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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > May
May 2009
Recent arts coverage:
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Weekend Arts Pix
TODAY THROUGH SUNDAY
‘Love Janis’
Could there be a musical that’s a better fit for the self-proclaimed live music capital of the world? The musical version of the life of rock ’n’ roll legend Janis Joplin captured Austin’s imagination when Zach Theatre first presented it in 1996. Now, Zach revives the popular show — the most requested in the theater’s history — bringing back Andra Mitrovich who can channel Joplin like no other and also starred in the show’s national tour and Off-Broadway run. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays through July 12. Kleberg Stage, Zach Theater, South Lamar Boulevard and West Riverside Drive. 476-0541, www.zachtheatre.org.
SATURDAY
‘Freakshow-A-Go-Go’
Austin Drag Collective reclaims the classic freakshow and turns it into a large scale gender performance showcase with empowerment at the fore. Gender performers from around the nation take the stage in a campy, inspirational show that also features live music, puppetry, burlesque, acrobatics, dance and vaudevillian comedy. Master of ceremonies: P.J. Chavez (aka performance artist Jill Pangallo). 8:15 p.m. pre-show, 9 p.m. stage show Saturday. Emo’s (outside stage), 603 Red River St. $12 advance, $15 at the door. www.emosaustin.com.
Benny ‘Mjumbe’ Sorrells is an Austin native who moved to San Francisco in the 1960s and was an active participant in that city’s creative Beat scene. Despite having experienced periods of homelessness since returning to Austin, Sorrells continues to paint in a variety of media producing vividly colorful images that reflect intimate scenes of family and home life, African themes, African American themes, classic still life imagery and even cubist inspired geometric imagery. Opening: 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday. Regular gallery hours: noon to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays. Exhibit continues through June 11. Diverse Arts, New East Gallery, 1601 W. Fifth St., Suite 106. Free. 477-9438, www.diverserarts.org.
‘The Lining of Forgetting: Internal & External Memory in Art.’
How do we remember? And what kind of objects do we use and collect in order to help us remember? Family photos, Road Runner cartoons, the works of Shakespeare and Barack Obama’s presidential campaign are just some of the subjects explored in a sprawling exhibit of contemporary art that reveals how we remember, forget or re-write our memories. Join exhibit curator Xandra Eden and installation artists for a gallery talk. 3 p.m. Saturday. Regular museum hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday (until 8 p.m. Thursdays), 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Austin Museum of Art, 823 Congress Ave. $5-$7. 495-9224, www.amoa.org.
Kate Breakey
There are few artists whose work has such an immediate and compelling effect on many Austin viewers as Kate Breakey. The former Austinite brings her latest series of eerie hand-painted photographs of dead insects and animals. Opening reception: 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday. Regular gallery hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Stephen L. Clark Gallery, 1101 W. Sixth St. Free. 477-0828, www.stephenlclarkgallery.com.
Image: Louise Bourgeois, Ode à L’Oubli, 2004, fabric and color lithograph book, page 18 of 36 framed pages. Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Cheim & Read, New York. Photo: Christopher Burke.
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Dvorak comes to Georgetown
Czech composer Antonin Dvorak wrote perhaps one of the most seminal, and most popular, American symphonies ever — his Symphony No. 9, known as ‘From the New World.’ So perhaps it’s fitting that he’s celebrated this summer on the frontier that is Central Texas.
The annual Georgetown Festival of the Arts, which begins Saturday, gathers internationally recognized Austin-based musicians — pianist Anton Nel along with the Miro Quartet — and special guest artists — including the Shanghai Quartet — for a series of concerts honoring Dvorák’s singular contribution as a music maker who artfully plumbed folk music traditions for inspiration for his classical compositions.
‘This year we are honoring Antonin Dvorak, who enriched this tradition by infusing it with national styles of his native Bohemia and of 19th-century America, with particular interest in American and Native American music,’ says Georgetown Arts Festival director Ellsworth Peterson. ‘In a way, this festival celebrates the ethnic diversity of our own Central Texas heritage.’
The festival starts with a free concert in San Gabriel Park; it runs Saturday through June 7. Tickets are $20 a concert (festival pass $80), $5 students. More information is at www.gtownfestival.org.
Other highlights:
• Free Concert: ‘Dvorak in the Park: ‘From the New World,’ Symphony No. 9.’ Performed by Temple Symphony Orchestra. 8 p.m. Saturday. Gazebo, San Gabriel Park. 1101 N. College St.
• ‘Chamber music: ‘American’ Quartet in F major, Quintet for Piano and Strings, Sextet for Strings.’ Performed by Anton Nel, Miró Quartet, Shanghai Quartet. 8 p.m. June 4. Alma Thomas Theatre, Southwestern University. 1001 University Ave.
• ‘Dvorak’s Songs: Songs in Folk Tone, Moravian Duets, Gypsy Songs and more.’ Performed by Virginia Dupuy, Lynn Parr Mock, Scott Cameron, Bruce Cain. 8 p.m. June 5. First United Methodist Church, 410 E. University Ave.
• ‘Chamber Music: Romance in F minor, Songs My Mother Taught Me, Rondo in G minor and more.’ Performed by Eri Lee Lam, Vincent Lam, Hai Zheng. 3:30 p.m. June 8. First United Methodist Church, 410 E. University Ave.
• ‘Dvorak’s Piano Music.’ Performed by Anton Nel, Michael Schneider. 8 p.m. June 6. Alma Thomas Theatre, Southwestern University. 1001 E. University Ave.
• Dvorak’s ‘Stabat Mater.’ Performed by festival orchestra and chorus with soloists Mela Dailey, Virginia Dupuy, Scot Cameron, Bruce Cain. 4 p.m. June 7. Klett Center for the Performing Arts, Georgetown High School, 2211 N. Austin Ave.
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Review: Audio Inversions’ ‘Meditations and Homage’
Austin indie classical music group Audio Inversions paid a smart homage Friday night at the Long Center to one of their inspiring sources, the late American composer Lou Harrison — a pioneer in the use of world musical influences, new instruments. inventive textures that yet never lost track of a deeply felt lyricism and delightful tonality.
The winner of the third Audio Inversions composition competition? ‘Lou’ by Balinder Singh Sekhon, a short piece for percussion ensemble of regular and irregular instruments (including flower pots, brake drums and metal pipes) and amplified cello, written as tribute to Harrison.
And ‘Lou’ was a fitting tribute: percolating with offbeat character, filled with world music references that were honest and not hamfisted (as such reference so often can be) and a delightful challenge to the cellist Benjamin Westney who didn’t so much touch a bow as strummed and picked. ‘Lou’ rocketed along, sometimes almost threatening to collapse under its own rhythmic cacophony. But it recovered and ended with an energy-packed flourish.
Sekhon received Audio Inversions $750 prize money along with the premiere performance.
‘Lou’ made a fitting to finale to solidly conceived program of new classical music, a keen mix of brand new works and two masterful song clusters by Henryk Gorecki.
Both the captivating Gorecki vocal pieces — ‘Three Lullabies’ and ‘Szeroka Woda’ — got a luminous treatment from the unaccompanied vocal quintet (Jeb Mueller, Amanda Lundy, Jimmy Shepard, Meredith Bowden and Caitlin Anderson-Patters) and seemed to grab the audience in a thrall of hushed awe.
James Norman’s ‘Incline, O Maiden’ was a brilliant mini-opera enchantingly sung by mezzo-soprano Misha Penton. Using text from Goethe’s Faust, Norman — who is composer-in-residence with Audio Inversions — gave us a jewel-like monodrama modern in its stylings and packed with both visceral drama and ethereal sounds. Short, dramatically direct, modern — is ‘Incline, O Maiden’ the anti-Wagner opera? Perhaps.
Audio Inversions stirred up entries from more than 100 composers for this year’s composition contest. And in addition to performing the Sekhon’s winning entry, the group also premiered Delvyn Case’s ‘Gemini Variations,’ the competition’s honorable mention and a short, spirited if still immature piece for two saxophones.
Audio Inversions does it right. Taking matters into their own hands, they advocate for the progression of classical music by just doing it — supporting new compositions, framing new classical music in approachable terms and making it happen. Kudos.
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Your A-List: Best Museum
Readers have chosen Austin Museum of Art as their favorite in this week’s A-List poll with AMOA receiving 37 percent of the votes.
This weekend, AMOA opens ‘The Lining of Forgetting: Internal & External Memory in Art,’ an exhibit of international contemporary art that all expresses the ways we remember or forget or even re-write our memories.
Image from the exhibit at right: Dinh Q. Le, ‘Untitled (From Vietnam to Hollywood),’ 2003, C-print and linen tape, Courtesy of P.P.O.W., New York.
Here’s something to remember: Austin’s art museums have a very symbiotic history.
Nearly a century ago, friends of famed German-born sculptor Elisabet Ney established the Texas Fine Arts Association in 1911 to honor Ney. The group bought Ney’s idiosyncratic home and studio in the Hyde Park neighborhood to pave the way for some kind of official state art gallery.
