GwinnettForum | Number 21.44 | June 11, 2021
ALUMNUS FEATURED: the director of the Aurora Theatre, Anthony Rodriguez, was featured as the top story in one of this week’s UGA Today. Rodriguez is the co-founder and producing artistic director. See the full story in Today’s Focus below.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Anthony Rodriguez (BFA ’91), the showstopper
EEB PERSPECTIVE: What is a productive meeting? On playing bocce ball
SPOTLIGHT: Comet National Shipping
FEEDBACK: Historians should determine what’s taught, not politicians
UPCOMING: Wednesdays bring shows for kids from Aurora Children’s Playhouse
NOTABLE: Another site recognized Buford City Schools as best in Georgia
RECOMMENDED: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Gullah-Geechee culture centers on Georgia and South Carolina coasts
MYSTERY PHOTO: Mystery Photo fitting for Memorial Day; where is it?
LAGNIAPPE: Photograph of caladium leaf shows beautiful detail
Anthony Rodriguez (BFA ’91), the showstopper
(Editor’s note: This story first appeared in UGA Today “Alumni Spotlight” in its Tuesday edition. We reprint it with their permission.—eeb)
By Aaron Hale
ATHENS, Ga. | Though he’s not necessarily proud of it, Anthony Rodriguez’s career path was heavily influenced by a case of math phobia.
Rodriguez
Coming into the University of Georgia, Rodriguez BFA ’91 liked the idea of standing in front of people and convincing them that something was true. So, he thought he’d be a great lawyer. “And then it came down to the fact that law had a math requirement, so I went to the theater instead,” he says.
Things turned out just fine for Rodriguez, the co-founder and producing artistic director of the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, who’s garnered a respectable acting resume that includes stage, commercials, and voice work. “The ironic part, is virtually all I do now is math,” says Rodriguez, who manages a $3.2 million annual budget.
That’s been especially true during a pandemic that’s shut down any resemblance of normalcy to his professional theatre. It turns out that Rodriguez spent his whole life preparing for the role of the resourceful and resilient producer.
Act I: An Actor Prepares: At UGA, once Rodriguez decided on a theatre major, he threw himself into it. His first passion was acting, but he got a job in the scene shop and learned how to build sets, paint scenery, and operate the theatre’s fly system.
He found a few choice roles on the stage too, including playing the lunatic Renfield in the theatre department’s production of Dracula. The diversity of experience proved useful. Rodriguez went on to an acting career in Atlanta and Chicago, but he supplemented his income with gigs in scene shops and event companies.
Act II: The Dawn of a New Theatre: Eventually, Rodriguez settled in Gwinnett County and founded Aurora Theatre with his partner, Ann-Carol Pence. When the theatre opened, Rodriguez helped build sets, advertise, sell tickets, and act in the shows.
Over time, Aurora Theatre has become a valued part of the community. So much so, that the City of Lawrenceville partnered with the theatre on a $35 million expansion project, which broke ground in 2019. The project will add a 500-seat theatre to the existing main stage, a converted Methodist church sanctuary that holds 250.
Act III: The Lights Go Out: Aurora was two weeks into a seven-week run of the musical On Your Feet, the story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan, when the pandemic shut everything down. The team left the stage set and the costumes in the dressing rooms, hoping to pick it all back up. “When it first started, we thought we’d be gone for a couple weeks, a month maybe,” Rodriguez says.
Instead, Rodriguez had to put his math skills to the test, getting to the tedious work of fundraising and applying for grants and loans to keep his theatre alive. But Rodriguez also knew that he had to continue to engage with his audience.
Act IV: The Show Goes On: Aurora Theatre tried a few digital performances, but Rodriguez admits that his small company can’t compete in digital entertainment with the likes of Netflix and Hulu. “My content is never going to be that well produced. So we started doing the things we do best.” That is live, in-person, community-building performances.
