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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > July
July 2008
Brad Womack’s imaginary children and Tyra Banks’ 275 smiles
It’s the last few days to catch ‘Reality Show’ the super sharp exhibit at Women & Their Work about our penchant for ‘over-sharing’ and our fuzzy boundaries in the modern world where what we accept as reality is actually heavily edited.
The exhibit’s last day is this Saturday.
For two years artist Jill Pangallo and a handful of her female artist friends gathered weekly to watch all types of reality shows: “The Bachelor,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” “Project Runway” and others. Pangallo challenged her peers — Anna Krachey, Cecilia Phillips, Laura Turner and Jaime Wentz — to create art in response to their hours of viewing.
The result is a cogent yet entertaining exhibit that slyly asks viewers to re-consider the hyper-reality of so much ‘reality.’
Krachey took as her subject Brad Womack, the Austinite who starred on “The Bachelor” and made reality television history when he rejected both finalists.
Using headshots of the contestants who vied for Womack’s proposal, a headshot of Womack and a generic baby picture, Krachey digitally created a series of baby portraits of the imagined progeny. You can view the online version of “Bachelor Babies” here
“Deanna & Brad.” and “Jenni & Brad.” Digital photo collages. By Anna Krachey. Photo courtesy Women & Their Work.
Also, watch the inimitable Pangallo do Tyra Banks one better in “276 Smiles.” Pangallo’s “durational smile challenge” plays off the supermodel’s claim that she has the ability to cope 275 unique smiles for the camera. Banks called her ability to smile her “art form.”
Well, Pangallo — as savvy a performance artist as Austin has seen in long while — has, as you can see by this video, 276 different smiles.
Take that Tyra!
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‘Field of Infinite Forms’ to celebrate Dell Hall, Long Center
Noted composer Christopher Theofanidis has announced the title of his new work written specifically for the Dell Hall at the new Long Center for the Performing Arts.
‘Field of Infinite Forms’ is a commission from the Austin Symphony Orchestra — a brilliant idea of ASO music director Peter Bay who conceived of celebrating the new hall with new music written specifically for it. Hey — Bay knows what it takes to keep it real in the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World.
‘Field of Infinite Forms’ will premiere Sept. 19-20. There are five movements to the 16-17 minute piece: Introit; Superunison; Hall of Mirrors; They Listened, Trembling; Dazzler of Heaven. Theofanidis is collaborating with electroacoustic music pioneer Mark Wingate.
The Dallas-born Theofanidis received lots of attention earlier this year for “The Refuge,” his massive musical and community event for the Houston Grand Opera inspired by Houston’s fabulous polyglot immigrant community.
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Art nicked from New World Deli display
Local artist Leanne Vernier says three of her paintings have been brazenly stolen while they were on view at New World Deli recently.
Read here for the report.
Just about every conceivable blank wall in Austin is used for the exhibit of art work, whether that wall is in a coffee shop, a salon, a restaurant, the lobby of an office building, a bank, a bookstore, a club — are we forgetting some place?
But here’s the thing about staging exhibits in places that are not dedicated to the professional exhibition of fine art: The art isn’t the center of attention, which can put it at more risk, whether for theft or even vandalism.
There’s a reception Thursday evening for Vernier and her art at New World Deli from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
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Picture this: 48 hours in East Austin
DiverseArts founder Harold McMillan gave a handful of photographers and video artists a documentary challenge: Spend the recent Independence Day weekend capturing the life of East Austin as the historically African American and Latino neighborhood experiences rapid changes.
Opening Saturday, the new exhibit, “Facing East: 48 Hours in the Life of East Austin,” showcases what Greg Broseus, Francis Cruzada, Martha Grenon, Peter Staats, Jessy Price, Eric Chapelle and Steve Gaber found when they trained their lenses on the culturally rich downtown neighborhood, from enclaves seemingly unchanged from decades past to the sharp contrasts made by the recent real estate boom.
The reception is 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, with videos showing at 8:30 p.m.
New East Gallery, 1601 East Fifth St. Suite 106. 477-9438 www.diversearts.org
“Martin “Topo” Cancun, #1 Tin Man in Austin.” Photo by Martha Grenon.
“Gray Door(s).” Photo by Martha Grenon.
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Long Center announces 2008-2009 season
Patti LaBelle, Marvin Hamlisch, the Blind Boys of Alabama with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and “The King Operetta,” the critically acclaimed musical dramatization of the last days of Martin Luther King Jr., are just some of the shows the Long Center for the Performing Arts has booked for the 2008-2009 season. The Long Center announced the shows today. Tickets will go on sale soon.
Family-friendly shows and popular entertainment spectacles form the majority of the lineup, though celebrated and sublime Austin piano master Anton Nel will give a major solo recital in March.
Tickets to Patti LaBelle are already selling well, Long Center representatives report, as are tickets to “Cirque Dreams: Jungle Fantasy.” And back by popular demand in March is “Video Games Live,” the visual and musical celebration of video game music that recently wowed Austin fans.
However, five-time Tony Award-winning musical “The Drowsy Chaperone,” originally scheduled for Aug. 19-24, has been canceled because of lack of ticket sales. Seems the musical about a die-hard musical theater fan hasn’t been doing great guns in other markets on its national tour.
From the Long Center season announcement news release, here’s the full schedule:
KIDS/FAMILY
CIRQUE DREAMS JUNGLE FANTASY, Nov. 25-30, 2008: Direct from Broadway, Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy is an exotic encounter inspired by “nature’s unpredictable creations” that are brought to life by an international cast of 25 soaring aerialists, spine-bending contortionists, acrobats, jugglers and musicians.
BOB THE BUILDER LIVE!, March 1, 2009, 3 p.m. 7 p.m.: Everyone’s favorite fix-it guy is steamrolling into town and bringing his lovable gang along for the ride in Bob the Builder Live.
DANCE SPECTACLE
REVOLUTION, Oct. 9, 2008, 8 p.m.: A brand new show that incredibly blends tap with rock n’ roll music, Revolution is a sweaty mix of live music, sex appeal and some of the world’s best Irish and tap dancing for the “tweeners” generation. Creators Mike Schulster and Joel Hanna of Riverdance are joined on stage by a live rock band and a dance ensemble direct from Broadway.
GARTH FAGAN DANCE, Feb. 18, 2009, 8 p.m.: Critically acclaimed Garth Fagan Dance has toured for 35 years on six continents under the direction of Tony Award-winning Garth Fagan, choreographer of Broadway’s The Lion King. The contemporary dancers in this Rochester, New York-based company are renowned for their individuality, unmannered approach and virtuosity.