At its first meeting, that group of early 20th-century arts supporters pledged to found an art school in connection with the University of Texas, thus planting the seeds that grew into UT’s art program and the Blanton Museum of Art), now the largest university art museum in the country.
In the early 1940s, the TFAA deeded the Ney house to the city of Austin, which now operates it as the Elisabet Ney Museum, a national, state and local historic landmark. And yet the materials in the Ney Museum, belong to UT’s Ransom Center.
Wait, there’s more: After the Ney house was deeded to the city, TFAA received stewardship of the Clara Driscoll estate on Lake Austin known as Laguna Gloria. TFAA ran its programs there until 1961, when a separate entity known as Laguna Gloria Art Museum, was established.
TFAA and Laguna Gloria Art Museum co-existed at the Driscoll mansion for years with TFAA organizing an annual exhibit and Laguna Gloria percolating and growing as a civic art museum.
Jump ahead a few decades and by the early 1990s, TFAA moved downtown to a permanent facility at 700 Congress Ave and re-named its Arthouse. It’s now a burgeoning contemporary arts center.
At the same time the TFAA was morphing into Arthouse, Laguna Gloria re-named itself the Austin Museum of Art and opened its current downtown location at 823 Congress Ave.
Others receiving A-List votes
- Mexic-Arte Museum, 19 percent
- Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, 17 percent
- Blanton Museum of Art, 16 percent
- Austin Children’s Museum, 2 percent
- Ransom Center, 2 percent
- LBJ Library and Museum, 2 percent
- Texas Memorial Museum, 1 percent
- O. Henry Museum, 1 percent
- Elizabet Ney Museum, < 1 percent
- George Washington Carver Museum, < 1 percent
- Austin Museum of Digital Art, < 1 percent
- French Legation Museum, < 1 percent
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TCA announces Texas state poet laureate, musician, artist
he Texas Commission on the Arts announced Tuesday its appointments to the positions of state poet laureate, state musician, state two-dimensional artist and state three-dimensional artist.
The eight appointees named for 2009 and 2010 were selected for the exceptional quality of their work and for their outstanding commitment to the arts in Texas
The 2009 appointees include Texas State Poet Laureate Paul Ruffin of Huntsville, Texas State Musician Willie Nelson of Austin, Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist Rene Alvarado of San Angelo and Texas State Three-Dimensional Artist Eliseo Garcia of Dallas.
The 2010 appointees include Texas State Poet Laureate Karla K. Morton of Denton, Texas State Musician Sara Hickman of Austin, Texas State Two-Dimensional Artist Marc Burckhardt of Austin and Texas State Three-Dimensional Artist John Bennett of Fredericksburg.
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Art talking, this week
Chatter, chatter, chatter: Three recommended art talks this week.
WEDNESDAY
8 p.m., Art Palace Gallery, 2109 E. Cesar Chavez
www.artpalacegallery.com
Austin artist Nathan Green beguiles with his newest series of paintings. Their faux naivety actually speaks more of impossible scenes and situations rather than idealized tableaux. Green’s vivid, fantastical spectacles seem joyous at first, but are filled with a stream of underlying anxiety.
THURSDAY
7 p.m., Arthouse, 700 Congress Ave.
www.arthousetexas.org
In the domestic space of testsite, a private home exhibit space, artist Sarah Pepe will create an all-encompassing abstract installation made of crocheted yarn attached that stretches between the walls and ceiling. As a means of questioning the tradition of women’s crafting traditions, Pepe invites to unravel the massive yarn piece and creatively re-purpose the yarn, by knitting or crocheting something for personal use.
At Arthouse on Thursday, Pepe will discuss this project within the larger context of her artistic practice which, for nearly two decades, has focused on issues related to feminism and gender identity as well as what she calls “cultural continuation.”
A collaboration with Arthouse curator Elizabeth Dunbar, the exhibition will be on view at testsite view May 31 - July 5.
THURSDAY
‘Texas Treasures: Early Texas Art from Austin Museums’
Peter Mears, Ransom Center curator
7 p.m., Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum
www.umlaufsculpture.org
Think you know Texas art? Think again. ‘Texas Treasures’ is the first collective exhibit; of early Texas artworks from the collections of the University of Texas Blanton Museum, the University of Texas Harry Ransom Center, the Austin Museum of Art and the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum.
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Review: ‘The Long Now’
The Long Now” combines the sweet, sentimental morality of fairy tales, the “Twilight Zone’s” twists and sense of the uncanny, and one frightening puppet. And it works.
As Tish explains from the start, she has a special friend. Her friend, though, appears at first to be of the imaginary sort—a grotesque personification of Time. But Time and Tish have a real arrangement. When she needs to, Tish can travel back to moments in her life, experiencing them like a fortunate addict, ad nauseum and without diminishing returns. And in Tish’s life, filled with the quiet horror of daily mundanities and well-meaning, nosy office mates, the past looks more and more appealing.
Soon it becomes clear that Tish is an addict, Time is a pusher, and the one-sided arrangement is based on the fear of revealing too much of the past rather than reveling in it. The metaphor’s moral — live in the now instead of hoarding it for the future — could be trite if it stopped there. Fortunately, director and writer Beth Burns doesn’t let it. Unfortunately, because it’s so rare that new theatre includes this much suspense and this many deft turns, I don’t want to say more and ruin the story.
Instead, I’d like to celebrate the execution of it. Time is embodied in a grandfather clock shadow puppet with a hobgoblin moon face to give Hieronymus Bosch nightmares. Designed by Jesse Kingsley, the paper puppets emit a sinister susurrus as Time moves and startling snaps when the character about-faces into the scrim.
The rest of the humans, though, are what gives the story its context: Tish is surrounded by people living normal lives. Her boss, played by Heath Thompson, and coworker, Anne Hulsman, offer subdued, natural performances. They initially feel underwhelming on stage. In reality they’re about pitch perfect, grounding the story in reality. Likewise, boyfriend Larry, played by Mason Stewart, is often enjoyably eager, almost going too far, until you realize his place in the larger fantasy.
Tish, played with success across a spectrum of ages, senses, and moods by Shannon Grounds, is the heart. Grounds ranges from the sinking addict, nodding off into a fantasy or scrabbling at her chest just to feel one new sensation, to a child with all her natural wonder to the wounded adult trying to move forward. Each adds a new layer to Tish, and all are affecting.
That’s the real success of “Long Now.” Burns has mixed fairy tale, relationship drama, and mystery into one constantly counter-balancing, turning story. She weaves together first dates with fantastical bargains and humanity with magic. It’s not perfect, but, as the story goes, life often isn’t. This moment, however, is well worth revisiting.
“The Long Now” continues Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. at The Blue Theater, 926 Springdale Rd., $15-$25. 927-118, brownpapertickets.com
Joey Seiler is an American-Statesman freelance theater critic.
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Two art happenings this weekend
Transparency Now: New Works by Hunter Cross
6 to 11 p.m., May 22, then by appointment
The East Village, 1200 E. Eleventh St.
Austin artist Hunter Cross stages an exhibit of his multi-media work. In the artist’s words:
‘The 4-5 works using overhead projectors, bingo chips and transparencies are an extension of this work: huntercross.com/art/stack/ I am using the layering of manufactured materials, in this case organizational stickers on glass, to work with, color, form and integrated lighting. In the new work I am replacing the organizational stickers with bingo discs stacked on overhead projectors, producing similar scale to my other works but through compressed means. Conceptually, the work becomes both an object and its image.’
Pretend You Are Rich Art Auction
7 to 10 pm. Saturday, May 23,
Live auction starts at 8 pm. Saturday, May 23
Pump Project Art Complex
702 Shady Lane
www.pretendyouarerich.com
From the event producers:
This is the only faux-riche, live and silent auction event where the bidding starts at $3000 and the winner gets a $3000 instant rebate! (So if you bid $3050 you pay is $50! If you are actually rich and bid $1,000,000 you pay only $997,000!) The proceeds from this event support local artists & Pump Project.
Image: Courtesy of Hunter Cross
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She’s ba-aack! UT’s Frida Kahlo returns home
If paintings had passports, the one belonging to Frida Kahlo’s “Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird” would be filled with stamps from around the globe.
Arguably the most popular art work in the collections of the University of Texas’ Ransom Center, Kahlo’s “Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace” has been on almost continuous loan to other institutions since 1990, visiting more than 25 museums in the United States and in countries such as Australia, Canada, France and Spain.
That’s a road trip of 19 years thanks to art world Frida-Mania.
However now, the colorful vaguely surrealist portrait is back home in Austin and on display at the Ransom Center until Jan. 3, 2010.
Kahlo’s painting came to UT in 1966 with the Nickolas Muray collection of more than 100 works of modern Mexican art
During her turbulent marriage to famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, Kahlo traveled to New York City in 1938 for her first solo exhibition outside Mexico. In New York, she embarked on a passionate love affair with her friend, the Hungarian-born photographer Nickolas Muray who she had met years before in Mexico City.
