A City Beautiful Christmas

I got an invitation from choreographer Holly Harris to see a City Beautiful Christmas at the History Center downtown. A City Beautiful is a recently formed church that doesn’t have a permanent brick and mortar home yet. I witnessed a fabulous celebration at the Lake Eola band shell. Cole Nesmith welcomed me when I arrived at the History Center. Much of the service would be happening inside the Orlando Regional History Center. Then the congregation would walk out into the park for an arts performance. The performance is what I planned to sketch, so I leaned against one of the tall pine trees and started blocking in the stage. There was an hour to show time.

White gossamer fabric hung from pine boughs.  The fabric glowed yellow in the street lamp light. Two sculptures of alligators are permanent residents of the park and they overlooked the proceedings. A grey bearded man with a sleeping bag slung over his shoulder was talking to Holly for the longest time. He was invited inside but he preferred the outdoor air like me. He was to thin to be Santa Claus. He stood a short distance from me and watched me intently. He struck up a conversation, letting me know he was from Ohio. Distracted and lost in the sketch, I answered his questions but kept my hand and eyes busy. I’m a bit rude when working, and he soon wandered off.

A box sat at the center of the staging area. A tech tested it out. With the lid off, it erupted, sending up a large plum of fake snow lit from below. Dancers all dressed in black began to form themselves on the grid of the stage. They all held candles. White paper bags with candles inside illuminated the path from the History Center leading people to the staging area. I had assumed everyone would sit on the grass to watch the show. I had guessed wrong. Everyone stood, and I lost my view. I had only sketched half the dancers. I could see one or two dancers between peoples heads. A fellow in front of me apologized, I told him not to worry. I’ve learned to accept any staging difficulty. I decided to relax and start painting. Catching the magical candle light at night would be a challenge.

Music was playing that sounded like Danny Elfman‘s sound track to Edward Scissorhands. Since I couldn’t see the dancers, I imagined ice sculptures forming with the chips floating in the air like snow. The luminescent pillar of snow blew skyward up above the wall of backs. For a magical moment, it was snowing in Central Florida. Air and Cole spoke messages of love, acceptance and Christmas joy, as I presume the dancers performed. Everyone in the audience was issued a candle. One single flickering flame became two, then four then a sea of light. Everyone’s voice was raised in song. There would be a second performance, so  the lights were extinguished as the crowd dispersed, I continued to sketch. The sketch felt complete even without the full cast. The gator looked hungry enough. With another hour till the second performance, I decided to pack up and head home.

Caroling

Gailanne Amundsen sent out an invitation for her annual Christmas Caroling.
As she said, “This is how it works….we pick a place, bring cookies, apple cider, good shoes, a pal, a flashlight, and then we all mob up and sing house to house.

it’s always great so you should come!” I drove up to Mockingbird Lane in Altamonte Springs and parked behind a big yellow family van that had just parked. Gailanne piled out holding Maya, Julie Norris’s child. Everyone mingled in the driveway. It was Gailanne’s grandmothers house and her brother in law was working in the garage. He was busy planing and sanding a kitchen counter top.I figured it would be difficult to sketch carolers who would sing one song at each house and then move on, so I decided to sketch them as they mingled around the cookies and cider. The carolers soon left, but I decided to finish the sketch.

The motorcycle was a recent purchase and it was bought for a song. This family had a wild assortment of pets. Two tortoises were brought out so that their plastic wading pool could be cleaned. Holes were drilled into the bottom of a plastic garbage can and the water from the pool was poured in. The garbage can made a perfect sieve, catching all the solid detritus. White rats and some mice, were in glass aquariums. The rats were fed to a snake inside the house. The male rat understood his fate when he was put in with the snake. He jumped and struggled to find a way out. For some reason, the snake refused to eat the panicked rat.

With the sketch done, I walked the suburban streets in search of the carolers. I used my GPS to follow their most likely route. At several intersections, I just had to guess which way they went. I figured I had a 50% chance of finding them. When I got to Lemonwood Court, I was shocked to see that every house had an amazing assortment of Christmas lights. It was overwhelming. Although it was a dead end, I had to walk down this winter wonderland. Arches covered in lights invited me to down the sidewalk stroll. Soon enough, I found the carolers. Of course they were here. I joined them singing carols. Maya and another girl would go up to each door and ring the doorbell before we sang. Strangely although the house was covered in lights, no one came to the door. This happened repeatedly. Our luck changed when a bus driver stopped beside us and asked us directions to the lighting display. It was a bus from a retirement home, and we sang to the passengers parked curbside.

