Chamber theater, The Long Valley, and performance

A picturesque run up the Monterey bike trail set the mood for today's meanderings. Moving southward past Lover's Point into Pacific Grove, a former haunt of Steinbeck and his first wife Carol Henning, a coastal network (a dream network, really) of sandy pathways navigate the outskirts of the tidal coast. The azure pacific, to the uninitiated, is truly a sight to behold; transparent pools bordered with countless algae covered boulders frame the littoral landscape. Monterey sea lions, unlike (at least to my own memory) their San Francisco brethren, beach themselves on various rocky extrusions. Some of the lions, perched on small slabs or platforms, seem frozen or caught in the throes of rigor mortis.

Running further, I encountered a placard commemorating the site of songwriter John Denver's tragic plane crash:

The institute's classroom component today found us reviewing the stories of The Long Valley in great depth with author/professor Chris Fink, who recently published his own serialized novel The Farmer's Almanac. Chris walked us through a variety of pedagogical techniques useful in teaching and analyzing short stories. The content of Chris' lecture and the materials reviewed provided ample fodder for engaging discussion in our first sit-down seminar.

Our evening session was spent with Dr. Matt Spangler (of SJSU) who continued to explore the notion of "chamber theater," a technique not at all unlike chamber orchestral arrangements -- small, focused, and intentionally intimate adaptations of literature with interesting narrative interplay (a re-injection of narrative voice and the abstract bifurcation of the internal/external selves of primary characters). Small groups broke out to interpret selections of Steinbeck's oeuvre creatively; my group chose to adapt a selection from The Harness, a selection from The Long Valley. The group presentations were inspiring to watch, participate in, and review during discussion.

Tomorrow -- Of Mice and Men.