JUNGUA, May 23 and 24, 2009, 8 p.m.: a show for all ages and inspired by the rich culture and traditions of China, Jungua balances traditional yin and yang by combining masculine martial arts and kung fu and quigong with the feminine grace of contortion, acrobatics and dance.
MUSIC
3 MO’ DIVAS, Oct. 19, 2008, 7:30 p.m.: From the creator of the hit concert 3 Mo Tenors, Marion J. Caffey’s brings 3 Mo’ Divas, a musical journey celebrating the amazing versatility of three classically trained female voices in a theatrically staged event. The Divas deliver their versions of opera, Broadway, jazz, movie soundtracks, blues and rock ‘n’ roll.
DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE: THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA WITH THE PRESERVATION HALL JAZZ BAND, Nov. 23, 2008, 7:30 p.m.: New Orleans’ legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band and vocal titans the Blind Boys of Alabama join forces to present this musical journey combining jazz and gospel hymns.
ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN, March 8, 2009, 8 p.m.: One Night of Queen celebrates the iconic passion of Freddie Mercury, his music and the genius of Queen.
THE TEN TENORS, April 8, 2009, 8 p.m.: Australian group the Ten Tenors is a platinum record-selling singing act bringing their interpretations of the tenor repertoire in a splashy concert; from classical and operatic arias, to Neapolitan ballads, to their native Australian folk songs.
SPECIALS
ANTON NEL, March 29, 2009, 8 p.m.: Winner of the 1987 International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall, Austin’s own classical pianist Anton Nel has played in major musical halls the world over, including South Africa, Europe, Asia and North and South America. He makes his Long Center recital debut with this concert.
DRUMLINE LIVE!, Jan. 11, 2009, 8 p.m.: DRUMLine Live! brings the black marching band traditions to the theatrical stage for the very first time, featuring a large cast of performers from the country’s top historically black colleges and universities.
THE|KING|OPERETTA, Jan. 17 and 19, 2009, 8 p.m.: Turbulent and uplifting, The|King|Operetta tells the story of Martin Luther King from April 4, 1967, to April 4, 1968 - the last year in his life, featuring a score of hard-edge rock, blues and funk. The New York Times hails the work as, “brilliant, original and inspired.” From the New York Drama Desk Award nominated Waterwell Theater Company.
MARVIN HAMLISCH, March 26, 2009, 7:30 p.m.: As composer and conductor, Hamlisch has won virtually every major award that exists: three Oscars, four Grammys, four Emmys, a Tony and three Golden Globe awards and a Pulitzer Prize. Hamlisch is best known for scores to such films as Ordinary People, The Way We Were, and Sophie’s’ Choice; and such Broadway musicals as A Chorus Line, They’re Playing Our Song, and Seesaw.
VIDEO GAMES LIVE, March 28, 2009, 8 p.m.: Back by popular demand for one night only, VIDEO GAMES LIVE, presented by Razer, has the power and emotion of a symphony orchestra mixed with the excitement and energy of a rock concert and the technology and interactivity of a video game, all completely synchronized to amazing cutting edge video screen visuals, state-of-the art lighting and special on-stage interactive segments with the audience.
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Review: ‘I Google Myself’
Go ahead and admit it: You’ve googled yourself. You just had to know how you turned up on the popular Internet search engine. Or perhaps you were curious if someone out there had the same name as you did.
Cyber curiosity — and cyber vanity — is the premise of Jason Schafer’s entertaining, if ultimately slight, play “I Google Myself,” now getting a tight re-staging by Capital T Theatre. After their popular production of “Google” delighted audiences and critics at FronteraFest in Feburary, Capital T producers decided on an encore presentation which runs through Saturday at Hyde Park Theatre.
A onetime writer for the Showtime series “Queer as Folk,” the New York-based Schafer picked up a nomination for a GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) award for “Google” last year.
Schafer is touching on a timely issue here: there’s plenty to be explored about the new behavior produced by our connection to the Internet. But ultimately “Google” is more a frothy pulp that collapses under its own ridiculousness than it is trenchant theater. And I’m not sure Schafer intended it to be camp.
Directed by John Carroll, “Google” starts with a nerdy fan (Cliff Miller) interviewing a conceited gay porn star (Jude Hickey) for a local community free weekly newspaper. But quickly we discover the interview is a ruse. The fan, an obsessive and asocial Home Depot employee, shares the same name as the porn star.
It turns out the two men have more in common than the same name (which is never revealed).
But that’s just the first of many convoluted plot set-ups. The ludicrous (and ultimately predictable) plot twists escalate after that and snowball into absolute silliness. A barely literate car mechanic with a blog? A brawl backstage at a talk show that rivals anything seen on “Jerry Springer”?
Though the cast of three (Chase Wooldridge joins the cast as the third man with the same name) all deliver tight and spot-on performances, the acting talent doesn’t rescue “Google” from its own goofiness.
“I Google Myself” continues at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St. $15-$25. www.capitalt.org
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Exhibit sings praises of media arts
Media messages implore us to be happy — and buy products and services that will make us happy. Yet the stronger the commercial drive to contentment, the more the lines of spirituality and materiality blur.
For the new exhibit at Art Palace “Songs of Praise for the Heart Beyond Cure,” independent curator Katie Geha has gathered new work by a handful of New York-based emerging yet celebrated multimedia artists — Cooper Battersby and Emily Vey Duke, Jenny Perlin, Deborah Johnson, Siebren Versteeg and Melissa Scherrer — that explores those blurred boundaries.
Digital video by Battersby and Duke mixes animation and random footage to tell a strange and bleakly humorous tale in praise of the natural world. Perlin merges drawing and 16 mm film to create an offbeat history of the shopping mall.
The exhibit continues from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays and noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays through Aug. 30. Art Palace Gallery, 2109 E. Cesar Chavez St. www.artpalacegallery.com
Still from “Songs of Praise for the Heart Beyond Cure” by Duke & Battersby.
Johnson and Versteeg.
Images courtesy Art Palace
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Review: American Repertory Ensemble’s ‘Passion at Play’
With “Passion at Play” American Repertory Ensemble once again delivered an exquisitely shaped program in which impeccably danced modern classical ballet was framed artfully with live — and lively — chamber music at UT’s McCullough Theatre this weekend.
Artistic director David Justin staged two works by a pair of his artistic mentors — “The Dance House” by David Bintley of the Birmingham Royal Ballet and “Valses Poeticos,” by Helgi Tomasson of the San Francisco Ballet — along with three new short ballets of his own.
That made for an engaging creative thread that wove the program together. Technique and precision ruled. So did a sense of theatricality.
