Nicki's Central West End Guide

Shakespeare Festival's "Othello" opens this week

"Places everyone!" for the opening of the 12th Season of the Shakespeare Festival in Forest Park's Shakespeare Glen. This season features the Bard's Othello, which according to Festival Executive Director Rick Dildine, is one of their audience's most requested plays.

When I stopped by last week, signage was laid out and ready to be installed at the top of the beautiful glen northeast of the Art Museum; and actors were arriving to step onto the outdoor stage for the first time. 
Othello is directed by Bruce Longworth, head of the acting program at Webster University. Longworth also directed Hamlet in 2010. The Shakespeare Festival's production is set in 1912 during a lesser-known war between Italy and Turkey. The set designer is Robbie Jones and the costumes--always at the top of my list--are designed by Lou Bird.

Over the past eleven years the Shakespeare Festival has attracted over 500,000 people. The photo of the huge crowd above was taken two years ago when Hamlet was being performed. Bring your blanket, lawn chairs, and a picnic--or purchase food and drink under a tent on the festival grounds. Othello will be performed each evening at 8 p.m. (except Tuesdays) from May 23 (May 23 & 24 are preview performances) through June 17. Complimentary backstage tours, 20-minute Talkback sessions, and Green Show activities are available starting at 6:30.

Major donors to the Shakespeare Festival include Emerson, Wells Fargo Advisors, UMB, Missouri Arts Council, Ameren and Scottrade. While the Shakespeare Festival is free, individual donations are definitely encouraged.  Call the festival office at (314) 531-9800 or check the website for more information. 

Got Wheels?

Getting around the neighborhood

At Euclid & Maryland,

and in Forest Park.

Springtime in Forest Park

Liz Heller: Neighborhood Biker Chick

My  scheduled interview with Liz (Trinkie) Heller, above, got off to an inauspicious start last Sunday morning, when the fact that it was daylight savings time just blew right past this household. The photo-op scheme was to catch her leaving her CWE home and heading off to Forest Park for the start of the Great Forest Park Bicycle Race, where she was participating in a one-mile criterium (a bicycle race of a specified number of laps on a closed course over public roads closed to normal traffic). Instead, I was the one racing from her CWE condo with instructions from Liz's husband, Bill Joffe, to try to catch up with her near the Muny on one of her practice laps around the park.

I've known Liz, a lawyer and competitive cyclist, since she was a teenager living on Lenox Place. The Heller family moved from New York in 1960 and left the street--but not the neighborhood--in 1976. For reasons she can't remember, Lenox Place neighbor Harry Langenberg --one of the neighborhood's storied characters--taught Liz to ride a bike. Harry was an amateur athlete to the core, including founding the Missouri Rugby Football Union (which sport he played into his 60's). He was also a founder of the Claytonshire Coaching Club, and was the proud owner of a vintage Plymouth he salvaged from the Mississippi River and drove forever. Harry died at age 96 in 2005.

Liz said that The Great Forest Park Bicycle Race attracted more out-of-town participants this year because there were two races in town that weekend, the other being a criterium on Saturday in South City's Carondelet Park.

Liz participated in the USAC Women's Open, a 50 minute 4+ lap race around the park. She pointed to her competitors, above, and said they were mostly in their 20's and 30's, while she is 54. She took a 15-year break from competitive racing and jumped back in full throttle when she discovered "cyclo-cross" several years ago. If you missed Jamie Mowers excellent account of Liz's career in the last issue of the West End Word read it  here.

Liz proudly wears the neighborhood's Dressel's Racing Team jersey. I chuckled when she said she  babysat for Dressel's Public House owner Ben Dressel when he was a toddler living on Walton Row.

The photograph above shows the Junior Boys as they headed for the finish line at Government Drive near the handball courts. Unfortunately, I had to leave before the start of Liz's race but she emailed later: 

"Alas no joy in Mudville. I went for the win on last lap but got caught in the home stretch and finished well out of the money. Maybe 8th but not bad for an old lady. Trinkie"

Not bad indeed.

Welcome Christopher and Velvet!!!

Photo courtesy of Mark Glenshaw

To get your weekend off to a joyous start, please treat yourself to a visit to Mark Glenshaw's posting about the newest pair of Great Horned Owls, "Christopher and Velvet." They are shown in Mark's photo, above, peeking out from behind their mother Sarah. More pictures and a video can be found right here.

Thanks to Mark, "The Owlman of Forest Park," for the news update and these great photos. They provide a welcome escape from everything else that is going on, weather-wise and on the national political scene.

Recycled Xmas trees as shelter

Each year after the holidays we take our Christmas tree to the Muny lot in Forest Park to be recycled into mulch. We recently discovered that for 26 years (where have we been?) the Missouri Department of Conservation has found another creative use for some of the trees. As shown in the photo above, they are strung out in Jefferson Lake near Steinberg Rink to offer fish a protective habitat for spawning and a safe environment for the young fish as they grow. 

