Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 16, 2016

B2 Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 16, 2016 
On the Marquee: Notes from the Sierra Madre Playhouse 
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 
ON THE ROAD 
B2 Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 16, 2016 
On the Marquee: Notes from the Sierra Madre Playhouse 
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 
ON THE ROAD 
By Artistic Director, Christian Lebano 

I’ve taken a short vacation and am writing this 
from the Pacific Northwest. A few days ago, I 
attended my first show at the Idaho Shakespeare 
Festival in Boise – Agatha Christie’s And Then 
There Were None. I was reunited with a classmate 
of mine from my conservatory training program. 
He has made a life for himself as a professional 
actor there. The Festival is part of a three-theater 
consortium all run by the same Artistic Director 

– Charles Fee. He has the unique position of 
heading THREE theaters at the same time: the 
Idaho Shakespeare Festival, the Great Lakes 
Theater, and the Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. 
The plays that they put on go from one theater 
to the other – sometimes starting in Cleveland 
and finishing in Boise, or starting in Tahoe and 
ending in Cleveland. This model allows them to 
save costs at each theater and gives his actors up to 
40 weeks of work a year. The logistics of juggling 
a single season at SMP is daunting, I can only 
imagine how maddening juggling the schedules 
for three theaters would be. 
Sharing plays between theaters like that hasalways been an intriguing idea to me. I think it is a 
model that would work well here in the Los Angelesarea where we are so loathe to drive across town. 
What if two theaters – say one in Santa Monicaand SMP decided to collaborate on a show and play 

it for 5 weeks each at two different theaters? The 
production costs for both theaters would be muchlower and it would give a show a longer life. I am 
a member of the Theatre Producers League of LosAngeles and this is an idea I will pursue with someof the other theaters who are members. 

The Christie was great fun. They used a newending which follows the ending in the book ratherthan the happy ending that the original producerstalked Christie into writing. Reminded me how 
much fun a good mystery is. We had such a hit with 
Deathtrap – audiences loved it. Seeing the Christiehas made me determined to schedule another 
mystery – and I know just the one I’ll choose – forthe beginning of the season which will start in thefall of 2017. Yes, my friends, I plan that far ahead!
We are announcing our next season this week and Ipromise you a wonderful one. I can’t wait. 
* * * 

Spelling Bee had a wonderful opening and hasgotten smashing reviews. The show isn’t sellingas well as I had hoped it would. I’m not sure why.
Audiences are loving this very funny and ultimatelyheartwarming show. I do hope you will plan to see 
it soon. 

This is your Playhouse. Please let me 
hear from you. Please visit our website at 
SierraMadrePlayhouse.org or call Mary at 
626.355.4318 to purchase tickets. 

Jeff’s Book Pics By Jeff Brown 

Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberalanother, and eachIcon by Larry Tyeof these aspectsFrom the New York Times bestselling authorof his personality 
comes an in-depth, vibrant, and measuredemerges in 
biography about the most complex and the pages of 
controversial member of the Kennedy family.this powerful 
History remembers Robert F. Kennedy as aand perceptive 
racial healer, a tribune for the poor, and thenew biography. 
last progressive knight of a bygone era of 
American politics. But Kennedy’s enshrinementAmong Strangein the liberal pantheon was actually the finalVictims by 
stage of a journey that had its beginnings inDaniel Saldaña 
the conservative 1950s. In Bobby Kennedy,París (Author), 
Larry Tye peels away layers of myth andChr istina 
misconception to paint a complete portrait ofMacSweeneythis singularly fascinating figure.To capture(Translator)
the full arc of his subject’s life, Tye draws onPraise for Daniel 
unpublished memoirs, unreleased governmentSaldaña París:”His 
files, and fifty-eight boxes of papers that hadtools are brilliant 
been under lock and key for the past forty years.syntax, the 
He conducted hundreds of interviews with RFK ability to achieveintimates—including Bobby’s widow, Ethel, hishighly powerful, 
sister Jean, and his aide John Siegenthaler—re cu r re n t 
many of whom have never spoken to anotherimages, a set 
biographer. Tye’s determination to sift throughof relationshipsthe tangle of often contradictory opinionsbetween the 
means that Bobby Kennedy will stand as theplot strands thatdefinitive one-volume biography of a man muchare more than a 
beloved, but just as often misunderstood.Bobbyforced structure, 
Kennedy’s transformation from cold warrior toand humor, a 
fiery liberal is a profoundly moving personalcorrosive humor 
story that also offers a lens onto two of the mostthat never leads 
chaotic and confounding decades of twentieth-to laughter, but is present in every phrase of thecentury American history. The first half ofbook, charged with relentless sardonic irony.” —
RFK’s career underlines what the country wasFactorcritico“Daniel Saldaña París knows how 
like in the era of Eisenhower, while his last to talk about those other tragedies populatingyears as a champion of the underclass reflect thedaily life: a boring, unwanted marriage; mindseismic shifts wrought by the 1960s. Nurtured onnumbing office work; family secrets. He buildsthe rightist orthodoxies of his dynasty-buildingon those bricks of tedium a greatly enjoyablefather, Bobby Kennedy began his public lifeand splendidly well-written suburban farce.”
as counsel to the red-baiting senator Joseph—Yuri Herrera.Rodrigo likes his vacant lot, 
McCarthy. He ended it with a noble campaignits resident chicken, and being left alone. Butto unite working-class whites with poor blackswhen passivity finds him accidentally marriedand Latinos in an electoral coalition that seemed to Cecilia, he trades Mexico City for the sun-
poised to redraw the face of presidential politics.bleached desolation of his hometown and 
Along the way, he turned up at the center ofdomestic life with Cecilia for the debauched 
every event that mattered, from the Bay of Pigscompany of a poet, a philosopher, and Micaela,
and the Cuban Missile Crisis to race riots and whose allure includes the promise of time travel.
Vietnam.Bare-knuckle operative, cynical WhiteEarthy, playful, and sly, Among Strange VictimsHouse insider, romantic visionary—Bobbyis a psychedelic ode to the pleasures of notKennedy was all of these things at one time or measuring up.Daniel Saldaña París 


