Daily Loaf

The USF Fall Dance Concert lives up to its billing as a “vibrant mélange of ballet, modern, swing and flamenco-fusion.”

Not having seen one of the USF dance concerts for many years, I was very pleasantly surprised at the exceptional quality of dance, choreography, music and costuming. The execution of the dances demonstrated a high degree of quality and professionalism, particularly in the pointe work. This show makes it very obvious that USF School of Theater and Dance has attracted some esteemed faculty and visiting choreographers with impressive credentials.

The seven varied dances, none overly long, provided a perfect amount of entertainment. When so often dance shows are composed of one modern piece after another that all tend to look alike, it was great to see a dance concert that had enough variety to be truly entertaining. Also, it was gratifying to see a number of talented male dancers. From the vantage point of dead-center front row, we could see all of the footwork at close range.

The opening number, “Noches Argentinas,” for my taste, is the best Read the rest of this entry »

In the Heights — now onstage at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center for the first stop on its inaugural national tour — has non-stop energy. The most remarkable thing about this play is the driving beat of the music and dance numbers in styles ranging from salsa to hip-hop. The vigorous ensemble cast provides a non-stop spectacle that flows effortlessly to the infectious beat.

This show started out as a college project for composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda. From there he opened it as an off-Broadway production, and the show developed such a cult following that it was produced for Broadway. Since then it has won four Tony Awards, including Best Musical.  In a way, the success of the show mirrors the dreams of its characters to make good in the larger world. Read the rest of this entry »

Nervous about the waning light, I slid the silver key  into the lock and twisted it. I’d wanted to come here by myself first so I wouldn’t get all emotional in front of the real estate person, but maybe I’d made a mistake in venturing here alone.

About ten years ago, my father turned our rambling farmhouse into a restaurant. He made a go of it for a good long time until the economy turned bad and his health failed him.

Now I stood in the entranceway, staring at the hostess station with its oak counter that my father had made. The grains matched perfectly; dad would have had it no other way. The lemon scent of the wood polish he always used transported me right back in time. I felt the tears rush to my eyes. Now I was an orphan. No brothers and sisters, no spouse. Get a grip, Laura.

A sudden noise made me nearly turn around and run. Read the rest of this entry »

I went to see a powerful play, Maria’s Song, about the plight of an illegal immigrant who is trying to stay in the states to be with her son.  Afterward, I interviewed Suzanne Willett, who created, directed, and wrote the script, music and lyrics for this show — all out of her passion for this very important issue.

Most of us feel that we can’t do anything about events that are larger than us, but Suzanne is using her artistic talent to make a difference.

See what she had to say about the human side of the immigration issue, her time in the military and how learning the language of music solidified the show’s impact after the break: Read the rest of this entry »

I attended a preview of Maria’s Song and I have to say I’ve scarcely been so moved by a play.  The story is about Maria, an illegal worker who has been caught in a raid on a labor camp and is making every attempt possible to keep her American-born son.  The emotional authenticity of the author and performers is rarely seen in local theater.

The play starts with an off-screen raid, and then we see Sister Margaret ushering Maria and her son into their church.  Immigration officers want to deport Maria, leaving her son behind. Read the rest of this entry »

David M. Jenkins, Alison Burns and Jessica Rothert in "And Baby Makes Seven"

Actor, director and lighting designer, Karla Hartley has got to be one of the most versatile theater people in the Tampa Bay Area.  She has directed such widely divergent plays as The Crucible and Psycho Beach Party, and she has designed and stage managed shows from such far-reaching locations as the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. She is currently the Producing and Educational Programming Manager at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, and I last saw her when she played Dr. Scott and Eddie in TBPAC’s wonderful production of The Rocky Horror Show.  (As if that isn’t enough, she also co-directed the show.) We are indeed fortunate to have her.

Her latest venture is directing Jobsite Theater’s production of And Baby Makes Seven. Here’s the unlikely plot: Anna, Ruth and Peter await the arrival of their newborn child, but first they must rid the crowded apartment of their three imaginary children. Playwright Paula Vogel redefines the meaning of family and completely blurs the lines between illusion and reality, power and subjection, friendship and love, female and male. I had the pleasure of interviewing Karla the week before the show’s opening. Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend marks the third year of Deep Carnivale, Tampa’s premiere festival for readers and writers.  It’s this Saturday and Sunday, and features dozens of authors, poets, songwriters and artists.  On Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., the fest take over the Performing Arts Building of Hillsborough Community College, Ybor City Campus — and best of all, it’s free.