Though Kahlo and Muray ended their affair in 1939, they remained friends and Muray purchased “Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace” in 1940 from Kahlo to help her during a difficult financial period.
Muray, in turn, made some of the best-known photographic portraits of Kahlo. Muray’s collection at the Ransom Center also includes Kahlo’s painitng “Still Life with Parrott and Fruit” and a drawing “Diego y Yo.” Of Kahlo’s more than 140 paintings, 55 are self-portraits that belie her trademark combination of naive folk art, classical Mexican painting and surrealistic expression.
After its Ransom Center showing, “Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace” heads back out on the road in 2010 for exhibits in Berlin and Vienna.
Ransom Center Galleries
21st and Guadalupe streets
Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays (Thursday until 7 p.m.), noon to 5 p.m. Sundays
Tickets: Free
Information: 512-471-8944, www.hrc.utexas.edu
Image: © 2009 Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust. Av Cinco de Mayo No. 2, Col. Centro, Del. Cuauhtemoc 06059, Mexico, DF
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Indie classical group Audio Inversions awards, and premieres, a new composition
The foursome of adventurous indie classical musicians who make up Audio Inversions are only too happy to put their money where their mouths are.
On Friday, they’ll premiere the third recipient of their annual composition competition, which awards $750 to the winning score and most importantly, gives the new music its premiere.
On Friday’s program is the winning piece, ‘Lou’ by Baljinder Singh Sekhon II, and also compositions by Delvyn Case, Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki, and Audio Inversions’ composers-in-residence James Norman and Anthony Suter. Expect an eclectic mix of sounds ranging from mixed chorus to saxophone duets to percussion orchestra to chamber ensembles.
We caught up with Audio Inversions’ composer Norman for a few questions.
What inspired you to start a composition competition?
James Norman: Composers today need all the help they can get to find opportunities for their music. And too often truly special music will sit on the shelves of young (and sometimes experienced) composers because the right performance opportunity has not made itself available. The goal of our competition is to continue promoting the most outstanding musical works and composers, with the added hope of engendering a love of contemporary music in a new audience. One of our main objectives has been to seek out lesser-known and underplayed composers and their compositions, regardless of the styles they represent, and it is our hope that this competition will aid us in our search.
What kind of musical trends did you see emerging based on the competition entries?
We received entries from over 100 composers and nearly 300 total works submitted (we encourage composers to submit more than one work) from 12 different countries such as Turkey, Greece and Japan. The great thing about this competition is that we get a snapshot of the various musical trends influencing young composers. However, if this competition has taught us anything, it’s that people are writing music in all styles — serialism, post-minimalism, post-modernism, neo-romanticism — you name it, all the major trends of the past century, although, it’s tough to ignore the growing trend of electro-acoustic composition. With each new year of the composition we find more and more works that strive to integrate this new soundscape into their compositions.
What was it about what winning composition that made it the winner?
Norman: After incredibly long sessions of studying scores and listening to the recordings, ‘Lou,’ by Baljinder Singh Sekhon II, truly began to stand out amongst its peers. It’s an incredibly mature work and beautifully written for cello and percussion orchestra. ‘Lou’ is a modern homage to Californian composer Lou Harrison, whose music was the very model of diversity and the global reach of classical music as many of his works included the music of non-Western cultures, such as Javanese-style gamelan music. And like Harrison, Sekhon has woven the traditions of Eastern and Western music together into something completely unique. We are thrilled that we are honoring a composition that is not a only the work of an extremely talented up-and-coming composer, but that we get to perform what we consider to be a great work as well.
Audio Inversions’ Fourth Season Finale
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Rollins Studio Theatre, Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Drive
Cost: $15 ($10 students)
Info: www.audioinversions.com
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Recent arts coverage:
UT’s Blanton Museum of Art hires Ned Rifkin, former Smithsonian Under Secretary of Art, as its new director | ‘Practice, Practice, Practice’ at Lora Reynolds Gallery | Follow @artsinaustin on Twitter
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Ceremony Hall to fill with immersive sound art on Saturday
In the last few years, sound art has rippled at the edges of Austin’s contemporary culture scene.
Now, Austin’s New Music Co-op brings some serious talent to town.
Love the sound of leaves rustling in the wind? What about the soft clink of a handful of small river stones? Then prepare for an immersive sonic art experience. And prepare to listen closely like you might never have listened before.
Arizona composer and sound artist Jeph Jerman has spent 10 years presenting different iterations of his ‘Animist Orchestra’ project. The orchestra exists wherever Jerman fiinds artist willing to go down the same creative path as he.
He found like-minded artists in New Music Co-op — the first ensemble for which Jerman has specifically written a piece.
On Saturday Jerman, along with the collaboration of 20 Austin musicians will coax polyphonic masses of sound out of natural found objects (animal bones, seeds, leaves) culled from around Austin, as well as some from Arizona. Jerman’s score will direct the ensemble in the creation of soundscapes that are carefully wrought yet also spontaneous, wholly natural and at the same time artificial.
Jerman’s ultimate question — what happens when we listen? Two of the project’s primary goals are to let the sounds be themselves and to listen. As Jerman writes, his aim to “remove, as much as possible, the intent to ‘make music’ or ‘express ourselves,’ and just let the sounds be.” Jerman issued the simple instruction to continually re-listen and to turn one’s attention ever toward the sounds.
‘Animist Orchestra.’
8 p.m. Ceremony Hall, 4100 Red River St.
$15. www.newmusiccoop.org.
“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”
— John Cage
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WPA — Works Progress Austin — incubates new theater
The formal arts season may be winding down, and Fusebox left everybody a little breathless giving Austin a mass infusion of new performance work. But on Saturday, Salvage Vanguard’s project Works Progress Austin unveils the work of writers, directors, filmmakers, dramaturges, comedians, and musicians who were given a two-week opportunity to incubate and experiment with new work.
Three short plays-in-progress will be unveiled.
8 p.m. May 23. Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. $10 www.salvagevanguard.org
‘A Brief Narrative on the Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits.’
By C, Denby Swanson. Directed by Sonnet Blanton with puppets by Connor Hopkins.
Characters live on the edge of the imagined and the real in ‘A Brief Narrative.’ Mare, a surrogate for her infertile sister Kitty, has just given birth to her first…. Rabbit. There will be 24 additional rabbits after this. How are we made? By whom?
‘The Collapse’
By Kirk Lynn. Directed by Thomas Graves.
‘I have to collapse. I have to collapse. I’m gonna put everything I
believe into this last collapse. Tomorrow I’m going to walk out my door
believing nothing. Tomorrow I’m going to wake up very early. Tomorrow
I’m going to wake up very early. I don’t want to sleep at all. Tomorrow
I’m going to wake up not believing anything at all. I’m going to go to
bed when I collapse. When I collapse at last. I keep a record every time
it happens. I keep a record every time it happens. Every time it
happens, I record it. I want to know the difference between collapse and
collapse.’
‘Guest by Courtesy.’
By Hannah Kenah and Jenny Larson.
‘A “tea,” even though it be formal, is nevertheless friendly and inviting.
One does not go in “church” clothes nor with ceremonious manner; but in an
informal and every-day spirit, to see one’s friends and be seen by them. A
smaller room is preferable, too much space with too few people gives an
effect of emptiness which always is suggestive of failure.’
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Review: ‘Oceana’
Vortex Theatre lives underwater for the next few weeks. The new musical “Oceana” created by Bonnie Cullum and Content Love Knowles floods the East Austin theatre space through June 6.
Through movement by Cullum, and design, Jason Amato’s lights and Ann Marie Gordon’s, the production does an excellent job of fully embracing another world. The parable-esque musical has worthwhile messages to send: the sea deserves care and protection. But the story unfolding inside the elaborate world gets murky at times.
The young girl (Betsy McCann) sent on a grand tour of the ocean by god Olokun (Gabriel Maldonado). He hopes she will be the one to save the ocean from destruction. She hopes to survive. But she eventually lets go, letting the water and its many spirits in.
Two groups guide the girl: merpeople who catapult through “Oceana’s” sea with the help of aerial equipment and an operatic doo-wop trio, who sometimes offer explanation. A magical seal (Katherine Craft) forges the deepest connection with the girl, but it is unclear why. The seal says the girl once saved her life, but that story-shifting event escaped me, making “Oceana’s” climax confusing.
The girl also meets a series of goddesses. Hindu goddess Lakshmi (Kira Parra) eventually helps the girl discover desires bigger than her individual needs. Parra has one of the show’s best voices. Karina Dominguez as Pele, Hawaiian deity of earth and volcanoes, is another performance standout.
Pele also has more opportunity to grow into a full character. Most of the spirit presences have one significant scene and otherwise perform with the ensemble. Meeting each goddess so briefly robs the figures of time to make the traditions from which they are borne specific or deep.
