The Measure of a Memory: Shakespeare (in Stonington) will always be with us

More than a month has passed since the lights went down on the Stonington Opera House production of "Measure for Measure," and each year I try to reflect on where the play goes once it has been passed from the stage and into our collective memory. Truth is, "Measure for Measure" is not my favorite Shakespeare work. (Don't think less of me for admitting that "Romeo and Juliet" -- perhaps as a symbol of my own longing for youth -- is still at the top of my list.) (Except when "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is at the top of the list; or when "Richard III" is swirling in my thoughts; or maybe when "Macbeth" sneaks into my thoughts; and certainly "The Tempest" is in the mix.)

In any case.

As much as I enjoyed diving into Shakespeare's text this summer, I suspected I'd be done with "Measure for Measure" when it closed. Not true. Although I never made sense of the love liaisons forced at the end of the story, I did come to think more deeply about justice, mercy and forgiveness.

And apparently, I'm not the only one who is seeing these themes echo through Shakespeare's lens at the moment. Our Shake Stonington friend and leading Bard scholar Stephen Greenblatt of Harvard University writes about this summer's Central Park production of "The Merchant of Venice" in The New York Review of Books (Sept. 30, 2010). Although many critics believe "Measure for Measure" is one of Shakespeare's so-called "problem plays," "Merchant" is sometimes also included in that group -- largely because, like "Measure," the comedy is so closely aligned to tragedy that a certain anxiety over form rattles our structural cage.

Greenblatt asserts that the comedic ending of "Merchant" has such "intolerable strains" put on it that it's almost impossible to bring it off successfully. The same is true for "Measure," and I grappled with my own sense of how to read the ending in a story for the Huffington Post -- even as Stonington director Jeffrey Frace accomplished a graceful and nicely ambiguous ending to "Measure" that depended on the nightly mood of actor Stephanie Dodd as Isabella. But Greenblatt's estimation of the NYC production's end echo in my thoughts: "disappointment, betrayal, and recrimination lurk just below the surface." Also true for "Measure." With one exception: the young lovers Claudio and Juliet, who offer some hope for the marriage bed as an equitable one.

In addition to the scholarly insight of Greenblatt's story, I found another resonance from reading his article. As Greenblatt points out, there's much to see about our contemporary life in Shakespeare's works. Namely: the treatment of "the other" -- whether a Jew, a Moor or a couple that gets pregnant out of wedlock.

I suspect the Vienna of "Measure for Measure," with its shifting definitions of justice and forgiveness, will continue to stimulate ideas, as it did again recently when I saw the ArtsEmerson production of "The Laramie Project" at the Cutler-Majestic Theater in Boston. "The other" will always be with us -- in Venice, in Vienna, in Wyoming, in Maine.

And each year Shakespeare in Stonington counters the more pervasive and pernicious sense of "other" by allowing us to come together as a community in the library, in the theater, in media, restaurants and homes to achieve fuller, richer understandings of our inheritance and our responsibilities. The encounter with Shakespeare also allows us to carry these stories in our thoughts and to look to them for guidance. "The quality of mercy is not strained." "Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall." These plays teach us what the Stonington Opera House already knows: "All the world's a stage."

Photo: Tommy Piper as Angelo in "Measure for Measure" at the Stonington Opera House. Credit: Linda Nelson/Opera House Arts

The End Game of "Measure for Measure"

"Measure for Measure" closes Sunday, Aug. 29, after a two week run at the Stonington Opera House on Deer Isle, but I've been thinking about the show since January, when I enrolled in a Shakespeare class taught by Harvard Professor Gordon Teskey. The class was a survey of Shakespeare's works, but students also learned how the events of Shakespeare's life and times shaped his writing. Teskey is a charismatic teacher. Students have organized a Facebook page for him because they love hearing him read Chaucer. I loved hearing him read Shakespeare, too, and there's no mistaking the actor in him, especially because he's one of the most stylishly dressed members of the academy. (The Harvard Crimson fashion columnist wrote a story about him.) This summer, Teskey was teaching in Venice, but he took a few minutes to answer questions about "Measure for Measure" -- a play I find difficult but that he helped me see more powerfully as a story about self sacrifice and as a demonstration of Shakespeare's progressive sense of structure for comedy and tragedy.
Given Teskey's expertise, I wanted him to help us understand more deeply the final scene of the play in which Shakespeare disconcertingly ties up the ends of a comedy that tipped so dangerously toward tragedy. As we continue to investigate this play, Teskey sets us up to consider how we might see the final scene.

Here's Teskey on the final scene of "Measure for Measure":

The most difficult scene technically is the final one. So much happens in it, and there are so many dramatic reversals. The moment when Mariana begs Isabella to kneel with her and beg the Duke to spare Angelo's life -- this when Isabella still thinks Angelo has murdered her brother -- is deeply moving, because Isabella does so. She is at last moved to pity for someone. But so much else occurs in the scene: the unmuffling of the Duke and the humiliation of Lucio as well as of Angelo, the trick with the head of Ragozine, and so on. It is very hard to stage and to keep up the pace, which should be rapid, without confusing the audience. It is thrilling, a little bewildering, funny, emotionally moving, and at the end (perhaps) a little mysterious.

Deconstruction: The Duke + Isabella

I remember listening to Mr. Fracé refer to each of the characters as having their own unique flaws. While I watched the play a second time, I thought upon how each character could have their own distinct set of flaws but hit on the conclusion that the Duke and Isabella are linked by the same: pride.

The Duke

The Duke’s pride is evident: he wants to be in control. I have heard Dr. Jerome mention that her reasoning for the Duke’s plot incognito was to set up a test of Angelo’s meddle, supposing that, if Angelo were successful, the Duke could transfer power to him. Accepting this view adds dimension to the Duke’s pride: although such a test acknowledges some insecurity, it also [to me] reveals a serious ego – the Duke elevating himself beyond the role of the respected leader to the status of the supreme justice (similar to that which Isabella attempts to invoke upon Angelo). From his position of removal, the Duke could “look down” upon Angelo and his doings in Vienna from an anonymous position of personal power – putting the Duke in control. Furthermore, once things begin going awry he can use this anonymous power to play the meddling Friar – again allowing him the control he requires.

The Duke’s position of leverage and his ego are what lead to the biased scales by which the play weighs one measure for another. Because the Duke manages to keep himself within control (in his own way) throughout most of the play, the outcome of the moral fiasco surrounding Angelo, Claudio and Isabella plays out to the Duke’s design. The Duke is able to obtain his version of justice – which doesn’t seem to answer all offenses with the same level hand one expects. However, the Duke’s arbitrary power and his pride – wanting to see things happen his own way – is what forces the play to resolve as it does.

