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Fun at the Annual Father-Daughter Dance

2/27/2017

Dads and daughters gathered at the Lookout Mountain Fairyland Club for the annual Oneida Club Father-Daughter Dance, which was started by Rink Murray five years ago. Limited to 100 dads, this annual event is not only much-anticipated but also raises funds for charity.

The dance floor was a state of pandemonium as disc jockey Scuba Steve’s tunes drove the little girls into a frenzy. Brady Garvich coordinated the event and gave credit to his team of volunteers, especially his wife, Whitney Garvich, who organized the league of hard-working mothers, including Miller Tallent, Maggie Estes, Lucia Hopper and Kristi Murray. Merrell McGinness decorated the club with a Mardi Gras theme. Debbie Wilson was the professional photographer.

Amidst fanfare and excitement, the coveted awards were given. Honored for owning the dance floor with the Best Dance Moves were Eddie and Kinsey Hilger. Worst Dance Moves went to Trey Carico, and unfortunately for them, by association, Ellie and Emery Carico. The Best Dressed Award went to Lucas and Stella Minninger, who were decked out in Mardi Gras attire.

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Best Picture Winner Has Lookout Mountain Ties

2/27/2017

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Jessica and John Montague at the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards, where “The Last Season” was nominated for the Truer Than Fiction award

Congratulations to "Moonlight," winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture. John Montague, a Lookout Mountain native, commissioned Barry Jenkins to write the screenplay.

This article originally ran in the January 2017 issue of the Lookout Mountain Mirror:
by Ferris Robinson
If you haven’t heard of "Moonlight," you will. The winner of four Gotham Awards (Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Audience Award and special jury award for Ensemble Performance), it is touted as a frontrunner for an Oscar award, according to Vanity Fair and Huffington Post. It’s received six Golden Globe nominations, including Best Movie and Best Screenplay. If you Google "Moonlight," headlines like "This is Why We Can’t Stop Talking About Moonlight" and "Moonlight Just Got One Step Closer to Winning a Best Picture Oscar" pop up.

The film documents three stages of a young black boy’s life as he grows up in Miami, dealing with his drug-addicted mother and coming to terms with his complex reality of his sexuality. It is a powerful film, thoroughly absorbing the viewer, and screenwriter Barry Jenkins is receiving countless accolades for this piece of work.

However, Mr. Jenkins needed a little nudge, and some support, to write his masterpiece. His pal, John Montague, a Lookout Mountain native and son of Alice and Alfred Smith and Rick and Cannon Montague, was both a friend and a fan of Barry Jenkins. "I love his first film, 'Medicine For Melancholy,' and I was pushing Barry to make a second film," Montague said. But Barry was spread thin with his career in advertising and didn’t have time to work on a second film. His eye keen for talent, John Montague commissioned Barry to take time off from work and write a screenplay. He did. And the result was two screenplays, one of them "Moonlight." "I was blown away by it," Montague said simply.

Plan B, Brad Pitt's production company, produced it, along with A24, and although John is as proud and thrilled over the screenplay’s success as a new father is over a newborn, he doesn’t love being as hands-off as he was at the end. "I'm a creative person, and I like contributing to the creative process. With this particular project, it’s been very hands off. Once A24 and Plan B got on board, I've pretty much just been watching from the sidelines," John said. Of course, without John's hand in this whole scenario, chances are, the film wouldn’t be in existence.

(In a sense, John Montague is a chip off the old block, at least in terms of his love for theatre; his mother, Alice Smith, is an accomplished actress with a gimlet eye for all-things-theatrical.)

After graduating from LMS, then attending Baylor School and graduating from Northfield-Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, he studied theatre at UVA, then performed, directed and taught improve in New York City for eight years. His first project was The Ross Brothers' "Tchoupitoiulas;" he later was the executive produce of "The Last Season."

He is stunned by the response to the film he commissioned, and still can’t believe the way the public has fully embraced it. Landing in a project with Brad Pitt and being the center of Oscar buzz is probably not what most folks plan for. "I expected it would find a smaller niche audience," he said, admitting that "the overwhelming attention and exposure has been surreal." As the first person to read the acclaimed screenplay, he wishes he had taken better care of his copy. "It's a little tattered from reading it!"

