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The Forsyth County News L
Opinion
This is a page of opinions ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
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Mail letters to the Forsyth County '
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On your payroll
CITY COUNCIL
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt
P.O. Box 3177 I
Cumming, GA 30028
(770)887-4342
Mayor Pro-Tern, Lewis
Ledbetter
205 Mountain Brook Drive
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-3019
Ralph Perry
1420 Pilgrim Road ,
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-7474
Quincy Holton
103 Hickory Ridge Drive
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-5279
Rupert Sexton
705 Pine Lake Drive
Cumming, GA 30040
(770) 887-4332
John Pugh
10813th Street
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-3342
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
John Kieffer, Post 1
4403 Pine Tree Close
Cumming, GA 30041
889-3255
office, (770)886-2810
Chairman Bill Jenkins, Post 2
430 Oakleaf Trail
Suwanee, GA 30024
(770)887-0935
office, (770) 886-2809
Michael Bennett, Post 3
4301 Post Road
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)889-4515
office, (770) 886-2807
William “Andy” Anderson, Post 4
9740 Misty Cove Lane
Gainesville, GA 30506
(770)889-1829
office, (770) 886-2806
Julian Bowen, Post 5
5035 Pilgrim Mill Road
Cumming, GA 30041
(770)887-0784
I office, (770) 886-2802
••
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Chairman Ben Benson
1265 Dahlonega Highway
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)889-9892
• PaulKreager
9810 Kings Road
Gainesville, GA 30506
(770) 889-9971
Don Hendricks
5985 Polo Drive
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)889-2909
Vice Chairman Sherry Sagemiller
1460 Squire Lane
Cumming, GA 30040
(770)887-8388 ’
Eddie Taylor
4195 Morningside Drive
Cumming, GA 30041
(770)887-4405
NATIONAL
REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. Senator Zell Miller
Russell Senate
Office Building
Room C-3
Washington, DC. KL.E /
20510
Telephone: (202)
224- "
Fax:(202)228-2090
U.S. Senator Max Cleland
75 Spring Street
Suite 1700
Atlanta, GA 30303
Telephone: HBH
(404)331-4811
Washington:
(202) 224-3521
Fax: (202)224-
0072
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 9th
District
2437 Rayburn House Office
Building,
Washington, DC. 20515
Gainesville: P.O.
box lols ,
Gainesville, GA V'a*
30503 K 4 J
Gainesville, (770) ■ .
535-2592 ■
Washington: (202)
225-
Fax:(202)225-8272
STATE REPRESENTATIVES
Senator Billy Ray, 48th District
State Capitol, Suite 301,
Legislative Office Building,
Atlanta, GA 30334
(fax) (404) 656-
6581
Telephone: (404)
656-0048 (office) M
or (770) 822-0900 [jftJ
email:
bray@legis.state.gov.us
Senator Casey Cagle, 49th
District
421 State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334 (fax) (404)
651-6768
Telephone: (404) 656-6768
email: ccagle@inet.legis.-
state.ga.us
Rep. Mike Evans, 28th District
18 Capitol Square,
Legislative Office
Building, Room 604 ■ 3
Atlanta, GA 30334 I
Telephone: (404)
656-0265
(fax) (404) 463- Lxl
7652; email: mevans2B@mind
spring.com
Rep. Bobby Reese, 85th District
State Capitol, Suite 511
Legislative Office Building
18 Capitol Square
Atlanta, GA 30334
Telephone: (404) 656-6372
Fax: (404) 651-8086
email: breese@legis.state.-
gov.us
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Theater’s performance defies negative reviews
OK, so I’m not particularly
sophisticated.
It’s why, I suppose, I rarely
agree with movie or theatrical
reviews. In fact, it’s generally a
dead sure indicator that, if some
expert pans a film, I’m going to
love it.
