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Show 'Pippin' by Rick Brough An important idea in the musical "Pippin" is that one cannot be completely fulfilled, ful-filled, but at least we might find a measure of happiness. The IAE production is not completely fulfilling. But there is talent in the lead players, and delightful performances per-formances from the supporting support-ing cast. If you are a fan of Stephen Schwartz, and of last summer's production of the Schwartz musical "God-spell," "God-spell," then "Pippin" may be worth a look. Under director Anne Burnett, the energy level rarely flags, and several of her problems came with staging an intimate inti-mate musical in the wide Prospector Theatre space. Pippin (Jeff Meadows), the son of King Charlemagne, Charle-magne, thinks that he is destined to find the one completely fulfilling thing in the world. But his quest is continually frustrated. War proves to have little glory-its glory-its boring strategy sessions Beforehand and carnage afterward. Pippin turns to rampant young love, but he's turned off by its promiscuous fervor. Political protest seems to be the answer, but he finds it's not so easy to come up with new answers after the old order is dead. Even in art, "you've got to be dead to find out if you were any good," he says. For a time, he finds happiness with a young widow (Dana Bishop) and her child. But that can't be everything! The siren call of a bizarre players company urges him to keep looking... Jeff Meadows is well cast to convey Pippin's vulnerability vulner-ability and childish im-petuousness. im-petuousness. He's good at conveying the emotional peaks eagerness and valleys of disappointment he goes through. But Pippin must also have the strength, the idealism to keep up this search. Meadows Mea-dows doesn't convey that. He sounds too often like a dim-witted adolescent. In his singing, when Pippin should be most determined, Meadows Mea-dows voice is often off target on the notes, and it has a weak-kneed quality. The lead player, who narrates Pippin's story, and encourages himis played, by Patsy OlpinNot only is her dancing wonderful limber, impish, and quietly com- E The landmark decision With California vineyard land fetching premium prices, many newer wineries are forced to acquire land in a variety of locations or purchase additional grapes from nearby growers. From both a cost standpoint and operationally, confining a vineyard to one specific geographic area is certainly preferable. But there are valid arguments for scattered plots, especially when diversity of flavor and climate are concerned. Landmark is a winery and vineyard that has capitalized on owning three very different plots of land. Landmark's Sonoma Valley vineyard lies just to the southeast of Sonoma and due east of Petaluma. The Sonoma vineyard receives more fog than the other Landmark properties and the soil is not as rich. Composed of a clay and sandy loam combination, the soil rarely reaches more than three feet in depth. It is perfect for growing Chardonnay grapes. The vines here are cane-pruned with two canes per vine. In a good year the seventeen acres will yield lxk to 3 tons of grapes per acre. Although winds coming off San Pable Bay tend to reduce frost problems, the vineyard is outfitted with wind machines. In general, wines made from this vineyard have lower sugar readings than those made from the other properties belonging to Landmark. While the Sonoma Vineyard actually lies the east of Marin County, Landmark's Alexander Valley Vineyards are located more than 50 miles north on the north side of the Russian River. The 58 acres of vineyard were added to Landmark just one year after the Sonoma vineyard was purchased and both Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon are grown here. Once again the location allows for new soil experiments. The Cabernet has been planted in Arbuckle loam, a rather stony soil with an orange hue that indicates a high iron content. The Chardonnay, Chardon-nay, on the other hand, is planted in a soil that the University of California at Davis calls Zommora, a rich alluvial river loam that contains some clay. This soil is found only in nearby rivers such as the Russian. The wines produced from the vineyard tend to display more flavors and varietal intensity than those from the Sonoma area. The Chardonnay will probably not cellar as long when produced in the Alexander Valley and the Cabernet will be complex and fruity. The third vineyard area and site of the winery is called Home Ranch. Located near Windsor in Sonoma County, Home Ranch was originally a Spanish land grant. The real estate has passed through many hands prior tvi: 'ha ... bi has some fulfilling moments "Let's get physical," Pippin (Jeff Meadows) might be saying. But seriously folks, the songs are of higher quality than that in production from Intermountain Actors Ensemble. manding but she guides the story with assurance and a blithely condescending smile full of seductive snake-oil. However, she has trouble singing. And while she springs through the music with energy, it spoils Olpin's performance to have her look so effortless and sound like she's working hard. Dana Bishop, as Pippin's lover Catherine, doesn't appear until the last third of the play, but her warm, mature performance is worth the wait. Catherine is attracted to Pippin because of the arch of his foot. Starting from that fetish, Bishop builds a character out of nonchalant lust, solicitude, solici-tude, dry humor, and the demeanor of a woman who will take whatever fulfillment fulfill-ment she can get. Bishop hardly misses a note-except note-except in a speech about her dead husband where she seems to be straining. She leads a group of scene-stealing scene-stealing short performances. Ruth Agle takes over the stage as Pippin's peppery grandmother, who advises him to live t up while you're still: kicking. In '. '.'Time, to Start Living," Agle grabs a mike, goes into a snappy WnimpnB T WW Silr W arm wm wm W Y ..... ' i .'