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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2008 > December
December 2008
Long Center aims to wipe out construction debt
Seems another major arts non-profit is steeling itself against the recession.
A few days ago, Austin Lyric Opera said it was canceling its opulent annual ball, instead reallocating all of the money raised from the annual fete directly toward opera programming and education.
Now, the Long Center for the Performing Arts is giving itself a challenging New Year’s resolution. Center officials announced yesterday that they plan to pay off the center’s construction debt in 2009. The center has already wiped out more than 99 percent of its $77 million debt. The plan is to dispense of the remainder of it early next year, possibly even in time for center’s first anniversary celebration in late March.
The Long Center is owned by the City of Austin, which leases it to the nonprofit organization that raised the money to build it. All of the money raised to build the Long Center came from private sources. No public money was used.
“Operating the Long Center without any construction debt will free up future fundraising to focus solely on a variety of performing arts programs and on keeping the doors of this fine facility open,” Cliff Redd, executive director of the Long Center, said in a statement.
To date, the Long Center has reached about one-third of its goal of $1.9 million in fundraising for 2008-09, Redd said. The center’s 2008-09 budget year ends June 30, 2009. The fundraising goal for 2009-10 has been set at $1.5 million.
“We have gotten ourselves lean and mean to cope with the current economic times,” Paul Beutel, managing director of the Long Center, said. “The financial health of the Long Center is good. We have been taking steps to ensure it remains good.”
Among those steps, Beutel said, is concentrating on shows that sell. “Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy” attracted more than 15,500 patrons during its eight-performance run in late November. However, both the David Benoit concert and the “King Operetta,” scheduled for January, were canceled because they were underperforming in ticket sales.
The Long Center has also trimmed its 2008-09 operating expenses by 20 percent. “As the venue has been up and running for nine months, we’ve gotten smarter about how to operate more efficiently and yet still maintain the high level of customer service that audiences and artists expect from the Long Center,” Beutel said.
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AMOA receives $50,000 bequest
The daughters of Mary McIntyre Malott, artist and former trustee of the Austin Museum of Art, have donated $50,000 to the museum in their mother’s honor, the museum announced Thursday.
The gift is from Barbara McIntyre, Carolyn White and Sylvia McIntyre-Cook. The monies will go to support a new painting studio at the museum’s art school. The studio will be named in Malott’s honor.
Earlier this year, the museum completed an extensive renovation of the art school, located at the museum’s original Laguna Gloria home in West Austin. Malott, who was involved with the museum since its origins in the 1960s, died in January.
You can read more about the studio dedication and see Malott’s own artwork here.
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Audio description available for Nutcracker
Ballet Austin will offer free audio description to blind and visually-impaired audience members attending the two upcoming shows of its annual production “The Nutcracker” now at the Long Center. VSA Arts of Texas, a non-profit organization that facilitates access to the arts for people with disabilities, is providing the audio describers.
The service will be available during shows at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 20 and at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 22. Contact Ballet Austin for more information, www.balletaustin.org, 512-476-2163 or VSA Texas, www.vsatx.org.
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Austin Lyric Opera throws recession a curve ball
In an effort to throw the recession a curve ball, the Austin Lyric Opera announced Wednesday that it is canceling its lavish annual ball scheduled for next spring.
Instead, the opera is launching the Curve Ball Campaign. The $170,000 raised for the ball — a posh event typically held at the Four Seasons — will now go entirely to support opera programming and education.
“We have an opportunity to react to the current economic environment and to our community,” said Kevin Patterson, the opera’s general director. “Being good stewards of our donors is paramount. We don’t want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on an event now, in this economy, that typically yields 50 cents on the dollar.”
The change in opera fundraising follows a local and national trend as nonprofit organizations have scaled back or canceled extravagant events.
Patterson said that those who have already pledged to the ball, hosted by the opera’s guild, unanimously decided to reallocate their contribution to the opera’s general fund. To date more than $55,000 has been pledged.
Opera Guild member Deb David Groves, chair of the 2009 ball, said, “This year the numbers were just not there to justify an opulent ball but we still need to raise our ($170,000) goal.”
Across the nation, opera companies, like other arts organizations, are feeling the sting of the economic downturn. The Baltimore Opera Company, nearly 60 years in existence, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-law protection earlier this month. Even the venerable Metropolitan Opera, faced with declining demand for its most expensive seats, recently began offering $25 tickets for seats that usually sell for $140 to $295.
