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it’s a Friday night and i’m sitting at home
i’m watching TV but there’s nothing much on
i’m trying to write yet another poem
if the words don’t flow, then to bed i’ll be gone.
© Cindy Lapeña, 2013
Charlottetown
I think that I shall never see
A government that is tax free
A senator that never lies
or rumours on their own that die
A government that lends a hand
and writes your debts in flowing sand
A government with open arms
and wishes all the earth no harm
with politicians who are wise
or act upon the people’s cries
A dreamer like me always wishes
for a nation free of issues.
© Cindy Lapeña, 2013
Charlottetown
everyone needs a shoulder to cry on sometimes
someone to brush away tears from your face sometimes
someone to hold you tight, make things seem right sometimes
chase away shadows, scare off the demons sometimes
dark clouds, dark days just won’t leave you alone. sometimes
you need someone. you might think you’re alone sometimes
you feel the world is working against you sometimes
not every day is rainy and cloudy. sometimes
everyone needs to see sunshine, blue skies sometimes
but sometimes you just need to be alone. sometimes.
© 2013 Cindy Lapeña
Charlottetown
welcome the summer rain that battles the heat
hesitant and uncertain
it drops like a spray in spurts then gushes then spurts
sorry raindrops cooling down the air somewhat
but not enough to soak the ground.
© Cindy Lapeña
2013
3. ACCEPTANCE. Last week, I spoke about OPENNESS as one of the traits you need to foster to be a true professional. Very closely related to OPENNESS is ACCEPTANCE. You might say that there’s no difference at all between the two, but one can be open to many things and even be willing to try them, but not necessarily accept them.
A true professional knows how to accept things. One of the most important things that the true professionals knows is to ACCEPT CHANGE. Nothing stays the same. No job, no career, no business, no person, so society stays the same. Everything changes. The person who does not accept those changes becomes unwielding and stagnant. Professionals need to move with the times and change with the times. Otherwise, they eventually become obsolete.
Change is not the only thing that a true professional needs to accept. A true professional needs to know how to ACCEPT CRITICISM. Not everyone will be happy with what you say or do and you will always have some detractors. The point is, you should learn to listen to it all, pick out what valid criticism and use that as a clue to what you should improve. You need to stop making excuses for every criticism you get. Whenever you make an excuse, you are trying to cover up your shortcomings or trying too hard to prove something or denying that something might be wrong or unsatisfactory with what you did. The proof of a job well done is always in the final result. Always look at criticism as help. Others will see things that you might have missed, simply because you were too close to the job or too attached to it.
A true professional will also know how to ACCEPT PRAISE. There is really only one way to do it and that is to accept it graciously. A simple thank you is just right. If you say “It was nothing” or “It really isn’t that good” or “I don’t really deserve it,” you are downgrading your abilities. If you gush, you convey the message that you aren’t used to doing things well and this was probably a fluke. If you start pushing your other accomplishments, you sound like you are boasting. If you worked with others on the job or project, you should also acknowledge them with a simple “I couldn’t have done it without the help of…” If you don’t, you are taking undue credit that should be going to others as well. Finally, you should never let the praise get to your head. It’s nice to know that people like what you have done, and that’s enough. You don’t need to remind them. And you should never think that just because you were praised a few times that you are better than anyone else. Always remember that there is always room to improve, room to grow. The moment you sit on your laurels and feel that you don’t need to do anything else because you are perfect or the best is the moment that you start failing.
Last, but not the least, a true professional should know how to ACCEPT FAILURE. Everyone experiences failure, some more often than others. Those who seem to always succeed do so because they have learned to accept faults and failure and learn to work with them and around them. They don’t retreat from whatever they are doing just because they have failed. They examine their failure or faults and work on them so that they aren’t repeated. They accept that failure is part of learning and embrace that learning as the best way to learn how not to fail again.
Acceptance isn’t always easy to do, especially when it goes against what we are used to and what makes us feel secure. Most people don’t seem to realize it, but it’s really one of the biggest factors in differentiating an amateur from a true professional.
Even if one did not know who Anton Chekhov was or had never seen nor read The Cherry Orchard, he or she would find much to appreciate in Duncan McIntosh’s The Shore Field, which McIntosh based on Chekhov’s play. What will make it endearing to PEI audiences is that McIntosh’s play is set in PEI, just outside North Rustico in 1973.