Isabella

Isabella’s version of pride leads her to self-preservation. Her understandable yet somewhat stubborn rejection of Angelo despite her brother suggests that she places her fallible personal virtue (and virginity) over the life of her kin. This self-importance speaks pride and preservationism. In that vein, the best way to ensure self-preservation is… control. Isabella wants to have mastery of her fate. She eagerly plays ball with the meddling Friar (even though his plot crosses more moral lines than sacrificing her virginity would!) because it feeds her pride and gives her a thrill. Conspiring with the Friar gives her a proxy through which she can control her life and ensure that she didn’t have to sacrifice her precious self. Even though she states “i am led by you,” I suspect she allows herself to be led because it brings her the control she desires.

Isabella and the Duke

The Duke and Isabella’s shared self-importance and need for control are what I think leads the Duke to chose Isabella as his successor. Going back to Dr. Jerome’s view, given that the Duke is seeking to transfer power and that Angelo has failed [miserably], he is now searching for another successor. This is where I see the Duke’s pride return. I think the he wants to see his reign continued by someone like him – an expression of his pride. He sees himself in Isabella and is thus naturally drawn to her. Furthermore, Isabella’s ‘enthusiastic’ participation in his devices (read: she never really mentions any of the serious moral questions he ignores) helps fulfill the Duke’s self-worth, making him more likely to be well-disposed towards her. This could explain his choice at the level of pride. Another explanation could be romance, but I will choose to avoid that.

Furthermore, if one were to return to the Duke’s position as arbiter of justice and chief moralizer, his choice of Isabella to (presumably) continue his reign could strike deep cuts against Angelo at a personal level. The Duke is probably disgusted by Angelo’s transgressions, especially if Angelo is figured to originally been chosen to take over. Therefore, the perfect method of retaliation against Angelo would be for the Duke to award control to Isabella; Angelo having thought himself high in the Duke’s esteem would, although personally destroyed by his undoing, would be further wounded by having his place of esteem handed over to the very one he wronged. I have to argue this because the Duke could have easily transferred power to Escalus, who remained loyal to the Duke and committed no wrongdoing. However, the Duke chooses Isabella. What seems to go further is that choice - Isabella OVER Escalus. Considering the traditional Elizabethan role of the woman as a subordinate, the transfer of power to a female over a (barring age) perfectly eligible male (Escalus) represents an even bigger snub to Angelo – that the Duke would rather see a woman rule than he.

Thus although from my perspective the Duke’s choice of Isabella is primarily driven by his pride (or love?), his choice could even be elevated to a personal measure against Angelo.

It might be “Measure for Measure”, but who measures the Measures?

The Duke.

-Peter

The View from the Moated Grange

It's a rainy day on Indian Point Road, and it's the first full day off for the acting company of Measure for Measure. We've been running full sprint since we arrived in Stonington, right through our exciting opening weekend of performances. A day of rest feels welcome and well-deserved. Especially a grey day with gentle rain falling. The kind of day that gives your thoughts room to settle. I'm baking a peach and blackberry pie. In a little while I'll walk down the road to enjoy a convivial dinner with the rest of the M4M company.

For now, though, I am looking out the window at the rain, sitting alone in the sweet little house that I call the Moated Grange, in honor of Mariana, one of the five characters I play in Measure for Measure. "I will presently to Saint Luke's," says the Duke to Isabella, "there, at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana." For me, my characters always find their ways into my life. Or my life finds its way into my characters. This year in Stonington I find myself playing a girl who is suspended in a kind of tragic limbo: unrequited love and grief and, maybe, hope, foolish or otherwise...A central plot point turns on her history with Angelo. As we head towards our second week of performances I continue to be fascinated by the competing versions of that history woven into Shakespeare's text.

The undisputed facts: five years before the play begins, Mariana and Angelo were engaged; her war hero brother Frederick (her only surviving relative) died at sea in a shipwreck that also claimed her dowry; Angelo then broke off the engagement. There are different versions of why. Tommy Piper (Angelo) and I have an ongoing and lively debate about the Why.

In the Duke's version, Angelo "swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries of dishonor"--as in, he made up rumors about Mariana as an excuse to get out of marrying her when her dowry was lost--and abandoned her in her deep grief. In Angelo's version, the marriage plans were broken off "partly for that her promised proportions came short of composition, but in chief for that her reputation was disvalued in levity." So who is telling the truth?

Oh, I believe the Duke, here. In both text and action, Mariana is virtuous. She truly loves Angelo and must have believed he loved her: "This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, which once thou swor'st was worth the looking on." Her love for Angelo is past reason, past sense--surely we can sympathize with that. Isn't there redemption to be found in love that true? Isn't that the essence of mercy? That love is forgiveness, and that vengeance is a small weak thing next to the great vastidity of love?

Well, I cite the Beatles. All you need is love.

When I step out of the mindset of Mariana, I know Angelo does some baaad things. I know it. But Mariana has gotten so deep into me that I can't help believing that he deserves forgiveness too. Don't we want Mariana to be happy? Even if she loves not wisely, but too well?

The sky is darkening. The pie is cooling on top of the stove and I'm gazing out the window at the water. Time to walk down the road to dinner.

Mariana bakes pies, and dreams of Angelo.

Stephanie Dodd: "I'm faced with a large decision"

Abby Bray, a student at Stonington/Deer Isle High School, recently interviewed actor Stephanie Dodd, who plays Isabella in "Measure for Measure" running through Aug. 29 at the Stonington Opera House. "Interviewing some of the cast of 'Measure for Measure' was the first time I'd done a formal interview," says Abby. "After some trial and error, it proved both fun and educational. I learned about the characters on a more personal level, and I also learned what attracts people to Stonington." Dodd is a veteran artist at the Opera House where she performed in last year's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." In this interview, Abby asked Stephanie why we should care about her role. She also asked about working in Stonington compared to working in other locations. Give it a click. Then buy tickets! And check back on the Shake Stonington blog for more of entries about all things Shakespeare.

Phillip Owen: "If I ain't around, nothing good is going to happen"

Abby Bray, a student at Stonington/Deer Isle High School, recently interviewed actor-composer Phillip Owen, who plays a guard and a messenger -- as well as the onstage music -- in "Measure for Measure" running through Aug. 29 at the Stonington Opera House. "Interviewing some of the cast of 'Measure for Measure' was the first time I'd done a formal interview," says Abby. "After some trial and error, it proved both fun and educational. I learned about the characters on a more personal level, and I also learned what attracts people to Stonington." Owen is a veteran artist at the Opera House where he performed in last year's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." In this interview, Abby asked Phillip -- in character -- why we should care about his role. She also asked about working in Stonington compared to working in other locations. Give it a click. Then buy tickets! And check back on the Shake Stonington blog for more of Abby's interviews with actors.