Patterson said that while corporate donations to the Austin Lyric Opera have been less than projected this year, contributions from individuals and foundations have remained within projections - and even surprised a little. “Just in the last month, we’ve received $50,000 of new money that we weren’t expecting from individuals and foundation,” he said. “And so now’s the time for us to respond to the current economy by being innovative with how we raise money.”
ALO’s next production is “Rigoletto” Jan. 31-Feb. 8 at the Long Center. Go to www.austinlyricopera.org for more information.
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Review: Austin Shakespeare’s ‘Celebrate’
“Celebrate,” Austin Shakespeare’s musical revue, has little to do with Shakespeare or, as one might expect from the timing, the holidays. Instead, it’s a sampling of musical theater selections, from “Peter Pan” to the newer, opera-esque “The Light in the Piazza” to Austin’s own “The Bat.”
It’s, as the always-charming MC Jill Blackwood puts it, meant as more of a “kaleidoscope of delight.”
Kaleidoscopes can be a bit disorienting, though. And that’s the only real, however minor, flaw of “Celebrate.” While the music is beautiful, so many of the songs derive at least part of their power from the stories they serve as high points and punctuation for. Here they’re presented largely in isolation — an onslaught of delight and catharsis. That may be why some of the best pieces come from bossa nova master Antonio Carlos Jobim. You don’t need context, just the strong, jazzy stylings of Stephanie Delk and Kirstin Dorn.
The benefit of filling a musical revue with actors from the Austin stage, though, is that they can recapture some of the momentum of the larger stories in each song. While in the preview performance there were a few sour notes, each performance brought something extra, whether love or wit or pure brassy energy, to the song. Blackwood herself has an especially nice turn on the bubbly, confused “Vanilla Ice Cream” from “She Loves Me.” Likewise, Molly Wissinger’s take on “Always True To You” from “Kiss Me Kate” is not to be missed, filling the studio theater with energy to more than make up for the absence of a backing chorus.
Of course, anything Broadway would be lacking without dance routines. Interspersed throughout the evening are comedic numbers from Rocker Verastique and Liz Newchurch. The choreography from Danny Herman ranges from ballet to swing and provides a bouncy, humorous set of interludes.
The lineup of performers and songs will change from night to night, so the only unifying element may be the champagne toast at the end. It’s a fitting constant, though, for an effervescent night.
“Celebrate!” continues at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and at 3 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 21 at Austin Ventures Studio Theatre, 501 West 3rd St. $12-$30. 474-8497, www.austinshakespeare.org.)
Joey Seiler is an American-Statesman freelance theater critic.
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Holiday’d out? Try ‘Celebrate: A Musical Revue’
Had enough of roasting chestnuts and jingle bells?
Try Austin Shakespeare’s ‘Celebrate: A Musical Revue.’
Some of Austin’s best cabaret singers — including Michael McKelvey, Jill Blackwood and rising star Kirstin Dorn — ring in the holidays with non-holiday show tunes including favorites from ‘Peter Pan,’ ‘Kiss Me Kate,’ ‘She Loves Me,’ ‘The Light in the Piazza’ and Sondheim’s ‘A Little Night Music.’
8 p.m. tonight through Dec. 20, 3 p.m. Dec. 21
Austin Ventures Studio Theater, Butler Dance Education Center, 501 W. Third St.
Tix: $12-$30
512-474-8497
www.austinshakespeare.org
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Review: Viola By Choice
Viola By Choice does everything a classical music group should be doing in the 21st century.
And what is that?
Offering smart and alluring programs that feed the brain and the soul — and do so with polished, enthusiastic musicianship.
That’s what the ensemble, led by violist Aurelien Petillot, did Sunday night at the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection with a brilliant selection of music, a mix of work from typically overlooked yet captivating composers and surprising pieces by familiar composers.
The latter came first in Puccini’s haunting Chrisanthemi string quartet, so jewel-like in its melodic structure (and so vastly different from the sweeping histrionics found in the arias of the composer’s masterworks such as “Madame Butterfly” or “Tosca.”).
Ned Rorem’s Serenande for Five English Poems — featuring the lushly melodic voice of mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Petillot, wife of Aurelien Petillot, was complex, twisting and dark. With aplomb, Elizabeth Petillot (who also sings with Grammy-nominated chorus Conspirare) brought uncommon emotion to the dark, edgy piece — a highlight in an evening of polished performances.
The mood didn’t get any lighter with Philip Koplow’s Sonata in Memoriam Martin Luther King Jr. for Viola and Piano. If Koplow’s academic approach sometimes bested the emotional depth, Aurelien Petillot brought a profoundly personal attachment that brought emotion to the sometimes over-intellectualized dissonance.