From that point on, people came to their doors and windows, grateful for the Christmas cheer. It was fun finding my voice in the harmonies. Cookies and hot cyder greeted us on the table in the driveway when we got back. This was a Christmas tradition well worth repeating.

The Nativity

I went to the final dress rehearsal for the Nativity at
Pinocchio’s Marionette Theater in the Altamonte Mall. It was a few days before
Christmas and the Mall was overrun with shoppers. I had to drive up and down
about ten parking isles before I finally found a spot in the parking garage
next to the movie theater. There was panic and road rage among the cars
searching for spots. It was a freezing cold night and I added my windbreaker to
my arsenal of coats. The security gate was closed when I found Pinocchio’s. I
went to the backdoor entrance and started firing of texts to people I hoped
were inside. With no return texts, I decided I might have to sketch the theater
from the children’s play area. I set up my stool and was about to start
sketching when I saw Sean Keohane open the gate to get in the theater. I
scrambled, gathering my supplies and I ran to the theater just as he started
lowering the gate. He saw me and reversed the motor.

Puppeteers were given dark olive green long sleeved shirts
which would help blend them into the background as they worked the rod puppets
designed by Jane Henson. Sarah Lockhard who plays the Virgin Mary wasn’t at the
beginning of the rehearsal, so the smaller puppets used in the actual nativity
scene rehearsed several run-throughs of that scene. Sean boomed out his lines
as the voice of God from the back of the theater. God speaks in Latin, it turns
out. Herod hatched his evil plot to kill the new born King using the three
Kings as his henchmen. Joseph was shocked when he discovered Mary was pregnant
and he understandably doubts her story of divine birth. He still vows to
protect his young bride.

My favorite part of the play is when a banner is waved
majestically over the manger. The puppeteer looks up at the banner making it
wave in slow motion as if in a breeze using two rods. It is the puppeteer’s
concentration and complete absorption in the process that I admire, and this
was one moment where the puppeteer was in plain sight. Three musicians
performed live, playing medieval music. The rest of the puppeteers remained
hidden behind the stage front and faux rock work. They  had knee pads on, yet several times I heard
loud thumps back stage. Edna Bland iced her leg from one of those bumps
during a break. There were two weeks of these back breaking rehearsals for two
performances. Art isn’t easy.

The Art of Public Space

On November 27th, I went to Urban ReThink for one of their “ReThinking the City” presentations. Award winning artist Gillian Christy and her husband, urbanest Russell Preston discuss the art of creating great public space. Russell showed slides of empty public spaces in Boston that became vibrant community meeting places thanks to simple inexpensive urban design and public art. Gillian does large scale public art, so together they make a great team. Public space design should be about creating authentic community’s with people being the first consideration. An active public space inspires art to be in it. Gillian and Russell were the first resident artists at the steelyards in Boston. Huge industrial smoke stacks were modified by adding art to them. Gillian said that her work is about connectors, things that connect people. The redesigning of vacant spaces was referred to as “Tactical Urban-ism” by Russell. Design was done lighter, quicker and cheaper. Short term action resulted in long term change.

 Ed Green from “Rebuilding Together Orlando” and its program, A Door to a Good Night’s Sleep, that helps needy children in our community.The organization offers hope to people in hopeless situations. The last Saturday in April will be a construction day in which people come together and help rebuild home in desperate need of repair. To raise money for this effort,
Rebuilding Together Orlando partnered with Home Builder’s Institute, The Mustard Seed, and
a major pharmaceutical company to build bunk beds for children in
Orange County. The bunk beds were built with recycled wood doors and
“upcycled” materials such as bed frames. They then created “A Door to a Good Night’s Sleep” by embracing the talent of local artists to create works of art on the headboards.

They have been beautifully painted and are showcased in an online auction. So far 11 headboards have been painted. Anyone can bid on these works of art.