Sure, the dancers — whose credits include, among other companies, San Francisco Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Ballet and Twyla Tharp’s “Movin’ Out” —delivered technically exquisite performances laced with nuanced artistic interpretation. But none of that perfection ever made the audience feel excluded. Just the opposite in fact.
Maybe it’s the intimacy of the McCullough Theatre. Perhaps it’s the way Justin positions musicians literally on the stage with the dancers for a dynamic yet slightly more casual effect. Perhaps it’s both that made “Passion at Play” a totally engaging experience.
Bintley’s “The Dance House” was a striking opener, the trio of dancers starting their moves on a ballet barre that ran across the back of the stage, the barre colored a bright red for a riveting visual effect.
“Valses Poeticos,” set to the piano music of Spanish composer Enrique Granados, was everything a modern romantic pas de deux should be: sensuous yet cool, flirtatious yet exacting. And Tina LeBlanc and Joan Boada danced the demanding duet to perfection, effortlessly accomplishing several demanding series of lifts that made surprising silhouettes.
In between, the Bintley and the Tomasson pieces, Justin reprised “Fray,” the riveting multi-media ballet that uses Ligeti’s Solo Cello Sonata that Justin presented most recently at the Big Range Dance Festival. Once again, dancer Rosalyn Nasky impressed with an adroit mastery of the complex rhythmic moves and quick changes in tempo as she slid around the stage.
An impressive presentation of Hindemith’s riveting Sonata for Trumpet and Piano played by pianist Carla McElhaney and trumpeter John Carroll was nicely bookended in the second half of the program by two new ballets by Justin.
Using both Vaslav Nijinksy’s 1912 choreography and Jerome Robbins’ 1953 version, Justin presented his own version of “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune” to Debussy’;s impressionistic music. Justin staged the dancers and musicians behind a painted scrim that heightened the dream-like mood of the dance. Yet the piece seemed not quite as fully realized artistically and in the end seemed a little vague around the edges.
Bringing the program to a flurry-filled finale was “Speed Dial.” Michael Torke’s melodic yet charging music set the aural platform as five dancers whipped through rapidly changing patterns of ensemble and partner moves. At times flirtatious and playful, at times a sheer celebration of synchronous ballet work, “Speed Dial” delighted, reminding that sometimes beautiful ballet is just about the sheer beauty of precise movement.
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Review: Forklift Dancework’s ‘Skate’
I wish Nicki Pringle had been my preschool teacher.
Pringle, pre-school teacher by day and skater by night, was one of 30 community members who joined Forklift Danceworks in “Skate!,” which premiered Thursday at Playland Skate Center.
In “Ladies” Skate” Pringle does not roll, she glides. Her black lycra, silver sequins and effusive pleasure (the perfect match to Abba’s “Dancing Queen”) lead to another world. Journeying into skate culture, Forklift director Allison Orr built a series of glimpses into the world where Pringle floats. There jam skaters make breakdance roll and the music of Journey can make dreams seem real, even for the beginning skaters Orr parodies in an early “Skate!” skit.
Most of ‘Skate!’ had a disco tint. But Orr hearkened back to pre-disco rinks with the help of Jerry Wallace, who has skated since the 1940s. Wallace kicked his toes up while his recorded voice (hard to hear from the audience) recounted early skating days.
In the finale, as Terry Hardy bounced by — wagging her finger like a 1940s Lindy Hopper — it was easy to see Wallace’s stylistic influence on “Skate!.”
Speed didn’t steal the show, but it did make it exciting. Led by the tie-dyed tank top on Randy Williamson, ‘Speed Skate’ thrilled. On skates people made quick lateral passes, sending bodies shooting behind others in labyrinth, racing patterns.
The performers’ grace was made all the more apparent in the night’s second finale, an hour of skating for the audience. As I landed spread-eagle, I wondered if I would have been a better skater if Nicki Pringle had been my preschool teacher.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Review: Borromeo String Quartet
The Borromeo String Quartet is a young group that still wants a truly distinctive sound and style of playing to be ready for the big time. But their rock-solid technical and artistic foundation enables them to perform on a level well above many other ensembles.
I usually avoid singling out individual members of ensembles, but violist Mai Motobuchi draws a full yet creamy tone out of her instrument that gives the Borromeo’s lower instruments an enviable strength and presence. That strength helped the quartet fill Dell Hall at the Long Center in their program last week for the Austin Chamber Music Festival.
For Beethoven’s Quartet in G from his early set of six, the Borromeo blended a fleet pace with firmly grounded rhythm. The music felt crisp without losing the essential singing quality of stringed instruments. The slow second movement wanted more breadth, but their approach suited the fourth movement exquisitely: neat as a pin, with flashes of syncopated wit.
Béla Bartók’s sixth and last quartet, a dark, brooding piece, could have used more intensity and sharp angles. What it did have was smooth, beautiful tone and carefully balanced chords.
Robert Schumann’s String Quartet no. 1 in A minor provided some mainstream romanticism after the break. The players tackled the music with appropriately driving energy and expressive inner voices. They succeeded especially in bringing the last movement to a rousing conclusion.
Jeanne Claire van Ryzin has provided detailed coverage of Saturday’s staged combination of Schubert’s song cycle “Winterreise” with selections from Goethe’s “Sorrows of Young Werther.” Much like Austin Lyric Opera’s “The Bat” a few weeks ago, the concept doesn’t work if you insist on making it merely a performance of the original. But let the event do what it wants to do, and with sensitive execution it becomes a rewarding journey. Only twice did I feel there was violence done to Schubert, with one song played from tape instead of performed live, and another movement sung without its piano part. As noted by J.C., it was perfectly set in the Rollins Studio Theater, with a silent, attentive audience ready to take it in.
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Report from Austin’s Conspirare in Copenhagen
Christi Harlan, former Washington correspondent for the Statesman and sister of bass Robert Harlan of Austin-based Conspirare, is traveling with the group in Copenhagen. Here’s her first report:
COPENHAGEN — Austin-based Conspirare took its musical chops to international stages Thursday as the only U.S. choir to perform at the 8th World Symposium on Choral Music.
Under the direction of founder Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare debuted a jazzy mass by Lithuanian composer Vytautus Miskinis at Copenhagen’s waterside opera house before moving to the imposing and historic Marble Church for a Thursday night program of American music.
With a bouncy Benedictus at the opera house and a haunting Dolly Parton anthem at the Marble Church, Conspirare demonstrated why it was one of 38 choirs to be invited from among 176 applicants from around the world.
