Vol. LXI, No. 15
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
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(Photo by T. Charles Erickson)
VOYAGES OF HIS MIND: Captain Cat (Dan Kublick), retired seaman, hears voices of the living and dreams dreams of the dead, as a colorful array of humanity lives out a day in the life of a Welsh seaside village in Dylan Tomas' "Under Milk Wood," a poetic "play for voices," at Theatre Intime on the Princeton University campus through April 7. Matthews Theatre on University Place in Princeton through April 8. |
Dylan Thomas, one of the great poets of the twentieth century, loved Welsh towns by the sea. His dramatic masterpiece, Under Milk Wood, a Play for Voices, manifests that love in every syllable and scene.
America seems to build structures in waves. Toward the end of the 19th century, the United States built concert halls along the routes of the country's burgeoning railroad system. In the years following World War I, cities and towns built monuments to the fallen. Rather than construct a statue or monument to honor the dead, the city of Trenton, New Jersey, decided to create a new community civic space to commemorate the dead through the activities of the living. The Trenton War Memorial opened in 1932 as a "living memorial," with a concert hall at the heart of its structure. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, the War Memorial played host to the leading stars of music, dance and politics, as well as its resident Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra. In the 1990s, the roughly 1900-seat hall was renovated, and the Symphony refined its sound to become a credible regional orchestra in the area.