Hails Creative Cauldron’s New ‘Oliver Twist’
Editor,
Last Saturday night I attended the Opening Night “Oliver Twist” at the Creative Cauldron. What a magnificent play to come out the Cauldron’s Learning Theater Workshop.
This original stage adaptation of Dickens’s novel reaches into the darkness of the Dickensian workshop, made both bleak and real through Artistic Director Laura Hull’s vision. It is perfectly realized in the set and costume design by Margie Jervis as though Dickens had penned a contemporary graphic novel. Co-Director Matt Conner’s score carries the play from aching sadness of Oliver’s mother’s death to the triumphant optimism realized in Mr. Brownlow’s salvation of Oliver.
Full kudos to the three professional actors who brought their strength to the multiple adult roles but the greatest applause is truly given to this young ensemble company that came together seven weeks ago in the Learning Theater Workshop. These 17 young actors range in age from 6 to 14; some are veterans of earlier workshop productions. On stage they pull your heart a hundred ways and I am amazed at the range of emotion they displayed in this play — sad and heavy themes that are almost unimaginable in 21st Century Falls Church. Yet the Workshop has imbued them with the talent that makes them believable children of despair. The rousing final song, “Take it from Me”, gives these young actors a redemptive voice that we are all celebrating as the play ends. What a play!
Jon A. Wiant
Falls Church
Charges FCNP Unbalanced in Election Report
Editor,
The Falls Church News-Press endorsement for Barack Obama is quite evident, and is the paper’s editorial prerogative. However, you still have an obligation to cover the news fairly, as you promise each week when you print your Platform.
I think you failed in this regard in your coverage of two election-related events in the Nov 1-7 Edition. There were two articles and two letters to the editor covering the defacing of Obama campaign signs in Falls Church.
By contrast, you devoted three sentences to to Rep. Jim Moran’s son resigning from his father’s campaign after being caught on video giving tips on how to conduct voter fraud. You also declined to mention that Patrick Moran told the undercover reporter that an attorney from either the Obama campaign or the Democratic National Committee would defend him if he were caught. You then dismissed this incident by stating that it “is not expected to change the outcome of the veteran Moran’s race for an 11th term. . .”
Although the proliferation of campaign signs is a blight on our community, in my opinion, defacing or stealing them is deserving of condemnation. But which act is more significant, and therefore deserving of greater coverage?
If the New York Times publishes “All the news that’s fit to print,” the FCNP prints all the news that fits your political preference.
Collin Agee
Falls Church
GOP Chair Assails ‘Sign Wars’ in Region
Editor,
Stealing or defacing political signs is not a harmless prank. The perpetrators go beyond immaturity to illegality. Letters in the November 2 News-Press pointed out how two Falls Church citizens were deeply and rightly offended to have their Obama signs stolen or vandalized. After all, it does take a bit of courage and leadership to display your political choices in your front yard. To have those choices mocked and destroyed is an affront to everyone’s free speech.
This year, with the intensity of the elections, more signs were stolen or defaced than usual. Just outside Falls Church City, some homeowners found their Romney-Ryan signs being stolen regularly. The homeowners took black garbage bags, painted “STOLEN” on them and put them up to replace the Romney-Ryan signs. Those signs tended not to vanish in the night. In Falls Church, one high schooler took 18 Romney-Ryan signs from his family’s neighbors. How do I know? The youngster leaned the pilfered signs against the garage beside his home and another neighbor spotted them and alerted us. The youngster’s father was not amused. Some Romney supporters decided it was a good idea to obscure Obama signs near the Metro stations by placing Romney signs an inch or so in front of and behind the Obama signs. If caught, were they going to say that, oh no, they did not remove any Obama signs? Huh? That isn’t ingenuity. That’s mindlessness with a malicious streak.
Taking or defacing signs is wrong no matter who does it or what party’s or candidate’s signs are removed. Our neighbors of all political persuasions deserve better. To all the warriors of the sign wars: Grow up.
Ken Feltman, Chair
Falls Church City Republican Committee
Letters to the Editor may be submitted to letters@fcnp.com or via our online form here. Letters should be limited to 350 words and may be edited for content, clarity and length. To view the FCNP’s letter and submission policy, please click here.