“We listened to the tapes and the CDs,” said Steen Lindholm, executive director of the choral symposium. ” This was the program that influenced the judges.”
So Conspirare came to Copenhagen and conquered the stage — if not the herring. But that’s the rest of the story, and the rest of the oily details will be spilled next week …
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Review: ‘Winterreise/Werther’
We’ve run out of superlatives when it comes to complementing artistic director Michelle Schumann’s smart programming for Austin Chamber Music Center.
Well, almost.
Saturday night Schumann added savvy new meaning to what a chamber music festival can offer in the 21st century with the presentation of the Long Beach Opera’s affecting staged version of Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’ song cycle at the Rollins Studio Theatre as part of the 2008 Austin Chamber Music Festival.
Long Beach Opera artistic director Andreas Mitisek made a bold move when he combined Schubert’s song cycle for solo voice and piano, based on poems by Wilhelm Mueller, and wove them together with spoken passages from Goethe’s novel about unrequited love, “The Sorrows of Young Werther.”
But it was a bold move that worked, garnering Long Beach Opera critical praise when it premiered there in 2005.
Schumann, who performed in the original Long Beach production, smartly brought the show to Austin for this summer’s festival. (For last year’s festival, she presented Long Beach Opera’s “Diary of Anne Frank” production — also a much-welcome addition to the festival’s offerings.)
Rollins Studio Theatre’s dark warehouse-like look and intimate setting made for a perfect fit for the moody set, a simple bedroom in disarray with an eery mirrored floor.
Tenor Erik N. Werner was already on stage and in character as the audience took their seats. A charismatic actor with a clear musicality to his voice and perfect German diction, Werner brought a refreshing everyman quality to the role of Werther. An edgy, obsessed everyman that is — Werner kept the dramatic tension suspenseful. You never knew when he might fly into a rage (which he did on several occasions smashing a mirror and tearing a bed apart) or crack under the heartbreak of his unrequited love for Lotte.
Schumann gave a nuanced and passionate performance from the piano that was set behind a scrim, the shimmering dressing gown she wore echoing the one worn by Jennifer Hart Jackson who played the Lotte character in a silent role.
A highly original and creative approach to a classic, “Winterreise/Werther” was superbly and movingly performed by Werner and Schumann and offered a welcome new avenue to experience a treasured jewel of 19th-century music.
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Brazilian Guitar Quartet not to be missed
The critics have raved about the Brazilian Guitar Quartet since the foursome jumped onto the scene almost a decade ago.
The Los Angeles Times has noted their “world-class degree of precision, near-perfect balance and sensitive musicality.” The New York Times pointed out their “virtuosic flair.” And the Washington Post wrote: “It’s hard to imagine J.S. Bach played with more seductive beauty than in the Brazilian Guitar Quartet’s performance.”
Austin will get luck Friday night when the quartet plays, a concert co-presented by Austin Classical Guitar Society and Austin Chamber Music Center as part of the Austin Chamber Music Festival.
Friday’s concert includes an impressive offering of music spanning several centuries. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 4 joins excerpts from Albeniz’s Iberia Suite. And the Quartet also nicely presents music of modern and contemporary Brazilian classical composers which too frequently go un-performed in this country. Short works by Ronaldo Miranda, Camargo Guarnieri and Franscisco Mignone joins the roster along with the better known — and utterly captivating — ‘Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1’ by Heitor Villa-Lobos.
The concert is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Northwest Hills United Methodist Church, 7050 Village Center Dr. Tickets are $25. See www.austinchambermusic.org of www.austinclassicalguitar.org for details.
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‘Craigslist’ adds shows, ‘Skate’ selling quickly
Due to popular demand the producers of ‘Kidnapped by Craigslist,’ Shrewd Productions, have added two shows this weekend. Additional shows will run at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Regularly scheduled shows are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, at the Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale Road.
The play by Katie Goan and Nitra Gutierrez is pulled from actual postings found on Austin’s Craiglist, most particularly the ‘Rants and Raves’ lists.
Meanwhile, Forklift Danceworks reports that tickets are selling briskly to ‘Skate,’ choreographer Allison Orr’s newest work.
This time Orr — who has choreographed dances for firemen, dogs and Elvis impersonators among others — turns her attention to rollerskating. ‘Skate,’ which is at 8 p.m. Thursday and Sunday at Austin’s Playland Skate Center, features a cast of nearly 30 roller skaters including local jam skaters, competitive figure skaters and skaters from the Texas Rollergirls league. Tickets to to the show include one of skate rental for the after-show skate party. Whee!
Check out rehearsal video clips at http://forkliftdanceworks.blogspot.com/
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Don Howell: In Memoriam
We are sorry to report that retired high-school theater teacher and arts supporter Don Howell passed away Monday peacefully and at home, after a 10-month battle with throat cancer. He was 76 years old. Per his wishes, funeral services for Howell will not be held, though friends say a memorial event may be planned for the future.
Because of his contributions to Austin’s emerging theater scene in the 1980s and 1990s, Howell was recently named to the Austin Critics’ Table Austin Arts Hall of Fame.
In a feature on the 2008 Arts Hall of Fame, American-Statesman reporter Michael Barnes wrote:
For most readers, the least familiar name on this year’s Austin Arts Hall of Fame list will be Don Howell. Yet an Austin theatergoer could not pick up a printed program during the 1990s without spotting Howell’s name among the patrons gratefully acknowledged. That’s because the retired high-school drama teacher from Alice made it his mission to encourage the youthful theater companies that were then springing up in Austin like wildflowers.
Howell made small cash donations, but his greater service was nurturing and nudging artists such as Vicky Boone, Steve Moore, Bonnie Cullum, Jennifer Haley, Norman Blumensaadt, and Robi and Michelle Polgar as they first spread their wings. While Austin theater was making its reputation nationally as a place for creative innovation, Howell was there to guide the grass-roots troupes that put the performances on the stage, often in lightly renovated warehouses.
A producer and dramaturge as well, Howell volunteered regularly for Austin Circle of Theaters, transformed during the early 1990s under Ann Ciccolella into an essential arts advocacy organization. Before teaching in Alice, he worked for the pioneering director Margo Jones at her Dallas theater, and studied and toured with founder Paul Baker. He studied with Sanford Meisner at New York’s Neighborhood Playhouse and later worked alongside Nina Vance at Houston’s Alley Theatre.
Howell was an active witness to three profound transformations of Texas and American theater: the regional theater movement of the 1940s through 1960s; the near-universal postwar proliferation of high-school drama through the University Interscholastic League; and the rise of the warehouse theater movement in Austin during the 1990s and early 21st century.