“Oceana” continues at 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays through June 6. Vortex Theater, 2307 Manor Road. $10-$30. www.vortexrep.org.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
Image: Rachel Martsolf and Jonathan Blackwell as The Mer in ‘Oceana.’ Photo by Tony Spielberg.
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Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra’s make Mahler mighty
Austin Symphony Orchestra left the audience — and itself — breathless Friday night after its performance of Gustav Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony, the final concert of the orchestra’s subscription series.
Have we ever seen so many musicians on the stage of the Long Center’s Dell Hall? With Mahler’s massive work requiring additional musicians to the orchestra’s line-up and the 110-member Conspirare Symphonic Choir upstage, the musicians, in particular the string sections, spilled out past the proscenium.
This mighty mob of musicians was up to the monumental task Mahler’s emotional — and technical — rollercoaster of a symphony, as was conductor Peter Bay. (Conspirare conductor Craigh Hella Johnson prepared the choir.)
From the opening tremor of the bass lines to the massive chorale finale, Bay kept a tight reign. And the musicians respond with focus and energy.
Mostly importantly, Bay kept the musical integrity of each movement in tact, balancing the first movement’s motion between edgy tensions and soulful emotions while letting the second movement sound ethereal and nostalgic. The scherzo starts with a surprisingly sunny theme that’s then contrasted against bold fanfares before spinning seemingly out of control. But Bay kept Mahler’s musical madness in check while accentuating its complexity.
We’re almost exhausted by Mahler’s mood shifts by the time we get to the massive fifth movement. But it’s in the fifth movment that the whole package arrives and Bay and the musicians delivered it with gusto.
Having the violins well in front of the proscenium in Dell Hall, though, meant they didn’t always project as well and were sometimes overshadowed by the winds and brass. And while soprano Linda Mabbs and mezzo Susan Platts performed nicely, and both had lovely tone, they too perhaps suffered from being past the proscenium and somewhat subdued.
Next season, ASO and Conspirare will collaborate again, this time on Cary Ratcliff’s oratorio ‘Ode to Common Things’ based on the poems by Pablo Neruda. Let’s hear it for such musical partnerships.
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Austin Critics’ Table Awards nominations announced
Austin Shakespeare’s production of “An Ideal Husband,” Dan Welcher’s Symphony No. 5 and the Blanton Museum of Art exhibit “Birth of the Cool” are just some of many arts events in the past year that have been nominated for an award by the Austin Critics’ Table.
Other nominees announced today include Austin Lyric Opera’s production of ‘The Bat,’ pianist Anton Nel’s solo concert at the Long Center and costume designer Michaele Hite for the UT Butler School of Music production of Duke Ellington’s “Queenie Pie.”
Visual artists Sterling Allen, Heyd Fontenot and Anna Krachey are among those nominated for Outstanding Visual Artist. Those recognized for Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role include Barbara Chisholm, Liz Fisher, Joey Hood, Lauren Lane and Chase Woolridge.
Receiving nominations for Outstanding Original Composition are Austin composers Dries Berghman, Jason Hoogerhyde, Russell Reed and Graham Reynolds.
The informal group of arts critics from the American-Statesman and the Austin Chronicle acknowledges achievement in the arts with its annual awards. Awards are given in various categories for theater, dance, visual art and classical music. This year’s awards ceremony will be at 7 p.m. June 1 at the Cap City Comedy Club, 8120 Research Blvd. Admission is free, and no reservations are required.
For this year’s honorees for the Austin Arts Hall of Fame, go here.
Austin Critics Table Nominations, 2008-2009
THEATER
Production, Drama
‘The Bird’ and the Bee,’ Capital T Theatre
‘Cyrano de Bergerac,’ Mary Moody Northen Theatre
‘Dug Up,’ Austin Playhouse
‘The Grapes of Wrath’, Zach Theatre
‘The Idiot,’ UT Department of Theatre & Dance
‘The Nina Variations,’ Gobotrick Theatre Company
‘Ophelia,’ Tutto Theatre Company
‘Still Life With Iris,’ UT Department of Theatre & Dance
Production, Comedy
‘Age of Arousal,’ Austin Playhouse
‘Art,’ Penfold Theatre Company/City Theatre Company
‘Bomb Shelter,’ Tongue and Groove Theatre
‘Bombs in Your Mouth,’ Hyde Park Theatre
‘The Clean House,’ Zach Theatre
‘Cloud Nine,’ Mary Moody Northen Theatre
‘An Ideal Husband,’ Austin Shakespeare
‘Things in Life,’ Ben Prager
Production, Musical
‘Always … Patsy Cline,’ TexARTS
‘Arthuriosis,’ Getalong Gang Performance Group
‘Beauty and the Beast,’ Zilker Theatre Productions
‘Caroline, or Change,’ Zach Theatre
‘The Last Five Years,’ Penfold Theatre Company/Austin Playhouse
‘Oklahoma,’ Summerstock Austin
‘The Pajama Game,’ Mary Moody Northen Theatre
‘Queenie Pie,’ UT Butler School of Music
‘The Red Balloon,’ Tongue and Groove Theatre
Direction
Rod Caspers, ‘The Bat’
Eric Einhorn, ‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’
Scott Kanoff, ‘The Idiot’
Michael McKelvey, ‘Oklahoma’/’The Last Five Years’/’The Pajama Game’
Michelle Polgar, ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’
Will Hollis Snider, ‘The Nina Variations’
Dave Steakley, ‘Altar Boyz’/ ‘Caroline, or Change’/ ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Lara Toner, ‘Dug Up’/ ‘Age of Arousal’
Dustin Wills, ‘Ophelia’
David Yeakle, ‘The Red Balloon’
Acting in a Leading Role
Marc Balester, ‘A Number’
Barbara Chisholm, ‘Shooting Star’ / ‘The Clean House’
Liz Fisher, ‘Bombs in Your Mouth’
David Gallagher, ‘The Last Five Years’
Joey Hood, ‘Bombs in Your Mouth’
Annika Johansson, ‘The Last Five Years’
Jenny Larson, ‘Age of Arousal’
Lauren Lane, ‘The Clean House’
David Long, ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’
Ben Prager, ‘Things in Life’
Selena Rosanbalm, ‘Always … Patsy Cline’
Mark Schiebmir, ‘An Ideal Husband’ / ‘The Psyche Project’
Janis Stinson, ‘Caroline, or Change’
Tom Truss, ‘The Idiot’
Jennifer Underwood, ‘The Casket of Passing Fancy’ / ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’
Molly Wissinger, ‘Beauty and the Beast’
Chase Woolridge, ‘The Bird and the Bee’
Acting in a Supporting Role
Kate deBuys, ‘The Idiot’
Verity Branco, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ / ‘An Ideal Husband’
Janelle Buchanan, ‘An Ideal Husband’ / ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Shavanna Calder, ‘Caroline, or Change’
Smaranda Ciceu, ‘The Idiot’
Lana Dieterich, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Jenny Gravenstein, ‘Age of Arousal’
Lesley Gurule, ‘The Idiot’
Boni Hester, ‘A Flea in Her Ear’
Ev Lunning Jr., ‘The Bat’
Rob Matney, ‘Twelfth Night’
Marc Pouhé, ‘The Three Sisters’ / ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’/ ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Scott Shipman, ‘Beauty and the Beast’
Steve Shearer, ‘Dancing at Lughnasa’
Tom Truss, ‘The Psyche Project’
Ensemble Performance
‘Age of Arousal,’ Austin Playhouse
‘Altar Boyz,’ Zach Theatre
‘Art,’ Penfold Theatre Company/City Theatre Company
‘Cyrano de Bergerac,’ Mary Moody Northen Theatre
‘Glengarry Glen Ross,’ City Theatre Company