Again, that trend held true this
past weekend. I was in the middle
of rapt enthusiasm for the Alliance
Theater's “Soul Possessed” perfor
mance when intermission led me to
the ladies room. There I overheard
several women discussing the play’s
negative review in a recent edition
of an area newspaper.
“You have got to be kidding!” I
interjected, astonished. Heck, I've
been a Fox Theater season ticket
snob for as long as I can remember,
straying only to occasional musical
outings at Chastain Park. And yet
the talent 1 was watching rivaled
and surpassed many of the perfor
mances I have enjoyed in the past.
I was darn near awestruck.
The ladies, too, said they were
overwhelmed by the quality of the
production. The costuming was
spectacular and the Debbie Allen
tale one of haunting mysticism and
entangled relationships.
And, oh, the singing and danc
ing.
My head was spinning and my
toes tingling as Jason Samuels-
Smith, entertaining us in the role of
Bubba, extended his tap dancing
solo into an exhaustive defiance of
physical limitations. When his crew
joined him and the entire stage
rocked with the foot-stomping
cadence of manic tap, the audience
reverberated with approval.
Blending the hip-hop talents of sev
eral of the cast members with the
tap troupe was a surprise and
delight to watch.
And then there was Tai Jimenez
and Destan Owens.
It is no accident, I guessed, that
the play’s theme wound around the
interwined relationships of death
and life. Because, when two of the
principal characters, Ysabel and
Luke, began to sing the James
Ingram lyrics, it seemed surely we
were privy to the angels.
And we were, at least to one.
Miguel Angel, reportedly one of
Spain’s most popular dancers and
“an internationally renowned ballet
and flamenco artist of unequaled
stature,” wowed us with his fluid
poetry. True, his spoken lines were
a bit stilted, with the apparent dis
comfort of one who is more at
home with the silent discourse of
body movement. Frankly, he could
have been mute and his purpose
would still have been beautifully
served.
There were plenty of other
standouts. Sharon Brown, as Aunt
Sally, can sang, girlfriend. Carmen
de Lavallade made a convincing, if
a tad sinister, future mother-in-law,
Christopher Huggins was the con
summate drag queen and ain't
nobody gonna mess with Katherine
Smith’s man.
But, to tell the truth. Death stole
the show.
Terry Beeman, with his wild
hair and antics to match, wove a
sinuous trail through the lives of so
many characters, their emotions
mirrored in his oft-tortured dance
interpretations. His shirtless torso
and skintight leather pants were
likely appreciated by countless
.patrons as well.
A week into the season debut’s
monthlong run and post-cruddy
review, the seats were still packed
and standing room only prevailed.
“The audience is certainly vot
ing by their response to this play,
which has been absolutely over
whelming since the first day,” says
Stephanie Lee, the Alliance
Theater’s director of communica
tions
For my friend and me, the fun
did not end at the curtain’s fall.
“So, I’ve gotta know," 1 began,
when we returned to my car for the
trek home. “From the perspective of
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FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Thursday, Saptambar 7,2000
a poet, tell me how you interpreted
that scene when the mother of
Ysabel’s fiance danced with the
bridal veil.”
Don’t laugh. I warned you, after
all, I wasn’t cosmopolitan enough
to understand all of it without
someone explaining it to me.
“Beats me," confessed Rhian,
laughing. “I wasn’t sure if she was
reliving her own youth or plotting
Ysabel’s voodoo end. But I did get
the impression that Death was toy
ing with everyone, leading them
down a path that was amusing to
him and foreordained.”
Darn. I had finally decided
against that explanation, figuring
Death was shadowing everyone —-
living, if you will, vicariously
Cheryl
Rhodes
through their passion, lurking just,
beyond the veil of life, awaiting the
inevitable but uncertain.
Back and forth we considered,
exploring the nuances of the play,
testing our own intuition and intel
lect and each other’s as well.
I had a marvelous time. Seems
to me the play was a success on.
every level that matters to me.
But then I’m not very sophisti-.
cated.
PAGE 7A