From country to pop-punk, the entertainment stage at the Grubstakes Community Fair on Saturday, May 26th, will have a little bit of something for everyone.

Immediately after the parade which starts down Twentynine palms highway at 10:00am, the Z107.7 Mobile DJ will take the stage and play adult contemporary hits. The Z107.7 Mobile DJ is a service that “brings the party to you.” Playing all genres of music, they offer both large and small state-of-the art sound systems and professional radio DJ’s for weddings, school dances, private parties, and other special events.

Following the Z107.7 Mobile DJ will be Mosey Bravo, an all-original pop rock trio that transcends rock genres with catchy tunes and a big vocal and guitar sound that easily connects with audiences. The music melds British pop, American soul and folk music with reggae and hard rock rhythms. Mosey Bravo is led by vocalist, composer and guitarist Michael Callan, who is responsible for crafting the band’s style and sound. His probing lyrics address the social and political forces of our time. Callan has played with George Harrison and performed in Chuck Berry’s band. He also performs as a solo artist and acoustic fingerpick guitar soloist. The group includes Daniel Boening on electric bass and Efrain Diaz on percussion.

Kayla’s Little Dance Academy is a brand new dance program that just started at the Joshua Tree community center. The Academy offers classes in hip-hop, ballet, jazz, cheer, lyrical, and Polynesian. KLDA’s goal is to provide a fun, non-competitive environment for kids to dance and express themselves.

The first headliner is local favorite Kristina Quigley. Quigley cannot remember a time when she wasn’t a singer. She was raised in a trucking family, and from a young age she would travel with them all over the country singing for people at truck stops with her karaoke machine.Beginning at age 15, Quigley sang at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace every weekend, where her grandmother, Harriet, helped her hone her skills as a professional singer. In the summers, based out of Oregon, Kristina traveled around the U.S. singing at county fairs, rodeos, coffee houses, and private parties. During those traveling years, she recorded with the band Cracker on their album Kerosene Hat.Of the numerous singing contests Quigley has entered, she has never lost one. When she was 19, she entered an international singing contest in Branson, Missouri, that went on for 11 months, and won.Quigley has been in many major concerts, sharing the stage with country greats: Meryl Haggard, Don Williams, Barbara Mandrell, Bill Monroe, Paulette Carlson + Hwy 101, Charlie Daniels, and the Osmonds.

Rob Watkins (pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Yucca Valley) is an award-winning ventriloquist and illusionist. He was most recently voted Audience Favorite at the McCallum Theater Open Call 2011, as well as the grand prize winner. His shows are a blend of mayhem and mystery with clean comedy suitable for the whole family. He has performed at a number of comedy venues, including the Improv on Melrose in Hollywood and is a regular performer at the Hollywood Magic Castle.

Joel Daniels recently left the United States Marine Corps where he played in the Twentynine Palms Marine Base Band. In a fun and eclectic half hour, he will be playing bagpipes to rock music. Daniels recently led the Survivors’ Lap for the Relay For Life.

The second headliner of the day is the pop-punk band, Forever Came Calling, with a wide following from Twentynine Palms. This will be their last local performance before they leave on an extended tour. The band was the focus of a 2010 documentary about “No Room for Rock Stars: the Vans Warped Tour” that was shown at the Sundance Film Festival and in Los Angeles. Last year the band signed a contract with Pure Noise Records and has been confirmed to play Vans Warped Tour in 2013. The current lineup of Forever Came Calling includes John Swaba on bass, Bryce Esquivel on drums, Joe Candelaria on guitar and vocals and Ron Grieger on guitar.

Web site of Yuca alley just click?