What would you do if you were Isabella?

Yu Jin Ko is a Shakespeare scholar at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and our guest conversationalist for the Talk Back after the production of "Measure for Measure" 7 p.m. Saturday Aug. 21 at the Stonington Opera House on Deer Isle in Maine. He will be joined onstage by director Jeffrey Frace and Opera House artistic director Judith Jerome to talk about the play, the production and Shakespeare's life and times. Recently, I asked Yu Jin (whose name is pronounced Yoo Gin) to answer three questions. You can read the first here; the second here and the third (Is "Measure for Measure" a love story?) is below. For this one, Yu Jin leaves us with a question. Come to the Talk Back after the show and bring your own questions for our guest speaker! Don't miss out on the fun; buy tickets now!


AA: Is this a love story?

YJK: If it is a love story, it’s a curious love. I would say there is love in it, but – as with mercy and justice – each vision of love is deeply compromised. Juliet, Mariana, they both possess something called love but it comes out in ways that are self-deceiving or in ways that hurt them or that make you question the substance of the feeling. But I gather the question is directed toward the Duke and Isabella and whether love is possible between the two. The play leaves you hanging doesn’t it? Isabella never responds to the Duke’s offer. Is it an offer or is it a demand? What is it when he asks or tells or orders her to be his? I don’t know. What would you do if you were in Isabella’s position?

A compromising situation

Yu Jin Ko is a Shakespeare scholar at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and our guest conversationalist for the Talk Back after the production of "Measure for Measure" 7 p.m. Saturday Aug. 21 at the Stonington Opera House on Deer Isle in Maine. He will be joined onstage by director Jeffrey Frace and Opera House artistic director Judith Jerome to talk about the play, the production and Shakespeare's life and times. Recently, I asked Yu Jin (whose name is pronounced Yoo Gin) to answer three questions. You can read the first here; the second (Is this a play about mercy, justice or power?) is below and the third (Is "Measure for Measure" a love story?) will be posted soon. Check back -- and also buy tickets to join us Aug. 21 and bring your own questions!

AA: Is this a play about mercy, justice or power?

YJK: The title sets it up to be a simple morality play about the limitations of absolute justice – about dispatching justice measure for measure. So you expect mercy to be the antithesis that wins the day. But everything is so compromised in this play – the vision of absolute justice embodied in Angelo and then the counter weight of mercy that Isabella and the others give voice to. In the end, you can’t say one element wins out over the other.

New "M4M" Photos on Flickr

New photos from "Measure for Measure" are available here

Pierre-Marc Diennet: "I'm here to live."

Abby Bray, a student at Stonington/Deer Isle High School, recently interviewed actor Pierre-Marc Diennet, who plays Lucio, a "fantastic," in "Measure for Measure" running through Aug. 29 at the Stonington Opera House. "Interviewing some of the cast of 'Measure for Measure' was the first time I'd done a formal interview," says Abby. "After some trial and error, it proved both fun and educational. I learned about the characters on a more personal level, and I also learned what attracts people to Stonington." Pierre is a veteran artist at the Opera House where he performed "Perdita," a show about his mother. In this interview, Abby asked Pierre -- as Lucio -- why we should care about his character. She also asked about working in Stonington compared to working in other locations. Give it a click. Then buy tickets! And check back on the Shake Stonington blog for more of Abby's interviews with actors. Coming soon!

Who's got the power?

Yu Jin Ko is a Shakespeare scholar at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and our guest conversationalist for the Talk Back after the production of "Measure for Measure" 7 p.m. Saturday Aug. 21 at the Stonington Opera House on Deer Isle in Maine. He will be joined onstage by director Jeffrey Frace and Opera House artistic director Judith Jerome to talk about the play, the production and Shakespeare's life and times. Recently, I asked Yu Jin (whose name is pronounced Yoo Gin) to answer three questions. The first is below; the second is here and the third is here. You can buy tickets to join us Saturday, Aug. 21 (TONIGHT!) after the show. Bring your own questions!

AA: Who is the most powerful person in this play?

YJK: You have so many centers of power and the source of power is so different for each in this play. Harold Bloom [the literary scholar] suggests that the most captivating character in the play is Barnadine, the prisoner who refuses death because he has been out drinking the night before. He presents a kind of irrepressible vitality that escapes the whole moral system of the entire play. He embodies that superfluidity of artistic energy that Shakespeare always displays in his plays. In some sense, he is the most powerful character. But more conventionally, you’d have to choose among Angelo, the Duke and Isabella. For me, it’s Isabella. She might come across to some as prissy and puritanical. But beyond all of that, the value she puts on her chastity, which she values above her brother’s life, is a value that is integral to her sense of self and takes her out of circulation – erotic and commercial – defining Vienna, a very corrupt and sordid society into which the Taliban in the form of Angelo has moved. Curiously, Isabella is the most powerful character because she tries the hardest and with the most force to define herself away from the categories of selfhood available to her.

Melody Bates/Mariana: "I hope folks will understand I am true of heart"

Abby Bray, a student at Stonington/Deer Isle High School, recently interviewed actor Melody Bates, who plays Mariana (a rejected lover) and other roles in "Measure for Measure" running Aug. 19-29 at the Stonington Opera House. "Interviewing some of the cast of 'Measure for Measure' was the first time I'd done a formal interview," says Abby. "After some trial and error, it proved both fun and educational. I learned about the characters on a more personal level, and I also learned what attracts people to Stonington." Melody is a veteran performer at the Opera House where she played Hippolyta/Titania in last year's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." In this interview, Abby asked Melody -- as Mariana -- why we should care about her character. She also asked about working in Stonington compared to working in other locations. Give it a click. Then buy tickets! And check back on the Shake Stonington blog for more of Abby's interviews with actors. Coming soon!

Major and Minor Roles

I love it that Tesky includes Lucio in his list of the great male roles. Pierre Diennet, a wonderful clown, plays our Lucio, and I watch him finesse his performance with every rehearsal. 'Modernizing' the role is exactly right, though I wouldn't have said it before reading Tesky's comment. In the community read in Brooklin on Monday I tried putting Lucio in my own mouth--and clumsy it was indeed, very unlike what I see Diennet carrying off.

The Duke is the mystery at the center of the play. Why does he skip town, leaving Angelo in charge? I'm with Tesky in seeing him more as a beneficent force, though in the community read Ellen called him a wimp. It was during his reign that the world of Shakespeare's Vienna fell into such supposed moral ruin. Director Frace and this cast portray him rather as ill, failing and searching, testing, perhaps for a possible successor.

