Christmas in June. Fa la la la la la la la la!

We've been discussing all the exciting events surrounding our upcoming Dickens themed Christmas Feast (I know!  It's early, but these things take a ton of planning), and we came across the following history of the Christmas dragon. It's a little known story of a lost Christmas tradition discovered by MBTC company member Rhiannon McCullough.  We hop you enjoy it.

DRACONIS FESTIVIS FAMILIARIS

The tradition of the Christmas Dragon came to the United States from Holland, where farmers kept Dragons to dry the sodden bog land created through land reclamation making it arable.

It was Cornelius Vanderbilt I  (1794-1877).  The Commodore, who first popularized Dragons in the United States in the early eighteen hundreds.  Though they had been popular in the west after their utilization by Lewis and Clark in their exploration of the continent and their later adoption by settlers on the Oregon trail, as dragons rarely drown or develop dysentery.

The Commodore, later to found the new York Central railway, began by ferrying passengers across the New York Harbor with the family Dragon.  As the industrialization increased however and it became less and less pragmatic to keep a Dragon in Manhattan he switched to steamships creating a fleet of passenger ferries that earned him his nickname.  The Dragon however was still brought out on special occasions, particularly Christmas time.  When Cornelius' eldest son , William Henry Vanderbilt I (1821-1885) inherited the family business in 1877 he retained the Dragon as an exclusively holiday tradition.

It was Mrs. Caroline Astor (1830-1908) however who popularized the tradition of the Christmas Dragon in society when she exhibited not one but two small Frisian Dragons in her New York ballroom between Christmas and New Years of 1882.

The fashion of the Christmas dragon spread rapidly in high society and small domestic Dragons, nine or ten feet long, were displayed as part of gilded age holiday celebrations in both New York and San Francisco.  The Dragons served the duel purpose of entertaining guests and heating the spacious city mansions.

A ten foot female Dragon could be expected to consume no more than one ton of coal a day and the occasional virgin sacrifice, often a housemaid, making them much more efficient than other heating methods of the time.

In 1913 when income tax was introduced may prominent New York families discard their smaller summer houses and their now heavily taxed Dragons.  Though elaborate paper mache Dragons remained popular holiday centerpieces until the 1940s when paper rationing put an end to the tradition.  With the advent of the first world war the Dragons were put to work melting scrap for munitions.  However increasing industrialization and the growing scarcity of willing virgin sacrifice that came with the sexual revolution of the 1920s caused the dragons to become increasingly more difficult to maintain.  In 1933 in an effort to stimulate the economy of the depression and open more jobs for destitute workers president Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) sold the last remaining Dragons to Canada as part of the National Industrial Recovery Act.

The legacy of the christmas Dragon survives however and can still be seen today, in traditions such as chestnut roasting, and the giving of small brightly colored clay Dragons to children and the elderly on St. Ambrose Day.

-Dr. R. McCullough

Professor of Draconic Studies

St. George University

Find more of Rhiannon's incredible writings and art on her blog:  http://kaiserin83.blogspot.com/

Gearing Up For Summer One-Acts!

!Hola, amigos!  I don't know how to make an up-side-down exclamation point, so you're stuck with two regular ones.  Why greet you in espanol (same issue withe the tilde)?  Well, why not?  That's our attitude for this summer.  Why give you four spectacular one-act plays on the gorgeous lawn of the Newport Art Museum for an absurdly cheap price?  Well, why not?

We're beginning rehearsals on Friday for Oscar Willde's The Importance of Being Earnest, and we're preparing our own adaptation of Pyramus and Thisbe from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as two operettas by P. D. Q. Bach, Oedipus Tex and Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice.  Here's a sneak peek at what's to come in the form of our program notes for Earnest:

The Importance of Being Earnest

Program Notes

The last of Oscar Wilde's four major theatrical works, The Importance of Being Earnest has both delighted and baffled audiences since it first opened in 1895.  It is simultaneously one of the best-loved and least understood pieces of English drama, oddly enough because of its trivial nature.  When asked what the play meant, Wilde responded by saying, “That we should treat all trivial things very seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.”  That, indeed seems to sum up this play.

Cecily falls in love with “Earnest” before she ever meets him.  Gwendolyn doesn't care who she marries as long as his name is Earnest.  The village vicar doesn't have any problems with re-baptizing and re-christening two grown men (something that goes completely against religious practices)...And the list goes on.  Even the major character flaws seem trivial.  Algernon's greatest defect is his mild gluttony.  Scenes that revolve around cucumber sandwiches and muffins carry as much weight for Wilde as scenes about the destiny of man and the warring of nations do for Shakespeare.  