And as a perfect finish, Paquito D’Rivera’s Village Street String Quartet flaunted the brio and enthusiasm this ensemble has. Inspired by a Greenwich Village street fair that the composer observed shortly after moving to New York City, the one-movement piece is a celebratory multi-cultural mash-up with strains of tango, klezmer music, African rhythms, jazz and other music combining in a joyous spree.
Violinist Jennifer Bourianoff played with an open and confident presence that never wavered while pianist Nikki Birdsong had a quick elegance. And adding more energy to the already energetic group, Petillot and the violin players performed standing up — forget the fussy static of staying seated.
For its next program, Viola By Choice (Petillot is a passionate champion for his often second-fiddle instrument) takes on new compositions and world premiere pieces. Be prepared to be surprised and enlightened.
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NEA report: More theater, but less audience
A National Endowment of the Arts report on nonprofit theaters, issued today, reveals an interesting drama of supply and demand.
The report — “All America’s A Stage” — analyzed data from more than 2,000 theaters nationwide and found that while the number of nonprofit theaters in the United States has doubled over a 15-year period, attendance remains flat or shrinking.
According to the report, in 1990 there were 991 theaters with annual budgets of at least $75,000. Just 15 years later, in 2005, there were 1,982.
Texas ranked tenth in growth of non-profit theaters with a an increase of 102 percent, and though we have more than 100 non-profit theater in the Lone Star State, we’re not in the top 10 when it comes to number of theaters per capita.
The report also found that the percentage of the U.S. adult population attending non-musical theater has declined from 13.5 percent (25 million people) in 1992 to 9.4 percent (21 million people) in 2008. Measured against growing population statistics, the report found that the absolute size of the audience has declined by 16 percent since 1992.
The data in the report was not specific enough to extrapolate the decline in audience by state.
Writing in an introduction to the report, NEA Chairman Dana Gioia, notes that “the dilemma of nonprofit theater can be simply summarized — supply has outstripped current demand.”
You can read or download the full report here.
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Review: Vestige Group’s ‘Gorilla Man’
The Vestige Group’s new show, “Gorilla Man,” has a punk theater vibe to it, for both better and worse.
The bar venue, the wafting in of cigarette smoke, the live rock band competing with music drifting in from next door and the rest of Sixth street, and high-energy performances on a claustrophobic stage make for an excitingly different sort of playgoing experience. But punk can be messy, too, and energy isn’t always funny.
“Gorilla Man” tells the story of a young man named Billy who discovers that he’s not only becoming a man, but a Gorilla Man. Like his father before him, Billy will grow increasingly hairy and angry. The question is whether he can manage his impulses and be more man than gorilla. At least that would be the question if “Gorilla Man” was aiming to answer any.
Instead, it’s a campy rock musical comedy. But while the live band is energetic and some of the singers can push out a catchy tune, it’s not as funny as it could be. It’s hard not to laugh at a guy in a gorilla suit and cod piece — played with as much charisma as you can in that situation by Benjamin Wright — but too often other jokes get lost in the frantic pace of the staging and sung laugh lines run over in the cramped choreography.
It’s the punk element of the production again: Instead of letting bits breathe, Vestige Group throws more and more energy at them. It’s still funny, but they’re getting chuckles instead of the big laughs the piece can bring.
That works well in a few notable exceptions. Kathleen Fletcher, whether as an enthusiastic, big-faced background dancer, alcoholic fatalist, or B-movie fortune teller, goes so over the top as to move from camp to hilarious parody. Andrew Varenhorst is only slightly more subdued as a politician inciting a riot among a town full of toy action figures, but nails the odd character of a born-again truck driver with a gutturally creepy manner of proselytizing.
Overall the music is catchy, but it’s at its best in the finale, when Billy, played by Bobby Torres, insists on ending with a song and dance number. The cast is given a chance to vamp and groove together all at once. Even if the movements come down to a simple can-can line, it’s infectious. It’s the free-for-all energy that the group has been pushing the whole time.
With a one-act show and the barroom venue, I would almost prefer to watch “Gorilla Man” standing up, dancing (or shifting awkwardly from side to side) with the music, beer in hand, than sitting in rows just feet from the stage. Instead, we’re given a mix of a good bar band performance and traditional theater. One gets by on energy and fun, but the other takes a little more refinement. I get the feeling Vestige Group could do one or the other fairly well. As it is, we get a little bit of both, but with less success.
