Photos by Alex Anderson
Tag: Van Duzer
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A night of Gov’t Mule at the Van Duzer
Lead singer Warren Haynes vibing out under the green light in Van Duzer. Lights shine down on Warren Haynes to kick off the show in Van Duzer on Feb. 13. Lead singer for Gov’t Mule under the lights for the Feb. 13 show in Van Duzer. Lead singer for Gov’t Mule Warren Haynes laying it down in Van Duzer. Gov’t Mule guitarist Danny Louis also putting in time on the keyboard during the performance in Van Duzer on Feb.13. -
She Kills Monsters: not a Nat 20
by August Linton
In the hours before I attended the opening night of She Kills Monsters, I was excited. Live theater has been absent from my life, and the chance to see people perform a play was one I relished. But I didn’t enjoy this production for many reasons, mostly stemming from an amateurish air, and a lack of sensitivity in its queer representation.
Certain elements of the show’s queerness were successful. The relationship between Tillius the Paladin (Geneva Bell) and Lilith the Demon Queen (Kyrstie Obiso) and their real-world counterparts was surprising and wonderful in its intimacy. As someone who was a nerdy gay teenager, I saw myself in their fear, their yearning. It affected me to see a gay kiss on stage— I hadn’t before. Queerness often intersects with desire to escape into fantasy, and I saw that genuinely represented in She Kills Monsters.
The decision to cast one of the succubus villains, Evil Tommy (played by Oliver David) as a gay man felt strange considering the role this character occupies. The character is regularly called Evil Tina and played by a female actress. I found myself uncomfortable and struggling with cognitive dissonance as an obviously queer-coded character bullied, screamed slurs at, and borderline sexually harassed another character.
The stage combat, too, left me wanting something more. It’s evident that the cast spent blood, sweat, and tears on choreographing and practicing the show’s many fights, but many stretched my suspension of disbelief. Swords swung three feet from their targets, while victims lowered themselves to the ground rather than falling. A show with such a focus on its fights deserved better.
The production design, however, impressed me and greatly increased my enjoyment of the show. The boss monster props especially charmed and impressed me. The undulating fabric-covered frame of the gelatinous cube, intensely staring papier mache orb of the beholder, and numerous large dragon heads of the final boss fight wow and amaze in cinematic fashion.
Other elements of the production seemed unfinished or fell flat, including sometimes jarring sound design and inconsistent costuming. This gave She Kills Monsters a distinctly high school play feel, despite the myriad uses of the word fuck.
The age of She Kills Monsters as a script showed in its dialogue and in its ideology. Released in 2011 and set in 1995, it has many elements and jokes which fell flat. Why does the main character Agnes (Miah Carter) treat her sister’s gayness with disbelief and fear? The politics of dating and marriage in Agnes and Miles’ (Stephan Chittenden) relationship also felt dated, and weirdly emphasized. And what was with that joke about Miles touching his girlfriend’s younger sister?
Despite this, Bell and Obiso as Tilly and Lilith were two standouts, bringing a wide variety of attitudes to their characters in both the real world and the dream world. The character of the Great Mage Steve (Maverick Cheney) deserves a special shout out for being a consistent source of laughs every time he flopped onto the stage to be killed in yet another gruesome way. Vera (Elena German) also very much embodied the role of high school guidance counselor, and drew laughs with her creative use of a rolling chair. However, much of the ensemble’s acting didn’t impress me, lacking physicality and emotion. She Kills Monsters has an emotional core of loss and drama that felt smothered by the production’s issues.
At the end of the show, about a quarter of the audience stood up, attempting to trigger a standing ovation. It didn’t happen.
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Van Duzer Theatre hosts again!
by Nina Hufman
This semester, the John Van Duzer Theatre will host a variety of shows, musicians, and speakers.
Performances already began earlier this week. On Sunday, the theater hosted Durand Jones and the Indicators, an Indiana based funk and soul band. The show also featured guest performer Keifer.
Another upcoming performance is the Emo Night Tour on Sept. 8 at 8 pm. According to the Cal Poly Humboldt Center Arts website, the tour will feature DJs playing punk and rock music from bands like Fall Out Boy, Taking Back Sunday, Panic! At The Disco, and My Chemical Romance. Tickets for this event are also free to Cal Poly Humboldt students.
“The Emo Night Tour DJs will be spinning all the angst your teenage dirtbag heart desires all night long,” the Center Arts website says. “A special guest band will make you feel like you’re at Warped Tour ‘08 minus all the dust and melting in the sun!”
Upcoming comedy performers include Paul Reiser and Aida Rodriguez. Reiser is a comedian, actor, and writer. He is known most recently for his roles on Stranger Things and The Kominsky Method. Reiser’s show is on Sept. 9. Tickets are five dollars for Cal Poly Humboldt Students. Rodriguez is also a comedian, actor, and writer and currently has a standup special streaming on HBO Max. Rodriguez will be at the Van Duzer on Sept. 22. Tickets for her show will be free for students.
