyment of life and love at different stages of maturity. Dakota Laiwa McKay directs actors Rosemary Eddy, Megan Regan, and Les Clow.

“Making It” by Chris Douthit and directed by Kelly Alvarez, is a touching drama about two lovers’ final days together as one faces the end stage of a terminal illness. Their shared love and imminent loss is reflected in the food they have been creating together from a special recipe book. The cast includes Jordan Wegner, Todd Hale and Janet Denninger.

Finally, the evening ends with a magical celebration of all who have died before us.

Jessica Lee’s “Amma’s Dance Party” takes place in a kitchen in which food, music and dance unite a family and celebrate the spirits of those who have passed. John Pegan directs a cast which includes Brittani McKemy, Rickie Emilie Farah and Gwendolen van Wyk.

Tickets are available in Ukiah at the Mendocino Book Co. and online at www.ArtsMendocino.org, and at the door as available. This production is recommended for ages 12 and up. Admission is $10. Audience members are encouraged to purchase tickets early. For more information, call Reid Edelman at 707-468-3172.​

Please note regarding the Mendocino College Covid Safety Policy: Mendocino College has adopted a vaccine mandate for indoor events. All guests must show proof of full vaccination (two doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine) in order to enter the theater. Masks are recommended, but not required.

Each audience member will need to present proof of vaccination upon entry. This can include: screenshot of a valid CA digital vaccine card or QR code, physical CDC vaccination card, or a screenshot or photo of a CDC vaccination card on a phone. Photo ID or an accompanying roster for children who do not have identification must accompany all health documents.
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TCM CLASSIC FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW

Participating in a film festival in a virtual setting is hardly more exciting than sitting at home watching the latest fare from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, or maybe Hulu and a bunch of other streaming services.

The TCM Classic Film Festival started in Hollywood in 2010, and everything was in place for April 2020 when, of course I don’t need to tell you, a nasty virus shut down all that is fun and entertaining.

TCM decided to move ahead two years ago with what was called the “Special Home Edition,” which as you can deduce meant you could watch on your flat screen TV but miss the excitement of Dolby Sound or an IMAX screen.

Don’t get me wrong, I was all for watching Alfred Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” (a personal favorite), Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca,” and the classic comedy “Some Like It Hot,” but these films are easily accessible.

Now the long wait is over. Plans can be made for a trip to Los Angeles to hang out at the famous Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the central gathering point for the TCM Classic Film Festival.

After a painful absence, movie buffs from around the globe can congregate over four packed days and nights to savor cinema delights. This year’s theme of “All Together Now: Back to the Big Screen” could not be more appropriate.

The fun begins on Thursday, April 21, and concludes on Sunday, and in-between there will be more great movies, appearances by legendary stars and filmmakers, presentations and panel discussions, and special events than one’s dance card could possibly hold.

TCM always seem to have a fondness for celebrating anniversaries, and the upcoming occasion of Judy Garland’s 100th birthday means that 1939’s “The Wizard of Oz” will be showcased so we may enjoy the musical tale of a young Kansas girl being whisked away to a magical land.

A notable milestone, which seems hard to believe, is that the beloved family sci-film “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” celebrates its 40th anniversary as the kick off to the 13th annual TCM festival.

The official host of the festival and TCM primetime anchor Ben Mankiewicz was 15 years old when “E.T.” came out and he observes how the film continues to speak to both children and adults claiming that it is “the most influential family film since ‘The Wizard of Oz.’”

What’s not to love about the story of young boy Elliot who befriends an alien accidentally left behind on Earth? As Elliott attempts to help his new friend to phone home to be rescued, the two must elude scientists and government agents.

Adding to the fun of opening night will be the presence of Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg, along with producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, presumably to provide color commentary on the making of “E.T.”

The fortieth anniversary of director Barry Levinson’s “Diner,” the story of high school friends converging on a Baltimore eatery to discuss their problems, allows us to see the early careers of Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, Ellen Barkin, Tim Daly, Steve Guttenberg and Mickey Rourke.

The 40 years later theme continues with director Amy Heckerling’s landmark high school comedy “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” set in the San Fernando Valley, that featured a cast of up-and-comers.

