COLLABAGALA: The Gargantua of Non-Profit Giving

Innovation comes easy to Ajit George, founder of the nationally regarded and highly successful Meals From the Masters fund raiser for Meals on Wheels Delaware, now in its 15^th year. This event has become a signature of statewide benevolence and consumes an entire week of bountiful benevolence and gastronomic gorging.

His immediate brainstorm is Collabagala; i.e. Collaboration + Gala, to be staged at the Chase Center November 17. One hundred per cent of the net proceeds will benefit 10 Delaware charities. They are Blood Bank of Delmarva, Westside Healthcare, American Lung Association, Best Buddies of Delaware, Catholic Charities, Delaware Center for Justice, Newark Day Nursery and Children's Center, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, Read Aloud Delaware and YWCA.

The RDC, the Chase Center and Strongpoint Marketing (George's firm) are the founding sponsors. Founding media sponsor is the News Journal.

The Delaware Community Foundation and DANA (Delaware Association of Non-Profit Agencies) are in the mix as well, although not beneficiaries.

Says Chris Grundner, CEO of DANA, “We chose to get involved in Collabagala as a partner because we believe the event could be a game-changer and it is important for us as the sector leader to help push the envelope a bit in the community. Because the event is brand new and so ground-breaking, we expect it to grow over time and get bigger and bigger each year.”

The founding sponsors are removing all the risks that non-profits confront when staging a fund raiser: management and promotion. The beneficiaries must sell tickets and solicit Silent Auction items from their respective lists of donors.

George expects well over $100,000.00 in auction items. Coming from so many different organizations, they will be copious and diverse.

Exclaims Ginny Marino, CEO of YWCA, 'Collabagala is a game changer and we are thrilled to be a part.”

Mary Hirschbiel, ED of Read Aloud Delaware, echoes the sentiments of all of the charities. “We look forward to sharing our story a wider community.”

The exposure that all will achieve in the “Collaboration” is ten times what they could do on their own. When a charity stages their own in house Silent Auction or other event, everyone knows about them from the starting line. This is reinforced by Michael Waite, Director of Marketing and Communications at Blood Bank of Delmarva. “This is an opportunity for us to collaborate (there's that word again!) with other non-profits. BBD does not do many special events so it is a chance to get involved with a fun event in a different atmosphere.”

The theme is James Bond, appropriate to the premiere of the new Bond movie at the new Penn Cinema at the Riverfront. (They are donating 1000 tickets).

The $125.00 ticket price includes food, open bar and $25 of chips for Casino Royale.

George admits he has no idea the turnout, but is laying the groundwork. The mantra of entrepreneurs will forever be....”with great risks come even greater rewards!”

For tickets and donations to the Silent Auction www.Collabagala.com

To become a sponsor, connect with Strongpoint Marketing 302.295.5060

Marie Dugan: Educating the Absorbent Mind

It all started in 'the little red schoolhouse' in Arden DE in 1971, a rather non-prepossessing multi- purpose facility a/k/a The Buzz Ware Center.

Now, Wilmington Montessori School, only a mile from its birthplace, is a 65,000 sq ft building on 25 acres; the state's largest and acknowledged as one of the top 10 Montessori's nationally. The school was the first to be jointly accredited both by Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA) and the American Montessori Society. Dugan, Head of School, has garnered numerous awards owing to her efforts for 'her children' and the Montessori mission nationally.

WMS has received a $1 million matching gift from an anonymous donor. This occasion marks the beginning of a fund raising campaign as they celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2013-2014.

How and why this success? By the drive of Marie Dugan, one who found her sole mission in life decades ago and nurtured it to fruition. “The gift is a tribute to 50 more years of joyful learning”, says Dugan. She is confidant in securing the matching funds.

Dugan is back at WMS after leaving the school in 2000. She was asked to be the Coordinator for the Center For Montessori Management Management (CMSM) in White Plains NY., where teachers and administrators achieve credentials from the American Montessori Society.

Now she is back to her beginnings in Delaware as interim Head of School. While she would be the last to admit this, the grant had all to due with her return. Word traveled quickly. Enrollment is up.

To understate, parents, teachers, staff – and most importantly students are thrilled. Dugan, typically modest, paraphrases the book Everything I Know I Learned in Kindergarten with ...”everything I know I learned here at WMS!”

When my first child was two, I had misgivings over sending him to school half the day. That was a mite young, I considered; allied to yet one more expense for a new family. He could do better at home with Mom. Two decades later I was proven wrong. That investment gave as much a return to him - and to his parents - as did DuPont's investment in nylon.