The story revolves around a famous actress Alfie Rainey, who returns with her daughter to her family home in PEI one summer. Her homecoming, however, albeit rife with nostalgia, is not a very happy one, as she learns that the property is in arrears and that she needs to make a decision to either subdivide and sell or lose everything on the auction block.
While waiting for her to make a decision, two potential romances crop up—one between her housekeeper Donna, played by Laurie Campbell, and their former farmhand-turned-successful businessman Larry, played by Jody Racicot; the other between her daughter Anna, played by Rebecca Parent, and her dead son’s former tutor Joey, played by Jonathan Widdifield.
Alfie’s role is masterfully portrayed by Gracie Finley, a former long-running star in the Charlottetown festival musical Anne of Green Gables, who returns to the PEI stage after a long absence. Alfie shares several nostalgic memories with her brother Augustus “Gus” McNeil, played by itinerant Toronto-based actor Jonathan Whittacker, who has perfectly portrayed the typical Islander male’s amusing and endearing, if not bordering on the annoying, penchant for long-windedness. Rounding off the cast is Teresa Costello as the family’s long-time nanny who still takes caring for Alfie and Gus as her main purpose in life.
Even if it is based on Chekhov’s play, The Shore Field reveals much of Islanders’ sentimentality and attachment to the Island and how difficult and painful it is to say goodbye to the past, to old possessions, old lifestyles, even people who were always in their lives. Like Chekhov’s play, The Shore Field explores deeper issues such as the breakdown of social structures, the shifting economy, and the reasons for the diaspora from rural PEI to other provinces. It shows the fall of the landed gentry and the rise of the lower class to mold a more uniform class structure that meets somewhere in between. All the old things, the things and people of the past who cannot change are left behind.
Duncan McIntosh has created an extremely thought-provoking play that replicates a vital cross-section of PEI society in the 70s that could still very well be the exact same society in PEI today. Although most of the characters were not particularly dynamic and maintained pretty much the same outlook from beginning to end so that they were very much stereotypes, the strong performances of each member of the cast served the script well.
Because of the nature of the thrust stage and layout of the seats in the Watermark Theatre, formerly the L.M. Montgomery Theatre, blocking and set design were quite a challenge. I feel that the audience would have benefited more if the main characters faced outward towards the audience more often than they faced inward during the first scene. That way, everyone in the audience would be able to appreciate the expressiveness of the actors rather than watch their backs. I might have reversed the staircase so that the characters could all face the audience more, or modified the blocking so that it was the minor characters that had their backs to the audience.
That said, this is nonetheless a mini-masterpiece of PEI theatre that is something every islander must definitely see this summer.
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**This post is also available on ONRPEI.ca
When the sun is hot and the sky is blue in summertime
even the birds hide to escape the heat because it is summertime
and the heat can be unbearable. When it’s summertime
on the Island all the folk head for beaches to enjoy the summertime
and escape the heat by soaking in the cool ocean during summertime
or shed their winter paleness with a tan they get from summertime.
All the kids are out somewhere in the parks or beaches through the summertime
or dodge the heat in Empire 8 where movies run more often ’cause it’s summertime
and their moms spend more time shopping for the cool air conditioning
and their dads brave the heat at the greens or the club since it’s summertime
and Boomer warns of rain or the chances of it coming all through summertime.
When the heat becomes unbearable and the the people get irritable in summertime
they could not wait for summer when it was still the winter but when summertime
arrives they curse the summer 30s and look forward to some rain in summertime.
© Cindy Lapeña, 2013
by Cindy Lapeña
Once again, director Catherine O’Brien delivers an outstanding production of a show that can only be one of the most entertaining trips down memory lane in Forever Plaid. In tandem with musical director Patrick Burwell, who cameo-ed as the “pianist that came with the room” and requires a union “smoke” break every hour or so, O’Brien has brought together an astounding quartet of male actors to deliver standards from the 50s with the same hip, hurray, and huzzah of the “guy groups” of the 50s, reminding us of the clean cut and harmless ivy league look that our parents or grandparents preferred.
Rather than being a play, however, this performance is really a musical revue with a bit of talking between the 29 songs, during which the audience learns bits and pieces of the quartet’s lives before their fatal accident. The humour sometimes borders on the hilarious, picking up more as the show goes on, while the reminiscing and sentimentality are very well handled and never quite become maudlin.
The four cast members, while very youthful, bring an impressive wealth of stage experience to the Harbourfront Theatre. More than that, they bring amazing voices that blend in perfect harmony punctuated by originally funny choreography that highlights the comicality of missteps and forgotten steps that were most certainly practiced but were delivered with natural spontaneity.
