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February 4, 2012
Austinites cheer 'Lucia di Lammermoor'
“Drama!” “Romantic!” “Action!” “Enjoyable!” “Sing!” “Petrova!”
As if playing a word game during the first intermission, guests on the Long Center plaza shared one-word responses to Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” as staged by Austin Lyric Opera. (This kept them engaged while I snapped their pictures for this column.) Everyone I spoke to succinctly agreed with the published critics, who uniformly praised the music and the drama.
Terry Ortiz and Marion Sanchez
Yet they singled out soprano Lyubov Petrova, who gave a performance for the ages in the title role.
Brooke Bailey and Rudy Garcia
Pleased with the glories of the singing, acting, directing, conducting and playing, few seemed to notice the admittedly dowdy — if serviceable — sets and costumes from New Orleans and Salt Lake City. Given the company’s constrained circumstances these days, we must grow accustomed to the lack of potent spectacle and any repertoire outside opera’s Top 20.
Teresa Brucker and Dasha Yegorova
So be it. The music and drama suffice. They appeared to renew Austin’s devotion to the art form, as an up-to-the-rafters house rose to gladden the company with unreserved cheers.
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January 28, 2012
'Wicked' + Sam Harris + social scrapes
My little camera got me into two minor social scrapes this weekend. At the ‘Wicked’ cast party — tremendous troupe, plump production values from this touring show at Bass Concert Hall — karaoke wafted from Rusty’s gay bar on East Seventh Street. So I waited by the door to document the arriving cast, crew and guests for this column.
First in front of the lens was Don Amendolia, who looked suitably wizardly even after playing the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Then three pleasant but socially otherwise engaged young women posed for the column. Quick happy snaps.
After that, an energetic group of four approached the door. I separated them out. One actor wanted to check his look before I took his picture. Fine. Not in a hurry.
Don Amendolia and Shannon Boggus
So far, pretty normal for your social columnist. When I asked for the spelling of their names, however, one actor countered by demanding my credentials. How could he be sure that I wouldn’t misuse his image? After all, some of the cast had been stalked, he said.
Courtney Iventosch, Laran Snyder and Lindsay Wood
I was stumped. Out of business cards, I didn’t even think about the employee card in my wallet. The doorman, laughing at my social dilemma, intervened: “Yeah, that’s Michael Barnes with the newspaper.”
Zach Hensler and David Nathan Perlow
Just an actor being an actor. No hard feelings.
The next night, I headed to the YMCA on Ed Bluestein Boulevard for a kick-off event to Black History Month. When I arrived at the center, the place was swarming with young people playing and exercising. Normal. But where was the kick-off? Then I spied two men in suits, who kindly directed me to the reception.
It was not until later that I realized they were dressed almost identically, as were the other men in dark suits and smart ties outside the door of the gathering. I was asked to sign in, then overheard that I would be patted down for security reasons. What was going on?
The actual situation finally dawned on me when one of the suited men took me aside and said I could not use my camera or record anything at the event. My reporting would not be welcome at this Nation of Islam meeting.
Again, no hard feelings. Gotta read those digital invitations more closely. Everyone was exceedingly courteous, but what’s a reporter without reporting?
Headed from there to the Shoal Crossing Events Center, where Sterling Affairs Catering and Event Planning has teamed up with Austin Cabaret Theatre to present musical acts in the barn-like former dinner theater and clothing store.
In this case, when I use the term “barn-like,” it’s not a put-down, but rather a description of the building’s shape. Despite the high ceilings, it fits neatly the big cabaret talents that Stuart Moulton books.
Paul Beutel and Willa Kaye Warren
Sam Harris, veteran of “Star Search” on TV, “The Life” on Broadway and much more in a long career, appeared with Austin Cabaret Theatre years ago. His act has grown immensely. Still in ideal condition are his high, tensile voice and bright stage presence. What has matured is his patter, which reflects his full life on and off the stage, including an enduring friendship with Liza Minnelli.
I was there to check out the new space. I stayed because Harris is a cabaret sensation. And Austin audiences loves him.
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January 21, 2012
Miró Quartet and Anton Nel at Bates Recital Hall
The first thing we noticed on the printed program was a number: “Two hundred thirty-fourth event of the Butler School of Music 2011-2012 season.” And it’s only January. How many Austin performance venues claim that kind of productivity?
Gary Cooper and Richard Hartgrove
Next we noted the page dedicated to the Butler Society, named after Sarah and Ernest Butler , the school’s chief benefactors. The giving level starts at $1 million. And there are six givers in that category, including (but counting as just two) Jeff and Gail Kodosky and Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long. Again, how many …
Paula and Paul Angerstein
The nearly full Bates Recital Hall offered another clue as to the success of the Butler School. Here, guests ranging from their twenties to their eighties cheered and cheered and cheered the Miró Quartet and Anton Nel as they performed Samuel Barber, Antonín Dvorák, Edward Elgar and a rousing encore from Robert Schumann.
Joanne and Jack Crosby
It turned out a long chamber concert at more than two hours, but worth every minute of it. The audience could not be torn away from the intricately woven themes and variations. Special attention was paid to newish Miró violinist William Fedkenheuer and guest pianist Nel, whose legions of admirers were well represented in the house.
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January 15, 2012
Marathon Kids, AMOA-Arthouse, Marc Winkelman, George T. Elliman
The theme for this weekend’s parties: Photographs.
Kay Morris and Joy Authur
It began at the VIP Pre-Party for Marathon Kids at the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel. After snagging likenessess of party chairwomen Mary Herr Tally and Maria Groten, as well as Marathon Kids founder Kay Morris and the group’s national development director, Joy Authur, I tried a third duo, only to find that this handsome pair looked somewhat askew as captured by my little Canon PowerShot lens.
Mary Herr Tally and Maria Groten
Obvious resolution: I didn’t publish them. The next challenge was to catch the stars of the subsequent concert at the Paramount Theatre: Lyle Lovett and Shawn Colvin. Love ‘em both. I stationed myself near the door of the Stephen F.’s ballroom while Authur fed me updates as to their progress toward the crowd.
Shawn Colvin and Lyle Lovett
Celebrity shots on the run are tough to make. Colvin looked dismayed when I asked for a picture to put in the newspaper, but after brushing aside some stray locks, she braved the camera. Lovett couldn’t help teasing me that I was shooting for the Statesman with such a tiny camera. “Such is the state of journalism,” I shot back in good humor.
Leslie Wingo and Darrell Windham
My next stop: the Jones Center, downtown home for the newly merged and temporarily named AMOA-Arthouse. (Branding to come, everyone assured me.) The place looked spectacular, and the staff wisely kept the food and drink away from the marquee exhibitions. The first of the expected hundreds of art lovers filtered in.
Facundo Argañaraz and Nicole Crescenzi
The art proved a bit thin and the wall texts a bit thick, so after a quick tour of the upstairs and downstairs galleries, I concentrated on the people. Folks were quick to pick up conversations, but I found the blinding white of the galleries tough on the happy snaps (with the simple Canon, dark backgrounds usually work best).
Julia Clark and Tatiana Artis
Along the way, I met a convivial couple from San Francisco, Facundo Argañaraz and Nicole Crescenzi, who kindly tapped the spellings of their names into my iPhone. Turns out Argañaraz is Basque, and he produced some of the most intriguing work on the walls.
Everyone seemed to agree that the merger of Arthouse and Austin Museum of Art is a good idea, for now, but what will come of it? Reports from the Jones Center and Laguna Gloria sound promising, at least in terms of audience interest.
Alex and Eli Winkelman
From there, I headed to the Highball, where publisher and philanthropist Marc Winkelman celebrated his 55th birthday, while colleague Paul Hoffman marked his 45th. (See: A neat 100 between them.)
Marty Hancock, Khotso Khabele and Kari Arfstrom
Besides the fabulous Winkelman family, the place was packed with Austin biggies, including every elected Democrat from San Antonio to Waco. Backers of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barak Obama, the Winkelmans’ political and social reach is broad and deep. (Didn’t get a chance to find out what they think of the trial ballon of a Clinton vice-presidential bid.)
Bill Spelman and Rick Cofer
Off in one banquette, overseen by Jeanne and Mickey Klein, were a quiet yet familiar couple. Turns out it was Rep. Gabby Giffords and astronaut husband Mark Kelly. Kelly gently turned down my request for a photo and almost immediately, Giffords reached out and took my hand, not to shake it, but to make contact. I was touched.
Policy, of course, came up in several conversations, including one with prosecutor Rick Cofer and Austin City Council Member Bill Spelman. I always appreciate what smart people say away from the microphone and, no, I won’t put any of it on the record.
Daniel Mahoney and Bennett Ford
The next night, we celebrated the 50th birthday of Tribeza publisher George T. Elliman. The party was the first non-fundraiser I’d attended at the prismatic home of Dr. John Hogg and David Garza. The West Lake Hills modern with the complementary baroque art and Tiffany views looks better every time I visit.
Betsy Clemons and Chris Knapp
A feast was laid out by 34th Street Cafe and Catering’s owner Eddie Bernal. He talked to me on the side about the process of changing La Sombra, one of his eateries, into an Italian restaurant. “People have been asking me to do Italian for years,” Bernal says. “I finally put the right team together.”
Lisa Jasper and Lauren Smith Ford
Top socials and representatives from media, fashion and the arts toasted Elliman, who grew up in the River Oaks area of Houston, then attended school in the Northeast. I spoke with his mother and with some childhood friends, which turned up stories that, while perfectly chaste, will remain unpublished.
Back to photographs. I took a few, but I was there to have fun at this private party. As the casual affair — some were dressed to the 1962 nines — lasted longer and got louder (in some corners) Mary Pat Mueller took photographs, candid and posed, that she posted later that night on Facebook.
Kindly, she published ones of your columnist that were fairly flattering. (I’m better behind the camera.) Still, it’s a healthy reminder to always do the same for my Canon subjects.
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January 9, 2012
Rick Johnson, 1954-2012
Our dear friend Rick Johnson didn’t want a fuss. No funeral. No elaborate tributes.
Creative, funny, kind and frighteningly well-organized, Rick leaves behind his partner, Cliff Redd, former director of the Long Center, now with the University of Texas, as well as family and friends.
This is not an obituary, so I won’t list Rick’s achievements. Yet they include brilliance as a designer, cook and inveterate flipper of houses. Among his most astonishing accomplishments was, with Cliff, reclaiming their gorgeous Galveston home after Hurricane Ike.
I’ll always think of Rick on the back terrace of that house, holding court, gently sifting through his thoughts and unearthing shards of lasting wisdom.
Good night, dear friend.
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January 8, 2012
Twelfth Night, Russian Christmas and Will Klemm
Twelfth Night was a pagan festival adapted by the Christian church to celebrate the Epiphany and, in the West, the visitation of the Magi. Though discouraged after the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, some Christians retained the feast day’s carnival atmosphere inherited from the Roman Saturnalia.
In this pagan tradition of social misrule, University of Texas English professor and Shakespeare scholar Bob Twombly and his wife, Sheila Twombly, threw a Twelfth Night party in their small Harris Park area home. When they moved a few blocks away to a big-boned 1934 house on Bellevue Place — it had belonged to the distinguished Cavness family — the party moved with them.
Sheila and Bob Twombly mock New Gingrich as newt phases
It attracted mostly UT faculty who relished the chance to dress up in elaborate costumes and tweak social and political conventions. That was at least 40 years ago (although Bob Twombly told me the party dates back 44 years).
Thomas Moe and Cass Grange
It continues under the aegis of the next generation, which includes son Thomas Twombly, president of Lucien, Stirling & Gray Advisory Group and a prominent St. Stephen’s Episcopal School alum, and his wife, Dana Twombly, a real estate agent with Turnquist Properties. They purchased the big house from his parents in 2002 and, at the insistence of neighbors, preserved the party tradition.
Paul Andries, Thomas Twombly and Kelly Twombly
The costuming and commentary have not flagged — Bob and Sheila Twombly came as different phases of an amphibious newt in mockery of presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. The Saturnalian aspect has, however, evolved with the character of the next generation and their friends. One IBM employee, for instance, begged me not to photograph her as a French maid accompanied by a man portraying accused former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Wise.
Duncan Hopson and Aek Sommai Jekaram
Lovely to see such a tradition honored, nonetheless, just up the hill from the onetime site of Eeyore’s Birthday Party, started in 1963 by another UT English professor, Lloyd W. Birdwell, Jr.
While the Twelfth Night Party turned 40 (or more), the Russian Christmas Party hit its 10th anniversary, just blocks away in Hemphill Park at the home of the Austin Wine Guy Rob Moshein and website designer Bob Atchison. (Their Russian Easter Party is now 18 years old. Keep those traditions alive!)
Alex Andrawes and Graham Schmidt
For those who have not seen their collection of Russian Imperial art and memorabilia — inside the stucco house that once belonged to the Rather family — it’s an endless wonder. They serve traditional Russian food and the guests are always captivating.
Eileen Gill and Kevin Pruitt
Two in particular raised new conversational themes: Retired UT Press director Joanna Hitchcock and San Francisco visitor Albert Bartridge, who seemed to know everyone important in the city by the bay, but also some European royalty, which fit the party theme nicely.
Joanna Hitchcock and Albert Bartridge
Even earlier in the evening, I dropped by the Wally Workman Gallery to check in on Will Klemm’s opening. Klemm is the popular landscapist who refused to march in lockstep with his peers. He always injects a bit of mystery into his idealized views.
Catherine Mears and Will Klemm
He and his guests were in high spirits. We talked of his house over in the Guadalupe neighborhood down the way from architect Emily Little and also the French Legation (which is more important? I vote for Little).
Kathy Pong and Eve Norris
Also ran into the bewitching Sara Fox and her kits, Kate, Nick and Molly Fox.
Kate, Sara, Nick and Molly Fox
Never too early to expose the pups to good art.
Correction: In an earlier version of this story, the name Cavness was misspelled.
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December 28, 2011
Jennifer Bourianoff 1970-2011
Jennifer Bourianoff, violinist, educator and assistant concertmaster for the Austin Symphony Orchestra, died of pneumonia on Tuesday. She was 41.
For most of her life, the native Austinite was linked to the local symphony. The daughter of a Hyde Park Presbyterian Church minister and an Intel plasma physicist, she won the symphony’s young artist competition and toured high schools with the ensemble.
“She was a brilliant musician,” said Diana Eblen, the orchestra’s education director, on Wednesday. “She could play anything. And when she played, she would light up. She played with her soul.”
Bourianoff also served as CEO of Hyde Park Strings, which entertained at Austin social events. In 2005, she performed at the White House with Viva Trio. At other times, she could be heard with Chamber Soloists of Austin, A. Mozart Fest, Austin Lyric Opera or Austin Chamber Music Center.
A dedicated teacher, Bourianoff was named educator of the year in 2005 by the Austin Under 40 Awards. She also was named oustanding musician of the year by the Austin Critics Table. She had earned music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Texas.
In 2010, she helped organize a musical benefit for the family of Andrew Joseph Stack III, who flew a plane into the offices of the Internal Revenue Service, killing an IRS employee and himself.
“I will miss her passion for music, her love of playing with the orchestra and her kind ways with students,” symphony music director Peter Bay said on Wednesday.
Besides her parents, Linda and George Bourianoff, the violinist leaves behind sister Michelle Bourianoff, a lawyer for AT&T who serves on the Zach Theatre board of directors.
Memorial arrangements haven not been finalized.
Correction: Bourianoff’s length of service as concertmaster was incorrect in an earlier version of this post.
Update on memorial: Visitation will be at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home on North Lamar Boulevard 4p.m.-6 p.m. Dec. 30. The graveside service will be at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 31 at Austin Memorial Park Cemetery. The memorial service will be held on Saturday, Dec.31 at 11 a.m. at Westminster Presbyterian Church with Rev. Dr. Fred Morgan and Rev. Bill Clark officiating.
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December 14, 2011
Hispanic Alliance for the Performing Arts Reception at the Headliners Club
Consider this: A lady from Milan sang the praises of Austin to me, perhaps unaware that I’d loved Austin all my 57 years. This pitch came during a party at the Headliners Club organized by an Austin businesswoman originally from Mexico City. The gathering updated backers of the Hispanic Alliance for the Performing Arts that employs El Sistema, a music program developed in Venezuela.
Eduardo Repetto and Monica Peraza
Every day, I’m struck with how much more worldly Austin has become. It was never cut off from the world, thanks to the university, government and, later, high-tech business and the arts. But the world didn’t live here. And we didn’t live in the world. At least not the way we do now.
Kathy Warbelow and Kate Lowery
The Alliance, backed by social pistols like Teresa Lozano Long, now has an executive director (Egda Ruelas) and a program leader (Patrick Slevin). During the early-evening affair, Slevin explained the quick progress in just two months employing El Sistema at the East Austin College Prep.
llene Evans and Patrick Slevin
The Alliance is lucky to snag Global Public Relations Director for Whole Foods Market Kate Lowery as its spokeswoman. And, it goes without saying, it might not exist at all without the boundless energy and charm of Monica Peraza as a chief driving force.
One of Austin’s social leaders to whom I almost never say “no.”
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November 17, 2011
On the personal necessity of theater
Habitually talking to folks in lobbies, I’ve found that some people attend theater out of obligation or curiosity. Others for mere distraction. For some of us, however, it is absolutely necessary to, in Paul Woodruff’s words, “watch people doing something worth watching.”
I don’t feed this basic theatrical need as often as I did in the past. Yet recently, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to make some modest comparisons among older material that has stood the test of time to differing degrees.
Zach Theatre’s shiny “Hairspray” impressed me more deeply than Zach Theatre’s blunt “Spring Awakening.”
After Sunday, I can compare Broadway Across America’s touring revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific,” seen last week, with Texas State University’s edition of the composing team’s other early musical, “Oklahoma!”
The second is directed by Kaitlin Hopkins, the fresh hope for musical theater training in Central Texas.
Last night, I caught Shrewd Productions’ take on Charles Mee’s “Big Love.” The premiere at Actors Theatre of Louisville was visceral, intense, unrelenting.
A second swing at the modernized Greek tragedy by Austin’s Rude Mechs appeared more intellectual and, at the same time, eccentric.
Colleague and dear friend Robert Faires directed the current “Big Love” at the Long Center in a way that reflects his calm, humane personality. The words and arguments win out, except during the scenes of group frenzy.
My main takeaway: Mee’s script can be nimbly interpreted in numerous ways. It, thus, has the makings of a modern classic.
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November 6, 2011
Betting on a Bullish Austin
If Austin were a market, it would be trending upward.
On a sunny, windy Saturday, the Longhorns redeemed themselves with a monster win over what was supposed to be an evenly matched Red Raiders team. Waves of exuberance emanated from Royal Memorial Stadium, fanning out through the city’s proliferating sports bars to family dens and living rooms all over Central Texas. When the Horns are doing well, the mood of the city soars (as does consumer confidence and spending, I’m told).
Barbara Chandler and Sharon Wilson
Meanwhile, the aptly named Fun Fun Fun Fest kicked up dust on Auditorium Shores. Thousands of youngsters — and it is a distinctly youthful tribe compared to other music festivals — convened at Austin’s most scenic concert venue. Luckily, many walked or biked, leaving the surrounding streets pretty clear. All day and well into the night, a heavy bass beat thumped in all directions, lending an extra shot of energy to the Occupy Austin loyalists across the river at City Hall.
Janice Wilson and Jo Elwood
Nearby at the Long Center, a slightly grayer gang in tuxes and gowns gathered to salute the 25th anniversary of Austin Lyric Opera in the Kodosky Donor Lounge. Twenty five years is no small landmark for any arts group, especially one that has hit so many bumps along the way. The scariest blow came last spring, when some backers wondered whether Austin could sustain an opera company, then swamped by debt, at all. Yikes.
Eve Michaels, Zana Bru and Wendi Kushner
From the speeches and the chatter around the Kodosky dinner tables, this outsider felt a distinct optimism for the opera, albeit one that will probably never return to the nervy, irrational exuberance of the past. The mood was confirmed onstage, where a stripped-down and comical production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” was so light and airy, it almost floated into the packed house. The audience, about a third of them late ticket purchasers according to Long Center management, was clearly charmed.
Patricia Vojack and Mike Yates
I prefer Austin when it trends upward. There is much to be learned from adversity, such as the stubborn recession, enervating drought, devastating wildfires and yet another nasty political season. But Austin on the upswing makes everything sunny about this city shine a bit brighter.
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October 23, 2011
Dave Steakley Tribute at W Austin Hotel & Residences
Twenty years is a long time. Especially for any leader of an Austin arts group. Dave Steakley has served in one or another of Zach Theatre’s top positions for two decades. I can think of only a couple local leaders who have wracked up more milage with a single major company.
Dave Steakley and Brant Pope
Steakley didn’t found Zach. But, in a sense, he molded the modern sensibility that has become Zach. He popularized it. He politicized it. He tapped into Austin culture as few other artistic leaders have done. He and the theater have been rewarded with growing and diverse audiences, secure bottom lines and a new, third theater (under construction) that is expected to give the city’s largest resident company a worthy home.
Mitch Jacobson and Deanna Serra
These and other topics were discussed during a lively tribute to Steakley at the W Austin Hotel and Residences, a spot that matches the director’s mod yet classy style. Admirers poured all over the W’s second floor and out onto the divine terrace overlooking West Second Street. The mood flew higher and higher.
Meredith Oltmann and Clay McLaughlin
Unfortunately, because there were many, many conflicting social events that night, I didn’t get to see the tribute performance by more than 80 actors. Savior Seabrook Jones was there to document the hullbaloo with video. Let’s hope a link to an edited version will hit our email boxes before too long.
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October 18, 2011
Luminalia for Austin Shakespeare at Umlauf Sculpture Garden
Austin Shakespeare’s Luminalia floats on a charm all its own. It starts with the grounds of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, which, at dusk in October, looks like an Edwardian’s vision of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Designer Robert Whyburn subtly brushed the trees, rocks, shrubs, sculptures and convincing stream with silvery light.
Rob and Michelle Busby
Guests for the Austin Shakespeare benefit strolled through the pathways, where musicians, dancers and actors appeared like Elizabethan fairies with wings and twinkling lights woven into their costumes (where was this technology when I was directing children’s theater?).
Bob and Connie Webb
The actors spoke snatches from one piece of Shakespearean verse, recombined during a masque staged around the garden’s little wedding canopy. This performance matched the structure of 16th and 17th-century masques with its metaphorical declamations, breezy dances and, finally, structured social dancing. Enchanting.
Adam Bedell and Rebecca McGuireh
Then we ate. I joined Tammy Hale’s table and heard her always illuminating tales of Austin’s creative leaders. Philanthropist Susan Lubin sat next to me and filled out more of her life history (look for a profile of Lubin and pal Marcia Levy soon). Dressed in period costume were Long Center development director Jennifer Houlihan and her companion, Mike Reed, who bantered all evening like something out of “Much Ado About Nothing.”
I had promised myself all year I would stay for the whole Luminalia, after a mere glimpse of the 2010 edition. I’m glad I made that choice this week, though everyone seemed surprised that I didn’t scamper off to some other event. Why in the world would I abandon such enthrallment?
Correction: Jennifer Houlihan and Mike Reed are not married.
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October 1, 2011
Generous Art Launch at Gensler
I was curious about the art. I was distracted, however, by the architecture. Thursday, I attended the Generous Art launch party at the offices of Gensler. The local offices of his global architectural firm are located on the third floor of the W Austin Hotel & Residences, stripped along the sleek, gray building’s northern flank.
Renee Nunez and Paula Fontaine-Haake
A word first about Generous Art. The brainchild of Jennifer Chenoweth, this new group sells local art, giving 40 percent of the sale to the artists and 40 percent to a charity; the nonprofit keeps 20 percent. Whether that’s an effective long-term strategy for all three parties is something to watch. Yet the novelty alone already has created several social opportunities for artists and their admirers.
Laura Britt and Wells Mason
While I talked to several guests, I kept staring at the tall, handsome renderings of various projects produced by Gensler. Especially the cool, curving, sculptural beauty of its proposed multi-use project aimed for the former location of the Green Water Treatment Plant.
Jennifer Martin, Patricia Buchholtz and Tricia Forbes
These enormous renderings suggest an extension of the Second Street District that’s also directly related to the green and blue of Lady Bird Lake and its attendant trail (although that’s now on the golden brown side, thanks to the drought). Having just seen the preliminary designs for the public library that will rise to this development’s west, I’m pretty optimistic about the whole area of downtown.
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September 30, 2011
It's here! 2011 Out & About 500: Arts
The 2011 Out & About 500 will be rolled out today through Friday, one category at a time. Buy Sunday’s American-Statesman for the complete list of Austin’s most social citizens.
Send updates and nominations for 2012 to mbarnes@statesman.com
ARTS
Arts Star: Sylvia Orozco. Mexic-Arte Museum, Serie Print Project, Austin Saltillo Sister City Association, Mexican American Cultural Center, Women’s Art League
Arthur Andersson. Andersson-Wise Architects, Zach Theatre, W Austin Hotel & Residences, ‘Natural Houses’
Amy Barbee. Texas Cultural Trust
Ron Berry. Refraction Arts, Fuse Box Festival
Annette DiMeo Carlozzi and Dan Bullock. Blanton Museum of Art, Zach Theatre, Arthouse, Greenlights for Nonprofit Success, Forklift Dance Company
Elisabeth Challener and Brett Bachman. Zach Theatre
Joyce Christian and Rudy Green. Austin Museum of Art, ProArts Collective, Care Communities, St. Stephen’s School
Dick Clark. Dick Clark Architecture, Hangar Lounge, The Grove, Soleil, Rainwater Court
Charles Duggan. Long Center, Austin Lyric Opera, Ballet Austin
Barbara Chisholm and Robert Faires. Zach Theatre, Austin Chronicle
Mela Dailey and Peter Bay. Austin Symphony Orchestra
Sean Gaulager. Co-Lab, Austin Museum of Art
Carrie Fountain and Kirk Lynn. Rude Mechs, University of Texas, St. Edward’s University, ‘Burn Lake’’
Mary Ann and Andrew Heller. Heller Records, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Long Center, University of Texas
Karen Jantsch. Long Center, Rude Mechs
Lisa Jasper and Jim Ritts. Paramount and State Theatres
Brent Hasty and Stephen Mills. Ballet Austin, University of Texas, Arthouse
Gail and Jeff Kodosky. University of Texas, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony, Ballet Austin, Conspirare, Long Center
Wendi and Brian Kushner. Austin Lyric Opera, Long Center, FTI Consulting, Austin Asset Management Co.
Chris Mattsson and John McHale. Austin Museum of Art, Arthouse
Anton Nel and Bill Jones. University of Texas, Long Center, Concierge Family Medicine
Bettye and Bill Nowlin. University of Texas, Zach Theatre, Austin Community Development Corp., University of Texas, Long Center
Allison Orr and Blake Trabulsi. Forklife Danceworks, Fusebox Festival, Zocolo Design and Advertising
Karen and Chip Oswalt. Texas Cultural Trust, HeartGift, University of Texas, Texas Exes
Kathy Panoff. Texas Performing Arts
Graydon Parrish and Scott Balew. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin Museum of Art, The Art Department, Aids Services of Austin, TAS Specialty Pharmacy
Candace and Michael Partridge. Austin Lyric Opera, Zach Theatre
Cookie and Phil Ruiz. Ballet Austin, Con Mi Madre, Girls Empowerment Network, Texans for the Arts, CreateAustin
Michelle Schumann and Matt Orem. Austin Chamber Music Center, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
Sharon Radovich. Art Divas, Panache Interiors, City Art Link
Judith Sims. Austin Museum of Art, Art Divas
Melba and Ted Whatley. St. Edward’s University, Arthouse, Austin Museum of Art
Eva and Marvin Womack. Austin Lyric Opera, Procter & Gamble, Long Center
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Arts, The 500
September 24, 2011
Ballet Austin Fête & Fêteish at W Hotel
Ballet Austin has perfected the art of the blended gala. The soaring arts group matches the earlier-in-the-evening and more expensive Fête with the later, cheaper but even more festive Fêteish. The two previous years, these parties, the first a bit more grown-up with dinner and quieter music, were held in very different spaces. This year, Fête and Fêtish intermingled at the W Austin Hotel and Residences.
Liz Redwine and Panola Sabo
To paraphrase Noël Coward, galas are a matter of lighting. This one, chaired by the ebullient Ava Late, started in the dark. The W’s Great Room was lit by dim, ambient light until stirring music announced the beginning of dinner and the sequential lighting of each table centerpiece by Victoria and Sofia Avila.
Lee Walker and Carrie Fruge
This was my first sit-down dinner at the W, other than a couple of meals at Trace, the resident restaurant. It started inventively with a bewitching amuse bouche and then a bitter green salad. The entrée of salmon and steak was not exactly groundbreaking but did the job.
Kristin and Christopher Han
My tablemates included Ballet Austin artistic director Stephen Mills and his partner, Brent Hasty, both in scampy moods. Also in our circle were simply but gorgeously attired Austin school superintendent Meria Carstarphan and New York City Ballet president David W. Heleniak. Nina Denny and Jeremy Rathke, to my right, were kind enough to engage me in periodic banter.
Lesley Angle and Brandon Taylor
Performance artist Norton Wisdom provided the entertainment with his instant paintings. Then came the live auction. Romantic travel packages went for premium rates. But I doubt anyone in the house thought the auction should have lasted longer.
Todd Hester and Beth Terwilleger
I exited to join Fêteish, already in progress in the succession of interior and exterior spaces that surround the Great Hall. Now this was a party! I met scores of folks dressed in kicky cocktail couture. A marvelous lounge singer, Ava Aranella, cooed on the deck, reminding me of Julie London in her golden years.
This affair floated above the Second Street District until it merged with the crowds that had taken in Erasure at ACL Live next door. (The intersection of these social spaces is worth examining more closely some day.) No possible arguments: Ballet Austin consistently throws one of the very best parties of the season.
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Reception at Blanton Museum of Art
Ravishing art, sociable leaders and nimble conversation: These elements blended gracefully during a reception at the Blanton Museum of Art on Thursday. The occasion was the opening of an exhibition by Nigerian artist El Anatsui, who graciously answered questions from guests in the museum’s aquatically hued lobby. His large, colorful, sculptural pieces will be described in an upcoming article by Jeanne Claire van Ryzin.
Simone Wicha and Doug Dempster
My focus turned to the people, including new Blanton director Simone Wicha, an adept fundraiser, I hear, and enormously personable. She plans to elevate the work of the museum’s curators, who specialize in various fields of art history.
Francesca Manning-Dolnier and Arsalan Eftekhar
Other amenable personages on hand: University of Texas President William Powers Jr., College of Fine Arts Dean Doug Dempster, museum namesake Jack Blanton and his family, dynamic duo Annette DiMeo Carlozzi and Dan Bulluck, former Blanton head Jessie Otto Hite, as well as key collectors like Jeanne and Michael Klein and Joyce Christian and Rudy Green.
Moyo Okediji and Kimberli Gant
May I add this throwaway: I think Powers will go down as one of UT’s most effective presidents. The way he has handled political intervention into the university’s governance and chaos among collegiate sports conferences is pretty darn amazing.
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September 15, 2011
Redd Carpet Launch at the Long Center
One needs no excuse to toast Cliff Redd. Set aside the fact that the man raised tens of millions of dollars to build the Long Center. And that he brought together traditionally fractious individuals and groups to get it done. Earning his angel’s wings, he gracefully moved over to a development job at the University of Texas when his time at the center was done.
Sally Jacques and Cliff Redd
Redd’s a force beyond ordinary reckoning. Socially fearless, he knows just about everyone of consequence in four Texas cities (Houston, Dallas, Austin and Galveston). It starts with a laugh and a hug and it ends … where does it end? Almost everyone who is remotely open to the possibility becomes a Friend of Cliff. I’m proud to be one.
Rupert Reyes and JoAnn Carreon-Reyes
No wonder the Long Center has renamed a fundraising campaign after him — the Redd Carpet Fund — meant to subsidize the small performing arts groups that use the Rollins Studio Theatre at the center. It would take something on the order of $1 million year to make the Rollins absolutely free to groups like ProArts Collective, Teatro Vivo, Ballet Afrique and Austin Shakespeare, said center board member Wendi Kushner at the launch event on Wednesday.
Daniele Martin and China Smith
A delightful and not completely unexpected coincidence — my volunteer companion for the evening, Daryl Putnam, already knows Redd and his partner, Rick Johnson, fairly well. It was gratifying to witness their reunion.
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September 13, 2011
Austin Symphony Orchestra Season Opener at the Long Center
The first clue was the full seats. Usually, at Austin Symphony Orchestra performances, scattered seats, especially in the orchestra section, remain painfully empty. Purchased, but perhaps for reasons other than a love of symphonic music, and thus left fallow. Or simply, season subscribers failed to notify ASO they would not occupy them that night, so they were not resold.
John Chung and Laura Smith
The full house could have also been a function of superstar violinist Joshua Bell’s electrifying appearances in two pieces, the Tchaikovsky/Glazunov Meditation and Glazunov’s Violin Concerto. Three decades into his career and the still-boyish-looking soloist commands enormous audience loyalty.
Joe Greco and Marsha Robinson
The second clue, however, was the absence of tuxes and glittery gowns. Is the symphony’s second night usually this dressed down? I witnessed every variation on Austin casual in the crowd.
Terry and Kathy Bell
Then it struck me. Maybe the season ticket-holders were at the exciting football game between UT and BYU across town. They could have traded nights, or just skipped the season opener. And this time, they notified the box office, which was then able to gratify deeply invested music lovers.
Who were gratified, believe me. They listened to the two violin-graced pieces, as well as the Richard Strauss’s “Death and Transfiguration” and Rimsy-Korsakov’s “Russian Easter” Overture, as if they were dying of thirst for such glories. Conductor Peter Bay’s musicians responded by playing, in my humble opinion, better than I’ve heard them play in my 27 years in Austin.
This time, the standing ovations counted double. As did the glowing notices.
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August 31, 2011
Reception and Season Preview at Zach Theatre
They crowded into the tiny, hot lobby, dreaming of the day when the Topfer Theatre will open next door and Zach Theatre patrons can mingle in a grown-up theater building. The cramped quarters didn’t dampen the mood for the backers who previewed Zach’s 2011-2012 season after a lively reception and before a buffet dinner.
Eddie Safady, Bobbi Topfer and Mitch Jacobson
Theater namesakes Mort and Bobbi Topfer were there, looking radiant. The couple recently returned from Maine where they attended the wedding of Austin businesswoman Gabrielle de Kuyper Sheshunoff and Rudolf Bekink, the Dutch ambassador to China. (I hear the dress was to die for.) Not long from now, the Topfers will head to Napa Valley with cohorts for Mort’s 75th birthday. Hey, he looks younger today than when I met him ages ago, when a permanent worry seemed to crease his brow.
Deborah Green and Clayton Aynesworth
Also in the crowd were local social luminaries: Deborah Green, Clayton Aynesworth, Eddie Safady, Louie Messina, Christine Messina, Mitch Jacobson, Richard Hartgrove, Gary Cooper, Candace Partridge, Michael Partridge, Elisbeth Challener, Marcia Levy, Susan Lubin, Graydon Parrish, Robert Faires, Scott Ballew, Mike O’Krent, Kevin Smothers, Michael Pungello, Joe McSpadden and so forth.
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Elisbeth Challener and Joe McSpadden
Artistic director Dave Steakley introduced snappy snippets from the upcoming plays and musicals. To tell the truth, this tight, entertaining package of shorts could count as a season entry. Merrily, the group trouped over to the Nowlin Rehearsal Hall for dinner, where they mixed with those unflagging — and surely hungry — Zach artists.
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August 30, 2011
The audience for 'The Trash Project' at Austin Studios
The first time Forklift Danceworks performed “The Trash Project,” it rained. This time, temperatures soared to a record 112 degrees. On an open tarmac at the former airport near Austin Studios.
Yet the heat did not scare away hundreds — it seemed to me well over a thousand on Sunday — spectators waiting to see members of the Austin’s Sold Waste Services Department to perform with or without their vehicles. Bleachers and folding chairs stretched as far as the eye could see along the northern edge of the flat, open surface.
Here, the mammoth vehicles appeared like creatures from science fiction, graceful rather than lumbering, their lights blinking eerily in the deepening dusk.
The workers themselves seemed thoroughly engaged in choreographer Allison Orr’s project; clearly they had figured heavily in the conceptualizing. And no small wonder: Their singing, dancing and playing of instruments was top notch.
The audience is the purview of this particular column, however, and I can say that few arts events in Austin have ever attracted such heterogeneity. Sure, funky, artsy Armadillo Austin showed up, as they might for any large performance art piece or festival.
Also present were copious friends and families of the city workers, dignified members of the political establishment and, in large numbers, kids. Scads of little kids, impressed by the size of the machines, but also ready to get up and dance every time the music moved them.
Are kids like that everywhere, or just Austin?
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July 26, 2011
'Hairspray' Matinee at Zach Theatre
I’ve never seen an audience jump to its feet so quickly. It didn’t take a micro-second before the audience rose, almost as one, during the dizzying curtain call for “Hairspray” at Zach Theatre on Sunday. Already, Janis Stinson had earned a partial standing ovation for her rousing rendition of “I Know Where I’ve Been” in the second act.
Kendall Klug and Janis Stinson
Other audiences favorites — by applause and laughter — included imposing Brian Coughlin as Edna Turnblad, nimble Joshua Denning as Seaweed J. Stubbs; wacky Amy Downing as Velma Von Tussle; sly Warren Freeman as Corny Collins; radiant Eric Ferguson as Link Larson; rascally Emily Bem as Prudy Pingleton; blossoming Christine Tucker as Penny Pingleton; buoyant Sarah Burke as Amber Von Tussle and, especially, bombshell Brooke Shapiro as Tracy Turnblad.
Sara Burke and Ritchey Terry
Before the show, during the intermission and after the show, audience members talked about how “Hairspray” represented a lifetime match for director Dave Steakley, music director Allen Robertson, scenic designer Michael Raiford, lighting designer Jason Amato and costume designer Susan Branch Towne. Just about all these artists had contributed to Zach’s franchise “Beehive” and “Rockin’ Christmas Party” productions over the past — what is it? — almost 20 years.
Warren Freeman and Toye Davis
After the show, audience members clambered to be photographed with the talent. I know how fatigued those performers must have felt after such a nonstop workout, but they graciously posed with fan after fan.
Elizabeth Delgado-Savage and Evan Underbrink
I heartily endorse Claire Christine Spera’s glowing review of this joyous musical.
Beth Koepp, Mollie Craven, Rachel Haney-Butler and Jacqui Bloom
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July 25, 2011
Austin Museum of Art 50th Anniversary Reception Downtown
It’s hard not to think about the pending merger of Austin Museum of Art and Arthouse when, at a party, you run into AMOA’s Jack Nokes chatting up Arthouse’s Sue Graze. The two executive directors — Nokes interim — attended yet another celebration of AMOA’s 50th anniversary, this one downtown. Both spoke of escapes from the Austin heat, Nokes to Colorado, Graze to Venice, Italy.
Jack Nokes and Sue Graze
The symmetry is just too delicious, and so worth repeating. Arthouse turns 100 this year. AMOA split away from Arthouse, which was known as the Texas Fine Arts Association, 50 years ago. Now they are deep into talks about reuniting.
Nancy Scanlan and Judith Sims
The merger was only one of the many topics raised at the reception on Thursday. The state of Austin arts in general, however, was never far from the lips of the guests. Jeanne Claire van Ryzin’s excellent article on the subject, published Sunday, sums up the situation better than any of those fleeting conversations.
Andrea Mellard and Jane Schweppe
The talking returned repeatedly to something more mundane: How to escape this summer’s pounding heat. We’ll take a second short vacation beginning Friday, this time to the Belgrade Lakes area of Maine. The rented cabin on Black Pond will represent a new turn for us, since we’ve only ever visited the coast of that far northern state.
Michael Anthony Garcia and Priscila Vega
I’m already in preparation mode, despite having several articles to complete and several events to attend before we leave. My designated reading: Robert Dalleck’s “Flawed Giant: Lyndon B. Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973” and Henry James’ “The Golden Bowl,” the last of his great novels on my lifetime list. Don’t worry, we’ll engage in plenty of outdoor activities, too, as well as the inevitable feasting among friends.
Stay cool.
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July 23, 2011
Trouble Puppet Gala at Salvage Vanguard Theater
Except for the delicate glasses, which he removed for our photo, and the general lack of blue body paint, tall, ardent Connor Hopkins could have passed for an Early Medieval Pict warrior. (Not that I remember that far back, kids.) Or perhaps he was a post-apocolyptic sentry overseeing games of horrifying symbolic import staged in the lobby of Salvage Vanguard Theater.
Kathryn Rogers and Connor Hopkins
Hopkins is the primary artist behind Trouble Puppet, an adroitly named Austin theater company. If puppets give you the creeps, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The group’s micro-gala on Wednesday lived up to the company’s name and reputation.
Dallas Tate and Sharon Sparlin
The theme was “Riddley Walker,” after the science fiction novel by Russell Hoban. Set two thousand years following nuclear war, the story dumps the title character in a new Iron Age around Southern England. Trouble Puppet plans its own stage version Sept. 28-Oct. 16.
Debra Blue and Geoff Kruml
Torn brown paper and crudely executed signs announced various underground gala activities, including one game that stripped players of bodily parts. Producing partner Kathryn Rogers guided me through some of the thrills. I also talked with a gaggle guests who seemed tickled by the party’s playful proposition.
Jarrah Garrett and Sophia Palmira
I subsequently placed “Riddley Walker,” the novel, on my reading list and “Riddley Walker,” the puppet play, on my fall events calendar.
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July 16, 2011
MindPop Reception at the Austonian Club
If you don’t know MindPop, you should. It’s a an initiative dedicated to creative learning for kids and teens in Austin.
