'Burgh Vivant

by Gina McKlveen

Every year the locals of Ligonier, Pennsylvania light-heartedly quip that George Washington must have signed a treaty with Mother Nature when Fort Ligonier was built to always provide perfect fall foliage, crisp cool temperatures, and clear skies during the town’s annual Fort Ligonier Days festival. This year, forecasts show Mother Nature is once again expected to hold up her end of the bargain during the annual three-day festival which will begin at 9:00 AM Friday, October 14^th and end on Sunday, October 16^th at 5:00 PM.

Over the course of these three days, the town expects to draw in crowds larger than 100,000 visitors to enjoy its over 200 juried craft vendors, more than 30 food vendors, annual Saturday parade, 5K run/walk, and live entertainment. At the forefront of this year’s Fort Ligonier Days festival, however, is its history. Jack McDowell, Chairman of the Fort Ligonier Days Committee, announced the 2022 theme of “Honoring Historical Traditions,” which includes both the history of Fort Ligonier and the traditions that locals and visitors to Ligonier have made over the years.

The decision to focus on the history of a place and the traditions passed down from generation to generation is something artists in this area are acutely trained to depict and preserve. Moreover, understanding these histories and traditions is a large component of the cultural preservation efforts among museums, public monuments, and other historic sites in our modern era that are increasingly conscious of the generational impact and legacy they wish to chart into the future.

A brief history of Fort Ligonier

The road which today connects Pittsburgh to Ligonier was forged many years prior, in the 18^th century, as a part of the British military effort to eventually overtake Fort Duquesne from French forces during the French and Indian War. At the time, two simultaneous military efforts were underway, each led by two separate British generals, General Edward Braddock of the unsuccessful Braddock Expedition, and General John Forbes of the successful Forbes Expedition. As the British military traversed across Pennsylvania through its thick wooded wilderness, they built a series of forts established at key 50-mile intervals. Fort Ligonier was the last of these forts built in the late summer of 1758 before the British eventually captured Fort Duquesne, completing the Forbes Expedition, later that same year. During those late summer months into early fall, British soldiers continued to build up the Fort, adding storehouses, a hospital, and trenches.

On October 12, 1758, while Fort Ligonier was still being built, a militia of French forces from Fort Duquesne attacked the British soldiers there, resulting in a four-hour battle that the British eventually won, but not without suffering numerous casualties. This Battle of Fort Ligonier is what Fort Ligonier Days seeks to commemorate every October.

Creating a fort for the arts

Each Fort Ligonier Days, the authentically reconstructed Fort Ligonier welcomes visitors during its normal hours of operation to witness historical battle reenactments including several firings of the cannons. Visitors can also explore the recently renovated museum, including its esteemed Fort Ligonier Art Gallery which features portraits of former British monarchs, local landscapes, and historical paintings.

For Mary Manges, the Executive Director of Fort Ligonier, these opportunities to experience the Fort are intended to be accessible to everybody—past, present, and future generations.

“Not everyone thinks history is interesting, so we want to give that opportunity to see it in a different light. It’s not the textbook version that they learned in school, it’s so much richer and deeper than that and more interesting than just the one paragraph you read about.”

“Anytime we can instill a passion for history, whether it’s art history or some other area in history, just to spark that interest and get someone to see there’s so much more beyond history class and a textbook.”

She sees the purpose of Fort Ligonier, and Fort Ligonier Days by extension, as two-fold: being both a place to educate people who already have an intense interest in history and engaging those who may not have the same passion but can still learn something new as well as being an economic partner in the local community.

Although Manges does not lead tours as often as she used to in her new role, she says focusing on the organization’s “why” helps keep her grounded. “I want these kids to know this is also a career path. Places like Fort Ligonier are great places to work someday, and they can pursue their passion and make a living doing that.”

One Ligonier-born artist, Chas Fagan, who’s historical painting, Flash Point, is now included among the Fort Ligonier Museum’s world-class collection, remembers his early years attending Fort Ligonier Days with fond and influential memories.

