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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > September
September 2008
Di Suvero applauded at UT
About 100 people Friday afternoon gathered in the shade of the Live Oak trees that line one side of the School of Engineering quad on the UT campus. Scores of students passed by without a second look, ear buds cutting them off from the world around them and indifferent to the towering red abstract steel sculpture that now anchors the quad. Maybe someday they’ll realize its importance?
That indifference from student passers-by didn’t faze the people gathered there for a celebration. This was the dedication of the installation of “Clock Knot,” a massive 41-foot sculpture by noted American artist Mark di Suvero. “Clock Knot” is on long-term loan to UT from the artist. Its presence is part of UT’s Landmarks public art program that’s brought a couple of dozen major public art works to campus.
“Clock Knot”
The 75-year-old Di Suvero said little after he was introduced. And while he was duly lauded by everyone, perhaps the most meaningful gesture came from poet and UT professor Kurt Heinzelman who wrote a poem on the installation of di Suvero’s work called ‘Clock Knot Square Dance.’ It starts:
The knees are bent so
that the hands of time
may touch for once their
own toes…
Mark di Suvero is greeted by Kurt Heinzelman (back to camera).
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Review: ‘Caroline, or Change’
Complex and thought-provoking, Tony Kushner’s “Caroline, or Change” — a sung-through musical set in Civil Rights-era Louisiana — gets a compelling and impeccable production from Zach Theatre.
More a modern chamber opera than a song-and-dance musical theater spectacle, “Caroline” doesn’t deal with the topics typically found in Broadway musicals (the show won a Tony Award for Best Actress during its Broadway run) — nor are there witty rhymes, dance extravaganzas and serendipitous plot turns. And that makes ‘Caroline’ an utterly refreshing modern musical — and utterly relevant theater.
And thanks to some stellar vocal performances as well as director Dave Steakley’s smart choice to leave well enough alone, Kushner’s story crackles with intelligence and pokes the conscience with its prescient thoughtfulness. ‘Caroline’ is a high-water mark of the fall theater season.
On the personal level, ‘Caroline’ is about a stoic and skeptical black housekeeper (Janis Stinson) working for a Jewish family, the Gellmans, in Lake Charles, La., and her close relationship with the family’s 8-year-old boy Noah (Matthew Moore) who has recently lost his mother and gained a stepmother, Rose (Meredith McCall). On the public level, the story is about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the swirling rise of the Civil Rights movement.
(Kushner, who won the Pulitzer for his epic two-part seven-hour “Angels in America,” was raised in Lake Charles in the 1960s. Zach Theatre produced “Angels” in 1998 and 1999.)
The “change” in Kushner’s title is cleverly two-fold. Young Noah has the bad habit of leaving spare change in his pants pocket which Caroline dutifully collects and puts in a cup to return to him. Meanwhile, outside the Gellman’s laundry room, powerful change shakes the country as the Civil Rights Movement gains momentum and pre-existing social, racial and political mores are threatened with implosion.
Armed with her well-intentioned New York liberalism, Noah’s stepmother tries to have an effect on her new life in the South and decides to teach Noah a lesson and tells Caroline to keep any change she finds. Caroline doesn’t know how to feel about this new-fangled form of charity, but she needs the money for her own children. And it doesn’t get any easier when Caroline finds a $20 bill in Noah’s pocket.
As a backdrop to this all too real situation, Kushner imagines a surreal cast of secondary characters. There’s a 1960s girl group trio that represents the radio that is Caroline’s laundry room companion, the washing machine (a powerful Sarah Yvonne Jones) and the dryer (Frank Viveros) pop up to give voice as witness to Caroline’s grinding daily routine. Even the bus (Viveros again with his strong and vivid voice) Caroline takes home becomes a voice in the chorus — and the messenger who tells of Kennedy’s assassination.
Applause is due to the young and clear-voiced Matthew Moore who plays Noah with a convincing anxiousness and no stagey cuteness.
A much-celebrated veteran of Zach productions, Stinson enthralls as the enigmatic and conflicted Caroline and thoroughly captivates vocally with her rich voice.
The score, by Jeanine Tesori, blends everything from Motown to gospel to Jewish klezmer music together in an rollicking swirl with rapid shifts in mood and tone and was deftly handled by the six piece band led by Jason Connor.
Michael Raiford’s colorful rolling sets hinted nicely of place and time without overwhelming this fairly fast-paced storyline and struck a good balance between the play’s mix of realism and surrealism.
A surprise and a stand-out who veritably stole the show was Shavanna Calder as Emmie, Caroline’s strong-willed daughter. Calder is full of spark and full of lush nuanced singing.
There’s no easy resolutions in Kushner’s story — no denouements, no character or situation that clearly goes through a major change. But isn’t that the course of true change? It’s not in big sweeps, but in tiny increments.
Janis Stinson and Shavanna Calder.
‘Caroline, or Change’ continues 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 9. Zach Theatre, Kleberg Stage, W. Riverside Dr. and S. Lamar Blvd. $32-$48 ($20 on Wednesdays). www.zachtheatre.org.
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Review: ‘Cloud 9’
There’s always something to bring you down from Cloud 9: Sometimes it’s Victorian patriarchs flogging slaves and sometimes it’s the recognition that the liberation of the 1970s and ’80s just wrapped us up in our heads even more. In Caryl Churchill’s “Cloud 9,” now at St. Edward’s, the first seems almost preferable.
Churchill follows one family across the century, though they only age 25 years. In the first half, a colonial family painted in broad caricature romps its way through a few days of native uprisings and sexual trysts. As Clive, the patriarch of the family, Matt Radford beams dry patriotism—his moustache positively bristles with pride and scotch—while his wife, played, as many of the parts are written, cross-cast by Christopher Smith, simpers to be everything he wants.
In the second half, Babs George takes the role of the aged wife, now divorced, who, through a series of tenderly wry monologues takes charge of herself while Smith transforms in the role of a streetwise hustler, now the lover of her bisexual son, played with affecting, mild sincerity by Jon Wayne Martin.
The first half, with a constant hustle through the stage and bustle on it, is a solid hour of laughs. The second, while often bitterly comic, emphasizes a more human element. The contrast, handily performed on both sides by all involved, makes each more effective.
There’s not enough space to go through the laundry list of performances that deserve to be recognized from each actor. Suffice it to say, you’d be well served to catch one of the few remaining performances and, if you can’t, hope for an extended run.
“Cloud 9” continues at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. through October 5 at the Mary Moody Northern Theatre. 3001 S. Congress Ave. $12-$18. 448-8484.
Joey Seiler is an American-Stateman freelance arts critic.
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So you think you want to see modern dance?
So you think you want to see modern dance?
That’s good because you have plenty to see over the next couple of weeks. Why it is that dance events in this town all pop up at the same time, we don’t know. But here’s what you have to choose from this weekend:
Tere O’Connor Dance Dancing about architecture. New York-based Tere O’Connor Dance performs “Rammed Earth,” a piece initially inspired by the ancient building practice of creating walls from earth available at the site of construction.