The Nativity Rehearsal

I went to the Henson’s Pineloch warehouse on December 12th to sketch a rehearsal of The Nativity. Rehearsals were held most weeknights for two weeks from about 7:30 to 10pm. All of those rehearsals were for two performances on December 22 at Pinocchio’s Marionette Theater in the Altimonte Mall. The oldest story in Christian history was made new in this retelling with live music, and the gorgeous puppets from IBEX Puppetry and the Jim Henson Company. This puppet production was spearheaded by Jane Henson, the wife of Jim Henson of Muppet’s fame.  Jane helped Jim in the early days of television production but then abandoned puppetry to raise her family. He youngest daughter, Heather Henson helped her bring this production to life.

The warehouse was cavernous, filled with boxes and bins full of foam, fabric and assorted puppet parts.  There were woodworking benches and large kites suspended from the ceiling. If you were to imagine Santa’s toy factory, this would fit the bill. I decided to sit behind the table where the performing puppets were stored. Gabriel with his gossamer wings dominated the table. A dark sinister and conniving Herod stood beside him, visible through his transparent wings. Mary, Joseph and the three kings also waited to begin their performances. A train rumbled by adding an industrial edge to this period piece.

From this angle, I could see the puppeteers who had to crouch down behind the stage setting to stay out of the future audience’s view. Sean Keohane, the director corralled the cast and explained how important the telling of the story would be. It was something parents could share with there children. Sarah Lockhard worked with the Virgin Mary rod puppet. Her face expressed every emotion as she moved the puppet. It was fascinating watching actors become lost in the subtle performers.  The word, marionette, 
means “tiny Mary” and  was derived from the puppets used in medieval mystery
and miracle plays.

Christmas at the Movies

For the second half of the choral concert at Northland Church, (530 Dogtrack Road, Longwood FL), I sat as high as I could so my book light wouldn’t disturb anyone around me. There was a Sleigh Ride Medley, a White Christmas Medley and plenty of dancers with hyper Disney pep in their steps. I identified best with the deep throated baritones singing, You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch. From my elevated perch, I looked down on all the Who’s in Whoville singing on the stage. Even my jaded heart gave a subtle twitch.

The last Central Florida Community Arts Concert I saw in this venue had beach balls that floated down on the crowd from the rafters.  Beach balls might not be appropriate for Christmas. Then I wondered why no one ever created giant inflatable snow flakes. I just might have to put that on my to-do list. There were projections of snowflakes on the screen behind the singers and sometimes on the walls of the hall.

I really liked the quick paced performance by Jimmy Moore and Melissa Mason Braillard when the presented “Christmas Story” in three minutes or less. When Melissa acted as Ralphie helping his dad change a tire, it was extra funny when she dropped the lug nuts shouting F—! Jimmy clapped his hand over her mouth just in time before she soiled the sanctuary. Later they presented “Christmas Vacation” in three minutes or less, but many of the references were lost on me since I didn’t know the movie as well.

Merry Christmas

Ron Lister‘s home at 1642 Sunburst Way, Kissimmee is a true marvel. His home is adorned with more than 50,000 lights synchronized to music, which plays through your car radio. Reader’s Digest magazine named it one of the country’s best holiday displays in 2009. He even has his own website.  Work began to set up the display back in October. Ron has been putting up this display for the past 25 years.

I arrived one hour before sunset to start my sketch. I used the final moments of daylight to block in the sketch with black line work on my tablet. As the sun set, I dimmed the screen and started painting. Mosquitoes buzzed in my ears. Ron came out and added Joseph and Mary to the inflatable manger scene. Then the lights flickered on. What makes this display so unique is the amazing amount of work that went into synchronizing the lights and music. Ron used a computer program that resembles an Excel spread sheet. Each row represented a colored string of lights. The program allowed him to turn on and off each set of lights in time to the music. It was much like the amount of work that goes into editing a movie.

The A frame above the garage had CDs that acted as reflectors for red bulbs. Ron said the center hole is the perfect width for the bulbs. The two palm trees are actually just PVC strung with icicle lights to create the illusion of palm fronds.  The large Christmas tree is a series of hoops suspended from a pole capped with a large star. Periodically, cars would stop in the street and people would pile out to take photos of the display. Ron was there to answer anyone’s questions. Sometimes he would ask a driver to turn off their headlights to avoid blinding others. He pointed out to me that the singer of one of the carols had just performed live in Celebration Florida. She travels the country performing at amazing Christmas displays.  A sign in the driveway asked visitors to vote for this house in the Old Navy Griswold Lightacular Challenge. He got my vote.