 THE SCHEDULE:11:00 -11:30  Z107.7 Mobile DJ (Adult Contemporary)

11:30 -12:30  Mosey Bravo (Michael Callan, original rock)

12:30 – 1:00  Kayla’s Little Dance Studio performance (children’s dance)

1:00 – 1:30    Chamber Parade Awards

1:30 – 2:00    Town Beard Contest

2:00 – 3:00    Kristina Quigley in Concert (Pop/Country, Headliner #1)

3:00 – 3:30    Rob Watkins (Comedy, Ventriloquist)

3:30 – 4:00    Joel Daniel (Rock Bagpipes)

4:00 – 5:00    Forever Came Calling (Pop-Punk, Headliner #2)

When “The Heiress”, the drama adapted and written by Ruth and August Goetz made its Broadway debut at the Biltmore Theatre in 1947, America was a different society.  Based on the nineteenth century novel “Washington Square” by Henry James, the selection of “The Heiress”, as the penultimate production of the Pasadena Playhouse 201l-2012 Season is somewhat puzzling.   Under the very talented artistic direction of Sheldon Epps, the playhouse has been successful in becoming a major Regional Theatre over the last ten years.  Epps very rarely strays far from delivering the type of productions his audience say they want to see.   “The Heiress”, however, is an old chestnut of a selection that comes out of the blue and from another era.

The story set in 1850, revolves around and recounts the conflict between a drab, achingly shy, obedient daughter and her brilliant, unfeeling, domineering father.

Dr. Austin Sloper (Richard Chamberlain), a rich, and highly successful physician lives in the wealthy Washington Square section of New York with his daughter Catherine (a tall Heather Tom).  Catherine is a sweet-natured young woman who is a great disappointment to her martinet-like father, being physically plain, and he believes dull in terms of personality and intellect.  She is a perfect candidate to become an old maid.  His sister Lavinia (Julia Duffy), a meddlesome and gossipy woman is the only other member of the household, except for Maria (Elizabeth Tobias), the maid.

Into Catherine’s sheltered life comes Morris Townsend (a mid-height) Steve Combs, whom she has met at a party.  A powerful attraction draws them together with Catherine, all too quickly, announcing that she and Morris are in love and are engaged.  Dr. Sloper quickly realizes the powerful attraction that has drawn the handsome and charming Morris to his Catherine is her fortune.  He thwarts all attempts by Catherine and Morris to convince him that her love for Morris (from her viewpoint) and his intentions toward Catherine (from his viewpoint) are true and honorable.  Ultimately, Sloper just states that Morris is merely a fortune hunter and not a suitable marriage prospect for her.

The young pair, however, have their allies and friends: Gigi Bermingham as Elizabeth Almond, Anneliese Van der Pol as Marion Almond, Jill Van Velzer as Mrs. Montgomery, and Chris Reinacher as Arthur Townsend, all lending solid support from behind the scenes but, in the long run, to no avail.  The heavy lifting in this production must come from its three principals.

“The Heiress”, staged and glacially directed by Damaso Rodriguez, which fails to engage is an evening at the theatre that teeters between boring and dull, and is an opportunity missed when it comes to Chamberlain’s much anticipated appearance as Dr. Sloper.  He still has the voice and the looks, but the performance is a study in slow-motion acting.  However, it’s not all Chamberlain’s fault.   Even Henry James never really cared for the novel he authored.  The story is pedestrian and predictable.  It took the 1949 movie starring Olivia de Havilland, and the great Sir Ralph Richardson to make the story compelling and successful to the public; winning an Academy Award for de Havilland, as Best Actress.

The beautiful set design by John Iacovelli allows for plenty of space for the actors to work.  Perhaps, a canted, offset stage design would have allowed for a more interesting visual focus for the audience instead of the head-on view?  Also, I so wanted to see at least a piece of that door that Morris keeps pounding on, just before Catherine ascends the staircase. Ah, well.

Looking on the bright side, Brian Gale’s lighting design (no pun intended) and Leah Piehl’s costumes are mood inducing and a visual delight, respectively.

For ticket information call the box office at 626-356-7529

“The Heiress” at The Pasadena Playhouse. Photos: Jim Cox.

This  is insanity to spend almost $20,000 on team-building. City council people are not elected to be in sync to have one opinion and all goodie, goodie. If that was true, we would just need one person on the dais. They are not a football team!