Highlights of this year’s Deep Carnivale include a special tribute to author, playwright and poet Susan Hussey, and keynote speaker John Leland of the New York Times, author of Why Kerouac Matters and Hip: The History.

Other featured events include a performance by the HCC Dance Department, a dance class with Shana Perkins, spoken word with Lizz Strait, a reading by Tampa Poet Laureate James Tokley, Sr., and a comedy/horror reading by Jeff Strand.  Sally Bosco (that’s me) gives a twitter flash fiction workshop, and there’s book art, installations and art exhibits of all sorts.  There are also myriad activities for teens, tweens and kiddle. Read the rest of this entry »

I interviewed Joe Popp the weekend before opening night of Pericles in a dark, smoky bar in downtown Tampa. He was affable and talkative — I guess I expected more of a pissed-off punk guy. I mentioned that I had seen his punk rock Macbeth at American Stage’s Shakespeare in the Park series in 1997. It was a kick-ass production that still stands as one of the theater’s best-attended events ever. For that reason, I can’t wait to see Pericles at Jobsite Theater.  Joe wrote the music and lyrics for Pericles and also plays guitar and functions as the narrator.

See what Popp had to say about how he turned Shakespeare’s least-produced work into a modern, pop-punk-riddled tale of incest, intrigue and murder in the streets of New Jersey, where Pericles becomes Perry the mobster.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m always drawn to stories about parallel dimensions, so The End of Mr. Y really caught my attention. Though the book is categorized as mainstream literary, it’s riddled with science fiction and fantasy elements. This mind-meld of physics, metaphysics and literature makes it one of few recent books that I’ve read obsessively to the end.

The voice of the narrator, Ariel Manto, grabbed me right away. The thirty-something Ph.D. student with a dysfunctional family background has a penchant for kinky, self-destructive sex, loves obscure literature and philosophy, and is doing grad work on the little-known author, Thomas E. Lumas. As luck would have it, one rainy day she runs across his book — The End of Mr.Y — which is purportedly cursed. Ariel snatches it up using her expense money for the entire month and holes up to read the Victorian-era missive in her seedy, cold-water flat. Though fearful of the curse that promises death to all who read the book, Ariel relishes the danger. Thomas does a wonderful job of letting her quirky and witty heroine gradually unfold for us as the story progresses.

Read the rest of this entry »

In 1959, Carol Burnett made her Broadway debut as Princess Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress, a musical based on the classic fairy tale “The Princess and the Pea”; she went on to become an entertainment legend.  A tough act to follow, you might say, but the City Players of Largo hold their own in enthusiasm and talent. Read the rest of this entry »

The Suncoast AIDS Theatre Project is proud to announce its 5th Annual Night of Alternative Theatre, Prelude to Pride, Monday, June 15, at the American Stage Theatre Company.  What better way to celebrate this night than putting on a play by Charles Busch, who wrote the campy classics Psycho Beach Party and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom?  This is guaranteed to be an interesting night. Read the rest of this entry »

I stood rejected at the gates of hell. Who knew you needed an invitation? (S. Bosco)

A couple of months ago I finally caved and got a Twitter account. Because mostly everything in my world revolves around some kind of writing, mainly fiction, I thought, Wouldn’t it be great to write some 140-character flash fiction? I’ll bet no one else has thought of that, right? Well, wrong. Lots of people have thought of it.

When I wrote a Daily Loaf post about short Twitter fiction last month, the Twitter flash fiction writers crawled out of the woodwork. So I’m going to share a few examples here:

Ben White, midnightstories, writes one piece each night at midnight. He’s a really disciplined guy and actually keeps to his schedule. Here are a few of my favorites:

I feel my bed writhing as I wake up. I panic, then realize that my VR gear is still on. Exhale — fell asleep trying to ignore the war again.

As an immortal, I was always frightened of being buried alive. But it is worse now: they installed an LCD screen playing reality TV in mine. Read the rest of this entry »

Jeff Strand, who has a cult following among horror aficionados, will be having a launch party for his first mass market paperback with a major publisher, Pressure, on Sat., May 30 from 7-9 p.m., at the Barnes & Noble in Carrollwood. Already optioned for film, Pressure breaks the molds and pushes the boundaries.