(“Gorilla Man” continues at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through Dec. 20 at Creekside Lounge, 606 E. Seventh St. $15-$25. 474-8497, vestigegroup.org)
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The Rudes Mechs send a big valentine to the West
The Rude Mechs have always been darned proud that they come from the Lone Star State. And we’re darned proud of them for being so Texas proud.
Now, the inventive and restless theater collective is mustering up all of its considerable creative talent behind “I’ve Never Been So Happy,” a musical play that plums the greater mythology of the American West. And dachsunds and mountain lions, too.
The Rudes’ development of ‘Happy’ has been rewarded with a $20,000 grant from the NEA’s Distinguished New Play Development Project. The Rudes are one of only five theater groups in the country to be a part the NEA’s new program. Impressive.
As part of the NEA program, the Rudes will take ‘Happy’ to Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage in 2010, after the premiere here in late 2009. But right now — like this very weekend — you can head to Off Center for an hour-long carnival-esque preview of one of the two story arcs in the play.
And you should. This workshop version of ‘I’ve Never Been So Happy’ will make you very, very happy.
The former feed store turned theater has been transformed into a Wild West carnival. Step right up and ask a mountain lion any question about the West. Or sit in a pup tent and meditate on the desert as crickets chirp. You can have your old-timey silhouette made or stop by the Clothing Horse and don some Western wear. Or pull up a rocking chair and talk to someone who promises to be your new best friend.
After you’ve played for a half-hour or so, a seven-piece band with six singers and three video puppeteers takes to the stage. Annabelle and her father, Brutus, race their dachsunds as a means to solve their despute. Annabelle wants her independence. Brutus wants to keep his daughter by his side. And the fantasical plot unwinds in whip-smart language and infectiously fun music.
Playwright Kirk Lynn and composer Peter Stophschinski started working on ‘I’ve Never Been So Happy’ after they collaborated on ‘El Paraiso,’ an utterly sweet, raucous and offbeat meditation on heaven. Rude co-producing artistic directors Lana Lesley and Thomas Graves joined in the creative process. And the goal is make the creative process inclusive — let every idea (or every mountain lion or dachsund) in and give it the chance to develop.
I have high hopes for ‘I’ve Never Been So Happy.’ The Rudes continue to deepen their creative process and challenge themselves in new ways. And that results in smart, terrific theater that takes us some place new. Or maybe right back home to Texas.
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Reviews: Austin Symphony Orchestra’s Handel’s ‘Messiah’
How is that two nights of back-to-back choral concerts can offer such radically different experiences?
Monday night, Conspirare thrilled with their Long Center debut of their holiday concert.
Tuesday night at Riverbend Centre, Austin Symphony Orchestra’s presentation of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ failed to thrill.
Much — but not all — of that failure rests with fixable things: venue and production standards. More suited for amplified sound, Riverbend’s acoustics cast a damp layer over the sizable Parish Choirs of St. David’s Episcopal Church and the chamber orchestra led by guest conductor David Stevens. The resulting overall sound was muffled, lacking the necessary clarity and resonance to invigorate Handel’s much-performed oratorio.
The audience management didn’t help. Well into the fourth movement, latecomers were still being seated. Doors clanged and ushers flickered flashlights. It was an inexcusable level of noise and distraction that was disrespectful to both the audience and the musicians. And then 40 minutes into the music — just as Stevens and the ensemble were finally starting to gain some momentum with Handel’s joy-filled music — there was an intermission. There’s no reason ASO’s roughly 90-minute version of Handel’s masterpiece needs to be interrupted with an intermission. And doing so, as Tuesday’s concert showed, only depletes the energy and dramatic trajectory of the piece. Indeed, it took awhile for Stevens to re-build focus in the second half.
Not that there was an abundance of focus and energy to this ‘Messiah.’ Stevens wrested some commendable dynamics from the orchestra and there were some crisp moments that were nonetheless muffled by the bad acoustics. But some shaky soloists and a sometimes timid chorus disappointed.
A sturdy warhorse of a Christmas music tradition, Handel’s ‘Messiah’ should sparkle, not just fill a date on the holiday entertainment roster.
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Review: Conspirare’s ‘Christmas at the Carillon’
It’s time to declare it: Conspirare is Austin’s most original classical music group.
And if you want to dispense with misleading, and empty, descriptors, let’s just drop “classical.” Conspirare is one of Austin’s most original musical treasures.