“Rammed Earth” opens Wednesday at 8 p.m. and continues Thursday at 8 p.m., Friday at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., and Saturday at 2 p.m.0 at the Richland Dance Hall, 18312 Cameron Road. Advance tickets are $12-$15. Tickets at the door are $15-$18. (512) 450-0456, www.danceumbrella.com
“Rammed Earth”
Chaddick Dance Theatre
New to Austin, dancer and choreographer Cheryl Chaddick presents her first evening-length dancer concert here. Chaddick finds inspiration in women’s varying body types. Chaddick’s “The Gambit” features a trio of female dancers and expresses the drive and desire to make societal connections with the pressure of false introductions, fake personas and the battle to stay committed to the real self.
8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, AustinVentures Studio Theatre. 501 W. Third St. $20 at door, $15 advance, $10 students/seniors. 512-474-8497, www.texasperforms.com.
Chaddick Dance Theatre
‘A Thumping Raging Explosion of Light and Marvelous Texture.’
Austin choreographer Amanda Butterfield of Yellow Tape Construction Company creates an explosive 60-minute new ensemble dance work set to the live music of Austin indie rock band Masonic.
8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through Oct. 11. Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. $15. 466-5225, www.yellowtape.org.
Yellow Tape Construction Company
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Not into ACL? Here’s some arts alternatives
Not into the Austin City Limits festival this weekend?
You’ve got plenty of arts options:
— “Blackbird” at Hyde Park Theatre is a dark and compelling sexual drama that’s getting rave reviews
— Head to East Chavez Street and check out two very rewarding exhibits. At Art Palace, for an uncommonly delightful and intriguing joint exhibit by Elaine Bradford and Seth Mittag. And at Okay Mountain, William Cordova takes a sharp look at the kind of urban decay brought on by a culture of excess stuff. 
— ‘Bye Bye Bush’ With the countdown to the next presidential administration in its final weeks, the Latino Comedy Project pays tribute to the president who has provided the super-funny Austin sketch comedy troupe with an abundance of material. The award-winning LCP — whose YouTube videos have garnered more than 6 million hits — will reprise its favorite ‘W’ sketches with the inimitable Nick Walker playing the president in all his guises. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road, $12.
— Get your game on at Arthouse with “Reset/Play” a survey exhibit of recent forays into art influenced by or originating out of video games. Is this stuff prescient or just terribly clever? You decide.
Detail from “5-Minute Break,” digital video by Kristin Lucas.
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Di Suvero’s ‘Clock Knot’ lands at UT
Well, it’s not exactly an unveiling.
After all, Mark di Suvero’s massive sculpture ‘Clock Knot’ is already in place in its new home on the University of Texas campus.
But on Friday at 1:30 you can celebrate its dedication at a public ceremony. The 75-year-old Di Suvero will be on hand for the kudos. After all, the artist himself intiated the loan of the 40-foot steel sculpture to the UT. Word is that UT will eventually acquire it permanently. Di Suvero’s gesture is part UT’s new Landmarks public art program the backbone of which is a long-term loan of 28 mostly large-scale mid-to-late 20th-century sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum. (The Met had the works in storage and wasn’t displaying them.)
‘Clock Knot’ now lives on the northeast corner of Dean Keeton and Speedway.
Tomorrow’s ‘Clock Knot’ ceremony is held in conjunction with the opening of the new Blanton Museum exhibit, ‘Re-Imaging Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York.’
After the ‘Clock Knot’ dedication, Di Suvero, Dean Fleming, Tamara Melcher, and Forrest Myers, four of the founders of the Park Place Gallery, will talk informally about their pioneering venture in New York in the 1960s.
The panel discussion is at 3:30 p.m. Friday, 26 Sept., ACES Building, Avaya Auditorium. Admission is free.
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Actor Charles Dutton added to BAM line-up
Noted actor Charles Dutton — recognized for his performances in over 80 movies and television shows — has just been added to the roster of the Black Arts Movement Festival presented by Pro-Arts Austin.
Dutton will perform a one-man show — the title of which is to be announced soon — on Monday, October 13 at 8 p.m. at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.
The BAM Festival begins Oct. 3 and runs through Oct. 14. Also on the roster are Dalllas Black Dance Theatre, opera singer Othalie Graham and actor-writer Nadine Mozon.
In 1984, Dutton made his Broadway debut in August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” He later was nominated for a Best Actor Tony award for his role in another Wilson play, “The Piano Lesson. ” Dutton has appeared in films such as as “Alien,” “A Time to Kill,” “Cry, the Beloved Country” and most recently in “HoneyDripper.”
Dutton won Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy awards in 2002 and 2003 for his roles in “The Practice” and “Without a Trace.” He was previously nominated in 1999 for his guest-starring role in the HBO prison drama Oz. Dutton gained acclaim for his comedy show “Roc” and which won him a NAACP Image Award. In 2000, Dutton directed the critically acclaimed HBO mini series “The Corner.”
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Let’s hear it for lucha libre
Austin artist and enterprising self-starter Angel Quesada gathers up the work of some of his peers for what looks to be a fun exhibit that celebrates the Mexican pop culture phenom of lucha libre — you know, the stylized and very histrionic professional wrestling matches between colorfully masked and costumed luchadores.
Quesada’s corralled 11 artists from Texas, California, Mexico and Venezuela. You can preview the show here.
‘Enmascarados: An Homage to Lucha Libre’ opens with a reception 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday. The exhibit continues 1 to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Pump Project Art Project, 702 Shady Lane
Hey, this town is going to be crazy full with Austin City Limits fest-goers and football fans. If you’re not either, why not have some fun which it looks like Quesada and crew are up to.
“Pagliaccio” by Josè Rodriguez
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B. Iden Payne Awards nominees announced
The Austin Circle of Theaters has announced this year’s B. Iden Payne Awards nominees.
Lighting designer and five-time Payne award winner, Jason Amato, has been named this year’s special honoree.
This year’s awards ceremony will be in the Rollins Studio Theatre at the Long Center for the Performing Arts on October 26. There’s a pre-show reception and silent auction at 5:30 p.m.; the ceremony starts at 7 p.m.
ACoT presents the Payne Awards annually for excellence in acting, directing, design, production, music and writing across the following broad categories: plays for youth, comedy, drama and music theater. Nominations are made by ACoT’s B. Iden Payne Committee.