‘Ophelia,’ Tutto Theatre Company
‘The Red Balloon,’ Tongue and Groove Theatre
David Mark Cohen New Play Award
‘Dug Up’, Cyndi Williams
‘The Idiot,’ Scott Kanoff
‘Las Amandas,’ Michael Mares Mendoza
‘Ophelia,’ Dustin Wills
‘Radio Silence,’ Zell Miller III
‘Things in Life,’ Ben Prager
Music Direction
Jeff Hellmer, ‘Queenie Pie’
Lyn Koenning, ‘Oklahoma’ / ‘Caroline, or Change’ / ‘Always … Patsy Cline’
Michael McKelvey, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ / ‘Cloud Nine’ / ‘The Last Five Years’ / ‘The Pajama Game’
Allen Robertson, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Movement
Case Dillard, ‘Altar Boyz’
Danny Herman and Rocker Verastique, ‘The Pajama Game’
Robin Lewis, ‘Oklahoma’
Jennifer Sherburn/David Yeakle, ‘The Red Balloon’
Judy Thompson-Price, ‘Beauty and the Beast’
Touring Show, Theatre
‘Avenue Q,’ UT Performing Arts Center
Elaine Strich at Liberty, Austin Cabaret Theatre
‘Let Me Down Easy,’ Zach Theatre
‘Monty Python’s Spamalot,’ UT Performing Arts Center
‘Spectacular,’ Forced Entertainment, Fusebox Festival
None of the Above
‘Bodies in Urban Spaces,’ Fusebox Festival
‘The Casket of Passing Fancy,’ Rubber Repertory
‘pink [unplugged],’ Art City Austin
‘Spaceman:Dada:Robot,’ Electronic Planet Ensemble
DESIGN
Scenic Design
Kevin Beltz, ‘Still Life With Iris’
Yvonne Boudreaux, ‘The Idiot’
Ann Marie Gordon, ‘A Number’
Lisa Laratta, ‘Ophelia’
David Nancarrow, ‘The Bat’
Sonja Rainey, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
Cliff Simon, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Costume Design
Susan Branch, ‘The Bat’ / ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Abbey Graf, ‘An Ideal Husband’
Alison Heryer, ‘The Idiot’
Michaele Hite, ‘Queenie Pie’
Kim H. Ngo, ‘Ophelia’/ ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’
Ariana Schwartz, ‘Still Life With Iris’
Lighting Design
Jason Amato, ‘Altar Boyz’ / ‘Radio Silence’ / ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Natalie George, ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’
Shawn Kaufman, ‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’
David Nancarrow, ‘The Bat’ / ‘Rigoletto’
Will C. Sutliff, ‘Still Life With Iris’
Tony Tucci, ‘Hamlet’ / ‘The Nutcracker’
Cheng Wei-Teng, ‘The Idiot’
Lih-Hwa Yu, ‘The Shape of White’
Sound Design
Craig Brock, Altar Boyz/The Grapes of Wrath
Billy Henry, ‘The Idiot’
Bill Mester, ‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’
Buzz Moran, ‘Hamilton Township’
Video Design
Duncan Alexander, ‘The Color of Dissonance’
Lowell Bartholomee and Michael Mergen, ‘The Method Gun’
José Bustamante, ‘The Shape of White’
F. Joseph Santori,’ Fantasmaville’
Leah Sharpe, ‘The Red Balloon’
Lee Webster, ‘Hamilton Township’ / ‘Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell’
DANCE
Dance Concert
‘Hamlet,’ Ballet Austin
‘In a Sense,’ American Repertory Ensemble
‘Skate! A Night at the Rink,’ Forklift Danceworks
Short Work
‘Chicken Complex,’ Ann Berman, Big Range Austin Dance Festival
‘Crandall Canyon Mine,’ Sharon Marroquin, Big Range Austin Dance Festival
‘Episodes,’ Ballet Austin
‘John and I…,’ American Repertory Ensemble
‘Platform Forward,’ Ellen Bartel, Big Range Austin Dance Festival
‘Searching,’ Jason Janas, Tapestry Dance Company
‘The Shape of White,’ UT David Mark Cohen New Works Festival
‘Sparrows Gift,’ American Repertory Ensemble
Choreographer
David Justin, ‘Speed Dial’ / ‘Bach Sonata’ / ‘Snow Globe’ / ‘Sparrows Gift’
Sharon Marroquin, ‘Garden’ / ‘Crandall Canyon Mine’ / ‘Desprendimiento’
Eric Midgley, ‘Hang’
Andee Scott, ‘The Shape of White’
Dancer
Chika Aluka, ‘An Oval Braid’ (Chaddick Dance Theatre)
Paul Michael Bloodgood, ‘Episodes’/ ‘Hamlet’ (Ballet Austin)
Michele Gifford, ‘Bach Sonata’ / ‘Rubies (pas de deux),’ (American Repertory Ensemble)
Ashley Lynn, ‘Episodes’ / ‘Hamlet’ / ‘Left Unsaid’ (Ballet Austin)
Sharon Marroquin, ‘Garden’ / ‘Crandall Canyon Mine’
Maia McCoy, ‘The Gambit,’ (Chaddick Dance Theatre)
Rosalyn Nasky, ‘Fray,’ Big Range Austin Dance Festival/American Repertory Ensemble
Allisyn Paino, ‘Hamlet’ / ‘The Studio Theater Project’ (Ballet Austin)
Frank Shott, ‘Hamlet’ (Ballet Austin)
Kirby Wallis, ‘Songs of Innuendo’ (Ballet Austin)
Touring Show, Dance
‘Erection,’ Testperformancetest/Fusebox Festival
‘Grub,’ Teeth, Fusebox Festival
Grupo Corpo, UT Performing Arts Center
Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People, Fusebox Festival
‘Rammed Earth,’ Tere O’Connor, Dance Umbrella
‘Warriors and Queens,’ UT Department of Theatre & Dance, Performance as Public Practice,and Center for Women’s and Gender Studies
MUSIC
Symphonic Performance
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, UT Symphony Orchestra with UT Chamber Singers, Concert Chorale, Men’s Chorus, Women’s Chorus, and Choral Arts Society
Hoogerhyde: Lament, Austin Civic Orchestra
Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 5/Rossini: L’italiana in Algeri, UT Symphony Orchestra
Schumann: Introduction and Allegro appassionato/Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1, Austin Symphony Orchestra with Anton Nel
Stravinsky: Firebird Suite, Austin Symphony Orchestra
Welcher: Symphony No. 5, Austin Symphony Orchestra
Chamber Performance
Anton Nel in recital, Anton Nel
‘GHP 10,’ Golden Hornet Project with Tosca String Quartet
‘In Celebration of Mendelssohn’s 200th Birthday,’ Miró Quartet
‘In the Immortal Words of Dvorak: Let’s Party,’ Austin Chamber Music Center and Carpe Diem Quartet
Reich: Drumming, UT Percussion Ensemble
‘Sound in Time: The Music of Alvin Lucier,’ New Music Co-op
‘This Time It’s Personal,’ Viola By Choice
Choral Concert
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9, UT Chamber Singers, Concert Chorale, Men’s
Chorus, Women’s Chorus, and Choral Arts Society with UT Symphony Orchestra
‘Complaints Through the Ages,’ Texas Early Music Project
Ellington: Sacred Concert,’ Austin Chamber Music Center/Huston-Tillotson University Concert Choir
Schubert: Mass in G/Vivaldi: Gloria, Austin Civic Chorus
Rachmaninoff: Vespers, Conspirare
Verdi: Messa da Requiem, Conspirare Symphonic Choir, Texas State University Choirs, Victoria Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra
Opera
‘The Bat,’ Austin Lyric Opera
‘La Curandera,’ UT Butler Opera Center
‘Dialogues of the Carmelites,’ Austin Lyric Opera
‘Eight Songs for a Mad King’ / ‘The Tyrant,’ UT New Music Ensemble
‘Rigoletto,’ Austin Lyric Opera
‘Winterreise/The Sorrows of Young Werther,’ Austin Chamber Music Center
Singer
Michele Angelini, ‘Cinderella’ (Austin Lyric Opera)
Morgan Gale Beckford, ‘Queenie Pie’ (UT Butler Opera Center)
John Boehr, ‘Cinderella’ (Austin Lyric Opera)
Andrew Cannata, ‘The Pajama Game’ (St. Edward’s Univ.)
Sandra Piques Eddy, ‘Cinderella,’ (Austin Lyric Opera)
Gitlanjali Mathur, ‘Complaints Through the Ages’ (Texas Early Music Project)
Elizabeth Petillot, Viola by Choice
Lyubov Petrova, ‘Rigoletto (Austin Lyric Opera)
Emily Pulley, ‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’ (Austin Lyric Opera)
Suzanne Ramo, ‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’ (Austin Lyric Opera)
Jenifer Thyssen, ‘Complaints Through the Ages’ (Texas Early Music Project)
Original Composition/Score
‘Archetypes,’ Dries Berghman (UT New Music Ensemble)
‘Between Steel and Stardust (Songs of Texas Women),’ Graham Reynolds and Carrie Fountain
‘The Color of Dissonance,’ Jason Hoogerhyde (Southwestern Univ.)