Monday night, Conspirare artistic director and founder Craig Hella Johnson and his Grammy-nominated choir made their primacy on Austin’s cultural landscape abundantly clear. With singer-songwriter Eliza Gilkyson as a special guest, Conspirare brought its beloved annual “Christmas at the Carillon” concert to the Long Center for the first time. Though the holiday concert was originally conceived in the mid-1990s to fit the intimate Carillon chapel, Johnson and the singers perfectly transported an abundance of warmth and soul to the 2,400-seat Long Center.
Part of the reason Conspirare brought its holiday concert to the Long Center was to test the waters with a wider — and more affordable — range of ticket prices than is available at the Carillon. The experiment paid off. Monday night’s concert was virtually sold-out. (Maybe that was also due to the excitement generated by last week’s announcement that Conspirare is up for two Grammy Awards this year for its latest CD ‘Threshold of Night.’)
Against a backdrop of towering potted oak trees, decorated with strands of white lights, Johnson, Gilkyson and the 22-member choir thrilled with a 100-minute concert that seamlessly blended everything from plainsong chants to gospel hymns to traditional carols to Bach motets.
In lesser hands that collaging of different musical styles can come off as forced and usually treacly. But Johnson’s touch is supremely artful. A combination of surprising arrangements and masterful direction — coupled with an unerring instinct never to overdo it — makes Johnson’s always collaging glorious, fresh and full of sincerity. A blending of Madonna’s “Deeper and Deeper,” Bach’s “Alles was Odem hat” and the freshly minimal work of Eric Whitacre? Sure, it’s all sounds good and glorious in Johnson’s hands.
With only Johnson accompanying on piano (Thomas Burritt provided light percussion) and Gilkyson occasionally on guitar, Conspirare kept the audience captivated. These are singers so dedicated and in love with what they do their devotion spills from the stage. Powerful solos came from Kathlene Ritch, Lauren Snouffer and David Farwig. And Gilkyson mesmerized with her haunting song “Beautiful World” and delighted with the upbeat “Day of Jubilo,” by her father, noted songwriter Terry Gilksyon.
But soprano Nina Revering (who also directs Conspirare’s youth choir) brought the audience to tears with her achingly beautiful treatment of the folk pop song “Child in Me Again.”
Indeed there’s a depth of emotion — a sense of occasion — to Conspirare’s concerts that’s missing from just about most other classical music event in Austin. Through talent, creativity, dedication and accessibility, Conspirare makes a diverse range of music absolutely vital.
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Review: Ballet Austin’s ‘The Nutcracker’
Something magical happened to Ballet Austin’s production of ‘The Nutcracker,’ now at the Long Center for the first time.
It glitters like never before.
After years in the University of Texas’ Bass Concert Hall — and last year spent at the Paramount Theatre while the Long Center finished construction and the Bass was under renovation — ‘The Nutcracker’ has landed in its new home with a re-invigorated splash of sugar and spice.
Maybe it’s the Long Center’s sharp acoustics that make Tchaikovsky’s romantic score sparkle. (The necessary use of recorded music last year at the Paramount gave the show a dreary feel.) Guest conductor Jeff Eckstein led the Austin Symphony Orchestra in an engaging performance.
Maybe it’s the excitement of performing in a new permanent venue built just for Austin’s top trio of performing arts groups (Ballet Austin, Austin Symphony Orchestra and Austin Lyric Opera). Across the cast Saturday night, the dancers projected verve and excitement. They have room to breathe on the Long Center stage and it showed Saturday night with bright, animated performances. Rebecca Johnson and Edward McPherson gave an inspired and flirty performance as the pair of Arabian dancers. As the Sugar Plum Fairy, Aara Krumpe kept the multiple pirouettes full of pop. And Allisyn Paino’s Snow Queen was utter elegance.
Then again maybe it’s Tony Tucci’s refreshed lighting scheme that gives this ‘Nutcracker’ a pretty new shimmery look. Tucci washes the magical Land of Snow with soft violet shades and adds some fun special effects when Clara’s house morphs into a dreamlike world. And to the Land of the Sweets, Tucci adds nice touches of subtle motion and shifting mood.
Thanks to the Long Center’s superb sight lines, the pretty freshness of this ‘Nutcracker’ projects even up in the balcony where the budget-minded can find seats for $12 to $45. (The show runs about 2 hours and 10 minutes including intermissions.)
And after a year’s hiatus, the guest Mother Ginger role is back. Who doesn’t enjoy watching a local personality goof it up while dressed in a giant red hoop skirt?
And who wouldn’t enjoy letting this ‘Nutcracker’ transport them away?
