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Places To Go

[MAY 22, 2002]  ^"Dancing in Cadillac Light" by Kimberly Willis Holt. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001, 167 pages.

The year is 1968, and the place is a town in southern Texas called Moon. Eleven-year-old Jaynell Lambert lives with her family in one of the poorer sections of town. Bailey’s Automobile Salvage is next door to her house, and her favorite thing to do is to climb into one of the junked cars and pretend to drive.

After her grandmother dies, her grandfather has a hard time living alone. He moves in with her mother’s sister, Aunt Loveda, but that doesn’t last long because of Loveda’s high-strung personality.

The Lamberts really don’t have any extra room, but they make room rather than put him in a nursing home. This means that Jaynell must share a bedroom with her prissy sister, Racine. They are only 10 months apart in age but completely opposite in interests and personality. Jaynell is a tomboy and likes to hunt and fish with her father. Racine loves everything girlish, and her dream is to take dancing lessons at Lynette Logan’s Dance and Baton Twirling School. Even sharing a room with Racine can’t spoil her excitement about having Grandpap so close.

The grown-ups fear that Grandpap is getting senile, so Jaynell’s father asks her to watch what he does and where he goes. She is excited by the request not only because it is an invitation to spy, but also because she gets to spend more time with her grandfather. Daily walks to the cemetery become their routine, and Grandpap tells her the story behind each tombstone. He also likes to visit the families where he used to deliver mail, which includes a dirt-poor family, the Pickenses, who are regarded as social outcasts by most of the residents of Moon.

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Since her grandfather moved in, Jaynell has heard comments from various people about his past, and she is determined to find out what people are talking about. An incident on the lake convinces Jaynell that there may be something wrong with her grandfather, but she decides to keep it to herself so they won’t send him to a nursing home.

On an impulse one day her grandfather buys a 1962 emerald-green Cadillac convertible, and things begin to change. People in town treat him differently when he is driving the Cadillac. Life seems wonderful to Jaynell when they are in the Cadillac, and Grandpap teaches her how to drive. He even lets Racine dance in the light from the headlights of the Cadillac. Then her grandfather does something unbelievable, and she can’t tell anyone because for sure they would send him to a nursing home.

One day Grandpap unexpectedly dies while driving his precious Cadillac. The loss is almost unbearable for Jaynell and is made even worse when the grown-ups begin to fight over Grandpap’s possessions. She knows that things would be better if she tells her secret, but she struggles with wanting to tell. When the truth is finally revealed, through a series of dramatic events, Jaynell becomes a heroine and her grandfather’s wishes are fulfilled.

This story is full of colorful characters, sensitive moments and laugh-out-loud humor. Some of the themes that are dealt with are issues of gender, social class, alcoholism and family secrets. The characters are very believable and realistic. This book is recommended for ages 9 to 12.

For more information, visit the library at 725 Pekin St. or call (217) 732-5732.

[Linda Harmon, Lincoln Public Library District]

• Lincoln Community Theatre

• Logan County Arts Association

Auditions scheduled for ‘The King and I’

[MAY 23, 2002]  Lincoln Community Theatre announces auditions for the final production of the summer season, "The King and I." This popular musical offers a number of roles for men and women, as well as for a number of local children.

The play, set in the royal palace of the King of Siam in the early 1860s, creates a dramatic, richly textured tale of an attractive English widow summoned by the King of Siam to serve as tutor to his many wives and children. Along with a dazzling Rogers and Hammerstein score, the musical weaves a tale of East versus West, incorporating both laughter and tears.

"The King and I" is directed by Jennifer MacMurdo, formerly of Lincoln.

Adult-only auditions will be on Friday, May 31, from 6 to 9 p.m. Children’s auditions will be conducted on Saturday, June 1, from 9 a.m. to noon. An additional session, for adults unable to attend Friday evening’s auditions, will be on Saturday, June 1, from 1 to 2 p.m. Callbacks will be conducted on Sunday, June 2, from 2 to 4 p.m. All auditions will be at St. John Church of Christ, 204 Seventh St. in Lincoln.

Production dates for the play are Aug. 2-10. Rehearsals begin the week of June 17.

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The director is looking for children ranging in age from 5 to 14 years old. There are two leading male child roles. Adult roles include eight men and 11 women. Dancers are also needed.

To audition, be prepared with a song of your choice showing your vocal range. An accompanist will be provided. A copy of the script from this play is available at the main desk of the Lincoln Public Library. It may not be checked out.

Season tickets for the summer, which also include the June production of "Hello, Dolly!" and the July production of "Dearly Departed," are still available. Send check or money order to LCT, Box 374, Lincoln, IL 62656. Tickets are $20 for adults and $12 for children through eighth grade.

For information on auditions or season membership, call (217) 732-4763 or (217) 732-2640 or visit the LCT website, www.geocities.com/lincolncommunitytheatre.

[Judy Rader, LCT publicity chairman]

Wicked stepmother, torrential
rains don’t stop Cinderella

[MAY 13, 2002]  At 6:45 p.m. Saturday it looked bleak for the 75 students involved with this year’s musical production of "Cinderella." Heavy rains had caused the LCHS auditorium ceiling to resemble a tropical rain forest, as buckets strategically placed in the seating area played their own musical melody of plop, plop, plop.

