Creative Writing Club: Call for Writers and Literature Lovers!

Oh, the words, the words,
the achingly
beautiful
inadequate
words.


--Terry Hertzler



Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Michele Beller, and I am the new Student Editor for Cerro Coso’s online Creative Writing Club. I am very excited about having a community of fellow writers with whom I can share my love of writing and good literature. What a great opportunity! Here, we can support each other as we master our craft, bounce ideas off each other, and share resources. I look forward to some inspiration, some good reads, and I really look forward to some great discussions!

What better time than National Poetry Month (April) to shift the online Creative Writing Club into first gear and get ‘er running again? National Poetry Month is an annual celebration of the art of poetry, with the goal of increasing appreciation and support for poetry and poets. Let’s read some great poetry! Let’s write some even better poems! Let’s turn our friends and family on to the pleasures of verse! And let’s have some great fun in the process!

National Poetry Month was started by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, and has been gaining momentum every year since. Inspired by this celebration, we have many fun activities scheduled for April, like some great reads, and some fun writing exercises. Come join us! If you are already a member of Cerro Coso’s online Creative Writing Club, log on and jump in. You’ll see the site has received a spiffy tune-up and a new paint job. If you’re not a member, go here to request the enrollment key from the club’s faculty advisor, Gary Enns.

Lake Italy Sierra Nevada

Here is a slideshow of my 2008 Lake Italy Sierra Nevada trip with my cousin, Mark. We hiked up the Bear Creek trail and then down a portion of the John Muir Trail. The trail then took us through talus fields, where we had to boulder up and over hills of large granite chunks. Lake Italy and Teddy Bear Lakes are above 11,000 feet.

Camp Shakespeare

This may seem like an advertisement, like I'm being paid to say such glowing things. But I assure you I've got nothing at stake here. This is pure love!

I've just returned from a week-long, ultra-intensive and very fun week of Camp Shakespeare at the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespearean Festival, and words, words, words can hardly describe the experience. I feel like I've just woken up form a strange dream--a dream that an Elizabethan English playhouse had been magically transported to the red sandstone mountains of Southern Utah, that Shakespeare fans and students of all ages were now traveling to Utah in droves to see stellar performances of the bard's plays, that actors and audience members alike were partying after hours in cabarets, that world renowned scholars and directors and stage designers were drawn inexplicably to Cedar City to create some of the best Shakespearean theater in the world ...

(Slide show photos by Gary Enns, Gary Graupman, and Michael Flachmann)

If you have never been to the Utah Shakespearean Festival, then you are in for a shock. There is not much that seems regional about this regional theater. For forty-six years, Fred Adams and USF supporters have been building this festival into something spectacular. The festival grounds now boast three stages, indoor and outdoor lecture spaces, concessions, and a center with bookstore and gift shop. The USF produces nine--yes, nine--plays per year. Needless to say, Southern Utah is now a magnet for professional actors, directors, and other drama professionals. For its excellence, in 2000, The USF achieved international attention when it won a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theater of the Year.

The Adams Memorial Theatre is the crown jewel at the USF. An open-air theater designed in the spirit of Shakespeare's Globe, it's the space of choice for traditional period productions of the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. For musicals, contemporary plays, and non-traditional productions of Shakespeare, the USF utilizes the beautifully gilded indoor Randall L. Jones Theatre.

For anyone even remotely curious about the Shakespeare and the theater, Camp Shakespeare is a fantastic introduction. In five intense days, you see six plays (three of Shakespeare's and three by other playwrights and/or composers), attend seminars and classes and workshops on all things theater, and eat extremely well in SUU's beautiful and elegant Great Hall. Lodging and all meals are included. World renowned Shakespeare scholar and official festival dramaturg Michael Flachmann heads up the camp, wearing several hats--host, teacher, party coordinator, and general fun guy. And if you are a student, valuable university undergraduate and graduate credit is available through SUU and CSUB.

The 2008 Summer season that I just attended includes The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, Moliere's The School for Wives, and Bock, Harnick, and Stein's popular musical Fiddler on the Roof. The highlight for me was Rostand's play directed by David Ivers. The chemistry between leads Brian Vaughn and Melinda Pfunstein was first rate and brought great pathos to this melodramatic play.

For more information on Camp Shakespeare options (including Mini CS and CS for Seniors), visit Camp Shakespeare Online. Hopefully I'll see you in Utah for Summer 2009!

Cyrano DeBergerac at the USF

Day 2 of Camp Shakespeare at the Utah Shakespearean Festival

This week flies by! The days are full of activities, one right after the other, and they’re so good I can’t get myself to skip any of them. These entries are just sketches to give you an idea of what goes on at Camp Shakespeare.

This day consisted of a great breakfast, literary seminars, an actor's panel, a set design workshop, a voice workshop, a massive lunch in the beautiful Great Room of SUU, a costume design seminar, a barbecue picnic in the mountains above Cedar City, and one fantastic play—Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand.

What a powerful play! Cyrano is a super human, lager than life Romantic hero with a tragic flaw—his inability to believe that the woman he loves could see past his physical deformity and love him for his soul.