Anita Ashton and Ashley Gallegos
The group recently held a reception for Kennedy Center dignitaries Darrell Ayers and Barbara Shepherd . They were in town to consider a grant to push a cooperative creative learning effort involving Austin Independent School District, the City of Austin and other major players.
Darrell Ayers and Barbara Shepherd
Ayers, vice president for education at the center, remarked on the ease with which Austin’s institutions and grassroots groups appear to cooperate . I was under that very impression, but it’s good to hear from an outsider.
Ramona Trevino and Alex Sanchez
The reception, hosted by Brent Hasty, took place at the still-newish Austonian Club atop the residential tower. Having just left another such party atop the Four Seasons Residences, I can tell you these spaces have not lost their sense of occasion. Guests still linger over the citywide views.
AISD Superintendent Meria Carstarphen and Laura Esparza
The most animated conversation was engaged with AISD Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, who continues to represent the district do well all over the city. She joked, modestly, that some published photographs of her could hardly be recognized as such. We hope this one gives a hint of her enduring personal charisma.
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July 10, 2011
Opening Night for '69 Love Scenes' at Salvage Vanguard Theater
Happiness is a full house. Friday, heading east on Manor Road, I passed an overflowing parking lot at the Vortex, East Austin’s pioneering warehouse theater. A few blocks beyond, I encountered yet another packed lot, this one for “69 Love Scenes” at Salvage Vanguard Theater, produced by Gnap! Theater Projects.
Elizabeth Cobbe and Avimaan Sayam
“There’s a real theater scene in this city,” one young lady informed another before the 8 p.m. curtain. Indeed, warehouse theaters have thrived, especially in East Austin, for two decades now. Some companies come and go, but there’s a gnawing hunger for the stage among the young and not-so-young devotees of the arts.
Andee Scott and Kelly Garbee
In recent years, improvisational comedy has fed this hunger. Conceived by Kerri Lendo, “69 Love Scenes,” is a series of sketches, serious and funny, inspired by “69 Love Songs,” the three-volume concept album by the Magnetic Fields released in 1999. Yet its helter-skelter style is informed by improv, and several of its performers cut their teeth in that unforgiving field.
Adreas Fabis and Amie Elyn
I attended, not as critic, but as friend and colleague of the director and co-writer, Avimaan Syam, who is departing Austin for Southern California. For years, I’ve relished his affable, playful, slightly melancholy wit, which bubbles to the surface of “69 Love Scenes.”
Mark Benjamin and Caitlin Spade
Other journalists will address the play and the production. I was there for the people, who, besides the soon-to-be-missed Syam, included dancers, artists, musicians, educators and others who multiply Austin’s trademark heterogeneity.
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July 5, 2011
Austin Creative Alliance Benefit at ND at 501 Studios
To dispense with possible confusion right away, the newly formed Creative Fund is not the Austin Creative Alliance. But they are friends.
Abby Kaplan and Art Lopez
The first outfit raises money to provide rent for Austin arts groups. The second is the former Austin Circle of Theaters, which has expanded its advocacy to include all sorts of creative endeavors, including the East Austin Studio Tour. An Alliance benefit at the ND, the performance club inside 501 Studios, last week was directed at helping E.A.S.T.
Joseph Stern and Anna Gieselman
The music was loud, the crowd young. The guests hung back from the stage while I was there. Yet I was able to make out the main issue during strained conversations: East Austin artists grappling with neighbors’ complaints traffic, parking and other side effects of their studios’ ever-growing popularity.
Rachel and David Wyatt
This is actually a citywide concern. I’m glad thoughtful minds, like the folks at Austin Music People, are also trying to work out solutions. Our culture requires smart and fun creative types. We also expect open and kind neighborliness. It goes both ways. After all, we are all Austinites.
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June 28, 2011
Mark Holzbach and Dana Friis-Hansen Farewell at the Plant at Kyle
They left a distinctive imprint on Austin business, arts and life of the mind. Mark Holzbach and Dana Friis-Hansen bid farewell to Austin and thanked their many friends on Sunday during a well-attended party at the Plant at Kyle. The pair is leaving for Grand Rapids, Mich., but they don’t intend to abandon us altogether.
Lee Thompson and Quincy Adams Erickson
Friis-Hansen, formerly of Austin Museum of Art, is taking a similar position at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Holzbach, as I understand it, is taking a leave from Zebra Imaging, the Austin company he so carefully nurtured. But these are only their most public positions in Austin. Their interests and curiosities reached to almost every corner of creative life in Austin.
Josh Allen and Jason Jokerst
And, as so many people said on Sunday, privately and publicly, it will be hard to imagine Austin without them. As evidence of their social reach, the party was packed with leading players from the areas of food, arts, business, charity, nightlife, media and education. They devoured savory treats and tried to stay hydrated in the unforgiving Texas heat.
Manuel and Laura Flores of the much appreciated Mom & Pops natural frozen pops
One interesting side note: A number of people told me that they would visit the couple in Michigan, in part because they hail from the Midwest. In fact, part of the afternoon was like a coming out of sorts for stealth Midwesterners.
We’ll miss Dana and Mark. And we hope their valiant efforts to make Austin a better place will be shouldered by others.
Correction: In an earlier version of this post, Mark Holzbach’s name was misspelled.
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June 25, 2011
Boyd Vance Awards at Green Pastures
Machree Gibson says she didn’t realize she was growing up among giants. When the lobbyist and new president of Texas Exes was very young, she lived right next to the Delcos, Akinses and Andersons, not recognizing they were already role models in the civic, business and educational communities. They also blazed civil rights trails in Austin.
Ada Collins Anderson and Mary Lou Adams
Among the most revered today is Ada Collins Anderson. This beautiful, stylish woman helped shape the future of health, education, criminal justice and civil rights here. She also continues to act as a tireless supporter of the arts, especially as they relate to young people who might not otherwise enjoy exposure to them.
Jacinto and Vanessa Andry
Gibson introduced Anderson at Green Pastures, where ProArts Collective recognized her with the Boyd Vance Award for the Advancement of the Arts. Gibson could have spent all afternoon listing Anderson’s achievements. She concentrated on a few, including her induction into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame.
Machree Gibson and Judge Eric Shepperd
Decorated for high tea, the restaurant’s ballroom was filled with summer finery, including some fanciful hats. Among those making adoring remarks were ProArts board president Michael Bryant, the group’s executive director Lisa Byrd, and Judge Eric Shepperd, who served as a steady-handed emcee. Shelton Kirby III played historically appropriate music on the grand piano. Just about every public official in town sent proclamations to honor Anderson.
On more than one occasion, it was mentioned that Green Pastures always served African Americans, though it was opened in the heyday of segregation in 1945. I think the Koock family, who ran the restaurant from their former home, and Vance, the awards namesake who founded ProArts, would applaud the symbolism.
Correction: In an earlier version of this post, the Delcos and Akinses names were misspelled.
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June 19, 2011
'Young Latino Artists' Opening Reception at Mexic-Arte Museum
It will be a long day of rejoicing when Mexic-Arte Museum commands a space that matches its art, its artists and the people who adore the art there.
Isaac Aviles and Carmen Flores
All three were on ripe display Friday, as the museum’s barely adequate galleries at Congress Avenue and East Fifth Street filled to the walls for the opening of “Young Latino Artists: Thought Cloud.” This was a cosmopolitan event, since the roots for this work reached far beyond Austin and Texas. I spoke with artists and art lovers from Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico, just to start.
Desiree Ward and Dhumal Aturaliye
Also here and brimming with conversation were social connectors who are helping Mexic-Arte evolve: Backers like David Garza, Lulu Flores and John Hogg; recognized arts leaders like Sean Gaulagar and Sylvia Orozco; and trusted media types like George Elliman.
Maria Clara García and Alejandro Sanchez
Quickly popular was a taco cart parked on Fifth Street and operated by one of the artists, using 300 performance-art tortillas. The artist, who combined the conceptual with the tangible with rare balance, included Ruth Buentello, Beatriz Cabrera, Michael Menchaca, Bernardo Cantu, Kristina Felix, Carmen Flores, Jorge Galvan, Alejandro Sanchez, Clarissa Tossin and Ricky Yanas.
Again, one day …
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June 17, 2011
Atop the Umlauf promontory
Someday, you, too, will stand atop this crooked hill.
You’ll peer southeast into the shady Barton Heights neighborhood, northeast down to Lady Bird Lake, northwest to lower Barton Creek, southwest to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum.
You’ll feel a breeze rising from the lake. On any given day, a breeze softens these steep foothills below the Balcones Escarpment.
You’ll enter, briefly and curiously, into the life of Charles Umlauf, the Austin sculptor who died in 1994 at age 83, and his widow, Angeline Umlauf, now 96. She has lived on this bluff for almost 70 years, helping to raise six children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Many thousands of Austinites have visited the museum and garden named for Charles Umlauf, the longtime University of Texas professor, at the base of this hill. They have attended fairy-tale weddings, examined the institution’s 263 pieces of art, or wandered the undulating hollow during the enchanting Umlauf Garden Party, the museum’s annual benefit.
Only a few, however, have explored the other part of the land given to the City of Austin by the Umlaufs in April 1985. A granite staircase — no longer safe — that once connected the upper and lower shelves of the property is hidden under brush (giving the passage a sort of “Secret Garden” feel).
After Angie’s death, the City of Austin museum will take possession hilltop house, studio and gardens, adding two acres to its existing six. The buildings will be renovated and the gardens refreshed, cleaving to the Umlaufs’ landscaping since they purchased the once-abandoned stone house in 1944.
The land has undergone enormous change since Louis and the other Umlaufs camped out on the cliffs above what is now busy Barton Springs Boulevard. Only the occasional car crossed the clacketly wooden bridge over Barton Creek. Horses, rented in Zilker Park, nosed around the hilltop. Casting ponds for fisherman pooled down where the museum and sculpture garden stand.
“We called it ‘The Weeds’,” Louis Umlauf says. “We played every kind of war game down there.”
The family’s ranch-style house, with its mahogany paneling and support beams, looks right out of the 1940s and ‘50s, when the existing stucture was turned into a temporary studio, then a cozy home.
Yet look closely at the original stone walls and fireplace inside. Family lore dates this part of the building to the 1920s, when two women lived here, leaving it, for a while, a “haunted house.” However the limestone contruction methods point to an earlier period, the middle of the 19th-century, when this former Tonkawa camping grounds above Barton Springs supported dairy farms and other rural concerns.
“Bubi Jessen with Jessen Architects did the remodel, in exchange for Umlauf’s cast stone ‘Poetess’ sculpture, which the Jessen family later gave to Laguna Gloria,” says Nelie Plourde, director of the museum and sculpture garden.
A wooden, stand-alone studio was added nearby during a 1950s. Russell knows the sculptures and drawings here intimately, having represented the family for the past four years. Her gallery on West Sixth Street will continue to exhibit some of the remaining 60 Umlauf pieces through June 30.
On the grounds, Russell tells the backstory behind the monumental ‘Maria Regina’ sculpture that was deemed too sexy by Umlauf’s ecclesiastical clients in Lousiana. (Asking price: $75,000.)
Aptly, Charles Umlauf’s ashes are spread beneath tall cedars at the southwest end of the hilltop, the point with the best view of the museum. A simple memorial marking is attended by sculptures, some of the religious in nature, including a portrait of Pope John XXIII, whom Umlauf admired.
Some day — one hopes not too soon — Angie Umlauf’s ashes will join her husband’s at this contemplative spot. After all, the house and grounds have been an essential part of her life’s work.
“She’s always described the house as her nest,” granddaughter Carla Umlauf-Cheesar told an American-Statesman reporter in 2007. “She made it feel lived-in and warm.”
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June 10, 2011
Profile: Deborah Page
She’s not tall. Or loud. Or outrageously opinionated.
Yet at creative Austin social gatherings, guests gravitate to the conversational orbit of Deborah Page. That’s particularly true when the party lands at the handsome stone house she shares with husband David Schneider, a money manager.
In Tarrytown, during the past few months, Page has hosted lively benefits for LifeWorks, Mental Health America of Texas, Art Divas and the Texas Biennial. Folks coalesced in art-laced rooms, positioned by architect Hugh Randolph like a series of theatrical stages, before filing out onto the hospitable terrace.
Yet she doesn’t hold court. She’s no Auntie Mame. Nor does she erupt into public emotion, like Maureen Stapleton’s character in Woody Allen’s “Interiors,” although Page resembles the late actress in certain lights.
Maybe it’s her innate curiosity, made concrete by her incredibly eclectic art collection.
“In this house, it’s garage sale and great art,” she laughs. Here one can find gems by Ed Ruscha, Mark Bradford, Ken Noland and Barry McGee.
She’s particularly proud of works by Julio Cesar Morales, whom she represented at her former gallery in Santa Monica, Calif. That was before she took up her current, more esoteric profession.
“I love the interaction of the consulting, talking to architects, interior designers,” she says. “I love going into a space and not getting stuck in one genre. You find out what the client wants, put yourself in their position, then maybe elevate their taste.”
Page’s parents were products of the rooted Midwest, yet they made natural migrants to the restless California of the 1950s.
Her father, Dr. Robert Zimmerman, experimented with West Coast variations on psychiatry: Gestalt, hypnosis, bioenergetic therapy.
“He’s a brilliant doctor,” Page says. “And maverick of a man in every aspect of his life.”
The doctor’s unconventional nature to marry several women in succession. He wed Page’s mother, Betty Zimmerman, now living in West Lake Hills, twice.
“He never stuck to anything for any period of time,” Page says. “Always on to the next woman or form of psychiatry.”
Page’s housewife mother was more reliable. And while she may have inherited her father’s insatial curiosity, she admires her mother’s taste in art, interior design and cooking.
“She entertained beautifully,” Page says. “I wouldn’t say she was conventional, but more so than my father.”
Her mother introduced Page to insider world of art as well.
“Mother would go down to a studio to visit an artist named ‘;Persona,’” she recalls. “He was a Laguna Beach figure at the time and she was somewhat of a patron to him. We’d watch him paint. He’d be at our table for holidays. ”
The family — Page has one sister, a retired massage therapist who lives in Napa Valley — moved from Southern California to Napa, Calif., where Page spent her teen years. The customarily studious girl began to act out a bit after her parents split up.
“The other side came out,” she says. “I didn’t do anything horrible. But I was obviously rebellious.”
To cut class, Page mined father’s medical journals for phony excuses. College? “That’s an interesting story. Very interesting,” she says. “I earned 13 credits from three institutions of higher learning. I’m sure there are more (credits), but I’m not going to go find out.”
Instead of graduating, Page, who always worked, moved to San Francisco, taking a job as a receptionist at a law firm. Later, she served as restaurant hostess on Union Street.
“It was fabulous,” she says of the city in the 1970s. “I met my husband on Union Street.”
After dating and marrying, the couple moved around the Bay area. He worked in commerical banking, she for a brokerage firm. When they purchased their first condo in 1979, like so many first-time home-buyers, they needed something to fill a wall.
“I wanted a painting,” she says. “So I went to every gallery and museum. (Art) was always in my head after that.”
Her first purchase was a Linda K. Smith pastel gouache on paper of pale stalks that turn almost abstract. The largish canvas still commands a place of honor in their home.
She says of the freshly sparked passion for art: “It’s been ongoing ever since then.”
Page and Schneider produced two sons with their own opinions about art. Adam Schneider, 26, works as an assistant to a movie producer at Paramount Studios. While studying at Harvard University, he joined the young collectors’ clubs.
“He has an incredible curatorial eye,” the proud mother says. Grant Schneider, 25, is in graduate school at George Washington University, while working for U.S. State Department. He turned out more of a minimalist, compared to his mother’s “horror vacui,” or urge to fill an entire surface with images.
“He used to say: ‘You have the ugliest art, Mom, it’s terrible,’” Page jokes. “But now, I’d say, it’s rubbing off a bit.”
Among her friends, Page can count high-flying Austin art aficiandos David Booth and Suzanne Deal Booth. (Schneider works for Booth’s phenomenally successful Dimensional Fund Advisors.)
Arriving in Austin, Page considered opening another gallery, but, on reflection, had found retail limiting. Previously, she had enjoyed her forays into art consulting, putting in a sculpture garden at Auberge de Soleil resort with former business partner Susan Brandt and independently consulting for Auberge Resorts.
More recently, her company, Deborah Page Projects, has set up a rotating gallery at Scott + Cooner, which sells modern furniture, and she picked out art for some of the sales models at dowtown residence towers and some bold-faced names familiar to readers of this column.
“It all happened organically,” she says. “It goes where it goes.”
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June 8, 2011
Sometimes serious, sometimes silly Austin Critics Table Awards ceremony
The winners of the Austin Critics Table Awards have been announced.
Award-winner for direction Kaitlin Hopkins with her mom — stage, screen and TV star Shirley Knight (whom I’ve admired from “The Sweet Bird of Youth” to “Drop Dead Diva.”)
But what of the ceremony Monday that packed Cap City Comedy Club for the annual critics’ honors? First, the party turned snazzier, thanks to producers Wyatt Brand and Rampart Arts, sponsors Blackerby Violin Shop and witty house music from the Invincible Czars. The printed programs, slides, pre-parties and after-party contributed to the merry spirits.
Todd Dellinger and Robin Lewis, an award-winner for movement, now leaving for Princeton
Yet the heart of the ceremony every year is the response from the winners. Sure, they’ve already earned positive reviews and audience applause. But, one after another, they seemed to genuinely appreciate the gilding of the arts season with a few more words of praise and another minute or so in the spotlight.
Soumya Ashok, S. Ashok and Srujana Doddi
As critic emeritus, my job seemed simple: Help the new producers and put together the tribute to 25 long-deceased arts pioneers who were inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame. Well, I did what I could. But, at the last minute, the recorded voiceover wouldn’t track with the sharp images created by John Riedie, so I had to speak them live.
Divided into two sections, the slide show seemed to last forever and, forgive me, I caught a case of the giggles. It should have been a rather more solemn part of the evening, but the crowd seemed to appreciate my gaffes and giggles. Anyway, any future multi-media tributes to the Hall of Fame will be safely completed in a sound studio!
PS: Did you know Blackerby has built a little rehearsal and recital hall in the back of the shop on Anderson Lane? Very cool spot. We heard white-hot Mother Falcon play a pre-show set there.
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June 5, 2011
Painter Kelly Stevens' legacy and the German Free School
Deaf artist Kelly Stevens considered himself one of the “lost boys.”
In a long 1973 letter to his lover Ben Chevalier, the Austinite revisited the Freudian theory on the origins of male homosexuality. Stevens felt his father, a grocer in Mexia, the small town east of Waco, had remained distant during his youth.
“He was proud of my success before he died,” Stevens wrote in an even, fluid longhand. “But never any sign of love.”
“He did not consider being deaf a handicap,” says Helga von Schweinitz, caretaker of Stevens’ material for the German-Texan Heritage Society, which inherited the bulk of his estate, including the German Free School building at 507 E. 10th St. in Austin. “It opened doors. It was an opportunity. He made it the point of his life.”
On Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the Society will sell some of Stevens’ paintings with the help of art appraiser Charles “Lucky” Attal. Besides producing income for the always cash-strapped Society, the sale should put Stevens’ sinuous portraits, landscapes and still-life studies — he particularly loved painting magnolias — in the hands of art collectors or institutions that can exhibit them properly.
Also, the Society could then redecorate its 1857 limestone structure — shelved on a ridge above the Club de Ville and the Mohawk — with German Texana, closer to the group’s core mission of preserving that culture.
The tall, formal succession of public rooms on the upper floor could use a thorough redesign. Modern and antique furniture and appliances mix uneasily with delicate porcelain, china, silver, photographs and old books.
Born in 1896, globe-trotting Stevens had rescued the once-dilapidated building, which originally housed the tuition-free school founded by German settlers. After purchasing it in 1949, he turned the former school into a showcase living space and studio, celebrated in newspaper and magazine photographic spreads.
A case of scarlet fever left Stevens deaf at age 5. Yet he retained the use of speech. He enrolled in the Texas School for the Deaf in 1907 and was encouraged in his artistic craft by Nannie Huddle, widow of distinguished historical painter William Henry Huddle and herself a sculptor and painter.
After graduating from Gallaudet University (then a college) at Washington, D.C., in 1920, Stevens taught at state deaf schools and traveled the world, meeting and befriending deaf artists in Europe and Latin America.
He also collected their work. Some of those canvases ended up in the Ransom Center, which dedicated a room to Stevens’ collection. Others will be sold Saturday.
When he returned to Austin in the late 1940s, Stevens extended his circle of friends to the city’s deaf and gay communities. He rented the apartment that he built into the Free School’s lower floors to students and, during his final years, Stevens was tended by young admirers.
He kept up to 13 dachshunds in his terraced gardens and invited friends to doggie tea parties. But why did the artist deed the land to the Society, which was founded in San Marcos in 1978, but not listed in the Austin phone book, where Stevens found it, until 1991?
“He had no German connection,” von Schweinitz says. “His family was English. But he felt we would take care of his historic home and his legacy.”
A native of Herford, Germany, von Schweinitz, 74, immigrated to the United States in 1957. Here, she married another immigrant who was immediately drafted into the U.S. Air Force. She became a writer, translator and teacher of German, including a stint at Anderson High School.
“I also taught French and Spanish in a private school,” the buoyant von Schweinitz relates heartily. “Because they figured a European who had mastered German could teach any European language.”
Suspicion of German culture during the World Wars left Texas without a firm link to its very German past. The Society was created to revive interest in that heritage, including the publication of books, articles and journals, as well as establishing an extensive German Texan library. Austin remains the Society’s most active membership base.
Yet it is a volunteer-driven nonprofit that ekes out scant pay for three part-time staffers. The Society is perhaps best known, locally, for its seasonal festivals on the German Free School grounds, always a revelation, even for native Austinites, because the building and grounds are hidden from 10th Street by a gate and a wall.
Though she knew him only briefly, von Schweinitz has cultivated the public memory of Stevens. “He was such a gentle man,” she says. “We have boxes of letters from his mother and sisters, who sent him money and love. And he always kept so many friends.”
Stevens didn’t fall in love with Chevalier, 20 or so years his junior, until he was 77. Their relationship lasted until Chevalier’s death in the 1980s.
Von Schweinitz sums up the social legacy of this big-hearted artist: “The word ‘affectionate’ followed him all through his life.”
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May 16, 2011
5 x 7 for Arthouse at the Jones Center
As a social function, Arthouse’s 5 x 7 has evolved organically. At first, it was just a cute idea: Invite artists to elaborate on 5” x 7” notecards; display them somewhat anonymously; then encourage party guests to purchase them at a fairly low standard price. An affordable investment in art produces nice returns for the statewide promoter of contemporary art.
Clayton Aynesworth and Deborah Green
Then something happened. It became an “It” event. The top socials showed up, mixing with the artists and mere fans. The monied patrons were willing to pay extra to take the first shot at the miniatures, so an extra night was added.
Emily Becker and Jim Sackrider
After a few years, many of the top socials migrated to other events, especially in ultra-busy May. But the intense followers of contempo art remained loyal. And they were rewarded Thursday night with a grand showing upstairs at the renovated Jones Center.
Annie Boehnke and JW Walthall
The art looked smashing. So did the crowd. If there was some bunching up around certain zones, folks didn’t seem to mind. Director Sue Graze glowed, relieved that recent dust-ups over staff and rentals of the space were, apparently, behind her. Only a few blank cards stood witness to artists’ protests over the earlier departure of a curator and the altering of an installation.
I’d say that 5 x 7 is still a social phenomenon. We’ll see how it evolves further.
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May 11, 2011
Sandy Yamamoto Farewell with Miró Quartet
String quartets usually don’t move one to tears. This one did. The sublime Dvorák selection was the last full quartet played by second violinist Sandy Yamamoto with the Miró Quartet, the treasured ensemble at the University of Texas.
I suspect everyone in Bates Hall on Sunday afternoon listened mostly closely to the somber second-violin part. When done, the audience rose as one. Five bouquets of vivd flowers were marched up on stage. One was delivered by her tiny elder son, who was carrying a smart phone. When her younger son, a baby, was spirited away from the stage, he started wailing.
“That’s one reason I’m quitting,” cracked Yamamoto. “He’s never heard me perform before. Maybe he didn’t like it.”
As she introduced the encore — one slow movement from a Haydn quartet — Yamamoto stopped. “You’re going to have to put that phone up,” she said to her elder son before stepping off the stage to confiscate the electronic entertainer. “This is another reason I’m quitting.”
(Earlier in the evening, Julie Landsman and Tereza Stanilsav joined part of the Miró for the Schuller Quintet for Horn and String Quartet; then the Aeolus Quartet, UT’s pre-professional ensemble in residence, teamed up with the Miró for Mendelssohn’s Octet for Strings in E-Flat Major, a familiar piece that one rarely enjoys live.)
Following the concert, 100 or so Yamamoto admirers convened at Suzi’s Chinese Kitchen on Bee Caves Road. Mingling in pods were a Who’s Who of classical music backers and doers in Austin: Teresa and Joe Long, Gail and Jeff Kodosky, Sarah and Ernest Butler, Anton Nel and Dr. Bill Jones, Richard Hartgrove and Gary Cooper, Butler School of Music director Glenn Chandler. The list goes on.
More honors fell to Yamamoto over family-style food: A trophy, a framed tribute, speeches, more tears. I spoke to Hartgrove for a long time about the fiscal condition of Austin Lyric Opera. He made me worried and yet hopeful. Anyone who wants to keep a major opera company in Austin should pay attention to its current needs.
Meanwhile, the Miró continues its search for a new second violinist and we can bid Yamamoto a fond farewell with thanks for years of gorgeous “inner voices.”
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May 5, 2011
A New Lone Star: Holland Taylor as Ann Richards
Texas has launched a new Lone Star: Holland Taylor as Ann Richards.
As soon as the stage, film and television star steps out into the Paramount Theatre lights in a snow-white suit to match her snow-white puff of hair, Taylor holds the audience in her firm hands like so many salty peanuts.
Then they grow quiet when Taylor — who created and wrote “Ann: An Affectionate Portrait of Ann Richards” — turns to the dark side, recalling the functional alcoholism, divorce and political losses in the legend’s life.
For, you see, Taylor has written a play. Not a stand-up impersonation or a series of quotable Richards quotes. The show rests on a solid structure and moves almost in dialogue form with the audience, or with unseen characters whose voices waft across the stage.
The set-up is plain: Richards, late in life, addresses the graduating class of fictional Texas college. This allows Taylor — who has carefully studied Richards’ awkward-transitioning-into-graceful stance, gestures and stride, as well as the rise, fall and pitch of her voice — to glorify the governor’s oratorical gifts. (She is only a tad off the mark on Richards’ tart twang.)
The action moves briefly to Richards’ New York office, during the time when she operated as a public affairs consultant, then to the governor’s office, where we witness a “day in the life” of this complicated character.
What may surprise the uninitiated is the portrayal of Richards as bullying boss, who brings her deeply loyal staff to tears, then hands out weak praise or group gifts. She also uses her formidable powers of persuasion, over the phone, with her family, although showing more of the velvet glove than the iron fist inside.
Needless to say, the Austin audience responded as if it were a football game and the Longhorns were winning the national championship. They laughed at virtually every joke and gasped in recognition at the name-checking of local celebrities (State Rep. Mark Strama, actor-playwright Jaston Williams, who was in the opening night audience, late power baron Bob Bullock, to name a few.)
Will these references play in Chicago, where the show heads next, or the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., where it will land before a possible New York engagement? Not in the same way, of course. But the charisma of actor and subject, along with an enduring American fascination with Texas culture could very well carry the show to Broadway.
No stage director is credited in the printed program. This makes it less likely that Taylor will trim the necessary 10 to 15 minutes that would make “Ann” even more effective. At least 5 minutes could be dropped from the final scene of the first act and another five from the final scene of the second.
But who are we kidding? That would mean less Richards and less Taylor, who spookily inhabits the role of a lifetime. Heck, you could run Taylor’s Richards for governor next election. She might win. She certainly would entertain.
Some tickets may be available for the technically sold out run of “Ann,” which runs through Sunday at the Paramount.
Photo by Ave Bonar
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May 2, 2011
Austin Museum of Art 50th Anniversary Lunch at Laguna Gloria
It was like starting from scratch. The Austin Museum of Art returned to Laguna Gloria, its ancestral home, to begin its 50th anniversary jubilations. And it gathered, not only its current leadership, but also its social memory in the persons of folks who worked or volunteered for the museum in decades past.
Lynn Sherman and Judith Sims
Because of the sudden cold and threat of rain, the luncheon Monday moved indoors, which proved a tad congested. Still, the mood was upbeat. The museum had, after all, closed on the sale its downtown property, receiving more than $20 million from Travis County, and a fresh start on a possible replacement.
Jane Schweppe, Leslie Wingo and Andrea Mellard
And they still have Laguna Gloria, a mitten-shaped slice of Eden on Lake Austin. The Clara Driscoll villa is barely large enough to handle a relatively modest luncheon. Yet, as several newcomers and longtimers pointed out, it’s land and, after that, the land.
Jim Alsup and Tracy LaQuey Parker
Museum board president and attorney Lynn Sherman and AMOA vet Judith Sims both sounded buoyant, as did museum COO Jack Nokes. Upcoming golden anniversary events include Good Design Members’ Preview (June 3); AMOA 50th Birthday Celebration (July 9); La Dolce Vita (Oct. 13) the AMOA Gala at ACL Live (Nov. 11).
Has anyone noticed the convergence? Austin Symphony Orchestra is 100; Austin Museum of Art is 50 and Austin Lyric Opera is 25.
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Gala de Museo for Mexic-Arte Museum at West Lake Hills home
The journey says a lot about Austin in the past few decades. Mexic-Arte Museum began as an upstart collective of artists in a grungy warehouse on the west side of downtown. Its leaders were trailblazing activists, promoting Mexican and Hispanic art, artists and culture in the manner of the day: Loud on message, low on cash.
Jim Abraham and Elizabeth Avellan
Jump to 2011. On a landing at a prism-like West Lake Hills home stood museum director Sylvia Orozco, draped in a full-length gown and looking a like a movie star, matching the Gala de Museo thematic salute to classic Mexican cinema. Around her swirled a different kind of activist, derived from Austin’s professional classes, mostly Hispanic, but not exclusively so, and dressed to the teeth.
Tomas Muñiz and Karla Leal of Telemundo Austin
Clearly, in a fresh sense, the museum has arrived. Its artistic and community niches are long established. Its physical anchor on Congress Avenue at East Fifth Street is unquestioned. All that is left is the complete renovation of the three-story building, only partially historical in the usual sense.
Sofia Avila, Becky Beaver, Victoria Avila
Good news: Architect Emily Little is on the project! That gives us hope that she will work her magic, as she did on the recently opened Byrne-Reed House for Humanities Texas.
Ellen Richards and Emily Little
Snacks and drinks circulated freely at the always gracious Garza-Hogg residence. David Garza and Dr. John Hogg have added immeasurable value to the museum and dozens of other charities in town. And their hospitality appears to know no ends.
Rosa Rivera and Sam Coronado
The conversations that night were so long and numerous, I can’t do them justice here. One coda, however, from Consul General of Mexico in Austin Rosalba Ojeda: A confirmation that the cause of death for Mexican opera composer Daniel Catán, who had died in Austin while in residence at the University of Texas, was a heart attack.
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April 29, 2011
Austin Symphony Orchestra Centennial Gala at the Long Center
A centennial celebration should be grand. After all, how many times does one turn 100?
Austin Symphony Orchestra comprehended this ritual obligation. Its birthday party on Thursday saluted the ensemble’s first century and welcomed its second.
Sherri and Gary Davis
And it was so Austin. Downstairs in the Rollins Theatre, upright patrons in black ties and gowns dined. Upstairs, more casual catering awaited folks in cocktail dresses and business suits. In the lobbies, every permutation of denim, linen, shorts or slacks adorned guests cozying up to various bars or relaxing on cushy benches.
Then everyone trooped into Dell Hall. Trim, smart, likable conductor Peter Bay led the orchestra in two unusual selections, Mozart’s silky Symphony No. 28 and Luigini’s frothy “Ballet Égyptien.” Turns out they were on the original program, April 25, 1911.
George Elliman and Sharlene Strawbridge
“I don’t know if they have been performed since then,” quipped symphony president Joe Long as he introduced program’s superstar, violinist Itzhak Perlman. Long and his wife, Teresa Lozano Long, are not only the namesakes for the center, they are the chief backers of the orchestra and they sponsored Perlman’s performance. (His fees are usually triple or quadruple what other fiddlers ask, according to our sibling newspaper in Atlanta.)
Perlman approached the stage slowly and with great dignity, then played Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with tremendous focus and feeling. For the duration of the short concerto, time was suspended. Everyone in the house poured their attention entirely into Perlman’s singular manner of propelling each magnificent note.
For a formal review, go to Seeing Things.
Hallie Martin and Ashley Beall
The concert proper closed with Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” — a Bay favorite — which lilted from birdsong, then thundered with the full sound of the orchestra, finally at home in a house that fits its sound.
Outside on the plaza, folks gathered around cupcakes and champagne to watch a light show that, while diverting, was clearly meant to take a backseat to fireworks, canceled because of dry conditions. People picked up beautifully bound memorials to the symphony’s first 100 years, courtesy of Tribeza, as they left.
Joe Long and Vicki Rado
Was there talk of the controversy, reported in the same day’s newspaper, over the Women’s Symphony League’s original plans to theme its upcoming Jewel Ball around the “Old South,” a concept since withdrawn on support group’s website?
Yes, in whispers and nods. Some agreed with the objectors and couldn’t believe the idea was floated in the first place. Others denied any racist intentions, though they allowed the idea might have been insensitive.
We may never know what the party organizers were thinking, since they have not responded to requests for interviews. Some community members who had complained about the concept in the first place now seem content that their objections were aired.
Though symphony executive director Anthony Corroa reported a stream of hate calls and e-mails — from both sides of the issue — directed at his organization rather than the League, the wrangle didn’t distract from the grand centennial celebration at all.
Happy birthday.
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April 24, 2011
Audience for "There Is So Much Mad in Me" at Austin Ventures Studio
Saturday morning, I spotted two somewhat familiar figures walking along our street near South Congress Avenue. As soon as they passed and their faces blurred in my memory, I was convinced they were performers in “There Is So Much Mad in Me,” presented by testperformancetest and Fusebox Festival at Austin Ventures Studio the previous night.
I wanted to stop, race back to confront them and ask: How did this actually happen? How does choreographer Faye Driscoll get there? What sparks these combinations of dance, theater and performance art?
Audience members who gathered outside the downtown Studio following the performance were asking the same questions.
One patron said: “Did I enjoy it? I wouldn’t say ‘enjoy.’”
Others said they did, observing that, despite the familiar subject matter, so much of the actual performance was intensely compelling. The movement, sounds, words, songs and enactments of sex, violence and pop culture parody seemed to emanate from strong emotions, not so much “madness” as “ecstasy” in all its forms, including bullying, intimidation and extreme force. It appeared, some said, to be informed by gender and sexuality studies, but not held captive by them, acknowledging complexity and ambiguity.
Cool discussion.
In a way, the evenly charismatic ensemble and the collaborative nature of “Mad” reminded one of Austin’s Rude Mechs, which presents its off-beat musical “I’ve Never Been So Happy” as part of the Fusebox Festival. (I plan to see that too. I bet some of the same audience will be there.)
By the way, among the several conversations engaged at the Studio, the funniest was with choreographer Allison Orr, who said she was out for the first time solo and “post-baby.” Welcome back, Allison. Her Forklift Danceworks performs “The Trash Project” again Aug. 27-28.
Photo by Yi Chun-Wu.
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April 21, 2011
Fusebox Festival Launch Party at Seaholm Power Plant
The party simmered. By multiple measures.
The temperature and humidity inside Seaholm Power Plant could have steamed a trawler full of clams. Search as one might, there was no cool spot. Still, folks moved like the tides around the decommissioned plant — up the stairs, down the stairs, into niches — exploring this vast, industrial shipwreck.
Miki Schack, Brook Yates and William Jerome
Many were artists, attending the launch party for Fusebox Festival 2011. I imagined they were imagining their own work positioned in this space, which has inspired so many singular projects since it opened to the public for events like this more than a year ago.
Others had thronged to hear Mother Falcon, the band of the moment, playing with 100 stringed instruments. At times, their streams of sound washed gorgeously over the listeners. At other moments, the space overwhelmed the amplification.
Justin Agnew and Yamanda Wright
That didn’t deter the sweaty, admiring masses, which included an international contingent.
I apologized to couch-surfing visitor Mike Schack that my Danish was non-existant, while his English was pristine.
“Nobody speaks Danish,” he smiled.
“All these young people!” architect and Austin observer Emily Little gasped. “You don’t have to worry about them. They have it figured out.”
Haven’t they just?
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April 20, 2011
Red, Hot & Soul for Zach Theatre at Hilton Austin
During the first five decades of my life, I witnessed perhaps five live auctions. They generally involved livestock in small, fragrant arenas.
My other impressions of the auction business were derived from film and television. Folks in tuxedos, gowns and monocles bidding outrageous amounts on fine art, antiques or jewelry.
During the past five years, while reporting on the Austin social scene, I’ve seen maybe 1,000 charity auctions. Sometimes one a night for a week. After a while, they all run together.
What makes for a memorable one?
Zach Theatre provided the answer on Saturday. At its raucous Red, Hot & Soul gala, the group softened up potential bidders with dazzling costumes, lights and music. A 1960s aesthetic ruled as scenes from the theater’s upcoming “Hairspray” raised spirits.
Christine Tucker and Johann Robert Wood
Liquid spirits likely contributed to the delirious mood. Short, upbeat videos supported short, lively speeches from a centralized stage. Dinner conversations at the scores of tables sounded brisk, casual, convivial.
Then came the auction. Three onstage performers — Warren Freeman, in character as Corny Collins from “Hairspray,” Zach artistic director Dave Steakley and Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo — prompted the bidding.
Dana Friis-Hansen and Mark Holzbach
They did not “push” the bidding, however, and closed out each auction item in a timely way. Competitive action was encouraged. The final bidding on prime tickets for the first performance at the new Topfer Theatre, now under construction at Lamar Boulevard and Riverside Drive, was split three ways.
(Which may have caused some confusion. Items like these are often split to give the last bidders the same benefits and the charity maximum donations.)
Krista Gardiner and Terry O’Daniel
Just as the crowd began to signal restlessness, the auction was over. Boom! On to the dancing. And this group needed no encouragement. Up they raced to the dance floor.
Zach special events manager Eric Scott reports: “We raised $81,000 on our live auction and $27,000 on our cash call. Including some on-the-spot commitments to the Topfer Theatre Campaign, the event overall raised just over $360,000.”
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April 18, 2011
Amanda McBroom at Chez Zee
Cabaret fans are a hardy lot. They have followed Austin Cabaret Theatre from venue to venue, sometimes in hotels or restaurants, at other times in lounges or theaters.
And no wonder, since Stuart Moulton’s hardy company has presented indelible stage legends (Eartha Kitt, Elaine Stritch, Carol Channing), talent with legend potential (Donna McKechnie, Faith Prince), and among the finest cabaret specialists (Billy Stritch, Ann Hampton Calloway, Klea Blackhurst, etc.)
In fact, McBroom has returned to Austin fairly regularly, having developed a musical at UT, for instance. Failing some act of fate, however, her biography will always begin with her composition of “The Rose” for Bette Midler’s movie of the same name.
After three previous parties, and some signature Chez Zee dessert in the breezeway, we dropped in for McBroom’s act, delighted to find she would devote the entire set to Jacques Brel. She told an absolutely charming story about seeing “Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” in San Francisco, where she was trying to make it as a folk singer. She ended up joining the cast of the long-running show and marrying the handsome leading man, still her husband 40 years later.
McBroom puts her own spiky spin on Brel, never shying away from his acerbic or melancholy moods. This can be funny (“Early Morning Hangers On”) or hypnotic (“Carousel’”). And she delivered the most devastating version of “Ne Me Quitte Pas” I’ve ever witnessed. (Let’s just forget the Rod McKuen translation, “If You Go Away,” which McBroom nicely dismisses.)
As they do, the Austin Cabaret Theatre audience listened as if their lives depended on it.
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April 17, 2011
Texas Biennial Party on Rosewood Avenue
Like the East Austin Studio Tour, the Texas Biennial is a treasure hunt. Art is here, there and everywhere. The trick, for the social columnist, is to find the most compelling combination of people, places and scenes.
Abby Ronaldes and TJ Hunt
On Friday, we dropped by a party in a bungalow on Rosewood Avenue. The place looked empty at first, but out popped a young woman who participated in a series about the so-called Austin McMansion Ordinance for our newspaper. She had been seeking an urban spot to care for her brother, who lives with Down Syndrome. This very bungalow was what she ultimately purchased for the project.
Tony Gonzalez and Johnny Villarreal
But for now, it’s a site for a specific art project. A portion of the backyard is dug into letters. Walls inside display photographs. A pile of dirt takes center stage in the front room.
Nicholas Hay and Yuko Fukuzumi
Party-goers passed by the art quickly, assembling outside in the cool shade of the bungalow’s east side. Bottled water and keg beer attracted some. I spent most of the time talking to Tony Gonzalez, an artist from Corpus Christi. Our subject: The social and cultural divides between his Gulf coast hometown and Austin.
Guess which city, as an artist, he preferred. And yet, he is headed back to Texas A&M Corpus Christi to finish his film degree, because it’s more affordable and the classes are smaller. So there.
Correction: Abby Ronaldes’ and TJ Hunt’s names were switched in an earlier version of this post.
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April 11, 2011
Opening Night Dinner for 'Flight' at Austin City Hall
I never expected to attend three Austin Lyric Opera social events in the space of one week. But backers like Wendi Kushner, Richard Hartgrove and Amalia Rodriguez-Mendoza are pretty persuasive when they want to be.
Larry Steinmann and Sue Shearer
Friday was La Noche de Opera at the Cat Mountain home of Joe and Lilliana Garcia. Saturday was the Opening Night Dinner at Austin City Hall. This coming Wednesday, I’ll see Jonathan Dove’s opera “Flight” during the Long Center run that ends Sunday.
