Schaeffer: Go Get the Frisbee

It's Peter Pan

We were recently treated to great tickets to see Peter Pan at the Benedum Theater in the cultural district of Pittsburgh's Downtown. It was an amazing show and we were absolutely impressed with Kathy Rigby. At 56, she is still able to perform some pretty amazing acrobatics. 

Alice Carter's Review from the Pittsburgh Trib-Review

At an age when a lot of us confine our physical activity to climbing in an out of a golf cart or lifting a beer and cheering at a baseball game, Cathy Rigby is soaring, tumbling and turning cartwheels as Peter Pan.

The Olympic medalist-turned-actress, who turns 56 this year, gives eight amazingly limber, rambunctious and highly entertaining performances a week cavorting and flying as J.M. Barrie's classic little boy who refuses to grow up. After the curtain comes down, she turns up in the lobby to sign autographs and talk with the many children -- and their parents -- who come to see her.

Peter Pan is a role that she has played many times on Broadway, in national tours and in numerous regional theater productions, including those at Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera in 1987, '91 and '98. She's repeating her performance here through July 2 as the second show of the 2008 Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera season.

Rigby clearly is the show's star. But hers is not the only notable performance.

Tom Hewitt turns in a flamboyant and often hilarious performance as the devious but ineffectual Captain Hook and the stuffy, humorless Mr. Darling.

Tiffany Helland has great stage presence and good dance moves as the Indian princess Tiger Lily, and Elisa Sagardia is sweetly touching as Wendy Darling.

It's a well-supported production that nicely showcases Barrie's timeless classic story of pirates, fairies, Indians, a revengeful crocodile and a band of lost boys determined to remain forever young and who involve three Victorian children in their fantastical adventures.

"Peter Pan" has been a long-time stage entertainment since Barrie adapted his popular story for the London stage. In 1955, lyricist Carolyn Leigh, composer Mark Charlap and director/choreographer Jerome Robbins turned Barrie's play into a Broadway musical.

Craig Barna's new orchestrations and musical direction help keep the proceedings lively while moving the story along with songs that include "I'm Flying," "I Won't Grow Up" and "I Gotta Crow."

Dana Solimando's choreography wrings every bit of energy and visual interest out of "Ugh-A-Wug" that must leave the accomplished dance ensemble exhausted. She also injects the right notes of humor with the Pirate crew's tarantella and tango.
John Iacovelli's scenery, Shigero Yaji's costumes, Sean Boyd's fight choreography and Paul Rubin's breath-catching flying sequences all provide the proper balance of spectacle, shivery thrills and exoticism to engage and entertain children of a wide variety of ages.

The first act is short -- barely 40 minutes before the bathroom break. The second act is longer. But the entire show comes in at a little more than two hours -- long enough to thrill and enthrall, but short enough that younger attendees don't descend into slumber before the finale. That would be a shame, because Rigby's final appearance works overtime to awe the audience and send them home with a light coating of fairy dust.

Alice T. Carter can be reached at acarter@tribweb.comor 412-320-7808. 

The 91.3 WYEP Summer Music Festival

We had a great time Friday night at the 2008 91.3 WYEP Summer Music Festival at Schenley Plaza in a neighborhood right down the street from us in Squirrel Hill. we got to spend some time with family (jonathan, Helen, and Sarah Catherine Hartiens). All the girls got to ride on the Merry Go Round and we heard one of our favorite local bands Good Night, States.

Chocolate Schmocolate: A Phipps Let Down

The Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is magical place. Build on the grounds of Schenley Park here in the East End of Pittsburgh, the gardens were founded in 1893 Henry Phipps and now feature regular exhibits. Catherine and I have been coming to the Phipps since 1999 and find new discoveries every visit. On Monday, we had a date at the Phipps and discovered their collection of Bonsai. Amazing. One of the joys of the Phipps are the exhibits. Last Year, Phipps exhibited the glass work of Dale Chihuly. It was spectacular and a number of the pieces that Chihuly created have been permanently installed. Recently, Phipps opened a new exhibit called Chocolate. The marketing for the exhibit is exquisite. However, once inside, I am sorry to say that it is a bit of a let down, especially after Chihuly. Don't get me wrong. the Victorian rooms are worth seeing, but they did some really weird stuff with the water exhibit by floating fifty five gallon drums in the fountain area. It made it look like we were at the site of a major oil spill. Also, they put all these plastic pink flamingos in the gardens which gave the exhibit a kind of blue collar kitsch sensibility that was very confusing. Anyway, if you are a member of the Phipps, it is worth a visit just because the Phipps is a new experience at the turn of every season. If you are local, and not a member, but found the marketing attraction, get ready for a let down from this exhibit. If you visit the burgh, and have never been to the Phipps, go regardless of the exhibit. The Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens is a magical place.   