They hosted outdoor stand-up comedy and a cabaret show. Rodriguez performed his annual one-man A Christmas Carol, allowing only 40 people into the main theater, less than 25 percent capacity. The shows have been successful. Performances have sold out. Still, the theatre is barely treading water.
Act V: Hope for a Happy Ending: Construction continues on the expanded theatre, including an outdoor courtyard for safer performances. Rodriguez hopes the project will be done this summer and that things get closer to normal—whatever that looks like—for a big October show.
But he’s not ready to start planning for the next major production. Yet. For now, he’s focused on what he can do: “Just stay in touch and connected with our patrons in the best way possible so that when we do re-open, they know we’re still here and that we’re still doing the work that we’ve always done, which is building a legacy for the arts in Gwinnett County.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
What is a productive meeting? On playing bocce ball
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JUNE 11, 2021 | Meetings of individuals can be useful. But not all meetings are always productive. A while back we wrote of wasted times from meetings at work sites.
A reader wrote back: “Reminds me of when I was temporarily heading up two divisions of the organization. Our regional director formed an Executive Committee with four of us, himself, the deputy regional director, the training chief and me. We met EVERY morning at 9 a.m., and usually the meeting went on until 10:30 or 11. What a waste of time! Two hours out of each day! He was a micromanager, and it drove me nuts. That was his bad side. But he had, for me, a good side, in that he promoted me twice.”
Now to a more personal experience. When I was newspapering, I believed it was essential that our main department directors knew what was going on in the operation. Best way to do this was a weekly meeting of these people, about five or six of us. We put a time limit on the meeting: no more than 30 minutes. That’s enough time to go around the room, and hear SHORT reports from each division, solve simple problems, and get back to work. If there was a bigger problem, we met separately only with those involved and did not waste the time of the others not involved.
Covid eliminated many meetings, at least personally. You wonder now that we are getting closer to normal, if the Covid shortcuts have changed meetings, since we now realize many were not needed. We suspect in larger operations the regular staff meetings can still be beneficial. But not for two hours!
Now who has some feedback on these staff meetings?
Ever play Bocce (or bocci) ball? It can also go by the name of lawn bowling, bowls, or petanque (in France). The game originated way back in the Roman Empire, and today is routinely played throughout Europe and South America.
It is a versatile game, with little equipment needed except for the eight round, colored usually wooden balls (about four inches round), and the jack, a white ball of about two inches. It can be played either on a wooden-sided soil or asphalt court 90 feet wide and 3-4 foot wide, or even just on an open lawn.
Sheila Fowler of Gwinnett Parks and Recreation says that there are two bocce ball courts in Gwinnett, at Ronald Reagan Park. There are also courts at Piedmont Park in Atlanta.
The contestants can be two players, or two teams of two or four. Players try to get their balls closest to the earlier-thrown jack ball, gaining a point or two. Or you try to knock an opponent away from the jack. Games typically end at 7 of 13 points. The bocce ball is thrown underhanded. Tape measures are often used to see which side has their toss closest to the jack.
We remember seeing bocce ball being played by people all dressed in long white pants and white shirts in San Diego. The area was awash in courts: there must have been 30 or 40 of them, with every court busy.
It’s a game for young or old. It would be great to see our Gwinnett cities and the county preparing more of the simple bocce ball courts. Or just clearing a big lawn for play.
Now if anyone has a spacious lawn, I’ve got a bocce ball set ready to take you on.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
Comet National Shipping
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today’s sponsor is Comet National Shipping. If you have trucking needs, why pay for a WHOLE flatbed or covered truck, when all you need is half the space? Comet National Shipping of Lilburn can provide you with the transportation, packing, and warehousing solutions that will keep your costs reasonable and suited to your company’s needs. With more than 26 years of nationwide service, our customers put their trust in Comet National because we understand their shipping needs can change from shipment to shipment. In business since 1992, Comet is dedicated to delivering cost-effective solutions for transporting your products quickly and safely to your customer’s destination without compromise. At Comet National, our full-service shipping, packing, and warehousing resources are sure to fulfill your requirements. Call us at 1-800-831-5376. We will respond quickly to provide you with quotes and see to it that the loads are handled as you have specified, and delivered on time!
