Performance, Theater

The Motion

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“The Motion”
By playwright Christopher Chen
Shotgun Players
September 20, 2025 8 PM
Creation/Confusion/Celebration

First scene: The four actors, two on each side, led by a moderator,
confront the question, “Do we kill animals unjustly? And/or do we use
them for critical research that help human health, now and in the
future?” in the opening scene of “The Motion”.

The debate proceeds, the discussion more and less agitated and then….

The scene dissolves into charming (albeit conforming) middle class
marriages, each partner paired with one from the initial scene. (The
moderator disappears, but ultimately reappears as a willing (unhuman)
victim, to ‘test’ the ‘killing’ ques+on.) If this is a bit much to follow, OK!
“The Motion” is after all an explorative theatrical experiment.

Above all the acting is superb. Erin Gould, Jack Donovan, David
Sinako, Erin Mei-Ling Stuart, Soren Santos and Gabriella Maalihan
provide the witty dialogue in the debate as well as in ‘intimate’ scenes.
All are adept at moving from real to surreal that this play demands.
The play is directed by Shotgun founding director Patrick Dooley.
It is wonderful to have him back in that role. Patrick has given Berkeley
audiences thirty-two years of amazing, challenging theater. Bravo!
Performance, Theater

The Tempest: Marin Shakespeare Festival

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“The Tempest”
Marin Shakespeare Company
Saturday, August 16, 2025. 7 PM

“The necessity of theater.”

The quote above, “The necessity of theater” is from the “Director’s Notes” in the program for an earlier production at the Marin Shakespeare Company. (Signed Bridgette Loriaux). “The Tempest” adapted and directed by M. Graham Smith, performed opening night Saturday, August 16 reenforces (at least for this audience member) “the necessity of theater.” The play, considered one of Shakespeare’s last, is a fantasy, a morality play, a comic ‘opera’ and ultimately, a deep character study.

The Marin production makes this all possible with a brilliant cast, much physical activity, mime, dance and superb acting. Scholars date the play 1611 by which time England had learned of voyages to the “new world.” Critics say this is central to the play. More than the geography or history of a “shipwreck” is the “thru-line” of this play. As Director M. Graham Smith writes, ”Will we build something better, not for ourselves but for those who come next?” We are enchanted by the spirit Ariel (delightfully played by Anna Ishida), the depth of despair and action of Caliban (Chris Steele) and the frustration and ‘magic’ of the leading character Stephano (Brenda Areliano). The audience becomes thoroughly immersed in it all.

The central ‘comic’ episodes involve the drunken experiences of Caliban and his two companions (from the ship), Trinculo and Sebastian. In a series of “discovery” episodes Stephano finds the others in a sack, sorts them out and proceeds to lead them to the pleasures of drink. The acrobatic events, falls (and some recoveries), the discovery and pleasure of costume changes … all contribute to extend the ‘comic’ dimensions of Stephano’s (often) melodramatic personal story.

The physical presentation, sets, costumes, lighting are all marvelous and, as the evening darkens at the Marin Theater, more and more illusions appear on stage as trees and stars add to the magic. (Only one character portrayal needs boosting: Miranda, played by Anna Takayo, seemed ‘not quite comfortable” in the role, and as the English dramatists say, ”not sufficiently forthcoming.”)

The Tempest, as produced by the Marin Shakespeare Festival this summer is a delight, both entertaining and provocative, as only Shakespeare, as dramatist, comedian and philosopher, can entertain us, the welcoming, now thoughtful, audience.

Commentary, Computing, Duly Noted, Security

I will have to be very careful about content in any of my mail sent to Gmail.com recipients

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FROM THE NNSQUAD MAILING LIST:

https://lists.nnsquad.org/mailman/listinfo/nnsquad

WARNING: GOOGLE IS TRYING TO TRICK YOU INTO USING GEMINI AI AND
FEEDING GEMINI YOUR DATA IN GMAIL AND OTHER APPS!

What Google is now doing should be ILLEGAL. PERIOD. For the first time
I can recall in history of using Gmail, it just now popped a modal
dialogue box — DEMANDING that I choose whether or not I wanted “Smart
Features” turned on — which when you read the verbiage mostly means
goddamned Gemini AI AND if you enable this you’re giving Google
permission to use your data to “improve” this horrifically invasive,
inept, and misinformation spewing tech that steals data from websites
for its own use without permission of those sites. DON’T LET IT SUCK
IN YOUR EMAIL AS WELL!

There was no way I could find to exit the modal window without
choosing YES or NO, which means my existing selection to NOT use Gmail
Smart Features (long my preference) was NOT being honored. After
saying NO to this disgusting query by Google, I was pushed to ANOTHER
page where I was forced to choose again about “smart features” in
“other” Google apps. I chose NO again and finally was permitted to
escape this trap.

Note that while you can fairly easily check to make sure “smart
features” are turned off in Gmail settings, I offhand don’t have a
clue as to how to find the similar settings in other Google apps that
may have been affected by this absolutely disrespectful forced
dialogue, as Google keeps trying to ram Gemini AI down our throats.

…

And even if you have Gmail “smart features” off, your email can STILL
end up inside Gemini

And remember, even if YOU have these invasive “smart features” turned
off, if you communicate by Gmail with someone who has them turned on,
your email will still be sucked into Gemini AI. Like I said, this
should be ILLEGAL. -L