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Review: ‘Red Balloon’ at Salvage Vanguard Theatre
Accompanied by the tinkle of a glockenspiel, Mark Stewart slowly spins, hugging a giant red balloon. The moment is enchanting.
Stewart is the artistic director of Tongue and Groove Theatre and the central boy in the company’s newest production, “The Red Balloon.” The play, running at Salvage Vanguard Theatre through July 26, brings the short 1956 French film of the same name to the stage.
But it is the production’s offstage aspects — a live band playing music by Justin Sherburn and animated projections by Jennifer Sherburn — that give the show warmth. By the time a cadre of balloons float the boy away as real balloons rain down, I felt like Stewart’s balloon — hugged in public. The play’s sentimentality is not too gooey, but instead fresh and charming.
Through movement and cartoon, Sherburn, who is also the choreographer, creates a stroll-able city for Stewart and cohort. Projections of city sidewalks and buildings scroll backwards as the actors walk in place. With the exception of the oddly graceful balloon that thinks for itself, this is any city, anywhere. The anonymous locale is the play’s largest shift from the film, which situates its characters in post-WWII Paris.
But comfort can be more openly prized in the Tongue and Groove show than in a war-torn France. The show’s music progresses from tinkle and plip-plop to harder rock. The eight-person ensemble picks up the audience and cast, carrying them along. Stewart and his balloon will face adversity; Kelli Bland is the funniest long-legged hoodlum in the duo’s path. No matter: Music, cartoon and omniscient balloon assure that all will end well.
(Tongue and Groove Theatre’s ‘The Red Balloon’ continues at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through July 26 at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. $10-$30, sliding scale.)
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Long Center budget update
Reports that the new $77 million Long Center for the Performing Arts is facing budget shortfalls are wrong, Long Center executive director Cliff Redd said.
“We’ve said all along that revenues from ticket sales and facility rentals will not cover all the costs of running the Long Center each year,” Redd said. “Like every other non-profit, we have to raise money every year.”
The Long Center’s current annual budget is $8.8 million. Redd said preliminary projections indicated earned income from endowments, ticket sales and rental fees would cover all but $1.5 million.
However about $500,000 in additional parking and security costs have upped the figure to $2 million, Redd said. Insufficient public parking at the city-owned parking garage adjacent Palmer Events Center garage has meant that additional traffic control and security personnel are needed for each event. “We weren’t expecting to have to shoulder those additional expenses,” Redd said. “But we’ve already started fundraising for it.”
Published reports also said that Long Center had asked the city for money. However Redd said the Long Center, like dozens of other Austin arts organizations, has simply applied for funding through the city’s cultural funding program for the first time. The cultural arts funding contracts are announced in September. Last year, the city awarded a total of $5.5 million to Austin arts groups. Among the largest cultural contracts were $150,000 to Ballet Austin and $146,000 to Paramount Theatre. The Long Center has applied for $200,000.
In April, a massive traffic and parking snarl left opera-goers tangled with people headed to a reggae festival on Auditorium Shores adjacent to the center. The 1,200-space city-owned Palmer Events Center garage — which serves the Palmer and Long centers. With additional parking spaces in nearby city-owned garages at Town Lake Center and One Texas Center, both on Barton Springs Road, there are a total of 2,254 spaces available.
The Dell Hall, the Long Center’s main venue, has 2,400 seats. The Long Center’s Rollins Studio Theatre can accommodate up to 240 people. Estimated peak capacity for the Palmer Events Center is 6,000, according to the city.
Built to replace the city-owned 1959 Palmer Auditorium, the Long Center was built by a private non-profit organization started by backers of the Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Ballet Austin in order to give those organizations a permanent performance venue. The $77 million raised for the new center came entirely from private donations.
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Review: “The Clean House”
What’s not to find charming about Sarah Ruhl’s “The Clean House,” the delicate and soulful comedy now getting a whip-smart production at Zach Theatre?
Ruhl manages to translate to the stage the kind of magical realism usually found only on the page. In the world she crafts, absurdity becomes the norm, metaphor and imagination morph into reality and forgiveness is not only possible, but the actual path to peace and happiness.
And, oh, yes — it is possible to die laughing from the best joke in the world.
Lane (Lauren Lane) and Virginia (Barbara Chisholm) are two uptight middle-age sisters — both childless, both driven and compulsive, both ultimately unhappy. Lane is a successful doctor whose life is carefully circumscribed by her demanding career and her equally successful doctor husband. Virginia is a housewife who, out of boredom, compulsively cleans.
Entering into this sterile world — wonderfully realized by set designer Michael Raiford with minimal ultra-white and clear acrylic furnishings — is Mathilde (Smaranda Ciceu), a Brazilian woman in her twenties who has been employed by Lane as a housekeeper. Only the problem is, Mathilde gets depressed when she cleans. Daughter of “the two funniest people in Brazil,” it’s up to her to now by the funniest person in Brazil and so Mathilde longs to come up with the best joke in the world.
But when Virginia makes a deal with Mathilde to secretly clean Lane’s house so long as Mathilde pretends to do it, worlds begin to collide. And when Lane’s husband Charles (Tom Green) proclaims that he has found his true soulmate in an older yet life-loving woman named Ana (Alicia Kaplan), everyone’s carefully-constructed world unravels. Ruhl’s gift as a playwright is her subtle shifting between classic comedic realism and wonderfully imaginative flights of fancy. Brilliant and clever punch lines surprise. But then so do surreal dream-like scenes. A trip to Alaska to retrieve a cancer-curing tree? Sure, why not.
Lane and Chisholm are perfectly in synch as a comedic duo, each actress bringing loads of complexity and nuance to their terribly unhappy characters. As Mathilde, Ciceu charms with a combination of innocence and supreme wisdom.
Director Dave Steakley keeps a delicate hand on it all, leaving Ruhl’s sparkling script to sparkle on its own merits.
After all, it would be a shame to upset the balance of such an oddly balanced and charming world view.
“The Clean House” continues 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Whisenhunt Stage, Zach Theatre, 1510 Toomey Road. $28-$37 ($15 on Wednesdays). 476-0541, www.zachscott.com.
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Review: Austin Chamber Music Festival
Partway through the first week of this summer’s Austin Chamber Music Festival, it is clear that artistic director Michelle Schumann is building boldly on her impressive first season. The exciting new ingredient this summer is the new venues at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.
Tuesday evening offered the Gryphon Trio in Dell Hall. Though both performers and audience were a bit swallowed up in the lovely but large space, the players were fairly successful scaling everything up to fill the room. Pianist Jamie Parker has a bright, brilliant touch. With the piano lid fully open, his sound was much more present than that of cellist Roman Borys, though Borys consistently made himself heard. Violinist Annalee Patipatanakoon, however, was swamped more than once by the pianistic tidal wave.
