You Can’t Take It With You at CCPT

The Culver City Public Theatre's (CCPT) 2009 season opens July 18 in Carlson Park. The Ancient One has been in rehearsal in the role of Grandpa In Hart and Kaufman's, You Can't Take it With You, a delightfully raucous comedy first staged on Broadway in 1936.

This story is about a family whose members just want to live their lives in their own way without bothering anybody else. There's Martin Vanderhof (aka Grandpa), his daughter Penny and her husband Paul Sycamore, their daughters' Alice and Essie (who is married to Ed Carmichael). There's also an assortment of other characters, some who live in the house and some who don't.

The Ancient One is doing his best to get "off-book" as the Grandpa and enjoys both the richness of the character and the opportunity to play an age-appropriate character. There aren't a lot of really wonderful curmudgeons out there, but Grandpa certainly is one.

For the moment, the only photo being offered is one of the family taken at a recent rehearsal.

L-R: Grandpa (The Ancient One), Penny (Donna Donnelly), Paul (Clyde Little), Alice (Katrina Straub), Ed (John Glass) and Essie (Hilary Chen)

You Can't Take it With You is one of the funniest American plays ever written and is guaranteed to provide an afternoon of fun and hilarity. The Ancient One will look for friends in the audience. So come and enjoy free theatre this summer in Culver City.

Clearing Brush in Palos Verdes

As The Ancient One reached a turnaround point on one of his walks last week, something looked quite different. He gazed down canyon at the end of a cul-de-sac and was greeted with this view:

What were all those white spots? Aging eyes weren't quite sure but he was sure that some of them were sprouting legs. With the help of the modest zoom feature on his camera and the editing capabilities on the computer, the view became a bit more clear and focused. A "modern" of clearing the brush had come to Palos Verdes in an effort to protect against brush fires.

Yes, those are goats. A herd of them had been transported into the canyon to feed themselves to distraction. They were consuming, and thereby clearing away, the heavy brush. I guess that even with transportation costs, using goats to prevent brush fires is far faster and less expensive than employing human labor.

A modern solution to a potentially serious hazard!

Wall of Fire. . .

Well, not really! Just a wall of bushes with brilliant red blossoms that I have been passing on my daily walk.

Enjoy!

A Reunion and its Consequences

We were in San Diego for 4 days for a Brenner family reunion. Relatives were there from Missouri, Florida and across southern California. Part of the reunion was a celebration of Sy's 87^th birthday. It was a wonderful long weekend even though there was less than an hour of sunshine the whole time.

Like any good family reunion, most of the activity was carried out in the midst of food. Dinner Friday at Harbor House in Seaport Village, Saturday night at the Jamacha Grille in El Cajon, Sunday brunch at our hotel with deli brought in from D.Z. Akin's, and a serendipitous dinner Sunday night at Brian's Eatery in downtown San Diego. Food, food and more food! Talk, talk and more talk! Memories galore. Remembering places and people long forgotten.

Oh, was it fun. Oh, was the food good. Do you think The Ancient One's cardiologist will believe him when he says that he really lost weight over the past three months . . . but then gained 8 pounds just by attending a family reunion? Well, we'll see what happens at this afternoon's appointment.

I mean, how can you go to a family reunion and not overeat? It's part of a full life. You understand, don't you Doctor?