2007-2008 B. Iden Payne Award Nominations
PLAYS FOR YOUTH
Outstanding Production of a Play for Youth
Ashes, Ashes (UT Department of Theatre and Dance)
The Red Balloon (Tongue and Groove Theatre)
Seussical the Musical (Zachary Scott Theatre Center Performing Arts School)
The Shoemaker and the Elves (Freddy Carnes Productions)
Wiley and the Hairy Man (Second Youth Family Theatre)
Outstanding Director of a Play for Youth
Wendy Bable (Seussical the Musical)
Leslie K. Hollingsworth and Julianna Elizabeth Wright (Peter and the Wolf)
Andreá S. Smith (Wiley and the Hairy Man)
Dustin Wills (Ashes, Ashes)
David Yeakle (The Red Balloon)
Outstanding Actor in a Play for Youth
Freddy Carnes (Wilhelm, The Shoemaker and the Elves)
Skip Johnson (Puck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Mark Stewart (the Boy, The Red Balloon)
Eric Andrew Vera (Horton, Seussical the Musical)
José Villarreal (Cat in the Hat, Seussical the Musical)
Outstanding Actress in a Play for Youth
Kristin Bennett (Mammy, Wiley and the Hairy Man)
Kathleen Fletcher (Baby Bird, Mama Tomcat’s Flying School)
Joan Lazarus (Woman in the Hole, Ashes, Ashes)
Macey Mayfield (Gertrude, Seussical the Musical)
Fiona Rene (Caterpillar, Alice in Wonderland)
MUSIC THEATER
Outstanding Production of Music Theater
Beauty and the Beast (Zilker Theatre Productions)
Full Circle (SEU Mary Moody Northen Theatre)
On the Town (SEU Mary Moody Northen Theatre)
Speeding Motorcycle (Zachary Scott Theatre Center)
Troades: The Legend of the Women of Troy (VORTEX Repertory Company)
Outstanding Director of Music Theater
Rod Caspers (Assassins)
Bonnie Cullum (Troades)
David Long (Full Circle)
Scott Schroeder (Beauty and the Beast)
David Valdes (Bat Boy)
Outstanding Lead Actor in Music Theater
Daniel Adams (Chip, On the Town)
Greg Holt (Heiner Müller, Full Circle)
Cedric Neal (Sportin’ Life, Porgy and Bess)
Jacob Trussell (Bat Boy, Bat Boy)
Cary Winscott (skinny Joe the Boxer, Speeding Motorcycle)
Outstanding Lead Actress in Music Theater
Jill Blackwood (Pamela Dalrymple, Full Circle)
Marva Hicks (Bess, Porgy and Bess)
Helyn Rain Messenger (Dulle Griet, Full Circle)
Molly Wissinger (Belle, Beauty and the Beast)
Outstanding Featured Actor in Music Theater
Leslie Hethcox (Lumiere, Beauty and the Beast)
James La Rosa (Abraham, Altar Boyz)
Aaron Moten (Will Parker, Oklahoma!)
Scott Shipman (Cogsworth, Beauty and the Beast)
Zachary Ullah (Charles Guiteau, Assassins)
Outstanding Featured Actress in Music Theater
Wendy Goodwin (Kassandra, Troades)
Sherry Mauch (Ivy Smith “Miss Turnstiles”, On the Town)
Adriene Mishler (Dora, Sheila, Tooth and Nail: Plus Tooth 2!)
Amy Nichols (Narrator, The Ultimate Christmas Musical)
Janis Stinson (Maria, Porgy and Bess)
COMEDIES
Outstanding Production of a Comedy
The Brats of Clarence (Bedlam Faction)
Cellbloq (Naughty Austin Productions and Arts on Real Theater)
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead (Hyde Park Theatre)
Hamilton Township (Salvage Vanguard Theater)
Happy Days (Capital T Theatre)
Outstanding Director of a Comedy
Kirk German (Overwhelming Underdogs)
Mark Pickell (Happy Days)
Don Toner (Stones in His Pockets)
Ken Webster (Dog Sees God)
Blake Yelavich (Cellbloq)
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy
Joe Hartman (everyone, Overwhelming Underdogs)
Jude Hickey (Him, Hamilton Township)
Nathan Jerkins (Rosencrantz, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)
Matthew Radford (Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing)
Charles P. Stites (Roy Caulder, Lone Star)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy
Samantha Brewer (Elizabeth Caulder, Laundry and Bourbon)
Katherine Catmull (Winnie, Happy Days)
Smaranda Ciceu (Mathilde, The Clean House)
Lauren Lane (Lane, The Clean House)
Briana McKeague (Babe Botrelle, Crimes of the Heart)
Melissa Rentrop (Meg Magrath, Crimes of the Heart)
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Comedy
Mick D’arcy (Willie, Happy Days)
Tyler Jones (Father Welsh, The Lonesome West)
Mark Scheibmeir (Nikos, Big Love)
Ben Wolfe (Michael, Featuring Loretta)
Keith Yawn (Tripp, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress)
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Comedy
Liz Fisher (Sophie, Featuring Loretta)
Aleta Garcia (Mindy, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress)
Hannah Kenah (Turtleneck Inspector, Accidental Death of an Anarchist)
Bernadette Nason (Madame Arcati, Blithe Spirit)
Julianna Elizabeth Wright (Georgeanne, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress)
DRAMAS
Outstanding Production of a Drama
Death and the King’s Horseman (ProArts Collective & SEU Mary Moody Northen Theatre)
Doubt (Zachary Scott Theatre Center)
Elephant’s Graveyard (UT Department of Theatre and Dance)
Fefu and Her Friends (UT Department of Theatre and Dance)
The Method Gun (Rude Mechanicals)
Outstanding Director of a Drama
Stephen Gerald (Death and the King’s Horseman)
Laura Kepley (Elephant’s Graveyard)
Jenny Larson (You Are Pretty)
Shawn Sides (The Method Gun)
Leslie Swackhamer (Fefu and Her Friends)
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama
Wray Crawford (Martin Bahmueller, White People)
Barry Pineo (Willy Loman, Death of a Salesman)
Marc Pouhé (Elesin, Death and the King’s Horseman)
David Stahl (Henry Drummond, Inherit the Wind)
Charles P. Stites (Alan Harris, White People)
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama
Jen Brown (Sara, Stop Kiss)
Barbara Chisholm (performer, When Something Wonderful Ends)
Kathleen Fletcher (Catherine Holly, Suddenly Last Summer)
Jenny Keto (Fefu, Fefu and Her Friends)
Melissa Vogt-Patterson (Blue, Beirut)
Julianna Elizabeth Wright (Callie, Stop Kiss)
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Drama
Chris Doubek (George, Stop Kiss)
Tyler Jones (Happy, Death of a Salesman)
Ben Schave (Clown, Elephant’s Graveyard)
Paul Soileau (George Holly, Suddenly Last Summer)
Zell Miller, III (Saturn, Radio Silence)
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Drama
Kim Adams (Julia, Fefu and Her Friends)
Samantha Brewer (Reggie Fluty et al., The Laramie Project)
Paula Ruth Gilbert (Mrs. Holly, Suddenly Last Summer)
Tiffany Knight (Paula, Fefu and Her Friends)
Rachel McGinnis (Zubaida Ula et al., The Laramie Project)
Leng Wong (Mrs. Winsley, Nurse, Stop Kiss)
TECHNICAL
Outstanding Set Design
Arthur Adair (The Red Balloon)
Sarah Davidson (Fefu and Her Friends)
Lisa Laratta (Ashes, Ashes)
Michael Raiford (Porgy and Bess)
Andreá S. Smith (Wiley and the Hairy Man)
Outstanding Lighting Design
Arthur Adair (The Red Balloon)
Jason Amato (Beirut)
Jason Amato (Troades)
Natalie George (Hamilton Township)
Katy Hallee (Fefu and Her Friends)
Outstanding Sound Design
Billy Henry (Assassins)
Jeffrey Alan Jones (Death and the King’s Horseman)
Buzz Moran (Hamilton Township)
Outstanding Costume Design
Susan Branch (Fefu and Her Friends)
Pam Fletcher-Friday (Wiley and the Hairy Man)
Jan McCauley (Elephant’s Graveyard)
Sarah Mosher (Ashes, Ashes)
Derek Whitener (Porgy and Bess)
Outstanding Music Director
Anthony Barilla (Speeding Motorcycle)
Joe England & Michael McKelvey (Troades)
Michael McKelvey (Beauty and the Beast)
Michael McKelvey (Full Circle)
Justin Sherburn (The Red Balloon)
Outstanding Choreographer
Jean-Claude Lessou (Death and the King’s Horseman)
Robin Lewis (Porgy and Bess)
Jennifer Sherburn (The Red Balloon)
Lindsey Taylor and ensemble (Ashes, Ashes)
Judy Thompson-Price (Beauty and the Beast)
Outstanding Original Script
George Brant (Elephant’s Graveyard)
Freddy Carnes (The Shoemaker and the Elves)
Zell Miller, III (Radio Silence)
Rupert Reyes (Vecinos)
Blake Yelavich (Cellbloq)
Outstanding Original Score
Tim Doyle (The Ultimate Christmas Musical)
Sean T.C. O’Malley (Troades)
Justin Sherburn (The Red Balloon)
SPECIAL
Outstanding Cast Performance
Art (Penfold Theatre Company and City Theatre Company)
The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Renaissance Austin Theatre and VORTEX Repertory Company)
Dog Sees God (Hyde Park Theatre)
Doubt (Zachary Scott Theatre Center)
The Method Gun (Rude Mechanicals)
Outstanding Ensemble Performance
Jarrett King and Nathan Osburn (Hermann and Werner, Full Circle)
Jude Hickey and Benjamin Summers (Coleman and Valene, The Lonesome West)
Tyler Jones and Daniel Sawtelle (Hunters, Peter and the Wolf)
Content Love Knowles, Betsy McCann, Kira Parra, Emerald Mystiek, Ashley Edwards,
Leigh Shaw and Elizabeth Rast (Chorus, Troades)
Ariana Ervin, Joeleen Ornt, Laura Ray and D. Heath Thompson (Chorus, Wiley and the Hairy Man)
Outstanding Youth Performance
David Bologna (Mickey, Golly Gee Whiz!)
