This North Coast Weekend

The big opening this weekend is HOMO EXPO: A Queer Theatre Extravanza at HSU. It came close to running the table in the local press (as publicity person for HSU Theatre it does my heart good), with a cover story preview in Northern Lights of the Times-Standard, and previews in the Arcata Eye, NC Journal, and a big photo in the ER.

My legions of readers may have noticed that somebody else did the Journal preview (and a good job Emily Hobelmann--who I don't know--did), which is fitting and proper, considering my involvement with the show as department publicist. But it appeared under the banner of my column, Stage Matters. Apparently this is now the theatre section title for the Journal, and no longer the title I conceived for my column. It has to be that way, I'm told, because placing a different banner on pieces written by other people is "too labor-intensive." As a former editor from the Dark Ages, I had no idea what's involved in this computerized age: it seems that to create each banner, several editors (who aren't getting any younger) and staff must locate, mine and carry back huge chunks of a certain kind of stone, then hew the letters out with chisels. Though the stone required is very large, the chisels are unbelievably tiny, and the smallest slip means the stone is ruined and has to be thrown away, so the whole process begins again. And this is just the first step. After the stone is carved, it is pressed into molten metal to create type. The metal must be heated with a very pure flame, created with a mixture of fuels that can become explosive if off by a tiny percentage. And then the ink--well, I couldn't even follow the description of that process, but suffice it to say that it requires the capture in the wild of a very rare species of Soy.

Also this weekend: Dell’Arte hosts the Brazilian ensemble Lume Teatro for a production called Sopro, in the Carlo Theatre, Oct. 4-7 at 8 p.m. Sanctuary Stage presents their 24-hour 10 Minute Play Fest at the Eureka Theatre on Saturday at 7:30 p.m."The Madwoman of Chaillot" continues at NCRT.