OF MICE AND MEN - Part 3, Sunday, February 5th at 11am pst

Dreams meet and collide with tragic consequences, as Steinbeck's masterwork draws to its inevitable ending. John Steinbeck's original novella text concludes, live in voice. 

“Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.”  

~ the character Crooks, from Of Mice and Men

Corwyn Allen, Kayden Oconnell, and Caledonia Skytower, live in voice.

NOTE: Original text includes some language appropriate to the time and place for which the story was written - including racial slurs and cursing. Part 3 of 3.

grid.kitely.com:8002:EXPLORESeanchai in Kitely

OF MICE AND MEN - Part 2, Tuesday, January 31st at 7PM pst

Seanchai Library continues John Steinbeck's original novella text, live in voice. George and Lennie find work on a ranch in the Salinas Valley (CA) and fellow souls who share their dream of owning a little place all their own.  

"we’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof—”

But they also encounter trouble . . . 

Shandon Loring, Corwyn Allen, Kayden Oconnell, and Caledonia Skytower, live in voice.
NOTE: Original text includes some language appropriate to the time and place for which the story was written - including racial slurs and cursing. Part 2 of 3.

grid.kitely.com:8002:EXPLORESeanchai in Kitely

Also in voice at our main Library in Second Life http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bradley%20University/101/208/28

OF MICE AND MEN - Part 1 Saturday, January 28th at NOON pst

"A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool."

Seanchai Library presents John Steinbeck's original novella text, live in voice. Join us at the central fire circle area located in the heart of the Steinbeck Ranch, as we meet George Milton Lennie Small - two "bindle stiffs" (itinerant farm workers) with desperate dreams of a better life where they will "live off the fatta the land."

"We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit-in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us.”

Corwyn Allen, Kayden Oconnell, and Caledonia Skytower, live in voice.
NOTE: Original text includes some language appropriate to the time and place for which the story was written - including racial slurs and cursing. Part 1 of 3.

grid.kitely.com:8002:EXPLORESeanchai

Virtual Library and Real World Theatre Company Continue Partnership to Enhance Audience Opportunity

Entrance to "The World of John Steinbeck" from the EXPLORE Welcome Center

The Kitely Grid & Tacoma, WA – On Friday, January 20 the curtain rises on Tacoma Little Theatre's latest production, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.  That same day the pixels click to life for the newest partnership between Tacoma Little Theatre and Seanchai Library with the opening of Explore: The World of John Steinbeck. This is the third collaboration between the 98 year old theatre company and 8 year old online spoken word library, expanding opportunities for audience members and educators to delve into the thoughts behind the play. .

EXPLORE is an online tool designed to add to the play-going experience of audience members by presenting source material and related information to support the production in an engaging, interactive format. The World of John Steinbeck can be accessed online with the download of a free viewing program 24/7.  Patrons can walk through the world of Steinbeck’s novella, exploring freely, using an avatar. Clickable information links guide visitors to a variety of information ranging from biographical, to historical and cultural.  Live presentations of the source text and Steinbeck's letters provide additional opportunities to gain understanding of the playwright and the world in which the play was created.

"This continues to be an exciting and enlightening process," shared Chris Serface, Tacoma Little Theatre Managing Artistic Director, "Being on the ground level of innovation like this means we are learning something new every time we do a project."  The current EXPLORE project was preceded by Anton Chekov and the Absurd  in 2016, and The Great Gatsby Online in 2015.

ANNOUNCING "The World of John Steinbeck"

We are pleased to announce the next EXPLORE project, coming in January of 2017.

The Explore Estate's "The Great Gatsby Online" and "Anton Chekhov & the Absurd"  will be joined by "The World of John Steinbeck" produced in support of Tacoma Little Theatre's production "Of Mice and Men."

The new Explore will include the scenes pertinent to Steinbeck's story of  George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States.

Live voice presentations will begin in late January 2017 and will include the original 1937 novella, as well as other selections from the author's canon.  Like all Explore projects, this one will include interpretive links on the life and times of John Steinbeck, and the opportunity for hosted tours for classroom teachers, as well as metaverse adventurers. 