Anita Ashton and Graydon Parrish
How does one give a dinner at City Hall? Funny you should ask: Put a buffet in a conference room; position a bar in the main lobby and another on the mayor’s balcony; then offer desserts near the exit, where the shuttle bus takes the patrons across the Drake Bridge to the performing arts center.
Jo Anne Cristian, Cis Meyers and Peter Martino
The experience is fragmented, but hardly fruitless. Several women were wearing jewelry from Peter Martino, the jet-setter introduced to Austin society by painter Graydon Parrish. Among the more spectacular pieces was worn by leading patron Jo Anne Christian.
Julie Byers and Mayor Lee Leffingwell
I caught up a bit with Austin Symphony Orchestra conductor Peter Bay, agile connector Anita Ashton, energetic philanthropists Andrew and Mary Ann Heller, stylish storytellers Larry Steinmann and Sue Shearer, and several others before pushing on to the next two parties.
As usual, our hard-working Mayor Lee Leffingwell escaped my clutches as soon as I took his happy snap. Someday, we’ll have a real conversation.
If he wants. I never push when the situation is purely social. Well, almost never.
Correction: The headline misspelled the title of the opera in a previous version of this post.
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April 10, 2011
La Noche de Opera at a Cat Mountain home
No ignoring the view. Guests for La Noche de Opera headed straight for the terrace at the home of Joe and Lilliana Garcia. From their Cat Mountain perch, Lake Austin snaked toward the sunset, while the distant gray-green hills and bluffs looked ripe for shooting an epic movie Western.
Erica Lopez, Karina Lucio and Veronica Treviño
But this night was about opera. This Hispanic arts group meets before each Austin Lyric Opera production, this time for Jonathan Dove’s “Flight,” which sounds like it will be funny, sexy and fresh. It plays through the week at the Long Center. County Clerk Amalia Rodriguez-Mendoza, the force behind La Noche, introduced the composer, who gave a lyrical, thoughtful presentation about his opera, which has been performed more than 100 times — exceedingly rare for a new opera.
Andrew and Barbara Grant
About 50 guests listened intently, then disbanded for the food, wine and conversation. I chatted briefly with Joe and Tana Christie, who introduced me to Dove himself. With impeccably polished manners, the British composer exchanged observations about contemporary opera and Austin with me. Then I ran into extraordinary Mexican operatic composer Daniel Catán, who is in residence at the University of Texas.
Joe and Lilliana Garcia
Catán generously shared his frank views about the relative strengths of his operas in various productions. He’s very excited by the University about the current Houston production of “Il Postino,” his latest and, he says, his best. Imagine: Substantive conversations with two successful opera composers in one evening!
Samantha and Oliver Murray
Social icing on the cake came in the form of a poolside visit with former state Rep. Diana Maldonado. She admitted not envying her former colleagues in the Texas legislature as they wrestle with the sisyphean task of forging a workable budget. We also talked about her other public projects, past and future. Don’t worry about this rising political star. There will a future.
Sad note: Later during the weekend, Catán passed away in his Austin apartment. For his obituary, please go here.
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April 9, 2011
Memories of Eva Pickerel
“Who is this Michael Barnes? I have never heard of this Michael Barnes.”
The Tuetonic voice cut through lobby of Zach Theatre in late spring 1989. The demand came from Eva Pickerel, one of Austin’s most spirited arts patrons during the 1980s and ’90s.
You see, I was an unknown factor. Still in graduate school, I had reviewed exactly two shows for the American-Statesman: Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” at Mary Moody Northen Theatre and Sam Shepard’s “True West” at Capitol City Playhouse. Now I was about to consider Zach’s staging of Horton Foote’s “A Trip to Bountiful.”
Little did I know that a job in the newspaper business automatically meant anyone could buttonhole a reporter anywhere in the city. Pickerel, slim, stylish, commanding in her mature years, cornered me near the men’s room.
“You are smart, but maybe too smart to do this?” she judged, in one of her riddle-like statements. “You have no money. Writers have no money. You will come to my house and enjoy yourself. Everyone does.”
I was a bit frightened and dazzled, as I recall 22 years later, upon the sad news of her death.
Pickerel was an eccentric arts patron. She helped keep groups like Capitol City Playhouse and Hyde Park Theatre from collapsing. At the same time, she reserved a humorously frank way of watching out for her donations.
“I won’t give you one cent more if this goes up your nose,” she admonished one wayward producer, since deceased.
Over time, our arts acquaintance grew into a social alliance.
Here’s what I wrote about her a few years ago after I had toured a champagne winery in Reims, France:
“Eva Pickerel survived several husbands and the bombing and occupation of Berlin.
Each year, the fearless German immigrant threw her own birthday party with two main refreshments: chocolate and Veuve Clicquot Champagne.
During World War I, her father, a soldier in the German army, and his retinue unearthed a stash of this bubbly in a French farmhouse near Reims. They passed out and missed the decisive Battle of the Marne that raged around them.
‘If it wasn’t for this champagne,’ Pickerel would say as she raised a stem, ‘I wouldn’t be here.’”
To Eva, a toast.
AMPLIFICATION: The word “one” and the phrase “since deceased” was add to the sentence: “I won’t give you one cent more if this goes up your nose,” she admonished one wayward producer, since deceased.”
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April 6, 2011
Seton Breast Cancer Center Reception at Russell Collection
Longtime Austinites can remember when mega-projects like the Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas and the Long Center for the Performing Arts were but gleams in the eyes of a few dreamers. Nobody believed that scores of millions of dollars could be raised from scratch, no matter the demonstrable need for such undertakings.
Binh Pham, Vi Hoang and Bruce Levy
Mere months ago, social connectors Susan Lubin and Marcia Levy imagined a place where Austinites dealing with breast cancer could receive comprehensive services in one setting. No more trudging around town to undergo examinations, consult specialists or receive treatments. Why not just create a breast cancer center?
Susan Lubin and Marcia Levy
The leaders of the Seton Family of Hospitals said “yes.” The idea fit into a proposal already conceived by the likes of surgical oncologist Dr. Rob Fuller, who envision a cluster of such cancer centers for Austin. In short order, Lubin, Levy and friends raised $1.7 million for the starter Breast Cancer Center, says Lubin. The goal: $6.5 million.
Jan Barfield and Lisa Russell
A reception for the center at the Russell Collection Fine Art Gallery on Tuesday brought out some potent donors like Teresa Long, Lynn Meredith and Allan “Bud” Shivers Jr. The occasion was a preview of works from nine artists created especially to raise money for the center.
This was a lively group that dallied over white wine and prickly pear margaritas. They listened to short, impassioned speeches and mingled in the galleries, where more works by the Texas artists were displayed.
I spoke a some length with former Austinite Brad Ellis — now of Dallas — whose blue and white dotted canvas served as a backdrop for speeches. I think Ellis has a future as designer for performance. He likes to work on a monumental scale. Another beginning?
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March 26, 2011
Penfold Theatre Company Gala at Kindred Oaks
First the venue: Kindred Oaks is a rustic events center set on a wooded hillock in rural Williamson County. From Austin, it is reached by any number of alarmingly big and broad toll roads, boulevards or freeways. Yet the roofed pavilion is down a narrow county road and protected from traffic and sprawl. The place seems ideal for wedding receptions and other family events.
Jordan Aber and Debbie Carriger
The gala at Kindred Oaks on Thursday benefited Penfold Theatre Company. This small, but highly skilled troupe introduced its chamber dramas and musicals to Austin a few years ago, but always with the goal of relocating to heavily populated Rock Rock, where there is but little theatrical competition. I admire this group almost without reservation.
David and Merry Culp
The guests appeared solidly middle class with a sprinkling of artists and other eccentrics, but all circumspect and eager to help the troupe. They dined on a hearty buffet, then retired to the tall pavilion for the show, a concert of standards from the 1920s and ’30s. This repertoire hits me where I live, and some of the performers — Robert Faires, Jill Leberknight, etc. — are longtime faves, not to mention the new talent.
Ryan Crowder and Julie Cowan
Arriving just in time for the show, I sat on a wooden bench to the side and just drank in the songs, the good vibe and the light breeze that reminded me that here between Georgetown and Cedar Park, we sat on the edge of the comforting Hill Country.
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March 2, 2011
Texas Medal of the Arts Awards at the Long Center
Pretty darn near flawless. That’s the only way to rate the Texas Medal of the Arts Awards ceremony at the Long Center on Tuesday.
Joanne and Jack Crosby
The Texas Cultural Trust, which advocates for the arts statewide, had struggled in the past to pull off such grand affairs. The laureates were always meritorious. The stage management was usually insufficient.
Speaker of the Texas House Joe Straus and Roger Plank
Not this year. More than 1,000 guests ascended the festooned stairs of the Long Center to gather in a spacious tent erected in the center’s plaza. Now I always thought this could not be done on the plaza for load-bearing structural reasons, but lo and behold … it all worked.
Cynthia Green, Damian Green and Brittni Gola
The dinner passed pleasantly without distracting speeches. I sat with members of the Alley Theatre board of directors, who reminded me of the agile sophistication of Houston’s corporate and nonprofit elite. The Alley is gutting its downtown home to build a theater that will more closely fit the ambitions of its artistic team.
Brad and Courtney Elliott
The Alley, by the way, was among the honorees this chilly, starlit evening. Inside, the ceremony began on time and moved with the crispness and acuity of a network newscast. Part of the credit goes to emcee and CBS New correspondent Scott Pelley, a Texas native.
Pat and Bob Schieffer
The videos introducing the winners were brief, informative, classy. The acceptance speeches fit into that mode. Among the most moving were those of Robert M. Edsel, who has documented the Monument Men team that rescued European art at the end of World War II, and visual artist James Drake, who dedicated his award to those working across the state in relative obscurity.
Not surprisingly, TV journalist Bob Schieffer gave the most polished speech, including a joke about his long marriage at his own expense: “Behind every successful man is … a surprised woman.”
Ashley Schaefer and Alexandra Vara
Song breaks were concise and soulful. Much praise was given H-E-B and other arts donors. Legislators in the house were gently admonished to secure at least some state funding for the arts. One interesting trend: The Burnt Orange connection that united Marcia Gay Harden, Barbara Smith Conrad, Tom Staley, Sarah and Ernest Butler and other worthies.
One special moment: A representative of the Briscoe Center for American Studies ushered me backstage to meet opera great Conrad, who emerged from pre-performance vocalizing to kindly greet a surprised fan who usually avoids dressing rooms.
Barbara Smith Conrad
So much fun were the dinner and show, scores stayed for the after party on the plaza. That’s a big vote of confidence in the Texas Cultural Trust and its growing credibility.
For a full list of awardees with short bios, link here.
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February 13, 2011
Four Audiences for Ballet Austin at the Long Center
Short conversations with a dozen or so Ballet Austin backers in the Kodosky Donor Lounge on Friday produced some observations on audience trends. Not earth shattering, but possibly explanatory. The city’s internationally acclaimed dance company can count on four audiences. The largest is loyal first and only to “The Nutcracker.” They include children and parents, especially those with family members enrolled in dance classes.
Craig and Peggy Kuglen
Then there are the followers of contemporary ballet — choreographer Stephen Mills’ strongest suit — which produced “Cult of Color: Call to Color,” “Light: The Holocaust and Humanity Project,” “Hamlet” and “The Bach Project.” These fans overlap with the city’s market for contemporary visual art, exemplified by the ballet’s close relationship with Arthouse.
Kirk and Amy Rudy
A third group are connoisseurs of the classics. These include Bob Atchison and Rob Moshein, who returned to Ballet Austin for the first time in more than 10 years to see Danish master August Bournoville’s delicacy, “La Sylphide.” This is among the rarest in the core ballet repertoire and usually is confused with the Romantic masterpiece, “Les Syplphide.” (Atchison, whose knowledge of Czarist Russia is astounding, got to know many of the manor cultural refugees from the Soviet Union in younger days.)
Rosa Downs and Devon Downs
A final subset are the casual audiences. They think: “What can I do special for my date near Valentine’s Day”? “How do I impress my visiting grandmother?” Hey, what about a ballet with a dual romance and a parade of exquisitely graceful dancers?
Summing up the responses from my unscientific survey, representatives from all four groups attendeded the opening at the Long Center on Friday. They applauded the skill and strength of Aara Krumpe and the Sylph and the dexterity of Frank Shott as James, the Scot enamored of the diaphanous fairy. But they wished he had more to do. (Come back for the Russian classics if you want that.)
Almost universally, though, they praised the ballet corps, a vision in precision and tensile strength. They may not agree on what brings them to the Long Center, but even the contempo crowd was impressed by the ladies in tulle.
Link to Statesman review to come when it is published …
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February 9, 2011
Dana Friis-Hansen homage at Plant at Kyle
The Plant at Kyle has hosted many a function. Small family affairs. Half-million-dollar weddings. Spiritual retreats. Corporate meetings. Arts fundraisers.
Tony Johnson, Dave Steakley, Dana Friis-Hansen and Mark Holtzbach
Yet few have seemed so apt as Sunday afternoon’s homage to co-owner Dana Friis-Hansen, who is leaving his position as director of the Austin Museum of Art. After a week of freezing weather, the sun warmed, the breeze refreshed the screened-in family area of the lodge-like buildings, rescued from San Antonio industrial discards and planted in a lonely meadow off FM 150.
Chris Mattsson, Deborah Green and Jessie Otto Hite
Just about every person of influence in the contemporary arts scene — visual and performing — mingled over sighs about Friis-Hansen’s departure. He did join the sighing. He and partner Mark Holzbach leave soon for a month-long adventure in India. Then he’ll return to freelance at writing and curating.
Candace Partridge and Larry Connelly
Anyone who has done a job well for a long time feels mixed emotions about leaving that place of comfort. At least Friis-Hansen knows there’s a legion of Austin admirers who won’t let him fade into memory.
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February 8, 2011
Morris Beachy, 1928-2011
Morris Beachy, who developed the University of Texas choral program and conducted several Austin civic choirs, died in his sleep on Sunday from complications to Alzheimer’s disease. He was 82.
“He is deserving of any and all accolades,” said Marty McAllister, who toured Europe with Beachy’s college choirs. “An icon in his years at UT and a mentor and beloved musician to countless numbers.”
Known as a firm disciplinarian, Beachy founded nine ensembles, including the UT Chamber Singers, A Capella Choir, Longhorn Singers, University Chorus and Austin Choral Union, which sang with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. He also served as chorus master for Austin Lyric Opera during its first six seasons.
“Beachy’s tough and demanding approach enabled me to gain the self-appreciation and personal fortitude I needed to become a successful conductor,” said Barry Scott Williamson, now a choral conductor in New York City;.
Beachy retired from teaching in 1993 as the Morton H. Meyerson Professor Emeritus. Meyerson, former chairman and CEO of Perot Systems Corporation and namesake for Dallas’ symphony center, was one of the professor’s most loyal students.
Beachy folded his last big choir, Austin Choral Artists, in 2002, but remained active as a guest conductor.
“It was a pleasure collaborating with and learning from him,” said Marti Dudgeon, who began accompanying his ensembles in 1993. “His influence has been felt worldwide and he is sadly missed.”
In 2003, Beachy was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame and delivered a memorable speech at the Austin Critics Table Awards ceremony.
He is survived by Frances Beachy, his wife of 60 years, daughters Sylvia Beachy and Diana Rutledge, as well as grandson Spencer Rutledge.
Frances Beachy expressed her thanks to all his former students and singers. She said: “They are part of his extended family of survivors.”
Members of the Morris Beachy Singers will perform during the memorial, 2 p.m. Feb. 15 at Unity Church of the Hills, 9905 Anderson Mill Road.
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Eliza Thomas Opening at Wally Workman Gallery
Still quite young, dancer, musician and artist Eliza Thomas is amazing.
And Wally Workman is no fool to give her a solo show. Her work now on display — variations on organic forms rendered in restrained black, white and grays — speaks for itself. My subject, however, is the social scene at the Saturday opening on West Sixth Street, still home to many Austin galleries.
Saskia and Frances Jones with Eliza Thomas
The place was packed to the rafters. Part of this may be attributed to Thomas’ wide network of friends in various fields of endeavor, including education. A bit might also be explained by the presence of her parents, inveterate educators, volunteers, socializers and philanthropists Margo and Grant Thomas.
Sarah Dancy, Grant Thomas and Jonathan Dancy
No matter the motivations, the gang was all there, nudged toward the savory treats and wines toward the back of the gallery; talking around Thomas’ Asian-influenced art up front; then moving to other exhibitions in connecting rooms.
Monique Ortiz and Eldridge Goins
I spoke to philosophers, art collectors, photographers, movie folks, eatery owners and the like. It was the kind of crowd where, despite the crush, one wanted to talk into the evening. But I was promised elsewhere, so …
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February 6, 2011
'Exile' Opening at East Austin Art Gallery
One type of Austin gallery opening has not changed much in 20 years. The crowd arrives late in casual urban wear. They head straight to the bar. Then they circulate among the works of art for a bit. After that, they clump in discrete groups to discuss. Or go outside to smoke.
Rose Saenz and Darius Alix-Williams
Used to be, most of these less formal galleries were found downtown, either near campus or along the railroad tracks. Now, almost all of them are located in East Austin. Friday, East Austin Art Gallery opened “Exile,” a thematic show that protests violence on the US-Mexican border.
Mallory Jordan and Dieter Galvan
On cue, each new pod of young guests stomped off the chill, aimed their willowy frames toward the bar — although instead of a keg or cheap wine, this time Tequila Viejo Luis had sponsored margaritas and shots. The show, produced by Marc E. Spiegel, Sophia Taylor and Sandra Sales, was pretty self-explanatory — bold poster art for the most part, but also some pieces informed by abstract expressionism.
Gladiola Campos, Eddie Moderow and Mary Reyna
I am going to admit, I had a hard time cracking the conversational barriers at this opening. Folks were open and kind once I broached a specific subject. Yet it was clear that they really wanted to re-enage their friends and colleagues. And that was fine. So out into the slippery street for the next three parties.
The sidewalk and street, by the way, in front of this East Sixth Street complex still bore a mantle of snow and ice, after most of it had melted around the city. The slosh gave the opening an extra urban twist.
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February 4, 2011
Audiences respond to 'Italian Girl'
Austin Lyric Opera audiences, bundled into the interior lobbies because of the sharp chill on Wednesday, appeared to think that Rossini’s “The Italian Girl of Algiers” is a marvelously silly bit of comic fluff with an exquisitely conceived score. (For the Statesman review, go here.)
Rudy Garcia and Brooke Bailey
Rudy Garcia and Brooke Bailey were particularly taken with the tenor, Javier Abreu, who, naturally, played the young lover of the titular woman. They liked the Santa Fe Opera fantasy scenery, move the action to the early 20th century, but were not too crazy about some of the scene changing.
Joe and Tana Christie
Joe and Tana Christie felt the staging was clever but the “tenor needs to be taller” in order to match up with physically and vocally commanding contralto, Sandra Piques Eddy. A nearby patron with insider knowledge said “(Abrue) thinks so, too.” Somebody else quipped: “All tenors think so.”
Daniel and Ashleigh Emmett
By the way, more than one patron praised the Long Center’s pre-ordering custom — order and pay for your drink before the curtain; pick it up at the start of intermission. Others get stuck in line, so must chug their Pinot Noir to make it back to their seats for the next act.
Ashleigh and Daniel Emmett thought the direction was just great. They’re from Dallas and this is their first ALO show in the Long Center. They liked the look and sound of the space, but they are also curious about Dallas’ new Winspear Opera House, which I haven’t experienced either.
Earlier, Mary Ann and Andrew Heller singled out Paolo Pechioli for his exaggeratedly comic acting and seamless sound. Andrew also praised conductor Richard Buckley for keeping the orchestra under rigorous control, so we could hear the intricacies of the vocal harmony. He would have also preferred the traditional scene breaks.
Others thought the show was a bit undersung. Randy Harriman, formerly of KMFA and my companion for the evening, reveled in the silliness and generally sanctioned the orchestra, chorus and soloists.
“Italian Girl” was among the first opera recordings Harriman ever purchased, oh, 50 years ago. Proves he was ahead of his time, but this is not one of the most often revived Rossinis.
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Zach Theatre Groundbreaking Party
It was a party. And a show. Still, there was serious business to take care of at the Zach Theatre Groundbreaking on Wednesday (find more news here).
Performers sang. Speakers spoke. Guests snacked and chatted into the afternoon, not wanting the abandon the shared good feelings. The ceremony, moved from the outdoor location for the planned Topfer Theatre to the Kleberg Stage because of cold, then from there to the Nowlin Rehearsal Studio because of rolling blackouts, could not be shut down.
Dave Steakley and Elisbeth Challener
All the major players — Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez, artistic director Dave Steakley, managing director Elisbeth Challener, namesake Mort Topfer, major donors James Armstrong and Larry Connelly, architects Arthur Andersson and Chris Wise, etc. — appeared not only pleased, but slightly overwhelmed by the fantastical prospect of a real, grown-up theater for the company that is still growing in all directions, despite the economic downturn.
Robert Faires, Janis Stinson and Barbara Chisholm (as Lady Bird Johnson)
During the ceremony, I stood next to State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, whose district encompasses Zach. I introduced him to architect Andersson (first topic, of course, the designer’s W Austin Hotel and Residences). I don’t recall ever seeing the senator at any Zach event before. Maybe this is a good sign for the solon whose suburban San Antonio base seems continents away, culturally, from south central Austin.
Bobbi Topfer and Wendy Topfer
Delighted to hear that “Ragtime,” one of my favorite musicals, will open the Topfer in fall 2012, if all goes as planned. (Note to self: Gotta draft actress Barbara Chisholm, who spoke eloquently and convincingly as Lady Bird Johnson during the ceremony, for the Statesman’s Lady Bird’s Legacy wildflower campaign!) Spoke briefly with loyal Zach backers such as Eric and Maria Groten, Susan Lubin, Charles Gentry, Gary Cooper, Mitch Jacobson, Mary Herr Tally, Scott Joslove, Annette Carlozzi and Dan Bullock. Didn’t see perennially shy, million-dollar donor Bill Dickson.
Susan Longley, Philip Maxwell, Claude Ducloux and and Sue Maxwell, who recalled their efforts in the early ’90s to build Zach’s Whisenhunt Arena Stage
Perhaps the most substantive conversation I shared was with playwright Steven Dietz, whose family splits their time between Austin and Seattle. We talked about the extraordinary changes in the University of Texas theater and dance department under new chairman Brant Pope and how the Topfer will transform the way Austinites and tourists think about theater in Austin, just by being a handsome, socially energetic, slightly formal place to spend the evening.
Good times for Austin.
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January 30, 2011
Gala Lumière at the Blanton Museum of Art
The Blanton Museum of Art looked stately, formal, luminous. The dreamy blue atrium swam with late afternoon light. Four virtually still Robert Wilson video portraits stood guard over the lower galleries, its dinner tables strewn with orchids.
Jack and Ginger Blanton
Upstairs, the pre-party had begun. Major patrons, including eponymous Jack Blanton and family, milled around a darkened gallery as an enormous Wilson black panther mesmerized guests from one wall. The Kleins, the Butlers and other Austin art luminaries carried on vigorous conversations.
Ned Rifkin and Jeanne Klein
Talked with genius Graham Reynolds about his evening, which would include three sets at the Continental Club after his Blanton gig (more on that in a later post). Didn’t meet Wilson this time around, who was late arriving from Santiago, Chile and whose luggage was lost or delayed in Houston.
Charles and Tamara Dorrance
This party was just Act 1 in a 3-act social pilgrimage this night, so it made sense, on the way out, to wander the upper galleries, which have been discreetly rearranged during director Ned Rifkin’s short tenure. A few minutes of reflection among the Blanton’s treasures — some now old, old friends — helped recharge those social batteries.
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January 27, 2011
Friends of Molly Ivins gather at Zach Theatre
Four years after her death, Molly Ivins is still making friends. They showed up to a party and preview performance of “Red Hot Patriot,” a solo show about her life at Zach Theatre on Wednesday. Everybody came with a Molly story, usually to do with her brash personality, piercing wit and lifelong pursuit of justice.
Del Garcia and Ellen Sweets
This particular event benefited the Molly National Journalism Prize, which friends endowed to reward the best in investigative journalism around the country. Some pretty amazing reporters have won the award. And some pretty amazing people packed Zach’s Nowlin Rehearsal Studio — one couldn’t swing an appetizer without hitting a FOM.
Saralee Tiede and David Ochsner
I couldn’t stay for the subsequent performance, but I’ll return to Zach soon. Wouldn’t miss dear friend Barbara Chisholm as Molly: Among Austin’s most beloved actresses playing among Austin’s most beloved writers. (Unless you happened to have been on the receiving end of her pointed pen, which could be pretty poisonous, if almost always funny.)
Julia Cuba and Mike Nellis
Strikes me that two contemporaneous Austin women — Barbara Jordan and Ann Richards — attracted solo-show stage treatments. Holland Taylor’s take on Richards is set to reach the Paramount Theatre in May.
Texas leaders just tend to be theatrical.
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January 16, 2011
Austin Lyric Opera Party in Barton Creek area
“Opera people are party people!” exclaimed Sylvia Spertus over a plate a delicious-looking dinner. She and 50 or so opera/party people, some adorned in sparkles, had gathered at the Barton Creek area home of Rick and Cathy Coneway. There, the Austin Lyric Opera President’s Circle met the cast and artistic leaders of “An Italian Girl in Algiers,” the Rossini comedy that opens Jan. 29 at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.
Marilyn Rabkin and Linda Bush
Until recently, I had found it difficult to suss out information about socializing with the opera set — and I sadly missed ALO’s gala altogether this year. One gentleman at the Coneway party said to me: “Must be a slow night on the social circuit if you are here!” Befuddled, I asked why he held that impression. “Well, you don’t do the Big 3, do you?” He meant the symphony, opera and ballet, I assume.
Susan Thompson, Hardy Thompson, Curby Conoley
Well, I do. When possible. With the help of board members Wendi Kushner and Richard Hartgrove, the opera is becoming more artful about such public attention.
Since ALO must book its dates at the Long Center what, oh, two years in advance, it would be great to slap their opening nights right now on the calendars at AustinSocialPlanner.com and ILiveHereIGiveHere.com.
Richard Buckley and Molly Anderson
Goodness knows I’m interested in the art form — if I haven’t made that clear over the decades — and audience. Interestingly, however, we mostly talked about travel, there atop the rain-soaked Barton Creek hills. Various opera stalwarts tipped their hands about trips to Buenos Aires, Bogotá, Costa Rica and elsewhere. The world opens before us in so many Austin conversations.
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December 15, 2010
Zach Theatre's Holiday Party
It doesn’t matter where Zach Theatre goes, a party follows. The company’s holiday affair took place Monday at Spring Condominiums. Guests whirled around the model units on the 25th floor, trying on six spatial arrangements for size.
Bill Jones and Anton Nel
We ran into many a Zach friend, but also two surprise guests: Dennis Karbach and Robert Brown. These two scamps, once so vital to Austin arts and business, had scurried away to homes in San Francisco and San Antonio. Missing Our Town, now they’ve taken a one-bedroom unit in Spring. Welcome back, boys!
Blair Hurry and Liz Litsinger
After much chit-chat, the guests assembled in the largest condo to hear speeches about the theater and plans to break ground on a new building early next year.
Elizabeth Giddens and Roderick Sanford
Artistic director Dave Steakley said he’d found an old gasoline advertisement featuring a kangaroo. “Put hop in your tank,” it read, says Steakley, before borrowing the expression to assess the theater’s momentum. “Zach’s got hop.”
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December 13, 2010
Denise Prince Party at W Austin Hotel & Residences
I came for the art. I stayed for the party. Denise Prince invited me to view framed photographs of Austinites that hang in the lobby of the newly opened W Austin Hotel & Residences. I never found her in the masses, but ran into about a million acquaintances anyway.
Veronica Koltuniak and Matt Hovis
As predicted, the W has instantly achieved cynosure for Austin’s cafe society. The three-part lounge and two-part restaurant — plus the lobby, which serves spillover traffic — were draped with guests swirling cocktails and scanning the winter-attired crowd for familiar faces.
Cheray Ashwill and Julia Smith
The project’s developer, Beau Armstrong, and its design architect, Arthur Andersson, surveyed their domain. Connoisseur Anne Elizabeth Wynn, snuggling in the red room with filmmaker Joaquin Avellan, pronounced the place perfect.
Social all-stars Mary and Rusty Tally dallied by one of the fireplaces. (Mary has more insight into Austin’s social scene than the next 100 power players.) On his smart phone, artist Berthold Haas showed me his sons’ recent, unbridled performance at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.
Joaquin Avellan and Anne Elizabeth Wynn
Architect Sinclair Black dropped by to examine the results. Writer Julia Smith and social connector Veronica Koltuniak introduced me to some fascinating folks. (Smith also reported that the Bat Cave benefit that I missed at her and Evan Smith’s Tarrytown house had been packed. Good to hear.) Filmmaker Matt Hovis discussed the aura of the evening. And that’s just the start …
Two tiny notes: Prince’s prints of staged scenes are not sufficiently lighted. And the service on the second day was not yet up to snuff. Easy to forgive.
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December 11, 2010
Ralph Lauren Reception for the Long Center
Business meets pleasure. Fashion grapples with charity. Frivolity connects with seriousness.
Wendi Kushner and Patty Huffines
One doesn’t expect so much social harmony in a designer shop at the Domain. Yet the irrepressible Nina Seely made it happen again on Friday.
She opened the Ralph Lauren boutique to backers of the Long Center. A portion of their purchases went to the performing arts center, which is showing signs of financial stability these days.
Susan Lubin and Wendy Satterfield
Already, Seely has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the center in this manner. She has also made it safe for those who are intimidated by designer prices to fantasize. (In fact, I have purchased several Ralph Lauren ties from Seely, but that’s about as far as my wallet will take me.)
Graydon Parrish, Wendi Kushner and Brian Kushner
Among the dazzlers there were Jo Anne Christian, Wendi Kushner, James Armstrong, Larry Connelly, Patti Huffines, Susan Lubin, Graydon Parrish, Amy Holloway and Kevin Smothers. I lingered as long as I dared.
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December 10, 2010
Austin Visual Arts Awards Ceremony at AT&T Center
You already know the winners of the Austin Visual Arts Awards.
These prizes fill a vacuum in the arts scene, since several other disciplines hold their own community awards. Visual arts leaders gave out honors, back in the 1990s, but this second-year initiative from Austin Visual Arts Association has the feel of credible and reliable commendations for local artists and backers.
When AVVA asked me to give out the patron award, I thought: Oh cool. Whoever it is, I’ll already know them. No need to write a speech.
Nope. They informed me earlier this week it would be Mike Chesser. Who, I asked. Well, this photographer and collector has served in leadership positions with Austin Museum of Art, Blanton Museum of Art, Arthouse, Art Lies, Art Pace and Fluent Collaborative. How could I not know him?
Turns out, I do. A helpful guest pointed Chesser out during the early reception. That’s right: I’d talked to this gentle, thoughtful, modest man dozens if not hundreds of times at social events. Did not know his history. Congrats to Mike and all the other winners.
Photo of Chesser courtesy of Till Richter.
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December 3, 2010
Salvage Vangaurd Gala at Eponymous Garden
When Salvage Vanguard Theater throws a “gala,” don’t visualize women in glittery gowns, men dressed as penguins or stiff diners over stiff drinks. The longtime Austin warehouse theater group raises money in the same way it presents performances: Without a scintilla of affectation.
Gricelda Silva and Jacob Trussell
Musicians and dancers performed at the Eponymous Garden, the guest-residence-and-events cluster of bungalows, set around a renovated farm house on Garden Street in East Austin. Aromatic snacks were arrayed behind the kitchen; traditional sidecar cocktails were served out by the old “stables.”
But my reason for attending were the fascinating people, among them Garden co-owner and consummate cabaret artist Sterling Price-McKinney (also my former landlord at the Garden). So many other talented artists to catch up with: Cyndi Williams, Joey Hood, Gabriel Luna, Paul Soileau, Luke Savisky, Jenny Larson, Josh Meyer, Adrienne Mishler, Matt Hislope, Westen Borghesi, and so forth.
Luke Savisky, Margery Segal and Jason Phelps
Yet big surprise was the return of Jason Phelps and Margery Segal, two signal Austin artists from the 1990s. They now live in Travis Heights after a long sojourn in Vermont. We welcome them back with wide, open arms. In some ways, the circle was never broken.
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November 12, 2010
Austin Lyric Opera Season Opener at the Long Center
The audience aligned with the critics (Statesman, Chronicle). During two full intermissions — the better to socialize — guests for Austin Lyric Opera’s “La Traviata” praised the soprano. And the tenor. And the conductor. And the scenery. And the crowd work. And the venue. Heck, they practically levitated with admiration while chatting on the definitional Long Center terrace.
Mark Morris and Katherine Meza
Katherine Meza and Mark Morris couldn’t decide what they liked the best, but we discussed the relative merits of German and Italian opera, as well as Verdi’s impact on Wagner (Morris promises to listen closely to the overtures).
Laura and Eric Buehler
Laura and Eric Buehler were overwhelmed with the youth of the crowd on this night when Groupon was a factor. Buehler’s parents complain that, in their native Cleveland, nobody under 70 goes to the opera. Not in Austin! Tracey Young and Gustavo La Grave singled out the excellent supporting cast.
Tasha Bush and Henning Schmidt
Robert Nash said he had seen Austin Lyric’s “La Boheme” last year, then a production of the Puccini delight at the San Francisco Opera. He couldn’t tell the difference, quality-wise. He’s right. On this night, I can say that only one of 10 previous “Traviata” experiences topped Austin Lyric’s, and that’s because Patricia Racette was playing Violetta.
Tracey Young and Gustavo la Grave
Great cities deserve great opera companies. Austin Lyric is not yet great, but it shows signs of achieving that status, if its audiences and onstage evidence are to be believed. And that’s where the future of the company — now suffering from nagging deficits, according to board members present on Wednesday — lies. Here was a crowd that virtually jumped out of its nice shoes to cheer Pamela Armstrong, this evening’s triumphant Violetta.
Cassie Melendez and Samantha Chang
The bravi should still be ringing in Armstrong’s ears. And Austin Lyric ought to ring in our collective memories long after this season opener.
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November 11, 2010
Dan Bullock at Zach Theatre
One might guess, on first acquaintance, that Dan Bullock was a seasoned politico. Or a lobbyist. Or at the very least someone who spends most of his time hobnobbing with politicos and lobbyists at their favorite Capitol haunts. Blame the thick-as-crude West Texas accent, the campaign-ready haircut, the ready hand clasp and the utter, unassailable lack of shyness.
Annette Carlozzi and Dan Bullock from a previous party
Yet there’s a unassuming, creative side to Dan, as anyone who has spent more than five minutes with him discovers. He’s married to Blanton Museum of Art curator Annette Carlozzi, for one, and their Jester Estates house is packed with art. He regularly hosts musical salons at the that house and he raises money for various arts groups, including Zach Theatre, where he has served on the board of directors for years.
Clayton Bullock and Eric Groten
Bullock combined all those interests Tuesday night during a concert to raise money for Zach Theatre’s performing arts school. (Applause! Applause!) The night was staged to match the momentum of Zach’s push for the new Topfer Theatre and its Karen Kuyendall stage. (I spoke with Zach’s managing director, Elisabeth Challener, on their complicated plans to ensure adequate parking during and after construction. No small thing.)
Pat Henneberry and Brenda Thomp
To support his supple singing and guitar playing, Bullock assembled a crack team of musicians: Landis Armstrong, Chris Johnson, Conrad Choucroun and Ted Roddy. They played country, jazz, folk and pop music, all artfully rearranged for the group’s particular skills. They played in memory of Dan’s late son, Graham Randle Bullock (1977-1989).
Tony Johnson and Dave Steakley
Bullock’s self-deprecating humor is legendary. He related how his recent campaign to lose weight and get into shape was motivated by being mistaken in public for John Madden and Billy Joe Shaver. Ouch. At one point during the concert, he glided over introductions of all the VIPs in the house, saying “Just look to your left and right. You can’t miss the VIPs.”
Included in that prominent gang were Rep. Donna Howard, Becky Beaver, Dana Friis-Hansen, Suzanne Booth; Ted Whatley, Eric Groten, Jeanne Klein, Larry Connelly, Rusty Tally, Gary Cooper, Mickey Klein, Carol Adams, Barbara Chisholm, Maria Groten, James Armstrong, Melba Whatley, Brett Bachman, Mary Tally, Tony Johnson, Richard Hartgrove, Robert Faires, Bob Wade, Dave Steakley, Candace Partridge, and Brenda Thompson.
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November 7, 2010
Oscar Brockett, 1923-2010
Oscar Brockett, the world’s foremost theater historian and a former University of Texas professor, died early Sunday morning after suffering a massive stroke late Saturday.
“(He) was an absolute giant in the field of theater history,” said Doug Dempster, dean of the UT College of Fine Arts. “He defined it in many ways. His name is synonymous with the field across several continents. He was a prolific, meticulous scholar into the very last year of his long career. He leaves a legacy that will last as long again as his long life.”
In 1968, Brockett wrote “History of the Theatre.” It has since been translated into dozens of languages, including a suppressed version in Farsi. It is now in its 10th edition and has passed through the hands of almost every American theater student for four decades.
His balanced, painstaking history revolutionized the field by switching the focus of theatrical scholarship from playscripts to how those words were actually staged, something that other scholars had recorded only piecemeal.
Brockett was born in rural Tennessee into a family that grew tobacco. He was among the first in his family to attend college, a move that was interrupted by service in World War II, when he captained a troop transport ship.
Returning after the war, he designed scenery and, at Stanford University, earned one of the first doctorates in theater. He wrote a popular introduction to theater and compiled an anthology of important plays. Both books are still in wide use.
Brockett taught in Iowa, Indiana, Florida, California and elsewhere, but he settled in Austin during the late 1970s. As dean of the UT College of Fine Arts, he oversaw the construction of the performing arts center and proposals for what would eventually become the Blanton Museum of Art.
He won numerous regional, national and international awards, as well as teaching honors at UT.
Among his students, colleagues and friends, he was known for his scrupulous care with the truth and a profound sense of humanity. He also deployed a dry, gentle wit.
Known to everyone as “Brock,” he spent his last years in the Nokonah residences.
Although his health faltered, he completed “Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design and Technology in Europe and United States,” a massive book written with Margaret Mitchell and Linda Hardberger.
Just as important as his scholarship, was his absolute love of actual performance.
“Brock never missed a chance to be in the audience for theater,” said UT theater professor Charlotte Canning. “Infirmity, bad weather, bad day, none of it deterred him from being there when the curtain went up. He was a theatrical omnivore — Broadway, regional theater, experimental, student, found space, purpose-built space, fully-produced, workshop — if it was theater he was there.”
As news of his death spread around the world on Sunday, tributes from former students and colleagues poured in.
“(He) didn’t just teach students, he championed them,” said Russ Taylor. “His fundamental message was: ‘Do what interests you, and do it very, very well.’ I feel blessed to have had him as a teacher.”
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Oscar G. Brockett Theatre Endowment in the Department of Theatre and Dance, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station-D3900, Austin, TX, 78712-0362. Direct questions to Michele Baylor at 512-471-5793.
A public memorial service is being planned for the University of Texas.
On a personal note, Brock is the main reason I moved to Austin.
He’s the reason I work at this newspaper, and why I view the world the way I do.
I will miss him every day.
Please leave your memories or tributes to Brock in the commentary box.
UPDATE:
Oscar Brockett Memorial is now set.
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October 27, 2010
Welcome to the Funhouse of Edward Povey and Donna Tolar
From the outside, the house bearing such a suggestive name looks unexceptional, executed in a style borrowed from Santa Fe or Mexico — rustic stucco, cool tiles, sequestered doors, shaded patios, a few bold decorative statements.
Inside, one’s expectations summersault. Each room dazzles the senses, unsettles the equilibrium, matching the warm, unpredictable personalities of the hosts: Distinguished Welsh surrealist painter and performer Edward Povey, and his American wife, Donna Tolar, also an accomplished artist.
The towering studios, bedrooms, living rooms and movie theater are crammed with items one would expect showcased in a Victorian or Edwardian museum of wonders. One tiny hallway doubles as a house of mirrors.
A bathroom replicates an old-fashioned theatrical dressing room. Thick with couches, pillows and throws, the upstairs theater mimes the grandeur of golden-age movie palaces.
Illusions skulk around every corner. As the sun sets and natural light dims, the mood alters. Shadows turn the playful pair’s collections of masks, rugs and other antique oddities into something slightly menacing. Surrealism drips into the subconscious like candle wax.
Will dinner guests witness a British murder mystery disguised as a party game? Will doors lock on the dollhouse dining room? One can never tell.
“It was not built to impress anyone,” Povey, 59, says of Sub Rosa. “Instead, it is, firstly, to delight ourselves, secondly to delight our friends.”
What inspired this bizarre theatrical set as home and work space?
“Many things,” says Povey, whose lacquered voice seems constructed for the stage. “Our travels, our time in New Orleans and Venice. Also surely our love of theater, carnival and illusion.”
“Edward and I have travelled to some very amazing places,” Tolar, 44, says. “Some were exotic, some were quite ordinary, but we gathered ideas and inspiration from them all.”
She mentions a few places in particular: Sarastro’s Restaurant, Drury Lane, London; a Victorian cottage in Seattle; the apartment of a gay theater director in New York, who has an amazing bathroom filled with Chinese toys; the Beatrix Potter museum in Cumbria, England; the Salvation Army in Palm Beach, which sells, Tolar relates, “fabulous luxury items and antiques, pennies on the dollar.”
“This is our first home we have owned together,” Tolar says (both artists were married previously to other spouses). “And I think we were a bit like children when we designed it. In previous lives, we both felt we must follow the ‘rules.’ But this time, there weren’t any adults to tell us ‘no’ — which gives it a rather playful atmosphere.”