“Fort Ligonier Days had a tremendous variety of artists that were inspirational for me.” Specifically, Fagan recalls seeing an artist who created artworks using an old engraving technique called scratchboard when he was about 10-years-old. “He was amazing. I’d never seen anything like it. Never seen it before in my life and it was just wonderful.” Later in his career, Fagan was searching for a new, but old inspired-look for a series of magazine illustrations. He remembered the technique he saw in his childhood at Fort Ligonier Days and ended up making several scratchboard pieces, “all because some guy who had a booth in Ligonier.”

Now, Fagan himself is the guy at Fort Ligonier inspiring the next generation of young artists and historians.

“Art was always something I liked as a kid. I liked to draw. I loved the pencil. Somehow, I just knew it. It was just in my head. Then you start growing up and try to be serious.” So, Fagan found himself enrolled in university, earned his degree in Soviet Studies, and studied in Leningrad in 1988, which was a challenging experience that altered his professional path.

After returning to the States, he began creating political cartoons that opened the door to his professional art career. In addition to political cartoons, Fagan is also a portrait painter, a landscape painter, and a sculptor. He has created portraits of the 45 prior Presidents, the official White House Portrait of First Lady Barbara Bush, and the official portrait of Mother Teresa at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His sculptural works include historical figures like his Ronald Regan statute housed in the U.S. Capitol building and his Rosa Parks statute in the Washington National Cathedral.

“I am that guy that digs and has a ball diving into the historical detail and trying to bring some of that out. If it’s a sculpture, I try to slip some visual clues in the sculpture that no one will find until they do. Because I love fleshing out that story.”

The story depicted by Fagan’s Flash Point painting is an incident that occurred just a month after the Battle of Fort Ligonier, on November 12, 1758, where two groups of British soldiers, unable to see through the dense fog, began firing at one another because they mistook each other for the enemy. A young George Washington, realizing the soldiers were shooting at their own men, rode his horse through the crossfires to stop the groups from firing at one another.

The level of detail in Flash Point, Fagan calls the “basic core facts,” some of which come from George Washington’s own letters that are a part of the Fort Ligonier Museum and were the result of a decades long research endeavor, lead in a large part by Fagan’s father.

“I had a huge advantage because of my dad. This was a story that stuck with him for decades.”

While the history of this incident was generally known, Fagan’s father kept digging and collecting information from all sources including historians from colleges and the military to figure out the details. Eventually, he discovered in the clearing of the woods, the original Forbes Road.

“To physically be there is one thing, to hear of it and see where it should be on a map, but then to walk it, walk all the way down into the valley and visualize the progression of the events of that day in 1758 and trying to imagine, ‘What would happen if?’ Having witnessed that, I was able to ride in the wake of all the discoveries and the history and if I didn’t know the history all I’d have to do is call dad.”

Although Fagan’s father contributed to the groundwork in discovering the history of Fagan’s painting, the artistic development of Flash Point was guided by all the old paintings Fagan would see displayed in museums across Europe and the United States, including “The Painter of the Revolution” John Trumbull, who could summarize entire battles in rather small, historically accurate paintings. Before Flash Point, Fagan’s historical paintings were mostly Native American scenes with not a lot of figures, so the challenge for this painting was how to populate the painting in a way that engages the audience.

“Compositionally the challenge is to tell the story, to show the story, but still have people get involved in it. The goal with this was more to engage the viewers, especially to bring the younger boy or girl, to bring them into the scene.”

Much like his father before him, Fagan is focused on sharing his passion for history and the arts with the younger generations. He remembers during one of his visits back at Fort Ligonier an energetic young boy buzzed through the Fort Ligonier Art Gallery and promptly stopped in front of Flash Point, completely amazed staring up at George Washington on his horse riding through the crossfires. “He was stuck there for the longest time. It was the greatest personal reward because that’s exactly what I wanted. If that can be the legacy of the painting, I’ll be happy.”

Manges says that reaction, especially from young people and school groups, is one she hears all the time. “They are taken away by it. They are just amazed. It’s so fun to hear that repeatedly because if an 8th grader is getting that and is having that reaction to that giant painting on the wall, that’s impressive. And that’s something a textbook is not going to do. You could have that same painting in a textbook, but it’s not going to impact that kid in the same way as coming to a museum and seeing it in real life.”

Lasting impression for local vendors

The museum at Fort Ligonier is not the only place to experience the arts at Fort Ligonier Days. A number of local artists will be featured vendors in the various locations around the town and their works similarly leave lasting impressions.