Large ticket items, how crazy they seem to be, are getting approved with no problem. Few hundred dollars, for some worthy cause, are rejected, with the argument, there is no money.

Consultants’ fees of all sorts, have cost the city over a million dollars in the last few years. The Vortex guy, took over 1/2 million, nothing was done with it. None of the money has been paid to local businesses, which could have done the task cheaper and better, plus it would have done the city’s folks some good.

The city owes DLNews morally (Music Festival) $6,500; it was promised  from the highest level. We have always only reported the positive site about our city, it has not done us any good. No paying advertisers, all freebies, that is why the Valley Breeze, and others have failed.  They muzzled the Desert Star.

All the council-members and the City Hall team are basically, wonderful honest human beings, but as soon as they get elected, and sit on the dais, things change. They treat their constituents like children, like we cannot decide on our own, by redacting information, secrets, etc. Some of these city leaders, are getting paid the highest salaries in the State, for that matter, in the Country.

Every so often a rare theatrical treat comes along.  Mostly, it takes the form of a small, blisteringly comedic play like “God of Carnage”, or a huge canvas effort like “War Horse”.  Both examples are well deserved.  Now, from the pen and incredible talent of Hershey Felder and a co-authored book by the gifted concert pianist Mona Golabeck, comes a collaboration made in heaven  –  “The Pianist of Willesden Lane”.

Many times, real life stories trump fiction when it comes to delivering powerful emotions and moments on a stage.  In this world premiere production of “The Pianist of Willesden Lane”, currently on the boards at the Geffen Playhouse’s Audrey Skirball Kenis Theatre, there are moments of sheer brilliance on the part of Mona Golabeck’s performance.  Miss Golabeck is a recognized world-class concert pianist.  What probably isn’t known, by many is that she is an accomplished actor as well. She portrays all of the characters and also performs all of the piano pieces.

The show is a one-woman tribute and homage to her mother, concert pianist Lisa Jura.  If one is a lover of classical music, with emphasis on the piano, attendance at a performance of “The Pianist of Willesden Lane” is a must see.

Set in 1938 Vienna, the musical-play tells the story of Lisa Jura, a young, fourteen-year old Jewish pianist who is dreaming about her concert debut at the famous Musikverein concert hall.  But with the issuing of new ordinances under the Nazi regime, everything for Lisa changes, except for her love of music and the pursuit of her dream.  Featuring some of the world’s most beloved piano music played live, “The Pianist” is performer Mona Golabeck’s true family story, chronicling hope, survival, and how through the darkest of times, music has the power to help us survive.

Under the watchful and creative eye of play director Hershey Felder, a world-class concert pianist himself, and the acknowledged master of the one performer, musical storytelling genre, this inspirational life story of Lisa Jura, comes lovingly alive in a bravura and poignant performance by her daughter Mona Golabeck.

Music has the singular and unique power to galvanize emotions in a concert audience where each person is deeply and emotionally involved in the performance.  Add the elements of a live performer, the onstage concert of selections by the great composers, plus the placement of visual graphics projected on the set at key moments throughout the show, and one has a performance that will be remembered for a long, long, time.

The intimacy of the Kenis stage at the Geffen is the perfect venue to enjoy the music of Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Schubert, and Grieg’s piano concerto wonderfully performed by Golabeck.

The technical credits for the production are also first-rate.  Scenic co-designers David Buess & Trevor Hay provide a space that is fully utilized by Golabeck without blocking a full view of the stage at all times.  Lighting designer Christopher Rynne’s proper mood lighting enhances the onstage focus, and the excellent sound design by Erik Carstensen, ably supports the play’s many story elements.  Co-projection designers Greg Sowizdrzal and Andrew Wilder, enrich the overall visual look of the production, not only with still photographs, but with live newsreel footage of the period, as well.  The production is a true collaborative effort.

“The Pianist of Willesden Lane” was scheduled to close on June 10^th, but due to popular demand and brisk ticket sales, this wonderful show has now been extended to June 26^th.  Don’t Miss It !!   For reservations and ticket information call the box office at 310-208-5454.