Sean Penn stole the film as perpetually stoned surfer dude Jeff Spicoli, a relentless antagonist to Ray Walston’s Mr. Hand, who came to the conclusion that everyone one was on dope. Phoebe Cates shows up in a bikini that is memorable, for reasons many guys remember well.

Each year, the festival pays tribute to a select group of individuals whose work in Hollywood has left a lasting impact on film, this year choosing to honor a pair of Oscar-nominated actors.

Throughout his prolific career, Bruce Dern earned critical praise and his first Academy Award nomination for his performance in 1978’s “Going Home” and another nomination for his role in 2013’s “Nebraska,” both of which will be screened.

Having worked with iconic directors and stars of classic Hollywood, Piper Laurie, still going strong at age 90, made a name for herself in 1952’s “Has Anybody Seen My Gal?” and her Academy Award nomination turn in “The Hustler,” both of which will be screened.

A true legend who is greatly missed, Paul Newman was the star of “The Hustler” as pool shark “Fast Eddie” Felson opposite Piper Laurie as his alcoholic girlfriend. Jackie Gleason superbly played Newman’s nemesis, legendary “Minnesota Fats.”

Another Newman film on offer will be 1973’s “The Sting,” in which he teamed up with Robert Redford, as they played two con artists in Depression-era Chicago who set to avenge a friend’s murder by a big-time racketeer.

For movie buffs, there’s nothing like attending the TCM festival. Striking up a conversation with strangers to talk film comes easily. In some respects, the experience is like Comic-Con, except hardly anyone is wearing a costume.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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‘DOG’ Rated PG-13

While some similarities in tone may exist, Channing Tatum’s wild journey with a PTSD-scarred Belgian Malinois in “Dog” conjures up memories of the comedic relationship of Tom Hanks partnership with a rambunctious dog in “Turner & Hooch.”

It’s more pleasurable to have a man-and-dog buddy comedy than the canine tearjerkers such as “Marley & Me” and “A Dog’s Purpose.” At least one won’t need to bring a box of Kleenex to the theater for “Dog.”

Tatum Channing, who doesn’t have a wide range of acting talent but is right for the part with his charisma, is Jackson Briggs, an ex-Army Ranger veteran of Afghanistan who suffered a brain injury that has him sidelined but itching to return to battle.

Working in a sandwich shop in the Pacific Northwest offers no satisfaction for a warrior. The ticket back to duty is an assignment to take Army dog Lulu on a road trip to Arizona for the funeral of a veteran who served with Briggs and was the handler of the war hero canine.

The trip is not going to be on an airplane with Lulu acting the part of a service animal, because the dog lacks the social graces to be around other people and four-legged creatures. Lulu needs to be muzzled, and possibly heavily medicated.

Briggs packs his unwilling companion into his vintage ’84 Ford Bronco for what is not going to be a leisurely drive down the Pacific Coast, heading to Arizona by way of Los Angeles. How hard is it going to be to drive a dog to a destination? Pretty difficult, it turns out.

First of all, Lulu is not exactly a passive passenger along for the ride. In fact, the canine warrior has anger issues related to traumatic stress that result in her tearing to shred the car’s seat.

Misadventures aplenty await the duo, from encounters with a suspicious pot grower and his psychic wife, a liaison with new age women, to Briggs scoring a free room at a swanky San Francisco hotel by pretending to be blind.

“Dog” has legs, not because the canine has four of them, but as far as any kind of comedy goes, laughs have been in short order on the big screen and this movie is hanging around at the multiplex to deliver the enjoyable crowd-pleasing levity that we badly need.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL PREVIEW

The History Channel has lined up some interesting nonfiction series that are somewhere on the horizon at the moment and seemingly worth the wait.

The title of “Five Families” represents what you probably think it does, namely a series about the dramatic rise and fall of New York’s mafia families – Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo and Lucchese.

For decades these five families ruled New York and built the American Mafia into an underworld empire. The series will follow the Mob from its violent growth in Prohibition, its golden age of domination in the 1970s and 1980s, up through its heated war with law enforcement.

Executive producer Ray Liotta, an actor who knows his way around crime dramas, in talking about power, money and status, said “there’s a reason why there’s so much public intrigue around the mafia and why it continues to be a pop culture mainstay.”