One thing that this ensemble does well is balance and clarify a texture so that the music takes on a tactile quality. And though these musicians think and move as one — no small achievement — the music was always brilliant and facile, never moving. With the opening Mozart Trio this lack wasn’t so marked. But Dvorák’s “Dumky” trio was never warm and glowing, and the tango by Astor Piazzolla played as an encore lacked color and allure.
Last Saturday’s concert was interesting in an unusual way. The Cecilia String Quartet, a young, multiprize-winning ensemble, presented a satisfying though not always polished program in the Long Center’s Rollins Studio Theatre. The group is still building the techniques required of chamber music professionals.
Though the music making always had the right idea, the focus wasn’t always there.
But Rollins Theatre has a suspended wood floor that makes the entire room a sounding board for the music. I don’t remember the last time I heard a cello sound so naturally resonant in a concert, and the violins and the viola benefited in the same way. The only catch is that any audience noise is just as audible as the music; but we can learn to be quiet, can’t we, friends?
David Mead is an American-Statesman freelance classical music critic.
The Austin Chamber Music Festival continues through July 26 at various venues. Schedules and details at www.austinchambermusic.org.
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The Beats go on Thursday
Here’s something to really howl about.
Thursday night, the Harry Ransom Center and the Austin Chamber Music Center are teaming up to present the Tosca String Quartet in a tribute to the Beat poets.
Specifically, the captivating Tosca will play Boston composer Lee Hyla’s arrangement of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” the ultimate Beat Generation poem.
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,” goes the now-famous (infamous?) first line.
And best yet, Thursday’s event is FREE. It starts at 7:30 p.m. in Jessen Auditorium in Rainey Hall on the south end of the University of Texas campus.
Thursday’s show is held in conjunction with the Ransom Center’s exhibit “On the Road with the Beats” with is open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays. The Ransom Center is right next door to Rainey Hall.
Also on the program is a musical and vocal performance of Jack Kerouac’s “American Haiku” with John Mills on saxophone and Robert Kraft on vocals, a performance of “On the Road” with Graham Reynolds on keyboard and Kraft on vocals
Also on the program is a screening of two different versions of Shirley Clarke’s experimental 7-minute 1959 film “Bridges-Go-Round.” Shot around New York City, the film is a collage composition of footage of bridges filmed from unusual and surprising angles. Clarke commissioned two scores for the film. Teo Macero’s melodic score for brass and voices and Louis and Bebe Barron’s synthesizer and mechanical-sounding score.
Clarke, who trained as a dancer and choreographer before turning to filmmaking, once said, “You can make a dance film without dancers.”
Everybody, wear your black berets and be there, or be square.
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Art Palace has fun off the gallery wall tonight
7 p.m. tonight. It’s free. Do this:
In conjunction with the exhibit “The Longest Day of the Year,” Austin artist Erick Michaud gives one of his offbeat performances, and artists Erin Curtis, Jules Buck Jones and Jonathan Marshall talk about their work.
Art Palace Gallery
2109 Cesar Chavez St.
496-0687
www.artpalacegallery.com.
“The Longest Day of the Year” is simply one of the best group exhibits out there right now: Bright, fresh, rewarding new work by some of Austin’s brightest emerging artists. But hurry — it’s the last week and the show closes this Saturday.
Photos courtesy Art Palace.
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Sheppard retires from Chorus Austin
From Chorus Austin comes the news that artistic director Kenny Sheppard is retiring from the post he’s held for more than seven years.
The official announcement.
Kenny Sheppard has retired from his position as Artistic Director of Chorus Austin. In a letter to the chorus, Sheppard expressed profound appreciation for the opportunity to have worked with the talented and committed musicians of the Austin Civic Chorus and the Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble.
During his seven and one-half years’ tenure, Sheppard conducted more than 50 concerts for Chorus Austin including performances at Carnegie Hall in New York, The International Festival-Institute at Round Top, the convention of the Texas Choral Director’s Association in San Antonio, and the Georgetown Festival of the Arts.
With Chorus Austin, Sheppard appeared as guest conductor of the Austin Symphony six times, and he prepared the chorus for eleven additional performances with the ASO. Two of these collaborations were voted as outstanding performances of their category by the Austin Critics Table: Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov” was named outstanding choral performance for 2003, and Shostakovich’s “Babi Yar” was named outstanding symphonic concert for 2006. A third collaboration, Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony,” was nominated in as outstanding symphonic performance in 2005. Sheppard most recently worked with the ASO in May when he prepared the chorus for another performance of Beethoven’s “Ninth Symphony” at the Long Center.
Two additional concerts by Chorus Austin under Sheppard’s direction were nominated as outstanding choral concerts by the Austin Critics Table: “Mass in Time of War” by Haydn and “St. Paul” by Mendelssohn. Sheppard’s final concert with Chorus Austin was at St. Ignatius Church in Prague, Czech Republic, as part of a European concert tour.
Sheppard will continue his full-time position as Professor of Music at Southwestern University and as Director of the Conductor’s Institute of Southwestern University. He is in the process of recruiting singers to establish the Festival Chorus for the Georgetown Festival of the Arts, 2009.
Chorus Austin will continue with is 2008-2009 season, “Ascension,” as planned, with auditions being held on August 25, September 1, and September 2. The organization will be appointing interim conductor(s) to prepare and lead the ensembles while a national search for a permanent Artistic Director is in process. Any interested parties should contact Brian Wagner, Executive Director, about submission of resumes and for more details on available positions.
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Pix from ‘Russian Masters’ Hoot Night
Missed the Russian Masters Hoot Night at Beerland on Saturday?
Composers Graham Reynolds and Peter Stopschinski and a host of their musical pals rocked out the likes of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky.
Click here for pix.
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City announces free business and professional development workshops for Creatives
The City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division has released details on its new program BOOST!: Business and Professional Development Workshops for Creatives.
The details from the official release:
The City of Austin Cultural Arts Division (CAD) presents BOOST! Taking it to the Next Level: Business and Professional Development Workshops for Creatives (or “BOOST!” for short). Experienced artists, arts professionals, conservators, business service providers, and other experts will offer an exciting lineup of experiences and information for individual creatives, arts and culture organizations, creative industry businesses, members of the art community, and general public. BOOST! workshops will be held on several dates during the month of July.
Limited seating is available for many of the workshops; RSVPs are suggested.
