Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 13, 2016

12

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Mountain Views-News Saturday, February 13, 2016 

On the Marquee: Notes from the Sierra Madre Playhouse


SEAN’S SHAMELESS 

REVIEWS:

FRANCIS TOUCH GREATNESS 

WITH “MARATHON”

By Sean Kayden

ALL IN THE FAMILY


Francis is a Swedish folk quintet formed in 
Mora, Sweden in 2006 and currently based in 
Falun. Francis has its roots in the DIY scene in 
Mora. The band undergone a hiatus of sorts after 
the release of their first album “Lekomberg, We 
Were Kin,” in 2011 (only released in Sweden. 
The members stated it was due to several changes 
in their personal lives. This led to alterations to 
the line-up as well. As it stands now, the band 
comprises of vocalist Petra Mases, drummer 
Petter Nygårdh, guitarist Jerker Krumlinde, 
bassist Paulina Mellkvist and keyboardist Oskar 
Bond. While Francis was adapting to their inner 
changes both with themselves and the band 
itself, they released a single in 2015, entitled 
“Follow Me Home.” It’s a little over five minutes 
long and it’s the kind of track you worry will go 
down the wrong direction after a minute or so 
in because the start of it is so good. Fortunately, 
it did the opposite. It was my introduction to a 
marvelously original band and I was immediately 
hooked.

 Earlier this month, Francis released their 
exquisite follow-up entitled Marathon, which 
also served as the band’s official US debut. It’s 
one of the strongest introductions from a band 
in sometime in the realm of “light” melodic 
rock. The album strikes an emotional punch 
with impeccable vocals from Petra Mases. I 
would say her vocals fall somewhere in between 
indie veterans Tracyanne Campbell of Camera 
Obscura and Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak. Lenient, 
mollifying, and comforting are a just few of the 
words that come to mind in describing Mases’ 
vocals. However, the same can be said for the 
music that goes along with it. Dreamy guitars 
create an ethereal soundscape to be inspired by. 
The title track is teeming with charming melodies 
that sink into your soul. “Turning A Hand” is 
another gem in a sea of gems. The arrangements 
are exceptionally inviting. Francis is the kind of 
indie band you hope to stumble upon in a land 
filled with carbon copy indie rockers. You get 
lucky enough to cross paths with a band like that 
that blows you away with undeniable beauty that 
often times can’t be matched. It’s incredible that 
this record will go unnoticed as mainstream pop 
stars drown our eardrums with awful, recycled 
garbage. 

 “Holy” is as bright as a summer morning. It’s 
powerfully unobtrusive as most of Francis’ songs 
are. They’re aren’t overbearing in nature, but 
what they possess is mighty. It reaches the inner 
depths of your mind, heart, and soul and has 
one contemplating all the thoughts associated 
with those things. “Marathon” is an appropriate 
title because this isn’t a record you want to hurry 
along. It takes its time. As one would compete 
in any ‘marathon,’ you have to have patience, be 
strong-willed, and demonstrate uncompressed 
fortitude. Those are the things that Francis is 
occupying since it’s been a long time in the 
making to recovery and start new again. And 
with any other marathon, one finish line is 
another one’s starting line. 

Grade: 9 out of 10

Key Tracks: “Bridges,” “Horses,” “Howl,” 
“Turning A Hand”

Artist: Francis

Album: Marathon

Label: Strangers Candy

Release Date: February 5th, 2016

By Artistic Director, Christian Lebano

We are going into our penultimate weekend with 
Deathtrap and we are already sold-out. That leaves only 
the last three performances (Friday, Feb 19 and Saturday 
matinee & evening, Feb 20) for those of you who haven’t 
seen the show and still want to. I would hurry though 
because we are already half sold for all the final weekend 
performances. Because of the presale for Charlotte’s 
Web we won’t be able to extend this show – though we 
could have, I know. Something to think about as we 
plan future seasons – how to build in the opportunity to 
extend shows that are doing well.

