Archive for September 14th, 2009

September 14th, 2009

Our Town is New York

Thornton Wilder’s classic play Our Town is continuing its run at the Off Broadway venue Barrow Street Theatre, also known as Greenwich House Theatre. This intimate, and really, what else would work for this play, production opened in late February of this year and is scheduled for an open run. Many people are familiar with the quaint collection of characters from Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire and there is almost a collective feeling of coming home with the audiences who are in attendance. Of course, there are also those who have never seen, read or even heard of this theatre classic, and they are sure to be charmed and touched as the stories unfold. Guests staying in a New York cheap hotel are frequently choosing the economy of accommodations, so they may spend the bulk of their money on great shows, fine dining and maybe even shop shopping.

Our Town is a three act play, which is particularly uncommon to today’s stage. Most theatres and theatre goers prefer the clean and trim two act version, which is the most common structure of scripts found on the contemporary stage. The play is set within the context of a play and is narrated by the Stage Manger. This metatheatrical structure has been used in various theatrical genres and commonly associated with William Shakespeare. Two popular examples are found in Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Our Town uses this device to tell the history of the fictitious town in which it is set, as well as the life stories of the characters it contains. It takes place in the early 20 century between the years 1901 and 1913. It’s first New York production opened in February of 1938 at the Henry Miller’s Theatre. It won Wilder the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Its premiere production occurred in Princeton, New Jersey at the McCarter Theatre.

September 14th, 2009

Summer Grilling Block Party

The end of summer is always a time of mixed emotions.  The heat is finally settling down, and cool weather is on the way.  People start to think about the winter coming, indoor celebrations and nestling inside with a nice book.  It’s a nice time to take advantage of the sales, and to start planning for next summer.  Our bbq grills on sale can be the perfect way to realize you don’t have to wait a whole year, but could start cooking outdoors all year round.

Cooking with your new outdoor kitchen could be the perfect way to bring in the fall – or any season at that – because the smell will make the whole neighborhood happier.  Something about grilling suggests hospitality, and the act of cooking outdoors might make you feel suddenly more deeply ingrained in your own neighborhood, and a good way to celebrate this feeling is with an end-of-Summer Block Party .  It doesn’t have to be Summer, of course, but a Summer block party has a certain connotation that means a shared experience.

There are all sort of accessories and ideas for things you could do at your Summer block party, from the choices of music to the kinds of themes you could have.  Getting the other neighbors involved in the planning will help to make this a lovely event.  It doesn’t have to be overplanned, and the more spontaneous, sometimes, the better.  You could have a wide range of activities for kids, so that the adults are free to have long, wandering conversations that make a community turn into home.  However the planning turns, you’ll want to put the outdoor kitchen in the center of the celebration.  With the smells of delicious morsels being carefully prepared, and with great precision, it’s impossible for the food not to take center stage.