From the 1st...okay, maybe the 3^rd or 4^th day...my son loved going to school. He loved his teachers and they loved him back. Dugan had two-way mirrors installed where parents could watch their child interact with teachers and peers. Mothers would spend hours there. They gained knowledge about their children. Priceless encounters and precious relationships created behind those mirrors.

There is this native African term “it takes a village”. It does not take long for parents to discover the village that Montessori encompasses.

Montessori education is characterized by an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological development. These elements are essential:

• Multi-aged classrooms; ages 0 to 12 years
• Student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options
• Uninterrupted blocks of work time
• A 'discovery' model where students learn concepts from working with materials, rather than by direct instruction
  

From birth to age 6, the Montessori method observes that the child undergoes striking physical and psychological development. The child is seen as a concrete, sensorial explorer and learner engaged in the developmental work of psychological self-construction and building functional independence. Montessori introduces several concepts to explain this work, including the absorbent mind, sensitive periods, and normalization.
Absorbent mind: Montessori described the young child's behavior of effortlessly assimilating the sensorial stimuli of his or her environment, including information from the senses, language, culture, and the development of concepts with the term "absorbent mind". It believed that this is a power unique to the first plane, and that it fades as the child approached age six.
Sensitive periods: Also observed are periods of special sensitivity to particular stimuli during this time called the "sensitive periods". In Montessori education, the classroom environment responds to these periods by making appropriate materials and activities available while the periods are active in the young child. Identified are the following periods and their durations:

• Acquisition of language—from birth to around six years old
• Order—from around one to three years old
• Sensory refinement—from birth to around four years old
• Interest in small objects—from around 18 months to three years old
• Social behavior—from around two and a half to four years old
  

WMS' elementary program students continue through grade 6.. Outcomes include confident, competent learners,independent, intrinsically motivated, socially responsible, academically prepared for seventh grade.

Dugan this year initiated a class with babies of only 6 months. For them, she opines, there is truly a whole lot of world to absorb.

WMSDE.org 302 475.0555

A Sea Change at DTC with "The Outgoing Tide"

The times they are a changin' at Delaware Theater Company. Bud Martin, the new Producing Artistic Director, has transfused the 3 decades old institution with game changing steroids.

Aisle Say has always been impressed when one such as Al Pacino consistently works on refining his craft in New York live theatre. Both motion pictures and tv acting is easy. As Peter Strauss, the star of DTC's “The Outgoing Tide” commented to me after a packed house opening last Saturday, ...”in live theatre you're out there naked for an hour and half. You mess up, and everybody knows it.”

(Strauss and Nick Nolte starred in the provocative mini series “Rich Man, Poor Man” in the '70's)

.While Michael Learned of “The Waltons” fame may be the biggest name of the 3 person show, this is Strauss' show playing Gunner, a husband and father who has hatched an unorthodox plan to secure his family's future. The idea is met with much consternation by his wife (Peg) and grown son, Jack (Ian Lithgow).

Playwright – and Philadelphia native – Bruce Graham has wonderfully articulated a brutal dilemma of growing old. It is impossible to believe that the plot did not resonate profoundly with the audience. Gunner is at early stage dementia (although Strauss emphasized to me this could be any ailment...any disease.)

Interspersing dark humor with pathos, one is not sure where we are headed in Act 1. The playwright's conceit was to switch scenes decades back to create familiarity with the family dynamic. Strauss, for example, went from a young father to a crotchety old man with Alzheimers. Peg was always the over protective mother.

Jack (Lithgow) was an only child of a sarcastic, teasing and rough-edged father. The naïve son believed everything Dad said.

Jack: Why didn't I have a brother or a sister?

Gunner: You weren't the only kid. You were the only one we kept. We sold your two brothers to the circus. (At that point, Jack, as a child, starts crying).

Peg wants to put Gunner in an assisted living facility. After 50 years of marriage, she is weary now of his forgetfulness and doesn't feel she can properly care for him. “We could do a murder-suicide, but he would probably forget to shoot himself!”

Gunner will have none of the assisted living idea, PERIOD. He waxes on the reason for living...”If I don't know you, what's the point?”

Gunner has a plan to tie up loose ends. He will commit suicide so that the family can collect double indemnity life insurance. Peg is outraged, but he demands her blessing before he can go forward in his last dinghy ride with his bottle of scotch.

Are the ends tied? I will leave that for the future audiences. This is a difficult play, gut-wrenching and supremely acted.

Note to director: as a father who at times has had his own strained relations with his son, boy... would I love to see a hug in the final scene.

