Newest articles on The Sacramento Press written by Mark Urquhart

A walk by the River

2012-02-07T22:43:45Z

With a beautiful late winter Saturday afternoon to fill, I decided to take my two boys out for a walk by the river. I like the area by Sutters' Landing at 28th/B for it's accessibility and the proximity of the skateboard/bocce/dog parks. The water level is very low and all the tracks and trails were available for wandering.

I took along my two cameras - the new, a Nikon D90 and the old, an Olympus OM4Ti with a 24mm lens. I haven't used the Olympus in a while and wanted to do a comparison by taking some side-by-side images. Also to check if the light seals were still intact - seven years of storage can make them rot.

It was perfect weather for a stroll, the ground was dry, the sun not too hot and the boys had a great time; running, hunting, finding stuff, playing with sticks, messing in the water - I on the other hand, had plenty of time to look at the scenery and take some snaps.

Rule #1 of old-style film photography had obviously escaped me - check that you have enough film in the camera!

I took one shot with the Olympus and that was it - run out of film! The Nikon, of course, had over 200 more images possible, even at my overkill image quality settings (Large, Highest quality RAW and JPGs). That reminds me - I found the oddest thing about using the film camera again was that I kept forgetting to wind the film on!.

Anyway, here are the pictures I took. There was no wind so the trees reflected beautifully. While editing, I rotated some of them 90° to make some wonderful Rorschach-like images.Here's one:

The light was nice at the end of the day, I didn't have to do much to the images beyond cropping and a little contrast adjustment. Anyway, enjoy my pictures and take a stroll out to Sutters Landing yourself some fine day!

Back on the Boards: Part One

2011-12-06T22:23:55Z

A lot has happened for me in the last 20 years - I got married, moved (from England) to Sacramento, had three (count-em!) kids and changed jobs. Enough to make my life interesting and full. One thing I left behind in 'Blighty' was my love of acting. Before coming to America, I had trod the boards in various roles, none of them remunerative sadly but all of them stimulating and fun.

Fast Forward 20 years and things seem to have settled down a little. The kids are all at school, my commute is three miles each way and my circle of acquaintances has never been larger. Time then, to branch out again.....

My two oldest children have been in several 'pay to play' theatrical shows, mainly at the eternally popular Runaway Stage on 24th Street, close tto our home in Curtis Park. They have done various 'Jr.' shows - 'Aladdin', 'Seusical', 'Guys and Dolls' etc, all wih a huge cast and a commitment to help sell tickets AND work behind the scenes AND supply the costumes.....

The kids all love doing the plays of course, but one problem with this system is that, unless your child shows unusual talent at an early age, the chance of them getting any significant role beyond '#3 Squirrel' is nill (although it increases exponentially the more plays they attend and the older they get). I don't have a problem with this, it's just the way things are.

Recently though, they attended a couple of workshop plays run by Michael Peters at the Studio Theater on 10th/R St. Again, 'pay-to-play' but thankfully with no neccessity to sell a bunch of tickets to our long-suffering friends. In addition, the cast size was small enough that all the kids involved had lines, real lines - not just the 14 year old veterans. We discovered that not only did our daughter have a voice, it was a loud and confident one too!

So, back to me....

After the last play, a play that combined 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', I wanted my son to audition for the next production at the theater. This play was 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe' - not a children's workshop, a 'proper' play. My wife thought it would be nice if I could also get a part so that we could do it together. The fact that the Director wanted the actors to use English Accents gave me some confidence, I have to admit.

So, I prepared two resumes and took 'actorly' headshots and signed up for the audition.

Well, the auditions came and went and sadly, my son did not get offered a part. By comparison, I did - they gave me the part of 'Aslan', the Great Lion of the story.

(Read part two to find out how it went).

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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe performs for three weekends from December 2nd until December 18th, with performances at 8pm on Fridays, 2pm & 8pm on Saturdays, and 2pm on Sundays.
Box Office at (877) 532-7171, The Studio Theatre, 1028 R St., Sacramento, CA 95811.

Disclosure: I am currently playing the part of Aslan in the Bob & Ro Production of 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe' .

Zombies 'Thrill' with Sac Ballet Flashmob

2011-10-17T21:15:07Z

The Sacramento Ballet can never be accused of élitism. Not when it dresses up as zombies and arranges a "Thriller" flashmob dance and encourages everyone to join in!

