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From words on a page to the stage
Actors add another dimension to Marianne Moore's Poetry.
By Colette Bancroft, Times Book Editor
Published August 19, 2007
In a career that spanned half a century, American poet Marianne Moore wrote hundreds of poems and won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Perhaps her best known poem is called, simply, Poetry, and it serves as the centerpiece and inspiration for Imaginary Gardens With Real Toads, the Alley Cat Players' multimedia performance today at the St. Petersburg Main Library. Jo Averill-Snell, who directed the show, says that besides drawing on Moore's letters, prose and poetry, she rounded up video of tadpoles and images of toads from the Flickr photo-sharing site. "There are all these amazing photos people took of actual toads in their actual gardens," the perfect counterpoint to Moore's poem. Averill-Snell says the company was drawn not only to the richness of Moore's poetry but to "how easily her work ties into a rich range of other arts." Moore was intensely interested in and inspired by modernism in the visual arts, and the performance will employ images of some of those works. Moore's poems are familiar to many readers because they are taught in college literature courses. She wrote "so broadly and so much," Averill-Snell says, "that even if you love her we're probably going to do something you haven't heard of." The show, performed by Clare Ward, Jimmy Chang and Lynne Locher, is free. "As a company, we're committed to free and affordable art," Averill-Snell says, explaining that they often stage their shows in libraries because of their accessibility. "And we're of a literary bent ourselves." Often, Alley Cat's productions are based on the works of female authors, she says, such as a recent show based on poems by Ursula K. Le Guin and Gabriela Mistral, and today's performance of Moore's poems. "Ideally, you can come and see us and then go check out one of her books." Colette Bancroft can be reached at 727 893-8435 or bancroft@sptimes.com. Alley">href="mailto:bancroft@sptimes.com" mce_href="mailto:bancroft@sptimes.com">bancroft@sptimes.com. Alley Cat Players 2 p.m. today, St. Petersburg Main Library, 3745 Ninth Ave. N Information: www.alleycat players.org
[Last modified August 16, 2007, 10:05:02]
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