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Historians should determine what’s taught, not politicians
Editor, the Forum:
As a former history teacher, I am concerned that Republicans are trying to dictate what history is taught in our schools. I suspect that illiterate conservatives are whining about Critical Race Theory without ever understanding that racial injustice is an essential part of American History.
Conservatives have tried to whitewash our history as if they could wish away the reality of the cruelty of slavery and Jim Crow. We must allow historians to dictate what is taught in schools, not conspiracy minded politicians.
— Alan Schneiberg, Sugar Hill
Correction on previous edition comment on judicial races
Editor, the Forum:
Your comment that all sitting Superior Court Judges are white is incorrect. Judges Tadia Whitner and Deborah Fluker are both African American and serve the county well.
— Gerald Davidson, Peachtree Corners
Dear Gerald (and all): Yep, I goofed. What I meant to say is that all up for election are white. There really was no reason to have introduced race at all. I apologize. -eeb
Are we approaching singularity in acceptable thought?
Editor, the Forum:
I second the support for the article about propaganda and media. The “just the facts” news is a thing of the past. Today each show is trying to persuade the viewer to a position. Like it not, we’ve all been salespersons in our lives, whether it was trying to get dad to give you some money, or ask someone out, or get a higher grade. There’s always been something that required persuasion to attain.
One seems to need multiple sources of different positions to triangulate what today is actually happening. I read the Guardian, the Economist, and Reuters. Watch Fox and the BBC News. There are others, but these regular sources give me a range of points of view. Some information is not even discussed on all of them. Knowing there are points of view is slipping away, as we seem to be approaching a singularity in acceptable thought.
— Byron Gilbert, Duluth
Duluth library and crickets tie in to local history
Editor, the Forum:
Loved the projectory of Dr. Wandy Taylor from not being able to go in a library to heading the library Trustees of Gwinnett!
The new Duluth Library is a modern day citadel of learning from computer stations to 3-D printers to makers rooms to tons of books both print and audible. It was built to somewhat replicate a “cricket box” factory once in downtown Duluth.
The Duluth Fine Arts League and the Public Arts Commission are embracing crickets as an opportunity for more art. At the entrance to this new library will be a huge sculpture of an overturned cricket box. From this box, large, colorful metal crickets will have escaped and appeared all over town. These crickets are being created by metal artist, Michael Dillon, who was initially commissioned to create the “Phoenix” sculpture at the roundabout entrance to Duluth on West Lawrenceville Street.
Here’s to a city full of colorful bugs adopted by art and book lovers!
— G.G. Getz, Duluth
Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words, and include your hometown. The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: elliott@brack.net.
Wednesdays bring shows from Aurora Children’s Playhouse
Cirque Du Todd with Todd Key
Aurora Theatre offers cooped up kids a chance to get out and celebrate the return of Aurora Children’s Playhouse. The Gwinnett County theater invites local families to special shows by the best performers in the region.
The weekly Wednesday performances begin at 11 a.m. and are perfect for children on summer vacation, local summer camps and daycare organizations. The shows are ideal for preschool through elementary school ages and run about 45 minutes in length. All performances are $7.
Big Thinkers Science Exploration, Wednesday, June 16 at 11 a.m. This will make theatergoers feel the force with a spectacle of science. Be amazed as entertainers explore the whirring world of physics through defying gravity and levitating water.
Manga African Dance, Wednesday, June 23 at 11 a.m. Experience the pulsating sounds of Sunu and the traditional festival music played by the Malinke people of Guinea and Mali. This performance will transport children to the villages of West Africa, where popular American dances such as hip-hop moves and the Charleston were born.
Cirque du Todd, with Todd Key, Wednesday, June 30 at 11 a.m. Todd Key is an extraordinary talent with amazing skill in the art of juggling. A legendary fixture at Renaissance Festivals as a part of the act The Zucchini Brothers, Todd will host Cirque Du Todd for children and families. Cirque Du Todd does it all while maintaining a patter that will keep audiences laughing so hard tears will come to their eyes!