School officials concerned for the safety of the public could not allow the play to go on as planned. The leaks from the roof were one thing; the possibility of a section of the heavily plastered ceiling coming down was another.

The students, who had two performances under their belt but were looking forward to the big audiences the weekend shows always bring, could be seen in the halls, their emotions running from disappointment to tears. Residents who had started to show up to choose the best seats mingled in the halls with them, sharing the sadness that hundreds of hours of practice were being washed away by a roof giving in to the elements.

At 7 p.m., director Tom Quinn advised everyone mingling about the halls not to leave. The decision to move the set to the school gymnasium meant that the show would go on.

With that announcement, a mass exodus of students and audience, many carrying something from the stage area over to the gymnasium, began.

[Photos by Bob Frank]
[Though they're in the stands, this is no basketball game.]

There was no question that some of the play would be hampered in this "theater in the round" atmosphere. No pyrotechnics, no exit stage left or right was possible. The light show would be relegated to turning the gym’s big overhead lights on and off to take the place of the auditorium’s spotlights. The evening would show that these problems would be relegated to mere inconveniences by the band, cast and crew giving their all during the performance.

The actors, now only a few feet from the 400 to 500 in attendance, ignored the fact that their markers were now free-throw lines and out-of-bounds lines rather than stage points. The play must go on and it did. Remarkably well, this observer must add.

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Without the stage to hide the activity a set change brings behind a curtain, the audience ended up being privy to all the machinations that make up a multi-set play. The students involved also showed their resourcefulness by not letting the mere inconvenience of becoming a road show in less than an hour deter them from delivering their lines on time with the same skill and determination as they had in the two previous performances in the auditorium.

There were a few non-scripted moments during the play. Since they added to the event by showing the students’ resiliency and effort, they in no way detracted from the performance.

At one point when the fairy godmother is supposed to exit stage left amidst smoke and darkness, she simply walked a few feet past the performance area. When Cinderella asked the fairy godmother’s helper if she always exited that way, he replied: "Many times, but usually more impressive than that." The line broke up the cast as well as audience.

[By Sunday's matinee, the lighting crew had their spotlights in place.  But gym or stage, it never phased Betsy Buttell, LCHS's Cinderella.]

At another point when the transformation of the little mice to horses was supposed to occur amidst darkness, swirling lights and smoke, the gym lights were turned off as stage crew flitted flashlight beams around the area in a brilliant improvisation.

In still another scene, a crew member noticing the lost slipper was not "on stage" slid across the gym floor, planted the slipper and hid behind the prop bridge till the scene was over.

These minor gaffs didn’t detract from the play. Rather they enhanced it as audience and cast alike reveled in the resiliency of the students to pull off a first-class rendition of Rogers and Hammerstein’s play under less-than-perfect circumstances.

The two composers would have liked what they saw that evening. The audience surely did.

[Mike Fak]

Movie classics

Logan County Arts Association upcoming films

All upcoming monthly features in the Logan County Arts Association series of classic films will start at 7 p.m. at the Lincoln Cinemas, 215 S. Kickapoo.

Thursday, June 13

Alfred Hitchcock’s "Rear Window" (1954)

Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Thursday, July 11

"Top Hat" (1935)

Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers

Showman Jerry Travers is working for producer Horace Hardwick in London. Jerry demonstrates his new dance steps late one night in Horace’s hotel, much to the annoyance of sleeping Dale Tremont below. She goes upstairs to complain, and the two are immediately attracted to each other. Complications arise when Dale mistakes Jerry for Horace.

Thursday, Aug. 8

John Ford’s "Fort Apache" (1948)

John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen

In John Ford’s somber exploration of "Custer’s last stand" and the mythologizing of American heroes, he slowly reveals the character of Owen Thursday, who sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the military honor which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, Thursday attempts to destroy the Indian warrior Cochise after luring him across the border from Mexico.

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Thursday, Sept. 12

"Breakfast at Tiffany’s" (1961)

Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Buddy Ebsen, Patricia Neal

Based on Truman Capote’s novel, this is the story of a young jet-setting woman in New York City who meets a young man when he moves into her apartment building.

Thursday, Oct. 10

Horror/sci-fi double feature

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1931)

Frederic March, Miriam Hopkins

Based on the story by Robert Louis Stevenson. Dr. Henry Jekyll believes that there are two distinct sides to men: a good and an evil side. He faces horrible consequences when he lets his dark side run wild with a potion that changes him into the animalistic Mr. Hyde.

"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951)

Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe

An alien (Klaatu) with his mighty robot (Gort) lands their spacecraft on cold-war Earth just after the end of World War II. He tells the people of Earth that we must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.

Tickets will be available at Serendipity Stitches, 129 S. Kickapoo; the Lincoln Public Library Annex; at the door; or by calling (217) 732-4298. Ticket prices are $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $2.50 for children 13 and under. These features are one show only, with limited seating.

[Logan County Arts Association ]

Lincoln Community Theatre’s website is at www.geocities.com/lincolncommunitytheatre/index.html. Pictures from past productions are included.  The LCT mailing address is Lincoln Community Theatre, P.O. Box 374, Lincoln, IL  62656.  E-mail: lincolncommunitytheatre@yahoo.com.

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