. v t V i shuffle, and bosses the audience through a few choruses. (For our convenience, conven-ience, the words are printed on a movie screen.) Her voice sounds a little ragged toward the end, but she's still a delight. Lorna Schofeld is the step-mother Festrada, who schemes to ease Pippin out in favor of her own macho idiot son Lewis. If Eddie Haskell had a mother, Schofeld Scho-feld could play her. She uses a warmly devilish smile and a voice dripping with kind innuendo. (At this writing, it appears that an auto injury has pevented her from finishing the run. Substitute Barbara Bramble will fill in Ably, but I regret you will miss the wicked glint in Schofeld's eyes. We wish her well.) Ron Burnett skillfully plays King Charlemagne. His chief unfinished task is to give the king something to distinguish him from similar vainglorious types that Burnett played during IAE Shakespeare season. Tony Leger, as the brawny, stupid son Lewis, takes his usual Shakespearean Shake-spearean sternness and allows al-lows it to be punctured. (He's the McClellen family built a graceful Spanish-style home on the property and planted an entire avenue of cypress trees. The trees and home still are in place today and may be seen on the Landmark label. Presently the winery produces about 22,000 cases a year of three varietals: Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvig..on and Zinfandel. The Zinfandel grapes are purchased from growers near the Home Ranch, while the other two are grown on the vineyards previously mentioned. As with many smaller wineries in the past few years, Landmark does not expect to expand its line, prefering to concentrate on the improvement of a small number of wines. The past five years have also seen another trend in the making of fine wines, a desire to marry the final product with good food. Landmark joins this group when winemaker Bill Mabry says, "I just make wines that I enjoy with food." Mabry also prefers what he calls a "total impression" wine, one whose complexity is not easily broken down. "I want the person drinking my wine to get one feeling, not a group of feelings," he says. "I like to make the analysis of my wines relatively difficult, not to hide anything, but to achieve a balance. To me, analysis of something detracts. If I were an artist, I wouldn't want someone to stand back, look at my painting and say, 'Gee, that sky's really great, but how come this hill's so big?' I'd want them to see the entire painting, and they either like it or they don't. " But how do professionals view that approach? Apparently they like it, for many restaurants purchase the Landmark wines. Although the winery did not plan it that way, 80 percent of its sales in California are made to restaurants. They are attracted by what appears to be a smooth, well-balanced wine that goes well with food, much as say the wines of Martini or Sebastiani. Most of the Landmark wines spend some time aging in barrels, usually from four to eight months. The wines are also blended, especially the Chardonnay. This allows once again for the balanced, smooth wine the winery so Often touts. With its small output Landmark has never experienced sales problems, so reviews of the wine, while perhaps interesting, are not critical. We have tried all three and find them just as described, well balanced and smooth. Alexis Lichene describes them as "of ordinary quality." Yet he does say that the Chrdnnnav 'hows wrT"o'ni!r f tin" especially good in "Spread a Little Sunshine" with Festrada, Fes-trada, where the two accent the lyrics with a snakey little body movement.) The other Players don't have much chance to leave individual impressions, except for Jon Nelson, who drolly appears to Pippin as a couple of ill omens first a manless head, then a headless man. The overall cast, doesn't give the impression they have been welded into a tight musical ensemble. In movement move-ment and song, they're not quite with each other. Their energy level is good, however, how-ever, and they scurry around the theater without looking too much like they're running run-ning the 100-yard dash. A good part of the problem is the large stage. Prospector Prospec-tor Square should be commended com-mended for giving IAE a home, but the theater is too large for "Pippin"'s cozy frolicking atmosphere. Director-choreographer Burnett Bur-nett tends to form her actors into rather military lines, and this tends to lead to monotonous movement. (When Pippin, an "eager soldier, keeps disrupting .his father's "War is a Science" song, he marches back and One-act auditions Auditions will be held this Saturday, Nov. 13 at 1 p. m . at the Egyptian Theatre for the new one-act play series. Susan Jarman will direct Apollo of Bellac by Ciradeaux which requires three women and six men. Aysha Quinn will direct two plays by Beckett, Footfalls and Rockaby, and needs one woman and a voice for each play. Production dates for the one-acts are Dec. 5 and 12 at 5 p.m. Scripts are available at the Egyptian Theatre. 1 Inquire: photo by David Hampshire forth in the same line. Possibly he could do something some-thing more lively and disruptive. disrup-tive. The large space also becomes obtrusive during Patsy Olpin's solo dance numbers. She looks a bit overwhelmed by the emptiness empti-ness around her. Gregory Hexem did a good job with his music ensemble, including Elisa Carlile, Sam Angona, Kevin Sweat, John Craigle and Kent Bates. Major problem: the electronic elec-tronic buzz constantly coming com-ing from the amplifier. Minor problem: Did I hear a wayward horn section toward the beginning of the show? The other players include Kathryn and Daryl Nelson (alternating as Catherine's child, Theo), Heidi Burnett, David Nelson, Kim Ballou, Marey Bishop, Lisa Green, Robyn Adamson, Leah Rob-ling, Rob-ling, and Collyn Adamson. The play finishes its run on Nov. 12-13. Admission is $5 general, $4.50 for students and senior citizens, and $3.50 for groups of 10 or more. IAE ''will also host an inflation-fighter inflation-fighter matinee with understudies under-studies on Nov. 13 for $2.50. m . f . k i 4 I i i ,l - , . v 1 i ' t : . " r f f -v - y WaiM i rTT1 i 3 . I'-J Silver King Inn Condominiums, opening this fall, Phase I, 44 units, 28 remain available avail-able for sale. 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