We Have Cupcakes

I Love Cupcakes

So for years I have had this love of cupcakes. The kids are having a party- great maybe they will have cupcakes. Valentine's Day is a great excuse to have cupcakes. Ummh, just the right amount of yellow cake with some creamy whipped icing and maybe even some sprinkles. Don't get me wrong I like chocolate cupcakes too, but only with a big glass of cold milk.

Cupcakes are Hip?

Last year, I realized that cupcakes are now actualy hip. Sprinkles in LA, the Magnolia Bakery in New York are havens for cupcake-ophiles.We have two gourmet cupcake-eries right here in Pittsburgh's East End.

The Best Cupcake Goes to

Cocos in Shady side on Ellsworth (right down the street from Jonah's Call!) is the King of cupcakes in Pittsburgh.

Notable mention for gourmet cupcakes

Starbucks makes a good cupcake. They have (or had) Triple Chocolate and Vanilla Bean with Raw Sugar Sprinkles about six months ago but the cupcakes have since disappeared. What's Up with that Starbuck?

Not So Best

Dozen's on Murray Avenue in my neighborhood of Squirrel Hill has disappointed me several times. The cake is too crunchy and the icing too whipped for my liking.

Non-Gourmet Staples

Believe it or not stock Giant Eagle cupcakes are the best cupcake around when it comes to the non-gourmet category. The cupcakes from the Big Bird (Giant Eagle) are standard but good fare for everyday cupcaking and for the kids. Not good are the cupcakes at the Giant Eagle Market District. They use the same cake as their normal cupcakes but then ruin the whole ordeal by overloading them with way too sweet gobs of icing and stuff like recees cups and strawberry goop (yuck)- and they are the same price as the unbeleivable cupcakes over at Cocos.

Body-o-griffic

Emma has been taking ballet and dance at a local company here in Pittsburgh's East End neighborhood of Squirrel Hill and just finished her first performance. The company is called Bodyography.

Free Play

When we moved to Pittsburgh in July of 2007, we decided to use our third bedroom as a study so that I could work from home if needed. In 2008, I decided that it was best for me to work only at my office and stopped using my study, completely. When school ended for Emma and Lydia, a project of large proportions emerged which involved dismantling the study and turning it into a pink bedroom for Lydia. This plan also required making Emma's room pink as well and moving a gi-gillion things around in order to accommodate everyone. Well, last Thursday, this ten day project ended and now Lydia and Emma both have their own bedroom. With the girls now having their own space, signs have appeared on doors. Lydia's sign, rather than listing a series of rules or objections merely says, "FREE PLAY." When asked what she means by free play, Lydia said, "It means that you can do anything you want in my room- its free play." Additionally, she has requested that Friday's and Mondays be "kid friendly days" in the Slocum household.

The Princess and the Castle

Emma and Lydia Slocum present the first of their summer film series classics, The Princess and the Castle. Look for a special behind the scenes follow up film in the coming days.

The Year In Memory Verses

It is safe to say that both Lydia and Emma have a certain attraction to the video camera. Words like "ham," "card," and "natural" come to mind seeing them entertain. Over the past year, Catherine has been using facebook's video feature to share Lydia and Emma's school work with family- particulalry with grandmother "Momo." After a series of these became favorites, we began getting requests to share them with others. So, here is Lydia (mostly) and Emma's video messages for you all to enjoy (though in a somewhat deteriated form due to the extraction process from Flash Player to Youtube).











How did we get video's off facebook and onto Youtube?
The trouble with making videos on face book is that facebook gives no option for saving flash videos to your hard drive. For the longest time, I (Jay) could not figure out how to extract the videos (made with flash player) from the facebook site. Yes, all very technical. However, I finally solved the problem after a few hours of hacking. If you are a Mac user, do two things. First, download the free adobe flash player. Second, use the Safari browser to extract the video. Just go to the Window feature on the top menu bar and choose activity. Then double click on the activity labeled facebook. Then look for the file that has video in the address. It should be large (like at least 1.0mb). Just double click the video and you Mac will download it. For PC users, get the grease monkey add on for Mozilla and you should be able to extract stuff.

Have Fun With Pittsburghese

1. (WAV) (AU) “Quit jaggin around with dat jumbo” implies that:

2. (WAV) (AU) "Dawn is rilly nebby." means that:

3. (WAV) (AU) "What yinz doin en at?" translates as:

4. (WAV) (AU) What action do you take when you hear: "Get aht, dere’s a fahr in da filled!"

5. (WAV) (AU) "If yinz wants served, raise your hans."