Who doesn’t like a heist film? I still rank “The Bank Job” starring Jason Statham, based on the true story of a daring London job, as one of the best in the genre. Gene Hackman in “Heist” is another really good one.

“History’s Greatest Heists with Pierce Brosnan” is a one-hour nonfiction series delving inside the most unbelievable, elaborate real-life heists from the Wilcox train robbery of 1899 to Boston’s Great Brinks robbery in 1950.

Acting as the host, Pierce Brosnan, who may know something about capers after his turn as James Bond, reveals that “great heist stories are thrilling, and when well told, have the ability to bring the viewer along as almost a co-conspirator to the crime itself.”

Each episode examines the story of one incredible heist, breaking down every aspect including the team, the mark, the plan, how they carried it out, and the fallout. Heists across history have become legends, and the History Channel is here to tell the tale.

The four-part documentary event “Harlem Hellfighters” will bring the complex and courageous story of the Harlem Hellfighters to life through the eyes of three men: band leader James Europe and Privates Henry Johnson and Horace Pippin.

A century ago, an all-black regiment was formed in New York as the U.S. geared up to enter the Great War. This infantry group consisting mostly of members from Harlem faced intense racism at home during training and later confronted shocking discrimination in the field.

Their extraordinary courage displayed in battle earned them the name Harlem Hellfighters and France’s highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre. “Harlem Hellfighters” is bound to honor the legacy of brave warriors who fought ferociously in the war’s horror-filled trenches.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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Kwame Dawes. Courtesy photo.

Each line in “Visitors” is a gift for meditation that is accessible. In the end we arrive at the conclusion that Joan Naviyuk Kane is seeking to articulate in symbolic language an understanding of the fleeting nature of our brief “visit” to the earth as humans.

The comic tragedy is that we are here for a while, and yet we are here forever when we pass on our rituals of survival to the next generation.

There is, though, a warning at the end of the poem. Often, she says, there are forces — small in spirit in the face of the grand generosity of an open door — that seek to bar our entry. We grow weary, and must be wary of such forces.

Visitors
By Joan Naviyuk Kane

Every door stands an open door:
our human settlements all temporary.

We share together the incidental shore
and teach the young to tend the lamp's wick,

weary of anyone small enough to bar our entry.


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2021 by Joan Naviyuk Kane, “Visitors” from Dark Traffic (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2022 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.
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Kwame Dawes. Courtesy photo.

It is remarkable how our U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo, in so few words, summarizes something of the cycle of our mortality with such clarity and grace.

With our first cry after birth, she says, we enter “ancestor road” — a place of creation and destruction — life, in other words — but what we carry loosely through this life are our memories.

Most comforting for me is the last line that affirms our purpose in life, “to make more.”

Memory Sack
By Joy Harjo

That first cry opens the earth door.
We join the ancestor road.
With our pack of memories
Slung slack on our backs
We venture into the circle
Of destruction,
Which is the circle
Of creation
And make more-


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2019 by Joy Harjo, “MEMORY SACK” from An American Sunrise (W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2019.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2022 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.
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Kwame Dawes. Courtesy photo.

One always won­ders just how much we should depend on what we know of a poet out­side of a giv­en poem, to engage and appre­ci­ate that poem.

And yet, it must mean some­thing that this ten­der lyric ode to moth­er­hood comes from an adoptee reflect­ing on how her life as a writer was shaped by the dili­gence and pre­science of her moth­er.

Tiana Nobile​’s poem, ​“Moth­er of Let­ters,” is an ele­gant thank you note to her moth­er, and by exten­sion, to the art of mothering.

Mother of Letters
By Tiana Nobile

For hours my mother hovered over us,
her hand gently guiding mine, her wrist
a helm for my unsteady ship.
I knew how to hold a pencil,
how to grip it between my thumb
and pointer finger, how to lean softly
to avoid a callus. I knew how to form
all my letters perfectly before starting school.
For every birthday, a new notebook
would appear wrapped tightly with a bow.
I would bury my nose inside it
as if the pages would write themselves
with my breath. The pages I'd fill with words
my young tongue was too knotted to express.


American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2021 by Tiana Nobile, “Mother of Letters” from Cleave (Hub City Press, 2021.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2022 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Kwame Dawes, is George W. Holmes Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner at the University of Nebraska.

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