Monique Huff (Ado Annie, Oklahoma!)
Josh Mayes (Rev. Billy Hightower, Mrs. Taylor, ensemble, Bat Boy)
Brian Molina (Wiley, Wiley and the Hairy Man)
Collin Snyder (Eddie, Rough Night at the North Pole)
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Conspirare to tape PBS special — Free tix for live taping
Grammy-nominated Austin choir Conspirare will record a live concert with KLRU-TV for future PBS broadcast.
The one-hour concert — featuring everything from Bach to traditional spirituals to songs by Eliza Gilkyson and Dolly Parton — will air nationally on PBS in March 2009.
The concert will be performed and taped on Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 W. Riverside Dr., before a live audience.
Free tickets to the concert will be distributed to the public beginning at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 7, at KLRU-TV. Tickets will be distributed two-per-person on a first come, first served basis until they are gone. The KLRU studio is located at 2504-B Whitis Ave. at the corner of Dean Keeton and Guadalupe.
The concert is a veritable ‘greatest hits’ of Conspirare. On the program are Conspirare artistic director Craig Hella Johnson’s inspired arrangements of Parton’s ‘Light of a Clear Blue Morning’ and Annie Lennox’s ‘A Thousand Beautiful Things.’ Also on the bill is Samuel Barber’s ‘Agnus Dei,’ the choral version of Barber’s mesmerizing ‘Adagio for Strings’ and from the new Conspirare CD ‘Threshold of Night,’ there’s ‘Each Shall Arise’ by Tarik O’Regan.
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Review: ‘Field of Infinite Forms’
Several shouts of ‘bravo’ followed the ending flourish Friday night at the Long Center of ‘Field of Infinite Forms’ the engaging new piece by composer Christopher Theofanidis with electronic realizations by Mark Wingate.
And deservedly so.
Not only was ‘Field’; a delightful five-movement work that intriguingly nudged the boundaries of contemporary symphony orchestral music, it also signaled a major — and much-needed — artistic step forward into the 21st-century on behalf of Austin Symphony Orchestra who commissioned the piece from the 40-year-old celebrated composer.
Appropriately, Theofanidis and Wingate took the Long Center’s Dell Hall as a starting point for their piece, specifically making use of the new hall’s sharp acoustics and technically sophisticated sound system. Wingate works with a more a sophisticated version of Surround Sound that has the ability to make the origin of sound seemingly fluid. Theofanidis writes in a viscerally melodic style that unconsciously borrows from many classical and world music styles without ever being pretentious. Together they crafted an electro-acoustic symphonic piece that literally filled the Dell Hall — and all its corners — with captivating sound.
‘Field’ started with the sound of fluttering wings (and the unmistakable squeak of the Mexican free-tailed bats that live under Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge) rolling up from the rear of Dell Hall before swooping down to the stage, where the orchestra burst into a fanfare of sorts. That surging fanfare continued in an antiphonal pattern with the electronics, emphasizing the enveloping effect of the Surround Sound affects.
From there, Theofanidis and Wingate took us on a sublime and surprising journey through a new sonic landscape. At times a single pulse seemed to hang in the air above the audience before being picked up again by the orchestra (masterfully conducted by Peter Bay). At other times the ethereal sounds of gongs and bamboo wind chimes gracefully sighed while the electronic stylings added a breathy sonic aura.
‘Field’ ended with an appropriate series of aural explosions that built in drama that started with the electronics and then shifting to the orchestra, building in harmonic intensity to a flourishing finish.
‘Field of Infinite Forms’ sounded like no other piece the 98-year-old often very traditional Austin Symphony Orchestra has ever done. Yet for all its electronic stylings and effects, ‘Field’ was alluring and beguiling music — boldly going where American symphonic music has never gone before.
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Review: ‘Pink Sun’
On a large stage, set back from the audience, opera has grandeur. Made smaller, it can just seem goofy.
That’s the problem with ‘Pink Sun,’a new collaboration with ethos and The Vortex. In a small theater it comes off as the kind of theater sitcom writers spitball around when coming up with a project that their one artsy fartsy character drags all their friends to: a cybernetic opera featuring a pale man dressed in a pink robe and seashell hat and a woman with pink furry antlers like, well, a dyed, electrocuted Goofy singing about a space war.
From a musical standpoint, it can be fairly impressive in the small space. While I don’t usually care for electronica, when Chad Salvata and, especially, Melissa Vogt-Patterson sing, the small space positively resonates with power.
That’s not enough to overcome its limitations, though. The story, a sorcerer and siren ritually reenact a war between various tribes and angelic creatures, has an epic tone— which, frequently, the music reflects. But when wrapped in the Gothic cotton candy presentation, it’s hard to take seriously. The villainous King Muscle’s rape of the angelic pink Olo — with moves like a “Dirty Dancing” version of the Robot — inspired awkward titters, not shock or even empathy.
“Pink Sun” might make a great music video, but as an up-close opera, it’s just a little much.
(“Pink Sun” continues at 9 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays and 11 p.m. Saturdays through Sept. 28 at The Vortex, 2307 Manor Rd. $10-$30. 512-478-5282, vortexrep.org.)
Chad Salvata in “Pink Sun.”
Joey Seiler is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Conspirare CD makes Billboard Top 10
“Threshold of Night” the new CD by Grammy-nominated Austin choir Conspirare has made Billboard’s Top Ten Classical Music list this week. “Threshold” features the music of noted young composer Tarik O’Regan.