Last week we attended a 'performance rehearsal' at the Sac Ballet studios for the work-in-progress of the upcoming performance of 'Dracula'. The news is that it looks great! - Lots of exposed necks and flashing fangs and swirling velvet capes, even if Vincent Price won't be in it. Smart patrons have already got their tickets booked (we have). Spooky haloween-themed fun, but without the high fructrose corn syrup!

But, after the rehearsal, there was a rehearsal of another kind - As the audience filed out, another group was making their way in to the studio - not to watch, but to dance (or at least to practice dancing) the 'Thriller' dance sequence from Michael Jackson's classic video of the same name.

I'd guess about 60 people showed up to dance, some of whom had already practiced with the YouTube video that SB had posted earlier. My three kids plus a neighbor's daughter gave it a try led by the amazingly talented (if a little hoarse) MC; Chris Nachtrab.

It wasn't pretty, but it was a lot of fun.....

So, a week later, after practice with the videos, we were ready to go, so down to 20th Street, betwixt J and K.

I. Had. No. Idea. that this was the location of the Midtown Modern Arts Festival so was shocked when I saw how many people were there and parking was difficult so we got there about sixty seconds before the dance started. I shuffled my kids in to the crowd and surged to the front to take photos, having to hold the camera above my head to get any shots.

After the dance, we regrouped and looked around. Some of the dancers and other people in costume gathered preparing for a video interview so I go the kids to hang out there while I took some more photos. They turned out rather nicely!

OK, so I know it's a lot of pictures of my own kids, but I try to make them interesting - so sue me!

Lions and Witches and Wardrobes (Oh My!)

2011-10-04T21:20:22Z

In a change of direction for the holiday season, the community theater company, Bob and Ro Productions is working on a production of the much loved classic work, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis.

This will be the largest cast and the biggest production ever for the studio theater which 'Fox and Goose' regulars will surely have noticed a little further along R Street.

The auditions for the casting are over and a strong cast has been assembled with a mix of adult and children actors, drawn from all over the Sacramento region. Rehearsals start in late October and there will be twelve performances over the first three weekends of December. It promises to be an exciting production that kids and adults alike will love.

The story, familiar to many from book and movie theater, is the first book in the 'Chronicles of Narnia' series, written between 1949 and 1954. The main characters are four English schoolchildren who have been 'evacuated' from London to avoid the bombing raids. The story begins with a mysterious magical land (Narnia) discoverd at the back of an old wardrobe in the house they are billetted in. Once inside Narnia they meet many talking creatures and an evil witch. They also find a magical talking lion, Aslan and battle commences between the witches wickedness and the good woodland creatures.

Suitable for every age, this is a play that will make a great Holiday season treat for the whole family!

As this is a larger-than-normal production and involves many costume and scenery challenges, Bob and Ro Productions are trying to raise additional revenue to help cover the substantial expenses. Any angels out there who want to help this production succeed can pledge a contribution to their Kickstarter Project Page

Disclosure: I will be playing the part of 'Aslan' in the production.

Parking Enforcement Fail

2011-08-23T22:56:32Z

The Sacramento Antique Faire is always a popular event for the people of Sacramento, especially the stalwart crew of the Sacramento Parking Enforcement Division. These people gladly give up their Sundays so that they can spread cheer to the good folks who accidentally or knowingly park improperly while trying to find an antique or collectable bargain from among the many stallholders who come to these events.

While walking back to my car, which I had correctly parked, I noticed a long line of cars all with a parking ticket attached to their windows. Most of them had parked in the cross street under the underpass which is, of course, a bicycle lane. Tut tut, serves them right etc.

Imagine my surprise and concern, then to walk past the vehicle used by Parking Enforcement to issue these citations and to find it parked illegally on a well marked Fire Lane. (NorthEast corner of W street/21st St)

The car had no occupant and I was without any paper or pencil so I could not leave a message on the windscreen of the vehicle but obviously as a concerned citizen I wanted to make sure that the driver was given the same courtesy and respect [they would give the general public] and an opportunity for them to atone for their mistake.

I'm hoping someone can identify this vehicle and inform them of their mistake so that they can ask a colleague to issue them a suitable citation. I think this rule applies http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc22500_1.htm but then again, I'm not a parking enforcement professional like the driver of this vehicle presumably is.

Perhaps next time the Sunday Farmer's Market or the Antiques Faire is on, Parking Enforcement will take that little extra time to find a legal and suitable location to park their vehicles so that incidents such as this do not recur.

Thanks for reading my first Sacramento Press Article!