Povey, whose first paintings were huge outdoor murals now carefully preserved in his native Wales, has spent a life in the spotlight. And he loves theaters. But the reasons for the incumbent theatricality at Sub Rosa go deeper.
“I somehow like the signs of drama and impermanence that you experience in theaters,” he says. “The mysteriousness, the magic.”
The duo’s thoroughly considered and researched paintings also influenced the details at Sub Rosa.
Dinners there start before sunset and extend well into the evening. Guest bedrooms are offered for those exhausted from conversations that range over the globe, as well as the party games and movie presentations. (A viewing of Steven Spielberg’s mind-blowing “Minority Report” completed one of our evenings there.)
“For me, I think that one half of the way that I enjoy Sub Rosa is vicariously, through our guests,” Povey says. “Frankly, I think I get self-conscious and bored in most environments.”
Tolar agrees that the glints in visitors’ eyes as they explore the wonders and illusions are worth the investment in planning and execution.
Povey and Tolar, who could live anywhere, carefully chose Central Texas as their home, not because of the landscape, or the potential of the artistic market, though their work has always sold well here.
“In my view, it is civilized,” Povey says. “People largely are kind, and isn’t that one of the most important things in life? To, if nothing else, be kind? Folks here seem aware of the preciousness of life. I cannot bear to live in places where people are unaware of the preciousness of life, and where they are not kind.”
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October 23, 2010
Arthouse at the Jones Center Reopening Parties
Director Sue Graze looked ecstatic. Key backers, such as Stephen Jones and Julie Thornton, glowed as giddily as new parents. Crowds oozed up and down the multiple levels of Arthouse at the Jones Center, emitting audible “Oos” and “Ahs” over the lofty rooms, punctured walls and dark wood slats.
Julie Thornton and John Spong
Thursday, artists had previewed the totally re-imagined contemporary arts center on Congress Avenue. Austin Film Festival attendees, tourists and ordinary nightclubbers paused to gape at the building’s transparent skin, or to gaze up at the revelers peeking over the rooftop parapet. (I watched this parade from the Stephen F. terrace.)
Michael and Nicholas Catanese (Yes! My notes were right!)
Friday, holders of $1,000 dinner tickets paused on the second floor, wondering if the installation of rough dinnerware and furniture — constructed from recycled materials from the former movie theater and department store — was the actual dining area. Nice moment.
Eddie Safady and David Whiteaker
Everywhere were the titans of latter day Austin’s arts evolution: Jeanne and Mickey Klein, Suzanne Booth, Stephen Mills, Cookie Ruiz, etc. Also socializers of the first rank, plus a sprinkling of media. The mood elevated as guests rose to the miraculous rooftop, where the actual dinner took place.
Alice and Eric Foultz with Suzanne Deal Booth
At our table: Banker and backer Eddie Safady, arts leader Anne Elizabeth Wynn, filmmaker Joaquin Avellan, foundation captain Eugene Sepulveda, architectural designer David Whiteaker, contractor Howard Yancy and psychologist Mary Yancy. Conversations loosened up more generously than is usual at gala events. The guests seemed liberated by the occasion to act as if were were all close friends around a domestic table.
Margo Sawyer and Alisa Weldon
As the night stretched on, the next wave of partiers ($125 tickets) mixed casually with the diners. Today and Sunday, admission is free, ushering hundreds more into the galleries. This kind of phased party makes so much sense. Everyone pays what they — or their hosts — can afford.
Stephen Mills, Cookie Ruiz and Brent Hasty
The charity wins. Everyone mixes. It’s so Austin.
UPDATE: An earlier version of this post had Stephen Jones’ first name wrong. The ticket prices are now correct.
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October 17, 2010
'Fantasticks' Weekend at the University of Texas
We witnessed history.
Friday, on the first night of the University Texas’ celebration of the 50th Anniversary of “The Fantasticks,” a perky set of undergraduates performed a sharply contoured revue of songs by Texas exes Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. The themed portfolio included less than two dozen from the composing team’s 1,000+ songs, written over the course of 60 years. Yet it polished up rare gems, like alternative versions of the “I Do! I Do!” title song and the duo’s work as UT students and cabaret composers in New York City during the 1950s.
Tom Jones
At the end of the show, Schmidt and Jones, now in their 80s, met at the piano (the quieter Schmidt in a wheelchair). They sang four short songs, but — oh! — it was well worth witnessing the composers of America’s longest running play jazzing it up for the crowd. Two instant pleasers were “Mr. Off-Broadway,” their self-descriptive salute to the movement they helped popularize; and “Freshman Song,” the first they ever wrote together, 60 years ago for a wildly popular UT student review. How many audiences can say they have witnessed the crowning of such a career at one’s alma mater?
Harvey Schmidt
The song’s shy, hopeful lyrics set loose the waterworks for the assembled guests, mostly alumni who packed the weekend of performances, panels and parties. The subsequent reception in the lobby outside the Brockett Theatre was like old home week for seven decades theater and dance students. The eldest member of the Curtain Club — which predated the drama department — spoke of joining in the early 1940s. She was the picture of health, grace and eloquence. (Only star Eli Wallach is an older living alumnus of the club, established in 1908 by critic Stark Young.)
Camille Abbott and Barbara Chisholm
The next morning, UT playwright Steven Dietz delivered a philosophical keynote speech about theater preparing us “to be.” Texas Performing Arts director Kathy Panoff, with help from music director Lyn Koenning, interviewed Schmidt and Jones for a delightful hour of anecdotes and reminiscences. Both Texans retain a ready wit and literate array of references.
Heads of art, theater, dance and music: John Yancey, Brant Pope and Glenn Chandler
Playwright Kirk Lynn and arts editor Robert Faires then led a discussion of how new work impacts theater, dance and training. The verbally gifted panel included choreographer Kitty McNamee, playwrights Robert Schenkkan, Kim Peter Kovac and Carson Kreitzer. They made a convincing case for the act of making something from nothing, rather than just interpreting from the establish canon.
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan and prominent architect Michael Guardino
Costume designer Susan Mickey helped me corral a raucous crew of talents: Bruce McGill (“Animal House,” “The Legend of Bagger Vance”); Todd Lowe (“Gilmore Girls,” “True Blood”) and Brian Danner (leading Los Angeles fight director). We discussed whether a university arts education was worth nothing — or everything. (We leaned toward the latter, but each speaker noted what they missed during their practical education.) Other panels and student demonstrations honeycombed the Winship Building on campus.
Texas Performing Arts director Kathy Panoff, flanked by benefactors Mary Ann and Andrew Heller
More socializing centered around an early-evening performance of “The Fantasticks” at the B. Iden Payne Theatre. (One imagines the ghost of the old Shakespearean actor hovered over this show, which includes a character clearly based on him.) Those around me agreed the material holds up, for something that seemed an enchanting sliver of a musical 50 years ago. The allegorical cycles of youth and age are near-universal, and the writers have updated some of the inevitable anachronisms over the years.
It’s been a long time since I attended a conference of any kind. This was the one to choose. I was transfixed the entire time, though it meant missing some major social events, like the Texas Literary Gala, Symphony Jewel Ball and the Audubon Society’s new awards ceremony.
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October 15, 2010
La Dolce Vita at Laguna Gloria
La Dolce Vita 2010.
Rudy Green and Joyce Christian
The grounds of Laguna Gloria.
Michael and Kelly Swartz
Titian night.
Michelle Prado and Mauricio Faogoaga
Chardin delicacies.
Tracy LaQuey Parker and Patrick Parker
Caravaggio wine.
Grace and Kevin Kim
Rosetti women.
Dave and Kristi Moriarty
Donatello men.
Brian and Mya Rogers
Magritte performers.
Lisa Farris Tom Thomas
Tohaku moods.
Joseph Faz and Christopher Alfaro
Renoir romances.
Lea and Jeremy Pruyne
Degas discussions.
Esperanza & Michelle McLaughlin
Newman balance.
Afie Humphrey and Barrett Donner
Friedrich feelings.
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October 12, 2010
'The Fantasticks' and Austin
At 7:30 p.m. May 3, 1960, “The Fantasticks” opened at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, N.Y.
The allegorical musical’s director, Word Baker, studied at the University of Texas. The composing team of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones also hailed from UT, as did three of the stars, Bill Larsen, Jay Hampton and Jones, under the stage name Thomas Bruce.
The original production ran for 42 years and 17,162 performances, making it the longest-running show in American history. The backers have enjoyed returns of 240 times their original investments and the show has been staged in more than 60 countries.
And it all started with relationships nurtured at UT, where the creators worked alongside future celebrities Fess Parker, Liz Smith, Barbara Barrie, Rip Torn, Jayne Mansfield and Kathryn Crosby in the 1940s and ‘50s.
This week, the UT department of theater and dance toasts the landmark show’s 50th anniversary with performances, panels and parties. Schmidt and Jones — who went on to write durable musicals such as “I Do! I Do!” “110 in the Shade,” and “Celebration” — will return to the 40 Acres for the jamboree.
Rod Caspers directs not only performances of “The Fantasticks,” but also a revue of Schmidt and Jones songs. (The weekend event is sold out, but “The Fantasticks” continues through Oct. 24.)
So just how did “The Fantasticks” get its start in Austin? The composing pair carefully studied Edmund Rostand’s “Les Romanesques” with Payne and witnessed multiple student versions of the story about parents who bring their children together by pretending to keep them apart.
They would go on to collaborate on deliriously popular student revues at UT and creative projects in New York before “The Fantasticks” took off, boosting the careers of Jerry Orbach, Robert Goulet, Glenn Close, Rita Gardner, Richard Chamberlain, George Chakiris, John Davidson and others.
(The book to read is “The Amazing Story of The Fantasticks: America’s Longest Running Play” by Donald C. Farber and Robert Viagas.)
Few Austinites know about the city’s ties to this historic musical. More will learn about that role this weekend.
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October 8, 2010
Art Divas Second Anniversary Party in West Lake Hills
Roll down the window. Head up the hills. Keep your GPS handy. It’s time for a West Lake party.
Quincy Erickson and Sarah Bird
The Art Divas’ second anniversary gathering at the low-key home of marketer Sherry Smith was like something out of an Iris Murdoch novel. Celestial evening on the lip of an interior canyon. Unpretentious snacks from Quincy Erickson (including devious little stuffed tomatoes). A reading. Traditional tour of house art. A mass of slightly eccentric intellectuals. (Murdoch was the rare writer who could handle such crowd scenes.)
Rashmi Khosa and Mary Schneider
On the subject of novelists, I spent some of the last of my birthday hours with Sarah Bird, my habitual nomination for any literary honor. She recommended some local additions to my reading list, including some I already love, like Owen Egerton and John Pipkin, but also some I had encountered in person, but never read, such as Doug Dorst.
Kari Quick and Louise Menlo
The rest of the company kept me equally enthralled. I count myself blessed to obtain repeated invitations to this monthly event, which shares personal collections of art with art collectors, despite my gender. Always some of the most agile conversations in town.
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October 7, 2010
'Cowboy Noises' for OutYouth at the Long Center
Austin theatrical superstar Jaston Williams is happy. In life, happy. On stage, happy. And audiences notice.
Jaston Williams and Jeff McCrary
Parts of “Cowboy Noises,” revived in a more intimate staging by director Scott Kanoff, are so mellow and poetic, one could be excused from forgetting he co-wrote and starred in four installments of the broadly satirical “Greater Tuna” series. Still, his fans responded generously whenever Williams’ autobiographical solo show turned a bit acidic about his upbringing in arid West Texas. They appreciate the grit in the good humor.
Heather McClellan and Tim Sapp
During an OutYouth benefit reception following the show, guests commented consistently on Williams’ transformation. He’s still wickedly funny, but Williams is now also centered, modulated, reflective and fit as a fiddle, fans say, and he lingered with them in the Long Center’s AT&T Room.
Micah King and Ryan Obermeyer
Ran into endlessly amiable journalist and law school grad Jeff McCrary, who just took the Texas bar exam (all good luck!); AIDS Services of Austin’s image orchestrator Micah King, and Paul Beutel, interim leader at the center, who explained the choices ahead for Austin’s performing arts hub.
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September 30, 2010
Preview Dinner for "Turner to Monet" at the Blanton Museum of Art
The mood turned a bit solemn when Blanton Museum of Art director Ned Rifkin nodded gracefully to University of Texas President William Powers Jr., honoring his leadership during the previous day’s campus shooting. Otherwise, the dinner set inside the Blanton’s dreamy blue lobby was all about the 19th Century. The moment: “Turner to Monet: Masterpieces of the Walters Collection” waiting for us in the nearby galleries.
Jack and Ginger Blanton
We’ll leave the description of the art — and how it got to Austin — to arts writer Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, who will roll out an ample story on the Walters loan soon. We’ll confine our observations instead on the the people, places and scenes connected to the preview dinner for the show, expected to be the most popular in the Blanton’s history.
Ann Butler and Genie Miller
Why? Because, as everyone over cocktails and dinner repeated: Austinites have longed for a full banquet the 19th century arts. Except for some targeted exhibits, it’s the missing link between the Old Masters and 20th & 21st Century works we already enjoy in abundance. Dignified guests soaked up the 40 mostly large canvases with plenty of elbow room, which will probably not be the case for viewers during the regular run of the show.
Other tabletop topics: Spoiled children, new restaurants, Marfa, Austin City Limits, military families, far-flung travel, Killeen High School (I sat between two Kangaroos).
Wilson and Janet Allen
This was no black-tie event. Still, the limited tables sparkled with social charisma: Ginger and Jack Blanton, Mary Ann and former UT President Larry Faulkner, UT Provost Steven Leslie, Teresa and Joe Long, Earnest and Sarah Butler, Eddie Safady, Larry Connelly and James Armstrong, Jo Anne Christian, Ann Butler, Nancy and retired Admiral Bobby Inman, John and Carolyn Young, Dorothy and Sam Winters and Joe Holt.
With this gang of power players, one could talk about a future for the 19th-century in Austin.
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September 29, 2010
Ballet Austin Season Opener at the Long Center
As far as audiences were concerned, the Long Center delivered on its original promise over the weekend. In spades.
Jolynn Free and Sharon Watkins
At Dell Hall, record crowds welcomed Ballet Austin’s “Kai” and “Carmina Burana,” the latter aided by the Austin Symphony Orchestra and Conspirare. Over in the Rollins, Austin Shakespeare rolled out the last performances of “The Tempest,” while Blue Lapis Light dangled dancers from the plaza (which I’d like to name the Cliff Redd Terrace after the former, much loved center director, although it would probably cost a few million I don’t have).
Nancy Scanlan and Laura Scanlan Cho
The Ballet season opener drew all ages, from tots to tottering elders. They appeared to appreciate “Kai,” Stephen Mills’ masterly abstract dance, but they raised the roof for “Carmina Burana,” and not jut because of the familiar opening and closing clangings. This is a long, complex, historically ambitious work that required a lot of sustained observation from even the most enthusiastic fans.
Nidhi and Tanuj Nakra
On a purely personal note, I couldn’t help choking up a few times as the three companies paraded their confident wares. Having followed these artists for decades, I could measure the distance they had traveled since the 1980s. No one is claiming perfection, but the standards are infinitely higher these days.
During the break, my companion and I were lucky enough to join some backers in the Green Room. (The Long Center is honeycombed with such retreats.) Everyone fluttered with admiration for the ballet bill, as well as upcoming events, such as the University of Texas weekend devoted to “The Fantasticks” (which several of my chat-mates helped put together).
What a time to be in Austin!
UPDATE
In an earlier version of this post, Nidhi and Tanug’s names were reversed and Sharon Watkins’ name had a “Zee” in it, I presume for her restaurant, Chez Zee.
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September 27, 2010
'Promises of Independence & Revolution' Opening at Mexic-Arte Museum
The consonance between 1810 and 1910 in Mexican history had never occurred to me. On the first date, the struggle for independence from Spain started in earnest. The revolt against the established order — 100 years later — was connected to centennial celebrations of the earlier uprising.
Catalino and Elida Levya
These connections are laid out rather complexly at Mexic-Arte Museum, where “Promises of Independence and Revolution” opened to lectures, songs and mass social greetings on Saturday.
Anyone who attended deserves a medal for just getting downtown in the madness (sadness) of Longhorns game day. Yet plenty of folks wouldn’t have missed it.
Charles Rothenbach, Carmen Rothenbach and Maribel Deleon
I must return to the spot. The historical record on display is just too enlightening. Photographic records from the University of Texas and elsewhere recall the lavish attempts at pageantry and populism in Mexico in 1910. Even more interesting for locals are the records of Austin revels at Parque Zaragosa and elsewhere, all to salute Mexican independence.
Sharon Colson and Verónica Putney.
Politicians, board leaders, schoolchildren, art lovers, history buffs and others crowded around for the speeches and performances. I suspect many others will return to examine the wall texts more closely.
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September 26, 2010
Opening Night Dinner at the UT Visual Arts Center
University of Texas officials beamed. Arts leaders cooed. Students poked their heads into the slightly formal dinner that opened the UT Visual Arts Center, waiting for the 9 p.m. late party that would let in a broader population.
Texas Performing Arts director Kathy Panoff, Professor of Music Education Hunter March and Graduate School Dean Victoria Rodriguez
Anyone with an eye could tell that, underneath decades of accretions, the former UT museum could open up into a viable artistic space again. (The Blanton Museum of Art migrated to a more public location at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and North Congress Avenue.) The barrel vaults alone were worth revealing at the renovated Visual Arts Center that now unites the L-shaped university arts district.
DJ Green and Emily Blanchard
Some of the conversation wandered to comparisons between the more traditional-looking Blanton and the more clean-lined VA Center. The general consensus: The two art nodes play complementary roles. The Art and Art History department’s new Center takes the part of studio and potentially playful test site.
Stratus developer CEO Beau Armstrong, Val Armstrong and Andrea Keene
From the evidence of this opening, it appears the Center will indeed become a center for student and faculty creativity on campus.
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September 24, 2010
Women's Symphony League Ball Preview at Lake Travis home
Whoa. I mean. Whoa. I had never been to Beau Theriot’s mansion, just down the Lake Travis crest from his Oasis megalopolis. The view is just as spectacular and this palace is packed with antiques. The real deal.
Sherri Davis and Beau Theriot
The occasion was a little preview for the Women’s Symphony League Jewel Ball, coming up Oct. 16 at Hilton Austin. League president Sherri Davis, who wields Facebook like pro, talked me out to Theriot’s manse on a gorgeous evening, despite four competing parties. (I made three of others those easily.)
Howard, Nicole and Diane Falkenberg
I met some of the Jewel Ball royalty. And at least one Diamond, which, I take it, means debutante, if only a bit reluctant in this case. (Or should I say “demure.”) I also was invited to a Arbor Luncheon at the Four Seasons, which showcases the orchestra’s guest artists just before a classical pair of concerts. (Luncheons can be more convenient than dinners because of schedule crunches. Not always, but quite often.)
Debbie Werkenthin (Jewel Ball chairwoman), Sonia Wilson and Jan Roesslein (Jewel chairwoman, which is different, in charge of the court, which includes visiting royalty, I believe)
But back to the house. The view can’t be duplicated this side of California, or the Amalfi Coast. (Hello, Ravello!) If you are invited — and only if, mind you — go to any party given by Theriot.
Just mind the decor. It’s for real.
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September 12, 2010
Ballet Fete at Butler Center and Seaholm Power Plant
The Party of the Decade — exalting Stephen Mills’ 10 years as Ballet Austin’s leader — lived up to its name. At least for those gala guests lucky enough to witness all three acts (ticket face value: $1,000). It started at 6 p.m. Friday with drinks in the lobby of the Butler Dance Education Center on West Third Street. Right away, one noticed the unusually elaborate yet elegant gowns, the discreet accents on rarely worn tuxes.
Andrea McWilliams and Steve Hicks
Turning the corner into a dance studio for dinner, all one could do is gasp at the themed floral arrangements by the Mandarin Flower Co. Filling the room, they rose from 10 tables, each representing a major ballet from the Mills era. To say that they were creative is to understate the case in the extreme.
Yes, only 10 tables. One hundred guests. That intensified the uncommon quality of the entire evening. I sat with party chairwoman Andrea McWilliams and her husband Dean McWilliams. Their two adjoining tables brimmed with enthralling conversationalists, and prior to the evening, Andrea had sent to each of us a bound copy of biographies of their guests.
Now that’s classy. Our gang included Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, Texas Comptroller and F1 enthusiast Susan Combs, former Austin Mayor Will Wynn, author Kristin Armstrong, Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Chairman James Mansour, Citi managing director William Borden, power lawyer Mark Eidman, University of Texas Regent Steve Hicks and his always poised wife Donna Stockton Hicks, Texas Rep. Mark Strama and his wife, former TV newswoman Crystal Cotti.
Oze Paya and Donna Stockton Hicks
Over the course of the evening, I got to know three guests much better: Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall (whose book on Texas governors Kip edited); Mark McWilliams, Dean’s cousin and owner of Arista Winery, which provided the superb Russian River Valley potables for the dinner; and Jennifer Moross, astute native Austinite and wife of financier Dominic Moross (they live in Greenwich, Conn. with their family).
Diane Land and Steve Adler
And we are just getting to Four Seasons chef Elmar Pramb’s dinner: tuna tatare with guacamole; roasted beet, arugula, goat cheese and candied pecans under balsamic vinaigrette; beef tenderloin with sauteed mushrooms paired with lump crab cake on sweet corn salad and chive-lemon risotto. Top that off with pastry chef Javier Franco’s white dome of chocolate, passion fruit, cremeaux, and raspberry sauce. Each of these courses came with a splash of Arista or Mark David label wines. My fave: The stately cabernet franc. I was lucky to reserve Mark at my side to explain the derivation of each selection.
Nina Seely, Will Wynn and Becky Beaver
After dinner, we retired to the Austin Ventures Studio Theater where Mills was properly lionized with short speeches, a film with snips from his major ballets and a full performance of “Kai,” a charmingly strenuous dance which will officially premiere Sept. 24-26 with “Carmina Burana” at the Long Center. Among the uniformly striking performers, I was most impressed with Jaime Lynn Witts, who projects an extraordinary presence.
Susan Combs and William Borden
Performance over, we were bussed two blocks to the vacated Seaholm Power Plant and then were immediately seated near the runway for the fashion show. As everyone knows, Austin now hosts two or three runway shows a week. This one was immaculate, posh, to go with Carolina Herrera’s fur-fringed fall and winter looks, thanks to the guidance of Neiman Marcus.
At this point, the Party of the Decade was pretty near flawless for those of us given the white-glove treatment (don’t think for a second I take it for granted; I’m a lucky guy). The live auction, however, just rolled on too long, and the heat inside Seaholm started to take its toll. Suddenly, I recalled that all the previous parties I’d attended here were in the winter!
The heat did not, however, kill the party, which now included scores of guests who had attended only one or none of Acts 1 and 2. They were scooping up the hearty snacks and signature drinks. They wandered around the chopped-up space inside Seaholm to partake of various booths. Those who had never been inside Seaholm before gaped at the vast expanses. I prefer to see it in a more open, clean-lined and industrial way, a stage design perfected at Taylor Perkins’ New Year’s Eve bash there.
After six hours of Fete — added to four hours at Beauty of Life that morning and three hours of Glossy Glam the previous night — I was ready to head home.
At least two young women near the 360 Tower shouted out compliments about the tux as I walked by. The second yelled: “Hey, sexy old man!”
I’ll take that. And the whole enchanted evening.
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August 29, 2010
Catalyst 8 Bash at the Long Center
Goals are good. Catalyst 8, the group of young leaders backing the Long Center for the Performing Arts, has made a goal: To raise $600,000 this year.
Sara Dunne and Pat Buchta
They intend to subsidize 60 nights of local arts in the center’s Rollins Theatre. If there’s a smarter, more focused goal for an arts guild, I don’t know about it.
Catalyst 8 energizer Carla Jackson says she’d like to help subsidized groups, such as Tongue and Groove Theatre, to learn marketing as well. (She adored that company’s clever staging of “The Red Balloon.”)
Wolfgang and Julie Niedert
For its annual Bash, the leaders decked out two levels of Long Center lobbies and gathering spots. Kevin Smothers concentrated on a downbeat lounge in the third floor. Technology provided the theme: Centerpieces were constructed of electronic innards.
Jake Stewart and Troupe Gammage of the band Speak
The synthpop band Speak got guests moving in the Kodosky Lounge. I first heard the foursome during the Austin Fashion Awards show at the Dell Hall, for which they were ideally suited. Here they played dance beats from the ’70s and ’80s, as well as their own adroitly layered compositions.
Laura Mitchell, Susan Nelms and Robert Taylor
I danced, thank in part to the companionship of Jackson and restaurant owner Cameron Lockley. Yes. So you know it was a good party. Any videos of my inevitable awkwardness should not make it onto the Internet. Seriously. No. Seriously.
Outgoing Catalyst 8 chairwoman Amy Holloway and her retirement gift, not a close likeness
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August 10, 2010
Wally Workman Gallery 30th Anniversary Party
Wally Workman adores beauty. That’s abundantly evident from the dozens of artists, mostly from Austin, she has represented for three decades at her eponymous gallery on West Sixth Street.
Shelby and Anne Barnett
Vague, inexact terms — abstract, surreal, hyper-real — can be applied to this art, mostly paintings. Beauty, recognizable to almost anyone, is the more important common denominator. And it’s hard to put a price on that.
Zachary and Amy Guidry
The packed house Saturday sorely tested the gallery’s air-conditioning system, despite temporary additions to battle the August heat bomb outside. Nevertheless, folks chatted for hours about friends, family and art over nibbles and wine. Nobody got testy, even on the narrow stairwell.
Rodrigo Nunes and Nora Keane
Old Austin and New complemented each other. Both tribes came, after all, to toast Workman’s 30 years of salesmanship. I must admit that, eventually, I took refuge outside in the shade, which was actually cooler, after some time sharing the art with Workman’s clearly appreciative guests.
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August 3, 2010
Summer Stock Austin Benefit at Rollins Theatre
Backers of Summer Stock Austin pitched the group as an essential part of the Austin arts ecology on Monday. In the lobby, and from the Rollins Theatre stage, Summer Stock leaders pointed out the opportunities for young talents to take on substantive roles in musical theater. Graduates of the double-barreled summer productions have gone on to lead local professional casts, or are testing the waters in Chicago, New York or Los Angeles.
Fernando Macias-Jimenez, Andrea Macias-Jimenez, Adriana Pacheco de Macias
One of Summer Stock’s leaders, Michael McKelvey, presented Monday’s “There and Back Again” party to benefit for the group’s mentor program. Meanwhile, this summer, he has served as music director for the group’s two current shows, “Cabaret” and “Sweet Charity,” and directed Zilker Theatre Productions’ “Annie” in the park. How long can this St. Edward’s University professor keep all those plates in the air?
Dan Rozycki and Donna Fox
The alumni part of the benefit consisted of — what else? — show tunes. The first act concentrated on the musicals produced in Summer Stock’s first six seasons, the second on showstoppers shared with non-alumni guests. Generating the most lobby buzz were Jacob Trussell, Corley Pillsbury, David Gallagher, Mikayla Agrella and Andrew Cannata.
Brandon Edwards and Sarah Burkhalter
Another lobby topic: Zach Theatre’s “The Drowsy Chaperone,” which is drawing full houses down the street. Witnessed Sunday, the audience clapped and stomped loudest for Martin Burke, Jill Blackwood, Jamie Goodwin and Meredith McCall. Judging by their laughter and silences, they seemed acutely aware of the satirical sleight of hand in this spoof of silly musicals, and the seriousness of the Brechtian device of having the narrator (Burke) comment on the bittersweet joys and social anachronisms in the fictional shows-within-the-show.
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July 3, 2010
Why She Is Here: Carla Jackson
On the first Constitution Debate Day, 150 Austin Community College students showed up. The next year, it was 330. Then 550.
This year’s debate, slated for Sept. 22, is expected to draw 700. Guided by experts, students split into groups of 15 to discuss issues and come to a resolution.
“They come for the extra credit and food,” says Carla L. Jackson, the associate director of ACC’s School of Public Policy and Politics. “But they leave with a deeper knowledge of the constitution and their beliefs. They really think deeply.”
The center, founded in 2007 by political campaign strategist Peck Young, is one of the only — if not the only — such program at an American community college.
Much of the civic sensibility for this Queens, N.Y. native can be traced to her family upbringing. Her mother, Lois, came to New York from Lancaster, S.C., and taught special education. Jackson says: “She spent 40 years getting people to believe in themselves.”
Her father Curtis, originally from New Jersey, managed a social service agency. Her fraternal twin, Carí Jackson Lewis, helped Jackson take control of her life. “When she tells me to do something, I do it. She’s always right.” Jackson says. “It’s very comforting to know there’s somebody you can tell anything to. And that person will at least give you the benefit of the doubt.”
Looking back on this family history, she says: “Of course I am what I am, a person who likes working with people. With a mom and dad like mine, who devoted their life to social service, I had no choice.”
She grew up an artistic child in the “lower-to-middle middle class” district of Laurelton, Queens. She could eat at a neighbor’s, walk home from the bus stop, play in back yards. Impulsive, she once tried to convert the family garage into horse stable with hay and running water.
Raised in open-minded Lutheran church, her real religion became: “Truly being good to your neighbor. There’s no higher honor than to take care of yourself and the person next to you.”
After PS 37 in Queens, she headed to Savannah, Ga. to stay with an aunt, Jackie Byers, a mathematician, during her restless teens. Byers helped dial back her academically-driven intensity and general unhappiness. “She also got me to love symbolic logic,” says Jackson, who graduated from Springfield Gardens High School in Queens.
Diagnosing her early problems in retrospect, she says: “I never believed in doing things until I knew why I needed to do it.” College consumed her all-curious personality She learned every skill in the theater, because, as a would-be producer, she might have to ask someone to do it. Or do it herself. “I like to understand how things work,” she says. “It gives you a greater respect for what people do and teaches you how to give them room to do it.”
While interning at HBO Documentaries in 1998, she met Kelvin Z. Phillips at a Manhattan party. She left early, but they exchanged numbers.
“I called him later and said: ‘You might as well leave the party, because you’re not going to meet anyone better.’” He agreed and left. Friendship turned into courtship. Phillips worked in graphics for financial firms at night, wrote screenplays by day. She moved to Philadelphia to work at the Wilma Theatre, but then Phillips asked her to move into his Brooklyn apartment. “I kept waiting for it to get uncomfortable since we hadn’t dated that long before I moved in,” Jackson says. “It never did.”
Phillips has two sons she is now helping to raise: Kelvin Jr., 19, a dreamer, “comic genius,” and a writer, attending ACC, but applying for the US. Air Force; and Justice, 13, a student at Fulmore Magnet School Program, a charismatic, generous spirit. Stage name: Freedom.
The family was living in Tarzana, Cal. while Phillips pursued his screenwriting dream when his primary employer, Dimensional Fund Advisors, moved him to Austin.
Once here, while Jackson tried to produce her own shows — she’d like to get back to that full-time — she helped out groups like Catalyst 8, Church of the Friendly Ghost, Lights, Camera, Help and LeapAustin.
At ACC, her aim is to “get students to understand that policy and politics affect your life, so why not learn how to affect it back,” she says. “If there’s something you wake up looking forward to, you have a responsibility to fight for it.”
She sums up her devotion to public service: “If you haven’t done something to make lives easier, entertained or enlightened, I don’t know why you are here.”
Those interests converge on arts and public policy. Jackson is sometimes mystified by the DYI Austin ways.
“You can raise 1,000 people to clean a park, but not $1,000,” she says. “What does it say about a city that you are the Live Music Capital of the World, but musicians can’t eat?” she says. “We can and have to fix that. Austin can do anything.”
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June 27, 2010
2010 Out & About 500: Arts
2010 OUT & ABOUT 500: ARTS
Arts Stars: Deborah Green and Clayton Aynesworth, photo on front page
Amy Barbee. Texas Cultural Trust
Ellen Bartel. Spank Dance Company
Ron Berry. Refraction Arts, Fuse Box Festival
Sarah and Ernest Butler. Butler School of Music, Austin Museum of Art, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Austin, Austin Lyric Opera
Annette DiMeo Carlozzi and Dan Bullock. Blanton Museum of Art, Zach Theatre, Arthouse, Greenlights, Forklift Dance Company
Elisabeth Challener and Brett Bachman. Zach Theatre
Joyce Christian and Rudy Green. Austin Museum of Art, ProArts Collective, Care Communities, St. Stephen’s School
Charles Duggan. Long Center, Greater Tuna Presents, Austin Lyric Opera, Ballet Austin, Democratic National Committee Advisory Board
Barbara Chisholm and Robert Faires. Zach Theatre, Austin Chronicle, Red Then Productions
Mela Dailey and Peter Bay. Austin Symphony Orchestra
Sean Gaulager. Co-Lab, Cantanker
Dana Friis-Hansen and Mark Holzbach. Austin Museum of Art, Zebra Imaging, Rude Mechanicals
Sue Graze. Arthouse, Ballet Austin
Mary Ann and Andrew Heller. Heller Records, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Long Center, UT College of Fine Arts
Jeanne and Michael Klein. Blanton Museum of Art, Arthouse, University of Texas
Gail and Jeff Kodosky. National Instruments Corp., Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony, Ballet Austin, Conspirare, Long Center
Rachel Koper. Women & Their Work
Chris Mattsson and John McHale. Austin Museum of Art, Arthouse
Bettye and Bill Nowlin. University of Texas, Zach Theatre, Austin Community Development Corp., University of Texas
Allison Orr. Forklife Danceworks, Fusebox Festival
Sylvia Orozco. Mexic-Arte Museum
Kathy Panoff. Texas Performing Arts
Kevin Patterson. Austin Lyric Opera
Paula and Damian Priour. Umlauf Sculpture Garden, Austin Museum of Art
Cliff Redd and Rick Johnson. Long Center
Cookie and Phil Ruiz. Ballet Austin, Con Mi Madre, Girls Empowerment Network, Texans for the Arts, CreateAustin
Michelle Schumann and Matt Orem. Austin Chamber Music Center, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
Judith Sims. Austin Museum of Art, Art Divas
Ken Stein and Ken Lambrecht. Paramount Theatre, Planned Parenthood of Texas
Julie Thornton. Ballet Austin, testperformancetest
Lisa and Bob Wade. bobwade.com, South Austin Museum of Popular Culture
Judy Willcott and Laurence Miller. Texas French Bread, Fluent~Collaborative, Arthouse, Blanton Museum of Art
Eva and Marvin Womack. Austin Lyric Opera, Procter & Gamble, Long Center
UPDATES
Additional reader nominations for 2011 Out & About 500: Arts
Ned Rifkin. Blanton Museum of Art
John A. Yancey. University of Texas
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June 24, 2010
My time with Oscar Brockett
Today, I write about a dear friend. One who doesn’t always know how dear he is.
Oscar Brockett is the main reason I moved to Austin. He’s the reason I work at this newspaper, and why I view the world the way I do.
You see, Brock wrote The Book. By that I mean the book that changed my life.
“History of the Theatre” was first published in 1968. Now in its 10th edition, it has been translated into a dozen or so languages, including Farsi, Korean and Hebrew. Brock’s balanced, painstaking history revolutionized the field by switching the focus of theatrical scholarship from playscripts to how those words were actually staged, something that other scholars had recorded only piecemeal.
I devoured The Book for the first time in 1973. It detailed almost everything this teenager cared about: Theater, dance, music, art, architecture and literature, put in the context of geography, history, languages, psychology, philosophy, even science and technology.
In the hot, dry summer of 1984, I arrived in Austin to study with the master. By this time, he was the former dean of the College of Fine Arts who had built the performing arts center and had planned a museum that eventually became the Blanton Museum of Art.
I sometimes saw Brock seven days a week. I was deeply impressed by his scrupulous care with the truth: “What do we know, and how do we know it?” he asked. I was also profoundly affected by his sense of humanity. He remained open to almost any person or idea, and saved his rare ire for zealots, especially those who were careless about historical memory.
In private, he could act a scamp, sharing stories about his barefoot childhood in rural Tennessee, his Navy days during the Pacific War (he captained a troop transport ship, barely out of his teens), and his years as a theatrical designer.
After World War II, he finished his education at Stanford University, then taught all over the country - Indiana, Florida, California, Iowa and elsewhere before landing in Austin, his home for the past three decades.
In 1989, while working on my doctoral dissertation — or, more likely, not working on it — I received a call from the American-Statesman’s entertainment editor, Ed Crowell.
“Would you like to write some reviews for the newspaper?”
“Who are you? And how did you get my number?”
“One of your profs recommended you.”
Brock! I had no background in journalism, but he intuited that this open door would lead to a fruitful career path. (He also recommended two other student candidates, who later freelanced for the paper.)
During my 15 years as arts reporter and critic, Brock often accompanied me to the theater. Or to the movies. Or just to dinner. To spend time with him was all that mattered.
For the past few years, Brock has lived in the Nakonah. His place is spacious, immaculate and blessed with global art and sweeping views of Austin’s changing skyline.
Because of problems walking, he doesn’t go out much. So we make do with other entertainments, like “Slings and Arrows,” the Canadian series about a Shakespeare festival, on DVD.
Despite slowing down, he recently finished a 10-year project, “Making the Scene: A History of Stage Design and Technology in Europe and United States.”
Written with Margaret Mitchell and Linda Hardberger, the handsome book is packed with illustrations. But it’s no mere picture book. It carefully plots the course of theatrical scenery from the Greeks to today. It is sure to change that field as did “History of the Theatre.”
Lately, Brock has expressed frustration with the theater, in general, the university in particular, and, yes, this newspaper. What seems to bother him most is a general loss of historical memory.
When I hinted that I might devote a column to his life, Brock loaded me down with homework: Testimonials, press clippings, notices of awards, service and recognitions. He needn’t have bothered. As if I could forget the smallest detail about the world’s foremost theater historian, and perhaps the most distinguished scholar UT has produced in the field of fine arts.
Recently, his friends have talked, informally, about raising money to establish a targeted professorship in his name. One of his chief anguishes is the perception that UT has de-emphasized theater history in favor of performance studies. That field, which examines the way people present their public selves, is valuable, but perhaps belongs over in the sociology department. (My judgment, not Brock’s.)
Meanwhile, I’ll luxuriate in his companionship. And I’ll quote him once again on the subject of social and professional access: “People open a door,” Brock said during a 1998 interview. “You have to decide whether to walk through. If you do, other doors will open for you, but you have to justify that person’s confidence in you.”
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June 21, 2010
'Town of Clouds' Opening at the MACC
The Mexican American Cultural Center opened three years ago. Already, people take it for granted. But for almost 30 years, it remained but a daydream for the Latino community and their friends.
Linda Crockett and Erlinda Zamora
During those three years, I’ve covered many events on the MACC’s plaza and in its performance space, but not at the upstairs art gallery. It glowed with late afternoon light on Saturday for the opening of “Town of Clouds,” Diego Huerta’s mesmerizing photographic exhibit. Huerta spent time documenting the Wirrarika people of mountainous San Andrés de Cohamiata, Jalisco.
Jeff Ogden and Ali Christoph
Most of the images were taken during a ceremony in May 2009 and are illuminated by a stagy golden light. The manipulated colors heighten the impression that the Wirrarika are mostly untouched by global culture. Downstairs are additional photographs by Huerta, but these are staged vignettes of urban emergency personnel. Very dramatic.
Taylor McGhee, Revlynn Lawson and Tisa McGhee
An assembly of 100 or so mingled around the prints, had their pictures taken by the always welcome Annie Ray and munched on tasty taco makings. A tad dressy for dusk, it was a gentle meeting of Old and New Austin, Latin-style.
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June 15, 2010
Suzanne Moore: Forever Rockette
It’s 1959. You are 16 years old. The youngest Radio City Rockette ever. You’re high-kicking for the first time on the stage of the exalted New York movie palace. Understandably, you’re nervous.
The first three performances — back then, the Rockettes danced four times a day, seven days a week — go well. So you relax backstage at Radio City Music Hall. And completely miss your fourth entrance.
What do you do? If you are Suzanne Moore, now of Central Texas, you hide behind the scenery, until the dance captain flushes you out.
“What’s the matter, honey,” the captain cracks, like a character out of “42nd Street.” “You don’t like the choreography?”
Daughter of John Bono, a schoolteacher, and Verna Bono, a nurse, both now deceased, Moore’s slow-take moment about dance came when, at age 8, she saw New York City Ballet’s “Swan Lake.”
“That was it,” she says. “It had to have been in my bloodstream already.”
That night, she didn’t sleep, just danced. She studied, practiced and feasted on Golden Age Broadway musicals, seeing “West Side Story” and “The Music Man” in the same day.
Though it was a dancer’s life for Moore, she was sensitive about auditions and criticism, sometimes coming home from class in tears. She actually took the Radio City “cattle call” audition to grow accustomed to rejection.
Instead, to her utter surprise, she was chosen. As a minor, she was told: “You’re going to have get working papers.” Moore had no idea what that entailed, but she understood her father’s blessing was required. Then living in Rahway, N.J., Bono gave the teenager two conditions for accepting the Radio City gig: 1. Finish her education; 2. Pay for it herself, “since I would be making as much money as he was,” Moore says.
So there she was, attending Quintano’s School for Young Professionals on West 56th Street. Fellow students included future stars Sandra Dee, Tuesday Weld and Leslie Uggams. Meanwhile, represented by the ineffectual American Guild of Variety Artists, she danced 28 times a week, paid the princely sum of $85 a week.
Moore was thrilled to the tips of her tap shoes, although some of the costumes were admittedly “hideous.”
“Once, we were Israeli soldiers with machine guns on our backs,” she chortles, tossing her asymmetrical bob that complements her banana-colored summer dress and short, black sweater.