Zack Landry, who graduated from Ligonier Valley High School in 2014 and started his own art business, White Sage & Sapphire, in 2017 will be returning to Fort Ligonier Days as a vendor for his third year.

“I never intended to become a jeweler, it just kind of fell into my lap. I was always the kid that was out collecting rocks and crystals. Now I’m just a bigger kid that still collects rocks except I just make things with them.” The things Landry makes include an array of earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and rings all handmade meticulously and curated personally by the artist.

“Right now, I’m working on bicolored sapphire stackers. There are some really soft muted fall colors like oranges and yellows. And because they are bicolored, they have some banding to them where there’s multiple shades within a stone. They feel like fall.”

Having grown up in the area, Fort Ligonier Days is also a nostalgic time for the 26-year-old business owner. “For me, Fort Days is the start of fall. It’s the weekend the trees all magically change and there’s magic in the air.” As one of the festival’s younger vendors, Landry remarks how as a high school student interested in the arts, he would have loved to see someone like him with a booth because he felt continually dissuaded from pursuing a career in the arts. Now, he has former classmates supporting his business and is even getting recognized for his work in public. “Last year felt like I was stepping into my own. While it was just my second year there and we had a gap year because of COVID, I had multiple people that came back and were repeat shoppers from 2019 to 2021.”

“This year, I’ll have some items with 14 karat gold accents, so this will be the first time I’m doing a large mixed metal release. The statement I tell everyone who comes into my booth is that all my metals will be sterling silver or 14 karat gold-filled, so customers are investing in a piece that is not going to irritate their skin and something that could potentially last a lifetime with the proper care. With that, everything in my booth is a natural gemstone as well. A large portion of what I use has not been dyed, treated, or enhanced.”

Landry emphasizes the physical properties of metal and stone that do not decompose, which make his pieces capable of being passed down for generations. “One of my favorite things about jewelry is the storytelling that goes along with it. There are themes in jewelry that transcend cultures and transcend generations. You think of people who have their grandma’s diamond and take it to have it reset into something new, they reconnect sentimental value to pieces. I love that my story becomes your story and then gets to live on.”

Andrew and Rachel Skovira, like Landry, have spent the past five years growing and developing their family owned and operated business, Mountain Top Engraving. The Skoviras are a husband-and-wife team who grew up in Western Pennsylvania and are familiar with region’s craft festivals like Mount Pleasant’s annual Glass Festival. The past few years Mountain Top Engraving has carved out its spot at the Ligonier Country Market selling personalized products like mugs, magnets, cutting boards, earrings, signs, décor and so much more, but this year will be the couple’s business debut at the Fort Ligonier Days festival.

Andrew is a seasoned tradesman. Having worked in manufacturing plants that deal with all kinds of materials from glass to steel, he is well acquainted with the mechanical operations of the business. “I worked with machines for my full-time job, and now I’m in an office all day. Neither of these involve a ton of creativity, so this business is my creative outlet. A way to decompress after a long day at work.”

Like many family businesses, Mountain Top Engraving is operated out of the couple’s home with a set up comparable to most professional workshops, but with the convenience of working from home. This set up allows the whole family to get involved, including the couple’s three young kids, who are learning entrepreneurship at an early age because of their parents.

“The kids love to get involved and help at the markets. They’ll help Rachel paint some of the magnets and our oldest is learning how to run the machines.”

For Andrew and Rachel, the business is also about showing their kids how to continue to pursue their passions.

When reflecting on how much Mountain Top Engraving has evolved in the past five years, Andrew gets more excited about the direction the business is headed. “You never know where the next project might come from. But I hope we’ll do more commissions for businesses. I’ve been enjoying working with our glassware engraving and it’d be nice to do more commissions like that in the future.”

Jack and Marian Paluh of Jack Paluh Arts, Inc. are another husband-and-wife duo making their debut at the Fort Ligonier Days festival this year. However, Jack and Marian have been in the business of making and selling art for nearly 40 years. Still, the couple is always looking for new venues and opportunities to exhibit their works.