Mark Allan, performing in PEI for the first time, plays Frankie, who seems to be the leader and the main motivator of the quartet, and sings in a beautifully clear tenor. Since I first came to PEI and began watching performances, I have watched Ian Cheverie mature as an actor and a singer and as Jinx, his baritone/tenor voice can be soft and sweet or powerful and belting. Nathan Carroll is another borrowed talent, whose energy and expressiveness stand out in the character of Sparky. I must say his stage antics and tenor remind me of another excellent actor who is a friend of mine, and it almost felt like I was watching my friend when I was watching Nathan. Last, but not the least, Sam Plett is also a visitor to the PEI stage who will always be welcome with his amazing baritone/bass voice, in the role of Smudge, who could very well be dyslexic. Besides being a magnificent singing quartet, each of the players brought other curious talents to the stage—from juggling balls to playing a mouth organ, to playing the piano. Needless to say, each song is an act in itself and extremely entertaining. Too bad that some of the wit and humour in the dialogue and stage business was lost on the audience. My favourite number? The Ed Sullivan show in 3 ½ minutes, because of the skill, perfect timing, energy, and enthusiasm it was performed with.
The only thing that might have helped create better focus was, perhaps, to reduce the size of the stage a tad bit—possibly drawing the curtains in up to where the legs ended so that it would seem like a more intimate set, especially when the quartet separated into different corners of the stage, preventing the viewer from seeing all the actors at the same time. Nonetheless, the majority of numbers did make the use of most of the stage, and the lighting helped concentrate the audience’s focus on the actors.
It’s too bad that the show doesn’t draw a full house every performance, because it is the type of show that would be great fun with a larger audience. Still, I would definitely see this show with this particular cast again and again because their music will never get tiring!
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Last week, I discussed how QUALITY is an important factor in becoming a professional. That is definitely not the only thing that distinguishes amateurs from professionals. The second important factor that you want to cultivate to develop your professionalism is OPENNESS.
2. Openness. True professionals keep a wide open mind. “To what?” you might ask. First and foremost, you must be open to new ideas. While you might already have a great idea to work on, it doesn’t mean that you should shut out other ideas that might come your way. Whatever you are doing, whatever your service, business, or product, you need to keep it dynamic and developing. That means you need to continuously find ways to keep improving your output. Even if it might mean changing the way you do things, you need to welcome that change because it is what will keep you well informed and up-to-date. When computers and Internet technology were first introduced, many small business owners thought they could continue running their businesses the old fashioned way–by hand with traditional means of advertising, marketing, and communication. It didn’t take long for people to realize that computers would be essential to keeping up with the competition and those who began converting sooner had an edge over those who were slow or reluctant to transform. Today, it is almost unheard of for a business not to have an Internet presence or use computers for operations and keeping records. If you think you are the only one who has any good ideas, then you are shutting yourself down and setting yourself up for failure.
Another thing you must be open to is criticism. Listening to criticism is absolutely essential because any criticism means people are paying attention. That criticism will also give you a good idea of how well or how poorly you are doing. To completely shut off criticism is another sign of an amateur. Amateurs don’t want to hear criticism because they are either too insecure to accept the fact that they are not good enough, or because they think they are superior to everyone else and already perfect. Probably the worst divas in any profession are the divas who think they are so good they don’t need to improve and refuse to admit they have any shortcomings. Professionals, on the other hand, know that they are not perfect and look forward to criticism because it helps them improve. Professionals also know when to take criticism seriously and when to dismiss it as pointless or petty. Not a lot of criticism is constructive, so anyone who wants to achieve true professionalism should look for that constructive criticism that tells what they did well and what they didn’t do well.
The third thing that true professionals need to be open to is growth. Amateurs don’t grow. They either stay where they are and stagnate or deteriorate. True professionals are always open to growth. Growth means improvement, development. Growth takes place not only in the physical, emotional, and intellectual dimensions of individuals but in their skills and talents as well. Growth also takes place in a business–in the maturity of the product or service, in the scope of the business, and in its market. And while professionals are open to growth, they do not embrace it willy nilly. The true professional will know to handle growth in such a way that no other aspect of their output will be jeopardized or sacrificed. The amateur, on the other hand, might grow but take on too much too soon without having set up a strong foundation. The professional knows when to say no. The amateur does not know when to stop. It’s basically the difference between a gourmand and a gourmet.
Cindy Lapeña: Creativity Unlimited 