Perhaps Wilde makes commentary on the theatre itself:  Any situation can reach the apex of importance given enough weight and sincerity in both its writing and delivery.  One of Shaw's greatest complaints against the play in his infamous contemporary review was the overacting done by the show's lead actors.  (A dangerous thing for me to write given that I'm writing this before rehearsals for our production have begun and knowing that I am performing in the piece.)  For the play to reach its maximum effect dramatically and comically the characters must believe wholeheartedly in the importance of their trivial existence.  One could read the play's title as Wilde's instructions to the actors:  for the comedy to work, one must truly understand the importance of being earnest.  

Let us take this argument a step further.  Given that the object of the theatre is, to quote Shakespeare, “to hold...the mirror up to nature “, we can certainly say that Wilde sees all of life a trivial endeavor.  One may initially see this as bleak.  What's the point of life?  Let us remember, however, that The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy.  The triviality of life is not cause for despair, but for laughter.  Like Beckett, Pinter, and the absurdist playwrights who undoubtedly owe a debt of gratitude to this play, Wilde shows that the minor details and absurd situations of life make life interesting, bearable, and even comical.  Lady Bracknell responds to the lovers' actions by decrying that they are “displaying signs of excessive triviality.”  I think we can all agree with Jack that, on “the contrary!  I've realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest!”

-Charles Lane Cowen

Associate Director

Marley Bridges Theatre Company

The Butler Did It!

Those of us who have been performing in Murder Mysteries over the years have our favorite stories to tell about crazy audience members and our little pet peeves.  I guess I should start out by saying that we have more fun stories than annoying ones, but it's true that since the audience plays a big role in our shows, we never know what's coming.  Speaking for myself, it drives me absolutely crazy when people loudly proclaim, "The butler did it!"  Each and every one of the thousands of participants who have shouted this axiom beam with pride as if they were the first to ever say such a thing.  I suppose that this bothers me in particular because I played the butler in my very first murder mystery.  And, no, I didn't do it.

Pondering over this fact, I suggested to the Mystery Engineers at Newport Murder Mystery that we do a show called "The Butler Did It" in which every suspect was a butler.  Perhaps the setting could be a butler's convention.  We took off with the idea, and our Mystery Engineer Emeritus, Patrick, came up with a much better story line (which I won't divulge here because it's the next show at the Newport Art Museum starting in February!).

That led me to think about other little things people do at Murder Mysteries that drive me a little bonkers or make me laugh.  Here are a few of my favorite stories.  If any of you have acted in or attended one of our murder mysteries, please feel free to comment with your own favorite stories!

Favorite Moments With Newport Murder Mystery

• At a recent Murder Mystery weekend one of our guests, who will forever be remembered as one of my favorites, showed up for breakfast with a little pot belly we hadn't noticed.  I took little note until I noticed that it kept growing throughout the day.  She boldly announced to the crowd that she was pregnant (a remarkable feat given her age) and even wore the belly around town all day.  I recently visited a wine shop where we sent some guests and the shop keeper commented, "It was very odd when the lady who was clearly too old to have children did her wine tasting while very pregnant."  No worries, everyone.  It was all a part of the act.  A secret that even the writers of the show didn't know about!

• Mystery Engineer Jessica was playing a rather broad characterization of Consuelo Vanderbilt, famous resident of the Marble House.  At the time we were performing at the Beechwood Mansion right next door to the Marble House.  Jessica arrived to the party with the other guests, waiting in line to get tickets.  Now, I knew that she was playing Consuelo and that her take on Consuelo was as a rather odd young girl with an inexplicable cockney accent, but I had no idea that she would show up with a huge rod down her back (something the historical Consuelo was forced to wear to keep good posture) and twigs in her hair from where she crawled through the bushes.  It's one of the few times I actually broke character and laughed.  I still chuckle when I think about it.

Me as Colonel Mann with Jessica

• I once played a very nasty character loosely based on newspaper editor Colonel Mann.  I played him as a skeezy, slimey, creepy, old man.  I would cough loudly on people and make crude remarks.  One lady in the audience was truly appalled and told everyone around her, "I hope he gets killed."  Well, as fate would have it, I died during the night, and the poor lady was accused by everyone sitting around her.  It was hilarious how this lady who wasn't in the script became a prime suspect.

If you'd like to create some of your own Newport Murder Mystery memories, come see one of our shows! We perform regularly at the Newport Art Museum, and we're offering three-day, one-of-a-kind murder mystery weekends at the Architect's Inn.  What are you waiting for?  I just told you, the butler did it.