You can see the Billboard list here which as of the time this blog was posted, still contained a misspelling of ‘Conspirare.’
“Threshold of Night” was released on Sept. 9.
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‘Field of Infinite Forms’ infinitely intriguing
Four speakers hung above the stage in the Long Center’s Dell Hall Wednesday night while the Austin Symphony Orchestra musicians filled the stage. More speakers could be seen newly placed throughout the hall
What’s with the complex speaker set up for a symphony that is normally never amplified?
It’s Christopher Theofanidis’ intriguing new piece ‘Field of Infinite Forms,’ a five movement 15-minute new piece for orchestra and electronic stylings. The celebrated and award-winning Theofanidis (a native Texan) is collaborating with electro-acoustic musician Mark Wingate on ‘Field.’ The piece is a special commission from the symphony and premieres Friday and Saturday at the Long Center. Click here for ticket info.
We talked with Theofanidis last week for a preview article on the project.
Theofanidis and Wingate have been in town all week for rehearsals. And these are not your typical orchestra rehearsals. After all, the two found their inspiration in the Dell Hall itself, using its sophisticated acoustics and digital sound system and speakers as a creative starting point.
And that means the two composers have spent hours working with Long Center tech staff adjusting the arrangement of speakers. And then when it was time to rehearse with the musicians Wednesday night, careful coordination between the live sounds and pre-sampled electronic sounds made for a detail-driven drill.
We couldn’t be more excited about the significance of ‘Field’ — for the sake of new music and creative expression, yes, but also for the sake of the Austin Symphony Orchestra. In the 10 years he’s been on board, conductor and music director Peter Bay has done volumes in terms bringing contemporary and 20th-century music into the symphony’s repertoire. And what could be more appropriate for the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World?
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‘Happy Birthday Mr. Cage!’
Bang, bang, bang!
Pianist Michelle Schumann — Austin’s spirited and creative interpreter of the music legendary avant-garde composer John Cage — leads her annual celebration of the modern master.
Joining Schumann is the newly formed Cage Percussion Players. Modeled after the percussion ensemble that Cage started in 1938, the Austin ensemble — led by Thad Anderson — is a contemporary reincarnation dedicated to the performance and research of historical percussion ensemble repertoire.
Cool!
Schumann and the Players will present Cage’s complete ‘Construction’ series.
7:30 p.m. Friday
Armstrong Community Music School, Austin Lyric Opera, 901 Barton Springs Road
Tix: $10
512- 454-0026, www.austinchambermusic.org
Michelle Schumann. Photo by Ricardo Brazziell.
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Austin Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Announces Retirement
From a news release just issued by the Austin Symphony Orchestra
Austin Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Announces Retirement
It was announced today that Jim Reagan, Executive Director of the Austin Symphony Orchestra (ASO) for the past 10 years, has announced his retirement from the organization effective November 1, 2008. Reagan announced that he has accepted an assignment to become the CEO of a North Texas area Public Improvement District to develop a strategic program and lead the organization for a period of months full time, later becoming a consultant on a part time basis.
Reagan adds, “The ten years that I have had the privilege of leading the Austin Symphony has been the most enjoyable and rewarding in my entire career. The extraordinary support of the board of directors, staff, patrons and musicians has enabled us to become one of the most successful orchestras in the country.”
At the ASO’s quarterly Board of Directors meeting on September 17, President Joe R. Long acknowledged the great strides accomplished under Reagan’s tenure, including a decade of balanced budgets, a growth of the budget by 60%, increased subscription base of 25%, single tickets sales increase of 44% and a 100% increase in the annual development fund.
“I am particularly proud of the formation of the Butler Pops Series and the Hartman Concerts in the Park and the Addy Classical Artists Series. These new series have enabled the ASO to reach a vast new audience and has greatly increased our base. The steady growth of the size of the ASO endowment has helped make these programs possible,” stated Reagan.
Mr. Reagan feels confident that all of the programs in place for the next several months will enable the ASO to continue to operate smoothly while his successor is being sought. “I believe whoever has the great honor of being the next leader of the ASO will find a very sound symphony in place, both financially and organizationally, and can continue the excellence we have all come to expect.”
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Veronese ‘Head’ reunited with its wings
Ten years after the Blanton Museum of Art and the University of Texas plopped down $35 million for the Suida-Manning Collection of old master paintings and drawings, art historians in London have confirmed that one of the collection’s paintings by Venetian master Paolo Veronese is actually a missing fragment from a 16th-century Italian altarpiece.
Veronese’s “Head of an Angel” was recently identified as a fragment of an altarpiece created by Veronese around 1565 for the church of San Francisco at Lendinara, Italy. The altarpiece — known now as the Petrobelli altarpiece in honor of the patrons who originally commissioned it — was cut down and sold in pieces when the church closed in 1788 following the suppression of the Franciscan Order.
The identification was made by Xavier Salomon, curator of the Dulwich Picture Gallery outside London.
While conducting research for an upcoming exhibit, Salomon began to suspect that the Blanton painting was in fact the head of Saint Michael, the central figure in the Petrobelli altarpiece created at the height of the Veronese’s career. Recent X-rays and other tests confirmed Salomon’s hypothesis.
Three other fragments from the altarpiece along with the Blanton’s newly identified Saint Michael will be reunited for the first time in more than 200 years when the altarpiece — one of the largest created in 16th-century Italy measuring more than 15 feet tall— is reconstructed for an exhibit that opens at the Dulwich in Feb. 2009.
The exhibit — “Paolo Veronese: The Petrobelli Altarpice” — will travel from the Dulwich to the Blanton in Sept. 2009, its only showing in the United States.
Blanton curators had long recognized that the painting was a fragment from larger Veronese work. Still, it’s a wonder no one made the connection between the Suida-Manning”Head of an Angel”; and the altarpiece before. The Suida-Manning Collection was after all put together by two generations of a family of art historians.
“Head of an Angel,” an image of Saint Michael, as it was acquired by Blanton with the Suida-Manning Collection.
A digital re-creation of the Petrobellis altarpiece showing the head of Saint Michael, next to the lower left fragment.
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‘Landmarks’ makes landfall at UT
The Metropolitan Museum didn’t have room to exhibit them all and so had them in storage. And UT wanted a public art program.
And so the New York museum loaned 28 sculptures by such noted artists as Louise Bourgeois, Jim Dine and Tony Smith, among others, for long-term exhibit as part of a new public art program at UT called Landmarks. The university announced the program last month.
The sculptures were welcomed Friday at a reception. Almost all are in place. Several will be on view at the new Bass Concert Hall when it re-opens in January.
Have a look at the sculpture here at our slide show.
On Sept. 26 at 1:30 p.m., Mark di Suvero will personally oversee the installation of his soaring sculpture “Clock Knot” at the northeast corner of Dean Keeton and Speedway, in front of the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Building. The event is timed to coincide with the opening of the exhibit “Re-Imaging Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York” at the Blanton Museum of Art.
“Clock Knot”
Among other initiative to UT’s new public art program are a percent-for-art policy that sets a goal of earmarking 1 percent to 2 percent of costs for new construction and major building renovation for acquisition of public art, similar to the City of Austin’s Art in Public Places program — one of the oldest civic public art programs in the country.
UT’s public art moves are long overdue.