“I’ve been painting 43 years, full time.” Jack says. He started his career at a trade school and after graduation he started to take plein-air painting courses with other artists from all over the country. “I would travel out West and plein-air paint with those groups. We still travel, so I’ll paint ocean scenes, too. But when it comes to home, I bring works with the landscape that’s here with the hardwood forest and wildlife.”

Depicting home for Jack means capturing those places in Plein-air. “I am an outdoors man. I am a hunter and I live here in Pennsylvania, so I try to depict my environment where I live with everything that I put on canvas. In Plein air you see colors better with your eye than with photographs.”

Marian adds that she paints with Jack and is amazed at his ability to capture a scene in his paintings. “It’s amazing how he builds his paintings dark to light and how he sees color and how color relates to each other, how some colors will bring out other colors. His is a talent that has been honed over the years.”

For Jack, “It’s a lifelong career. I want to paint until I can’t paint anymore. I enjoy it. I love it. It’s been a blessing and a wonderful job.”

No matter the age or the stage of life or career, the history and the arts have something for everyone.

– GM

For more information on Fort Ligonier Days, including an event schedule visit: https://www.fortligonierdays.com/

 

Reviewed by Dr. Tiffany Raymond, PhD

Little Lake Theatre Company ascends with their production of “Captain Louie Jr. ” Anthony Stein adapted this musical from Ezra Jack Keats’ book “The Trip,” with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Little Lake’s former artistic director, the stunningly fabulous Jena Oberg, flies high in directing this youth production. Oberg stages this production in partnership with the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. The entire production is performed in both American Sign Language and spoken English, and Oberg creatively unites the two youth groups, achieving an effortless flow.

The play centers on Louie (Roderick Mihoerck) who has just moved and is facing all the challenges of new kid life: missing and longing for his old home and friends while worrying about finding new friends and his place in a new town. We’ve all been Louie at multiple points, trying to figure out where we fit, whether that’s from a childhood move, starting college, beginning a new job, or joining a new friend group.

Mihoerck is deaf and communicates via ASL as well as via his favorite toy, a plane named Big Red (Madeline Dalesio). Dalesio provides the voice for Mihoerck’s signing, and the two of them unite in seamless harmony that mirrors that of a child with his favorite toy. Mihoerck never misses a beat, and his red-headed Louie sharply commands the theatre without saying a word. Dalesio’s stunning voice soars to perfection in the musical numbers. Big Red transports Louie to his old neighborhood for a Halloween night of trick or treating with his old friends.

 

Oberg’s creativity is compelling. She pairs speaking and signing kids for dual casting of roles like Archie (spoken by Colin Bozick and signed by Ben Vinzani), a friend from Louie’s old neighborhood. Bozick and Vinzani complement each other perfectly in their portrayal of Archie. Older kids who can speak and sign perform a single role. Roberta (Ava Arnold) signs as she speaks and sings, and her signing adds a fascinating visual to her performance.

Oberg cannot be praised enough. During the production, she was sitting on the floor facing the stage and signing to the kids to ensure they were all following along. However, she was clearly there for enhanced comfort as the kids were so well-rehearsed that her presence was more security blanket than instruction.

Carly Trimble-Long’s set was appropriately homespun sweet with kid-painted clouds, and prop designer Chris Martin’s Big Red plane was exactly what a kid would imagine.

With an ensemble cast, Oberg takes advantage of simple costume changes like gloves and finger lights. These elements from costume designer Jessica Kavanaugh all draw attention to the signing hands.

As I was leaving the theatre with my 10-year-old, another boy of roughly the same age ran up and asked if my son was in the play. Before we could utter a reply, he rushed on saying that he “loved it, and it made him cry” and then dashed across the theatre. We all know kids are honest critics. They lack the trappings of artifice and filters that make us adults speak more circumspectly.

This moment of pure heartfelt sentiment from one stranger to another that was sparked by the community of theatre makes one unfailingly hopeful and confident in a better future. Just as the deaf and speaking communities come together seamlessly to create a better together production, so too can the world positively evolve forward. A line in one of the final songs is “I’ll keep your smile inside me when I’m home again,” and one leaves the theatre smiling both inside and out, ready to climb aboard Big Red and ascend to a more inclusive future.