‘Light the Lovely Candles,’ Russell Reed (Viola By Choice)
‘The Red Balloon,’ Justin Sherburn
‘Songs & Dances,’ Jorge Morel (Austin Classical Guitar Society)
‘Symphony No. 5,’ Dan Welcher
Instrumentalist
Gregory Allen, Beethoven: “Archduke” Trio (Chamber Soloists of Austin)
Conor Brace, ‘Queenie Pie’ (UT Butler Opera Center)
Thomas Burritt, Reich: Drumming (UT Percussion Ensemble)
Graeme Francis, ‘Dark Circle’/ ‘Snow Globe,’ (American Repertory Ensemble)
Yu-Hsuan Liao, Valses Poéticos, ‘Passion at Play’ (American Repertory Ensemble)
Elizabeth Lee, Dvorak: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (UT Symphony Orchestra)
Anton Nel, Anton Nel in recital (Long Center)
Michelle Schumann, Gershwin: ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (Austin Chamber Music Center)
Bion Tsang, ‘Conspirare in Concert’ (Conspirare)
Touring Classical
Borromeo String Quartet, Austin Chamber Music Festival
Jupiter String Quartet, UT Performing Arts Center
Onix Ensemble, UT Performing Arts Center
Itzhak Perlman, UT Performing Arts Center
Weilerstein Trio, UT Butler School of Music
ART
Museum Exhibition
‘Fritz Henle: In Search of Beauty,’ Ransom Center, curator Roy Flukinger
‘Lordy Rodriguez: States of America,’ Austin Museum of Art, curator Eva Buttacavoli
‘Matt Stokes: these are the days,’ Arthouse, curator Elizabeth Dunbar
‘Modern Art. Modern Lives. Then + Now,’ Austin Museum of Art, curators Dana Friis-Hansen and James Housefield
‘The New York Graphic Workshop: 1964-1970,’ Blanton Museum of Art, curators Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro and Ursula Davila-Villa
‘Reimagining Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York’ Blanton Museum of Art, curator Linda Henderson
Solo Gallery Exhibition
‘Heyd Fontenot: Business in the Front, Party in the Back,’ Art Palace
‘Lance Letscher: Industry and Design,’ D. Berman Gallery
‘Laurie Frick: Collages,’ Gallery Shoal Creek
‘Lee Baxter Davis,’ Texas Biennial 2009
‘Leslee Frasier: No Sure Footing,’ Women & Their Work
‘Peat Duggins: Black Room,’ Art Palace
‘Steve Brudniak: Noumenon,’ Dougherty Arts Center
Group Gallery Exhibition
‘The Activist Impulse,’ Women & Their Work, curator Regine Basha
‘Bayanihan: Work from Manila,’ Okay Mountain, curator Tim Brown
‘Photography in the Abstract,’ Lora Reynolds Gallery, curator Maureen Mahony
‘Reality Show,’ Women & Their Work, curator Jill Pangallo
‘Songs of Praise for the Heart Beyond Cure,’ Art Palace, curator Katie Geha
Independent or Public Project
‘Burning Clock,’ Merrilee Ratcliffe and Dave Umlas; First Night Austin 2009
‘The Exquisite Bee,’ Austin Video Bee
Okay Mountain mural at Austin Ventures
‘Recreating the Domain,’ Alex Keller
‘Three Dollar Cinema,’ Paul Soileau and PJ Raval
‘12:19 Library,’ Ron Berry, Phil Soltanoff, Scott Wilcox; Fusebox Festival
Work of Art
‘Armada,’ Lisi Raskin, Blanton Museum of Art
‘Bait Box,’ Buster Graybill, Texas Biennial 2009
‘Homeland Security,’ Ken Little, Texas Biennial 2009
‘Let Me Entertain You,’ Jill Pangallo, Texas Biennial 2009
‘Stacked Waters,’ Teresita Fernandez, Blanton Museum of Art
‘Warthogramhawk,’ Jules Buck Jones, Texas Biennial 2009
‘Wild Seed,’ Lauren Kelley, Arthouse
Artist
Sterling Allen
Heyd Fontenot
Anna Krachey
Jill Pangallo
Barry Stone
Touring Show, Art
‘Birth of the Cool,’ Blanton Museum of Art
‘Lewitt x2,’ Austin Museum of Art
‘Workers: Sebastiao Salgado,’ Austin Museum of Art
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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.
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Last week for ‘Birth of the Cool’ — special late night hours
It’s been a thrilling run, but ‘Birth of the Cool,’ the infinitely cool exhibit on midcentury California art and design, must close this Sunday.
But to give everyone a chance to see the exhibit, the Blanton is extending its hours Saturday until 8 p.m. The museum opens at 11 a.m. on Saturdays.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, Sundays noon to 5 p.m.
Also on Saturday, at 7 p.m. there’s a screening of ‘Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Schulman,’ a thoughtful documentary on the photographer who literally made modernism fashionable and popular with his stunning photographs.
Austin filmmaker Eric Bricker, director of ‘Visual Acoustics,’ will be on hand for a Q-and-A after the 7 p.m. screening. Read more about his filmmaking process.
Admission to the screening is free with museum admission ($3-$7). And Blanton officials say that guests can hang on to their receipt and come back on Sunday, May 17 if they don’t get a chance to see the exhibit on Saturday.
See www.blantonmuseum.org for more information.
Image: ‘Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960’ by Julius Shulman.
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Review: Ballet Austin’s ‘Cinderella’
In Ballet Austin’s “Cinderella,” the shoe fit well enough. The company’s revival of artistic director Stephen Mills’ 1997 ballet has the expected elements: a beautiful Fairy Godmother, a happy couple, and a pumpkin-turned carriage pulled by adorable pint-sized dragonflies. But Friday at Dell Hall, the ballet did little to exceed expectations. The story was confusing, especially around the stepsisters, and the dancing seemed hesitant.
Mills’ “Cinderella” relies heavily on the guidance of the Fairy Godmother, the sparkling Aara Krumpe. With Cinderella (Allisyn Paino) and, later, the Prince (Frank Schott) Krumpe is a dancing guide. In pairs the dancers sweep back and forth as the Fairy Godmother pulls the young lovers toward each other through dance.
Other choreographic choices didn’t feed the story as well. The stepsisters (Anne Marie Melendez and Jamie Lynn Witts) contrast little with Cinderella. It’s an odd case: good dancing undercuts the ballet’s story. Then the stepsisters don’t come to the ball as stepsisters, but as princesses, indistinguishable from the other two princesses (Rebecca Johnson and Beth Terwilleger).
In princess variations, Johnson, Terwilleger, and Witts displayed precision. The incorporation of the ball guests into the main pas de deux was another choreographic high point in Act II. The Austin Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Peter Bay, buoyed all of the dancing.
Paino, best known for funnier performances like Kate in Mills’ “Taming of the Shrew” showed a softer side as Cinderella. Her acting, so compelling as midnight pulled her away from the Prince, will be missed when she retires after the weekend run.
Often Friday’s dancing looked anxious. In a dream sequence where the Fairy Godmother shows Cinderella her future, Johnson and Christopher Swaim struggled. Paino and Schott fulfilled the dream’s promise, also struggling in lifts as they reprised the duet at the ballet’s close.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance dance critic.
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Hideout Theatre comedy team buys itself, sorta
What to do when the lease to the theater you’ve been using for years is threatened with closure, when the owners of the business title and lease to the place just want to roll-up the show for good?
Buy it yourself.
That’s what a team of improv comedians have done with the Hideout Theatre, the popular yet intimate venue on Congress Avenue. When the owners of the business title decided they wanted out of the biz of running a theater and didn’t seek renewal on the lease, a group of comedians — all of whom started as improve students at the Hideout — did want improvisers do best. They improvised and found a way to buy the rights to Hideout Theatre as well as renew the lease for five years.
That’s clever. And show some business savvy too.
Jessica Arjet, Kareem Badr and Roy Janik are teachers, producers, directors and performers at The Hideout. Arjet is also creator of Austin’s only improv show for kids, Flying Theatre Machine, and Janik and Badhr are founding members of Parallelogramophonograph and co-producers of the Out of Bounds Improv Comedy Festival.
They declined to disclose how much was paid for the rights to the Hideout Theatre name or what the venue rent amount was.
“I don’t think we could have lived with ourselves if we had let the Hideout just go away. It means too much to everyone,” said Badr in a press release.
The group will celebrate its new self-ownership June 5 with a party and show.
In the meantime, the Hideout folks are reprising their popular ‘Improvised Shakespeare’ every Saturday at 8 p.m. in May and June.
See www.hideouttheatre.com for more information.
Image: Roy Janik, Jessica Arjet and Kareem Badr.
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Blanton Museum names Ned Rifkin, former Smithsonian Under Secretary of Art, as its new director
Ned Rifkin, former Under Secretary for Art at the Smithsonian Institution, has been named the new director the University of Texas’ Blanton Museum of Art, university officials announced Thursday.
Rifkin, 59, replaces Jesse Otto Hite who retired in 2008 after 30 years with the museum. With Rifkin’s appointment, the Blanton Museum will move from the College of Fine Arts and report to the UT Provost’s office.
The university’s Ransom Center, a rare book and manuscript library and museum, also reports to the provost’s office.
Rifkin will also will hold the position of full professor of art and art history and hold the position as special advisor to UT president William Powers.
At the Smithsonian, Rifkin served as the top administrator overseeing eight art museums, a position he held from 2004 to 2008. During his tenure at the Smithsonian, Rifkin oversaw the renovation of an historic building for the American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. He had previously been director and chief curator at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum after serving as director of Houston’s Menil Collection from 2000 to 2002 and the High Museum in Atlanta from 1991 to 1999.
Rifkin received a bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and a master’s and doctoral degrees in art history form the University of Michigan.