UT has faced public criticism because sculptures on campus honor, among others, Confederate leaders, wealthy donors and a football coach. A bronze statue of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was placed on the East Mall in 1999. Last fall, a bronze likeness of labor activist Cesar Chavez was unveiled on the West Mall, and a sculpture Barbara Jordan, the first African American from Texas to serve in the U.S. House, is set for unveiling in 2009.
You can find a map and other info on the Landmarks program at their Web site.
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Conspirare CD zooms up Waterloo list
“Threshold of Night, “ the mesmerizing new CD of music by Tarik O’Regan performed by Austin’s Grammy-nominated choir Conspirare, hit the number two spot on Waterloo Records top selling list for the week ending Sept. 13.
And that’s darn good!
Waterloo Records Top Sellers Week Ending Sept. 13
- Okkervil River — 130 2. Conspirare — 104
- Metallica — 77
- Calexico — 55
- Rodney Crowell — 42
- Alejandro Escovedo — 42
- Beck — 40
- Bruce Robison — 31
- Michael Franti & Spearhead — 28
- Grupo Fantasma — 28
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Reports from Houston: Museums, theater district OK
Reports from various news agencies and anecdotal accounts reveal that Houston’s museums and downtown theater district have weathered Hurriance Ike with little damage.
News photos showed crews clearing tree limbs from streets in the theater district in downtown Houston, an area that suffered some damage to windows on highrises but otherwise appears to have escaped major damage.
Residents close to the Menil Collection reported trees and limbs down, but some a few blocks away from the museum never lost power during the storm. Power was restored to parts of the neighborhood surrounding the Menil Sunday afternoon.
Near Hermann Park, the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston reportedly suffered no damage beyond some downed limbs in its sculpture garden, but otherwise maintained power for all but four or five hours during the height of the storm. Ditto with the Contemporary Arts Center across the street — reports indicate that power went out only for a few hours.
The MFAH plans to re-open on Thursday. There is no word on whether the Museum District Day celebration scheduled for Saturday will take place as planned. The event includes free admission and special activities to 18 museums.
In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison dumped an estimated 38 inches of rain in six days on Houston causing severe flooding in the theater district. The alley Theatre, the Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Symphony lost millions of dollars worth of costumes, musical instruments, sheet music, archives and other material.
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Review: ‘Blackbird’ at Hyde Park Theatre
“Blackbird” may wind up being one of the most richly challenging plays for audiences this year.
Ray (Ken Webster) and Una (Xochitl Romero) meet and recount their relationship from 15 years ago, when he was in his 40s and she was 12. And that’s it.
There’s little action beyond their dialogue as they look for redemption and only as much plot progression as each audience member’s notion of how successful that journey is. There’s no time and no place beyond Ray’s generic office.
That limited frame, made even more claustrophobic by a low-hanging false ceiling, becomes a boiling kettle with no vent for the steam. Whenever catharsis, whether redemption, destruction, or sex, becomes a possibility, it’s quickly muted or counterbalanced by more tension.
Una ultimately fails to get the trial she never really experienced. In a long monologue recounting their last tryst, you expect and almost need a climax — rage, something, anything! — but even the worst details are recounted quietly, though not always calmly, by Romero. Ray doesn’t embrace his nature with playful superiority like Humbert Humbert; he argues against it, playing the role of a good man — a loving man — who made a bad choice. And Webster, with his mournful, reserved nature, is convincing.
It’s a feat to make that feel worthwhile while unsatisfying, but Romero and Webster do. “Blackbird” leaves the audience as the characters are left: with — instead of resolution — just experience.
(“Blackbird” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through Oct. 11 at Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd Street. $16-$18. 479-PLAY, www.hydeparktheatre.org.)
(Joey Seiler is a freelance theater critic and writer.)
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Upcoming public art workshops & seminars
‘Real Community is Real Art: A Texas Workshop on the Arts and Urban Development’
A two-day symposium offers films, music, opportunities for local networking and panels with nationally-recognized speakers like Rick Lowe, founder of Houston’s Project Row Houses, and Tom Finkelpearl, Director of the Queens Museum of Art, author of Dialogues on Public Art and former director of New York City’s Percent for Art Program.
• Screening of ‘THIRD WARD TX,’ the acclaimed documentary telling the remarkable story of Project Row Houses, the unlikely home of cutting-edge art and visionary thinking about inner-city renewal in Houston. When: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday Where: Carver Museum & Cultural Center, 1165 Angelina St. Cost: $10
• The Blue Of It All: East End Summer Music Series When: 9 p.m. Where: Kenny Dorham’s Backyard, 1106 East 11th Street Cost: $10
• Panels & Workshops When: Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Where: Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St. Cost: $50 ($15 student and senior rate)
Scholarships for community members are available for the Saturday workshop. For more information, contact TWTXRealArtWorkshop@gmail.com.
The City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division-Economic Growth and Redevelopment Office presents “Public Art ‘Round Robin’ — Matching Artists with Resources.
Wondering how to translate your studio work into another medium, one suitable for the public environment? Looking to be inspired by new materials, tools or technology? Find your match in 5 minutes or less at this workshop that pairs artists with the resources they need to create public art. Fabricators, suppliers and vendors will be stationed at tables to meet in intervals with artists circulating to the sound of the bell.
When: 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20 Where: 219West, 219 West Fourth St.
The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are strongly suggested. Call (512) 974-9308 or email AIPP@ci.austin.tx.us
For more information see www.ci.austin.tx.us/redevelopment/cad.htm
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Yo-Yo Ma gives the Long Center two thumbs up
The audience showered him with applause and ovations last night at the Long Center after famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma finished a virtoustic performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor.
But the ebullient cello master had praise of his own to bestow. Pointing in animated way to the ceiling of the Long Center’s Dell Hall, Ma then flashed two thumbs up.
The crowd roared back. Ma likes the place — he really, really likes Austin newest jewel of a performing arts center.
Ma was in town as a guest of the Austin Symphony Orchestra at a special gala kick-off concert to its new season. The concert sold out weeks ago.
As it was the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Ma and ASO music director Peter Bay, both fittingly paid tribute.
After a gorgeous presentation of Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony, Bay returned after intermission to lead Carter’s gentle Elegy for String Orchestra and the Bach-Stokowski orchestration of “Sheep May Safely Graze.” Bay asked that both not be rewarded with applause, the silence instead a memorial for the victims of Sept. 11.
Then Ma took the stage for the Elgar concerto. A master musician such as Ma becomes music the music he plays — he doesn’t just perform it.
Interestingly, Ma, a longtime New Yorker, was on the road touring on Sept. 11, 2001 and scheduled to play the Elgar concerto, which he did. We asked him about the experience and you can about it here
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Review: ‘Macbeth’
Austin Shakespeare puts out a polished new production of “Macbeth” — one that is smartly burnished with just enough bits of contemporary culture to make the 17th-century tragedy of political power feel necessary and relevant today.
To mark the company’s debut at the Long Center — where a sold-out crowd filled the 200-seat Rollins Studio Theatre on Wednesday night — director Ann Ciccolella wisely places this “Macbeth” in a broadly global contemporary context.
The ambitious nobleman Macbeth — powerfully played by Marc Pouhe — is surrounded by soldiers in modern military fatigues and a royal court ringed with bamboo and draped with towering clear plastic curtains. Sharron Bower brilliantly delivers a Lady Macbeth brimming with brittleness, one who nervously texts, pops pills and slinks around her husband’s court in sleek modern gowns.