Fringemas

Fringe is pulled out all the stops for the December First Monday Happy Hour. In the round Patron’s Room in the Lowndes Shakespeare Center there were tables set up with silent bidding items. George Fringe Wallace directed me to the Margeson Theatre, (orange venue) where the various performers were working on last minute tech issues. Laney Jones and Matt Tonner set to play guitar and ukulele. I had seen Laney perform twice before, both times in parking lots, so it was nice to see her on the stage. She has a sweet voice and her original folk tunes are humerus and heart warming. She sang a song about how she loves her therapist since he always listens and he has been her longest relationship. It was hilarious.

The announcers, Santa and Mrs. Claus (Michael Wanzie and Mitzi Morris) introduced each act. Joan Crawford offered a raspy and funny rendition of the 12 days of Christmas. The PB&J Theater Factory performed a crazy skit in which Brandon Roberts came out as a Gumbyesque foam Christmas Tree. The first time he appeared, he looked like a sad phallic shaped tree. Everyone laughed as he did an unenthusiastic dance. The tree costumes eventually got fuller and his enthusiasm, livelier.

A Varietease dancer performed a subdued strip tease, but a wardrobe malfunction had everyone in tears laughing. Pepe acted as a guest announcer and he kept the irreverent proceedings quite lively. The set was for “The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of ‘A Christmas Carol”. Try and say that five times fast! The audience was full of performers who will have shows in this year’s Fringe. Joe Rosier sat in the front row making a rather believable Santa with his real beard.

Christmas Tree

I live vicariously through other people’s trees. This tree was found at Northland, A Church Distributed (530 Dog Track Road, Longwood, Florida). I was invited here to see, Christmas at the Movies, a choral concert on December 6th. Sharon Hegedus advised me to just sit and enjoy the concert. As people lined up to enter the hall however, I couldn’t resist sketching the tree. Northland’s lobby is a cavernous space and this tree towered 15 feet tall. It was decorated with red and gold ornaments in various sizes. There were pine cones and ribbons giving it a traditional feel. A large painting depicting the prodigal son parable was hung above the hall entrance.

As I sketched, the doors to the hall were opened and everyone filed in. I could hear the first songs sung by the 220 person strong Central Florida Community Choir. Christmas Time is Here, Pure Imagination and a Polar Express Medley were performed as I stubbornly finished my sketch.  The show was directed by Joshua Vickery, backed by a live orchestra and with participation from the Central Florida Community Dance Team. When I did go in the hall, I had to pause to let my eyes adjust to the dark. A man seated in the back row with his son, gave me his program. This unrequested act of generosity took me by surprise. I couldn’t resist the notion of finding a perfect angle to sketch from. I sat on the house right and relaxed. O Holy Night welled up bringing the show to the intermission. I decided to change my seat and I walked up towards the balcony seating. The balcony was blocked off, so I sat in the last row right before the balcony. I got my book light out and started a second sketch.

Albany Airport

My sister Carol Thorspecken Martindale drove us to the Albany airport so we could fly back to Orlando. The small airport was really deserted. Getting through security was a breeze with no one in line. Unfortunately when we got to our gate, the flight was delayed. This flight was a puddle jumper to Philadelphia where we would catch another flight to Orlando. Terry immediately got on the phone to try and make sure there was a hookup flight waiting for us when we landed.

With a stray hour on my hands, I of course started sketching. A woman sat down next to me to ask me about my brushes as I got close to completing the sketch. She had gone to art school, learning printmaking. When she got married and had two daughters, the art was put on the back burner for her domestic responsibilities.  She had been visiting her brother who made a fortune manufacturing bicycles. He lived in a fully renovated Dutch Colonial home in the country. He collected modern art and antique bicycles. The art that his wife didn’t want in the house, was kept in the barn with his amazing bicycle collection. She called over one of her daughters. There were photos on the daughters phone.

The daughter had just celebrated her Bat Mitvah. To prepare for her daughter’s Bat Mitzvah, the mom rediscovered her passion for art as she made center pieces for each table using found objects. Soda cans were cut and folded to create intricate, delicate flowers. I was impressed. I told her she should try selling individual flowers on an Etsy site. Her husband and his family got annoyed at her because they felt the centerpieces pulled attention away from her daughter. I was surprised when she told me that basically she got divorced over those center pieces. Her younger daughters Bat Mitzvah is coming up and she is on a roll already prepared to top her last creative en devour. Terry came back and announced that the flight was boarding. I never caught the woman’s name.