A champion of contemporary art and public art, Rifkin organized a major exhibit of the work of minimalist painter Agnes Martin while he was director of the Menil. When he was director of the Hirshhorn, Rifkin commissioned conceptual artist Olafur Eliasson to reconceive the entrance to the historic museum building by shifting the front entrance to a different side of the building.
“I’m interested in all contemporary creativity,” Rifkin told an interviewer last year. “Art is a part of culture. Culture is what we make collectively. Artists are a kind of beacon.”
Photo courtesy Smithsonian Institution.
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Bion Tsang, Anton Nel celebrate Brahms’ birthday with a free download
Two of Austin’s most luminous musicians, cellist Bion Tsang and pianist Anton Nel, are celebrating Brahm’s birthday with a nifty little gesture.
Last year the duo recorded Brahams’ four Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall for their second CD ‘Bion Tsang and Anton Nel: Live in Concert, Brahms Cello Sonatas and Four Hungarian Dances,’ to be released this summer by Artek Recordings.
But before the CD’s release and in honor of Brahms’ birthday — which is May 7 — Tsang and Nel offer a free MP3 download of Hungarian Dance No. 5 at www.biontsang.com. The download is available May 7-31.
Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5 is one of those classical pieces that’s infiltrated popular culture, and can be heard in many different arrangements, from orchestra versions to solo instruments. It was wildly popular during Brahms’ lifetime as well.
Here’s a video clip of Tsang and Nel performing the Hungarian Dance No. 5 at Jordan Hall:
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Weekend Arts Pix
Today-Sunday
‘Romeo and Juliet.’
Shakespeare’s most popular play has inspired countless interpretations (think ‘West Side Story’). But now Austin Shakespeare gives ‘Romeo and Juliet’ a Mexican American twist. Set in 1940s Central Texas, this new take features zoot suit-wearing men and swing-dancing women speaking Shakespeare’s own poetry with a good dose of colloquial Tejano Spanish. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays through June 7. Special Mother’s Day matinee at 2 p.m. Sunday. Sheffield Hillside Theatre, Zilker Park. Free. www.austinshakespeare.org.
Friday
‘Happy Birthday Moon’ and ‘Hunger Makes a Fine Sauce.’
The first time Austin artist Nathan Green had a solo show at Art Palace Gallery, he sold every single one of his vibrant, fantastical and sometime cynical paintings. Now, Green is back with a whole new series of paintings, ‘Happy Birthday Moon.’ Simultaneously on view is Kara Hearn’s video work ‘Hunger Makes a Fine Sauce.’ Opening reception: 8 to 10 p.m. Friday. Regular gallery hours: 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays Art Palace Gallery, 2109 E. Cesar Chavez St. Free. www.artpalacegallery.com.
Friday-Sunday
‘Cinderella.’
Just in time for Mother’s Day, Ballet Austin re-stages its glittering production of the classic fairy ‘Cinderella,’ choreographed by Stephen Mills and set to the music of Alexander Glazunov. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Long Center, 701. W. Riverside Drive. $24-$74. www.balletaustin.org.
Saturday and Sunday
‘Oceana,’ Pulling from folk traditions around the globe, Bonnie Cullum and Content Love Knowles create a new musical theater spectacle that celebrates the ocean through the journey of a mythical figure name Gulf Girl. Some nudity and adult content. Opens 8 p.m. Saturday. Shows continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Sundays, Vortex, 2307 Manor Road. $10-$30 (sliding scale). 478-5262, www.vortexrep.org.
‘Art of the Pot.’ Seventeen ceramic artists — including Austin’s Lisa Orr, Claudia Reese, Ryan McKerley and Marian Haigh — show their functional art pottery. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday Westlake High School, 4100 Westbank Drive. Free. www.artofthepot.com.
Sunday
‘Ladyfriends.
Indie music presenters Church of the Friendly Ghost kicks off the first of four monthly concerts that features female artists who are blurring the boundaries of media art, performance art and music. This month it’s songwriters Amy Annelle and Amanda Mora, sound artist Aditi Tahiti and performer Lisa Cameron. 8 p.m. Sunday. Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. $5. www.churchofthefriendlyghost.org.
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Recent arts coverage:
UT’s Blanton Museum of Art hires Ned Rifkin, former Smithsonian Under Secretary of Art, as its new director | Okay Mountain A-OK with exhibit ‘Bayanihan: Work from Manila’ | Follow @artsinaustin on Twitter
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Okay Mountain exhibit has angels
Okay Mountain arts collective builds global community the DIY way with its new exhibit “Bayanihan: Work from Manila.” The show was organized by Tim Brown, who went to Manila in 2007.
While Brown anted up his own money for the project, but he had some angels who helped make it a reality by donating to the cause.
The “Bayanihan” angels are:
Michael Chesser
Ann Daugherty
Jim Brown and Ann Franklin
Annette DiMeo Carlozzi
Kasey McCarty
Deborah Buse
Brad Parman
Elaine Green
Studio 512
You can read more about the exhibit here.
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Rufus Wainwright, Woody Allen, John Waters, Sarah Vowell on Paramount’s 2009-2010 season
Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band, singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, humorist Sarah Vowell and camp legend John Waters are just a few of the acts coming to the Paramount Theatre during the 2009-2010 season.
Jazz great Wynton Marsalis, actress Diane Keaton and comedian Don Rickles are also on the schedule.
See the full schedule here.
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Lance Letscher book signing Thursday
For two decades, Austin artist Lance Letscher has mesmerized with his enigmatic, precisely cut collages made of old books and letters, album covers, recipe cards, receipt books and just about any other type of paper ephemera much of it culled from dumpsters behind used book and record stores.
Now, the University of Texas Press releases ‘Lance Letscher: Collage.’ the first full-length monograph of Letscher’s work with 160 color illustrations.
In Austin, Letscher is represented by D. Berman Gallery which frequently has Letscher’s work on view in its back gallery.
On Thursday, Dallas-based critic Charles Dee Mitchell, who wrote the introduction to Letscher’s book, interviews the artist before a book-signing.
7 p.m. Thursday
Austin Museum of Art. 823 Congress Ave.
www.amoa.org
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UT PAC announces 2009-2010 season; New director looks forward to new horizons
Famed tenor Jose Carreras, Mexican techno band Nortec Collective and jazz great Charles Lloyd are just a few of acts that will come to Austin as part of the University of Texas’ Performing Arts Center 2009-2010 season which will be announced today.
Also coming up is is the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, all male New Zealand dance troupe Black Grace and the Soweto Gospel Choir.
And seven-time Grammy winning Brazilian songwriter — and the former Brazilian minister of culture — Gilberto Gil will give solo acoustic concert.
See the full season at www.utpac.org.
Other events to look forward to include DJ Spooky’s ‘Terra Nova: Antarctic Suite,’ a multi-media performance which has Spooky — artist Paul Miller —weaving the sounds of melting ice he recorded in Antarctica into his trademark DJ’ing along with live music and video.
Though she’s just been on the job part-time for a few months, new PAC director Kathy Panoff has already had a hand in adding to the PAC’s next season. Thanks to Panoff, we’ll see some very progressive and worldly acts such as Black Grace and a concert featuring world music greats Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain.
“Austin is brimming with so much stuff to do that UT’s efforts really need to be distinguishing itself,” said Panoff in a recent phone interview. “We need to push envelope more. The academy has the intellectual responsibility to support new work.”
For her part, Panoff is pushing the envelope by booking events like a rare evening that will find comic book creative legends Art Spiegelman, Robert Crumb and Francoise Mouly. “I think it’s a great fit for Austin,” said Panoff. “We need to have more boundary blurring when we think about what a performing arts center can offer.”
Panoff joins UT after years as the first director of the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond which opened in 1995. Prior to working at the Modlen, Panoff worked at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, WGUC-FM, classical public radio from the University of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and the Bank Boston Celebrity Series. She holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in music.
A devoted supporter of new music, Panoff points with pride to the recent news that composer Steve Reich received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his piece Double Sextet. The piece was co-commissioned by the Modlin Center under Panoff’s directorship and premiered there in 2008.
Panoff’s goals for the PAC include planning events that are “more intentionally integrated with the academic mission of the College of Fine Arts” and that involve students more.
“A lot of the programming should be done in consultation with the arts faculty,” she said. “We should be a reflection of the research interests of our faculty. And if you involve faculty, then you involve students.”
Photo by Ivori Zvorsky.
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Austin teen nominated for a Tony Award
Austin-based David Bologna, 14, was nominated this morning for the 2009 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Bologna plays the role of Michael in “Billy Elliot: The Musical.”
A North American Irish dance champion born and raised in New Orleans, Bologna moved to Austin with his family in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina.
Based on the popular British movie, “Billy Elliot” is about a motherless coal miner’s son who dreams of becoming a dancer and secretly takes lessons while his father thinks he’s taking boxing. Bologna’s character, Michael, is Billy’s best friend. Bologna shares the role with Frank Dolce with the two young actors alternating shows.
While in Austin, Bologna studied acting at Zach Theatre and at Kids Acting.