After two years at the Hall, she suffered a paralyzing injury when a brass plate for a rising mike socket closed on her toe. “The next day, I couldn’t move below the waist,” she says. “I spent a year in the hospital.” Doctors said she’d be lucky just to walk again. No chance of dancing. So she studied arts therapy at City College of New York. Eventually, though, this tough chorine bounced back to Broadway in the Phil Silvers hit “Do Re Mi” and in a national tour of “Little Me.”
Eventually, the pain became too much to handle. So, in the way of dancers, whose careers are often counted in months, Moore opened a school in Rockland County, N.Y. It lasted 15 years, until she dabbled in investments, to which she brought a hidden talent.
“I made all that without doing anything,” she says of her first dividends. “I made money so fast, it got my attention.”
So Moore left dance behind her, working for Prudential on Wall Street, where she met her husband, Charlie Moore. He worked on the corporate side, she with individual investments. An offered promotion for the native Texan in 1997 meant the dyed-in-the-muslin New Yorker was headed to Austin.
The Rockette feeling never faded. Moore expressed her loyalty through the Rockette Alumni Foundation, which counts more than 300 members. The group raises money for scholarships and charity groups. They continue to perform at reunions and donor parties. In fact, Moore was still kicking in unison at a Rockettes gathering on Nov. 6, 2009, in New York. (Austin Cabaret Theatre’s Stuart Moulton was master of ceremonies.)
At age 67! (Moore is second from the right in photograph above.) The woman next to her in the line was 70.
The resilient Rockette spirit was tested in 1979, when the Japanese owners of Rockefeller Center threatened to transform the art deco theater into office spaces. “There were parties all over town that night,” Moore recalls. “Tears were streaming down our cheeks.”
At the last moment, the resplendent theater was spared, but daily live shows gave way to holidays-only spectaculars.
Moore’s impulses toward the arts and charities are stroked in Austin by serving groups such as Ballet Austin, Breast Cancer Resource Center and Austin Cabaret Theatre. A friendship with the late, great Karen Kuykendall enlisted her into helping Zach Theatre.
Out of the public eye, Moore is still very active, nowhere near retirement. Not even “winding down,” she says.
Her one steadfast dedication over five decades remains the Rockettes. She says: “We truly are a sisterhood.”
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June 8, 2010
Chopin and Champagne at Agudas Achim
Congregation Agudas Achim may be the most heavenly place to hear chamber music in Austin. Located on the Dell Jewish Community Campus, it’s a haven of visual and aural serenity. Which is probably why the Austin Chamber Music Center chose it for a gala concert to preview its summer festival, which gets under way in July.
Holly and Kevin Priestner
Before the concert, guests mingled over snacks and talked about the miraculous changes in this essential Austin art group. It was always a gem, educating while entertaining. But now it shines with as much polish as any classical outfit in town.
Robin Burwell and Ora Shay
I could only stay for one Chopin sonata, but all four movements delivered by pianist and ACMC leader Michelle Schumann and cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio from the Eroica Trio stirred me.
Heather and John Santana
Speaking of arts, we had tremendous fun at the Austin Critics Table Awards ceremony last night. Before the action, I experienced a PowerPoint meltdown which could have added an extra hour to the show. Thanks to Cap City Comedy Club night manager Travis Charles Hagan and the intrepid David Wyatt for saving our bacon.
For a complete list of winners, go to Seeing Things.
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June 5, 2010
Black Arts Movement at the Carver Center
When dreamers envisioned the Carver Museum and Cultural Center’s handsome home, this is what they had in mind. ProArts Collective’s opening night of the Black Arts Movement festival united artists, admirers and neighbors on the Carver’s plaza and in its Boyd Vance Theater. (The late leader Boyd Vance would beam with pride at this party, although he’d deflate any chest-puffing with sly wit.)
Stephanie Williams and Sylvia Stinson
Outside, charismatic Damon Sith’s Capoeria group played Afro-Caribbean music on authentic-looking instruments. Braver souls than I danced, or demonstrated ritual martial arts. Inside, shorts played on the movie screen, including one by Timeca Seretti on bullying. In between, refreshments were served.
Carla Nickerson, Tonya Pennie and Angela D. Jenkins-Bey
I caught up with several community leaders and asked what looked most promising on the BAM schedule. More than one mentioned celebrity chef Toni Tipton-Martin’s “Culinary One-Acts Cooking Performance” on June 17. As I understand it, three cooks will demonstrate their methods for making fried chicken. Actual fried chicken for the masses will be catered at the former Ms. B’s on East 11th Street.
Julio and Timeca Seretti
Also buzzy at the fest is Nadine Mozon’s “Delta Rhapsody,” running at the Off Center next week. Much to do a BAM, if you can make it.
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May 28, 2010
Arthouse Topping Out Party
What a smashing space! Arthouse at the Jones already occupies the white-hot center of contemporary art in Austin. Soon, its digs will match its programs.
Cheline Jaidar and Kevin Carrolip
Earlier this week, a hundred or so guests took a peek at the building under renovation at Congress Avenue and Seventh Street. The most startling elements were the slits poked into the walls and roof, which will make this a space as striking as the art. A fanned-wood stairwell to the second floor is another charismatic addition.
Christa Gar and Erin Gentry
At one point, we squeezed out onto a platform built over the roof, which was not ready for guests. I predict: That rooftop is going to evolve into an awesome party location. The view is singular and elbow room is generous. (Let’s hope the railings are high. I’ve been to a lot of Austin parties.)
Jason Dannenbring, Nicholas Rivard and John Algood
Backer Stephen Jones and Arthouse director Sue Graze beamed like proud parents. The building won’t be ready for art — or artists for its guest studios — until later this year at the earliest. Still, given the difficulty building grown-up art spaces in town, the progress at the Jones Center is heartening.
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May 26, 2010
Your A List: Best Museum
I’ve spent so much time in all these museums. There’s a notion out there that museums don’t matter. I don’t think so.
Numero Uno in the A List readers poll for Best Museum is the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, which not only serves Austin, but the greatest state out there.
It took 48 percent of the vote.
Way behind was the University of Texas’ long-awaited Blanton Museum of Art, taking only 13 percent.
LBJ Library and Museum, a national attraction, managed 9 percent.
Austin Museum of Art, always a promise, landed 8 percent.
Austin Children’s Museum, headed to the Mueller development, had just under 8 percent.
Mexic-Arte Museum and the Ransom Center tied at just over 5 percent.
Trailing were the Texas Memorial Museum and O. Henry Museum.
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May 16, 2010
Paramount Gala on Congress Avenue
The open secret to the Paramount’s lavish success at the gala game: Open Bar. For six hours. You need look no further for the formula to explain this year’s $300,000 take during the live auction alone, and full sheets of bids during the silent auction.
Stacey Fellers, David Lopez and Danelle Awtrey
The gala that benefits the beloved Paramount and mothballed State theaters also saluted the 10th anniversary of the Intercontinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel on Saturday. The hotel itself actually goes back to 1924. The most recent renovation returned it to luxury status.
Dwayne Mann and Janna Paulson
The hotel provided the robust food — blue tamales, barbecue, etc. — for dinner, which started a bit after 9 p.m. The potent potables came from several sources, primarily John Paul DeJoria’s Patron label.
Andrew Greenwall and Jeffrey McKnight
And there were John and Eloise DeJoria (happy birthday!) near the front of house bidding on just about everything during the live auction.
Nick Barbieri and Elana Farley
I must admit Executive Director Ken Stein does an admirable job with this overlong exercise. He keeps the auction fast and fun. He often convinces the gift donors to double up, meaning two bidders win the trip or the concert or whatever, while the theater receives twice as much money.
Daniel Zmud and Paige Deegan
The chief musical entertainment of the event was Delbert McClinton and his deliciously bluesy band. An instant and prolonged feel-good.
Daniel Karayan and Barbara Formilchelli
Other acts, including the Gourds and Skyrocket, ensured there was never a music-free moment inside or outside, where the gala’s famed tent stretched for two blocks.
Marianne and Tom Inman
For the first time ever, I stayed the course, or at least five hours of the Paramount party marathon. That meant a dozen or so enlightening conversations, some at the dinner table, others in the lobby of the Paramount, and even a few near the dance floor, where a good deal of polite social commentary took place.
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May 14, 2010
Arthouse's 5x7 at Whitley Building
Arthouse has gone rock ‘n’ roll.
Jennie Lamensdorf and Bethany Price
Its justifiably popular 5x7 charity event moved this year. It spread out through the downtown Whitley Building, a former paper warehouse, recently crammed with the Perez Hilton’s One Night in Austin party. (Arthouse’s Congress Avenue home is under renovation.)
Andrew and Emma Anderson
This year, hundreds of 5-inch by 7-inch artworks were displayed on yellow exhibition blocks. DJs pumped up the energy from a corner stage. Food and drink were scattered around the room for the high-cost first night. (Lower-priced parties continue through the weekend.)
Lisa Dambold and Steve Cuddy
It was hot. I mean temperature-wise as well. Guests thronged mostly around the center of the space. It was a hipster subset of Austin society, with some children thrown in for good measure. No big collectors I could identify (except Deborah Green). But lots of folks meticulously combing through the art so they could be ready for the moment when it could be redeemed.
Loree, Marlo and Chris Greta
I ran into old friends, but I also met some potential new ones. Eventually, the heat got to me. Next year: 5x7 in Arthouse’s electrifying new/old home.
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May 5, 2010
'Party of the Decade' planned for September Fête
The stakes continue to rise for top-shelf charity events.
Dubbed “Fête to the Power of 10,” the gala will include pricey cocktails, dinner and performances staged by Stephen Mills at the Butler Dance Education Center (tables go for $10,000; individual tickets for $1,000). Tickets for the performance — celebrating Mills’ 10 years as artistic director — cost $250.
The party will migrate to the Seaholm Power Plant for an evening-long event (tickets: $95-$125).
Neiman Marcus will present a fashion runway show there featuring Carolina Herrera designs. Celebrity chefs for the event will include Kenzo Tran (Piranha Killer Sushi), Harvey Harris (Siena Ristorante Toscana) and David Garrido (Garrido’s Restaurant).
The all-star Fete committee includes top connectors like author Kristin Armstrong, lawyer Becky Beaver, community leader Karen Landa, philanthropist Susan Lubin, former TV reporter Crystal Cotti.
The following social dance party is expected to continue until midnight. For more information, call 476-9151 or link here. Tickets go on sale May 10.
Pictured: Andrea McWilliams, one of the 2009 Glossy 8
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May 4, 2010
Fusebox Festival VIP Wrap Party at Tarrytown home
Kirk and Amy Rudy insist I’ve visited their home before. I don’t think so. Built by Hal and Eden Box into a hollow above Johnson Creek in Tarrytown, it’s a gem. The property’s most endearing feature: The dry creek bed that wraps around the south end of the house, creating a sanctuary of unsullied peace — only a block away from Mopac.
Shobie Partos and Joody Marks
I was there to salute the closing night of the Fusebox Festival, Austin’s bid for international standing in the avant-garde arts community. If the winter FronteraFest is our great, democratic blank slate for any and all performers, the spring Fusebox is our peek into the world of high-octane creativity and accomplishment. Austin needs both.
Stephen Mills and Amy Rudy
Festival director Ron Berry was there, looking exhausted, not just from the fest, but from a City of Austin cultural contract deadline. He seemed pleased with Fusebox 2010 and, like other guests this night, remembered fondly the opening, with 200 dancers two-stepping in front of the Capitol. What sight that was!
Luke Savisky and Paige Swift
I spent some time with Ballet Austin’s Stephen Mills and partner Brent Hasty. (I actually saw Mills eat something! A tiny cupcake the size of a thimble.) If someone offered his company a lot of money, with no strings attached, what would he like? Backing to create new works. Duly noted.
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April 30, 2010
Art of Business at Laguna Gloria
Business and art have always learned from each other. Creativity is creativity after all. And both human activities require it.
Sara Patuel and Victoria Osborne
The Art of Business yokes the two by displaying and auctioning works of art by executives from Austin companies, profit and nonprofit. Proceeds go to the Austin Museum of Art and the HBMG Foundation, which, not coincidentally, promotes creativity.
Zach Shoher and Renée Leaman
The late afternoon light softened and refracted around the ancient villa at Laguna Gloria on Thursday. While MoPac and the Blue Suburbans played outside, easels on the ground floor held paintings, photographs and other works of art by the likes of Sloan Foster (HBMG, Inc.), Victoria Osborne (Tapestry) and Zvi Yaniv (Applied Nanotech).
Melissa Rabeaux and Sloan Foster
I didn’t stay late, but I shared some choice conversations with folks, such as playwright Kirk Lynn, just returned from triumph with “Method Gun” at the Humana Festival in Louisville, Ky., and other kind souls.
Dale and Natalie Glover
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April 29, 2010
Conspirare Hidden Music V at Texas Alumni Center
As with all things Conspirare, this was perfection. The setting for the small Hidden Works gala: The light-bathed rooms of the UT Alumni Center, designed by Charles Moore. The crowd: A stimulating mix of old and new, arts and otherwise.
Jervin Justin and Katie Apple
My table was populated with a comparatively young contingent, led by Sheila and Ryan Youngblood. So the tabletop conversation swooped from topic to topic, including style, art, in-house concerts, old connections, recent discoveries. All delightful.
Toni Burns and Margene Beckham
The live auction featured a novel duo act: Sherri and Mike Hanley. Yet all awaited the arrival of Craig Hella Johnson. Conspirare’s artistic director wastes not a second of his life, much less his time in front of others. He played a grand piano and sang themed songs taken from musicals and the Great American Songbook. He squeezed the most meaning from each lyric and note.
Sherri and Ryan Youngblood
Then he welcomed to the stage a set of male singers who delved into the German intricacies taken from the Comedian Harmonists, little known in this part of the country. After that, the grand surprise: The full symphonic version of the Austin choral group chanting “Happy Days Are Here Again.” Chilling. More music. More fun. More spiritual leadership from the Rev. Johnson (I don’t believe he’s consecrated as such, but he might as well be).
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April 25, 2010
Body of Art Gala at Mayfield Park Home
Rarely has a personal collection received such a rapturous response. Deborah Green and Clayton Aynesworth opened their new Mayfield Park home to hundreds of gawkers on Friday. They came for the art. They came for the architecture. They came for the party.
Deborah Green and Clayton Aynesworth
Gatsbyesque. That’s the first adjective that comes to mind. And who knows how deep into the night this Women & Their Work gala progressed?
They were here …
Denise Prince’s performers — dressed head-to-toe in a Spandex-like material — set the tone. They posed on ledges. They splashed in the entry pool. They frolicked in a bed and lounged in a tub. Since the W&TW series is called “Body of Art,” the omnipresence of these serpentine dancers could not have been more appropriate.
They were there …
Then there’s the house. It’s large. On several levels. Modernist. Severe is sections, playful in others. And since it is perched above the Laguna Gloria slough, it feels wrapped in peacefulness.
They were everywhere … even flirting with dance legend Deborah Hay
It was anything but peaceful Friday. Hundreds of guests mingled among the collections of contemporary art, antique objects and stuffed animals. (My favorite room is dominated by two exquisite peacocks. Not living.)
Mark and Meredith Word with Elizabeth Tigar
Clearly the house was designed for the collection, because it is displayed to its best from ceiling to floor. The objects are so various, there’s no way to evaluate them individually or in small groups. As a whole, the effect is overpowering.
Andrew and Christine Stewart
Since it was also a Fusebox Festival night, I wondered which Austin tribes would show up. Many — law, sports, arts, charity, style, nightlife, interactive — were represented. My guest for the evening, Jeff Kirk, and I could have chattered all night. (Separately. Like a good walker, Jeff can handle himself in a crowd while I work a room.)
Christine Mennes and Anthony Garza
At one point, I said: “Let’s start heading for the door. It will take us a while.” It did. We were both sidetracked so many times, it looked like we’d be kidnapped by the romping Spandexites.
Oh. And a fire dancer down by the water. Does anyone remember a more incendiary W&TW party?
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April 24, 2010
Umlauf Garden Party 2010
It is the more delicate and decorous cousin to Austin Museum of Art’s La Dolce Vita. Set in a wooded glade bisected by a convincing, yet nevertheless artificial stream, the Umlauf Garden Party trades in the same wares: Chefs sampling, winemakers tasting, lights twinkling, music swaying and mesmerized guests floating from one attraction to another.
Melvis Lara and Ana Gallo
The setting is crucial. The winding lanes among the fluid sculptures of Charles Umlauf (and others) encourage behavior reminiscent of a 19th-century promenade. (By its very nature, La Dolce Vita is a bit more animated.) And some people dress for the occasion in cool whites and caressing fabrics. Others come ready to romance to the big band standards.
Negeen Mosely and Heidi Kasnoff
For the past three years, I’d arrived at the Garden Party early. The better to savor the dusk before heading out to other social obligations. (It is the spring. There will always be other obligations in Austin.) This time, I arrived late — probably last. And that allowed me to linger even longer. (Still, I was forced to cut two events to make it at all.)
Adam Harrison and Sarah Glenn
I talked to many blissed-out guests, as well as a few food and wine representatives who had the time on their hands. At the very end of the evening, Stuart Moulton snuck me the names of artists booked in the next Austin Cabaret Theatre season. No, I can’t tell. That’s what’s called “speaking on background.” Still, it made my cabaret-lovin’ heart beat a little faster.
Jonathon Todd and Dale Huggins
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April 23, 2010
Fusebox Festival Opening Night at 3 Locations
Three tribes converged on the opening night of the Fusebox Festival on Wednesday.
Savannah McAnally, James Fain and Kate Motzenbacker
The first event — a demonstration of Texas social dancing at the Capitol — attracted a heterogeneous lot. Yet the population was dominated by what I would call social populists. Hipsters and worshipers at the altar of high art infiltrated among the true two-steppers in unaffected Western garb.
Lisa Schiff and Darrell Allred
The weather was divine for the dance, orchestrated by inventive choreographer Allison Orr and composer/instrumentalist Graham Reynolds. One of the last recorded songs, as the tribes dispersed, was Lyle Lovett’s “That’s Right (You’re Not from Texas).” What struck me in this setting was the sweet completion of the refrain: “But Texas wants you anyway.”
Allison Orr and Graham Reynolds
Now that’s a winking welcome to the international artists gathered for the 10 or so days of top-shelf contemporary art, organized by Ron Berry. From the Capitol, I toddled down Congress Avenue, running into a crowd outside the empty retail slot at Congress and East Eighth Street, once slated for condos. A pop-up art installation inside — better seen later when the sun had set — assembled a vision of abandoned urban space.
Molly Alexander and Dana Friis-Hansen
At the Paramount Theatre for the second official Fusebox event, the high-art tribe was already assembling. Hardly a personality from Austin’s contemporary visual or performance art community, from Deborah Hay down, was absent. Which was cool, because that meant 1,000 spectators or more for the American debut of “The Velvet Suite” by Japanese dancer Kaiji Moriyama.
Julie Thornton and Jennifer Wijangco
Imported for an unnamed price by testperformanctest’s Julie Thornton, it was, by any definition, intense. I’ll leave the formal review to the able critics at our newspaper’s Austin Arts blog.
Marcy Hoen and Bijoy Goswami
Here are striking things I noticed during the extended performance: Moriyama’s back. His fingers. His hair. His animal-inspired poses and motions. The enormous globe of suspended flowers that looked, in some lighting, like a burning heart. His eventual frenzy, which explained how the whole thing fit into the announced theme of “Eros.”
Eugene Sepulveda and Kirk Rudy
Later analysis of the performance split the high-art tribe, who were joined by yet a third group, Austin’s progressive social leaders at a United States Art Authority after-party. You know who they are. This set appears in Out & About every week. Because they are everywhere. And, in the process, they form widely-adopted opinions on everything from politics and finance to charity and art.
Heather Barfield and Shuana Danos
They mingled easily with the other tribes. They dressed in finer threads, but one thing they are not: Stuffy. These top connectors know how to have a good time. And the funky Authority was the right place to have it. Frito pie (required) was paired with fine sparkling wine and a pair of ironic DJs. So, so, so Austin.
Annelize Machado and Nicole Viado
And so much fun. Much more Fusebox to come, although I’ll miss most of it, given the crashing close to the traditional social season. (For instance, six major events for May 6, another six for May 8. When will the madness end?)
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April 10, 2010
Centre Pompidou Party in Old Enfield
It began at a toga party. Suzanne Deal Booth bid on an auction item at Arthouse’s Roman-themed gala last year. The item promised a small dinner party at the home of Julie Thornton.
Suzanne Booth and Paul Rodgers
The party grew. Booth, who once worked at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and whose mentor was that social and artistic beacon equally at home in Houston, Paris and New York, Dominique de Menil, now sits on the board of the French contemporary art museum’s American-based foundation.
Ryann Hennessee, Margit Raczkowski and Dave Bryant
Fostering connoisseurship, the foundation makes annual pilgrimages to art-collecting centers, this year to Central Texas. And what a time the group had! Dana Friis-Hansen showed them the Art of Hatch Show Print exhibition at Austin Museum of Art; Annette Carlozzi the thought-provoking Desire exhibit at the Blanton Museum of Art.
Don Mullins and Cameron Larson
The art tourists visited the home of top Austin collectors Jeanne and Mickey Klein, then took a boat across Lake Austin to peek at Suzanne and David Booth’s steep, wooded land where construction begins this fall on a site-sensitive home. The troupe even shopped South Congress Avenue and stuck their heads into Okay Mountain, and later will attend the ArtPace gala in San Antonio. They’ll also visit the Charles Moore Foundation and Ransom Center here in Austin.
Lisa Dennison and Scott Stover
That just about hits all the high points. Add to that the exquisite Booth-Thornton party, which included some local dignitaries as well. The Thornton PoMo Palace, now on the marketplace, will seem odd and empty without Thornton’s frisky collection. I hate to see it broken up, but what is one to do?
I spoke with thoughtful folks from Tucson, New York, Paris, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston and, of course, Austin, while grazing from a tempting Fête Accompli buffet. I almost could have spent the whole weekend with this crew.
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April 1, 2010
Boyd Vance Scholarship Event for ProArts Collective
Were he alive, Boyd Vance would cackle, coo and howl with pleasure. A scholarship named for the outrageously funny and outspoken leader of Austin’s black arts community? Sure thing: Goes with the absolutely appropriate Boyd Vance Theatre at the Carver Museum and Cultural Center.
Lisa Byrd and Percival Everett
A campaign party for the Austin Community College arts scholarship filled the former home of Ms. B’s on East 11th Street on Wednesday. ProArts Collective sponsored the event, which included eats from G&G New Orleans Cuisine and Soul Food. The guest list mixed ACC dignitaries with reps from the University of Texas, Austin Revitalization Authority, Big Austin and other key groups.
Toni Tipton-Martin, Freddie Dixon Sr. and Claudia Conner
I left before the main speaker, novelist Percival Everett, gave an address, along with a dramatic reading of his “The Fix” by members of Altered Stages. But I was able to spend time with social and cultural connector Lisa Byrd and others whom I sorely miss from the arts beat.
Rochelle Smith, Rachael Mardegian and Livia Perry
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March 28, 2010
Long Center Anniversary Party
I’m tempted to call it the Gala of the Season.
At least production-wise. Granting that the traditional social season is far from over.
Five words for fun: Bobbi Topfer and Patty Huffines. Together, these event chairwomen put together a purple-themed party that will be remembered years from now.
Judy Arnold and …
I shivered a bit when I saw the purple canopies leading guests up the center’s staircase and across the plaza to the VIP tent. Not just because the effect was so operatic, but also because the wind was blustering the human-held streams of purple fabric here and there.
Once snug inside the tent, the genius — I will use the word — of Topfer and Huffines was revealed. Deep purple carpets. Mod conversation nooks. Circulating servers. Glittering centerpieces and the pièce de résistance: Four gaudy purple chandeliers.
Lidia Agraz and …
You can’t do gaudy often in Austin, but this time it worked. Especially with the novel spatial arrangement in the tent: Only a few round tables gathered in two clusters, leaving most of the remaining expanses for social mingling and dancing to Ray Benson’s band (not many did during the early party, just warming up). Also for noshing on the substantial finger food.
I can’t overstate how liberating it was to abandon enforced seating. That way top connectors — and the place was saturated with them — could slip easily from one conversation to another. [At this point, I had planned to name the folks entertainment editor Sharon Chapman and I encountered Saturday evening, but the list would take up pages …]
Purple, purple, everywhere …
Outside, the plaza was mobbed with a younger generation desperate to see the once-again-cool Hall & Oates. They were not disappointed, but first, Long Center director Cliff Redd welcomed the newly conjoined crowds and recognized major supporters of the event (people actually applauded lustily for each — not a common practice, but people were in such a upbeat mood).
Then a coup de théâtre: The curtain slowly rose to reveal Austin soul singer Judy Arnold dressed in an enormous purple costume. As she sang “Purple Rain,” aerial dancers slipped up and down fabric fronds, then Arnold herself rose on wires and her dress was extended by long, deep purple fringe. Those humans who had hoisted the purple canopies outside now entered down the aisles to turn the fabric into giant purple waves.
Patty and Jim Huffines
Somebody has an eye.
Then Hall & Oates. My first impression was astonishment at the sheer number of their hits R&B-influenced songs, dating back to the early 1970s, that I’d forgotten were theirs that others covered, or songs they had covered (“She’s Gone,” “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” etc.) and their subtle progression into a pop corollary to New Wave (“Maneater,” “One on One,” etc.) Then I was a bit nervous as the volume rose and various young people around the auditorium rose to dance, but the VIPs in the orchestra seating merely swayed.
Eventually, however, everybody danced to the monster hits: “Private Eyes,” “Kiss on My List,” “Rich Girl” and, especially, “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).” Smartly, Daryl Hall and John Oates expanded on their “rock and soul” roots by giving ample time to additional bluesy guitar and jazzy saxophone solos. They just about levitated the roof off Dell Hall.
Bobbi and Mort Topfer
The party was far from over. Everyone, not just VIPs, were invited to spread into all the center’s outer spaces, lounges, terraces and tents for comfort food, provided by food trailers (very Austin!), drinks and a half dozen local musical acts.
OK, I’m going to say this: Part of the rationale behind a gala is to go a bit gaga. To abandon care. To walk away from the world for a few moments. Huffines and Topfer achieved this as few other party organizers have in Austin.
Karen Landa and Dale Dewey
Sure, if you don’t like Hall & Oates, you were out of luck there, but surely the rest of the Purple Party made up for it.
Photos by Chuck Fazio Media
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March 27, 2010
Armstrong Community Music School Anniversary Party
This city bears so many small blessings. Ten years ago, the Armstrong Community Music School at the Mary Ann Heller Center for Austin Lyric Opera seemed like a unforeseeable godsend. Now, we assume it’s always been there.
Bob Dailey and Bill Dickson
As far as we can determine, it’s the only community music school attached to an opera company in North America, perhaps the world. Part of the credit goes to former Lyric Opera director Joe McClain. I wish he could have attended the anniversary party on Friday to hear the faculty — plus a couple of students — play in the generous-sized Ducloux rehearsal hall for the 10th birthday fete.
Andrew and Mary Ann Heller
We are lucky enough that some original and naming donors, such as James Armstrong and Larry Connelly, Andrew and Mary Ann Heller and Bill Dickson, could be honored alongside the school’s only director Margaret Perry.
Anita Price-Ashton, Jeannie Lozano and Lei-Lei Leon
Kind words were spoken by general director Ken Patterson, followed later in the evening by a witty, winding toast by theatrical producer Charles Duggan, who added an improvised prize that combined a bag of ping pong balls and a diamond ring. Cake and champagne followed.
BTW: Did you know the Austin Symphony Orchestra can use Austin Lyric Opera’s rehearsal room any time? That’s great: Millions of dollars less needed to raise for an additional rehearsal room at the Long Center.
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March 26, 2010
Thoughts on Patinkin / LuPone at the Long Center
To think, I almost skipped it.
Several key social events were on tap for Thursday night. I stopped by the early part of the Wilhelmina Brown Agency Party at the Ashton (see post below), but couldn’t decide if the rest of the evening should be devoted to the Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin concert at the Long Center, given other outstanding invitations.
While their novelty version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” charmed, Patinkin first hit stride with a manic “Everybody Says Don’t.” In fact, among the show’s biggest strengths were the selections from minor Sondheim shows (“Passion,” “Anyone Can Whistle,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Evening Primrose”) and Kander and Ebb flops (“Flora the Red Menace,” “70 Girls 70.”)
I’m sure some excitable fans in the packed house wondered “Where are the hits?” LuPone answered not soon after intermission with “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from her recent “Gypsy” revival; Patinkin with his searing “The God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me Blues” from “Follies,” which, I believe, he performed first in a Lincoln Center special event. Both received standing ovations, only to be topped with one selection each from “Evita.”
Another chunk of the show was devoted to a long dialogue-with-song sequence from “Carousel.” I’m not kidding, LuPone has never sounded better. How does that happen? Patinkin is peerless singing actor when he settles on register. Together they made the Long Center a mini-Broadway during its second anniversary week.
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March 23, 2010
Mandy Patinkin: The Surprise Interview
“Out and About. Michael Barnes. How may I help you?”
“This is Mandy Patinkin calling for Susannah Jacob”
“I’m sorry, there’s no Susannah Jacob here.” (Pause.) “Are you by any chance calling about an interview?”
Due to a snafu among publicists — and, again, luck — I stole Jacob’s interview position. (The Daily Texan reporter earned a redo on Monday.) Otherwise, I also wouldn’t have this opportunity to spread the word about Patinkin’s double-headliner concert Thursday at the Long Center with another powerhouse performer, Patti LuPone.
“I’ve looked into her eyes for 30 years,” Patinkin says of LuPone. “And I see 30 years of trust.”
LuPone and Patinkin rocketed to stardom in the same show, “Evita,” which electrified Broadway audiences in 1979, and won Tony Awards for both of them. The actors — one playing the monumentally ambitious Eva Peron, the other a inflammatory narrator fictionalized as revolutionary leader Che — combined intense emotional presences with highly controlled, yet unfettered theatricality. It was if, in one show, an entirely new style of Broadway acting was invented.
LuPone went on to become one of the age’s great divas in hits such as “Les Miserables,” “Anything Goes,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Master Class,” “Sunset Boulevard” and “Gypsy.” Patinkin continued in “The Secret Garden,” “Sunday in the Park with George,” “Falsettos” and “The Wild Party” and other shows. Meanwhile, they interspersed stage appearances with memorable forays into film (“Princess Bride” for him, “Witness” for her) and television (“Chicago Hope” for him, “LBJ” for her).
Closer to Austin, both have delivered ecstatically received solo concerts at the Paramount Theatre — Patinkin on several occasions — when Paul Beutel was that venue’s managing director. Now at the Long Center, Beutel has booked the dynamos for what Patinkin calls their “The Patti and Mandy Show,” first conceived for the opening of a theater in Richardson two years ago.
“We didn’t want to do 20 minutes of her, 20 minutes of me,” Patinkin recalls. “So we got together with my longtime musical director, Paul Ford, to create a show with a story and a structure. It’s the figurative journey of two souls told in words and songs.”
Each star dipped into their repertoires — they are famous for investing familiar standards with new meaning — then searched for the connective tissues. Richard Rodgers and Stephen Sondheim — not surprisingly — are among the main composers used for the show, which also includes songs by Vernon Duke and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Each song is crafted into an emotional scene, acted, not just sung in a cabaret style. Ann Reinking, herself a Broadway star, choreographed the show, and Ford accompanies the singers. The duo has toured the US., Canada, New Zealand and Australia with the act. “We have a blast,” Patinkin says. “And, if anything, we’ve gotten younger. It’s the gold of life to me.”
Listening to his voice over the phone, as he waited for a flight from Los Angeles to Albuquerque to visit his offspring, the New York-based Patinkin indeed sounded younger than in our previous conversations, spread out over 20 years. Earlier, he was wary, tense, perhaps concerned about conveying artistic integrity. Sunday, he had turned breezy, sweet, almost philosophical.
“When I get to Austin, we’ll go onstage and walk away from the world,” he says. “We invite audiences to walk away with us.” On his ongoing collaboration with LuPone, one of the few performers alive who could match his interpretive intensity, he says: “This is what we can do until we are dead.”
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March 22, 2010
Austin contingent to see Molly Ivins play
The Austin connection was crystal clear, so when Hollywood star Kathleen Turner planned to open her show, “Red-Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins,” about the late columnist at the Philadelphia Theatre Company, more than one local contingent scheduled a theater trip.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman and Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Inquirer are slated to join them at a reception hosted by the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Turner will be an honored guest at that party.
The Texas Observer is putting together another group to see the play in April.
Photo by Barbara Johnston for the Washington Post.
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March 7, 2010
Austin Cabaret Theater at the Kodosky Lounge
Established fact: There is an audience for cabaret in Austin. At the highest level. Austin Cabaret Theatre has proven that over the course of its first nine seasons. Almost every national marquee act has graced Stuart Moulton’s stage, now urbanely situated in the Kodosky Lounge with its panoramic skyline view.
Jackson Iffinger and Riley Britton
The crowd trends older, with inevitable sprinklings of musical queens (and I embrace that term enthusiastically for myself as well). The tables at Kodosky are a bit too large by cabaret standards, complicating any movement or conversation. Yet I wouldn’t trade it for any other Austin cabaret location.
Carmen Emiliani and Norb Johnson
The duo playing two nights this week were Klea Blackhurst, best known for her Ethel Merman takes, and Billy Stritch, famous, I suppose, for dating Liza Minnelli and an artist I’ve followed since his first trios — Montgomery, Plant and Stritch and Montgomery, Mayes and Stritch — played Houston clubs and theaters in the early 1980s.
Amy Shipherd, Sam Rieger and Mary Castilla
They collaborated on the ideal Hoagy Carmichael revue. Blackhurst reveled in the revealing historical patter and the singers shared tributes to the composer’s masterpieces (“Stardust,” “The Nearness of You,” “Georgia on my Mind,” etc.) as well as his minor side excursions (a shuffle, movie and theater material). Their interpretations were inventive (every tricky in “Heart and Soul”), never disrespectful. I was especially glad there was no ungainly medley.
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TAP's Big Kids Party at the Allan House
It’s no secret that I’m a skeptic regarding groups like Theatre Action Project, which promotes creative arts and eduction for social change. All the testimonials in the world can’t convince me that something as culturally complex as theater can significantly alter social behavior in a predictable manner. There are too many variables.
Niyanta Spelman and Arlen Johnson
That doesn’t stop me from admiring the people who attempt it. And TAP is as thorough-going as a mixed arts/social service nonprofit can be. I’ve been impressed by their seriousness — and the seriousness of the fun they generate as a byproduct.
Southern Longoria, Carla Jackson and Leonardo Zornberg
Take the fundraiser Big Kids Party, a carnival for the grown-ups who support TAP at Allan House on Thursday. The distinguished, multi-story house in the Original Austin neighborhood lent a homey feel to the games and gimmicks that guests attacked with abandon.
Yajaira and Eric McGiver
I wish TAP and its allies well. They’ve attracted top-rate talent. And they care. That still counts.
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March 4, 2010
Reflections on Fierstein's "Fiddler"
Before it closes on Sunday, I should say a few words about the touring version of “Fiddler on the Roof” starring Harvey Fierstein at Bass Concert Hall.
Road show director Sammy Dallas Bayes clearly respects the essentials from the 1964 Broadway production, but in hundreds of small ways, he departs from holy writ. This is healthy and refreshing.
To be clear, there’s nothing radical in his interpretation, or that of his star, whose handprints are on every scene. Audiences are always watching Tevye to see how he’ll react to each new test to his character. And Fierstein takes full possession of the role from the second he opens his lips.
The performer’s character voice takes only a few minutes of adjustment. (Side note: The sound amplification at Bass was pitch perfect on opening night for once.) Fierstein’s comic inventions remained mostly on target, especially during the long dream sequence. A little camp at times? Sure, but that’s part of the human experience as well.
His most telling additions, however, delve into more serious emotions, making connections where none existed in previous “Fiddler” productions. The way he wipes his hand after touching Fyedka in the tailor shop, or envelopes Golde’s fingers for a moment before leaving Anatevka, these introduce unforeseen facets of humanity into the role and show.
I had waited a long time to see “Fiddler” again. I cherish memories of a University of Houston production in the early 1970s that made the material so vivid (and, similar to what Fierstein recountd in his interview here, was closer to a time when anti-Jewish feelings were still pervasive). Like Fierstein, I’m not a huge fan of the movie.
Over the years, I’ve seen a wide range of performances, though. (The one I wish I’d seen was former Statesman editor Jeff Salamon’s middle school Tevye. Picture it.) This one belongs among the most memorable, precisely because of what Fierstein embellishes.
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March 1, 2010
Harvey Fierstein: The Interview
Harvey Fierstein realizes almost everyone attending “Fiddler on the Roof” this week in Austin will arrive with at least one Tevye already inside their heads.
Fierstein, best known for writing and starring in “Torch Song Trilogy” — also for playing Edna Turnblad in Broadway’s “Hairspray” — analyzed almost every aspect of Tevye before playing him on Broadway five years ago. That spirit of artistic inquiry has extended through the tour that stops Tuesday through March 7 at Bass Concert Hall.
The Tevyes inside his head go way back. Fierstein, 58, distinctly remembers Zero Mostel’s 1964 performances, which introduced the musical about shtetl life in Russia written by Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joseph Stein. The Jewish boy from Brooklyn was already theater-astute by age 12.
“My mother would buy tickets on the first row of the balcony for two or three dollars,” he recalls. “We didn’t have any money. But those are the best seats in the house. Then somebody figured that out, changed the name to the ‘mezzanine,’ and started charging as much as for the orchestra seats.” Seeing Jewish life portrayed so openly and lovingly in the theater shocked him.
“I knew that, in show business, Jews had to change their names, get a nose job and pass for white,” he says. “And now the curtain comes up on a stage of full of Jews! They talked and prayed like Jews. They even looked like Jews with the prayer shawls hanging out.”
Zero Mostel’s inventive take on Tevye — sometimes more vaudeville than shtetl — reverberates in his memory, too.
“I can close my eyes and picture him on the cart and at Shabbat prayer,” he says, then joking: “Three-hundred-eighty years later, they asked me to do it.”
When the producers of the most recent — of many — Broadway revivals approached Fierstein to replace Alfred Molina, Fiestein had recently closed out his Tony Award-winning drag performances in “Hairspray.” He wondered if there would there be any question of his famously unusual voice carrying the role.
“I insisted on singing the whole musical score for Jerry, Sheldon and Joe in a tiny studio with folding chairs,” he says. “I didn’t want there to be any surprises. For them.”
He reports that they laughed through the performance. “I said: ‘You still think this is funny after 40 years?’ ” One of the creators even wept. Though some critics insist that an operatic baritone sing Tevye, Fierstein follows in the Broadway tradition of Ethel Merman, Carol Channing and other stars with character voices who made the transition from speaking to singing — the scariest moment in musicals — more credible. Which is important, given the emotional attachments audiences have made with this music.
“The songs in ‘Fiddler’ are practically folk music by now,” he says. “Everybody knows ‘Sunrise, Sunset,’ ‘Matchmaker,’ ‘Tradition.’ You hear them at every bar mitzvah and wedding.”
To prepare further, Fierstein read everything he could by Sholem Aleichem, who wrote the original Tevye tales. The actor listened to every recording of the musical, including one in Yiddish. He also watched the silent film version of “Tevye and His Daughters,” gaining more insight into his character’s pain when his daughter, Chava, decides to marry a Christian.
“I tore that script apart,” he says. “I talked to the boys (his term of endearment for Bock, Harnick and Stein, the eldest now 97) over and over. They came to the show every other week.”
Fierstein concentrated on what audiences would have perceived back in 1964. “They were still a lot of anti-Jewish feelings around them,” he says. “Jews were still not allowed in some hotels. Signs read: ‘No dogs or Jews.’ That’s hard for more modern audiences to understand.”
Especially those for whom the “Fiddler” experience rests on the 1971 film with Topol or a high-school production. (For the record, Fierstein doesn’t care for the movie adaptation, which he considers beautiful, but not true to the spirit of Aleichem.)
He says that the biggest mistake interpreting Tevye is making him an Everyman, just one of the people in the village.
“He’s a special person,” Fierstein says. “Because of his love for his girls, his love of life and his imagination. He’s bridging the world of shtetl life into modernity. Shtetl life is death. Many who left didn’t make it, either. Tevye survived somehow. He moved into modern life. You watch him bend and bend and bend. He embodies modernity.”
Fierstein thinks the world has taken a step back from modernity with the rise of rigid fundamentalism. Yet he’s still convinced of the positive effect of musicals. “A magic happens,” he says. “Three minutes into the show, you look out, and what used to be a mass of individuals are all now wearing the same goofy smiles. They are in Musical Comedy Land. They feel they are being taken care of.”
Soon after opening in “Fiddler” on Broadway, Fierstein exited through the stage door to find a Hasidic family — a mother, a father and three children — on the sidewalk, waiting to see the cast.
“There was this child with piercing eyes, just staring at me,” he remembers. “I said, ‘Cookie, are you OK?’ He replied in the most innocent way: ‘Are you really Jewish?’ Which took me right back to my first experience with ‘Fiddler.’ That made everything worthwhile. Or the (Jewish) phrase: ‘That has been enough.’ ”
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February 28, 2010
Red, Hot & Soul Gala at the Austin Convention Center
At Red, Hot & Soul, dance dominated.
Costumed go-go guys and gals were stationed throughout the silent auction area. Austin’s showpiece band, DrumJam, welcomed bouncy guests into the dramatically unveiled dining area. Ecstatic performers circled each winner of live auction items. The costumed performers, in turn, motivated a few winners to jump up on chairs and tables, twisting in triumph. The evening was rounded out by the inevitable — and inevitably infectious — Zach mass disco.
Larry Connelly and Mary Herr Tally
Personally, I might have changed a few things to focus and to tighten up the evening, but once again, bravo to the organizing committee, starting with event co-chairs Mary Herr Tally and Larry Connelly. Turns out I know all the other leaders fairly well, too: Donaji Lira, Venus Strawn, Susan Lubin, Candace Partridge, Sergio Durante, Karen Landa and Michael Smothers. A creative gang!