This will be a difficult show to say goodbye to – most 
of them are. But this one has been a particularly happy 
experience. I so enjoyed my time in rehearsal with these 
actors. Not all rehearsals are happy experiences, but this 
one was splendid. I’ve written before about the family 
that is formed as a show develops – the intimacies that 
you share, the laughs, the struggles, the triumphs and 
breakthroughs that you have on your way to opening. 
Then the incredible high of putting it in front of an 
audience for the first time – and the pleasure in the 
confidence that grows as you continue to shape and 
hone as you play for more people. 

One of the things I miss about not acting as much as I 
used to is the intimacy of the dressing room, the hour 
before the show when you catch up with your fellow 
castmates and prepare yourself for the show ahead. 
There are rituals and routines that get established unique 
to each cast and dressing room. As the director I am 
both in and out of the circle – I don’t spend time in the 
dressing room and by this point in a run I am kind of 
odd man out. 

I am so grateful to everyone who worked so hard to put 
this show up – all the designers who did such wonderful 
work, the Stage Managers Kristin Bolinski and her 
assistant Emily Hopfauf who ran wonderful rehearsals 
and have kept the show tight and on track (and moved 
those desks at every show!), the producers who worked 
so hard to make the show I wanted to produce come 
alive, and the cast. I am so grateful to each member of the 
cast for their wonderful work and for sharing themselves 
with me so fully, so joyfully. It’s almost like the end of 
a love affair – because I do love each of them. One of 
the frustrations of my job is that I may not have another 
show for them for a while and when I do they may not be 
available. So I can only hope that the next time there is a 
role good enough for their talents that they will want to 
come back and become part of another family.

I am auditioning for The Glass Menagerie now – we’ve 
had over 850 submissions for it. That’s a record for us. 
I’m seeing wonderful actors. As I look at each of them, 
I wonder about the new family I am forming. I think 
about all the time we’ll be spending together and I can’t 
wait to see how it shapes up. But for now I’ll mourn my 
Deathtrap family – and revel in their triumph these last 
two weekends. Won’t you join us? 

Tickets are now on sale for Charlotte’s Web – it is 
going to be terrific fun – hope to see you there with 
your kids and grandkids. Please visit our website at 
SierraMadrePlayhouse.org or call Mary at 626.355.4318 
to arrange your purchase. 

Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown


Washington: A Life by Ron 
Chernow 

Winner of the 2011 Pulitzer 
Prize for Biography.Celebrated 
biographer Ron Chernow provides 
a richly nuanced portrait of the 
father of our nation and the first 
president of the United States. With 
a breadth and depth matched by 
no other one volume biography of 
George Washington, this crisply 
paced narrative carries the reader 
through his adventurous early 
years, his heroic exploits with 
the Continental Army during the 
Revolutionary War, his presiding 
over the Constitutional Convention, 
and his magnificent performance 
as America’s first president. In this 
groundbreaking work, based on massive research, 
Chernow shatters forever the stereotype of George 
Washington as a stolid, unemotional figure and 
brings to vivid life a dashing, passionate man of 
fiery opinions and many moods.“Superb… the 
best, most comprehensive, and most balanced 
single-volume biography of Washington ever 
written.” –Gordon S. Wood, The 
New York Review of Books

A Friend of Mr. Lincoln: A novel 
by Stephen Harrigan 

This book gives us a galvanizing 
portrait of Lincoln during a crucially 
revealing period of his life, the early 
Springfield years, when he risked 
both his sanity and his ethical 
bearings as he searched for the 
great destiny he believed to be his.
It is Illinois in the 1830s and 1840s. 
Lincoln is a circuit-riding lawyer, a 
member of the state legislature, a man 
of almost ungovernable ambition. To 
his friends he is also a beloved figure, 
by turns charmingly awkward and 
mesmerizingly self-possessed—a 
man of whom they, too, expect big things. Among 
his friends and political colleagues are Joshua Speed, 
William Herndon, Stephen Douglas, and many 
others who have come to the exploding frontier town 
of Springfield to find their futures. It is through 
another friend, a fictional poet, Cage Weatherby, 
that we will come to know Lincoln in his twenties 
and thirties, as a series of formative, surprising 
incidents unfolds—his service in the Black Hawk 
War, his participation in a poetry-
writing society, a challenge to a duel 
that begins as a farce but quickly 
rises to lethal potential . . . Cage both 
admires and clashes with Lincoln, 
sometimes questioning his legal 
ethics and his cautious stance on 
slavery. But he is by Lincoln’s side as 
Lincoln slips back and forth between 
high spirits and soul-hollowing 
sadness and depression, and as he 
recovers from a disastrous courtship 
of one woman to marry the beautiful, 
capricious, politically savvy Mary 
Todd. It is Mary who will bring 
stability to Lincoln’s life, but who 
will also trigger a conflict that sends 
the two men on very different paths 
into the future.Historically accurate, 
rich in character, filled with the juice and dreams and 
raw ambitions of Americans on the make in an early 
frontier city.