Havana Son, a musical tour through Latin America will be Wednesday, July 7 at 11 a.m.
This transports the audience to the tropics without a passport through a musical journey. Children participate by singing, clapping, dancing or playing percussion instruments.
Another site finds Buford City Schools as best in Georgia
Another organization has ranked the Buford City Schools as the best in Georgia. This comes from the web site Stacker, which analyzes public and private datasets around newsworthy topics to help understand current events, and ranks school districts throughout the country.
Stacker analyzed 2021 data from the web site Niche to calculate the best school district in every state. Niche rankings rely on statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, SAT/ACT scores, college readiness, teacher quality, and graduation rates.
It found this data from the Buford schools:
- *Students: 4,966;
- Student-to-teacher ratio: 12:1;
- Reading proficient: 65 percent;
- Math proficient: 75 percent;
- Graduation rate: 93 percent;
- Expenditure per student: $14,134; and
- Average teacher salary: $62,865.
Duluth is welcoming to visitors with lots of activity
Looking for weekend plans? Make Downtown Duluth your staycation destination as you plan your walkable weekend with live music, food, shopping, entertainment and so much more!
Fridays-N-Duluth kicks off the weekend on June 18 until 9 p.m. with food trucks, live music and entertainment! Get out of the summer sun for a while and browse through Duluth’s unique shops.
Summer Stage Concerts return to Town Green on June 19 at 8 p.m. with a performance by Broadway’s Rock of Ages Band on the Town Green Main Stage.
Undeniably Easy Sunday Morning: Rise and shine on a perfect Downtown Duluth Sunday morning by strolling over to one of its local restaurants for brunch.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
From John Titus, Peachtree Corners: This biography of Alexander Hamilton follows his life from being an illegitimate orphan in the West Indies to becoming the most important appointed official in George Washington’s first cabinet as his Secretary of the Treasury. Not only that, but he was a major figure in the development of one of the first two political parties. It was a remarkably rapid ascent. Perhaps alone among the Founding Fathers, he understood and foresaw the workings of a capitalist society as being the underpinning for our success as a country. While undoubtedly possessing a brilliant mind and an exceptional capacity for hard work, his fierce defense of his personal honor and combative nature ultimately led to the duel in which he was killed by Aaron Burr. In exploring his life Chernow often goes into such depth so as to not make this an easy read, but it is a worthwhile one.
- An invitation: what books, restaurants, movies or web sites have you enjoyed recently? Send us your recent selection, along with a short paragraph (150 words) as to why you liked this, plus what you plan to visit or read next. Send to: elliott@brack.net
Gullah-Geechee culture centers on Georgia. S.C. coasts
The Gullah and Geechee culture on the Sea Islands of Georgia has retained ethnic traditions from West Africa since the mid-1700s. Although the islands along the southeastern U.S. coast harbor the same collective of West Africans, the name Gullah has come to be the accepted name of the islanders in South Carolina, while Geechee refers to the islanders of Georgia. Modern-day researchers designate the region stretching from Sandy Island, S.C., to Amelia Island, Fla., as the Gullah Coast—the locale of the culture that built some of the richest plantations in the South.
Many traditions of the Gullah and Geechee culture were passed from one generation to the next through language, agriculture, and spirituality. The culture has been linked to specific West African ethnic groups who were enslaved on island plantations to grow rice, indigo, and cotton starting in 1750, when antislavery laws ended in the Georgia colony.
A Board of Trustees established Georgia in 1732 with the primary purposes of settling impoverished British citizens and creating a mercantile system that would supply England with needed agricultural products. The colony enacted a 1735 antislavery law, but the prohibition was lifted in 1750. West Africans, the argument went, were far more able to cope with the climatic conditions found in the South. And, as the growing wealth of South Carolina’s rice economy demonstrated, enslaved Africans were far more profitable than any other form of labor available to the colonists.