So far for me and for many of the other campers, this play has been the highlight of the season. The performance is directed by David Ivers and uses the Anthony Burgess translation. It is a powerful story of selfless love and fidelity and courage of spirit. Burgess’ translation is wonderful in capturing the poetry and clarity of Edmond Rostand’s lines. This, the best of Rostand’s work, in many ways rivals some of Shakespeare’s best work—definitely a top tier play. Brian Vaughn played a wonderful Cyrano and brought the full weight of this sensitive, self-conscious lover to bear on stage. Vaughn deftly handled the longest death scene I’ve ever seen. A moving performance.

Utah Camp Shakespeare Day 1

Day 1 of Camp Shakespeare at the Utah Shakespearean Festival

Take Shakespeare’s Southwark, London, transport it to overseas with some magic, and smack it down in the middle of the beautiful red clay mountains, pine trees and brilliant blue skies of Southern Utah, and you’ll understand what the Tony Award Winning Utah Shakespearean Festival is like. Well, of course I’m exaggerating, but not terribly. Through decades of hard work and sheer determination, the masterminds of this festival have managed to create a Shakespearean Mecca smack dab in the middle of small-town conservative Utah—a pretty incredible feat.

I’m at the USF this week (on the campus of Southern Utah University, taking part in what’s known as Camp Shakespeare—a series of classes, workshops, seminars, all designed to invite you into the world of the theater. Included in the package are front or near-front row seating to six stellar performances, seminars, workshops, and classes taught by actors, vocal coaches, scholars, directors, make-up and wig artists, costume designers, and more.

The jewel in the crown of the USF is the Adams Shakespearean Theatre, an outdoor venue modeled after the sixteenth century Tudor stage. Though it is not a replica in the strict sense as is Shakespeare’s Globe in London (Utah’s version uses modern materials and sports comfortable sports event type seats throughout, even in the pit, rather than the hard wood or nothing seating of the Globe reproduction), the essentials for a Shakespearean experience are there: the classic semi-circle, the raised, extended stage, exposure to the elements. And after the second hour of a play, the modern-sized ballpark seats are much appreciated.

Exposure to the elements is part of the outdoor Shakespeare experience, and last night, this hit home. During the second half of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, thunderheads rolled in (remnants of a hurricane from the south?), the sky opened up, and it started pouring. Those of us with seats in the pit ran for cover (this wasn’t just a London style drizzle, this was a Western U.S. downpour). The voice behind the curtain ordered the actors backstage, and we waited it out.

After about fifteen minutes, the actors managed another scene before the rains returned. Ultimately, they finished the play in the indoor rain stage about forty-five minutes late.

The Festival prides itself on performing the entire canon, which may be why Gents (this little-performed, little-respected early Shakespeare comedy) was chosen this year. Critic Harold Bloom who always prides himself on calling it like he sees it calls this the “weakest” of Shakespeare’s comedies and says that “everything is amiss” (13). But keep in mind that he is comparing this Shakespeare play to—other Shakespeare plays! How fair is that? Of course, if you compare Beatles albums to Beatles albums, you’re likely to find the least impressive of the lot. But is there really a weak Beatles album? Is there really a weak Shakespeare play? Some would say yes, but last night, the acting company brought out the best in this play.

Gents was performed masterfully, in traditional Elizabethan costumes and with little stage scenes—fitting for a Shakespearean open-air theater. The simplicity allows the play itself, the words themselves , to have center stage.

A little about the seminars before I have to go. Yesterday featured a make-up seminar taught by the make-up artists of the Festival; an acting workshop by Iago himself James Newcomb), a literary overview of Gents by Festival dramaturg Michael Flachmann, and lots more I don’t have time to go into now. The days are full here. I’ll check in later with another entry.

(Please excuse the quick grammar and spelling of a fast and loose blog. Thanks! I may edit and add pictures later.)

Research Assignment for 101

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT FOR 101

1. Complete the Making Arguments about Literature assignment I handed out in class. (You can also click to find it here.) This will provide you with some excellent tips for writing about literature.
2. Read student Alison Caldwell's sample literary essay (handed out in class) , and read my notes at the end for some practical advice.
3. Review the Plot Summary vs. Interpretive Writing resource and write a half page response to it for class.

I hope these resources and tips help you to shape your essay! Let's talk more about them in class.

Kenneth Branagh's Vision of Frankenstein

Kenneth Branagh's 1994 adaptation of the novel Frankenstein - entitled Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - claims to be true to the original text. But is this the case?

Obviously, the movie takes liberties with the storyline on many levels. So how true to the vision of Shelley do you feel this movie is? Does it match the book on some levels but not others? Does it capture the mood and tone? The plot? The setting? The characterization? On what levels does it remain true to the artistic vision of Shelley?

As you answer, consider specific differences - such as Walton's reaching out to the monster in the end, the creation of the second monster, the use of Elizabeth for the second monster, the similar appearance of Victor and Walton, etc. Look for these and other differences and explain what the movie makers both gain and lose by making these changes.