Ballet Austin’s ‘The Nutcracker.’ Photo by Jay Janner.
‘The Nutcracker’ continues 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 18-23, 2 p.m. Dec. 20-21 at the Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Dr. Tickets are $15-$71. 512-476-2163, www.balletaustin.org
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Review: ‘Still Fountains’
“Still Fountains,” a set of two one-act plays, shows both the strengths and weaknesses of Austin playwright Michael Mitchell. One feels like an intellectual exercise in metaphor, while the other is a touchingly simple bit of humanity.
The first selection, “Highway Home,” tells the story of a dysfunctional family gathered to mourn a lost matriarch, sitting outside her home by a fountain long-since broken, but still emotionally loaded. The group’s alcohol-fueled, courtroom-themed wordplay and interactions has a clear precedent in the work of Edward Albee and Eugene O’Neill. That’s a style, though, that’s gone somewhat dormant, and the barbs of the family and their hunt to score points, explicitly kept and monitored, for aggressive puns seems unnatural. Likewise their fascination with making metaphors explicit, ranging across the entire geography of the backyard from the fountain to the imposing highway on the horizon, seems heavy-handed. It’s telling that at several points different characters ask, “Why can’t we just talk like normal people?”
Still, while it can be hard to see the forest for the constant imagery, it’s still there. Gina Houston as the African-American lawyer who’s married into the decidedly Texan family provides an often cold riposte to the rest of the group, but also still, quiet moments of support for her husband, who is holding on to the fountain as a last bit of familial memory. Garry Peters, on the other hand, plays the old uncle who raised the family with a mix of bitterness and regret. A monologue of reminiscence forces him to consider what about the geometry of the house’s windows he finds beautiful and sad. The metaphor is, again, a bit much, but Peters makes the differences between squares and rectangles worth noticing.
The strengths of “Highway Home” are exaggerated in “Them,” which tells the story of two men who meet at a fountain known for anonymous sexual hookups. In a largely two-man show, Jude Hickey as a young possible hustler and Douglas Taylor as a questioning pastor show what Mitchell can do when he sticks to simple, direct human interaction.
To be sure, the fountain is a central metaphor, representing everything from the waters of life to diving into new experiences, but the story is lived by these two instead of spun out in wordplay. Mitchell’s dialog for young people—my own 25 or so—across both plays, is peppered with more “likes” and “dudes,” than I find natural, but Hickey’s flirtations with the older man carry a mixture of sexual and philosophical intentions. Likewise, Taylor’s pastor is as powerful, both physically and spiritually, when he’s pushing himself on Hickey as offering to wash his feet.
To work with the theme of the diptych, the fountain that looms large over both plays, simplicity wins out: When the cast is forced to climb over the fountain, hopping up and down and focusing more on the thing and its imagery than story, they suffer for it; when they can simply sit in front or dangle their feet and talk, we get a refreshing look at a promising new playwright’s work.
“Still Fountains” continues at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. through December 14 at Salvage Vanguard Theatre 2803 Manor Rd. $15-$30. 389-0315, salvagevanguard.org.
Joey Seiler is an American-Statesman freelance theater critic.
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Gallery Lombardi to shut its door
Gallery Lombardi, the spirited indie art space with the ‘everyone welcome’ attitude , will close its door Jan. 15.
The gallery just isn’t able to turn a profit and proprietor Ron Prince can’t financially do it any more. Prince opened the gallery in 2000 in a former warehouse on West Third and Bowie streets. When that location was sold to a developer wanting to build a condo tower, Gallery Lombardi moved to its current West Seventh Street location a couple years back.
Even in the best of financial times, operating a professional gallery is a tough business and very few are long-lived. Austin has never had a deep nor developed culture of private art collecting — the kind that comes from deep pockets. And our current recession is only that much tougher on an already-tough business.
What distinguished Gallery Lombardi was its open door, almost anything goes attitude. To Prince — and to hard working gallery director Rachel Koper — every artist, and every one who proclaimed themselves an artist, was welcome. “If you are a creative person, and you have an opportunity to be creative, consider yourself blessed,” Prince is quoted in news release. “The rest is window dressing.”
Sprawling group exhibitions with rocking live music at the late night openings characterized the scene at the free-spirited Gallery Lombardi. Not all the art at Gallery Lombardi was great. And the place never graduated beyond its scrapy, free-for-all feel. But then it never tried to be anything it wasn’t, and that’s admirable.
By Koper’s estimation, she organized an impressive 144 group exhibits. And Koper — who also writes for the Austin Chronicle — has been an important force in the indie art scene.
