Web Log Entry #0037, Sunday, January 26, 2003: Day 69

Anchorage Sunrise: 9:39am Sunset: 4:45pm High Temp: 27° Low Temp: 14° Today, I saw "The Foreigner." No, not the recent Steven Seagal movie, the stage play about a Brit in Georgia (the US state, not part of the former Soviet Union). What is it about Steven Seagal, anyway? I swear his eyes are getting smaller or his face is getting puffier, and either way, it's not a good look for him. I understand he's an amazing aikido expert, but despite being in two dozen movies, he isn't a very good actor. One can also find mediocre actors in community theater, but I have a fondness for community theater. (I could even take credit for my family's multi-decade involvement in community theater (because they're not here to stop me! Ha ha ha!), beginning with a production of "The Hobbit" at the Prescott Fine Arts Theater in the mid 70's.) Maybe I'm secretly hoping that the actors will forget their lines, or the set will fall over. Maybe it's because I know the actors aren't getting paid (although the difference between zero and what most professional theater actors are often paid isn't very much, but I hate to digress); they're on stage because they want to act. Sure, I've seen community productions that made me squirm and want to get up on stage to give direction (Like "BE MORE FUNNY!"), but I give a lot of latitude to community theater. This show didn't require a lot of forgiveness. The actors did fine. If you've never seen this play, I don't want to spoil it for you, but the first act bounces along with the wacky adventures of a Brit who is pretending to not speak English during a visit to a lodge in Georgia. Actually, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch. A conversation between someone with a thick Cockney accent and a Deep-South Southerner (you know, the kind for whom "fork" is a two-syllable word) would leave both convinced that the other spoke no English. That could be fun to watch! I'd probably enjoy that more than the second act, which takes a darker turn. Maybe the director had a secret desire to direct dramas, because it was quite heavy compared to the fluff of Act I. Still, they all said their lines and no set pieces fell over so it was a successful show.

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© 2003 Evan M. Nichols