Monologues and memories of lives

BARBARA DIAMOND

Zachary Shaw learned a lot at the “Vagina Monologues.”

“Every guy in the world should see this,” said Shaw, 19, after the

Feb. 27 performance at [seven degrees]. “Some things are never

discussed, so we can’t learn. Guys don’t have vaginas.”

Many in the audience saw the performance in 2003 at the Laguna

Beach Woman’s Club, which sponsored the show again this year and

benefited from proceeds.

Jonelle Allen, Lola Gillebaard and Connie Merrit, all three Laguna

Beach residents, all professionals who volunteered to reprise their

2003 performances. And they did it twice, once for a dress rehearsal

Thursday night.

Having done the show before, makes it harder in some ways -- it’s

as emotionally draining for the cast, if not more so, as for the

audience.

“That’s why we took a break before the heavy stuff,” Merritt said.

That would be monologues about beatings, beatings, rape and

painful, sometimes deadly circumcision of women -- all based on

interviews with the victims. Women around the world have vowed to

continue sponsoring performances until the violence stops

“We don’t just do a show; we do it for a reason,” Merritt said.

In some states in this country, the sale of vibrators is against

the law. The sale of guns is not.

“I have yet to hear of a mass murder by vibrator,” Gillebarard

said.

Although the cast stayed the same, director Anthony Barnao was

new.

“He had never seen the show and he brought new things to it,”

Gillebaard said.

The show also included new material -- unfortunately, there is an

almost inexhaustible supply.

Happily left in the script: a tour de force by Allen that gives a

whole new meaning to moans, applauded by audience and cast.

“The show was really hard this year,” Allen said. “Just before we

started rehearsal, I was doing “Follies” (significantly lighter fare)

at the Garret [Theater.] Thank God for Anthony.”

LIVES CELEBRATED

Sunday was a day of laughter and tears.

Carol Alstot’s goodness of heart, devotion to family and church,

strength of character and her giggle were remembered Sunday at Laguna

Presbyterian Church.

She was afflicted with scleroderma, a terrible disease, which took

her life on Feb. 23, but never ruined it.

Family members and admirers spoke of her with love and admiration

for her courage, summed up by her husband, Gary Alstot.

“I miss her,” he said.

The Alstots were married more than 50 years and lived in Laguna

Beach for 20 of those years.

Carol Marcella Bartizal was born Dec. 2, 1930 in Illinois and

graduated from Northwestern University. She moved from state to state

and back again as dictated by her husband’s career and briefly taught

school.

After moving here, she became an active member of the Laguna

Presbyterian Church, a member of the bell-ringing chorus, which

played at the service. She also was member of PEO.

The filled church testified to the Alstots’ broad involvement in

community activities. Respects were paid by fellow parishioners, the

Lunch Bunch and members of the Rotary Club, the Laguna Beach

Taxpayers Assn., Friends of the Library, the Festival of Arts and the

Laguna Beach Garden Club.

Kinsman, who had been welcomed to the parish by the Alstots,

attended.

Donations in Carol Alstot’s name may be made to the church, 425

Forest Ave., or to the Scleroderma Research Foundation

(www.srfcure.org).

Artists and art lovers, collectors and gallery owners, family

members and admirers of Andy Wing gathered Sunday at the Unitarian

Universalist Fellowship to share memories of the unique man, his art,

his intellect and his great heart, which gave out as a muscle, but

never as a motivator.

In his own words: “My credo is all that I have written and of all

things growing and all that exists and more.”

Wing was a man of images and words -- many, many words.

In a fit of pique at the Laguna Art Museum, Andy once sent a fax

to the director. The communique clogged the museum fax for two days.

“I was there watching the fax,” said Bolton Colburn, now director

of the museum, but not at that time. “I thought it was funny. The

director [Naomi Vine] didn’t.

“Every time she was unhappy with the residents in town

[principally those opposed to the ‘submerger’ of the museum into

Newport Harbor Museum], she’d say; “I have this fax ... “

Most people have a little editor in their heads that keeps them

safe, according to Colburn

“You hear it, you don’t go there,” he said. “Andy had a by-pass

mechanism.”

He went “there” in his art and in the causes he espoused. His tall

frame cast a long shadow and his size 15 shoes are unlikely to be

filled any time soon. He died Feb. 3.

Recollections of some of his endearing foibles evoked laughter in

the overflowing fellowship hall.

Among those who shared memories: gallery owner Beverly Inskeep;

photographer and BC Gallery owner Mark Chamberlain; Andy’s sister,

Nan Wing, and her former husband, artist Leonard Kaplan. Their son,

Adam, paid his tribute with music.

“He was very much part of my life,” Kaplan said. “He was a good

painter, exceptional in his own way.”

The gathering was followed by a potluck held at Andy’s Victory

Walk home and throughout the Sarah Thurston Park neighborhood.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box

248, Laguna Beach, 92652, hand-deliver to 384 Forest Ave., Suite 22;

call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949)494-8979.