Through October 28 DelawareTheatre.org 302.594.1100

Next up is “A Christimas Carol”, then “Boeing Boeing” directed by consummate actor/director of UD Rep Ensemble Steve Tague. DTC's first full blown Broadway musical, “South Pacific” ends the season, directed by Bud Martin and choreographed by our local legend, Sonny Leo.

AISLE SAY interviews Clint Eastwood on upcoming DE theatre season

AISLE SAY is thrilled and honored to introduce the iconic actor/director Clint Eastwood to its venerated column. Mr Eastwood, still on a high from the Republican Convention: as stratospheric an emotion as his movie 'Space Cowboy' (which soon after release plummeted to earth). Eastwood offered a free ranging interview on the openings of 3 shows at local venues: DE Theatre Company's “The Ongoing Tide:, UD REP Ensemble's “The Weir” and New Candlelight Theatre's “Putnam County Spelling Bee”.

AISLE SAY: Thank you so very much for being with us today. In fact, in your honor I wore the same sombrero that sat atop Eli Wallach in “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”.

CLINT EASTWOOD: You nitwit. Wallach was a bandido in “The Magnificent Seven”. You're crazy, absolutely crazy. You're getting as bad as Biden. Now we know there are two intellects in Delaware; you and the Vice President.”

AS: You are aware, sir, that DTC welcomes a TV icon, Michael Learned, from 'The Waltons' in their opening show, “The Ongoing Tide”. Her tag line at the end of the each installment gained as much cultural traction as your own from 'Dirty Harry'.

CE: Damn. I told myself that I was not going to use that at the Convention. I was caught up in the moment of my daring improv and was egged on by the Tea Party constituents. It is just that conservative people pay closer to the vest. They don't go around hot-doggin' like the Dems.

AS: Miss Learned was quoted about the show: “When I read the play the first time, I found myself laughing out loud . . . and at the end I wept; sort of how viewers responded to your flic “Pink Cadillac” but not for the same reasons.

CE: You have to ask yourself, do you feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk? You're beginning to get me annoyed. I had to make the tough decision between Bernadette Peters or Clyde the chimp for a leading lady.. They're my movies. I'm the supreme decider.

AS: Would you decide to make “Dead Pool” again? Okay, Okay...a little humor from me. Now, moving on: ..in your interview with a seated President Obama, you commented: “You are an ecological man. Why would you want to drive that around.” With all due respect that comment left much of the audience scratching their heads.

CE: That wasn't the word I planned, knucklehead. I meant to say something else but spelled it wrong on my post it note. I was never a great speller. My special gift is mumbling through movies and intimidating the perps through my well rehearsed squinty eyes.

AS: Well, then to freshen up, Mr. Eastwood, I suggest you attend NCT's show, “Putnam County Spelling Bee”. Each night the show is quite different and unscripted; similar to your Convention speech. 'Putnam' is audience participation. Some nights a panelist gets the word correct; sometimes not. The actors must improvise

CE: That idea makes my day. I would be great in that – as I showed at the Convention. Hey, does Candlelight serve food with the show? I go for red meat!

AS: The UD REP Ensemble opens with an Irish play “The Weir” Taking place in a pub, it's a tale of hauntings and ghosts; a mere souffle compared to the intellectual gravitas you brought to your classic man/chimp oeuvre in “Every Which Way But Loose”, which Aisle Say suggested be renamed “Every Which Way But Good.”

(Eastwood rises out of his chair and leans down into my face.)

CE: Ever notice how sometimes you come across somebody you shouldn't have #^*#ed with?" Well, I'm that guy. Listen, you delinquent, it's time for a business man....or at least a good writer to take over your column.

Putnam County Spelling Bee – September 14 – October 28 NCTstage.org 302.475.2313

The Weir – September 27- October 14 REP.udel.edu 302.831.2204

The Ongoing Tide – October 10-28 DelawareTheatre.org 302.594.1100

PBS Celebrates the inimitable Cab Calloway

"Hi de hi de hi de ho!" When that clarion call pierced the air, you knew a rousing time was about to be had. Cab Calloway was a force of nature. When he appears in movies, one simply cannot take your eyes away....even with that delectable Lena Horne in the same frame.

Charisma and creativity, energy and elegance all dressed up in white on white double breasted zoot suit with looping gold chain.

Calloway led one of the most popular African American big bands during the jazz and swing eras of the Harlem Renaissance in the '30's and '40's.
PBS's “American Masters” will premiere 'Cab Calloway: Sketches' beginning Monday February 27 at 10 pm.

