#melvin tunstall | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rocksbackpages · 5 years

Photo

New for RBP subscribers this week

“After the MTV awards, I felt like eating fried chicken and making out with someone in a Goth band…” — Courtney Love (Observer, 1998)

PLUS pieces on...

• P.J. Proby (1965) • Paul Simon (1966) • Charley Pride (1967) • Cilla Black (1968) • Robin Gibb (1969) • Engelbert Humperdinck (1969) • Jimmy Page Pt. 3 (1970) • The Stones' 'Sugar' (1971) • Todd Rundgren (1972) • Wailers @ Speakeasy (1973) • The Stylistics (1974) • Kraftwerk's Radio-Activity (1975) • Ted Nugent (1976) • Manhattans/Blue Notes (1977) • Blondie (1978) • Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979) • Diana Ross/Chic (1980) • Teardrop Explodes live (1981) • George Thorogood (1982) • XTC's Mummer (1983) • Tina Turner (1984) • Tom Waits @ Dominion (1985) • Julien Temple's Beginners (1986) • Metallica's Puppets (1987) • Sleeping Bag Records (1988) • Stone Roses @ ICA (1989) • Beats International (1990) • Tanita Tikaram's Angel (1991) • Dennis Chambers (1992) • Take That @ Wembley (1993) • Primal Scream (1994) • k.d. lang's Eat (1995) • Tricky (1996) • Kenickie in Bristol (1997) • Courtney Love (1998) • George Michael's Songs (1999) • Doug Scharin (2000) • Klezmer @ the Proms (2001) • Jon Spencer (2002) • Pernice Brothers (2003) • Dazed & Confused (2004) • Orange County (2005) • Kansas City (2006) • KT Tunstall live (2007) • The Undertones (2008) • John Legend live (2009) • Favourite Miles albums (2010) • Feist's Metals (2011) • Roy Wood (2012) • Julia Holter's City Song (2013) • Survivor's Jim Peterik (2014) • The Melvins (2016) • Loyle Carner live (2017) • D.J. Fontana R.I.P. (2018) • Billie Eilish live (2019)

• Subscribe and become an RBP member

#courtney love #hole #music journalism #mtv awards 1998

0 notes

rndyounghowze · 4 years

Text

Polkadots At Mill Mountain Creates A Bright Big Beautiful World We Want To Live In

#MeetmeatMillMountain to see a bold performance with whole lot of heart brought to you by a passionate creative team.

By Dana and Ricky Young-Howze

Mill Mountain Theatre Roanoke, Virginia

Review 106

We we’re excited about this play the minute that we saw it was announced on the Mill Mountain Theatre website. Ricky and I met in Roanoke and we have both been seen the Trinkle main stage and have fond memories of the Waldron Theatre. So when we heard that they were streaming Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical with book by Melvin Tunstall III , Music by Greg Borowsky and Douglas Lyons, and Lyrics by Douglas Lyons. We knew that we just had to see it! This specific production was directed by Christopher Castanho and was performed by an amazing group of performers!

Brother and Sister Sky and Penelope Square have a new student coming to their class, Lily Polkadot. She’s an 8 year old kid just like them...except she’s covered in Dots where they are covered in squares. Will they learn to accept Lily for who she is? Will Lilly find friends in her new school? Find out for yourself in this vibrant world that Mill Mountain Theatre is inviting you into.

We were really wowed by this cast! Ricky most enjoyed the dynamic through Buckner’s Lilly and Mercado’s Penelope. Buckner’s smooth demeanor and bright performance was a good foil to Mercado’s prickly attitude and rough edges. Mulkey’s sky was also a bright ray of sunshine in our day with his vibrant energy onstage. Of course Ricky also had a soft spot in their heart for Mrs. Square (played by Madeline Walker) who anchored the cast together. Let’s also not forget to mention Roberto Mendez’s memorable performance as Papa Square. If you’re gonna be onstage the least amount of time it’s best to make yourself stand out in a big way and he did.

Now the design and choices that went into what we see onstage is where the play really takes off. The colors everywhere, the sets, the lights, and the projections created a world so real that we immediately bought into it. We really want to applaud the entire production and design team that got together to make this world so inviting and immersive. All of it really popped out of the screen and made this world real to us. All of them deserve a round of applause!

Actually they might have made us buy into this world too much. The genius of this play is that it tackles the issue of race by turning it into something nonsensical. If Ricky painted themselves purple and drew dots on their skin and I painted myself blue and drew squares on mine it wouldn’t change who we are. However the play chooses to take those drastic and alien skin colors and make a world out of them. They become a Seussian “Stars Upon Thars”.

We wish that this idea was way more represented in the makeup design because in my mind as a Black person Lilly is still obviously the only Black character onstage, not purple. To me this filled the metaphor a bit and made it very literal to me again. We’re supposed to have our guard down and let the alien world of this show push past those filters that we put up due to race or culture. The minute I saw Lilly however, my wall that I’ve cultivated for years being the only Black person in the room went right back up and this show became about race again.

That doesn’t mean that the casting was wrong. Ricky and I would fight you on trying to change a single cast member. This doesn’t mean that we don’t think the show is powerful because we absolutely believe it is the best thing to be showing to young audiences and broadcasting to the world right now. We’re just saying that the set, lighting, and projection design invited us into a bold and vibrant and powerful alien world that made us let our guard down. The costumes made us want to go out and rock our dots. The make up design, however, was where the world ended for us. We would invite them to go even bolder next time.

Working from a backing track instead of a live band was a great choice although it did seem like our cast’s singing was way stronger than the music. We missed that feeling of virtuosity that comes when singers that are really good at what they do match up with expert instrumentalists. We definitely know from our interview with artistic director Ginger Poole that a live band would have been a headache in production that they didn’t need. For now we’ll just be excited for the wonderful singing of our cast led by music director Seth Davis.

This was a powerful children’s play that we hope goes all over the world because instead of getting a classroom full of kids to sit down and watch a PBS documentary or a Black History Play that we’ve all seen a million times before this engages them with a world that they want to step into and play in with music that they just have to get up and dance to and costumes that they’re just dying to put on. This play turns the audience into a community that makes us ask, “why can’t we all join in?” And it backs that question up with a powerful message of inclusion and acceptance. Now where do we get tickets to go live in Rockaway? We want pizza!ch

We sat down and interviewed Ginger Poole: The Artistic Director of Mill Mountain Theater about this show before it launched. Go to our YouTube channel to check it out. Also make sure you get your free tickets to the show before October 9th.

This blog is supported by community members and artists like you and sponsorships from businesses that share our vision. We graciously accept all contributions to our Venmo (rndyounghowze). Wanna be a sponsor? Email us at [email protected]

#theatre #nj #theatrelives #nj travels #newjersey #roanoke virginia #roanoke #millmountaintheatre #ginger poole #polkadots

0 notes