WILDFLOWERS & WALTZES -- River City Baptist Church

An Evening of Piano Recitals

"Wildflower Waltz"

"Hoppy Toad Hop"

"Red Robin Rag"

"Moonlit Garden Walk"

"Ramblin' Rails"

"Fuzzy Baby Bird"

"Undercover Spy"

"Witty Waltz"

"Adalusian Adventure"

"Minuet"

"Star Wars Theme"

"Prelude & Gigne"

"Fur Elise"

"Can-Can"

"It Is Well"/"Claire de Lune"

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A very nice evening showcasing a variety of piano levels. The "Fur Elise" and "Claire de Lune," played by two of the higher level pianists, were far and away the most delightful performances.

THE YOUNG MUSICIANS FESTIVAL -- Caledonia High School

Minnesota Music Educators Association Presents...
The Young Musicians Festival for Southeast MN
director: Janette Hanson
dance instructor: Barbara DuFresne
accompanist: Sibyl Floyd

4th-5th graders from area schools get together for a short concert and dance festival. Schools participating were:
Mabel-Canton
Lanesboro
Rushford-Peterson
Caledonia

"To Music" - arr by Betty Bertaux
"Firefly" -- Andy Beck
"Goin' to Boston" -- Shirley W. McRue
"John Henry" -- Rollo Dilworth
four folk dances

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We attended this event last year as well, as our son has been invited to the festival each year. It's a short but pleasant opportunity to see talented singers from around the area get together and sing under the directio of someone other than their own school choic director.

This year's performance seemed to go quicker than last year's and I actually wished there had been another song or two.

Our son really seemed to enjoy the dance portion of the evening and two different people commented on how he really seemed to get into it and had such great rhythm.

A very pleasant evening.

MEDEA -- Winona State University

WSU Performing Arts Center Main Stage
playwright: Robinson Jeffers (Freely adapted from the play by Euripides
director: Vivian Fusillo
cast: Eileen Moeller, Jephthah Peters, Alex Gillett, Mary Montgomery, Kristine Payette, Kathleen Rickerson, Teresa Sigler, Charles Wallace, Paul McIntyre, Ryan Hawkins, Josh Armstrong, Ethan Jensen
set & light design: Ryan Seifert
costume & light design: Peggy Sannerud
costumer: Sue Bratt
theatre technician: Jim Danneker
stage manager: Rachel Ostroot
assistant stage manager: Joe Sarafolean

The classic Greek tale of a woman's madness and vengeance against a cheating husband.

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Ohhhhh. Greek drama can be very difficult to watch -- it's all dialogue, no actual action. This production wasn't helped by the staging of what little action there might have been all done on a small platform, rather than the open stage in front of the set.

The young lady playing Medea was difficult to watch. She had three emotions ... wailing over her children, anger (which was only portrayed by shouting), and the monotone conversation.

The portrayal of the killing of the children (off stage) was wonderfully alluded to with the crimson silk that flowed through the gigantic floating stone upstage (the set was interesting -- the combination between realistic (giant stone doors) and the expressionistic/abstract (floating disk) maybe didn't work as well as hoped. Yes... I caught the addition of the ... clouds? .... near the stone disk.

The chorus, aside from being quite attractive young ladies, was the most interesting part of the performance and I wished they had even more to do.

The wailing by all over the death of the children was incredibly distracting (particularly that of the nurse, downstage of everyone else, and the loudest of all). I think Medea had a speech, but I couldn't tell you what she said.

I want to say that I'm actually glad to have seen Medea (my first time), but I'm not. I couldn't help but sit through the 90 minutes and constantly think about what I would have done differently. Not a good sign.