The American Presidency: Origins and 
Development, 1776–2014 by Sidney M. Milkis 
and Michael Nelson 

The American Presidency examines 
the constitutional foundation 
of the executive office and the 
social, economic, political, and 
international forces that have 
reshaped it along with the influence 
individual presidents have had. 
Authors Milkis and Nelson look at 
each presidency broadly, focusing 
on how individual presidents have 
sought to navigate the complex 
and ever-changing terrain of the 
executive office and revealing the 
major developments that launched 
a modern presidency at the dawn of 
the twentieth century. By connecting 
presidential conduct to the defining 
eras of American history and 
the larger context of politics and 
government in the United States, this award-
winning book offers perspective and insight on the 
limitations and possibilities of presidential power.In 
this Seventh Edition, marking the 25th anniversary of 
The American Presidency’s publication, the authors 
add new scholarship to every chapter, reexamine the 
end of George W. Bush’s tenure, assess President 
Obama’s first term in office, and explore Obama’s 
second term


Jeff’s History Corner By Jeff Brown

1.Presidents’ Day is an American holiday celebrated 
on the third Monday in February. Originally 
established in 1885 in recognition of President George 
Washington, it is still officially called “Washington’s 
Birthday” by the federal government. Traditionally 
celebrated on February 22—Washington’s actual day 
of birth—the holiday became popularly known as 
Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s 
Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create 
more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. 
While several states still have individual holidays 
honoring the birthdays of Presidents,Presidents’ Day 
is now popularly viewed as a day to celebrate all U.S. 
presidents past and present.

2.George Washington was of primarily English gentry 
descent, especially from Sulgrave, England. His great-
grandfather, John Washington, emigrated to Virginia 
in 1656 and began accumulating land and slaves, as did 
his son Lawrence and his grandson, George’s father, 
Augustine. Augustine was a tobacco planter who also 
tried his hand in iron-mining ventures. In George’s 
youth, the Washingtons were moderately prosperous 
members of the Virginia gentry, of “middling rank” 
rather than one of 

the leading planter families.

3.The 1st United States Congress voted to pay Washington 
a salary of $25,000 a year—a large sum in 1789, valued 
at about $340,000 in 2015 dollars. Washington, despite 
facing financial troubles then, initially declined the 
salary, valuing his image as a selfless public servant. At 
the urging of Congress, however, he ultimately accepted 
the payment, to avoid setting a precedent whereby 
the presidency would be perceived as limited only to 
independently wealthy individuals who could serve 
without any salary. The president, aware that everything 
he did set a precedent, attended carefully to the pomp 
and ceremony of office, making sure that the titles and 
trappings were suitably republican and never emulated 
European royal courts. To that end, he preferred the title 
“Mr. President” to the more majestic names proposed 
by the Senate.

4.Washington suffered from problems with his teeth 
throughout his life. He lost his first adult tooth when 
he was twenty-two and had only one left by the time 
he became president. John Adams claims he lost them 
because he used them to crack Brazil nuts but modern 
historians suggestthe mercury oxide, which he was 
given to treat illnesses such as smallpox and malaria, 
probably contributed to the loss. He had several sets of 
false teeth made, four of them by a dentist named John 
Greenwood. Contrary to popular belief, none of the sets 
were made from wood. The set made when he became 
president was carved from hippopotamus and elephant 
ivory, held together with gold springs. Prior to these, he 

had a set made with real human teeth in 1784. Dental 
problems left Washington in constant pain, for which he 
took laudanum. This distress may be apparent in many of 
the portraits painted while he was still in office, including 
the one still used on the $1 bill.


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