Joseph and his technicolor dream coat

I went to the first performance of the Carnegie Player's production of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat on Friday night. There are three more performances this week, on August 3, 4, and 5 (Th-F-S).

My favorite scene from the play was when the King--I mean the Pharaoh--made his appearance.

Andrew Lloyd Webber who has been called "the most commercially successful composer in history" wrote the music for Joseph. In the production on Friday, I do not recall any spoken lines--they were all sung. (I may be wrong about that.) The play has lots of humor, including a variety of different song styles. The play itself is very good (which is not true of all musicals, in my opinion) and it was cast well. The whole production was very entertaining.

A potential problem with any musical done by amateurs is getting enough musical talent to pull the play off. The Carnegie Players struggled to find enough people to fill the roles but in the end they got the talent they needed. Kendal Ford, who played the narrator and who was part of many of the songs, did a outstanding job and she was not the original person cast in the role. Her performance alone justifies attendance. The actors and crew put in a lot of time and effort and the results show it.

As I was writing this, I was browsing some performances of scenes from the play on youtube. It is amazing how different the various performances of the same scene can be. By the way, make sure you count the brothers when you go. (And if you want to get into the Andrew Lloyd Webber spirit, try this.)

On Saturday the Rock The Arts Festival filled Potawotamie Park. I wandered through several times to take pictures. Artists had set up their tents to sell their art.

 The beer and wine tents are a key part of many festivals. The Carpenter Creek tent was being erected in this picture.

Reinforcements Design was selling tee shirts, most with SJC logos, from their new tent.

A big part of the Festival is music with five different groups scheduled to perform. Some were very loud. Unfortunately when I took this picture the light was wrong to get a good shot from the front.

Summer vacation for the younger part of the population is quickly coming to an end. In less than two weeks Rensselaer schools will start classes. The last weekday that the LaRue Pool will be open is Wednesday August 9, and then it will be open on the weekend of August 12-13.

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