In response to the community conversation of the CreateAustin Cultural Master Plan, CAD is expanding their annual workshops to include two new tracks this summer and fall. The BOOST! workshop series will feature Nonprofit Arts and Culture, Business Skills, and Public Art sessions, targeting creative individuals, nonprofit arts and culture organizations and for-profit creative industries businesses.
THE NONPROFIT ARTS AND CULTURE TRACK
The Nonprofit Arts and Culture Track offers workshops for the nonprofit that is seeking 501c3 status, for the first time fundraiser and for the grant writer honing his or her skills. So You Want to Become a Nonprofit? - Nuts and Bolts of Becoming a 501c3 is meant for organizations ready to take the leap into nonprofit status. Show me the Money! - Fundamentals of Fundraising will give participants tools on how to examine their resources in order to determine the best way to begin, fundamentals for achieving fundraising objectives, and an introduction and expansion on various approaches to fundraising. The Inside Track on Grantwriting will give insight into the application and decision making process from an insider familiar with both sides of the fence.
THE BUSINESS SKILLS TRACK
Both nonprofit groups and for-profit creative businesses can benefit from the Business Skills Track. The July workshop, presented in partnership with the City of Austin’s Small Business Development Program, is the two-part class Roadmap to Success: How to Write a Business Plan. Participants will be given step-by-step instruction on how to develop a business plan for a small business startup or expansion that can be submitted to a financial institution or used for implementation.
THE PUBLIC ART TRACK
The Austin Art in Public Places Program (AIPP) offers two events during the month of July. Artists Jill Bedgood, Rolando Briseno, Ben Livingston, Damian Priour, Ann Adams and Margo Sawyer will lead a group around the art-filled Austin Convention Center for Public Art 101: Walk and Talk with Public Artists. Participants will hear from the artists about their experience in public art, what they find rewarding (or risky), what they have learned along the way, and what advice they have for artists considering making the leap into public art.
AIPP is also offering the first-ever Public Art Crawl: Find Public Art in Your Neighborhood, community volunteer effort to help preserve public art. Participants will enjoy a guided downtown tour of the City’s Public Art Collection, meet with a local arts conservator to learn about the effect of environmental factors on public art, and then team-up for some investigative reporting on the condition of public artworks throughout the City.
For full workshop descriptions, locations and times, please visit www.cityofaustin.org/redevelopment/cad.htm.
This project is supported by a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
July 2008 Workshop Lineup
NONPROFIT ARTS & CULTURE TRACK
So You Want to Become a Nonprofit? - Nuts & Bolts of Becoming a 501c3
Facilitated by Candyss Bryant from the ACC Center for Community-Based and Nonprofit Organizations, this workshop is meant for organizations ready to take the leap to become a 501c3. Bryant will guide participants through learning about nonprofits, how to instill and promote organizational effectiveness from the start, and what steps to take their organization in order to obtain 501C3 status.
When: Wednesday, July 16, 2008; 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm
Where: Austin Community College, Highland Business Center, Room 201, 5930 Middle Fiskville Rd.
How: RSVP to (512) 974-7854 or Barbara.Sparks@ci.austin.tx.us
Limited to 25 participants; free parking available.
Show Me the Money! - Fundamentals of Fundraising
For those new to fundraising, this workshop may be just the thing. Taught by Austin native Ron Scales of Houston-based Exempt Help, the workshop will give participants tools on how to examine their resources in order to determine the best way to begin, fundamentals for achieving fundraising objectives, and an introduction and expansion on various approaches to fundraising.
When: Thursday, July 24, 2008; 1 pm to 5 pm
Where: International Center of Austin, 201 E. 2nd St.
How: RSVP to (512) 974-7854 or Barbara.Sparks@ci.austin.tx.us
Limited to 25 participants; parking ticket will be validated.
The Inside Track on Grant Writing
Participants of this workshop with get the unique perspective of Sue Breland of Breland Facilitation. With experience working with the City of Austin Cultural Contracts Program and most recently as the Community Relations representative for Applied Materials, Breland is known for her transformative and fun approach to training. Her experience from both sides of the funding fence will provide eye opening insight into the application and decision making process.
When: Tuesday, July 29, 2008; 1 - 5 pm
Where: City Hall, Boards & Commissions Room, 301 W. 2nd St.
How: RSVP by to (512) 974-7854 or Barbara.Sparks@ci.austin.tx.us
BUSINESS SKILLS TRACK
Presented in partnership with the City’s Small Business Development Program - For both nonprofit arts and culture organizations and for-profit creative industries businesses
Roadmap to Success: Writing a Business Plan Part 1 and 2 (2-part class)
Both nonprofit groups and for-profit businesses can benefit from this two-part workshop presented in partnership with the City of Austin’s Small Business Development Program. Taught by an Austin Community College Trainer, participants will be given step-by-step instruction on how to develop a business plan for a small business startup or expansion that can be submitted to a financial institution or used for implementation.
When: Wednesday and Thursday, July 30 & 31, 2008; 6 - 9 pm
Where: International Center of Austin, 201 E. 2nd St.
How: RSVP to 974-7860 or Janet.Seibert@ci.austin.tx.us
PUBLIC ART TRACK
Public Art 101: Walk and Talk with Convention Center Public Artists
Come join artists Jill Bedgood, Rolando Briseno, Ben Livingston, Damian Priour, Ann Adams and Margo Sawyer as they stroll around the art-filled Austin Convention Center for Public Art 101: Walk and Talk with Public Artists. Participants will hear from the artists about their experience in public art, what they find rewarding (or risky), what they have learned along the way, and what advice they have for artists considering making the leap into public art. Information on Austin’s Art in Public Places (AIPP) program will be available, and a free take-home guide full of useful information and resources is included.
When: Wednesday, July 23, 2008; 7 - 9 pm
Where: Austin Convention Center (Meeting Room 2); 500 E. Cesar Chavez *
How: * FREE PARKING coupon available with RSVP: Meghan Turner, (512) 974-9314 or Meghan.Turner@ci.austin.tx.us . (Parking garage entrance on Brazos St.)
Public Art Crawl: Find Public Art in Your Neighborhood
Austin is invited to join a community volunteer effort to help preserve the City’s public art collection. Participants will enjoy a guided downtown tour of public art, meet with a local arts conservator to learn about the effect of environmental factors on outdoor art and then team-up for some investigative reporting on the condition of public artworks throughout the City. Those in attendance will become honorary members of the AIPP Task Force 2008 and will be provided with field notebooks and T-shirts to report on the condition of an artwork of their choice. The condition assessments generated from this workshop will be used to develop a plan for the ongoing care and maintenance of public art in Austin.