Here’s a quick summary of the plot:

They first met in boarding school: Alex, shy and nervous, and Darren, constantly scribbling in his journal. They became best friends in college. Alex always knew Darren was a little odd…

Read the rest of this entry »

(for full Heatwave coverage, click here)

Do you ever feel like Big Brother is watching you?  If you’ve been to 7th Avenue in Ybor City, you’re probably right. The street is lined with CCTV surveillance cameras. That’s why a group of concerned USF art students, in conjunction with the Tampa chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, is performing in the Camerahead Project at WMNF’s Tropical Heatwave this Saturday, May 16.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Carrollwood Players do a killer job performing Batboy the Musical, a campy musical comedy/horror show in the vein of Rocky Horror.  See Baldwin’s Daily Loaf review here. Read on for my interviews with the cast and director.

Wayne Gresham plays Ms. Taylor, the mother of the young girl “attacked” in the cave.

Read the rest of this entry »

An African-American man laments the fact that people lock their cars when he approaches and says that people write the story of his life based on scripts from TV.

A young man who thinks he might be gay asks, “Why does homosexuality get lumped in with alcoholism, pedophilia and drug addiction as something that is loathed?”

A 20-year-old virgin asks, “Who came up with the three-date rule?”

Stereotypes in America asks questions that are usually taboo, that aren’t discussed in polite company. Read the rest of this entry »

I live in parallel universes. While I brush my teeth, I dance in Rio. While I do schoolwork, I have a tryst. While I drink a latté, I am murdered in my sleep.

I recently caved to peer pressure and signed up for a Twitter account.  I tried to think of some purpose for it rather than random blathering.  I’ve always loved sudden fiction, and flash fiction (there was briefly a magazine called Paragraph that had complete stories in one paragraph).  That brevity fascinates me.  I’d like to take that mini fiction one step further and create short fiction in 144 characters, which is the Twitter limit.  I think of it as almost like haiku without the stylistic limitations.

Here is my challenge to you.  I know that there are a lot of creative people out there.  Send me some Twitter flash fiction.  Either send it through my Twitter account (sallybosco), or post it here.  I’ll collect them and periodically post them.  Maybe if we get enough, we can make a chapbook.  Here are some of mine: Read the rest of this entry »

I attended the second day of HCC’s Four Days of Dance.  Some dances were performed by students and some by guest artists.  I can only say that I was completely floored by the artistic accomplishment of this program.

The Korean Fan Dance, choreographed by Jiae Paul and deftly performed by HCC students, was a visual treat.  The graceful dancers looked like pink and yellow butterflies.  There was a nice bit of synchronized dance and rolling-fan-wave that created the visual illusion of a dragon.  Lead dancer Sumi Kim’s background in Korean dance is evident in this traditional piece.

Three Iberian Moods was a lyrical ballet piece performed by three dancers on pointe. They handled single pirouettes very nicely, demonstrated good synchronization and lots of attitude.  At times they purposely violated the fourth wall by looking out into the audience.  The three women performed this medium-difficulty ballet with wonderful style and enthusiasm. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s going to be interesting to see how a TV host, an attorney, the founder of one of the area’s largest social networking sites and a USF professor pull off <em>Regrets Only</em>, Paul Rudnick’s comedy about Manhattan trendsetters and gay marriage.

People who (for the most part) don’t usually act are going out on a limb this Saturday by performing in a play for a good cause.  Although the actors will technically be “on book,” they will also be moving around the stage, using props, wearing costumes and performing with sound and lights.

“Bring on the Men and Let the Fun Begin.”  That was the opening number of M.A.D Theatre’s Broadway Gay Cabaret (M.A.D. stands for Music, Acting and Dance).  And they truly did bring on the fun.

I walked into Streetcar Charlie’s in Ybor not really knowing what to expect.  As a friend of mine said, it could be really good, or it could be really bad.  There was a small stage area with a white gauzy curtain.  The performers (about ten men and women) were dressed in basic black and added props appropriate to the various songs.

Director, producer and performer Justyn Wade Dansby introduced the show as a “Fabaret” that would cover the themes of love, life, happiness and unhappiness, and he was right.

I was pleasantly surprised.  The group had some truly kick-ass voices. Read the rest of this entry »