The production values make this show. Costume and set designer Michelle Ney has smartly blended silhouettes that read both classic and contemporary — the crowning image comes in the shape of the three witches who are nightmarish birds swathed in strips of white plastic, ammunition-filled bandoliers strapped to their chests. And Jason Amato’s shrewdly designed psychologically-charged lighting gives the entire setting an appropriately anxious edge. Music director Michael McKelvey charges the whole show with an edgy original score.
If some of the secondary roles didn’t consistently impress with their power, this “Macbeth” nevertheless delivered.
‘Macbeth’ continues at 8 p.m. tonight, Saturday and Sept. 18-20, and 3 p.m. Sunday and Sept. 21 in the Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. $18-$36. www.austinshakespeare.org. 474-5664. For ages 13 and older.
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‘Macbeth’ looks striking
Production photos are in for Austin Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth.’ And from the production shots, the show looks like a very visually striking adapation of Shakespeare’s tragedy.
The set and costumes are by Texas State University Design & Technology Department Head Michelle Ney and the lighting design of the award-winning Jason Amato.
Read more about the producction here.
‘Macbeth’ previews tonight at 8 p.m. at the Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Dr. Show continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays through Sept 21. See www.austinshakespeare.org for more info.
All photos are by Kimberly Mead.
Gwendolyn Kelso as Lady Macduff
Marc Pouhe as Macbeth
Macbeth (Marc Pouhe) and the Witches (Liz Fisher, Jennifer Graven, Gwendolyn Kelso)
Cindy Sadler as Hecate
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Review: ‘Threshold of Night’ CD - Conspirare
Mesmerizing and sublime, ‘Threshold of Night,’ — the new CD on Harmonia Mundi by Grammy-nominated Austin choir Conspirare with music by Tarik O’Regan — is utter virtuosity.
The 11 affecting pieces for voices and strings — set to texts by British and American writers, such as Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe — are hauntingly beautiful, completely new and oddly ancient-sounding in the same stroke.
Conspirare artistic director Craig Hella Johnson commissioned three of the works on ‘Threshold’ two set to poems by Dickinson and one by Pablo Neruda. Conspirare performed the program here last September before heading to the famed Troy Savings Bank Music Hall to record. (Conspirare recorded its Grammy-nominated CD “Requiem” at Troy Music Hall.) The title work — from Kathleen Raine’s “Three Poems of Incarnation” — netted O’Regan the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters Award.
O’Regan, a 30-year-old British composer now living in New York, crafts his own truly original style. Yes, this music is essentially tonal, but hardly could you characterize it as traditionally melodic. O’Regan’s music layers voices with brilliant intricacy. Voices cluster seamlessly in full choir, then emerge in delicate solos. He deftly combines airy melodies with only short moments of subtle dissonance to a powerful effect. Brief, pulsing, life-affirming moments balance out against more ethereal and meditative passages. Thematic features overlap and repeat.
It’s ultimately urban music for the 21st century— gently swirling with threads of many different sounds while an ultra-subtle city soundscape gurgles underneath. Transcendent.
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New Music Co-op gets its game on
The New Music Co-op gets its game this Saturday with ‘Game Show: Musician vs. Musician.’
Twenty different musicians — strings, winds, percussion and voice artists — will compete in seven different musical game compositions, each with its own detailed rules. Think orchestral tic-tac-toe or the musical equivalent of a Rorschach test.
Among the musical games played are legendary music experimenter John Zorn’s renowned ‘Cobra’ and the debut of ‘Crazy Eights in D minor’ by concert organizers Brandon Young and Christopher Petkus. Austin composer Brent Fariss will present a meditative game created with the help of his three-year-old son. And two compositions by members of the legendary Fluxus movement of the 1960s will have the musicians competing in absurdities.
8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13
AustinVentures Studio Theater, 501 W. Fifth St.
Tickets $15
www.newmusiccoop.org
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Kudos and changes
Kudos…
The Dance Council has made Tapestry Dance Company founder Acia Gray as the 2008 recipient of the Texas Tap Legend Award.
Tapestry’s next show is the Oct. 17-19 reprise of its National Endowment for the Arts/American Masterpieces award-winning ‘The Souls of Our Feet - A Celebration of American Tap Dance,’ re-staging of tap dance classics from stage and screen as well as new work.
Changes…
Chamber music organization Salon Concerts announces the retirement of its founder Robert Rudie and the appointment of Kathryn Mishell to succeed him as artistic director. In addition, Jephta Bernstein has been appointed to succeed Rudie as director of the organization’s educational program Chamber Music in Public Schools (CHAMPS).
Violinist Rudie had numerous roles in Salon Concerts, from founder to artistic/program director and performer, and now two highly qualified people will follow in his footsteps. He will continue to serve Salon Concerts as a member of the board of directors and occasional performer.
Artistic director Kathryn Mishell holds music degrees from Pomona College, University of Kansas, and University of Southern California. She is a composer, pianist, music educator, and award-winning producer of KMFA-FM&’s weekly program ‘Into the Light.’
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Review: Ariel Dance Theater
Black box theaters’ anonymity is appealing: small, dark performance spaces begging for transformation. But generally these spaces remain anonymous when dancers overtake them— just another space for another show.
Through collaboration with video designer Nick Keene and composers Peter Stopschinski and Graham Reynolds, choreographer Andrea Ariel created an environment Sunday at the Off Center. “Five2Ten” feels like rides into a world, offering a close-up glimpse at dancers emerging from the crowd.
The sense of intimate voyeurism is most prevalent in “Breathing Breath,” a duet for Ariel and Steve Ochoa. Keene’s projected silhouettes amble and strut. These shadows seem pedestrian, uncaring; the audience will be their counterpoint, visual guardians of Ariel and Ochoa’s physical offering. As a pair, Ariel and Ochoa work well. He stretches limbs to the limit, and she is more understated. The different presentations of effort create a story of propulsion and repulsion in “Me and My Story,” which transitioned seamlessly into “Solo” and “Solo Two” as Ariel and Ochoa alternately offered the space to each other, then watched, resting against the theater wall.
Music first by Stopschinski then Reynolds and a series of blinking light bulbs designed by Jason Amato do not so much suggest a locale, but fill the space with texture and mood — almost mystery.
A different kind of mystery, “Present Bodies (Or Meeting in the Hallway),” danced by Teresa Tipping and Christine Wong, seemed to be about people oblivious to each other, so it was unclear why they ever touched. The program returns next weekend. It’s a rare opportunity to see a dance company over two weekends. Take it.
‘Five2Ten’ continues 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday at the Off Center, 2211 Hidalgo St. 512-474-8497, www.arieldance.org. Tickets are $15-$25 sliding scale.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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The season: Alvin Aily American Dance Theater & Paul Taylor Dance
Among the big news items coming up in 2008-2009 arts season is the re-opening in January of UT’s Bass Concert Hall. The 3000-seat theater is undergoing a much-needed $14.7 million restoration that will bring it up to code, increase the size of its lobbies and other patron service areas (i.e., restrooms) and otherwise give the 1980s-era hall some new polish.
With Bass’s re-opening, Austin will see the return of some really stellar international arts companies and individuals. We’re particularly excited that a couple companies founded by twof titans of modern dance are headed our way.