But I am very interested in hearing more about how Tesky sees Measure for Measure as a "demonstration of Shakespeare's progressive sense of structure of comedy and tragedy."

And while in a very minor role, I nevertheless live each rehearsal to see Barnadine emerge onstage.

I'm just back in my office from watching the end of a run of Act I. We're in the middle of tech. It's a blustery day outside, chilly; tourists on the street are in jackets today--but inside the theater the fans onstage turn slowly. The Duke, in dilemma, dribbles cool water down his neck, and the lights are kept dim against the heat. The women wear nothing but their slips. Just saying. O delicious southern Bard.

Why You Should Go to "Measure for Measure": A Top Ten List

The Stonington Opera House production of Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" opens on Thursday August 19. If somehow you're still looking for reasons WHY you should attend, look no further. Below are 10 inarguable reasons to go to the show. What's your top reason for wanting to see Shakespeare? And what's your excuse for not going, huh?


Top Ten Reasons You Should Go to "Measure for Measure"


1. You're setting a record. You've seen all 10 years of Shakespeare productions at the Stonington Opera House, and you couldn't bear to miss year 11.

2. Savannah, Georgia is your favorite American city, and you can't afford to go there this year. Director Jeffrey Frace has transformed Shakespeare's Vienna, where the play is set, to 1950s Savannah. Very steamy.


3. You're a cook, and you think "Measure for Measure" might be the next "Top Chef" contender. Turns out, the title of Shakespeare's play is taken from the Bible. It's about measuring mercy, not flour.


4. You heard the play is about "Mercy." "Measure for Measure" IS about mercy but not the TV series "Mercy." Spoiler alert: Taylor Schilling is NOT in the Opera House cast.

5. You're into original music. Lawd alive, are you in the right place! Shakespeare was a music-loving fool, and Phillip Owen's original music has a southern draw and deep heartbeat. He grew up in Texas. (But we won't hold that against him.)

6. You like your Shakespeare wacky. If that's the case, you're in the right place. The Duke is played by a woman. The bawd Mistress Overdone is double cast as the Chief Nun at a cloister. And one of the scenes is almost as creepy as the Swedish film version of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Laskigt!


7. You like cowboy hats and boots. And a rifle. Yep, you read it right. The costume designer has had some fun with this one.


8. Somebody told you Shakespeare was boring and hard to understand (even though it's English). It's poetry, dude. You have to listen. But the Stonington actors understand Performance 101: If you don't speak the language understandably, you get a lot of empty seats. You'll get it. We promise.


9. You want to understand our world today. Shakespeare may have written "Measure for Measure" in 1604, but 406 years later, the lessons about leadership, justice, mercy, love and class rage are still relevant. You got it: If it ain't relevant Shakespeare, we're not doing it!


10. One word: HARMONICAS!!!!

Do You Relate to Shakespeare?

Guest blogger Abigail Bray lives in Blue Hill (Maine) and is a student at Deer Isle-Stonington High School. She enjoys writing and will be contributing posts occasionally during the run of "Measure for Measure" Aug. 19-29 at the Stonington Opera House. She also works at Fisherman's Friend Restaurant, a tasty place to eat dinner before or after the show!




As a sophomore in high school, I found reading “Measure for Measure” for the first time a bit of a struggle. Some of the situations were almost easy to relate to while others were a bit harder. I think we all can agree that there is at least one person in our lives who is strict and stubborn, and who decides to fix whatever situation he or she thinks needs fixing, like Angelo did while the Duke was “out of town.” And at one point or another, we all have to choose between helping someone close to us, or staying true to what we believe in, as Isabella was forced to chose between her virginity and her brother’s life.



Other parts of the play are less easy to relate to. Because things have changed drastically since the 16th century, it is now more common for women to have children out of wedlock. Another situation I cannot relate to is Claudio changing his mind and asking his sister, whom he knows to be very virtuous and chaste, to give up her virginity to save him. It is one thing for Isabella to decide; it’s another to put her in the kind of situation where she feels obligated.



Although “Measure for Measure” isn’t one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, I feel that it helps us compare and contrast the difference in politics and morals of the 16th century with today’s.

Who cares about Shakespeare?

One of the most frequent comments I hear about Shakespeare is: "Why read his plays?" What does a playwright working 400 years ago have to say to us in the 21st century? The language is difficult, the stories are antiquated, the characters are remote from our tech-driven lives and, frankly, who cares?

I love these questions! And "Measure for Measure," which will be performed Aug. 19-29 at the Stonington Opera House, is the perfect play for coming up with answers and addressing these worries and dismissals of the Bard.

Here's the set-up for the story: The Duke of Vienna, seeing that the laws of the land have grown to lax, hands over state duties to his Deputy and goes under cover to watch as his stricter proxy strictly enforces the law. The first person arrested is Claudio, a young gentleman whose fiancee is pregnant. Oops, no pregnancy out of wedlock tolerated! Go straight to jail, Claudio, and prepare to die! But wait: Can Claudio's virgin sister Isabella, who is about to enter a cloister, save her brother's life through pleading with the Deputy? Better yet, will she agree to have sex with the Deputy in exchange for leniency for her brother? And what about the closure of the whore houses in the suburbs? Good for the moral realm, but, ouch, bad for the economy.

O, Vienna, what a tangled web is weaved round your leaders, families and community!

So you think none of this is relevant today? Let's tease out a few themes:

• Fall guys who take the rap for leaders.
• Women who are forced to negotiate life and death issues with sex trade.
• An economy in which the "little guy" (in this case, hookers) gets hurt because of anxieties about the laws, especially concerning the economy. (Hmmm...the word "Arizona" comes to mind.)
• And what about the morality of religion: Is a woman's virtue and fundamentalism more important than a man's life?

It's enough to make angels weep.

But instead of weeping, why not join us tonight for a community reading of "Measure for Measure" -- 7 p.m. Tuesday Aug. 10 -- at the Brooksville Free Public Library. We sit around a table and read the play with the help of volunteer citizen actors like you. Come read about "then" and think about "now." Most important, let's see if we can answer the big question: Who cares about Shakespeare?

Taking the "Measure" of Flannery O'Connor

Several years ago on a visit to Savannah, I came upon Flannery O'Connor's house on Lafayette Square. Her childhood home is now a museum, but that didn't stop me from walking straight up to it and hugging it. Or hugging a corner of it. I've done this with the houses of several writers whose art has deeply influenced the way I see the world. The first time I went to Paris, I walked directly to Gertrude Stein's house and hugged it, too.