Mobsters owned the Cotton Club. Cab and his band were “invited” to sub for Duke Ellington when the latter was on tour, being given the infamous Mafia 'offer'. Suddenly, the young Calloway (barely 23 in early 1930) was the new star, the chic place for rich, white people to enjoy the twin thrills of slumming in Harlem and taking in the elegant, sexy revues performed by stunning and scantily clad black showgirls. He soon became the darling of journalists and of New York’s nightlife. The radio quickly caught on to the phenomenon, broadcasting his shows three times a week. The United States had discovered Cab Calloway, and he was an overnight success.

Calloway lived in a segregated world. At The Cotton Club blacks could only perform, not attend. His was one of the first bands to tour the segregationist South, suffering through the indignities of Jim Crow. He finally demanded his own Pullman car.

The song “Minnie The Moocher” with its endlessly scatted chorus of “Hi de ho”, Calloway became the first black performer to sell a million copies of a 78 rpm record. Oddly enough, the upbeat-sounding song actually tells the tale of a poor girl under the thumb of a pimp who cares more about coke than love. The lyrics, emanating from the primordial core of Calloway, perhaps are never fully absorbed.

The PBS show explores Calloway's musical beginnings and milestones in the context of the Harlem Renaissance including period footage of that era of segregation.

The Broadway composing master of them all, George Gershwin, modeled the character Sportin' Life after Calloway. In 1952 he sang that part in a production and toured for two years.

He had his own Renaissance with “The Blues Brothers” in 1980. Calloway influenced Michael and Janet Jackson, Prince, Alicia Keys but others that you might not consider: present day hip-hoppers!

The biopic includes interviews of Cab's daughters, Cecilia and Camay, one of whom lives in Hockessin and continues a presence at Cab Calloway School of The Arts.

Aisle Say suggests you see this show on PBS. Additionally, if there is one movie that captures ALL the Afro American performers of that glorious age, it's Stormy Weather (1943). The history of jazz is brought to life with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Fats Waller, Lena Horne, and in the grand finale, Cab Calloway, surrounded by celebrated tap dancers the Nicholas Brothers. Wow! While Horne's “Stormy Weather” makes every male wish he was snuggling up with her on that wet and wild night, the Nicholas Brothers dancing sequence down that staircase is extraterrestrial.

One assumes there will be a universal home work assignment at Cab on Friday the 24^th!

PBS. Monday, February 27, 2012, 10:00-11:00 pm. ET; repeat. Friday, March 2, 2012, 9:00-10:00 pm. ET

UD REP Ensemble: THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAN

After witnessing a number of Irish penned plays at UD REP Ensemble, Aisle Say comes to the conclusion this 'Sons of Erin' author/playwright fellowship are a most schizophrenic lot. From George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett to the more contemporary Gabriel Bryne, Brian Friel and now to 'Cripples' author Martin McDonagh, their love for their land is 'just complicated'!

“What would heaven be like? It can't be more beautiful than Ireland.” The writers love the beauty, revere the simple folk but rail at their passiveness against the ruling classes (UK), extol Catholicism in one breathe but are horrified by the oppressiveness it demands relating to one's feelings.

I am amazed and disconcerted by the lack of young people in the audience. The REP is a laboratory for students of theatre. Pretty words on a sheet are one thing. The REP actors give the written word flesh and blood and by the art and character they create, the drive those words without abandon into your soul.

So it is with “The Cripple of Inishman”.Directed at a pretty pace by J.R.Sullivan, the story takes place on a small island. Author McDonagh attacks the stereotypical portrayals of the Irish and their culture like Seinfeld goes after George Costanza. “I've seen nicer eyes on a goat!” “I'll be laying off the whiskey now and again....and at breakfast.” “Did you ever see the Virgin Mary thinkin' aloud? It didn't do her much good, now did it?”

The first reaction to this beautiful theatre is the consistency of dialects. Steve Tague – also a REP actor – has been an exquisite teacher of dialects since the groups inception.

The second reaction is the contortions that Billy (Michael Gotch), the Cripple, must put himself through to realistically portray a seriously handicapped person. His entire hand appeared to have no attending ligaments. Mammy (Carine Montbertrand) continues to astound comically. She is a latter day Imogene Coca.

Teachers, bring hither your students.

Through Feb 12. www.rep.udel.edu 832.2202

WALNUT STREET THEATRE – THE MOUSETRAP

Speak about a kid who stepped in it. Over 60 years ago Agatha Christie's daughter birthed a boy. As a present, Agatha said, “Oh, I'll give him the rights to my new whodunit, 'The Mousetrap' Nothing will come of it.”