All Things Considered By Jeff Brown 

Santa Fe Irrigationwill look at this list and use it for WATER USE AVERAGES District, which self-evaluation: How are peopleserves residents in their area doing and how they

In the posh parts of northern 

in an affluent part of northerncan do better?” Water Resources 

San Diego County, residents 

and coastal San Diego County,Chairwoman Felicia Marcus 

on average used more than 

recorded the highest average, said. “It’s not a report card; It’s 

580 gallons of water a day in

584 gallons. Southland water an instructive thing.”Experts

September 2014. During the same

users served by the Desert Watersaid higher per capita water usage

month, Angelenos in less-affluent

Agency and Coachella Valleymake sense in areas where lot sizes 

East L.A. used an average of 48

Water District, both in desertare larger and in hotter regions of

gallons a day, according to data

areas, weren’t far behind, usingthe state where water evaporates

that state water officials released ,

more than 360 gallons per capitafaster. A recent UCLA study also

which shows for the first time just

a day.San Francisco and one infound that household income 

how dramatically water use varies

East Los Angeles recorded theis a primary driver of increased

among California communities. 

lowest average totals, 46, 46 andwater use.Sierra Madre used an 

Hoping to increase conservation,

48, respectively. In Santa Cruz,average of 143.63 daily gallons per

the State Water Board released 

which has some of the toughestresident for May 2016.Residential

estimates of residential daily water

conservation measures in the customers in Sierra Madre used 

use per person in September, as

state, residents used an average66.48 percent more water in

reported by more than 300 urban

of 49 gallons per person a day.May 2016 when compared to 

water suppliers. The heaviest water

Beverly Hills residents used 286the statewide average daily per

users, the data showed, used more 

gallons per person daily, whilecapita residential water use of

than 10 times as much as those 

Compton residents used only86.28 gallons.Water use by Sierra

who used the least.Statewide,

65. Residents served by the LosMadre residential customers has 
residents in some districts used an 

Angeles DWP used 93 gallonsdecreased by -35.39%, going from

average of more than 500 gallons

a day. About four-dozen wateran average of 222.31 gallons used

per capita a day, while others

districts did not report theirby each resident per day in June

used as little as 46 gallons. The 

data”We’re hoping water agencies 2015 to the current 143.63. 

DIANE HATFIELD 
626.833.3171 
diane.hatfield@podley.com 
30 N. Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre 
CalBRE #01418407 
Call Diane for more information! 626.833.3171 
61 WINDSOR LANE | SIERRA MADRE 
Just Listed! 
• 2 bedrooms/1 bath + office 
• Detached studio workshop with 1/4 bath 
• Ideal Sierra Madre location 
OFFERED AT: 
$599,000 
Craftsman Bungalow with Character & Charm! > 61WindsorLane.com 
Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com