Venus Strawn and Joanie Bentzin
It was an evening for luxuriating in friends, old and new. Start with my immediate table-mates, Tanya Acevedo and Kate Hersch, both wonderfully funny and insightful. Kip, looking handsome as always, sat between the classy bookends Carla McDonald and Eric Groten. Others at our table included Maria Groten, Jack McDonald, Robert Hersch, Annsley Popov, Stephanie Coultress and Todd O’Neill. Wow. Just wow. I’d have this group over to our house for a dozen dinners.
Eric and Maria Groten
Earlier in the evening, I talked Galveston and Surfside with Cliff Redd and Rick Johnson, social calendars with Kevin Smothers and Michael Pungello, racy news with Stephen Rice, hunting for truffles with Eva Womack, hotel living and Zach’s plans with Elisbeth Challener. Among the former and current politcos in attendance this very political week: Chris Riley, Mark Strama, Louise Epstein, Mike Martinez, Donna Howard and Eddie Rodriguez.
Another stellar evening. Lower attendance than I expected (650?). But with so much else going on, that fate was in the stars.
Photos courtesy of Seabrook Jones www.juicythis.com
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February 27, 2010
Art Divas at Becky Beaver's House
When power lawyer and power philanthropist Becky Beaver invites you to her “cottage” for the first time, you smile indulgently. Surely she means the term ironically. But no. Beaver and husband John Duncan moved into a modest, bungalow-like house on busy Bull Creek Road, just north of 45th Street, back in 1980, when the neighborhood was a bit dicier and she had just started her firm and her family.
Lynn Yeldell and Becky Beaver
They never left. The former dairy included a creamery and well house, once part of an 100-acre farm. It really is a cottage, though. Additions to the back, upstairs and above a garage probably tripled the floor space. Yet it retains the narrow coziness of a cottage, now crammed with local art and comfy furniture.
Sherry Smith and Lise Ragbir
And sometimes guests. It proved a warm venue Friday for the latest reception from the Art Divas, a creative membership group of Women & Their Work. Membership is not open to your columnist, given the chromosomal gap. Yet, attending my second such reception, with its devout attention to the art and artists present, I felt like an honorary member. A divo?
Gemma Ainslie and Bonnie Tamres-Moore
I spent quality time with Arthouse’s Sue Graze, Fete Accompli’s Quincy Adams Erickson, former Quebecuer Lise Ragbir (who has started an informal French-speakers group in Austin), among others. Humorously, I dawdled even longer with the only other male guests, Stephen Moser and Stephen Rice, already dear friends. Turns out we had mounds of gossip to hash out. More of that kind of discussion tonight at Zach Theatre’s Red, Hot and Soul gala.
Judy Jensen and Sally Webber
Note on Saturday night: As my patient Twitter and Facebook followers know, I’m sick that I can’t attend CASAblanca at the Four Seasons, the Chef Smackdown at Stubb’s and the Art Night Austin after-party, all tonight as well. But look, it’s just not possible to do any of those key social events justice in a “drive-by.” I’m going to stick with RH&S at the Austin Convention Center for this particular evening. Next season …
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February 21, 2010
Guitars Under the Stars at the Mexican American Cultural Center
Socially and organizationally, the Austin Classical Guitar Society belongs in a class with Conspirare and Austin Chamber Music Center. Each group has taken a sometimes ignored subset of the classical repertoire and made it essential for Austin audiences. The growing groups have been rewarded with a deeper, broader impact on the city’s social life.
Rachel Feit and Heather McKissick
ACGS’s Matthew Hinsley thus joins earthshakers such as Craig Hella Johnson and Michelle Schumann, the leaders of Conspirare and ACMC. I recall when Matthew was but a University of Texas student, a fresh-faced guitarist and singer with a promising, self-promoted CD.
Leah Nelson and Thomas Echols
Now, his group stages a summer festival that crams 60 events into six days. It books the finest classical guitar artists from around the world and commissions new pieces, such as Graham Reynolds’ “Power Man,” which will be performed by hundreds of guitarists at the fest.
Amy Houghton and Trevor Hunt
Saturday’s mini-gala, Guitars Under the Stars, at the Mexican American Cultural Center raised money and awareness for ACGS’s student programs, which reach hundreds of aspiring artists in dozens of schools. After nibbling and chatting with the likes of Leadership Austin’s Heather McKissick, Alamo Drafthouse’s Karrie and Tim League, Austin Chronicle’s Rachel Feit, West Austin News’ Alana Mallard, former Austin City Council Member Louise Epstein, returning Austin musicians Leah Nelson and Thomas Echols (back from a Southern California sojourn), Hinsley and others, I heard two of the sampled pieces.
Alana Mallard and Zach Mallard
Young virtuoso Vincent Turner cascaded through the gigue from Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2. Then eight students from McCallum High School performed a preview of Reynold’s insistent “Power Man.” The music and the socializing suggested that ACGS is headed to the stars.
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February 12, 2010
The Diahann Carroll Interview
On January 8, 2002, Austin theatrical producer Charles Duggan hosted a birthday dinner for his friend, Nolan Miller, costume designer for the 1980s evening soap, “Dynasty,” among other TV series and films.
Held at the stylish L’Orangerie restaurant in Beverly Hills, the party’s guest list included celebrities Nolan had dressed: Sophia Loren, Joan Collins, Joanna Carson, Phyllis Diller and Diahann Carroll. (Pause to imagine that pride of lionesses around one table.)
“One smile melted any tension about her late arrival,” Duggan remembers. “She was, hands down, the most glamorous that evening — and certainly the most glamorous star I have ever met.”
Carroll will lend Austin some of that magnetism this week, appearing with the Austin Symphony Orchestra during its pops concert Feb. 20 at the Long Center.
She balks when asked the nature of glamour by phone: “What does the word even mean?” Carroll says in an courtly but playful tone. “It doesn’t mean well-groomed. It doesn’t mean well put-together. It doesn’t mean well-behaved. Maybe it’s all of the above.”
Carroll, who has mastered Broadway, Hollywood, Las Vegas — and just about every glamour spot in between — would rather be known for her singing and acting talents.
“Glamour is not that fascinating to me in the end,” she says. Raised in Harlem, Carroll watched her star rise steadily in the 1950s in movies such as “Carmen Jones” and “Porgy and Bess,” but especially, at age 29, on Broadway in “Little House of Flowers,” the island musical written by Truman Capote and Harold Arlen.
“It was a beautiful experience,” she says. “You want to make sure you give your best effort working with people that extraordinary.” She didn’t land the part of young Violet, however, right away.
“Truman felt I was too innocent to play the ingenue,” she says. “I went off to do the film of ‘Carmen Jones’ (the rambunctious, all-black version of the opera ‘Carmen’), then auditioned again. He felt I was a little more seasoned — to play a 15-year-old!”
For just her second Broadway role, legendary composer Richard Rodgers wrote “No Strings” with her in mind for the leading lady.
“It was a surprise,” she says of the part for which she won a Tony Award. “I had no idea in advance. He saw me on ‘The Tonight Show’ … Jack Paar must have been the host then.”
The story of two free spirits in chic postwar France, it featured — de facto through its casting, though it’s not explicit in the script — one of modern Broadway’s first interracial relationships. Carroll broke another color barrier in 1968 when she starred in “Julia.” Playing a widowed mother and a nurse, she was the first African American actress to carry a hit television series virtually on her own.
Given her own historical breakthroughs, how does she feel now, with the Obamas in the White House?
“Naturally, I’m thrilled,” she says. “They are holding up a mirror to their lives through their high standards. He’s a wonderful representative of the many faces of the United States of America.”
She’s doesn’t know the president personally, but met Michelle Obama, whom she found “an intelligent young woman with a quite lovely feminine side.”
If “Julia” showed Carroll as competent, professional and nurturing, “Dynasty” gloried in post-”Dallas” excess, turning up the jets on the gaudy glam factor.
“We had wonderful clothes!” she says. “Nobody remembers the stories or plots, but they remember the wonderful clothes.”
She remains friends with co-star Joan Collins and looks forward to catching up with Duggan when she visits Austin.
Two later projects— “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years ” and “Sunset Boulevard” — stretched Carroll’s range, the first about black women who lived to be 100; the second an extravagant musical version of the 1950 movie about a faded silent film star.
“I was aware of the Delanys for many years before their story was developed for Broadway,” she says. “When I learned of the television version, I wanted to be a part of it. So I auditioned …”
Wait. Diahann Carroll had to audition?
“Meryl Streep auditions!” she corrects me. “And I really wanted the part. People don’t understand how you see yourself doing a certain part.”
As for “Sunset Boulevard,” she tweaked part of Norma Desmond during its long, high-profile Toronto run.
“What happens to Norma happens to many females in our industry,” she says. “Which is a rather a frightening thought. But that’s how things are dealt with in this thing called show biz. Aging is not a allowed.”
And yet … Carroll has worked consistently, often in Vegas, Reno or Florida when TV, Broadway and film parts were not available. (Don’t forget she was nominated for an Oscar for “Claudine” in 1974.) How does she keep going — and looking so good — well into her (cough) seventies?
“I don’t think there’s anything unusual about my routine,” she says. “You watch what you eat. I’m pretty good about that.” She pauses. “And it’s important to keep everything ‘up!’” With that, Carroll roars with laughter. Maybe that’s one of the secrets to everlasting glamour.
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February 7, 2010
B Scene for 'Desire' at Blanton Museum of Art
Had I departed earlier, my conclusions would have been dead wrong. Arriving at the B Scene party for the exhibition, “Desire,” at the Blanton Museum of Art, I encountered a tweedy, older set. Not the young, hip tribe targeted by the museum’s social campaign, which includes monthly B Scene events.
Laura Moliter and Elizabeth Moliter
I mingled with art lovers, music lovers (Suzanna Choffel headlined) and party lovers (including bristle-haired copywriter JJ McLaughlin, who is always sniffing out a new scene). I spoke with “Desire” curator Annette Carlozzi and her still-new hubby Dan Bullock.
Meg and Adam Hulse
‘Desire’ accumulates pieces and performances from dozens of media. I’ll let the critics describe it, but I was happy to discover that Women & Their Work director Chris Cowden and I singled out the same dark, flower-strewn sculpture. I also snuck upstairs to see the Veronese altarpiece exhibit in its final days.
My visit to the main galleries contrasted sharply with my experiences at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts the previous week. The older, more traditional museum — located in a city twice our size with a long history of arts collecting — impressed me with its masses of exquisite Asian art. The Blanton, however, did not pale in comparison. In fact, for the quality of individual works and their vivid presentation, I’d give the UT museum the upper hand.
Ryan Masters and Teal Stamm
Back to the social observations: I had planned on cutting out early to make a fashion show, but was frozen by a dozen or so conversations. By then, the place was packed, filled with eccentric beards, odd club-wear, zany haircuts and other accessories of youthful vogue. The target demographic had arrived!
Kimberly Lewis and Albert Yeung
In fact, I watched as older museum members gravitated to the administration building across the plaza, muttering about the pack in the blue atrium. Would have loved to attend the Director’s Circle party the night before, when, according to more than one report, Denise Prince arrived in a costume so sheer, she might as well have been naked. A performance?
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January 31, 2010
That voice: The arrival of Andrew Cannata
Within the relatively cozy world of Austin musical theater, a male voice like Andrew Cannata’s comes along once in a generation or so. Joe York’s warm, booming baritone made its first mark in the 1980s. Stephen Michael Miller’s delicate tenor glided onto the scene in the 1990s.
Yet it was his performance last season as the romantic lead in the classic musical, “The Pajama Game,” that elicited unprecedented raves and an Austin Critics Table nomination for Outstanding Singer. Under the tutelage of music and stage director Michael McKelvey, Cannata has smoothed out the breaks in his blooming tenor and has relaxed into a natural acting style.”
“McKelvey breaks down your boundaries,” Cannata says. “He urges you to do what comes naturally.”
As for musical theater’s third required skill, dancing, Cannata says: “I can follow choreography.”
Thursday, Cannata opens in “John and Jen,” a two-actor, vestpocket musical produced by newborn Penfold Theatre, which presented the award-winning “The Last Five Years,” also directed by McKelvey, in 2009. He plays four people, two of them children, in a family story told from the mid-1950s to mid-90s. “I had to distinguish between the children, so I concentrated on props,” he says. “It’s tough show to make work.”
So far, Cannata has assayed several characters younger than his biological age. His succinct features and wonder-infused looks aid in credibility.
Cannata, who remembers attending his first musical, “Fiddler on the Roof,” almost as soon as he could walk, comes by his artistic bona fides familially. His father, a particle physics expert who delved into computers, played piano in the theater; his sister and brother performed on the musical stage. The seventh of nine siblings in an Irish/Italian Catholic family, Cannata, an almost-lifelong Austinite, comes to theater with a built-in fan club.
“It’s in our blood,” he says. “The family sang three masses a week. A lot of my musical skills were developed there.”
A professional services engineer for LifeSize video conferencing service by day, Cannata dreams of taking his computer and theatrical skills to a bigger, tougher market, say, Chicago maybe.
“I go back and forth,” he says. “It would be hard giving up such a good job and theater community.”
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January 21, 2010
Austin Lyric Opera Party at Annies
It makes me proud that so many improvised Haiti relief benefits popped up in Austin this week. My social time was limited Wednesday, so, instead, I spent few sweet minutes surveying a little party at Annies for Austin Lyric Opera. (Our newspaper has done an excellent job of spreading the word about local Haiti benefits; my added voice would have been very small.)
Erika Wuerzner, Marianna Mooring and Katherine Altobello
This early-evening amusement was tied to ALO’s’s production of Emmanuel Chabrier’s “The Star.” Cast members appeared in costume, which fit the 19th-century Parisian look of Annies on Congress Avenue, one of 2009’s most auspicious nightlife additions. (“The Star” opens at the Long Center on Jan. 30.)
Love Nance and Robert Nash
The cafe served crispy fries, some sort of bruschetta and its award-winning calamari salad, which I adore. I spoke with owner Love Nance and her sociable word-spreader, Robert Nash, who I hadn’t seen in an age.
Lizette Garza and Katie Shanahan
I met willowy, soft-spoken Marianna Mooring, who used the social occasion to introduce herself to a room full of strangers. I also forced Charles Peveto, expert on so much of Old Austin, to agree to lunch and a peek at his Texas art collection. Didn’t have to break any arms.
Paula Kothmann and Charles Peveto
He and Nash are headed out to Marfa today. Perfect weather for it. Jealous.
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January 10, 2010
Austin Cabaret Theatre at the Long Center
Almost 10 years old, Austin Cabaret Theatre nears institutional status. Producer Stuart Moulton, himself an entertainer, has brought to Austin universally consecrated acts such as Eartha Kitt, Elaine Stritch, Ann Hampton Callaway and Carol Channing, as well as onetime Texans Billy Stritch, Amanda McBroom and Sharon Montgomery.
Stuart Moulton and Christy Duvauchelle
The switch from hotel and banquet settings to the Long Center, then, made perfect sense. As the did the recent upgrade in the pre-show dinner menu. The Kodosky Lounge serves for most acts, but for its gala, Moulton seated more than 200 in the lounge for eats, then shepherded them downstairs to the Rollins Studio Theatre for the big show.
Charles Duggan and Stanislav Pronin
That’s when Moulton, after an extended vamp, earned the right to say: “Ladies and gentlemen, Judy Garland!” That dream cabaret act, in fact, took the form of Jim Bailey, longtime impressionist, who was doing Judy back when Judy was doing Judy.
Dr. Bill Jones and Anton Nel
Now, let’s see. Last year, Judy would have turned 87, had she not passed into immortality in 1969. Bailey, for his part, is 60. He still twitches, strays and warbles just like Judy in the late years. It may be that I’m now 56 — and 40 years has passed since Judy’s death — but one act of Judy-ism was enough for me. No more her Carnegie Hall quip: “We’ll just have to stay here and sing them all night.”
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January 9, 2010
Ada Anderson and the LEAP gala
This city owes an immeasurable debt of gratitude to Ada Collins Anderson. The social pioneer and civil rights leader, born in 1921, has been a pathfinder in so many ways, it’s hard to calculate the cumulative effect.
Rose Demerson and Ada Anderson
Among her achievements — later in life — was the founding of the Leadership Enrichment Arts Program, which offers low-income and minority youth a chance to experience the performing and visual arts. Friday, LEAP celebrated its 20th year of exposing students to the arts and giving them opportunities to participate at the Crown Plaza at Interstate 35 and US 290.
Sherry Ransom and Susan Baughman
I tried to discern social trends in the crowd of maybe 150, seated in blue-ribboned chairs before dinner. It was predominately African American, but not exclusively so. Older Austinites took the lead at most tables, but younger ones bounced up to give speeches, perform on instruments or network with the elders present.
Carla Jackson and Kelvin Phillips
The tightest bunch of guests gathered around Mrs. Anderson herself, clearly a touchstone for the evening. Sweeping from table to table was Sherry Ransom, LEAP executive director, who whispered that later a new scholarship would be named for Ada and her late husband, Marcellus J. “Andy” Anderson, the nation’s first black Realtor. (It was a kept secret from Ada until the formal announcement.)
Derrick Leon Washington and Zakiya Larry
I ran into Victoria Corcoran, who is doing the Lord’s work helping small to medium-sized nonprofits to grow. Sitting back to back were New Orleans transplants Christine Perrault Moline and Terrence Moline (on one side) and New York transplants Carla Jackson and Kelvin Phillips (on the other). Vibrant Zakiya Larry, Miss Black Texas USA, the evening’s emcee, posed for me with stylish Derrick Leon Johnson.
Anderson has received many accolades over the years. Let’s hope there are many more to come.
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January 6, 2010
Your A-List: Best Theater Company
I’ve been reporting the results of A List reader polls for a couple of years. I can usually predict in advance which reports will receive the most comments. This is one.
Esther’s Follies, an Austin comic tradition since 1978, took second with 14 percent.
Greater Tuna, almost as old as Esther’s, came in third with 6 percent.
Hyde Park Theatre, The Vortex, Salvage Vanguard, Austin Playhouse, Rude Mechs, ColdTowne and Latino Comedy Project bunched up below that.
Zach, Austin’s largest and most acclaimed theater company, received no votes.
Those are the results. Unhappy readers should vote next time. And if you must leave comments, snarkiness persuades no one here.
Congratulate City Theater and move on.
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December 20, 2009
Charles Duggan's Next Big Act
Last we had heard from stage producer Charles Duggan, five years ago, he had pulled up stakes, moving first to Italy, then to Mexico. The Broadway-toughened wizard behind the commercial success of the “Greater Tuna” series — and backer of the valiant, but ultimately untenable Austin Musical Theatre — wanted his twin sons, Justin and Declan, to grow up with a wider world view, becoming bilingual, perhaps trilingual.
Then a violent crime shook his family. An armed invasion at his residence outside Guadalajara — he and the twins weren’t home — left his staff traumatized and Duggan looking to the familiarity and safety of Austin. So, a year and a half ago, the single father relocated to the Tarrytown neighborhood. Slowly Duggan emerged from seclusion — the boys were now in school — to attend charity dinners and to serve on nonprofit boards.
“If I’m going to be stay, I’m going to be actively involved,” Duggan says.
Though most of his money was made in real estate, not theater, as many believe, the itch to produce persisted. So Duggan did what he does best: He cooked up a new show. “A Texas Christmas Carol,” which plays Dec. 29-Jan. 3 at the Long Center, is a musical variety show that Duggan and the Long Center leaders hope becomes as indelible a holiday tradition as “The Nutcracker,” “Messiah,” “Santaland Diaries,” “Rockin’ Christmas Party” and “A Tuna Christmas.”
True to Duggan’s playful, generous personality, it comes with two twists. A cast of local talents that includes the Biscuit Brothers, Jill Blackwood and Tish Hinojosa joins disparate groups like Amazing Grace Gospel, River City Brass Quintet and Tapestry Dance Company. The show also provides opportunities for a dozen Austin charities, such as Austin Children’s Shelter, Con Mi Madre and the St. David’s Foundation, to share in the ticket sales. (Call 474-5664 or go to thelongcenter.com for more information.)
I met Duggan at his home — dignified and traditional on the outside, but full of wide-open playscapes for the boys, now 7, inside. They showed me their giant posters of comic-book characters and map of the world, notated with the countries they have visited.
“The boys like it this way,” Duggan says, pointing out places where the furniture will go, as we picked through the theatrical ephemera warehoused there. We spent a long, rainy afternoon catching up on theatrical news and the life of the Duggan family abroad.
Yet the conversation kept returning, as it does with a producer, to the new project. Justin and Declan, by the way, have already caught the theatrical bug, hoping to appear in small roles in “A Texas Christmas Carol.”
“They want to be stars,” Duggan says, sounding like a benign version of a central-casting Hollywood producer. “But you have to work your way up to Frosty.”
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December 7, 2009
The Joe Papp story, Part 2
For Part 1 of the Joe Papp story, scroll down to the previous post, or link here.
He also conquered Broadway again and again with hits such as “A Chorus Line,” “Sticks and Bones,” “That Championship Season,” “Two Gentlemen of Verona” and “Pirates of Penzance.” (He also produced “Hair” first, but not later on Broadway.)
Papp typically nurtured playwrights early in their careers, saying “I want to produce all your plays,” then expected filial loyalty thereafter. Without him, the world might not know David Rabe, Wallace Shawn, Ntozake Shange, Larry Kramer, Miguel Piñero, Jason Miller and numerous other writers. With his wife and literary manager, Gail Marrifield Papp, the producer often adopted projects in their infancy, most famously Michael Bennett’s slow development of “A Chorus Line” out of group therapy-type sessions with New York dancers.
Turan doesn’t shy away from Papp’s disasters, such as his takeovers of Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center (he immediately alienated his Upper West Side subscribers) and Broadway’s Booth Theatre (he opened and closed his New American Playwrights series there with “The Leaf People,” an experimental play about indigenous Amazonians’ first contact with outsiders, performed in an invented language).
Turan details Papp’s frightening rift with playwright Sam Shepard over the Public’s production of “True West,” of which star Tommy Lee Jones says: “Of all the versions of that play that were done at that time, around New York and around the country, ours was distinguished by being the worst.” (Shepard, who refused to travel to New York during rehearsals, bears considerable blame.)
But there are also all the glorious, unexpected triumphs, like the poppy production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance,” despised by Savoyard purists, but adored by almost everyone else. The casting process that brought Linda Ronstadt, then at the top of the charts, and Rex Smith, dismissed as a teen idol, together with theatrical stalwarts like Kevin Kline and George Rose is as sensational as it is enchanting.
Papp’s two raging passions — Shakespeare and social justice — are never far from the page in “Free for All.” Almost single-handedly, he made Shakespeare available to the masses, even defying New York power broker Robert Moses to do so.
Hoping to mirror the city around him, Papp also introduced counterculture, black, Hispanic, female and gay artists to the public, whether they were creating a choreo-poem (“for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf”); an intense prison drama employing ex-convicts as performers (“Short Eyes”) or incendiary tale crucial to the HIV-AIDS activism (“The Normal Heart”).
He could be a hectoring bully, who woke critics from their beds, shamed backers into donations and forced his tastes on audiences. Yet Papp left the theater a better place. Turan places Papp’s reputation on a higher plane.
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The Joe Papp story, Part 1
Kenneth Turan overcame three almost insurmountable obstacles. The journalist and co-author of “Free for All: Joe Papp, the Public and the Greatest Theater Story Ever Told” had already lost his literary collaborator, Papp, before the theatrical producer died in 1991. Prior to that, Papp had suppressed the material that Turan, longtime film critic for the Los Angeles Times, had collected about the New York Shakespeare Festival, Public Theater and Papp’s other theatrical ventures.
Turan trusts the reader to either know the speakers — some, such as Martin Sheen, Raul Julia, Sam Waterston and James Earl Jones, are celebrities whose careers Papp fostered — or to flip to the “Cast of Characters” printed at the back of the book. There, he identifies each quoted speaker with the slimmest of biographical sketches. (Example: “George C. Scott. Actor. Five Tony nominations. Four Oscar nominations. Oscar for ‘Patton.’ Died in 1999.”)
The results are dazzling. Turan has written a book — Papp is listed as co-author — as fluid as a novel and, at times, as chilling as a character-driven movie thriller. Especially for the inveterate theater fan, it’s the oral-history equivalent of a page-turner.
More to come …
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Arts Cottage Opening near Rosanky
After leaving the directorship of the University of Texas Performing Arts Center, Pebbles Wadsworth traveled extensively, in part because her lawyer husband, Chris, insisted she not take on any projects for at least a year, she says …
Jack Crosby, Pebbles Wadsworth and Richard Isackes
As soon as that year ended, Wadsworth put her considerable energy, connections and skill to work on moving a Victorian cottage from Smithville to her nearby ranch, C Rock, renovating it and creating a rural mecca for performing and visual arts amid the rolling pastureland southeast of Bastrop and southwest of Smithville …
Sherry and David Dalgleish
The Arts Cottage welcomed its first full audience on a drizzly, muddy Sunday. Yet it was all good cheer inside, as 50 or so patrons — including a former UT president and some high-powered philanthropists — snacked on bites from Smithville’s Back Door Cafe, waiting for announcements and performances …
Andrew and Mary Ann Heller
The work of Austinite Roi James, as well as Smithville artists (a poet, a jeweler, a sculptor) claimed their share of the conversation before Wadsworth managed to seat everyone and explained the Arts Cottage concept …
Terri Moore, Bill Livingston and Pam Buchanan
Not surprisingly, the idea is as big as the cottage is small. Wadsworth wants to prove that rural communities can establish sustainable arts centers for education, exhibition, performance, seminars and workshops. She’s formed a nonprofit and wants to spread the blueprint to other small communities …
Paulino Lopez and Judith Rhedin
Performances were delayed an hour, so, alas, I missed them to make other engagements. Yet I’m absolutely certain this is not the last you’ll hear of the Arts Cottage, which combines some of the best ideas from Round Top and Winedale with a particular emphasis on the local community.
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December 6, 2009
Omar Lopez and Mix 'n' Mash
Finishing off Friday night — I know, I’m behind on these social reports — was the Omar Lopez concert at Central Austin Presbyterian and the Mix ‘n’ Mash party at Mexic-Arte Museum …
Lacey Richter and Amanda Bulger
Lopez is a singular artist with legions of Austin fans. He sings and plays an amplified violin, which allow him to slide from jazz to pop to classical to sacred and soundtrack. His holiday concert for all ages feasted on a full 20 selections, but I could only stay for the first mystical hour …
Deanna Gonzalez and Rachel Marion
Then it was time to plow through the bitter cold to Mexic-Arte Museum for their Mix ‘n’ Mash holiday event …
Patricia Petty and Mike Willoughby
This appropriately named fandango blends an art sale, a silent auction, edibles and, when I arrived, an adaptable DJ …
Joseph Guerrero and Gabrielle De Ville
Prices were reasonable and bidding on the art was heated, while the crowd flowed among the four main spaces …
Aziel Garcia and Sadie Villareal
Oh, for the day when Mexic-Arte can use the whole building!
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Austin Classical Guitar at Bell Mountain Home
Sometimes, it hurts to leave …
Rebecca Glenn Pate and Joshua Gindele
I checked in with the Austin Classical Guitar Society soiree at the gracious Bell Mountain home of Louise Epstein and John Henry McDonald …
Daniel Ching, Louise Epstein and Sandy Yamamoto
The Moroccan food, devised by Ginette Jordan, was outstanding …
Karrie and Tim League
The conversation, for the hour before the concert, was scintillating …
Ly and Kevin Barrett
I so wanted to stay and hear the Miró Quartet, who have transformed chamber music in this state, and were the big attraction this night …
Bill Kanengiser and Matthew Hinsley
But I had promised to attend at least two more events that evening, so I winced as I begged my hosts’ indulgence as I headed down the West Austin mountain.
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November 29, 2009
Austin Does 'Tuna Does Vegas'
They applauded at entrances. They applauded at exits. They laughed before, during and after the jokes, which came at an approximate rate of one every 30 seconds …
Stephen Mills and Brent Hasty
The audience for “Tuna Does Vegas” was ready to deliver a standing ovation the moment they sat in their Paramount Theatre seats on Saturday …
Andrew Brooks and Elizabeth Childers
The fourth in the series of comedies about small-town Texas gives the true believers everything they want and more …
Drew and Lori Saldana
All their favorite characters head to Las Vegas, Nev. for what, at times, looks like it will develop into a farce, but is instead lovable collection of equally stressed sketches …
Rob and Sarah Coffman
Austin writers and stars Jaston Williams and Joe Sears — plus almost invisible writer and director Ed Howard — could play the Tuna cycle for another 25 years, slipping cultural and political timebombs into their sometimes pointed, sometimes soft-edged satires of small-town mentalities …
Vivian Alvarez and Michael Lehrter
My favorite of the cycle — and still the most satisfying for character and narrative — is “A Tuna Christmas.”
My Facebook date for the evening, Bhavna Sharma, and I agreed the best line in “Vegas” came when Vera is threatened with retaliation from organized crime, she says ” “I can beat that, I have friends who are Southern Baptists.”
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November 23, 2009
'Bat Boy' in San Marcos
This is not a formal review. The show has closed. Its student actors have returned to classwork.
A good deal of credit goes to director Kaitlin Hopkins, also a member of the original off-Broadway cast. Yet every single one of the actors — even the ultra-campy ones — could have joined that original cast.
The self-mocking show has always creeped me out a bit, in a good way, dealing with a half bat, half human dealing with small-town hysteria about his presence in the community. I’d liked the production a few years back in East Austin, but missed the Summerstock version.
I can’t imagine a better production than this one.
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Austin Symphony at the Long Center
“These are the listening seats,” said the patron next to me.
Mike and Emma Muniz
Indeed, the sound for the Austin Symphony Orchestra is rich, crisp and warm — altogether — in the Dell Hall mezzanine at the Long Center. You don’t benefit from onstage facial expressions, but I’ll take the music any day.
Caroline Crichlow-Ball and Marc Boyd
Judging from the behavior of my cohorts, the assembled drank up the translucent Mendelssohn and the transcendent Ratliff, the second accomplished with the impeccable Conspirare symphonic choir. (Which city is so lucky to have a Peter Bay, a Craig Hella Johnson and a Richard Buckley as conductors for its professional performing arts?) Read Jeanne Claire van Ryzin’s formal review of the concert.
Jennifer Smith and Betsy Knotts
The number of empty seats physically pained me. It always does. Upstairs, downstairs, everywhere, empty seats. The recession? Disinterest? Weak marketing? Guess we won’t be earning an extra Sunday matinee any time soon.
Joseph Diiorio and Coby Condrey
Hey, here’s a thought: What if everyone on ASO’s gargantuan board of directors, and those hundreds of donors listed in the program, all attended the classical concerts, and brought along a couple of friends? No more empty seats!
Kristen Nilsson and Steven Hoelscher
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November 21, 2009
Margaret Wright & Joyce DiBona at Eponymous Garden
I first heard Margaret Wright sing at an Austin hotel lounge in 1984 …
Sister and brother Colleen Ryan and David Ryan
Back then, I requested “Tenderly.” Twenty-five years later, at the Eponymous Garden, I requested “Tenderly” again …
Joyce DiBona and Diane Perella
Wright’s voice remains eloquently supple, radiating jazzy warmth, just like her hug-happy personality …
Sterling Price-McKinney and Margaret Wright
Wright sang at the baby grand with Sterling Price-McKinney during a party at Price-McKinney and Lorne Loganbill’s Eponymous Garden …
Cathy Wallace and Carol McClendon
It was an EAST tour event in honor of painter Joyce DiBona, whose exuberant canvases lined the walls and sparked many a conversation …
Olivia Walker and Martha Koock Ward
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November 18, 2009
The Parlour for Salvage Vanguard at the Eponymous Garden
The Eponymous Garden — located, naturally, on Garden Street — is a superb location for a small-scale fundraiser …
Andree Bober and Cheline Jaidar
Especially on a dreamy night like Tuesday night, when the gardens, designed by Daniel Gregory of Silver Sage Landscape Environments, form a fairy land of delights …
Sarah Bird and Doug Dorst
The gardens connect five houses, four of them owned by designer/legal eagle Lorne Loganbill and composer/performer Sterling Price-McKinney, who have returned from New York City to grace Our Town full-time …
Jenny Larson and Dustin Wills
Full disclosure: Kip and I rented one of the bungalows on their property in the Holly Street neighborhood for six years in the 1990s. The houses, including the Victorian main house, and gardens are MUCH improved, thanks in part to Gregory and renovation architect Emily Little of ClaytonLevyLittle …
James Dean Jay Byrd and Kyle Henry
Tuesday’s event, called the Parlour, was a creative fundraiser for Salvage Vanguard Theater, one of the city’s top warehouse theater groups, so there were performances, inventive raffles and signature drinks …
Daniel Gregory and Chris Meier
A splendid melding of arts, architecture and Austinites …
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November 15, 2009
Richard Schechner at the University of Texas
One American theater legend spoke in Austin on Thursday. Another on Friday …
Richard Schechner bussing his prof, Oscar Brockett
Stephen Sondheim’s remarks at the Long Center were dense, clear, anecdotal and on point. Richard Schechner’s were dense, clear, anecdotal and, by design, not always on point at the University of Texas …
Polly Strong and Linda Brucker
Schechner’s work may be less familiar to the average theatergoer than Sondheim’s. Yet to students of theater and of the 1960s, the New York University professor’s indelible contributions include co-founding the field of performance studies and the journal TDR: The Drama Review, as well as the Performance Group, which evolved into the Wooster Group …
Nicole Doorish and Jodi Jinks
Schechner is in town because the Rude Mechs are reviving his breakthrough piece, “Dionysus in 69,” which combines intercultural myths, environmental staging and rampant nudity with a re-reading of Euripedes’ “The Bacchae.” It opens in Austin Dec. 4 …
Shawn Sides and Buck Van Winkle
For the relaxed reception and circuitous lecture at UT, presented by the Humanities Institute, I brought along Oscar Brockett, another theater legend and co-founder of the field of modern theater history. He was my mentor in the PhD program at UT. Turns out he also taught Schechner at the University of Iowa back in 1958! …
Everlasting scamps Matt Hislope and Josh Meyer
Leave aside the Oedipal issues of performance studies elbowing out theater history in some drama departments (like UT’s), Schechner’s talk made the 1960s come alive. We are lucky to have a man who has taken so many notes and thought so thoroughly on the subjects of experimental art and social behavior as performance …
Elizabeth Doss and Evan Carton
No way I’m going to miss “Dionysus in 69”
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November 13, 2009
A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim at the Long Center
You might not think that a 90-minute talk with a Broadway composer on the Long Center stage would generate rapt attention, gales of laughter and two standing ovations …
Sandra and Bill Didlake
But if the conversationalists are Stephen Sondheim, Broadway’s greatest artist, and Robert Faires, quick-witted Austin Chronicle arts editor, an audience of more than 1,000 pay attention …
Paul Beutel and Laura Powell
Seated on two cushioned chairs downstage from Austin Lyric Opera’s rented “La Boheme” set, Sondheim immediately settled into rich feast of description, analysis and narrative, while Faires appeared a bit hesitant until he landed his first joke, based on a song title from “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” (Hey, I would have been frozen with intimidation by the great man, despite Sondheim’s warmth) …
Allison Raven and Samantha Williams
They dug into the process of “setting” lyrics to music and vice versa. Sondheim explained how each of his songs is a one-act play, how the music forces the stresses in an actor’s verbal interpretation and how his music explicitly follows the patterns of conversational English …
Michael Mitchell and Martin Zimmerman
He also talked at length about his collaborations with James Lapine, John Weidman, George Furth, Larry Gelbart, Jonathan Tunick, Leornard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins, Hal Prince and other creative and interpretive giants, along with stars such as Ethel Merman, Patti LuPone, Angela Lansbury and Elaine Stritch …
M Scott Tatum and Craig Saper
The revelations just poured out. I’m sure the audience would have stayed for another 90 minutes, but life goes on. The unsung hero in all this is Long Center managing director Paul Beutel, who insisted on this opportunity for Austin, even if it was not a guaranteed money-maker.
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November 9, 2009
Camp Lite and 'Spelling Bee'
“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” closed Sunday at Zach Theatre.
Just a little note on the concept of “Camp Lite.” That was a term applied back in the 1990s to “Beehive,” “Nunsense,” “Forever Plaid” and other off-Broadway shows that combined gentle irony, frisky songs and an obsession with pop culture.
Campy, yes, but without the dark, cross-dressing edge of Charles Ludlam, Charles Busch or their ilk.
Zach Theatre, thanks mainly to director Dave Steakley and designer Michael Raiford — as well as Austin’s deep pool of onstage talent — has mastered this form brilliantly. Zach always included as much audience participation as possible. No theater company in the country does it better.
“Spelling Bee” certainly fits the Camp Lite definition nicely. Yet its score by William Finn (“Falsettos”) marks a full integration of that genre with more serious musical-making. “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Hairspray” and a few other narrative musicals could also be grouped with “Spelling Bee” under another rubric: “Camp Plus.”
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November 8, 2009
Opera Goes to Paris at the Long Center
Austin Lyric Opera canceled the Opera Ball last season …
Sari Gruber and Sebastien Gueze
Instead, they staged a smattering of small-scale fundraising parties that responded to a chastened economy …
Craig Verm and Richard Buckley
This season, opera leaders split the difference by swirling various parties around the opening production, “La Boheme,” at the Long Center …
Gail and Jeff Kodosky
The whole place was outfitted like Paris, with dramatically lighted, sculptural representations of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe …
Karen Landa and Dale Dewey
After a near-miss earlier in the evening, I stumbled on several of the social junctures, including a splendid late supper in the Kodosky Lounge …
Stanislav Pronina and Ksenia Zhuleva
Where, happily, I ran into namesakes Jeff and Gail Kodosky, whom I need to spend more time with …
Peter Bay and Mela Dailey
Looked festive, but it had been a long day and long night, so I checked out early.
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November 6, 2009
Stephen Sondheim: Broadway's Greatest Artist, Part 5
For more of “Stephen Sondheim: Broadway’s Greatest Artist,” scroll down to previous posts, or link at Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
The Essential Stephen Sondheim
10 shows every Sondheim beginner should get to know.
‘Gypsy’ — (1959) The ultimate backstage musical, with music by Jule Styne and book/direction by Arthur Laurents, it has also burnished the careers of Ethel Merman, Rosalind Russell, Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters and Patti LuPone. Sondhiem’s lyrics are fresh today as when it premiered.
‘Company’ — (1970) Modern, urban singledom, dating and marriage received this up-to-the-minute treatment, later stripped down and emotionally magnified in the John Doyle revival.
‘Follies’ — (1971) The twilight of memory, marriage and show-business excess intertwine in this fantastical musical, which also gave the gift of ‘Broadway Baby’ to every belting singer.
‘Sweeney Todd’ — (1980) Almost every staging of this electrifying melodrama — Brechtian, operatic, microscopic, even Tim Burton’s eccentric movie — about a 19th-century serial killer has triumphed.
‘Merrily We Roll Along’ — (1981) The show Sondheim believes will find a wider audience. Melodic, personal, endearing, it asks what happens to youthful idealism. It must overcome a tale told backward.
‘Into the Woods’ — (1987) One of Sondheim’s biggest hits reworks fairy tales with Bruno Bettelheim’s insights into personal development. (One of three collaborations with James Lapine.)
‘Assassins’ — (2004) Some Sondheim fans might think that the romping ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,’ pensive ‘Passion,’ skittery ‘Anyone Can Whistle,’ or translucent ‘Pacific Overtures’ belong in this last place. Yet John Weidman and Sondheim’s rip on presidential assassins looks deep into the American soul. Nobody ever forgets what they found.
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Stephen Sondheim: Broadway's Greatest Artist, Part 4
For more of “Stephen Sondheim: Broadway’s Greatest Artist,” scroll down to previous posts, or link to Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
“We are satisfied with it now,” Sondheim says. “The problem, and this was true in the source Kaufman and Hart play, the lead is a character you get to like. James dug into it a little more, without softening it. Just helping audiences out. It may never satisfy them. People are turned off by unsympathetic characters. I like them, when something interesting happens to them.”
Although he was pleased with the movie version of “Sweeney Todd” — and he’s in negotiations for films of “Follies” and “Into the Woods” — he’s not ready to make any generalizations about the return of the movie musical, or the success of youth-oriented shows like “Glee” and the “High School Musical” movies.
Sondheim is also uncomfortable talking about his legacy, though he would include the composing teams of John Kander and Fred Ebb (“Cabaret,” “Chicago”), as well as Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick (“Fiddler on the Roof,” “She Loves Me”), as ones that will tend to endure beyond our time.
A notorious perfectionist, Sondheim, at 79, can look back with some pleasure on his work.
“Every now and then I see something of mine and say ‘that was good,’” he says. “It takes a long time not to be neurotic about it. Usually, I see only what’s wrong. Now I accept what’s good.”
More to come …
A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim
When: 8 p.m. Nov. 12
Where: Long Center for the Performing Arts
Information: thelongcenter.org; 474-5664
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November 5, 2009
Stephen Sondheim: Broadway's Greatest Artist, Part 3
For more of “Stephen Sondheim: Broadway’s Greatest Artist,” scroll down to previous posts, or link to Part 1 and Part 2.
“My first exposure to the fully formed Sondheim was when I bought the original cast album of ‘Follies’ in the 1970s,” says Long Center managing director Paul Beutel. “The raw yet soaring emotion of songs like ‘Too Many Mornings’ and ‘Losing My Mind’ — so perfectly captured in music and lyrics — just wiped me out.”
Although musical devotees call these “Sondheim shows,” the artist always emphasizes his collaborations with writers and directors (Harold Prince, James Lapine, etc.) and, especially, his prized orchestrator, Jonathan Tunick, whose full-orchestra sound undergirds Tim Burton’s movie adaptation of “Sweeney Todd.”