Altitude picked up "Moonlight" and will distribute it worldwide. According to Altitude’s CEO Will Clarke, "'Moonlight' is one of those life-affirming films that immerses you in its universal themes and kaleidoscopic view of life but told with such emotional intimacy, delicacy and beauty that no-one could fail to be moved in a way that is surprising and unforgettable. It is pure cinema and a milestone in independent film."

John lives in Arcata, Calif., with his wife, Jessica, and their two daughters, Holly and Lucy. In addition to filmmaking, he tracks the growth rates and keeps records on the tallest and largest redwoods. John serves on the board of councilors at Save The Redwoods League, and is currently building the first ever complete data set of redwoods over 18 feet in diameter. In 2015, John discovered the largest known redwood for diameter (29.2 feet). He also co-discovered the world’s tallest pine tree. In addition to trees and movies, John is also the CEO of Moosetache Games, a card game publisher, and is responsible for the titles Hike and Rowboat.

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Covenant Theatre Presents "Mr. Pim Passes By"

2/15/2017

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Most of us fondly remember a time when we followed A.A. Milne's classic characters of Pooh Bear and his friends through the Hundred Acre Wood. What we may not know is that Milne was also an accomplished playwright. Covenant College is delighted to present a play written with the same combination of whimsy and wisdom we came to love with Pooh and his pals.

"Mr. Pim Passes By," the best known of Milne's plays, was first performed in 1920 (the same year Milne's son Christopher Robin was born). It is a light-hearted, jocular, yet surprisingly serious depiction of the tensions generated between traditional and "new-fangled," ways of viewing love, marriage, art and even pig farming.

The show's namesake, pleasantly absent-minded Mr. Pim (played by freshman Will Payne) passes by the Marden country estate one day only to inadvertently set in motion the play's sad-silly-serious dramatic conflict. Country gentleman George Marden (junior Andrew Lupinek) is content, along with his aunt Lady Marden (junior Bethany Hicks), to stick to the old ways. "What was good enough, for his great-great-grandfather is good enough for him." However, George's gently diplomatic wife Olivia (junior Julie Pretorius) is rather more amenable to the young people's approach to life, love and beauty. When Mr. Pim comes bearing a story which, alas, involves a confusion of names, the stage is set for George and Olivia's comic but painful struggle to determine what they actually believe to be the true nature of marriage, morality, loyalty and love.

Actress Julie Pretorius says the show's main theme is a battle between the heart and the law; ultimately, it questions whether it is possible to wed justice and mercy. Director Professor Camille Hallstrom adds, "Milne had a prolific and diverse career as a writer. In addition to his children's literature and plays, he had successful turns as a journalist, humorist, mystery writer, poet, and screenwriter. He served as assistant editor to Punch, (the British satire magazine) for several years, and was assigned to 'sedentary work' (i.e., writing war propaganda) during WWI. Looking back on his career he said 'The only excuse which I have yet discovered for writing anything is that I want to write it; and I should be as proud to be delivered of a Telephone Directory con amore as I should be ashamed to create a Blank Verse Tragedy at the bidding of others.' In other words, he excelled in writing what it was fun for him to write, not what others thought it was proper for him to write. And in so doing, he has provided – as all lovers of Pooh know – a corpus which is light-hearted and companionable yet gently insightful and comfortingly wise."

Mr. Pim Passes By plays February 17, 18 and 24 at 8 p.m. and February 25 at 2:30 p.m in the Sanderson Hall Auditorium on the Covenant College campus. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for seniors, students, and staff. Patrons can also attend the final dress rehearsal on February 16 with $5 tickets for adults and $3 for seniors, students and staff.

To reserve tickets or for more information, contact the box office at (706) 419-1051 or boxoffice@covenant.edu.

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Fun at the Annual Father-Daughter Dance

Best Picture Winner Has Lookout Mountain Ties

Covenant Theatre Presents "Mr. Pim Passes By"

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Fun at the Annual Father-Daughter Dance

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