But Flannery O'Connor has been in my thoughts these days as I've been reading "Measure for Measure," running Aug. 19-29 as this summer's annual production of Shakespeare at the Stonington Opera House. Director Jeffrey Frace, who played Oberon in last year's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Stonington, has a literary crush on O'Connor and decided to run "Measure" through the filter of her Southern Gothic style and Catholic sensibility. The production reportedly is "dripping kudzu and Spanish moss," according to Linda Nelson, executive director at the Opera House.

Here's what Frace says about O'Connor:

She creates characters and situations that are as real as she can imagine, and then, as events transpire she learns more about them. Often she’s surprised at what transpires. But she is interested in flawed characters, characters suffering from spiritual blindness and in need of grace. Sometimes that moment of grace arrives in this lifetime: often it is accompanied by violence and death. Shakespeare, uncharacteristically, was more merciful on his characters in Measure for Measure. At least they all live. It is a comedy, after all. But there is spiritual blindness a-plenty, and real suffering along the way. And what is at stake is more than the love life of a sympathetic young person or two: it is the health and welfare of a whole community.

Now, for a brief primer on O'Connor:

• She was born Mary Flannery O'Connor in Savannah, GA in 1925.
  
• Her work includes novels, short stories and essays.


• She studied writing at the famous Iowa Writers' Workshop with the likes of Robert Penn Warren. In her 20s, she was diagnosed with lupus, an autoimmune disease from which her father died when she was a teen. She died at age 39.


• She was obsessed with birds.


• Her work can be very funny and very creepy.


• It's likely her most famous work is "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," a short story about an argumentative southern family that meets a serial killer. You can see the cutting approach to the human condition in this line about the annoying grandmother in the story: "She would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life."


• Her work is deeply concerned with redemption -- and the tension between the Christian mission and un-Christian people.

That last part makes O'Connor a perfect fit for "Measure for Measure," which shines a surreal light on the workings of justice -- in the state, the city and in love.

Theatergoers always ask me the best way to prepare for attending a production of Shakespeare, and I encourage them to read the original text. This time, I also invite readers to pick up a copy of Flannery O'Connor's short stories and explore her world, too. She and Shakespeare have much to say to each other.

Best Use of Barbies Ever: Or "Measure for Measure" by 10-inch dolls

As preparation for the Stonington Opera House production of "Measure for Measure" -- as well as for the library reads in Brooksville, Brooklin, Stonington and Deer Isle -- I'm re-reading the play. But I've also been surfing the internet for more background information on ideas and productions. To me, this is one of the most complicated of Shakespeare's plays, and I confess that I find it problematic -- and not just because scholars consider it one of the Bard's "problem plays" (which is another way of saying the themes don't fit neatly into comedy, nor can the characters be easily categorized as heroes).

We'll dive into the fascinating background and themes of the play later with the help of a few outstanding scholars and directors.

In the meantime, I want to share a clever two-part YouTube version of "Measure for Measure" featuring Barbie dolls (and created as a project for a Shakespeare class). It's corny at first, seeing the dolls, but actually it serves as quite a good synopsis of the play. It strikes me that there are lots of imaginative ways to approach Shakespeare. My own preference is to enter the story through the text. Others, such as director Jeffrey Frace and the actors at the Stonington Opera House, prefer the platform of a stage. And still others like, well, dolls.

And not just Barbie dolls. Last year, when a boy I know saw the Stonington Opera House production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," he went home and re-enacted a segment of the play with an old set of toy horses we keep around the house for kids.

Turns out, Shakespeare has resonance in more than simply our thoughts. We are free to reinterpret his stories as imaginatively as we want -- with dolls, puppets, movies, poems, dances. I encourage you to watch the "Measure for Measure" Part 1 and Part 2 Barbie YouTube videos, and I think you'll also enjoy this 9-year-old boy's interpretation of last year's "Midsummer."

Of course, the next question is: How will you adapt Shakespeare to your own favorite storytelling technique?

Check out more information about the Opera House Arts production of "Measure for Measure" Aug. 19-29 at the Stonington Opera House.

Some rise by art

Put actors onstage together, and you probably can guess what will happen: theater. But what about after hours? Let's say they're sitting around the table eating dinner together after a performance. Are they still acting?

Turns out, the answer is sometimes yes.

In 2006, when the Stonington Opera House cast of "As You Like It" was finished performing in the evening, the members often found themselves sitting around the late-night table together eating dinner and making up characters -- as actors do. They had also been inspired by the sign on a defunct diner -- Conni's Restaurant -- and sometimes shared a romantic vision of what it might be like to leave the big city and make it in a small coastal town on an island.

"Stonington is so beautiful in the way it creates community," said Rachel Murdy, who was in the 2006 production of "As You Like It." "We had a microcosm community in that theater group. We had this ongoing idea that we could buy the restaurant that was for sale and open an avant-garde restaurant. We would live year-round in Stonington and have that kind of life. We dreamed about that, and we felt so strongly about it that when we left Stonington we had a reunion and had lunch together and literally decided to do that: have a restaurant."

And that's when "Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant" was born. The show is an original work of audience interactive cabaret theater that also includes food and drinks. Not dinner theater exactly. But dinner prepared and served by the cast in the midst of an evening of storytelling that swears the avant garde is still alive. Or not. You can read more about the past New York production here and about the current production at Club Oberon in Cambridge, Mass., here.

Right about now, however, you might be thinking: What does "Conni's" have to do with the Opera House Arts production of "Measure for Measure," running Aug. 19-29 at the Stonington Opera House? Good question.

The answer is embedded in the Stonington Opera House motto: "Incite art. Create community." Not only did the creators of "Conni's" find their inspiration in Stonington where the opera house is located. But they carried that spirit back to their home bases and kept it alive in far-flung areas. Many of them return in this year's production of "Measure for Measure": Rachel Murdy, Melody Bates, Stephanie Dodd, Peter Richards and Jeffrey Frace (who is directing "Measure"). That means they are rehearsing Shakespeare in New York City and traveling for the next three Sundays (July 18, 25 and Aug. 1) to Cambridge to perform in "Conni's."

Even though these actors are familiar with one another through graduate school at Columbia University and their performances at the Stonington Opera House (and if you've seen their Shakespeare work, then they're familiar to you, too), I like the idea of them working on two shows together this summer. By the time we see them in their Shakespeare characters, they will have presumably formed an even stronger ensemble connection.

As a side note, Murdy was part of the original creative team for "The Donkey Show," which was a hit in New York City years ago and was revived by Diane Paulus, artistic director at American Repertory Theater, at Club Oberon last year. After being in the show originally, Murdy also helped Paulus re-create the show for the Harvard scene. "Donkey Show" is still playing Friday and Saturday nights in Cambridge -- and if you're up for an unusual double header, a Saturday night disco version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (on which "Donkey Show" is based) and Sunday dinner at "Conni's" could be as intoxicating as a double header at Fenway. (Well, for me, anyway.)