“He is a most generous man, a mentor who is always ready to lend his support — creative, emotional and intellectual — to the work of others,” critic and editor Rick Pender says.
“George was an actor,” Sondheim says. “Music meant nothing to him. So writing with him was interesting. That’s one reason the songs don’t always fit into the script. They are commentary; raisins in the cake. But George’s dialogue is extremely brilliant. It’s dialogic.”
Gelbart, his collaborator in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” adapting the Roman comedies of Plautus, understood music, he says.
“In ‘Forum,’ the songs are respites from the farce,” Sondheim says. “And ‘Forum’ is a very tight farce. The songs are breathing places. Otherwise the comedy would be relentless.”
One reason Sondheim’s shows — almost never big profit machines — are regularly revived is they provide peerless opportunities for performers.
“Sondheim’s work demands that a performer be equally gifted as an actor and as a singer,” says director Dave Steakley. “Sondheim’s melodies and harmonies, as well as the speed of his complicated lyrics in passages of songs, are rigorous for a singer to master. Equal to this is the emotional investment and honesty required to convey his character’s multi-layered states of being.”
“The tone is Chekhovian,” Sondheim says. “That’s implicit in the piece anyway. It’s about shadow. But it’s still a comedy, done with chamber music in a chamber style.”
More to come …
A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim
When: 8 p.m. Nov. 12
Where: Long Center for the Performing Arts
Information: thelongcenter.org; 474-5664
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Stephen Sondheim: Broadway's Greatest Artist, Part 2
For Part 1 of “Stephen Sondheim: Broadway’s Greatest Artist,” scroll down to the post below or go here.
Although he studied music seriously, it was Sondheim’s lyrics that first drew the attention of Broadway professionals. And, in the postwar period, words made an emphatic point. Hammerstein had already linked the songs closely to the action, so that audiences actually paid attention to them.
“The next big change came with the rock revolution,” Sondheim says.
Sondheim’s lyrics were so adept, so clever, so crucial to each show’s emotional progress, he was recognized as a singular wordsmith.
“I am continually in awe of the multiple-emotional layers and thoughtfulness of Sondheim’s work,” says Zach Theatre director Dave Steakley. “The recent spate of stripped-down productions, fewer orchestrations and chorus members, have revealed new truths for his fans and have become new, meaningful works on their own, instead of feeling lesser.”
More than 60 years after penning his first lyrics, Sondheim has collected them in a two-volume book that will include recollections and commentary.
“Honestly no,” he says. “Every now and then, I would glow with pride and delight, or wince with shame and embarrassment. But I’m a slow writer. I worked on these things meticulously, so there are not a lot of surprises left. I really know every word.”
More to come …
A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim
When: 8 p.m. Nov. 12
Where: Long Center for the Performing Arts
Information: thelongcenter.org; 474-5664
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Stephen Sondheim: Broadway's Greatest Artist, Part 1
Stephen Sondheim, the creative force behind 18 major musicals, might be the greatest artist Broadway has ever produced.
Critics believe his work will survive for centuries, perhaps for millennia.
“Sondheim — more than any other composer or lyricist — has given us music and theater that is memorable, challenging, intelligent and inventive, yet emotionally and intellectually satisfying,” says Rick Pender, editor of the Sondheim Review, a national magazine devoted to its namesake. “I do not see this kind of multifaceted genius in any other Broadway artist.”
Sondheim is not so sure about his legacy.
“I wouldn’t make any pronouncements,” he says recently in a rare telephone interview. “Who knows if musicals will be done? Who does the musicals from 100 years ago? They are ridiculous. The songs are good. Not the musicals. You want to listen to an Irving Berlin tune, but not see an Irving Berlin show.”
(“Annie Get Your Gun” might be an exception.)
Thursday, the nine-time Tony Award winner — who also earned an Academy Award and a Pulitzer Prize — will make his first Austin appearance. He will extend a cycle of public conversations started two years ago with The New York Times opinion writer and former theater critic Frank Rich. At the Long Center, his colloquy partner will be Austin Chronicle arts editor Robert Faires.
Local musical aficionados can hardly wait for the verbal exchange.
“Sondheim represents everything that is good about American musical theater,” says Austin director Michael McKelvey, who recently staged an award-winning “Sweeney Todd.” “He is always original and thought-provoking, a composer with a grasp of all that Western music can deliver.”
More to come …
A Conversation with Stephen Sondheim
When: 8 p.m. Nov. 12
Where: Long Center for the Performing Arts
Information: thelongcenter.org; 474-5664
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November 4, 2009
Notable Women at the Long Center
The Notable Women movement had quietly exited the stage …
Toya Haley and Dr. Joni Wallace
As imagined by Vickie Roan, owner of the Menagerie, the group raised $1.3 million for the Long Center project, simply by setting aside the price of a latte a day for a year …
Jane Driscoll, Diane Lupsitz and Christina Hester
After the center opened, the Notables, as a group, slipped from view. Many of them reassembled, however, in the Kodosky Donor Lounge on Tuesday to catch up — and to learn details about the center’s upcoming 2nd anniversary party …
Tony Jelik, Bobbi Topfer and Beau Nutt
Slated for March 27, the party is built around the indestructible ’80s act Hall and Oates, with Asleep at the Wheel out in the tent, entertaining for the remaining festivities …
Patty Huffines and Vickie Roan
The color is purple for the party, which is a fresh twist for this gala-goer.
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October 31, 2009
Ballet Austin Guild's Vive le Vin at AT&T Center
The Ballet Austin Guild and the Ballet Austin board of directors are not mutually exclusive …
Brooke Holmes and Darlene Byrne
The old-style guild and the new-style board work hand in hand, and membership overlaps …
Betty Oltorf and Louise Hein
And the two tribes joined for Vive le Vin, one of the guild’s top annual events, at the AT&T Center (I appreciate what the phone company does in support of various local groups, but oh I wish a more euphoniously named organization underwrote the UT executive education and conference complex) …
Cynthia Tays and Marilyn Rose
Several conversations buttressed my opinion that the ballet remains the buzziest large arts troupe in town …
Samantha Segar and Steven Burton
Zach Theatre, with its recently unveiled plans for a third hall, is not far behind. The ballet, however, is already there, with paid-for education center, paid-for Long Center and a well-earned national reputation.
Stephanie Nick and Sandy Bennett
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October 26, 2009
Paul Baker, legendary theater figure in Texas, dies at 98
Paul Baker, the founding artistic director of the Dallas Theater Center and a legendary presence on the Texas theater scene, has died of complications of pneumonia. He was 98.
In the 1950s, Baker invented revolutionary arts training known as “integration of abilities,” which won the attention of theater artists around the world.
“Irritating, arrogant, nuts — and a genius,” is how the late stage and film star Charles Laughton described director and teacher Baker.
The same man affected almost every theater hall built in Texas during the late 20th century by insisting that spectators share the theatrical space with the performers.
“In the long history of theater architecture, no single person has contributed more to its development than Paul Baker,” wrote Dallas architect Arthur Rogers.
A minister’s son, Baker was born in Hereford in 1911. His imaginative responses to the West Texas landscape deeply affected his later teaching on creativity.
Baker attended Trinity University when it was still in Waxahachie and then earned his master’s degree in drama at Yale University. In 1934, Baker accepted a teaching position at Baylor, where he met and married Kitty Cardwell, a math teacher and artist who later translated his theories to children’s art and theater. They had three children.
Two years later, Baker made a crucial voyage to England, Germany, Russia and Japan to observe theater. Insights from this trip helped form a new Baylor theater, Studio One, which placed the audience in swivel chairs embraced by six stages. Over the next decades, Baker would contribute to 10 other Texas theater designs that positioned the dramatic action around the halls, rather than on a 19th century-style picture frame stage.
In 1959, Baker co-founded the Dallas Theater Center, which served as the Baylor drama department’s graduate school. With Baker’s input, Frank Lloyd Wright designed the center, the great architect’s last building. Baker was artistic director for 23 years, promoting many performers and playwrights along the way.
By the early 1980s, Baker was tangling with the Dallas theater group’s board of directors. He wanted to retain the educational approach; they preferred an Equity union theater with well-known stars. In 1982, he resigned, and that spelled the end of the Baker era in Texas. His innovative Baylor theater was torn down, his Trinity theater severely altered.
In Austin during the late 1980s, Baker directed Preston Jones’ “The Oldest Living Graduate” at the Paramount Theatre and his own adaptation “Hamlet ESP” at Hyde Park Theatre. Austin philanthropists Ernest and Sarah Butler, for whom the University of Texas School of Music and Ballet Austin’s Eduction Center are named, were students of Baker’s. His “integration of abilities” inspires them to this day.
Baker was awarded the Texas Medal of Arts in 2007 for his contributions to arts education.
Baker is survived by his wife, Kitty, and three children, Robyn, founder of Dallas Children’s Theater; Retta, a former executive with the American-Statesman; and Sallie, who teaches theater and writing in Denver.
A Dallas memorial will be held in early December at the Children’s Theater’s Rosewood Center for Family Arts. Donations to the Children’s Theater or another charity are requested in lieu of flowers.
Photo provided by Dallas Children’s Theater.
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'Spring Awakening' matinee at Bass Concert Hall
The subject itself makes audiences uncomfortable, especially in a musical …
Kellie Tseng and Arthur Marroquin
But “Spring Awakening” does not avert its eye from teen sexuality …
Steve Fall and Katherine Ordonez-Fall
I didn’t witness any departures from Bass Concert Hall during the simulated masturbation, coitus or violence, but some in the audience shifted around uncomfortably …
Robert and Patricia Megerle
Still, others laughed and cheered. The touring production was every bit as spirited as the original, though I couldn’t completely banish from my memory Lea Michele’s Broadway performance (this is before she graduated to “Glee”).
Rosalind Faires and Barbara Chisholm
Patrons glided in and out of the expanded, light-drenched lobbies, the most notable element from the recent major renovation. The concert hall seems to have settled on its core functions after 30 years.
Julie Ortman and Pam Ruder
[For those of you counting, this was Party No. 16 out of 25 on this Big October Weekend. Nine more posts to go.]
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October 17, 2009
Bob Wade at the Museum of Popular Culture
Austin artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade is funny, generous and savvy.
Rattlesnake Annie and Bob Wade
He has thrived for decades by making sly Texas images, which include wholesome cowgirls, gigantic lizards and weird reflections of roadside culture.
Sam Shepard and Jim Franklin
Wade is an entertainer, no doubt. And other entertainers of all stripes embrace him.
Janie and Dick DeGuerin
During a follow-up party for Wade’s retrospective (“40 Years of Blood, Sweat and Beers”) at the South Austin Museum of Popular Culture on South Lamar Boulevard, we ran into a music promoter (Ihor Gowda), a musical icon (Rattlesnake Annie), an artistic icon (Jim Franklin), an American Studies professor (Jason Mellard), a museum director (Sue Graze), a celebrity defense lawyer (Dick DeGuerin, who declined to comment on the Evi Quaid imbroglio out in Marfa) and a certain playwright/actor (Sam Shepard) whose presence sent shivers through the outdoor party.
Andrea Mellard and Gerry Gilligan
Even the hinky parking situation at the attached Planet K couldn’t dampen spirits on this heavenly night.
Ed and Jessica Morris
As thorough and as appropriately located as this retrospective is, I’d love to see this same work at a roomier venue some day.
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October 15, 2009
Facebook met Broadway in 'Spring Awakening' Part 3
For more Facebook met Broadway in ‘Spring Awakening,’ scroll to posts below, or link here for Part 1 and Part 2.
“Today, with the Internet and TV saturated with sex, there’s a steady stream of basic information,” cast member Andy Mientus says. “In terms of the logistics of sexuality, it’s all completely available. But not the complicated issues like the psychology of sex. Parents must still be responsible for helping with that. I grew up in an open and honest household. No topic was too tender. We had open dialogue. I feel lucky that way.”
Mientus is proud that “Spring Awakening” is attracting traditional theatergoers as well as young people usually considered marginal fans of Broadway shows.
“It’s a serious, artful piece,” he says. “Look at it: Not linear or straightforward, although there’s a narrative one can grab onto, and there’s the nontraditional staging. But it’s also about young people and rock music. So it can appeal to a theater audience and a teenage audience.”
It helps that the latent love of Broadway musicals never really went away, as evidenced by the vast pop followings for “High School Musical” and “Glee.”
“For a long time, during its Golden Age, music on Broadway and music on the radio were the same,” Mientus says. “Pop music moved on. And show tunes became a ‘genre.’ They could have been lost to popular culture altogether, like vaudeville. Now they are getting back together again.”
Thinking back just three years, Mientus recalls his first ecstatic experience with “Spring Awakening,” sitting on the first row, buzzed by the music and the timely material.
“It was the show I had been waiting a long time to see,” he says. “It’s authentic. It’s my story.”
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Facebook met Broadway in 'Spring Awakening' Part 2
For Part 1 of Facebook met Broadway in ‘Spring Awakening,’ scroll down, or link here.
(Not to give anything away, but, due to a lack of sex education and adult transparency, the teen characters must process masturbation, abortion, rape, child abuse and suicide on their own. That was one reason Frank Wedekind’s original play was not produced for 15 years, before it was staged by directing legend Max Reinhardt.)
After winning the role, Mientus remained with the touring cast a full “season,” taking multiweek summer break when many such shows go on hiatus. He now returns to the road with some replacement actors, landing at Bass Concert Hall Oct 20-25.
Meanwhile, Mientus, the actor, has attracted a personal following online and, after a year, has become a practiced interview subject. (Google him for more results.)
Though his teen years are well behind him, Mientus recalls the emotional drama.
“I can certainly tap into that age and mind-set,” he says. “The stakes are so high. Getting a grade in an arbitrary class - calculus, say, when you are trying to become an actor - back then it was so life and death.”
Even the arrival of new company members to the touring “Spring Awakening” brings back pained memories from high school.
“It’s the first day of school all over again,” he says. “You thought, ‘Who was in your lunch period and who wasn’t.’ I mean, why couldn’t I just eat lunch by myself? But for a 15-year-old, that’s ‘Hamlet.’ “
Apparently, he’s not the only one affected by the vivid memories of confused teen years. The musical of “Spring Awakening” hit the public consciousness just as the value of abstinence-only sex education was being vigorously discussed, and not just in Texas.
“The show is about what happens when teens don’t have information and support,” Mientus says. “When they are trying to figure it out on their own. In the show, you see that sex is human. People are born with it. They have it all their lives. Ignore it or call it taboo, something that you put away, or silence, that doesn’t work.”
The musical adaptors retained almost all the material from Wedekind’s original play, and yet, to Mientus, it’s as timely as the morning’s headlines.
“It was a problem then; it’s a problem now,” he says. “The play has been trying to say something for more than 100 years: ‘We have these feelings. We are not wrong. We are not sick. We should not be made to feel that way.’ ”
More to come …
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Facebook met Broadway in 'Spring Awakening' Part 1
For those who missed other editions of my 360 article on ‘Spring Awakening’.
Andy Mientus might be the American theater’s first Facebook hero.
Looking for more information online, he discovered that the show hadn’t yet attracted a Facebook fan group. This, remember, was way back when the now-ubiquitous social-media site was restricted to college and high-school students, before adults amplified - or ruined - it, depending your perspective.
So, independently, Mientus, who grew up in Pittsburgh, created a group page. In December 2006, its readers multiplied by thousands when “Spring Awakening” moved to Broadway, earned delirious reviews and, eventually, a Tony Award for Best Musical. Discovering his online championing, one of the show’s producers asked Mientus if his fan page could become the musical’s official Facebook presence.
What had been to Mientus a personal crusade was now becoming a pop phenomenon.
“Maybe people were just ready for it,” Mientus thought.
On a parallel track, the producers were already pushing the show to young audiences through viral marketing, encouraging super-fans like Mientus to attend regularly, seated with the performers on stage during the action. Like “Rent,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and other such shows - not coincidentally Mientus’ favorites - “Spring Awakening” established its downtown street credentials before it cranked out the commercial marketing. The hit eventually spun off “The Guilty Ones,” a volunteer fan group that promotes the musical, cross-platform, everywhere it journeys.
“Every show uses the Internet now,” Mientus says. “But ours was one of the first to attack the opportunities on all fronts.”
More to come …
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October 7, 2009
The Great Scotts at 5 Fifty Five
I had always wanted to see the high-rise residence of Elisabeth Challener and Brett Bachman.
Brett Bachman and Elisabeth Challener
The managing director of Zach Theatre and the high-tech exec live at 5 Fifty Five, the lofty homes in Hilton Austin downtown.
Dr. Bill Jones and Anton Nel
Although they don’t perch way up in the penthouses, theirs is a pretty expansive space with major views on three sides.
Ted Siff, Janelle Buchanan, Richard Hartgrove
Their indoor entertainment area is the size of our house, as is their unique patio, located above the health club and peeking down onto the hotel’s swimming pool.
Dave Steakley and Karen Frost
I was there mingling with the Great Scotts, the support group for Zach Theatre. Talk about your Fortunate 500 bonanza, including Joe Long in a bright blue, modern sports jacket.
Dennis Karbach, Mary Tally and Robert Brown
Part of the evening was devoted to “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” the theater’s current production.
Lynn Yeldell and Robert Brown
Also to the soon-to-be-revealed renderings for Zach’s new theater campus plans at Riverside Drive and Lamar Boulevard. (Look to Jeanne Claire van Ryzin’s news reports on the subject.)
Just as some other major Austin arts groups are slowing down and turning inward, Zach appears to be opening up socially and financially.
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September 20, 2009
Two kinds of plays on Longhorns game day
Austin streets fairly vibrate on big game days. As early 9 a.m., locals and visitors were out and about. They perked up sidewalks downtown and destination districts like SoCo. While burnt orange peeked out from here and there, it was a feeling not reserved exclusively for Longhorns fanatics.
I was not headed to the sold-out game during any of my Sunday walks. I saw, instead, two bracing theatrical productions. Meanwhile, I TiVo-ed the game and, luckily, avoided any leaky news about the score. (No social media, for instance.)
Attendance was light at Penfold Theatre Company’s “Three Days of Rain” at the Hideout and St. Ed’s “bobrauschenbergamerica” at the Mary Moody Northen Theatre. Too bad. Both proved special treats. I’ve met both playwrights, Richard Greenberg and Chuck Mee, respectively. Interestingly, each piece deals with an iconic, creative and sometimes controversial American of the late 20th Century.
The first play is a witty psychological mystery/drama about a Philip Johnson-like architect, his business partner and his wife, and, in Act 1, their three offspring. Three superb actors play both generations.
Regarding Penfold, its three founders hope to build a theater in the under-served northern sectors of our metropolis, perhaps in Round Rock. It would be Austin’s loss. Their three micro-productions so far, “Art,” “The Last Five Years” and now “Three Days of Rain” have demonstrated extraordinary skill. (I missed “Art,” but heard nothing but praise from some pretty tough customers.)
St. Ed’s artistic director, David M. Long, took a big risk with the associative, counter-narrative “bobrauschenbergamerica.” Long, his team and the audience were rewarded with a performance as big-hearted and imaginative as the Texas artist who inspired them.
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Austin Symphony Season Opener at the Long Center
The Austin Symphony Orchestra is now comfortably settled in the Long Center for the Performing Arts, an ideal setting for its musical strengths …
Michele and Seth Kraal
And, until recently, the organization enjoyed a period of unprecedented stability, harmony and growth, onstage and off …
Lisa Tsang and Kate Hartgrove
Then, as arts reporter Jeanne Claire van Ryzin has reported crisply and delicately, ASO’s players, admirers, staff and board members were riven by the sudden, unexplained departure of promising executive director Galen Wixson …
Cassie and Dominic Bentley
With that social static in the background, the symphony opened its 99th season to an alert audience, pairing Mozart with Ravel, and at one point, Leon and Katherine Jacobson Fleisher playing on matched pianos …
Sharlene Strawbridge and Ruth Ann Eledge
My social/aesthetic complaint is far more mundane than questioning the orchestra’s erratic leadership — first Wixson is the Second Coming, then he leaves for “creative differences.”
What’s with the warehouse-style pallets used for risers in the cello section on Friday? A startlingly lighter color than anything else on stage, they distracted all through the filigreed Mozart and exotic Ravel.
Arius Holifield and Sally Strafford
Where are Wayne Bell, Stan Haas and Marla Bommarito-Crouch when you need a disciplined visual sensibility?
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September 19, 2009
Carla McDonald, TV star
Now she’s hitting the tube with the News 8 “Arts Minute.” She’ll be the onscreen talent for NowPlayingAustin.com, a program of the Greater Austin Creative Alliance, formerly Austin Circle of Theaters. It premiered Sept. 9 and will run Wednesdays, once an hour between 5 a.m. and 4 p.m..
“I feel honored to have been asked to host the ‘Arts Minute’ because my involvement with the arts has always focused on making them more accessible,” McDonald says. “My hope is that the ‘Arts Minute’ will encourage more people to take advantage of the wide variety of events that Austin’s vibrant and diverse arts community has to offer.”
McDonald currently serves on the boards of Arthouse and the Long Center for the Performing Arts, but she and husband Jack McDonald have supported just about every worthy cause in town.
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September 18, 2009
The Red Dot Sale at Women & Their Work
Women & Their Work’s long-loved Red Dot Sale is a decorous analog to Arthouse’s Five by Seven event …
Chris Cowden and Deborah Green
Both exhibitions generate happy parties. Both raise money for their respective nonprofits …
Deanna Miesch, Kaci Borowski and Rebecca Wolf
Yet because of graduated access to the “red dot” purchasing of donated pieces, there’s no mad crush to beat other art-hungry patrons to the dotting, unlike the deliciously mad Arthouse event …
Lindsey and Mark Hanna
Respected art collector Deborah Green was among the first on the Women & Their Work scene (costs a little more for early access) on Thursday, and she purchased some tantalizing art …
Kimberly and Dan Renner
I was most impressed by some familiar artists — Virginia Fleck and Nine Francois, for instance — and others I knew less well — Marian Haigh, Jonathan Faber, Virginia Yount, Ann Chamberlin and Jon Lawrence.
Jason Urban and Leslie Mutchier
The exhibition stays up for a while, so don’t miss the melange.
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September 17, 2009
'Water Sparks' at Umlauf Sculpture Garden
It’s rare that an artist of Damian Priour’s stature is inspired by one place for so long …
Jane Sibley and Damian Priour
Guests at the opening of “Water Sparks,” a retrospective of Priour’s career at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, were reminded of that on Wednesday …
Sheila Fox, Roger Colombik and Jerolyn Bahm-Colombik
The sculpture — abstract, conceptual and otherwise — spans so many decades, some of it very much of its time, other pieces timeless …
Andrew and Kim Penridge
All of them informed by Texas materials, especially limestone, but including the water of the title, mostly reflected in variants of glass, smooth or rough, and one of his preferred modes of expression …
Eric Cooper and Russell Martin
Appropriately, several decades of Austinites from several strata of society came out for the opening …
Lisa Wade, Jason Mellard and Andrea Mellard
Among the more familiar faces: Mike Levy, Jane Sibley, Jimmy Jalapeeno, Becky Beaver, Dr. Nona Niland, Nelie Plourde, Bob “Daddy-O” and Lisa Wade, Andrew Long, Dana Friis-Hansen and Brigid Shea.
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September 8, 2009
2009 Fortunate 500: Arts
2009 FORTUNATE 500
ARTS
See previously posted micro-profile of Arts Top Picks here.
Amy Barbee. Texas Cultural Trust
Ellen Bartel. Spank Dance Company,
Ron Berry. Refraction Arts, Fuse Box Festival
Robert Brown and Dennis Karbach. Long Center, Austin Museum of Art, Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival, Paramount Theatre
Sarah and Ernest Butler. Butler School of Music, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin Museum of Art, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Austin, Austin Lyric Opera
Lisa Byrd and Ana Ixchel Rosal. ProArts Collective, University of Texas
Barbara Chisholm and Robert Faires. Zach Theatre, Austin Chronicle
Katie Hernandez Cowles. Women & Their Work, Austin Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte Museum
Mela Dailey and Peter Bay. Austin Symphony Orchestra
Charles Duggan. Long Center, Greater Tuna Presents, Austin Lyric Opera, Ballet Austin, Democratic National Committee Advisory Board
Sean Gaulager. Co-Lab, Cantanker
Dana Friis-Hansen and Mark Holzbach. Austin Museum of Art, Zebra Imaging, Rude Mechanicals
Sue Graze. Arthouse, Ballet Austin
Deborah Green. Austin Film Society, Austin Museum of Art, Arthouse, UT College of Fine Arts
Mary Ann and Andrew Heller. Heller Records, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Long Center, UT College of Fine Arts
Sondra Lomax and Peter Lohman. UT Performing Arts Center, UT College of Fine Arts
Brent Hasty and Stephen Mills. Ballet Austin, University of Texas, Arthouse
Jeanne and Michael Klein. Blanton Museum of Art, Arthouse, University of Texas
Gail and Jeff Kodosky. National Instruments Corp., UT Austin, Texas State, ACC, KIPP, Austin Children’s Museum, Girlstart, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony, Ballet Austin, Conspirare, Long Center, Austin Chamber Music Center, Austin Classical Guitar Society, Zach Scott, KMFA, KLRU, Round Top Festival Institute, Austin Community Foundation
Rachel Koper. Austin Chronicle, Women & Their Work
Chris Mattsson and John McHale. Austin Museum of Art, Arthouse
Stuart Moulton and Brian Jenson. Austin Cabaret Theatre, Green Mango Real Estate
Anton Nel and Dr. Bill Jones. Long Center, University of Texas, Concierge Family Medicine
Arturo Palacios. Art Palace, Texas Biennial, Austin Museum of Art, Blanton Museum of Art
Sylvia Orozco. Mexic-Arte Museum
Candace Partridge. Long Center, Austin Lyric Opera
Paula and Damian Priour. Umlauf Sculpture Garden, Austin Museum of Art
Cliff Redd and Rick Johnson. Long Center
Lora Reynolds and Quincy Lee. Lora Reynolds Gallery, Arthouse, Blanton Museum of Art
Cookie and Phil Ruiz. Ballet Austin, Con Mi Madre, Girls Empowerment Network, Texans for the Arts, CreateAustin
Michelle Schumann and Matt Orem. Austin Chamber Music Center, Mary Hardin-Baylor University.
Jane Sibley. Austin Symphony Orchestra, Long Center, UT College of Fine Arts
Dave Steakley and Tony Johnson. Zach Theatre
Ken Stein and Ken Lambrecht. Paramount Theatre, Planned Parenthood of Texas
Judy Willcott and Laurence Miller. Texas French Bread, Fluent~Collaborative, Arthouse, Blanton Museum of Art
Jennifer Wijangco. Texas Cultural Trust
Eva and Marvin Womack. Austin Lyric Opera, Proctor & Gamble, Long Center
COMPLETE 2009 FORTUNATE 500 LISTS:
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September 4, 2009
2009 Fortunate 500 Top Picks: Arts
The Top Picks for the 2009 Fortunate 500 list of socially active area citizens were published in Glossy today. In Out & About, we’ll mete out those Top Picks over the next four days. Then, beginning Tuesday, we’ll release the full lists and galleries.
Top Picks: Annette DiMeo Carlozzi and Dan Bullock.
At first, they didn’t seem to match. She’s the urbane, contempo arts curator, as at home in New York or Miami as Austin. He’s down-home West Texas, with a background in business and communications, as well as folksy public speaking and singing. Annette and Dan recently married, blended their art collections and instantly tripled their social exposure.
A nationally recognized art consultant, Annette is curator of American and contemporary art at the Blanton Museum of Art. Dan manages family interests in West Texas, has assumed leadership roles with the Headliners Club, Wittliff Collections at Texas State University-San Marcos and Zach Theatre. During the past year, they’ve also socialized around — and supported — Arthouse, Austin Circle of Theaters, Austin Museum of Art, Communities In Schools, Conspirare, Deborah Hay Dance Co., Greenlights, Leadership Austin, Okay Mountain, Planned Parenthood, Seton Cove, Umlauf Sculpture Garden, and Women And Their Work.
For more 2009 Fortunate 500 updates, follow the category link below.
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September 2, 2009
Tapping into my inner musical queen
“Never forget: The first three letters in “news” are “N-E-W”!
For that reason, Out & About is forever flitting about to the latest nightclub or restaurant, the most current entertainment, the buzziest personality, the latest scene, trend or fashion.
On the other hand, approaching the mid-point in middle life (age 55) earns me the right to luxuriate in the old as well.
Recently, I’ve rediscovered the indefinable pleasures of slow reading, cooking, travel and spectator sports. These subjects turn up more regularly on the austin360.com version of Out & About. Some readers wonder how they relate to social reporting.
Think about it. How can one tell Austin’s story if you leave out books, food, travel or sports altogether.
Another old friend has pranced back into my life: Broadway.Musicals absorbed inordinate amounts of my energy during teen years. I collected original-cast albums. I took lessons in dancing, singing, acting, etc. That juvenile infatuation faded through drama school, teaching, graduate school, more teaching, reviewing, reporting, editing and so forth. Yet, for some reason, along with the aforementioned luxuries, I now reserve mental time for musicals. No explanations, no excuses.
That’s why I dropped other plans to catch “Star,” the flawed Julie Andrews movie about Gerturde Lawrence, at the Paramount Theatre last week. Too bad technical difficulties prevented use of the 70 mm print. The DVD projection just didn’t do the lavish production numbers justice.
It’s also why I’m re-cataloguing our CD collection and noting the omissions. Film critic Chris Garcia recommended a tremendous tool for this task: Amazon Wish List. The giant online retailer now organizes items that might someday complete the “Shows” section of our CD shelves, even as the format dies as surely as vinyl. (Under no circumstances are you to use this list for gifting. It’s a cataloguing tool, pure and simple.)
My inner musical queen quivers in anticipation for nights at Emerald City. That’s the cabaret/piano bar attached to Rusty Spurs, the still-new gay bar on East Seventh Street. I peeked in the other day to see the baby grand piano, curved stage and thicket of cocktail tables. Professional pepper-upper Bob Hemby has already booked some of the city’s best cabaret singers to tackle the American Songbook.
To my knowledge, Austin has never supported exactly this kind of piano bar. Kenny Luna’s former Ivory Cat Tavern specialized in other musical genres; Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar hosts a sweet, group-participation novelty game. Chicago House was a funky coffee house and the short-lived Bremond basement parlour was suitable only because Karen Kuykendall and Sterling Price-McKinney made it so.
Zach Theatre has periodically revived theatrical cabaret, and, of course, Austin Cabaret Theatre brings in the biggest names in the business, this season to the Long Center’s Kodosky Lounge.
But a piano bar where one can go and hear the American classics any day of the week? For me, that’s deliciously “O-L-D.”
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Prick up your ears for symphony news at Austin Arts
Keep watching and listening for developments on the departure of Austin Symphony Orchestra executive director Galen Wixson.
Inevitably, all the symphony principals — Jane Sibley, Joe Long, Peter Bay — will be affected by Wixson’s sudden departure, along with musicians, support staff and music lovers. Bookmark that blog!
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August 29, 2009
Bullet-fast, blade-sharp Paula Poundstone at One World Theatre
At age 49, Paula Poundstone still thinks faster on her feet than the next 10 comics. (Dame Edna’s ad libs are equally fast, but she slows down the delivery pace for effect.) Poundstone’s improvised chats with audience members do not disintegrate into easy insults, as with so many comics, although she comes close to offending her conversation mates with the relentless attention.
Poundstone does not let up, however. She interviews. She repeats answers. She willfully mishears them. She comes close to heckling her fans, but the smile disarms. Eventually she launches into an extended rant, having found a topic for which she can argue the audience’s side.
To an architect, she posed: “Haven’t all the buildings been designed?” For a couple of government workers from College Station, she asks if they “stand guard against any ideas that might intrude.” To a brain surgeon, she suggests an extra year of medical school to teach scheduling. “Now you have a patient at 10. No you can’t have two. OK, 10:15 for the next appointment. Will it take you only 15 minutes to take care of the first patient? No? Well, you see …”
You bet the audience liked that line of questioning. Poundstone also free-associated about child-rearing, obsessive-compulsive disorder, aging bodies, politics and educational systems in Texas, California and Alaska, and the failure of CNN to maintain serious news standards (“That’s why there’s a FOX”).
Unabashedly Democratic, Poundstone professes the standard liberal openness to other ideas, but her partisanship is blade-sharp. Which plays well in Austin.
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August 28, 2009
Ballet Guild In Bloom at Shoal Creek Gallery
Gallery owner Judy Taylor has borrowed a swell idea from museums …
Rene Alvarado with his painting and a matching floral installation
She has matched major artworks displayed for the “In Bloom” exhibition with large-scale arrangements from area florists …
Candice McKay and Betty Oltorf
The arrangers soaked up the art, then responded with their own equally pleasing, if more ephemeral art …
Bonni Taylor and Laura Harrison
On Thursday, Taylor demonstrated the results for a Ballet Guild meeting at her Gallery Shoal Creek, located underneath Fino restaurant just off North Lamar Boulevard. One of her signature artists, San Angelo’s Rene Alvarado, explained the dense storytelling in one of his large, yellow canvases …
Judy Taylor and Rene Alvarado
The guild counts approximately 150 members and provides various, mostly quiet support for Ballet Austin, while encouraging members to branch out into experiences like the “In Bloom” exhibit.
Leslie Cox and Duane Sanford
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August 14, 2009
'Wicked' Opening Night at Bass Concert Hall
“Wicked” fans were out — loud and proud — for opening night at Bass Concert Hall on Thursday.
Thomas and Karen Smith
Technically sold out for its entire three-week run, “Wicked” ranks up there next to “The Lion King” and “The Phantom of the Opera” for big Broadway bangs in Austin. We can thank the uncluttered Bass Concert Hall calendar for that. (Another blessing from the Long Center.)
Sheila Oshner and Laura Mackey
The audience embraced all ages and backgrounds. No niche musical this. And for good reason.
Andrea and Ashley Murillo
The songs soar, the story bubbles and the characters deepen as the musical, based on Gregory McGuire’s richly textured novel, develop.
Jay Boisseau and Nina Dandachi
Some minor sound difficulties and a seat to the extreme of house left didn’t ruin the opening night for me. I’m looking forward to the formal reviews like everyone else.
Summer Rydel and Michael Coffey
But if I were a critic, my review would be pretty gushy for this old-fashioned musical that manages to feel contemporary, using 19th-century stage technology to look 21st Century. Or at least magical.
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July 24, 2009
Interview with 'Wicked' librettist Winnie Holzman, Part 3
For Parts 1 & 2 of the ‘Wicked’ interview with Winnie Holzman, see postings below …
I meant that ‘in quotes,’ not literally. There’s a pressure you feel when you are writing for television, writing teenage characters. This was probably back when I was writing ‘My So-Called Life.’ Sometimes people, especially on TV, communicating so strongly to country, people believe a character must be exemplary, perfect, an example of how people should behave — this was a long time ago, sometimes now what they are doing with teenage characters on TV can only be called ‘bad’ — but back then I was talking about imperfect characters. When they make terrible mistakes you see them struggle to become better, that’s more interesting and more real-life anyway.
That leads directly into my next question: Is it possible we all see ourselves as Galinda - consciously kind, but wanting to be more effective - and Elphaba - striving for knowledge, wisdom, but not fitting in - at different times in our lives?
Well yeah. One of things about the characters: They would like to be each other, on some level. That’s one reason they become friends. Elphaba would like to be beloved. Galinda would like to be brave enough to go her own way. That happens when we find friends — even in marriages, I think — we become friends with someone we would like to be more like. And that brings us back to your original question: One of the appeals of the show, even to men, even to straight men, is they can see themselves in the choices Elphaba and Galinda make. It’s not a prefect friendshp, they have terrible fights, they betray each other, they make mistakes. But, if you think in your own life, you might have fought with a friend, even hated that person, but you are so grateful that you knew them. We all want that from our friendships.
“Wicked” plays Bass Concert Hall Aug. 12-30. Go here for tickets.
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Interview with 'Wicked' librettist Winnie Holzman, Part 2
For Part 1 of the ‘Wicked’ interview with Winnie Holzman, see posting below …
The 1939 movie is a great American movie. Maybe our greatest America movie. Or at least in our Top 5. For people in my generation, there is so much love for it. We watched it growing up, every year. Stephen and I had to pay it homage. It’s just too important a cultural artifact to make light of. We couldn’t act as if the movie couldn’t matter. We treated the movie as if it were absolutely real. We asked: what happened when the camera just stopped rolling, what was the backstory? As for the original Baum story, the children’s story, it’s similar, although not as indelibly printed in our minds as the brilliant movie. The other element, Gregory’s book, was what we had the rights to. There were certain things that were just so delightful, like Galinda and Elphaba meeting in college. That’s an amazing, funny idea. What happened to them? How did they end of on opposite sides? Did they they end up on opposite sides? Is that really the truth? How do know what the truth is? Do you accept it from a power source, or do find your own answers? Do you dig a little deeper?
You and Schwartz added the love triangle and refined the evolving friendship between Galinda and Elphaba. Why was that essential to a stage musical?
I don’t’ know that it was crucial. You end up telling any story through the prism of what you yourself love to watch and love to write. Take Stephen, he does come back to certain themes in his shows. For myself, I love a love triangle. I like to watch it and like to write it. One of the things that happened when we were developing the show, we’d notice that we would have different readings. We had Kristin (Chenoweth, who played Galinda) early, earlier than Idina (Menzel, who ultimately played Elphaba). We had two witches, and when they were together on stage, it was incredibly interesting and dynamic. So we began to focus the show toward their friendship. You don’t know everything ahead of time. Then it’s not fun, not a creative process. You discover it along the way. I mean, we wrote countless drafts. What started to happen: The show was telling us what it wanted to be, not be too precious. It wanted to be about their friendship. Later we realized it was sort of a twist on a typical musical. Typically, a romantic relationship is at the heart of a musical. We had one at the heart, but just not boy/girl, instead the romance of this unlikely friendship, the passionate friendship of these two women who were so different. I don’t think there is another musical has a women’s friendship at the heart of it.
More interview to come ….
“Wicked” plays Bass Concert Hall Aug. 12-30. Go here for tickets.
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Interview with 'Wicked' librettist Winnie Holzman, Part 1
Out & About: It’s been six years since “Wicked” bewitched Broadway. It’s still a sensation. Why do you think?
Winnie Holzman: The people who create something are not always the ones to say. I think there are a lot of different elements, not just one thing. Part of it has to with its story about two young women, about standing up for the truth, standing up for what is right, standing up to the powers that be. Also the fact that it takes its characters from “The Wizard of Oz,” a great American story. It’s beloved, part of our heritage. It’s a privilege to work with these characters and see them in a new light.
Is there a special appeal to a particular audience? Young women? Gay men?
It can appeal to young women and gay men. But you don’t do the kind of business worldwide that we’ve done, if it’s just for a certain audience. It has a broader appeal, for people of a lot different ages and backgrounds. My family was privileged to see the show in Tokyo, in Japanese, all the songs, all the lines, from beginning to end. That tells you something about having a broad appeal. The Japanese are not really familiar with the books or the movie. And yet our show really has an audience there. You know, I have to tell you it drives me wild when I’m asked about ‘who is the audience?’ As if, if you are not a teenager or gay man, you are probably not going to get it. People should walk into a theater and see what happens. Not go in with too many preconceptions.
More interview to come ….
“Wicked” plays Bass Concert Hall Aug. 12-30. Go here for tickets.
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July 15, 2009
Your A-List: Best Art Gallery
When you’re popular, you’re popular. Art on Fifth has dominated the A-List vote for Best Gallery for the second year running. The veteran seller of fine-art prints, celebrity creations and more took a full 33 percent of the vote.
Another longtime commercial space — Gallery Shoal Creek — attracted 7 percent, while Austin Museum of Art-Laguna Gloria and Austin Museum of Art-Downtown split the difference with 6 and 5 percent.
Two more institutions, the Ransom Center and Arthouse at Jones Center, along with near-campus D Berman Gallery, virtually tied at 4 percent.
Garnering less than 4 percent were Stephen L. Clark Gallery, Okay Mountain, Austin Galleries, Flatbed press, Art Palace, Women & Their Work, Lora Reynolds Gallery, Artworks, Slugfest Printmaking, Russell Collection of Fine Art, Davis Gallery, Haven Gallery and 4 Walls Fine Art.
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July 12, 2009
'The Doyle & Debbie Show" at the Long Center
“Greater Tuna” star Joe Sears vows it’s the funniest show he’s seen in years.
Jenny Littleton, Bruce Arntson
The taxonomic relationship between Nashville-birthed “The Doyle & Debbie Show,” now at the Long Center, and the Austin-generated “Tuna” series would be obvious to even the untrained eye.
Stan Haas, Joan Plaster
Both weave together sketches about a part of culture rarely satirized effectively on the stage. Love of country music and country life keep the sharply outlined characterizations from darkening into the blackest of humors.
Jaston Williams, Sharon Chapman
D&D is more focused: Only two main characters, one sideman. Doyle is a high-energy country performer of the old school who experienced a mysterious breakdown and has just returned to Nashville with Debbie, his third partner by that stage name, a young mother of three from deepest Tennessee who, despite low self-esteem, brings to the stage a startling talent.
Kathy Hemphill, Farley Hemphill
Both D&D and Tuna depend on the patience of the writers and performers to build scenes from low-drama ignitions. D&D, in fact, takes it very slow, the better to guarantee that the unpredictable climax is literally hair-raising. (A wig is involved. That’s all I’ll say.)
The late Saturday matinee audience lapped it up. We heard from Long Center managing director Paul Beutel that a possible Chicago D&D engagement is in the offing (Austin is only its second city and the Long Center its first theatrical engagement).
Steve Gould, Monica Gould
We also bumped into Sears’ onstage partner, Jaston Williams, in the lobby. He was seeing the show for a second time, in itself an endorsement. Williams has just renovated a mid-century modern house in Lockhart and is working with Sears on script polishes of the third and fourth installments of the “Tuna” quartet.