Rice plantations fostered Georgia’s successful economic competition with other slave-based rice economies along the Eastern Seaboard. Coastal plantations invested primarily in rice, and plantation owners sought out Africans from the Windward Coast of West Africa (Senegambia [later Senegal and the Gambia], Sierra Leone, and Liberia), where rice, indigo, and cotton were indigenous to the region. Over the ensuing centuries, the isolation of the rice-growing ethnic groups, who recreated their native cultures and traditions on the coastal Sea Islands, led to the formation of an identity recognized as Geechee/Gullah.
There is no single West African contribution to Geechee/Gullah culture, although dominant cultural patterns often correspond to various agricultural investments. For example, Africa’s Windward Coast was later commonly referred to as the Rice Coast in recognition of the large numbers of Africans enslaved from that area who worked on rice plantations in America.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Mystery Photo fitting for Memorial Day; where is it?
Today’s Mystery Photo would have been a fitting tribute on Memorial Day. See if you can figure out where it is located, and what artist compiled this sculpture. Send your answer to elliott@brack.net to include your hometown.
Three readers both got not only the right answer to the last Mystery Photo, but told us what was unique about this photograph. Jeanine Ritter of Suwanee was first in: “This is the state capitol building of Iowa, located in Des Moines, Iowa, where I grew up, and where my family still lives, and where I will be visiting next week. It is the only five-domed capitol building in the U.S. Having lived in Georgia and Iowa, I just assumed that all capitol buildings had domes covered in gold leaf, but apparently not!” Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill and Allan Peel of San Antonio, Tex. identified this also as the only state capitol with five domes.”
The photograph came from Frank Studer of Greenville, S.C.
Others recognizing the Iowa capitol included Kay Montgomery, Duluth; Lou Camerio, Lilburn; Jim Savadelis, Duluth; Bob Foreman, Grayson; and George Graf of Palmyra, Va.
Graf told us: “Interestingly, every governor’s wife gets a doll made fashioned to her style at the time and it is put on display with all the previous dolls.The Iowa First Lady Doll Display Case is located in the South Rotunda of the Iowa State Capitol. Kevin Reynolds, husband of Gov. Kim Reynolds, was encased in Iowa history. Reynolds, known as Iowa’s first spouse, first gentleman or as the governor sometimes calls him “the first dude,” was on hand for an unveiling ceremony of his doll likeness that joined 44 other figurines in the First Doll display. The doll display case was first unveiled on December 28, 1976.
Correction: The recent aerial Mystery Photo of Fort Sumter was from Rob Ponder of Duluth. He says: “I took that picture from a helicopter flight that my son and I were on a couple of years ago.” We apologize for the omission.
Note the drop of water: Susan McBrayer of Sugar Hill sends in this photo of a Caladium leaf in her backyard. “Caladiums are my favorite shade plant and there was a drop of water on one. It reminded me of a diamond. It showed up even more clearly on my iPhone.”
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
GwinnettForum is provided to you at no charge every Tuesday and Friday.
Meet our team
- Editor and publisher: Elliott Brack, 770-840-1003
- Managing editor: Betsy Brack
- Roving photographer: Frank Sharp
- Contributing columnist: Jack Bernard
- Contributing columnist: Debra Houston
- Contributing columnist: George Wilson
More
- Mailing address: P.O. Box 1365, Norcross, Ga. 30091.
- Work with us: If you would like to serve as an underwriter, click here to learn more.
Subscriptions to GwinnettForum are free.
- Click to subscribe.
- Unsubscribe. We hope you’ll keep receiving the great news and information from GwinnettForum, but if you need to unsubscribe, go to this page and unsubscribe in the appropriate box.
© 2021, Gwinnett Forum.com. Gwinnett Forum is an online community commentary for exploring pragmatic and sensible social, political and economic approaches to improve life in Gwinnett County, Ga. USA.
Follow Us