But back to our main story. In "Measure," old Escalus warns: "Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall." If the performance connections between Stonington, New York City and Cambridge teach us anything, it is the opposite of a warning. It is a validation: Some rise by art, and some by community gain all.

Burt Dow Deep Water Man!

With opening night just over a week away, the cast and crew of Burt Dow Deep Water Man are hard at work. Yesterday, I joined sculptor, Michael Stasiuk, who is creating amazing props for the performance, to help paint the puppets for the show.

Like much of the performance, the creation of the props is a truly collaborative effort between people from away, local students, volunteers, and staff. Students in a Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary School art class helped to make the puppets, designed by Michael Stasiuk. Under the direction of Mr. Stasiuk, a team of volunteers is helping to paint and decorate the giant sea-creatures that will share the stage with the human stars of Burt Dow Deep Water Man.

The puppets are being painted in the old Stonington Elementary School with a little help from the soothing guitar music sounding from the boom box. With some masking tape, several cans of paint, and a little help from Martha Stewart (or rather, her glitter), the amazing creatures are taking shape. Mr. Stasiuk mixed paints to capture some of the vibrant and often times clashing, yet miraculously working together colors, in the book by Robert McCloskey (the colors of the whales were described by one volunteer as “just like the colors I wore in the 80s!”).

We antiqued chickens and painted a giant octopus (just to name a few!), helped by the performance’s director and stage manager. After the puppets are initially primed in a solid color, Mr. Stasiuk and the volunteers are using paintbrushes and pieces of foam pillows to color and shade the props, sponging color on top of color, and sprinkling with glitter.

To see these fantastic props in person, buy your tickets to Burt Dow Deep Water Man! As someone who has been fortunate enough to catch a sneak-peek, let me tell you, the stuck-in-your-head-while-you-walk-around-the-house-singing tunes are not to be missed!

A Safe Place for All People

Judy Harrison's story in today's Bangor Daily News is a fine example of how newspapers and other media help us understand the arts as an integral part of community life. Harrison not only connects us with an artist -- Caitlin Shetterly of Portland -- in a clear-sighted exchange. But allows us to see the role of a performing arts organization in a community. The Stonington Opera House is where our Shakespeare work finds its home -- and that's a home for arts, artists, technicians, builders, vendors, volunteers, young people, scholars, vacationers and even critics (such as yours truly). And then there's you. It would be a mistake to say: "We do this ALL for you." I think that's inaccurate. We do it because, as Judy Harrison and Caitlin Shetterly know, the arts are a force that give us meaning -- individually and as a community.

Shakespeare in Stonington is coming soon. Our media team is gearing up this month to meet you here at the Shake Stonington blog site. But don't wait for us. Go see Shetterly's show tonight. And if you can't get to her show, find other arts or be an artist. Either way, your community needs you. Shetterly has it right: The local arts center is a place where we can "all come, experience, live, learn, enjoy, laugh and cry and be human together."

Appalachian hollows and original Shakespeare Dialect

First, a disclaimer: I grew up in a big Texas family who migrated west from Alabama and Georgia, so dipthonged vowels and otherwise languidly prolonged syllables are music to my ears. Second, the idea that the dialect imported to these shores with early British settlers and nurtured and preserved in Appalachian hollows is closer to Elizabethan English than contemporary standard British is not new. So when Jeffrey Frace suggested that he was thinking of this summer's production of Measure for Measure as 'southern gothic,' I was both intellectually and constitutionally interested. I am currently in New York for auditions and on Wednesday and Thursday we saw upwards of 100 actors interpret what a monologue in a southern gothic style, reminiscent of, say, Flannery O'Connor, might sound like. For the majority it meant dropped r's and a few dipthongs, and otherwise--Shakespeare as usual. But in a small handful, my stars, as my grandmother used to say, with a slightly u-ed tongue, something happened! Rhythms changed, inflections shifted, heat and musk and music arrived in the room. It was a whole new Shakespeare, to my ear--and yet it sounded entirely natural.

More to come on this subject, but there have been several recent experiments with David Crystals Original Pronunciation (OP), which sounds to me a bit like a deep Scottish brogue, but restores they say some of the mysterious unrhymed, to our ears, rhymes in the Bard. Hear a story on it at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4761275. Or check out his website at http://pronouncingshakespeare.com.

Cosmic energy

I bet you've had this experience: You start reading a book -- say Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" -- and all of a sudden, Jane Austen is everywhere! Scientists discover a new cause of death for the author. PBS goes on an Austen bender. And the Twitterati go hashtag wild with Austen chatter. You thought you were simply catching up on your reading, but actually you were whirling in cosmic coincidence (or a global marketing scheme).

For the last few weeks, I've been focusing my Shakespeare energy on "Measure for Measure." I'm in a class where the discussion is about "Hamlet," but the professor can't stop talking about M4M. And, wouldn't you know, productions of the play have popped up in London , New York and Oregon. (I saw the Theatre for a New Audience production at The Duke on 42nd Street. Favorite actor: Jefferson Mays as the Duke.)

And of course, cosmically speaking, one could easily be led to believe this is all pointing to the rightness of the Stonington Opera House show in August. The dramatic universe is on a roll!

So I'm thinking: OK, people. We're in a M4M moment. The zeitgeist has been named. Dust off your Riverside. Brush up your Shakespeare. The Duke is on his way. In the meantime? Keep an eye out for more M4M sightings.

Is February too early be thinking about Shakespeare in August?

By Alicia Anstead
I've been thinking lately about the way the performing arts, and plays in particular, linger in our thoughts long after the curtain goes down. Plays, after all, are completely ephemeral. They happen, and they're gone. Except they're not. Think of the plays you've been to that have stayed with you -- whether because of the play itself (themes of love or death, for instance) or the circumstances in which you saw the play (the friend you were with or the phase you were going through). The poet T. S. Eliot talks about measuring life in coffee spoons. But some of us measure our lives in plays. I do at least.

But that's about what happens during a play or after a play. What about everything that happens before a play? A few weeks ago, Linda Nelson and Judith Jerome announced that Measure for Measure, directed by longtime friend of OHA Jeffrey Frace, is the play for Shakespeare in Stonington this summer. (Mark the dates: August 19-29, 2010.)

I couldn't be happier, in part because the experience starts now. Or rather, it started for me as soon as I heard the news. Immediately I turned to my handy cell-phone app PlayShakespeare.com and downloaded the text. For three days during a conference in New York City, I breathlessly read the play on my phone while riding the train to and from the event. At one point, I was so engrossed I missed my stop and ended up several stations away from my own. Wow, do I love when that happens, even if I'm late for something else.