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July 11, 2009
Art Divas at Judy Jensen House
How exhilarating to enter a room full of powerful women.
Margo Sawyer, Molly Alexander
Not just a room, but a whole house! And I was one of only three men present (another was husband and co-host to artist Judy Jensen).
Cynthia Holmes, Linda Young Kaffie
Inside and outside their modest, lovingly tended home off North Lamar Boulevard, the Art Divas mingled.
Judy Jensen, Aralyn Hughes, Mary Gordon Spence
This group of women includes the past and present leaders of Austin’s major museums, galleries, cooperatives, advocacy groups and collecting circles, as well as visual and performing artists.
Lisa Choinacky, Elizabeth Chapin, Rachel Koper
I spent the most time talking to nationally laureled public artist Margo Sawyer and Downtown Austin Alliance’s Molly Alexander about projects in Galveston, Elgin and Houston. They understand how the civic and artistic spheres complement each other.
Hannah Bentley, Shelley Wood
Peeking out of corners of the art-festooned rooms were power lawyer and collector Becky Beaver, former Blanton Museum director Jessie Otto Hite, postmodern dance legend Deborah Hay, longtime Women & Their Work leader Chris Cowden, writer and environmentalist Mary Gordon Spence, comedian and real estate agent Aralyn Hughes and photographer Shelley Wood.
Bonnie Tamres-Moore, Keri Kropp
Now, some lesser seasoned women were present, too, but this is an informal club where membership is earned over time, I imagine. Bridging the generations was Rachel Koper, newly named curator of Women & Their Work, and probably best placed to wed the Austin’s abundantly represented artistic establishment with outliers aspiring to their stature.
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July 6, 2009
Zilker Summer Musical at Sheffield Hillside Theater
The Zilker Summer Musical is Americana …
Rishnie Richards, Ankur Bajaj
Its roots go back to 1930s hootnannies and 1950s light operas …
Jaziel Crisostomo, Elyce Harris
Director Rod Caspers’ version of “The Music Man” honors that tradition …
Amber Hunter, Dearing Davis
His show is like a Fourth of July parade, cheerfully saluting small-town life in fictional River City, Iowa …
Aubry, Ainsley and Derrek Gibson
It explodes with talent, bracketed by simple, imaginative scenery and a spit-and-polish brass pit band …
Somyong Sukkij, David Robers
Caspers emphasizes the youthful energy of the script, not the melancholy or irony …
Conor Keelan, Kate Gester, Peggy Keelan, Daniel Keelan
Which is perhaps why the audience perked up for every number, but fell back on the hillside during the comic or romantic interludes …
Dusty Pate, Marina Parker
Everyone this social columnist talked to at intermission Sunday enjoyed this “Music Man,” and virtually nobody left at halftime, rare for the Summer Musical ….
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July 3, 2009
First Night Audience for 'Henry V' at the Off Center
A veritable Who’s Who of Austin arts lovers bunched around the basically bare stage of the Off Center for the opening performance of “Henry V.” Critic, editor, actor, director and writer Robert Faires had distilled Shakespeare’s sprawling history into a solo. He played all the roles himself.
Filing into the raw, familiar space were Boyce Cabannis, Annette Carlozzi, Dan Bullock, Forrest Preece, Linda Ball, Shawn Sides, David Jewell, Elizabeth Cobbe and dozens of other leading lights. At the end, they surged to their feet in appreciation for the 90-minute drama.
I particularly liked the light, comic bits and the stirring battle scenes, including the contrasting voices of common soldiers. “Henry V” plays through July 25.
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Drinks with Adree and Jonathan Bober
I’ve learned more about art from Jonathan Bober than from the dozen or so art history classes I took as an undergraduate and graduate student — put together. He has patiently, methodically, even ecstatically explained hundreds of works in the Blanton Museum of Art collection.
Husband and wife are breathtakingly smart and wise. Kip and I joined them in their Old West Austin house, modest from the exterior, but renovated to suit their collections of art, books and other interests. We nibbled on grapes, cheese and white wine, catching up on UT news and news of the world in general. Fantastic.
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June 30, 2009
Live Chat: Avant Le Weekend with Barbara Chisholm
Just come back to this spot 3 p.m. Thursday and join the conversation. (No Apres Le Weekend this week.)
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June 28, 2009
‘Ice Cold by Cruz Ortiz' Gallery Preview at Art Palace
Never doubt that fascinating people will gather at the Art Palace …
Yuko Fukuzumi, Nicholas Hay
Grassroots impresario Arturo Palacios’ bungalow gallery on East Cesar Chavez Street always sizzles for openings …
Faith Gay, Jessica Russell
The Cruz Ortiz plastering of slogans and performance did not disappoint …
Adam Schrieber, Anna Krachey
Of particular interest were the immaculate photographs in the new project space …
Hannah Mallios, Jordan Mallios, Jessica Mallios
I met some of the artists — Adam Schreiber, Anna Krachey, Jessica Mallios — who gracefully discussed their images …
Sarah Duncan, Eric Frantz
For those who haven’t seen it, the project room is Palacios’ former personal digs; he’s moved out back to the 1-bedroom apartment behind the gallery …
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June 22, 2009
What woud it cost ... No. 3
What would it cost … to underwrite an Austin production of “Ragtime”?
Steakley’s company has the talent and the interest. The Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty musical was among the most ambitious its generation. The Broadway production, with Brian Stokes Mitchell, Marin Mazzie, and Audra McDonald, blew my mind. The touring production, which played Bass Concert Hall, impressed, despite the downsizing caused by producer Garth Drabinsky’s financial “troubles.”
Based on the E. L. Doctorow novel that weaves together stories from the turn of the last century with special emphasis on race relations, it speaks to our times. No Austin company has produced it. It’s time.
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June 21, 2009
What's so dark about 'Killer Joe'?
See “Killer Joe.” The Tracy Letts trailer-trash comedy clicks, sparks and sizzles.
What about Shakespeare or the Ancients? This rough stuff is as old as Thespis.
I guess it’s more disturbing now because Letts’ Texas-averse setting is contemporary and close, meaning Dallas County.
Making a statement about the future of his ascendant Capital T Theatre, director Mark Pickell synthesizes his ensemble down to the tiniest nuance. How to pick a stand-out among Ken Bradley, Joey Hood, Joe Reynolds, Katie DeBuys and Melissa Recalde, who don’t miss a quarter note?
If forced, I’d have to choose Recalde, whose mentally challenged 20-year-old virgin surprises with almost every half-absent, delayed-a-beat reaction.
But whom am I kidding? It’s a flawless production brought to a thrillingly bloody conclusion. Only three performances left at Hyde Park Theatre. Or wait for the inevitable revival.
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June 20, 2009
'New American Talent' Opening Party at Arthouse
On the floor and on the walls, Austinites cracked the whip at “New American Talent 2009” at Arthouse’s Jones Center.
Jardine Libaire, Gwen Riley
It may be my imagination, but a higher percentage of the artists chosen to participate in this annual art show came from Austin, even though the guest curator is from Chicago and couldn’t know the hometowns of the applicants. (Right?)
Vanessa Gully-Santiago, Michael Gully-Santiago
“New American Talent” is among Arthouse’s grandest traditions. No Whitney or Venice Biennial, nor Basel or Basel-Miami. Yet a fair indication of what’s out there in the contempo art world, nationally.
Deborah Green, John Livingston, Chris Mattsson
I came early to absorb the full, split-screen narrative of Amy Grappell’s family film. Oh my. I’ve known Grappell for almost 30 years. I had no idea her parents were that interesting, but in a way clearly hurtful other family members. Grappell treated the story in a strictly documentary manner.
Kollin Baker, Rachel Koper, Lauritz Sparkman Williams
Although only a fraction of the first-nighters got to see it, I’m betting others will return for the experience. Otherwise, the level of talent on display seemed higher than usual. I’ll let the art critics decide how.
Allison Watkins, Jodi Zik
Once again, however, Arthouse draws some of the hottest crowds. I thought the “Five by Seven” fundraiser was particularly lively. Yet this group — younger, with less ready cash — was equally engaging.
Patrick Hallett, Adam Rasmus
Another thing: Despite its expansion plans, Arthouse remains a lean organization. Not for them layoffs that have plagued other key Austin arts institutions. It’s almost as if, by choosing the narrow commercial structure on Congress Avenue, the leaders trimmed their ambitions accordingly.
Hailey Kiesewetter, Zachary Stacy
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May 30, 2009
Motorcycle Stunt at Austin Museum of Art opening
The stunt almost stole the show. Just as I was crossing Congress Avenue to attend the members’ preview of “The Lining of Forgetting: Internal and External Memory in Art” at the Austin Museum of Art, a small motorcycle or motor scooter zipped across my path.
“Not a museum stunt,” assured museum spokeswoman Shilpa Bakre.
Maybe not, but it was a stunt for the rider. The paint was fresh, since it smeared museum staff members who stopped the intruder. He was reported to have said: “Well, the doors were open.” Then: “I’m scared.”
The incident didn’t detract from the show, as hundreds of art lovers strolled through the exhibition from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. I can’t even come close to reviewing it, since the curator, Xandra Eden, is a dear friend and was a house guest this week. But I can report the chatter was very positive for the thought-jolting works, executed in many media.
I lingered to socialize with art veterans Judith Sims, Sylvia Orozco and Chris Cowden. (Many years ago, Eden toiled at Women & Their Work and what is now Arthouse.)
Also with Rachel Koper, who has just been named program director at W&TW. I think of her along with Sean Gaulager and Arturo Palacios as among the most effective grassroots prosletyzers about Austin art.
See the show. Friendships aside, it’s an eye-trigger.
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May 28, 2009
Red Then Party for 'Henry V' at Faires-Chisholm home
Robert Faires thought up his one-man “Henry V” 18 years ago while working at La Jolla Playhouse.
James Armstrong, Eugene Sepulveda, Larry Connelly
He trimmed the script. Storyboarded the scenes. Discovered how much of Shakespeare’s play involved addressing an audience (straightforward, as in the Chorus; imaginary, as in Henry motivating the army).
Joan Lava, Robert Faires, Linda Ball
Faires didn’t get around to producing it during all that time. Yet, for his 50th birthday, his teenage daughter, Rosalind, convinced her mother, actress and theater leader Barbara Chisholm, to produce his “Henry” through her Red Then company. (His day job is at the Austin Chronicle; hers at Zach Theatre.) They mocked up a program and were off to the races.
Vicki McCullough, Richard Hartgrove, Emma J. Virjan
Wednesday, Chisholm invited guests to their Bouldin-area house for a tiny fundraiser. Everybody in the room was somebody in the arts world. Some were heavy hitters. They play opens in July at the Off Center. They listened to songs from Meredith McCall and Jason Connor, a short pitch, then a very short scene from the play.
Steven Tomlinson, Gary Cooper
Why the name Red Then for Chisholm’s production company? Love the answer: At La Jolla, a costume designer approached the female star of an epic production of “Elmer Gantry” to ask which color robe she wanted to wear during the climactic religious revival scene. “Red or white?” The actress asked what everyone else was wearing. Costumer: “White.” Star: “Red then.”
Now, that’s a theater story, no?
Kidder Turk Pipkin at the end of the evening: “I always wanted to do a one-man ‘Battleship Potemkin.’”
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The Other Arts Critics 2
For Part 1 on the other writers and editors on the dais for the Austin Critics Table Awards, see post below.
David Mead: “I would survive just fine without the arts in general, and music in particular, but life would be pretty dull. I would give Faires and Barnes stiff competition in any martini-mixing contest.”
Claire Ruud: Been reading “Mean Little Deaf Queer” by Terry Galloway and working on a needlepoint inspired by an 18th-century American sampler by Mary Eaton.
Joey Seiler: “My day gig as a tech blogger has made me an expert in kids’ virtual worlds, but moonlighting as an Austin critic is my personal career highlight. After almost four years of writing about Austin theater, I’ll be leaving next week to motorcycle around the country and attend New York University Law School.
Jonelle Seitz: If you’re in the theater right now and I’m not, I’m jealous of you. At a dance performance, I’m usually the one in the back of the house taking things way too seriously. I think bloopers in the theater are the best comedy. If scenery falls over or you get tangled up in a curtain (and you’re not injured), I’m going to laugh. Nothing personal.
Avimaan Syam: I have a day job as a software developer. I love food but strongly dislike grapefruit and olives. I have many dreams but have seen scant few of them fulfilled. I blame people other than myself for this.
Kate Watson: Recently, I’ve been working on a video about giving my youth to Texas and reading “Language to Cover a Page: The Early Writings of Vito Acconci.”
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The Other Arts Critics 1
How well do you know your Austin arts critics?
The faces at the dais include familiar newspaper types: arts editor Robert Faires, arts writer Jeanne Claire van Ryzin and a social columnist (me). What about the others? What do readers not know about the less-well-known voters?
Elizabeth Cobbe: “In college, I set a school record in the 400-meter hurdles that lasted for two weeks. If you don’t know what “k2tog, YO” means, you’re missing out. I will be busy honeymooning in Canada instead of presenting at the awards ceremony.”
Claire Croft: Before moving to Austin to work towards my doctorate, I wrote about dance for The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun. The first time I met the artistic director of the Washington Ballet, he looked very surprised and said, “Based on your writing, I thought you were 50 years old.” I used to perform, and among the many roles I’ve had, dancing the Rat King in the Nutcracker remains one of my favorites.
Erin Keever: “I teach art history at Austin Community College. I live in West Austin with a border collie mix and a big orange cat. My latest weakness is watching (too many) BBC miniseries”
More to come …
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May 26, 2009
Farrah Fawcett at the Umlauf 2
Back to researching Farrah Fawcett’s Austin connections. This came to the newsroom from Nelie Plourde, director of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum. Some of this is well-known material, but it’s worth repeating. For Part 1, see post below.
Later, in late 1987 and early 1988, Fawcett commissioned Umlauf to do several stoneware studies of her infant son Redmond. Over the years she put together a nice, small collection of Umlauf sculptures, drawings and prints.
Her last visit with Umlauf was shortly before he died in November 1994. Fawcett was in Austin working on a film and came by the museum just before it closed. She had been up most of the night with the filming and dealing with the aftermath of a quake which had done some damage to her California house.
Both Charles and Angie Umlauf were here to welcome her and we started walking through the garden. Quite quickly the entire conversation became all about the original clay or plaster sculpture (for whatever bronze we were looking at), what tool had Umlauf used, why did he go with that patina, what about those ears, etc etc.
After about 45 minutes of this Angie and I retreated to the terrace and left them to their teacher/student conversation. Fawcett continues to stop by the Umlauf whenever she is in the area.
Over the last year, we have been in talks with Fawcett re: exhibiting her work here at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum, as part of our series of annual exhibits of work by former Umlauf students.
How many times did Umlauf used Fawcett as a model for one of his sculptures? Not that many actually. But many, many folks “of a certain age” believe every single sculpture of a woman down here is based on her.
Fawcett had that same deep groove between her nose and upper lip that Angie Umlauf had, and that Umlauf used for the majority of his female sculptures — maybe that’s what makes her seem the model for all of them.
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Farrah Fawcett at the Umlauf 1
Back to researching Farrah Fawcett’s Austin connections. This note came to the newsroom from Nelie Plourde, director of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum. Some of this is well-known material, but it’s worth repeating.
For the rest of her life, Farrah had an “art shack” somewhere on her property where she continued to draw and sculpt. For years, when Umlauf went to Italy for his annual trips to oversee the casting of his bronze sculptures, Fawcett would send over the plaster models of her own sculptures so that Umlauf could oversee their bronze casting as well.
Fawcett and her family in Houston remained friends with Charles and Angie Umlauf. In 1985, when Umlauf was honored by the Houston Art Guild as Texas Artist of the Year, Fawcett came down to Houston to present him with this award.
Later, when (philanthropist) Roberta Crenshaw and her committee of Friends of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden were fundraising to build the new museum with private funds on City of Austinproperty adjoining the Umlaufs’ original sculpture garden, Fawcett contributed $10,000 towards the construction of the new museum.
In 2002, Fawcett’s work as a sculptor was recognized with a two-person exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which paired her work with that of another sculptor ,Keith Edmier, an exhibit that went on to the the Andy Warhhol Museum in Pittsburgh the following year.
More to come ….
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May 20, 2009
Austin Arts Hall of Fame: Alexandra Nadal and Eugene Slavin
Third in a series of capsule profiles for the Austin Arts Hall of Fame, part of the Austin Critics Table Awards, held 7 p.m. June 1 at Cap City Comedy Club. The event is free and informal. Some other capsule profiles will appear in the Seeing Things blog.
Among its leading lights were Eugene Slavin and Alexandra Nadal, who incorporated the company and raised its professional status, hiring 14 dancers in 1982. They brought in top guests, such as Mikhail Baryshnikov.
In the grand ballet tradition, Slavin and Nadal learned directly from masters who learned directly from the greats of dance’s classical era. Born in Buenos Aires, Slavin trained at the Teatro Colon, then worked in New York under Anatole Vilzak, who succeeded Vaslav Nijinsky at the Maryinsky Theatre. He made his American debut at Carnegie Hall and joined the famed Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, where he partnered the legendary Maria Tallchief. He began his choreographing career with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
Nadal was born in the West Indies and studied in Chicago with Russia’s Andre Commiacoff and former Sadler’s Wells Ballet soloists Richard Ellis and Christine DuBoulay. In New York she continued her studies with Maria Swoboda and Leon Danielian (who later taught at the University of Texas). At 17, she joined Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo’s American tour. She danced for superstars such as Agnes de Mille, Leonide Massine and Eliot Feld.
Since the 1980s, the couple has run the Slavin Nadal School of Ballet in North Austin, extending the classical tradition through successive Central Texas generations.
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Austin Arts Hall of Fame: Mary Margaret Farabee
For some Austinites, Mary Margaret Farabee defines enlightened philanthropy. Not only has she helped scores of arts and service nonprofits by staging fundraisers and chairing volunteer committees, she has done the hard work of training the next generation of do-gooders.
She received a B.A. in Plan II from the University of Texas in 1961 and an M.A. in American history in 1968. Wife of former State Sen. Ray Farabee, she is best known as the founding chairwoman of the Texas Book Festival, which she led for eight years. Free to the public, the festival has showcased more than 150 authors and has attracted more than 50,000 book lovers. Additionally, the festival has raised more than $2 million to 550 Texas public libraries.
Prior to that, she toiled in the fields of business development and public relations, serving, for instance, as KLRU-TV’s vice-president of development from 1986 to 1991. She lent her considerable persuasive skills and brilliant smile to projects, such as renovating the Paramount Theatre, establishing the Philosopher’s Rock and organizing the Charles W. Moore Foundation around the Center for the Study of Place.
Among her other longtime associations are the Heritage Society of Austin, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, UT Ransom Center, KUT, People’s Community Clinic, Witliff Collecctions at Texas State University-San Marcos and the Molly National Investigative Journalism Prize. Farabee’s the one philanthropist organizers want in their corner, because where she goes, legions of admirers follow.
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Austin Arts Hall of Fame: Bonnie Cullum
First in a series of capsule profiles for the Austin Arts Hall of Fame, part of the Austin Critics Table Awards, held 7 p.m. June 1 at Cap City Comedy Club. The event is free and informal. Some other capsule profiles will appear in the Seeing Things blog.
Bonnie Cullum has remained remarkably true to her artistic vision, first revealed to Austin audiences more than 20 years ago. She snatched the public’s imagination during her University of Texas graduate-school years in the 1980s, when her ritual-based directing and playful, speculative performances borrowed liberally from world theater and religions.
In co-founding Vortex Repertory Company in 1988, however, Cullum expanded her reach to include commissioning new works and nurturing up-and-coming performance groups. The company’s first full-time home, a former movie theater multiplex on Ben White Boulevard, became a hothouse for provocative, sometimes sexually bold performances. Later, she purchased and renovated a large shed on Manor Road that became an ignition point for East Austin’s warehouse-theater revolution.
She has directed more than 60 world-premiere productions and dozens of published works. She founded the Summer Youth Theatre program in 1991 to provide artistic training for young Austinites. She came by her creativity through family as well as educational means — her father is jazz great Jim Cullum, her mother, Susan Estelle Kelso, a professor of theater. She is married to composer and artist Chad Salvata, a frequent collaborator on Cullum’s signature “cybernetic operas.” Cullum adds that she is “an initiated witch and teacher in the Reclaiming Tradition.”
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May 19, 2009
'Killer Joe' Joe Reynolds at Jo's
Reynolds has come a long way since 1987, when he played Orsino in Scott Shattuck’s storied production of “Twelfth Night.” He also played one of the sexually repressed kids in “Spring Awakening” (premusical). Anyway, he left the University of Texas for further study at Yale University, last I’d heard.
Since then, he’s worked in New York and Los Angeles, often under the name Joe Leroy Reynolds, if you’re checking IMBD. Like so many actors, he also waited tables and made the transition to management when opened Hollywood’s nightlife hit M Bar & Restaurant. Seven years into that venture, he bought Austin’s Saba, managing his star, M, from a distance.
Reynolds now lives high up in the 360 Tower and rehearses in the afternoons for “Killer Joe,” which opens June 4 at Hyde Park Theatre. This darkest of dark dramas about a trailer-trash family was written by Tracy Letts, who conquered Broadway with “August: Osage County.”
Ads for “Killer Joe” warn, merrily: “Contains nudity, cigarette smoke, gunshots, violence and adult situations.” Must see.
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May 18, 2009
Socializing leads to art: Claude van Lingen at Co-Lab
Serious people are always dubious about how socializing can lead to serious good. Like art. Why not cut the cheap-wine openings and just show the art, expecting the audience, one by one, to get it on their own?
Here’s a counter-example: I met Claude van Lingen ever so briefly on a frosty night at Co-Lab on Allen Street in East Austin. The grimacing man with the unplaceable accent and short, white beard appeared like something out of Conrad or Melville.
His novelistic visage stuck in my memory. Also Co-Lab’s Sean Gaulager’s whispered endorsement: “He’s good. Very good.”
Last week I spotted van Lingen at the W Hotel & Residences art preview, approached him respectfully, then chatted up the South African-born artist and his sociable grandson.
Through Facebook and other means, I discovered that van Lingen was producing a multi-media show at Co-Lab a few days later. I missed the big social night, but arranged to see the exhibit, “1,000 Years from Now,” on Sunday.
Wow. The work — three parts of which were on display — has developed over 30 years, as van Lingen attempts to refract today’s issues and personalities for an imagined future consumption. It’s a thorny series that has already won praise in New York, Johannesburg, S.A. and elsewhere.
One element involved dark paper upon which the artist had signed with various writing implements the names of thousands of soldier killed in Iraq. As he wore down the paper inscribing name over each previous name, he continued the writing on a subsequent underlayer, which left the whole double-arms-length-wide aggregation ripped like a gaping wound.
A second part arranged neatly the printed names of those soldiers. At Saturday’s event, he invited guests to find names similar to theirs and to sign them in layers on the wall.
The most complicated part was a copse of long, thin, suspended planes. Some were blank, others were covered with mirrors, while still others were plastered with images from printed and televised media.
Over this, van Lingen projected cable news programs (in his conception, they should have been live shows, but Co-Lab doesn’t get cable). The effect was slightly startling and very sophisticated. I mulled it over as I walked the four miles back to the newsroom.
You see, socializing can lead one to quite serious art about quite serious issues.
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May 17, 2009
Paramount Gala on Congress Avenue
At last, the final big gala of the traditional season.
Teresa Cantu, My-Cherie Haley, Sara L. Strother
The high-profile Molly Awards ceremony doesn’t count, since, like its namesake, Molly Ivins, the party is eccentric, coming in June.
Margie Burciaga, Gwyn Smith
Planning a gala for late May is a gamble. Yet the Paramount Theatre’s parent organization is willing to chance rain, wind and heat. This year, they ran the weather table.
Jerri Kunz, John McCollough
A cold front in May. And the rains passed by the pre-show party. Wow. That’s the luck of the good.
Christine Harmel, Clayton Whittet
I missed the concert, headlined by Boz Scaggs, an idol in the ’70s. The response was evenly split, among the guests, depending partly on whether you wanted Scaggs’ original takes on “Silk Degrees,” or something fresh.
A frolicking group Mr. Page, Kittybelle, Janey
The gala is best known, however, for the party tent. A long, long tent that stretches for two blocks down the middle of Congress Avenue.
Josh Loposer, Kendra Loposer
Making the circuit from the band stand through the silent auction tables to the dining tents was like digging through layers of Austin society.
Lawrence Strieb, Jasmin Fasl, Thomas Fasl
The highest set seemed clustered near the middle around circular tables. Youngsters were already dancing wildly to the band at the south end before dining ended. And a picnic-table-like area at the north end seemed reserved for hoi palloi.
Melissa Graham, Scott Graham
(Brenda Thompson, I don’t mean you, specifically, represent the masses. Although, for a second year you bravely took the very last table in the tents.)
John Broussard, Casey Dugon
Perhaps because of the snap in the air, or perhaps because the traditional season had finally dragged to an end, but even inveterate socialites seemed in an exhultant mode.
Sean Gallagher Forage, Amy Griffin
I joined them in that feeling. Though I didn’t stay for dinner. And I didn’t make it to Salvage Vanguard’s party. Three in one day was enough for me.
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May 16, 2009
A trimmed Austin Critics Table Awards ceremony
Saturday, the city’s arts critics met at the home of Barbara Chisholm and Robert Faires. In a mere four hours, culling through hundreds of nominations in theater, dance, art and classical music to arrive at 50 or so winners.
A reminder about the Hall of Famers: This year, we induct Mary Margaret Farabee, Daniel Johnson, Syliva Orozco, Bonnie Cullum, Damian Priour, Alexandra Nadal and Eugene Slavin.
My proposed contribution this year: Slicing an hour off the ceremony, which will start promptly at 7 p.m. I’m introducing a widely employed technology to do so. Writers Joey Seiler and Geoff West are helping. See you there.
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Five by Seven at Arthouse
When one considers the Blanton Museum of Art’s “Essence of Cool” gala, Mexic-Arte Museum’s “Gala de Plata” gala, Austin Museum of Art’s “Art Ball” and, now, the Arthouse’s “Five by Seven,” the visual arts community has certainly caught up with the performing arts companies when it comes to staging social events.
Dana Fox, David Fox, Chris Stone
Add to those major parties, recent art shindigs for the W Hotel & Residences, Art City Austin, First Night, Fusebox Festival, Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum’s Garden Party, and East Austin art collectives, and a whole lot of art-wise socializing is going on.
Marina Sifuentes, Dr. Tad Davis
“Five by Seven” has grown and grown and grown. The art has improved almost every year and the paying audience hit record numbers Friday night.
Ann Elizabeth Wynn, Joaquin Avellan
This party was co-sponsored by L Style G Style magazine, thus the delightfully gay spin on the evening.
Graydon Parrish, Heath Riddle
On top of the famous 5x7 works by hundreds of artists, Graydon Parrish donated an exquisite floral oil, which I believe Alisa Weldon and Lynn Yeldell purchased.
Susan Dell, Michael Dell
The guests and hosts list popped: Michael Dell, Susan Dell, Ann Elizabeth Wynn, Joaquin Avellan, Julie Thornton, Dana Friis-Hansen, Mark Holzbach, Becky Beaver, John Duncan, Kevin Smothers, Michael Pungello, Stephen Moser, Sue Graze, Stephen Jones, Carla McDonald, John Yancey, Graydon Parrish, Heath Riddle, Sam Davidson, Oliver Everette, Craig Rancourt, Andree Bober, Louise Hartman, Dr. John Hogg and David Garza.
Andree Bober, Louise Harpman, Elizabeth Alford
The only flaw: Loud. Very. The sound system pushed the stage chatter to the front of Arthouse, leaving guests with ringing ears.
Jordan Abel, Sam Davidson, Phil Philips
As 9 p.m. approached, guests positioned themselves in front of their favorite 5x7 cards and then the madness began. Yet even after the rush for tabs was over, the party continued.
Steve Zagroski, Tense Vitale
Once again, nobody wanted to leave.
Two of my favorite people
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May 15, 2009
Edward Povey Media Event at Serra residence
There can be too much of a good thing.
Amanda Serra, Anne Bobby
The Edward Povey and DL Tolar Media Event at the Escala house of Jeff and Deanna Serra mixed a heady brew of provocative art, grand views and an unexpectedly weighty crowd.
Loren Jacobs, Janet St. Paul, Rory McNeill
Among the esteemed Austin personages on hand: Becky Beaver, John Duncan, Cookie Ruiz, Robert Faires, David Wyatt, Eugene Sepulveda, Maria Groten, Eric Groten, Tim McCabe, Dana Friis-Hansen and Mark Holzbach. Povey friend Anne Bobby represented Hollywood.
Stephanie Doulong, Adam McInnis
The crowd bubbled as they retreated from the sunset and drinks to the family room for an announced presentation. A slide projector on the fritz predicted the problems on the way.
John Hyink, David Joiner
A great deal of context from an emcee seemed, to me, unnecessary. And a out-of-sync series of images roughed Tolar’s smooth speech. Finally, Povey got up to speak and he’s a spellbinder — personable, thoughtful, even eloquent. Especially for a visual artist.
David Wyatt, Cookie Ruiz, Robert Faires
Yet the whole affair dragged on too long and guests grew visibly restless. Povey unveiled a large canvas that I had seen just days ago at his and Tolar’s home when it was only partially done. Then he announced a performance project with Bobby and the introduction of workshops with Austin Visual Arts Association.
Patrick Guertin, Alisa Matthews
All that seemed anti-climactic. The subject was peerless. But a tip for every party presentation-maker: Shorter is better.
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May 14, 2009
Art Preview at the W Hotel & Residences
Anne Elizabeth Wynn is back.
Matthew Winters, Abigail Winograd
After cocooning with paramour Joaquin Avellan, she’s out and about. Way out and about. Following months of absence, I’ve seen her at four events in the course of two weeks. And of course she’ll grace Arthouse’s 5x7 sale and party on Friday.
Kristi Pruett, Arturo Palacios, Sonya Berg
Wednesday, she previewed the kind of art she’s advising the W Hotel & Residences to purchase. It looked suitably skilled, edgy and local, to go with architect Arthur Anderson’s carefully calibrated designs.
Allen Beuershausen, Terence Jackson
W rep Bailey Tipps told me that the residences are 48 percent sold, including a closing and a rebid this week. Tipps comes to Austin from the Dallas W and has tailored his pitch to the locals who, he says, are buying the spots overlooking the Austin City Hall, starting at $365,000. He was surprised that green, south-facing views sell as well as skylines.
Mary Margar, Cici Williams, Rachel Farris (Mary’s name have been mangled on my iPhone)
The preview party took place in a model residence with false views and chic appointments. The guest list combined artists, downtown retailers, fashionistas and real estate sharpies. And the media, too, since it was a Tribeza-sponsored event. (I met the magazine’s new co-publisher, George Elliman.)
Carla McDonald, Ryan Hutchison — a meeting of the political parties?
Also spent time with funnyman/publicist Kevin Smothers, social connector Allen Beuerhausen, gracious Terence Jackson — who had purchased the hippest hat at T.J. Maxx for $2, gallery owner Jeff Kirk — South African-born artist Claude van Lingen and his charming grandson, who is studying business.
Prachi Moro, Michelle Garcia, Anthony DeJesus
Spotted model Zion, chefs Larry McGuire and Tyson Cole, editor Lauren Ford, First Night Austin’s Dave Sullivan, food-and-wine writer Karen Odom Spezia, and Tribeza’s Dale Dewey and Karen Landa. Also chatted up East Austin art guides Sean Gaulager, Arturo Palacios and Leslie Moody Castro.
Jane Rash, Susie Tull, Harriett Kirsh Pozen
Leslie Moody Castro, James Beard, Sean Gaulager, Sarah Stevens
The wine and beer flowed freely in the hot rooms (some people found cool AC breezes in closets, bathrooms and the false balcony). Eventually, things got a little silly. Not out of hand. Just pleasantly silly, as in trying out the dry bathtub for a photo shoot.
Danny Flores, Jens Steinborn
Oh, to live at the W. Austin City Limits theater and studio right downstairs. Three restaurants. Hotel service at any time. I have no intention of giving up our South Austin bungalow, but there’s no charge to daydream.
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May 11, 2009
The art of the Art Ball
Perhaps it’s because they put on shows all year.
Haven Nichols, Bill Nichols
Perhaps because they aren’t as deadly serious about their causes. And they don’t stint on the hospitality.
Shanny Lott, Ryan Street
On balance, Austin arts groups stage more entertaining galas than our social service charities.
Troy Gourrier, AnitaRoberts
Thinking back over the traditional social season, now just ending, the most ecstatic gala was Zach Theatre’s “Red, Hot and Soul” at the Hilton Austin.
Andrea Osborn, Scott Ginder
High points go to the Ballet Austin’s Fete, Blanton Museum of Art’s “Essence of Cool,” Long Center for the Performing Arts first birthday party, Mexic-Arte Museum’s Gala de Plata, UT Performing Arts Center reopening, and the Texas Medal of Arts ceremony, despite its Mississippian length.
Kate Hargrove, Pat Robertson
There was nothing wrong with many other charity affairs — recall Center for Child Protection’s delirious “Dancing with the Stars Austin” — but the artists got the art thing down. It’s a natural advantage.
Kendall Camp, Jon Hamlin
Take Austin Museum of Art’s French-themed Art Ball, which conquered the still-uncertain spaces at UT’s AT&T Conference Center.
Jeff Serra, Carol Olson, Deanna Serra
The lobby was left wide and clear, light filtering in from the tardy dusk. The silent auction of high-quality art was confined to a screened-off portion of the banquet room. (Zach made the same winning choice.)
Kathy Escobedo, Fern Santini, Elaine Demetrion
Then, when dinner was served, the screens withdrew dramatically for the delicious meal (though the carnation-ball centerpieces were lost on me).
Craig Rancourt, Jo Freedman
Mary Margaret Farabee told about the wild character whose gift of Laguna Gloria gave birth to the museum. Later, she and husband Ray accepted the award named in Clara Driscoll’s honor.
Joaquin Avellan, Anne Elizabeth Wynn (yes, the lovers finally make their public debut! It’s a social headline)
In between, a duo of dancers from Blue Lapis performed a dramatic sequence of chiffon-acrobatics to “The Phantom of the Opera” score. I don’t know if it was the indoor setting, the controlled lighting or the intimacy with the audience, but Sally Jacques’ artists never were so riveting performing in short form.
Corey Fields, Alicia Carlin, Kellie Carlin
It was a glorious evening, set off by the presence and generosity of Jean and Dan Rather. Always an extra tingle when they are home in Austin.
Nancy Scanlan, Susan Apsinell Block
At times, the gala seemed like a meeting of the Fortunate 500.
Gloria Adkins, Bobby Adkins
And look who showed up! Stephen Moser (below) spirited and frisky from his previous social commitment at the Mobile Loaves and Fishes gala, which I just couldn’t squeeze into my schedule.
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May 7, 2009
Dinner at Povey/Tolar Residence
Why would Edward Povey move to Central Texas?
The auspicious artist has lived all over his native United Kingdom, not counting those years in Grenada. On that teensy Caribbean isle, with his first wife, he raised two children in a day-dreamy culture, dodging soldiers only briefly during the Reagan-era intervention. And, over a lifetime of painting in what he calls a Figurative Symbolist style, London-born Povey’s picked up collectors all over the world. Not bad for an artist who has always worked outside the mainstream fashions in his field (although figurative work has returned recently). Well, for one thing, Povey has visited Central Texas frequently over the past two decades — his primary home had been in a tiny northern Wales town. His paintings, which often delve into costumed images untangled on the subconscious level, have always sold extremely well here. But that’s not why he and D.L. Tolar, his wife, also a painter, chose to live in Wimberley. “We fell in love with the people,” the soft-spoken, soft-eyed Povey says. “They are so kind. And so open.” Povey said the magic word — “open” — over dinner at his temporary Wimberley residence on Wednesday. To me, that’s the best way to describe the state of mind peculiar native to this region. Not “friendly,” which too often translates into an aggressive protectiveness of the status quo. Open. Povey is planning a big media event soon to unveil some legacy plans for the artistic community. Yet I learned more during one intimate dinner than during 100 press conferences, gallery openings or artist lectures. The couple’s rental house is overwhelmed by their Asian antiques and haunted paintings, only a fraction of which are on display, while they build a house a few miles north of Wimberley. Over inventive Thai food, our candlelit conversation spun deep into the night. I hope it’s just the first of many such nights. They get Austin.
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Kathleen Panoff is a firecracker. Kathleen Panoff, Mindy Graves Coming to the University of Texas Performing Arts Center from the University of Richmond, the new director seems fearless, energetic and plainspoken. Those qualities aren’t always rewarded at Byzantine UT, but they should help reconnect Austin to the campus as the PAC reinvents itself once again. Marji Calbert, Juan Pensado At a reception in the renovated Bass Concert Hall lobby, I spoke with Panoff before the announcement of the 2009-2010 PAC’s season. (For that report — and all arts news — go to Seeing Things.) She seemed to understand the recent history of the seven-venue center, including the go-go ’80s, retrenchment ’90s and redirectional ’00s. Martha Ernst, Marianne Scudder Rising music entrepreneur Greg Vendetti was there, mixing with College of Fine Arts Dean Doug Dempster and School of Music Director Glenn Chandler. The Four Seasons Hotel provided the sumptuous spread. Kristin Brown, Ivy Hayes Also spoke with current and former department chairmen, such as Bob Schmidt and Ken Hale. (Like other almuni of UT’s No. 1-ranked program in theater history and criticism, I’m anxious that the university hire a historian of retired professor Oscar Brockett’s stature.) Greg Vendetti, Jane Frederick Back to the 2009-2010 season, I count more than 100 discrete events — not including multiple performances — on its well-designed calendar of events. (One could spend a third of the year at the center.) That’s amazing, but when you consider the $9 million operation is Austin’s biggest arts group, there are going to be a lot of moving parts.
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One had never read the classic John Steinbeck novel. Leticia Carpio, Sara Suminski Another was a teacher who was interested in using “The Grapes of Wrath” in class. Kellene Packard, Avery Dickens Yet another had won free tickets on Facebook. For real. David Lopez, David Prasifka Yet the mixed crowd filled Zach Theatre’s Kleberg Stage for a Sunday matinee performance. And they listened attentively to the tale of Depression-era migrants from start to finish. Tim Brown, Sandra Dahdah My guess is they were more taken by the grit-between-their-teeth human drama in Dave Steakley’s musical adaptation of Frank Galati’s epic adaptation than by the vague philosophizing. Jim Reynolds, John Aielli Nice to know there’s a place for socially conscious theater in Austin. I joked with Hyde Park Theatre director and actor Ken Webster — famous for his short shows, like his current revival of “House ” — that two or three of his plays could fit into this one. The Wildflower Gala unites people. Malini Rajput, Vim Rajput I talked to political legends and ordinary gardeners, working lawyers and rising artists, liberal activists and conservative donors at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Victoria Corbett, Leslie Nowlin Even the extended Johnson family was represented in contrasting modes by the legacy-minded Luci Baines Johnson and the whimsical Catherine Robb, who was wearing one of her grandmother’s White House gowns, despite being quite a bit taller than the late first lady. Elena Barnes, Melanie Barnes The night smiled on the gala again this year. Deryn Davidson, Julie Krosley The art — nature themed — improves every year, with big names like Lance Lescher and Kate Breakey leading the way. This time, credit super-active philanthropist Becky Beaver with that triumph. Catherine Robb, Phillip Gibbs I enjoyed a long conversation with John and Mary Jones, who usually fly under the social radar, but whose Austin home is complemented by a shared ranch, beach house and mountain cabin. (They obviously get along well with others.) Mary Jones, John Jones My (fake) cousin, Melanie Barnes, was there with her now-grown daughter, Elena. Last I saw her, she was a tender bud of a girl; now she’s a grown woman going off to college. Sigh. Janet Wilson, Luci Baines Johnson Some of my favorite people were there: Ray and Mary Margaret Farabee, Juan Miro and Rosa Rivera, Suzanne and Marc Winkelman. Owen Brainard, Sally Brainard The Center clearly appeals to Austinites concerned with the environment and sustainability as well as those more concerned with old-fashioned conservation and landscaping. Kelly Ledford, Cassandra Jones Not that those are conflicting goals, but that might help to explain the broad range of guests enjoying superior gala food and ambient music. Claire Pinkerton, Joe Pinkerton Does anyone hate the Wildflower Center? Deacon Turner, Richard England Personally, I love it when all the Austin partisans sit down together for the sake of art and nature.
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How could you not want to see the inside of Chris Mattsson and John McHale’s house? Dana Friis-Hansen, Camille Lyons The long, idiosyncratic residence opened eyes wide, back when Tom and Deborah Green had it built on Niles Road, perhaps Austin’s most exclusive address. Dale Dewey, Karen Landa Now it looks fresh and bright, thanks to Mattsson/McHale touches. And the art. Which is what a dozen or so people had come to see. Jeff Russell, Scott Pennington It was another small Toast of the Town fundraising event for St. David’s Community Health Foundation. The money actually accumulates over the course of several events, and goes to scholarships in the health sciences. Twenty-five are given a year and, when the newest crop comes in, 65 will be funded. Maria-Gisela Mercado-Deane, Daniel Deane I spent the most time with Dana Friis-Hansen, who was there to explain the hosts’ electic art collection for the gathering, and with flawlessly attired Karen Landa and Dale Dewey, who promised confirmation of some much-rumored business news soon. Debra Pennington, Nancy Bowman My favorite quote of the evening, however, came from Nancy Bowman, who said with convincing charm: “I read your column. Being from Old Austin, I don’t know any of the people you write about. But I read it.”
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May 6, 2009
UT PAC Season Party at Bass Concert Hall
May 4, 2009
'Grapes of Wrath' matinee audience at Zach Theatre
May 2, 2009
Social integers unite at Wildflower Gala
May 1, 2009
Toast of the Town at Mattsson/McHale residence