“Xmas Expo” is the gallery’s last exhibit, a signature Koper/Gallery Lombardi showing with dozens of artworks displayed salon style. “Xmas Expo” continues through Jan. 10 and is open noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and the gallery is open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. It’s also open 2 to 5 p.m. Sundays through the holidays.
“Xmas Expo” at Gallery Lombardi. Photo by Rachel Koper.
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Long Center receives challenge grant
The Long Center for the Performing Arts has received a $87,000 matching grant from the Austin-based Tomblin Family Foundation. The grant will match the amount of donations obtained by Long Center board members by Dec. 18.
In a release issued today, Long Center officials said that the privately run, two-venue performing arts center is headed for a break-even budget this year that includes $2.5 million in charitable support from the community.
Cliff Redd, the center’s executive director, said: “The Long Center’s presenting income, ticket sales and rental income will provide 73 percent of our revenue for 2008-09. That is one of the highest self-supporting percentages for any performing arts center in the country. So, those who love and want to support the performing arts can be proud and confident to invest in the Long Center.”
Certainly the Long Center seems to be fairing better than the city-operated Overture Center in Madison, Wis. which announced yesterday that it was cutting about 25 percent of its workforce to make the budget balanced for next year. Roughly similar in size and scale as the Long Center, the Overture also had to liquidate its trust fund to pay for construction debt. Ouch.
The Overture’s tale of troubles joins a string of bad news from arts non-profits across the country who are feeling the effects of the economic downturn. So far in Austin we’ve had no news of arts groups facing life-or-death financial straits. In January, we’ll take a look at the state-of-the-arts in Austin as the country grapples with a now-official recession.
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Austin’s Conspirare nets two Grammy noms
This is absolutely awesome.
Austin chorus Conspirare just received two Grammy nominations tonight for its recent CD ‘Tarik O’Regan: Threshold Of Night.’
The CD, issued on the Harmonia Mundi label, has been nominated for Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance. “Threshold” features the music of 30-year-old British composer O’Regan. Conspirare debuted the O’Regan’s works live in Austin September 2007, then recorded it the next month in the famous Troy Bank Music Hall. “Threshold” has gotten rave reviews since its September release.
Directed and founded by Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare received two Grammy nominations in 2007 for its CD “Requiem.” Johnson has an inspired vision of what a chorus can be in the 21st century — open to new music, vital and relevant to its audience, honorific of its musical past.
Conspirare presents its annual holiday concert Monday night at the Long Center with special guest Eliza Gilkyson. See www.conspirare.org for more information. It’s bound to be one heck of a celebration. And deservedly so.
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Review: Two concerts at UT’s Butler School of Music
Two rewarding nights at UT’s Butler School of Music started Monday with the UT Symphony Orchestra’s final concert of the semester.
Under the direction of Gerhardt Zimmermann, who is now in his third season at UT, the student orchestra sounds better than ever of late. And Monday’s concert at Bates Recital Hall proved that. Full of brio and vigor, here was a group of orchestral musicians that charged the music they were playing with excitement. No, it wasn’t just youthful energy on display (though that’s certainly a factor). More, it was an orchestra ardently engaged with its conductor.
With its sweepingly broad melody and short one movement length, Sibelius’s Andante Festivo for a string orchestra suggest that it might slip away before arriving. But Zimmermann gave the Festivo an immediately festive and noble feel. And he proved one this orchestra’s best talents: It can play quietly with great clarity and emotion.
Clarinetist Sarunas Jankauskas thoroughly impressed with Crusell’s dramatic and demanding Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra which the 18th-century Finnish composer and clarinetist wrote for himself. Jankauskas knew exactly what to do with the technically demanding piece to make it sparkle and not overwhelm with fussy virtuosity, by bringing a rich tone to even the most breathlessly fast passages.
The symbiotic artistry between Zimmermann and the orchestra shined in the concert’s second half, first with Kodaly’s stirring Varitions on a Hungarian Folksong “The Peacock.” The confident, clean-sounding brass section nicely punctuated the cinematic swoops of Kodaly’s defiant yet celebratory score.
But with Bernstein’s lively Divertimento for Orchestra, Zimmermann and the musicians let the élan explode. A vigorous light-hearted piece that Bernstein composed in 1980 as gift for the 100th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Divertimento demonstrates how Bernstein liked to throw in everything — and the kitchen sink — into many of his works. With the stage crammed with musicians (the piano only poked out about halfway from the wings) Zimmermann kept Bernstein’s blithe and musically witty celebration in sharp focus. And the orchestra responded with sonorous clarity.