On this read through, I was struck by the utter strangeness of Measure for Measure. It's called a problem play, but it's more than a problem play. It's a testy exploration of justice, mercy, personal agency and, once again, marriage. (Remember all the messiness about marriage last summer with A Midsummer Night's Dream?! If not, re-visit the blog posts that explore: I do, I don't, I might, I couldn't possibly "aspects" of marriage.) M4M is set in Old Vienna, but the themes of premarital pregnancy, enforcing the letter of the law, a woman's right to her own body and the shiftiness of politicians are all very relevant in the 21st century. Alas.

Thus begins our journey. Seven months before the show, the art has started to work its magic. I'll be checking in from time to time between now and summer with reports, tips and teasers about the play, the production and other related news. In the meantime, I'll be thinking -- and I hope you will be too -- about this question: When does art begin? When does it end? And what happens in the space between?

This is the first of 2010's posts on ShakeStonington, OHA's blog devoted to all things Shakespeare, created and edited by OHA's critic-in-residence Alicia Anstead. You can subscribe directly to ShakeStonington, and be alerted to all future updates, by going to shakestonington.blogspot.com.

Is February too early to think about Shakespeare in August?

By Alicia Anstead

I've been thinking lately about the way the performing arts, and plays in particular, linger in our thoughts long after the curtain goes down. Plays, after all, are completely ephemeral. They happen, and they're gone. Except they're not. Think of the plays you've been to that have stayed with you -- whether because of the play itself (themes of love or death, for instance) or the circumstances in which you saw the play (the friend you were with or the phase you were going through). The poet T. S. Eliot talks about measuring life in coffee spoons. But some of us measure our lives in plays. I do at least.

But that's about what happens during a play or after a play. What about everything that happens before a play? A few weeks ago, Linda Nelson and Judith Jerome announced that Measure for Measure, directed by longtime friend of OHA Jeffrey Frace, is the play for Shakespeare in Stonington this summer. (Mark the dates: August 19-29, 2010.)

I couldn't be happier, in part because the experience starts now. Or rather, it started for me as soon as I heard the news. Immediately I turned to my handy cell-phone app PlayShakespeare.com and downloaded the text. For three days during a conference in New York City, I breathlessly read the play on my phone while riding the train to and from the event. At one point, I was so engrossed I missed my stop and ended up several stations away from my own. Wow, do I love when that happens, even if I'm late for something else.

On this read through, I was struck by the utter strangeness of Measure for Measure. It's called a problem play, but it's more than a problem play. It's a testy exploration of justice, mercy, personal agency and, once again, marriage. (Remember all the messiness about marriage last summer with A Midsummer Night's Dream?! If not, re-visit the blog posts that explore: I do, I don't, I might, I couldn't possibly "aspects" of marriage.) M4M is set in Old Vienna, but the themes of premarital pregnancy, enforcing the letter of the law, a woman's right to her own body and the shiftiness of politicians are all very relevant in the 21st century. Alas.

Thus begins our journey. Seven months before the show, the art has started to work its magic. I'll be checking in from time to time between now and summer with reports, tips and teasers about the play, the production and other related news. In the meantime, I'll be thinking -- and I hope you will be too -- about this question: When does art begin? When does it end? And what happens in the space between?

A Maine Island View of the Oscars

Wow. OK. 10 nominations for Best Picture? From my vantage point on a small island off the Maine coast: is such excess necessary?!

OK, here is this year's ballot, and here is the glory of running a theater that presents both live shows AND first-run movies: of the excessive number of 10 nominees, we will have shown more than half--that's right, at least SIX, more than the number of nominees there used to be--of the Best Picture nominees. So when you hit that ballot, even in rural Maine, you will have had a good shot of seeing the following nominees for Best Picture--and probably more:

The Blind Side (December 2009)
Inglourious Basterds (November 2009)
Precious (January 2010)
Up (June 2009)
Up in the Air (Feb 12-14, 2010)
Avatar (mid-to-late February, stay tuned for dates)

Is this a luxury of riches or . . . just a whole lot of films being produced?! I'll leave the judging to you. Complete a ballot and email it or mail it to us; the top FIVE (we're going to stick with the old scale!) most accurate ballots will win free movie passes to the Opera House. Happy Oscar-ing!

The Saints Go Marching In

In 2008, OHA brought New Orleans' Own Hot 8 Brass Band to Deer Isle, where their playing brought a packed house to shake the Opera House floor -- and then all of downtown Stonington when they lead a traditional "second line" parade down Main Street on Sunday. Check out this great video of that event, to hear the Saints go Marching in Down East Maine!

Now it's a sadness that our own Patriots' performance was not excellent enough to land them in this year's Super Bowl. But since they couldn't manage it, how about those New Orleans' Saints?! For the first time since their founding in 1967, the Saints are in the Super Bowl, facing off against that old New England nemesis, the Indianapolis Colts.

Why write about the Saints on a performance blog? Opera House Arts has a long-standing connection to the music and culture of New Orleans--in fact, in the summer of 2010 we will be bringing one of New Orleans' legendary clarinetists, Dr. Michael White, to the island to be in a two-week residence at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and a featured artist at our 10th annual jazz festival.

The volunteer producer of our jazz festival, acclaimed arts journalist Larry Blumenfeld, is a passionate expert on New Orleans jazz, and recently sent us this link to a New Orleans'Saints Tribute Songs Playlist, including this video of trumpeter Kermit Ruffins' "A Saints Christmas."

Jazz lives in this year's Super Bowl!

"Precious" at the Opera House

Many questions can be raised about our showing of the film "Precious: based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire" at the Opera House as part of our Alt-Movie Series this week. Why show a film about inner-city tragedy and dysfunction in our rural hamlet? Why show a film which could possibly further negative stereotypes of African-Americans in the nation's whitest state, where few have access to everyday encounters with racial and ethnic minorities? Why show films which detail poverty, abuse and their effects at all?

Because "Precious" is a complicated, beautifully made film which shows the potential impacts of poverty and abuse in ALL of our communities. It is a story which must be told--as Sapphire knew when she published the book on which it is based, "Push," in 1996. “Ralph Ellison spoke of an invisible man, but girls like Precious are our invisible young women—not seen by their own people let alone white society,” says Sapphire.