When: Saturday, July 26, 2008; 10 am - 1 pm
Where: Austin Museum of Art, Community Room; 823 Congress Ave. at 9th St.
How: Seating for the Public Art Crawl is limited. RSVP to (512) 974-9308 or Katherine.Macy@ci.austin.tx.us to reserve your spot.
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Weekend Arts Pix
TODAY THROUGH SATURDAY
‘Kidnapped By Craigslist.’ Need to sell a car? Find a roommate? Adopt a cat? Combining actual postings from the Austin Craigslist Web site along with scripted material, ‘Kidnapped by Craigslist’ tells the true stories from inside the online community that became so important to the Internet generation. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. Blue Theater, 916 Springdale Road. $12-$25. 927-1118, www.texasperforms.com
TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY
‘The Clean House.’ A Pulitzer Prize finalist for best play, Sarah Ruhl’s quirky comedy follows a Brazilian housekeeper who would rather be a comedian than work for an unhappy woman. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Aug. 17. Whisenhunt Stage, 1510 Toomey Road. Thursday: $28; Friday and Sunday $32; Wednesday: $15. 476-0541, www.zachscott.com
SATURDAY
Cecilia String Quartet. As part of the Austin Chamber Music Center’s annual summer festival, the acclaimed female string quartet plays Haydn’s ‘Sunrise’ String Quartet, Brahms String Quartet Opus 51, No. 1 and contemporary American composer Belinda Reynolds’ ‘Static Motion’ 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. $25. 474-5664, www.austinchambermusic.org.
SATURDAY
‘Us: In the Mix.’ Austin photographer Ricardo Acevedo has spent the last several months documenting what he calls Austin’s ‘rainbow families.’ ‘American faces have become a feast of ethnic blending,’ he says. ‘The beauty of our hybrid selves … (moves) beyond the invisible borders of country and state.’ A new exhibit features his documentary project. Opening reception: 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday. Regular gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays-Fridays. Exhibit continues through Aug. 2. New East Arts Gallery, 1601 E. Fifth St., Suite 106. Free. 477-9438, www.diversearts.org.
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The newest Rude
Maybe it was the balloons he tied his manhood and then pranced around the stage in “The Method Gun” for all to see?
Thomas Graves has joined the venerable <strong>Rude Mechs theater collective as a Co-producing Artistic Director. Graves joins company founders Madge Darlington, Lana Lesley, Kirk Lynn, Shawn Sides and Sarah Richardson in the venerated role in the 13-year-old celebrated theater collective.
Congrats Thomas!
That’s Thomas on the far right, ripping his shirt off in “The Method Gun.” He took off a lot more than that in the show.
Photo by Bret Brookshire.
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Celebrating the Zilker summer musical
We’re celebrating 50 summers of the Zilker summer musical.
Read here about how the free musical in the park has endured as an Austin tradition.
Have memories or anecdotes about the Zilker summer musical? Share them here in the comments section.
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The 3rd and 5th of July
It’s not all about the 4th this weekend.
Tonight, head over to D. Berman Gallery from 6 to 8 p.m. for the opening of “Line/Form” the group exhibit featuring Alice Leora Briggs, Jeffrey Dell, Mary McCleary, Joseph Phillips and Shawn Smith.
An online preview of “Line/Form” hints at show that’s both beguiling and a little unsettling. Cool!
“Test Boy” by Alice Leora Briggs.
Then on the 5th, the “Fifth of July: Anna Krachey and Barry Stone” opens at Okay Mountain with a reception from 7 to 10 p.m.
“Fifth” looks sublime.
Anna Krachey.
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George Brant wins Keene Prize
George Brant, who just graduated from the University of Texas’ James A. Michener Center for Writers, has won the 2008 Keene Prize for Literature, one of the world’s largest student literary prizes.
Brant will receive $50,000. An additional $50,000 will be divided among three finalists: Smith Henderson, Domenica Ruta, Sarah Smith.
Brant’s play “Elephant’s Graveyard” was chosen out of 51 submissions in drama, poetry and fiction. In addition to the Keene Prize, the play earned the 2008 David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center. Produced at the university last fall, it was honored as Best New Play by the Austin Critics’ Table. Brant was a finalist for the Keene Prize in 2006 for his play “N O K.”
“‘Elephant’s Graveyard’ is an original and imaginative drama,” said Elizabeth Butler Cullingford, chair of the Department of English and chair of the award selection committee. “Brant uses the true story of Mary, a circus elephant who killed a handler and was executed by hanging, to create a portrait of small-town Tennessee life in 1916. Brant transforms a grotesque historical incident into a moving and metaphorically resonant narrative.”
“Elephant’s Graveyard,” staged by UT Dept. of Theatre and Dance
Members of the 2008 selection committee included: Cullingford; Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts; Robert Schmidt, chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance; Joanna Hitchcock, director of The University of Texas Press; and resident author Tom Zigal, speechwriter for President William Powers Jr.
Established in 2006, the Keene Prize is named after E.L. Keene, a 1942 graduate of the university, who envisioned an award that would enhance and enrich the university’s prestige and reputation in the international market of American writers. The competition is open to all UT undergraduate and graduate students.
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UT’s Butler School of Music taps Ray Benson as advisor
The Austin Live Music Academy, the post-secondary one-year commercial music program run under the auspices of the University of Texas’ Butler School of Music, has tapped Asleep At The Wheel founder and Grammy-winning musician Ray Benson to serve as artistic advisor.
The academy’s recording classes are already taught at Benson’s Bismeaux Studios.
Courses in songwriting, music business and recording are taught by successful Austin musicians such as Will Sexton, Steve Summer, Glenn Patrick Harris and others.
The academy is currently accepting applications for students to begin the one-year program, which starts in September. The application deadline is July 15. See the academy Web site for more information.
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International Tap Association moves to Austin
This just danced in…
Acia Gray, co-founder and executive/artistic Director of Tapestry Dance Company has taken over the helm as president of ihe International Tap Association,.
Founded in 1987 with Charles “Honi” Coles, honorary chairman, and Gregory Hines as honorary president, the organization is a worldwide service organization for the art of tap dance.
Tapestry is the nation’s only professional tap dance company. And Gray was an original ITA steering committee member and more recently part of the panel of The National Tap Plan, a report of the state of the art funded by the National Endowment of the Arts.
Gray has spent the last two years busily presenting “The Souls of Our Feet: A Celebration of American Tap Dance” around the nation to great acclaim, the historic tribute show she created under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Arts: American Masterpieces presenting program.
“The Souls of Our Feet.” Photo courtesy Tapestry Dance Company.