The fisherman in the first photo was reluctant to let me take a photo until he was headed home with his catch of three large trout, above. That's when he raised them proudly to signal it was okay to snap away.
 

Across the street Frank James, aka the "Curbside Artist*," had positioned his easel to afford a sweeping view of the lake. I learned a lot about Frank in a very short visit. He is self-taught, has painted a series of scenes in Tower Grove Park and Lafayette Square, and has recently been working in Forest Park. Though you can't tell much about his talent from the painting he had just started above, other examples of his work that I saw are quite lovely.

I couldn't help but notice Frank's artfully-torn jeans and striking tennis shoes.

As I looked around I discovered he wasn't the only one sporting orange Tuesday afternoon.

*Frank James, (314) 827-1684.

Controlled burn in Forest Park today!

FYI from Westminster Place resident Ann Kitlaus and forwarded to me by Alderman Lyda Krewson: In case you haven’t heard about this fire activity today near Lindell and Union entrance to park.

St. Louis firefighters will monitor controlled burn in Forest Park today

ST. LOUIS • Don't panic if you spot Forest Park on fire today.

The city and Forest Park Forever plan a controlled burn of a prairie in the Deer Lake Natural Area of the park. The St. Louis Fire Department will be there to keep an eye on the burn.

Forest Park Forever and the Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry will conduct the burn from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. A smaller test burn will take place at 9:30 a.m.

At least 14 acres of the 24-acre wet savannah area will be burned by DJM Ecological Services. The burn will rid the area of thick brush to help maintain the vitality and health of the savannahs and prairies better than mowing or taking no action, officials said.

The burn area is east of the Dennis & Judith Jones Visitor Center on Grand Drive in Forest Park at the intersection of Confederate Drive and Grand Drive, near the Spanish Cannon*.

"We have a lot of invasive species in that area," said Jasmine Evans, a spokeswoman for Forest Park Forever.
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/st-louis-firefighters-will-monitor-controlled-burn-in-forest-park/article_30c75ad0-1c79-11e1-9bda-0019bb30f31a.html#ixzz1fOJVd3ym

*Glad I have a chance to use this photo of what I assume is the Spanish cannon taken a couple of weeks ago (before the break!). Send any pictures of the burn my way and I'll post them.

Park Drive Cutoff

One of the topics of discussion at the very crowded 28th Ward Democratic Committee meeting November 17 at Dressel's Pub Above centered on the recent closing of the Park Drive cutoff at Lindell and Union. The cutoff was originally installed for automobiles when streetcar tracks ran down Lindell Blvd. (Union Ave.??? See comments below).  Alderman Lyda Krewson said that the intersection had been identified as dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists alike crossing into Forest Park. She emailed today to say that it isn't "all 'bout cars anymore...we are trying to take into account walkers, runners & bikers, without inconveniencing drivers." The road was closed temporarily as part of the City's "Complete Streets" Ordinance, which has been in effect for a couple of years. The ordinance "encourages guiding principles and practices so that transportation improvements are planned, designed and constructed to encourage walking, bicycling and transit use while promoting safe operations for all users." Park Drive is still a public street, just closed off, like many others.

The three homeowners that front the cutoff have access to their property, and emergency vehicles can enter, if necessary. Calls and emails to Lyda from 28th Ward residents have been 70% for the closure to 30% against.

The city recently painted new zebra crosswalks on all four sides, which provide a friendly notification to drivers to yield to peds/bikers. If the closure remains, Lyda hopes to have planters installed across the west end of the pie-shaped parcel instead of the concrete barricades, shown above. There isn't money in the city's budget to do much more beautification at this point. When asked at the meeting if the homeowners who front the parcel would be able to purchase the property, the Alderman replied that the cutoff would remain the property of the City of St. Louis.

Autumn red

Several people wondered whether I had been to the top of Art Hill to take in the allee of maple trees spanning the crest of Art Hill in their full autumn splendor. On Tuesday Mary Morgan and I met there so I could take some pictures and we could also visit Monet's "Water Lilies" exhibition at the Art Museum. 

After our visit the ever-curious Mary, a landscape designer, spoke with Jamie Frank, one of three Urban Foresters for the City of St. Louis, who told her there are 94 "Autumn Blaze" Maples planted on Art Hill,  with additional examples of the same variety planted around The Muny. The trees were planted in 2005, replacing Littleleaf Lindens that proved unsuitable for our hot, dry summers. Renowned landscape architect Dan Kiley, who was responsible for the design of both Art Hill and the Arch grounds, died in 2004 at age 91.

On my way to meet Mary I spotted a photographer and his beautiful subject framed against the equally resplendent grasses at the foot of Government Hill.