On this, the 60^th anniversary of the world's longest running play (24,500), Mousetrap Productions has licensed 60 productions world-wide. Walnut Street is one of the few US venues. Seeing it live is the only way audiences can experience the mystery for their has never been a film adaptation.

There lurks a murderer amongst this group of strangers trapped by a snowstorm in the manor house. With each performance, audiences are pledged not to divulge the culprit.

The Walnut's production qualities continue to be excellent. The scenic design by Glen Sears gives off that musty air of the glory of a wood paneled manor house of centuries past.

Mollie Ralston (Jennie Eisenhower – yes, David and Tricia Nixon Eisenhower's daughter) is one of the most gifted triple threats in the region. She's too pretty and talented to be the murderer...but just could be.

Christopher Wren ( Eric Bryant) plays a very flamboyant boarder at the manor. His mannerisms are quite amusing and reminds one of the foppish valet character in 'The Producers.” Christopher does have motivation indeed! He is constantly being criticized for his limp wrists.

Inspector Giles Ralston (Dan Hodge) sports a terrific Cockney accent. But...sacre bleu...he cannot be culpable, he's a law enforcement officer.

'The Mousetrap' is one for the bucket list. Next up is 'Ethel', the life of Ethel Waters.

Running thru March 4. WalnutStreetTheatre.org 215.574.3550

MISS SAIGON Premiere "ascends" by helicopter & ascendant voices

With great risks come even greater rewards. This has been the mantra for the last year at New Candlelight. “Miss Saigon” had never been staged by a local production company, mostly attributed to that pesky- but iconic – descending helicopter scene in Act 2. Design and engineering such a feat separates soldiers from civilians in the world of regional theatre. The show was penned by the duo of “Les Miserables” (you may have heard of it). The plot is nearly as epic; the characters equally flawed; the emotions stirred similarly heart wrenching; the music and lyrics bear resemblance in power and majesty. The duo of Sonny Leo (Director and Choreographer) and Chris Alberts (Producer and Lighting Design) have teamed once again to create transcendent musical theatre. Leads were two newcomers Kim (Dana Kreitz) and Chris (Anthony Connell). Cast aside any notions of musical comedy; this is a serious show. (Vietnam never contributed a lot of yucks). These two characters must not only have soaring voices but must sell the pain, pity and pathos and of their relationship. They are superb. Two locals that Aisle Say has seen in tens of productions give their finest performances. Engineer (Paul Goodman) who has been type cast historically as a 'nice guy', 'you can lean on my shoulder type”, sheds that golly gee image in this slimy, predatory, obsequious role. His “American Dream” was a come-to-Jesus show stopper. For Ellen (Sharon Brown Ruegsegger), the tragic but noble figure is this sorrowful triangle, Aisle Say always has admired her voice. She rose to another plateau above the clouds in this role. Thuy (Rick Fountas) was strong of voice but his cartoonish and over the top stridency of evil incarnate was way out of balance of the naturalistic portrayals of the characters around him. Staging is choreography, especially under Leo's direction. The fluidity of the fall of Saigon scene was ballet unto itself. Hours must have been spent in rehearsal to not only keep the masses flowing but to create the frenetic energy of the moment. This may have been the impetus for Leo's program book comment, “I've learned patience.” The awe-inspiring highlight of the production was the opener of Act 2, “Bui Doi”. In Vietnamese it means 'the dust of life', the brand burned into the mixed race children spawned by American soldiers and Vietnamese women; those left behind. It's a horrific appellation but an incredible song. John (Dave Snyder) along with a men's chorus, OWNS that song. If there had been live action replay, I would have been there 4 more times. In a drama this tense, there must be comic release. Peter Briccotto and Adam McLean ? (oh, I get it) were hysterical as American sex tourists. Their costumes, by Linda Reilly, were right on....as testimony, I still have a few memorabilia in my closet from the very plaid and brightly pallet-ed '70's. Jonny Carroll (Tam) the offspring of the two weeks between Chris and Kim, was deemed 'adorable' by not one but two Elizabeth's at my table. Now, back to the helicopter. Alberts pulls it off. It descends in the chaos of evacuation. His dramatic lighting (especially the spot lights searching the audience) give a strong sense of the abject fear in the hearts of the evacuees. During that time Chris screams out, “all I made a mess”, which to those who lived through this era, is a metaphor for the US involvement in Nam. Thru March 11. NCTstage.org 302.475.23 NCT is staging their annual fund raiser on February 11. Call the box office for details.