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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > May > 13
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Weekend Arts Pix
THURSDAY
‘Arts on the Move: Free Museum Tour’
Tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. enjoy free admission and special programs at six museums. At the Austin History Center, meet artist Tien Nguyen, who will share his ‘Micro Art’ paintings on grains of rice. ‘Who We Are’ at the Carver Museum is a documentary photograph exhibit of Gulf Coast communities after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. ‘Arts on the Move’ participating museums are Austin Museum of Art, 823 Congress Ave.; Austin History Center, 810 Guadalupe St.; Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, 1800 N. Congress Ave.; Mexic-Arte Museum, 419 Congress Ave.; Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St.; and the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, 1165 Angelina St. 936-4649.
THURSDAY AND FRIDAY
Austin Chamber Ensemble
Trio Contraste — a violin/piano/clarinet ensemble — returns for an eclectic program including Peter Sculthorpe’s ‘Dream Tracks’ (based on Australian aboriginal melodies), Charles Ives’ ‘Largo,’ Amilcare Ponchiellii ‘Paolo e Virginia,’ Peter Schickele’s slightly Western swing ‘Serenade for Three’ and a premiere by Austin composer P. Kellach Waddle — ‘Of Cleaning; and From off the Tree; and Dream Visions: A Trio in Form of Four Surreal Still Lifes,’ inspired by four wild dreams the composer had. 8 p.m. today, Westlake United Methodist Church, 1460 Redbud Trail. 8 p.m. Friday, First Presbyterian Church, 8001 Mesa Drive. 345-3399. www.austinchamberensemble.com.
FRIDAY AND SATURDAY
Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony
The Austin Symphony Orchestra and Grammy-nominated choir Conspirare team up for Mahler’s sweeping monumental emotion-packed work for a large orchestra and choir. Featured soloists are soprano Linda Mabbs and mezzo-soprano Susan Platts. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Dell Hall, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive. $19 to $48. www.austinsymphony.org.
SATURDAY
‘1,000 Years from Now: Claude van Lingen.’
At the indie East Austin new media gallery Co-Lob, South African artist Claude van Lingen creates a multimedia one-night artwork that pays homage to the casualties of the Iraqi war. Television images will be projected onto the gallery wall covered with a collage of print media news images and slivers of mirror. On the opposite gallery wall will be a list of the more than 4,000 casualties of the Iraq war, with the public invited to add names to the list. 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday. Co-Lab, 613 Allen St. Free. www.colabspace.org.
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Review: ‘Rent’
A round of cheers greeted “Rent’s” fantastic drag queen Angel (Justin Johnston) when she sashayed forward wearing her signature Ms. Santa Claus red fur and striped tights.
Although the touring version of the Broadway show has stopped in Austin before, it’s likely that most of the audience at Bass Concert Hall Tuesday for the show’s opening know “Rent” from its 2005 movie version or the popular cast album. But when singing alone to “”La Vie Boheme” at home, there’s no one to scream with and no way to simulate the thrill of watching a drag queen leap onto a table while wearing four-inch heels. Seeing the musical back onstage made a few aspects stand out.
“Rent” uses its entire space well, opening up a tiny, marginalized world—a bohemian fantasy of New York’s Alphabet City neighborhood just before 1990s gentrification. Marlies Yearby’s choreography finds the clean lines within Paul Clay’s cluttered but sculptured set. The ensemble’s placement around the stage, even just a well-timed group lean, underscores how this diverse community of many races, genders, and sexualities works together.
“Rent’s” final scene, as drug addict Mimi wakes from near death is incongruous with “Rent’s” more progressive politics. Lighting designer Blake Burba makes the moment even more evangelical by sending a huge stream of bright white light onto Mimi’s face. When she awakes, she tells everyone that she saw Angel and he told her to come back to her boyfriend Roger. Why does the straight, HIV-positive woman get to choose life — is even guided back to life by Angel — and the HIV-positive gay man is doomed to death?
Johnston’s Angel was one of several characters that re-invigorate this version of “Rent.” As awkward filmmaker Mark, Anthony Rapp (an original from “Rent’s” 1996 premiere) fretted with a combination of earnestness and fear that makes Mark endearing, particularly when Rapp closed his fists and eyes while belting “What You Own,” with Adam Pascal, another “Rent” original cast member who plays depressed musician Roger. As Joanne half of “Rent’s” lesbian couple, Haneefah Wood worked choreographic details to fashion her character as uptight, but practical. Wood and Rapp’s comfort together made their “Tango Maureen” a first act hit.
‘Rent’ continues ay 8 p.m. through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the. Bass Concert Hall, UT campus. $18-$60. www.utpac.org
Clare Croft is American-Statesman freelance critic.