We have learned so much from the first two Explores.  We are eager to apply them to this, the first of two Explores currently planned for 2017.  

Heard the name but are not familiar with the man or his work?  You can learn more about this Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author at the National Steinbeck Center website.

More details to come.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Washington State Arts Commission.  

WELCOME ALL!

Explore: Anton Chekhov & the Absurd is open in Kitely!
grid.kitely.com:8002:EXPLORESeanchai 

The Dacha - Chekhov's Realm

The new world structure of Kitely also means that last year's  EXPLORE The Great Gatsby will also be available to guests. The Explore Estate will be open to all guests through May 15th.

The two main structures in this new Explore reflect the two influences in the play currently being produced by Tacoma Little Theatre Seanchai Library's real-world partner: Christopher Durang's "Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike"

The Farmhouse - the land of Christopher Durang and Absurdism

On one side of the lake is a Russian Dacha (country house), with information and links on Author and Dramatist Anton Chekhov, whose plays and characters inspired the play by Mr. Durang.  On the other side is a stone farm house, like one might find in Buck's County Pennsylvania, where Durang's play is set. In it are links and information on playwright Christopher Durang, his plays, and upstairs extensive information on Absurdism in both philosophy and literature.

Several reading events are currently scheduled, and Explore is available for tours. 

ANTON'S STORIES

Saturday, April 30th at 11am (Pacific)

 Caledonia shares stories from the vast canon of fiction by Author and playwright Anton Chekhov at Seanchai Library's EXPLORE: ANTON CHEKHOV & THE ABSURD, live in voice.

THE LOVE LETTERS OF ANTON CHEKHOV - Selections

Sunday, May 8th at 11 am (Pacific)

 Seanchai Library Staff share selections from "Dear Writer, Dear Actress: The Love Letters of Anton Chekhov & Olga Knipper" at Seanchai Library's EXPLORE: ANTON CHEKHOV & THE ABSURD, live in voice.

Learn more about Anton Chekhov!

For more information on Explore, contact Caledonia Skytower at caledoniaskytower (at) gmail (dot) com

COMING IN APRIL!

A brand new EXPLORE with our partners at Tacoma Little Theatre (TLT) will open in Kitely April 8th at 5pm:

EXPLORE Anton Chekhov and the Absurd will feature the literary work of Russian author and dramatist Anton Chekhov, as well as the absurdist work of contemporary playwright Christopher Durang in support of TLT's production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.

EXPLORE Anton Chekhov and the Absurd will use a mirror image environment to juxtapose a classic country dacha to house information on the Russian dramatist, against the present day Bucks County, Pennsylvania farm setting of Durang's play.  Seanchai Library will present readings from the Chekhov's short stories as well as host tours and visitors from Tacoma Little Theatre's audience and supporters. EXPLORE will be on a large wall display screen in the lobby during performances, with a computer station, inviting patrons to take a spin through the virtual environment during preshow, intermission, and after the curtain has come down.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.  In ten public performances, beginning April 8 and closing April 24, 2016, Puget Sound audiences will be invited into the absurdist world of playwright Christopher Durang as he draws inspiration from works of Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, “puts them into a blender,” and re-imagines them in present-day rural Pennsylvania.  Durang presents a "sunny new play about gloomy people" where they discuss their lives, loves, argue, and wrestle with the condition of their existences. Durang finds humor in the struggle of the characters to find meaning in their seemingly meaningless lives, and pokes fun at their individual follies while acknowledging that the pursuit of meaning is part of the human condition.  Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike combines excellence in playwriting through the reinterpretation of classic works, with a modern philosophical twist.

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian playwright and short story writer who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theater. Chekhov, a medical doctor by profession, wrote over 200 short stories and 14 plays. "Medicine is my lawful wife," he once said, "and literature is my mistress."


The new world structure of Kitely also means that last year's  EXPLORE The Great Gatsby will also be available to guests. Stay tuned for event updates to be announced the week of April 8th.
grid.kitely.com:8002:EXPLORESeanchai 

2015's EXPLORE The Great Gatsby