Take a bow, 83!COFFEE WITH WARREN, with Warren Harbeck |
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Big Dipper and Screwball Comedy actors team up to celebrate 83. Photos: Big Dipper by NASA, actors by Warren Harbeck The number 83 was haunting me the other day. One of the reasons was obvious – more about that in a minute. But there was another, totally unexpected reason that punctuated the matter. While doing some astronomy research, I was reminded that most of the stars that make up the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major are 83 light years aways from earth! The Big Dipper, of course, is that familiar asterism of seven stars in the northern sky that points to Polaris, the North Star. But with the number 83 dominating my thinking, how serendipitous was that, that its light takes 83 years to reach us! (A light year is a measurement of distance, calculated on the basis that light travels about 9 trillion km in one earth year.) In terms of earthly calendars, when I’m viewing the Big Dipper today, in early May of 2023, I’m really enjoying its light that began its journey toward me in May of 1940! And wow, that’s when I was born – on May 2, 1940! The Big Dipper was celebrating my 83rd birthday! Well, on the light side, my wife Mary Anna decided to celebrate my special day by taking me to last Saturday evening’s Take a Bow performance of Norm Foster’s Screwball Comedy. And its director, Cherie Dianne Caslyn, treated us to some delightful moments at Cochrane’s RancheHouse Theatre. (In addition to her over 25 years in professional theatre, Cherie regularly leaves a good taste in our mouths with her Horse Creek chocolates.) What particularly amazed me was how her outstanding cast of four – (photo, L to R) Genine Asress, Bart Farkas, Deanna Mae Lloyd and Adam Jamieson – performed the roles of nine characters, in a journalistic tug of war to get a feature story about a wealthy widow. One of the more hilarious conversations occurs when the widow Diddle, who loves to hold her puppy in her arms, boasts of how it embodies her husband’s legacy in a most surprising way. But you’ll have to find out what that legacy is for yourselves. Therefore, I urge attendance at one of this coming weekend’s performances, 7:00 pm, May 5 and 6, and 2:00 pm, May 7, at the RancheHouse Theatre. For more information, visit the Take a Bow website, https://www.takeabow.ca/. So, take a bow, 83! You’ve sure filled me with good memories.
© 2023 Warren Harbeck |