Tuesday, again at Bates Recital Hall, the UT New Music Ensemble, directed by Dan Welcher, delivered an engaging program.
The stand out was Dries Berghman’s Archetypes, a cerebral yet beautiful three-movement piece for chamber orchestra. Berghman took an elegiac theme and unwound it through different moods and styles moving from swirling gestures to jaunty stylings to pretty explosions of joyful sounds. Archetypes was artistically mature — remarkable that it came from a 22-year-old who has yet to graduate.
Also receiving something of a premiere was Yevgeniy Sharlat’s revised Concertino for Viola and Eight Players. The viola — played by guest artist Sharon Wei St. John — tussled with the chamber orchestra through a series of complex movements. High Classical harmonies and structures came together than slid apart into shades of dissonance. The viola slipped into and out of unity with the ensemble. This Concertino was intellectually and compositionally an interesting exercise if didn’t always solicit big emotion.
Also on the program was Jacob Druckman’s Come Round to which Welcher gave a clear and tight presentation.
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Review: ‘The Santaland Diaries’
Santa’s got a brand new elf this year. And he’s full of fresh, sardonic spirit.
Espie Randolph stars as the unemployed writer who one Christmas season must take a job at Macy’s Santaland in David Sedaris’s “The Santaland Dairies,” now getting its 11th annual production at Zach Theatre.
Over the years, Zach artistic director Dave Steakley has honed the presentation of Sedaris’s monologue, which first gained popularity on National Public Radio before being adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello. into a neat comedic package for the stage. And even a decade later, the show continues to deliver entertainment and laughs. (Though admittedly I’ve taken a break from seeing the show in the past few years.)
Still, Zach’s “Santaland” is droll, sarcastic and spirit-affirming all at once.
At the heart of the show is a witty yet touching tale — based on Sedaris’s actual stint working as a Macy’s elf — that mocks the hyper commercialization of Christmas while also reminding us of what kind of goodness can emerge if we all stop to celebrate peace and understanding.
To the roughly one-hour monologue, Steakley adds a 45-minute first act of irreverent and slightly naughty Christmas songs sung with great comedic timing (and considerable polish) by Meredith McCall. In the midst of the musical mix this year is another Sedaris monologue, “Six to Eight Black Men,” an odd rumination on the Dutch Christmas tradition of Saint Nicholas and his attendants, performed with considerable comedic brio by Randolph. And with comedic elan, McCall gives us “The First Thanksgiving,” a very oddly funny monologue by Sarah Vowell, another NPR comedic darling.
A regular with comedic troupe Esther’s Follies, Randolph pops as Crumpet, Sedaris’s elf self. Randolph unrolls a wonderland of character voices and body language from badly behaving children to a socially awkward co-worker to a self-righteous parent. Ricocheting around Zach’s round Whisenhunt Stage, he pops among the cheesy candy cane Santaland decorations, plops into the lap of an audience member or two and otherwise energetically claims the whole space for himself.
And that’s just fine because this elf delivers laughs.
“The Santaland Diaries” continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays through Jan. 11. Whisenhunt Stage, Zach Theatre, 1510 Toomey Road. $31-$43 (discounts for seniors and students). 476-0541, www.zachtheatre.org.
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Kleins, Thorntons kick in for Arthouse
Today at City Hall, arts patrons Michael and Jeanne Klein and Julie and John Thornton issued a challenge in support of the $6.6 million capital campaign to renovate Arthouse, the Congress Avenue contemporary arts center.
With Mayor Will Wynn as a host to the announcement, the Kleins and the Thorntons announced that they will match up to $1 million of capital campaign gifts on a $1-for-$2 basis.
In other words, the Kleins, the Thorntons and an anonymous donor are anteing up $500,000, hoping to attract twice that much from other donors. If the challenge is met, the campaign will have reached $5.2 million of its $6.6 million goal.
The campaign, announced in March, includes the renovation of Arthouse’s Jones Center, the historied building at 700 Congress Avenue that started life nearly a century ago as a theater then morphed to a department store before Arthouse (formerly the Texas Fine Arts Association) bought it in the late 1990s. The renovation, by trendy New York architecture firm Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis will add three new galleries, two artists’ studios, a 90-seat community/screening room and a 5,500 square-foot rooftop space with a 17 foot x 33 foot movie screen.
Construction is slated to begin in 2009 and completed in 2010, in advance of Arthouse’s centennial in 2011.