Music and comedy are not the only performances that will come to Cal Poly Humboldt. Cirque Mechanics will be performing their newest show, Zephyr, on Oct. 4.
“Cirque Mechanics, although inspired by modern circus, finds its roots in the mechanical and its heart in the stories of American ingenuity. ” the Center Arts website says. “The stories are wrapped in circus acrobatics, mechanical wonders and a bit of clowning around.”
For performance dates, ticket prices, and additional information, visit the Cal Poly Humboldt Center Arts Website or the Cal Poly Humboldt Featured Events page.
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All-Female Mariachi Flor de Toloache Perform At HSU
By | Robert Brown
From playing in the subway to performing at mariachi festivals, the all-female band has been nominated for a Latin Grammy for Best Ranchera album. Their style is infused with salsa, pop, jazz, hip-hop and rhythm and blues, reinterpreting classic Latin and English language songs.
Mariachi is a type of folk music that originates from rural Mexico, traditionally performed by Mexican men. Mariachi is passed from generation to generation, and is historically very macho. Feeling a cultural and generational divide, Flor de Toloache set out to create a new type of musical group that represents and empowers women.
Based in New York City, Flor de Toloache is often gigging three nights a week or more in clubs, theaters, churches and events around the area. The band’s name comes from the toloache flower, which is a moonflower that opens up at night and has been used in love potions since ancient Aztec times in Mexico.
Shae Fiol, founding member of Flor de Toloache, was born into a culturally mixed family of Cuban and American heritage. Shae is known for her incredible vocal talent and songwriting skills.
Mireya I. Ramos is of Dominican and Mexican descent, and is a violinist, vocalist, composer and arranger. She founded Flor de Toloache in 2008. Her inspiration is her dad, who was a mariachi and would take her to watch him sing at his gigs and at restaurants when she was growing up.
Julie “Jewls” Acosta is Dominican, and was trained as a classical trumpeter. She is able to play many different trumpet styles from latin, mariachi, soul, jazz, rock and pop.
Eunice “Lilo” Aparicio has been playing the guitarron since the age of seven, and provides more than 25 percent of the sound and melody of Flor de Toloache.
The group played in Humboldt State University’s Van Duzer Theater on Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, as part of their Day Of The Dead Tour.
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KHSU must find a new temporary home
By Geneva Peppars
Local radio station KHSU is set to temporarily relocate from its broadcasting station in the Theatre Arts Building. The building is undergoing construction to make sure it is fit to stand an earthquake. A staggering $7.6 million will be allocated from bond and CSU funding to start the project this summer. The Theater Arts building will operate normally through the end of this semester and work will begin this summer, according to Jarad Petroske HSU public affair specialist. HSU is still in the process of sorting out where classes will move, but for the rest of the semester it’s business as usual.
However, the third floor of the Theatre Arts Building has been home to KHSU since 1960. KHSU is a noncommercial public radio station licensed to Humboldt State. Unlike classes, there is no summer vacation for KHSU. All day, seven days a week, KHSU is broadcasting to about 135,000 listeners. David Reed, KHSU Development Director & Interim Station Manager, explained that he has been told the project may take up to a year, but that won’t stop the airwaves from broadcasting from the radio station, it just may be from a few different locations.
“It will be hard, it will be fun, it will be an adventure,” Reed said.
Reed said the station will transition from three studios in the Theater Arts building to two temporary studios in Gist Hall and Wagner House.
Vinyls, satellite equipment and what Reed called the “brains of the studio”will stay on the third floor. The “brains” are the racks of equipment the station needs to be able to receive audio signals by satellite from NPR, automate local programming and stream over the internet. One of the biggest challenges of the transition is finding a home for the 25,000 cds in their music library that is accessible at all times to the over 90 staff, students interns and community volunteers.
Kevin Sanders, chief engineer for KHSU, explains that consolidating three studios to just two smaller ones could potentially affect scheduling issues. Although he is still waiting on the final word from facilities management, he does know that one studio will always be on air and the other will be strictly for production purposes. The way the studios are set up now, broadcasters are able to switch all studios from production to on air, which creates lots of space to pre-record and automate late night shows.
The new studios may not block outside noise as well as the old one, but Reed doesn’t believe listeners will notice a change in sound. “You know they might hear an occasional leaf blower,” Reed said. “But I am keeping happy thoughts.”
The current projected move date for the radio station is June 1. , two weeks before the KHSU June Pledge drive. Although the details have yet to be finalized, one thing is for certain KHSU will remain across the airwaves throughout Northwest California and Southern Oregon.