– TR
Captain Louie Jr. runs through October 9th at Little Lake Theatre. For more information and to purchase tickets to this unforgettable, one-of-a-kind show, please visit https://www.littlelake.org/captainlouiejr

by Dr. Tiffany Raymond, PhD

South Park Theatre takes on The 39 Steps, Patrick Barlow’s 2005 parodic adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film by the same name, which was based on a 1915 novel by John Buchan. The Hitchcock connection signals the production may be one of suspense, and that yields to truth. The 39 Steps proves classic Hitchcockian complete with plot twists as Richard Hannay (John Herrmann) is an innocent man on the run who’s not sure who to trust. When a stranger (Misty Wilds Challingsworth), who claims to be a spy, is murdered his apartment, events are set in motion. He’s unjustly accused of the crime and wanted for murder. Richard runs from the law to carry out her instructions, hoping to clear his name.

In his portrayal of Hannay, Herrmann perfectly embodies a sort of Inspector Clouseau haplessness, less the director of his own fate than a mostly lucky bystander. Herrmann is the only one of the four actors to play a single role, and director Lora Oxenreiter’s wise casting creates a strong quartet. Challingsworth very capably takes on the primary female roles, from the Russian-accented seductress spy to the stranger on the train.

Noah Kendall and Gavin Calgaro are both billed as Clowns. While often comic relief, that naming doesn’t do justice to the immense number of roles they take on. Both make it look effortless, despite the fact mere seconds sometimes elapse between roles with the presence of a hat or a quick pivot in direction signaling a character change. Wisely, Oxenreiter doesn’t let them rush through their roles, even those that are more physical comedy driven. Kendall and Calgaro’s many roles are made more impactful and memorable by the differentiation of each character through changes in costume, tone and/or physicality. The Clowns play women as well as men, reminding us of the artifice and fluidity of gender. Costume designer Annabel Lorence creates easy differentiators that complement the multitude of characters. With the flip of a wig, Challingsworth’s raven-tressed spy becomes a blonde train passenger.

Oxenreiter plays both director and set designer. Her strength is clearly as a director. While the small stage must accommodate a wide variety of settings, the mostly bare stage leaves little to center or capture one’s eye. It’s also a missed opportunity for lighting designer Eve Bandi to overlay some projections that could heighten the suspense and differentiate scene changes. Sound designer Bryce Jensen elicits laughter and lets us know early on that this version of Hitchcock bends to the comedic by inserting the Jeopardy theme music.

The geologic layers of adaptation that this production represents remind us of the malleability of the arts over time. A novel that’s now over a hundred years old turned Hitchcock film turned 21st century play. Hitchcock’s 1935 film came out after the creation and enforcement of Hollywood’s Hays Code that created censorship guidelines for the cinematic arts. Not only are the arts malleable, but the themes of trust and not knowing who to trust are just as relevant in 2022 with the easy spread of misinformation. The media’s broadcasted assumption of Hannay’s guilt and his efforts to clear his good name are just as timely and resonant today, if not more so.

The 39 Steps runs through October 8th at South Park Theatre. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit https://sites.google.com/…/sout…/south-park-theatre/home

– TKR

-Michael Buzzelli

In “What Kind of Woman” by Abbe Tannenbaum, an unexpected phone call from her estranged son, sends Nora (Virgina Ginny Wall Gruenert) into a state of panic. In the final moments of their first conversation in years, Nora invites her adult son and his wife to come to her very cluttered apartment in Chelsea.

During a DIY scroll through YouTube, Nora finds Anne (Abbe Tannenbaum), an actor and personal organizer, and Nora realizes it’s time for a deep clean. Anne undertakes an archeological excavation through Nora’s life, and, suddenly, every item in her life is divided into the keep or pitch piles. Nora is forced to give the keepers a definitive “Hell, yes,” or Anne sticks it in the donation bin.

The tiny apartment is crammed with junk, a trumpet, a feather boa, books, a one-eyed teddy bear named Walter and, most importantly, a bundle of hand-written letters. The letters are a treasure trove, Anne and Nora uncover twenty letters from the 1970s, when Nora worked at the Women’s Health and Abortion Project in Chelsea in the days when the medical procedure was illegal.

While working in New York City as an actual personal organizer, Tannenbaum, the playwright, found the letters in a client’s apartment. The story is a fictionalized account of that true-to-life experience.