March 24 and 25 Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater along with vocal group Sweet Honey in the Rock will return. Ailey — who was born in Rogers, Texas — created 79 ballets in his lifetime (1931-1989) including the now legendary “Revelations” that draws on gospel, spirituals and African American culture.
“Revelations.”
Then on April 1, Paul Taylor Dance Company lands at the Bass. Taylor, known for a style of modern ballet characterized by a kind of grotesque beauty that reveals volumes about the human condition.
Now, these are the kind of sophisticated touring arts shows Austin deserves — and needs.
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Review: ‘A Bronx Tale’
Sweet and sharp, tender and tough Chazz Palminteri delivered an entire world in just 90 minutes Wednesday night at the Long Center when he premiered the national tour of “A Bronx Tale,” his semi-autobiographical one-man show about growing up in a Mafia-managed Bronx neighborhood.
Slipping effortlessly in and out of more than a dozen characters, sometimes impressively orchestrating a conversation between three or four of them, Palminteri unwinds his tale with tenderness — and also a master storyteller’s flare for charming, captivating and surprising.
Sure, “A Bronx Tale” story may feel like it covers little new ground in a post-Sopranos cultural landscape — a young boy caught between his fascination with a Mob boss and his upright father, the insular Italian American community cracking under the social upheavals of the 1960s. But Palminteri’s clear affection for his characters gives his tale heft and sincerity.
Indeed it was Palminteri’s earnestness that enthralled the near-capacity audience Wednesday night.
Began in 1989 as an off-Broadway play then made into a movie in 1993, Palminteri revived the stage show on Broadway last year.
Still, this isn’t some shop-worn solo show. Instead, “A Bronx Tale” is reaffirmation that good storytelling and theater thrive.
“A Bronx Tale” continues 8 p.m. tonight and Friday and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday. Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Dr. $40-$80. 474-5664. www.thelongcenter.org.
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Okay Mountaineers conquer Austin Ventures
We don’t have many corporations here in Austin commissioning site-specific work for their offices. That’s why it’s exciting to hear the Austin Ventures hired some of the artists of Austin collective Okay Mountain — Sterling Allen, Tim Brown, Peat Duggins, Justin Goldwater, Nathan Green, Ryan Hennesse, Josh Rios, Michael Sieben and Cory Sinks — to create a big mural for the offices of the venture capitalist firm in downtown Austin.
The work is a series of tableux that, according to a statement by participating artist Tim Brown “is an allegory about how an idea is brought to the marketplace and the pitfalls and rewards along the way.”
Way to go Okay Mountain and good work Austin Ventures.
Here’s a photo of the work in progress courtesy of Brown’s Web site which also lots more images of the mountineers hard at work on the mural.
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Texas Biennial artists to be announced Saturday
After careful deliberation of more than 500 applicants from all over the state, Texas Biennial 2009 guest curator, Michael Duncan, has come to the final selection of only 62 artists.
And the Biennial coordinator will announce the artists this Saturday at an ice cream social and public gathering. The shin-dig is Saturday, Sept. 6 from 2 to 4 p.m. with the announcement of the artists at 2:30 p.m.
It’s at The Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River Street, one of several location of the upcoming Texas Biennial.
Duncan is Corresponding Editor for Art in America and his writings have focused on maverick artists of the twentieth century, West Coast modernism, twentieth century figuration and contemporary California art.
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Texas seeks artist to represent states
From the Texas Commission on the Arts comes this official release:
The Texas Commission on the Arts Announces Call for Nominations for State Poet Laureate, Musician, Visual Artists
The Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) is seeking nominations for the positions of 2009 and 2010 State Poet Laureate, State Musician, State Two-dimensional Artist and State Three-dimensional Artist. Any Texas citizen may make up to three nominations per artist category; however, self-nominations will not be accepted. Nomination forms and complete information are available online at www.arts.state.tx.us/stateartist. Deadline for Texas State Artists nominations is October 5, 2008.
Chosen artists will join the company of previous state artists such as Ray Benson, James Surls, Red Steagall, and Kathy Vargas and receive statewide recognition. Texas State Artists also have the opportunity to participate in TCA events and promotions, including participation in TCA’s Diplomacy and Protocol Program and other state initiatives in relation to their respective art discipline.
Poet laureate nominees must have developed a substantial body of work, including at least one publication that is not self-published. State musician nominees must have a substantial body of work, including at least two nationally available records, or at least 20 years experience teaching music in a formal classroom, or receive the majority of their income from musical endeavors. Visual artist nominees must work in two- or three-dimensional art mediums, must have been represented in at least one, one-person show and must have an extensive history of exhibiting in recognized museums and galleries.
Nominated artists will be asked to submit samples of their work to provide to the TCA advisory panel. The advisory panel will review all nominations and submit 10 names per category to the Texas Poet Laureate, State Musician and State Artist Committee in December. The Committee, composed of members appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House of Representatives, will make the final selections in 2009 when the 81st Legislature convenes.
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‘Paper: A Conversation’
Five nationally-recognized female artists — Melissa Jay Craig, Sandra Fernandez, Stephanie Hunder, Karen Kunc, and Jill Lear — show their new work in ‘Paper’ on view now at Gallery Shoal Creek through Sept.
And each has a different creative approach to using paper as an artistic medium — from crafting paper as a sculptural three-dimensional material to combining photography with traditional printmaking methods.
Fernandez, by the way, is the only Austin artist among the featured quintet. She teaches printmaking at UT and is the director of UT’s respected Guest Art in Printmaking Program.
This Friday, join noted Austin artist and UT art professor Ken Hale as he leads a panel discussion with exhibit artists Fernandez, Craig and Lear.
6 p.m. Friday. Gallery Shoal Creek, 2905 San Gabriel St. Free. 512-454-6l671, www.galleryshoalcreek.com.
Sandra Fernandez, detail from ‘The Landscape of Memory Series.’ mixed media book art
Karen Kunc, “Orb Weaving.”
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The season: ‘Caroline, or Change’ at Zach
Another highlight of the upcoming arts season…
Zach Theatre will stage its own new production of Tony Kushner’s critically acclaimed musical, “Caroline, or Change.”
A through-composed musical with book and lyrics by Kushner, the score, by Jeanine Tesori, combines, among other styles, gospel, blues, Motown and Jewish klezmer music.
Set in Lake Charles, Louisiana during the civil rights movement, the story centers on Caroline Thibodeaux, a black maid for a Southern Jewish family, the Gellmans. When the family can’t give Caroline a raise, they invite her to keep the change the young Noah Gellman absentmindly leaves in pockets when Caroline does the laundry. But when a $20 bill goes missing from the household, the situation gets complicated. Outside the house, the assassination of John F. Kennedy shakes the world — and the tide of change inevitably sweeps the Gellman house as well.
Janis Stinson will star as Caroline.
Kushner — best known for the epic “Angels in America” — was born and raised in Lake Charles. Zach produced “Angels” in 1999.
“Caroline, or Change” runs September 18-November 9 on Zach’s Kleberg Stage. Shows are 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Opening weekend, tickets are just $20 for the Thursday, Friday and Sunday shows.
By the way, Zach Theatre is the new streamline name of the organization formerly known as Zachary Scott Theatre Center. Their new URL is www.zachtheatre.org.