The character of Claireece “Precious Jones” Sapphire created and whom director Lee Daniels, along with producers Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, faithfully renders is so deeply human and fully realized, not only in her misery but in her imaginative, thoughtful processes, that it is impossible for any but the most pessimistic and politically orthodox critics (of which there have been many, both of the book and now of the film) to not be dumb-struck with empathy and compassion for her story. As Sapphire says, her story and this film are "for all the precious girls" in all of our communities. Let's make them visible, and let's all care enough to take action--as so many do in this film, from school principals to teachers to social workers--to offer them the love they deserve and need to chart their own courses from misery.

Why STREB?

Choreographer--or I think I'd better say movement artist--Elizabeth Streb was one of three panelists on the opening plenary, facilitated by OHA's "our own" critic-in-residence Alicia Anstead, for APAP 2010. Presenting between our lugubrious new NEA chairman, Rocco Landesmann, whose comments re support for artists waxed so spurious one could only yawn; and my fellow Bowdoin College grad Paul Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky (download his app for your iPhone and become your own DJ), Streb--ice-pick thin with a stand-up shock of died black hair at 59--brought the session to life with her remarks on the importance of--well, yeah--movement.

Streb showed a video message she had created when asked if she would send a message to newly-elected President Obama last year. After some hesitation, she did it. Her message is: there is one simple solution to solving the problems you face--war in Afghanistan, an economic recession, a need to overhaul our country's health and education systems. That solution is movement. If you, Mr. President, insist that every American must jump up and down three times every morning, turn around, and throw their arms up in a giant X--slowly but surely our problems would be solved.

It's a dramatic way to make an important point: the human body is a kinetic (i.e., movement) machine, and we as Americans simply don't move enough to function as well intellectually, emotionally, economically, and politically as we need to to face the current challenges the world presents to us. And moving with consciousness through the artistic discipline of dance--and Streb might argue, especially highly physical dance of the type she practices, which can veer toward the NFL--might take us to places we never before knew to be possible.

So, people, let's do it! Stand up and jump up and down three times, now and every morning. Spin around and throw your arms up into the air in a giant X! Let's move it. The new decade is on. -- Linda

Getting Serious About Creativity in the Classroom

Following on my concept of "the whole new mind for a whole new decade" posted earlier this week, Thursday afternoon I helped to lead an Education Leaders Institute (ELI) meeting in Augusta. The focus is to create a team of innovation leaders from around the state to re-design public education--moving it from the WHAT is being taught to the HOW of students learning . . . with a focus on ensuring that creativity, imagination, and innovation are primary learning methods for the new century.

This all hooks together with OHA's Kennedy Center Partners in Education program with our local schools, which helps teachers learn to integrate artistic processes and disciplines into their classroom teaching to advance the creativity of HOW their students are learning literacy, math, and interpersonal skills.

Another key piece of this in Maine is the MLTI laptop program, which in many communities has been a huge gift for how their students are learning and taking off with the innovative skills demanded by our changing economy. Deer Isle hasn't done as well with MLTI as we might, and therefore we are including technology integration as an art form--digital media arts integration--in our Kennedy Center offerings. The importance of the MLTI program to creativity brought Apple's Jim Moulton to our Thursday ELI meeting. Jim is a fantastically innovative thinker, especially around education. Check out this piece he wrote back when he blogged for Edutopia's Spiral Notebook, "It's Time to Get Serious About Creativity in the Classroom." -- Linda

For the New Decade: A Whole New Mind

I see from my Facebook page early this morning that everyone is off to the usual new year’s resolutions: exercise and weight loss.

But what about our brains?

Some of the most interesting research and policy recommendations to emerge from the decade just past have to do not with the benefits of physical exercise, but rather with the social, political, economic and yes, personal benefits of understanding and exercising our brains.

I therefore propose we consider the value of pursuing whole new minds for this new decade.

Both brain research and first-hand documentation of the experience of stroke victims, such as brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor’s, have increasingly brought us the news that our emotions, behaviors, learning capacities—and resulting social and economic successes—are as much about choices we make, and educational opportunities we are offered, as about innate genetic or biological factors.

In short, the ways we learn to understand the world and to express ourselves are the result not of uncontrollable tissue but of the conscious development and nurturing of specific neural pathways: pathways which throughout our lives can be re-shaped and re-developed, even in old age, even after devastating brain injuries or stroke. Having trouble holding a job because you can’t control your anger? You can learn to consciously re-direct the habitual flow of neurons when you react to something, and change your seemingly uncontrollable responses. Are fears and anxiety keeping you from the family life or career you want to have? The focus of most meditative practices is to shift the locus of understanding from our task-oriented left brain to our right, which experiences connectedness and wholeness and can reduce the power of our daily anxieties.

Alert educators and parents have known for some time that intelligence and achievement are not all about biological I.Q., but rather about the stimuli the brain is offered—say, the number of words to which an infant is regularly exposed; the aspirations and expectations that are set for and by us; and the encouragement we receive for different types of behaviors. But how much of this new brain knowledge, moving us away from the old worlds of I.Q. tests, has made its way into our public policy, public schools curricula, and, more importantly, our daily lives?

For adults, integrating current knowledge of brain development into our lives and the lives of our children can take several forms.

On behalf of our children, researchers increasingly recognize that our public education systems are too “left brain” focused: our classrooms are good (sometimes) at teaching facts and basic math and literacy—all functions governed in the left hemispheres of our brains—and much less good at teaching problem solving and the type of creative and innovative thinking being demanded by the U.S.’s position in the global economy. Teaching creativity and innovation requires development of the right hemispheres of our brains: sectors most effectively developed through learning in and through artistic practices (the performing and visual arts). Best-selling writers Daniel Pink (author of the recent Drive and A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future, from where I borrowed my title) and Thomas Friedman (Hot, Flat, and Crowded) have been consistently and loudly eloquent on this subject and its importance to U.S. competitiveness in global markets: but are we working to change our local schools, and parenting, accordingly?

And with the new understanding that the brain is in fact a lifelong learner—plastic and flexible throughout our lives, “allowing for greater complexity and deeper understanding,” according to professor Dr. Kathleen Taylor in a recent New York Times Education Life story—are we adults keeping our brains and communities as healthy as we might be? Research shows our more mature brains hunger for learning that is not merely about taking in more stuff, but rather that which challenges our perceptions of the world: a kind of stretching of the brain beyond its comfort zone that breaks it away from established connections, thereby encouraging the growth of new pathways. “If you always hang around with those you agree with and read things that agree with what you already know, you’re not going to wrestle with your established brain connections,” Dr. Taylor concludes.

Taking new routes to work; learning new languages; having conversations with those different from us as well as those who share our world views; experiencing the arts and ensuring our children do as well; meditating: these are new year’s resolutions which will, in the long term and as importantly as physical fitness, benefit our national health as well as our personal well-being. Whole new minds for the new decade.