There are a myriad of twists and turns in “What Kind of Woman,” and they’re not all pleasant, but the story borders on brilliant. It is a play about women’s reproductive rights. While the play was written several years ago, it seems prescient, but it is not a heavy-handed melodrama about a woman’s right to choose. Every time the play leads down a preachy, “On a very special episode of ‘Designing Women’” corridor, it veers off into new territory. As a playwright, Tannenbaum swerves deftly without judging her characters or their choices.

Gruenert brings an emotional gravitas to the production. She breathes Nora’s character into life. It is a powerful performance with a full range of emotions on display.

Tannenbaum’s Anne is joyful, wacky and a more sympathetic character. She does get to explore some darker moments, but she brings it back to comedy every time. One of laugh out loud moments in the play (and despite the subject matter there are quite a few) is watching Tannenbaum’s Anne attempting to escape a big, dark green garbage bag, hulking out of it in a fit of rage.

Tucker Topel’s set looks like it was transplanted to Carnegie from an episode of A & E “Hoarders.” The stage is stuffed with knick-knacks, tchotchkes, gewgaws, trinkets and trifles.

Stagehands swiftly removing items between scenes. Said scene changes are filled with interstitial video material from the alleged YouTubeification of Nora’s decluttering.

Director Kira Simring keeps the pace fast and increasingly fastidious. The show is guaranteed to spark more joy than a Marie Kondo special.

– MB

“What Kind of Woman” runs from September 23 to October 1 at the Carnegie Stage before moving off to the cell theatre in NYC from October 19 to November 19. Catch it here so you don’t have to go there. Off The Wall Productions at the Carnegie Stage, 25 W. Main, Carnegie, PA 15106. For more information and tickets, go to www.insideoffthewall.com

By Claire DeMarco

What is the relationship between 80-year-old seamstress Sylvia “Nana” (Lynne Martin Huber) and Dino (Andy Cornelius), an alleged mobster?

One of the following might apply:

1. 1. 1. They’re romantically involved!
      2. She sews some of his clothes.
      3. Nothing. Surely you jest?
      4. See the show and find out.

Nana is in Las Vegas with her best friend Vera (Ina Block). Engaged as a seamstress for Las Vegas entertainers, Nana anxiously waits for her granddaughter Bridget (Jill Buda) to arrive from New York for Bridget’s bridal shower.

Fiancé Tom (Nick Redford) remains in New York since he is new at his job as a NYPD detective. He promises Bridget that he won’t work too hard, and he’ll concentrate on writing their wedding vows while she’s away.

Tom, however, actually works for the FBI and is on his way to Las Vegas for an undercover job with his supervisor Jo (Renee Ruzzi-Kern). Their assignment is to investigate a case concerning Dino.

Bridget has no clue that Tom works for the FBI nor that he will be in Las Vegas. Tom gambles that he will succeed in keeping this secret.

Spoiler Alert: He doesn’t!

When all the characters find themselves in the same Las Vegas location, subterfuge is finally exposed, misdemeanors explained and innocent misunderstandings resolved.

Block is a treasure! Her delivery is matter of fact, direct, sarcastic and hilarious, reminiscent of “Golden Girls”’ Sophia. All of this is done while she’s dressed in sequins and flamboyant finery, at times while pushing a lighted walker.

Huber’s facial expressions and general movement enhance her comic delivery. Vocal delivery adds favorably to the mix.

As the play evolves, Buda transitions effectively from a rather quiet person into one more assertive.

Redford’s gymnastic movements highlight his role as an insecure, bumbling spy.

Cornelius shows us both the rough side of a mobster and the kinder human underneath that facade.

Lighting is critical and is used effectively to identify different action locations. With this small stage lighting seamlessly segues from one location to another.

This is a delightful farce meant simply to entertain and it does.

The answer to the question initially posed above is D.

Go see the show and find out!

Directed by Kathy Hawk.

“Nana Does Vegas” was written by Katherine DiSavino.

-CED

“Nana Does Vegas” is a production of Little Lake Theatre, 500 Lakeside Drive South, Canonsburg, Pa. It runs from September 22 through October 1. For more information, click here. https://www.littlelake.org/