“Billy Elliot” leads with 15 Tony nominations including “Best Musical.” The show has an original score by Elton John.
In other Texas-related Tony news, “Dividing the Estate,” a comedy by the late Texas playwright Horton Foote, was nominated for Best Play.
Winners will be announced June 7 at Radio City Music Hall.
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Review: Peter Bay conducts Dan Welcher’s Fifth Symphony with flair
Finally — on the eve of its centenary — the Austin Symphony Orchestra made a gesture this past weekend that actually gave the organization somewhat of a timely and relevant burnish as a resident of the ‘Live Capital Music of the World.’
The orchestra premiered Dan Welcher’s Fifth Symphony, arguably the first time in living memory — or ever? — that ASO has premiered a symphony by an Austin-based composer.
And what a heartfelt musical gesture on Welcher’s part from: His Fifth Symphony was written for his good friend of three decades, ASO conductor Peter Bay who conducted it with brio, sincerity and passion.
There was no doubt that at least some in the audience Friday night found such a premiere thrilling with Welcher receiving heartfelt cheers and a very considered standing ovation.
Such a reception was deserved. Welcher’s Fifth is a 21st-century symphony for Austin: urbane, expressive, filled with touches of whimsy and expansively American in its artistic references.
Welcher’s far too mature of a composer to have quoted directly from his American composer predecessors. But the past century of American music percolated intelligently and originally throughout: A bluesy riff, syncopated rhythms, bold percussive turns, vigorous melodies and confident brass chorales balanced against moody swirls of woodwinds.
Most delightful was the second movement, Scherzo. In it, Welcher produced the most sophisticated musical impression yet of Austin’s famed colony of Mexican free-tail bats which fill the city’s evening skies. The woodwind melody, altering in its harmonic modes, skittered into a great cloud that was then countered by blasts from the brass section.
A more reflective and melodic third movement crossed seamlessly into the final fourth movement in which everything — the swirling woodwinds, the brass chorales, the driving rhythms, the bluesy riffs — built into a brilliant burst that ended with a bright flourish. A perfect ending.
But after intermission, the evening seemed to diverge into a totally different mode - not necessarily a bad divergence, just a marked one.
Star violinist Sarah Chang delivered every inch of star performance of Bruch’s Violin Concerto No 1. (interestingly the same piece the now 28-year-old phenom played for her audition at Julliard when she was a mere six-year-old).
Chang made the Bruch rhapsodic, giving it lyricism even though the piece does little to hide its profile as a soloist’s showpiece. Though her assertive virtuosity was at sometimes odds with the orchestra’s less propulsive thrust, Chang brought on an expressive voice.
Then the program’s mood shifted again with Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, a lively piece full of 19th-century colloquial character that the orchestra clearly relished.
If anything, this weekend’s program, while noteworthy, revealed ASO’s greater disconnect from the very musical culture of its place and time.
Little if anything was done by the ASO management to specifically market Welcher’s piece to Austin audiences. It shouldn’t have had to share the limelight with a celebrated soloist.
And that strategy is curious, because a premiere by an Austin composer would have been an obvious means for ASO to connect with potential new and younger Austin audiences who wouldn’t normally connect with most of the symphonic repertoire ASO typically offers.
In fact, Welcher’s commission fee was paid for not by ASO, but by an independent consortium of private donors in a fundraising drive spearheaded by non-profit classical music radio station KMFA-FM. Welcher gifted his symphony to ASO in honor of his good friend Bay.
What a wonderful gesture — one that Bay, no stranger to open and forward-thinking programming, took up with honor.
It leaves to wonder how much ASO management has invested in what noted music scholar Joseph Horowitz, author of “Classical Music in America,” identifies as the over-esteemed “culture of performance” — a value system that holds above everything else celebrated soloists playing a very Eurocentric, or at least very typical and expected, classical repertoire. Where’s the confidence in the symphonic music being created here and now?
Would that ASO’s management reconsider its connection to its place in a music capital so much of the world already esteems for its progressiveness.
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Recent arts coverage
After 13 season Ballet Austin’s Allisyn Paino dances her swan song | Mexic-Arte wants to stay put on Congress Avenue | Report finds Texas creative sector growing | Okay Mountain A-OK with exhibit ‘Bayanihan: Work from Manila’
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Robyn O’Neil wins $50,000 Hunting Art Prize
Kingswood, Texas painter Robyn O’Neil has won the $50,000 Hunting Art Prize for her drawing “A death, a fall, a march: toward a better world.”
The prize was announced Saturday night in Houston.
O’Neil’s drawing was selected from 129 final juried participants each of whom had been selected for a single two-dimensional painting and drawing.
O’Neil has exhibited at Whitney Museum in New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; ArtPace, San Antonio.
Here in Austin, O’Neil’s work has been seen at Arthouse and at the Blanton Museum of Art which has her work in its permanent collection. The Hunting Prize is limited to two-dimensional paintings and drawings. No printmaking, photography, collage, assemblage, sculpture, relief, found object, or computer-generated works. It is open by self—submission to amateur and established artists in Texas who are 18 years of age or older.
Twenty artists from Central Texas were named finalists.
The award is given annually by Hunting PLC, an international oil services company. The awards parameters changed to a Texas focus when Hunting moved its North American headquarters are to Houston after a quarter-century in the United Kingdom.
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Review: ‘Grub’ and ‘Geisha’ at Fusebox
Choreographers often overlook the possibilities offered by the mouth when making a dance. In Angelle Hebert and Phillip Kraft’s “Grub,” Portland, Oregon ensemble tEEth — part the Fusebox Festival — leaves no inch of their mouths unexplored. One dancer sticks a finger in the mouth of another and leads her forward. One dancer uses his mouth to remove tape from the floor, pulling it up with his teeth, partially eating it, and then spitting it back out. Repeatedly dancers gesture grotesquely with their tongues.
“Grub,” a Fusebox commission, was the later (and better) portion of Fusebox’s Friday night line-up at Salvage Vanguard. The earlier program, the LeeSaar The Company’s “Geisha” felt disconnected and empty. LeeSaar will return to Fusebox next year with a piece they began work on during their Fusebox/ testperformancetest residency.
Part of “Grub’s” intensity grew from the sense that the dance, while set beforehand, was also an onstage exploration. The performers’ sense of curious, playful investigation spilled into the audience, who laughed as “Grub” got stranger and stranger.
Several handheld cameras enhanced “Grub’s” invitation to bodily invasion. In some sections, dancers turned the cameras on themselves and what they filmed appeared simultaneously on two onstage screens, offering the audience the option of the dancing person or the filmed images.
The projections felt most powerful in moments of paradox, when the onscreen image brought the audience closer to the performer than the actual dancing body could. After disrobing from the white, space-age costumes all the dancers wore, one woman rolled on the floor in a filmy white dress. The camera captured mere inches of her body, sometimes focusing on her eyes— wide in anguish— or her massaging of patches of skin into the black dance floor.
The almost sad solo stood out in “Grub” because most of the piece took a comedic route. In a late quartet, two women sang a repetitious “La La La,” as their male partners first barely brushed or poked them. The partnering grew more physical, but the women insistently continued their chant even as the men flipped them upside down or over their backs.
Repetition produced meaning (and hilarity) in “Grub,” but “Geisha’s” repetitious, undulating choreography never took root in an emotion or tone. The piece featured three people, a topless man and woman (company co-founder Saar Harari and Jye-Hwei Lin) and Lee Sher, the company’s other founder.
Lin often danced alone in silence or with Harari. Their endlessly circulating movement was always sensual, sometimes sexual. The appearance of a bare-breasted Asian woman (Lin was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. in 2001) begged for connection to the piece’s title, though any connection seemed elusive at best.
The only other discernible marker of Asian or Asian American references might be the red silk robe that Sher wore in several humorous, Celine Dion-esque musical interludes. But, again, one robe, readily available at Macy’s, doesn’t add up to much. Not much in “Geisha” did.
While “Geisha” felt like a bust, LeeSaar is one of the dance companies getting the most buzz today. Thanks to Fusebox for plugging Austin into an exciting performance scene yet again. Some risks are worth taking.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance dance critic.
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Revew: UT Symphony Orchestra
Whoever had the idea of raising the pit in Bass Concert Hall and putting the entire University of Texas Symphony Orchestra on the apron out in front of the proscenium deserves a Wall Street-style bonus. This seating plan transformed Saturday night’s special concert honoring School of Music patron Sarah and Ernest Butler from another concert in Bass (renovated or not) into the best-sounding live performance by a symphony orchestra that these ears can remember.
The stage of Bates Recital Hall (the UT Symphony’s usual hangout) and the hall as a whole are too small to hold a large instrumental ensemble happily. Saturday night in Bass, the players had the physical room and their instruments had the acoustical room to speak properly. Every note (and every mistake) could not have been clearer, but the marvelous blend that conductor Gerhardt Zimmermann has built with his orchestra was audible in a dramatically new way. I heard the kind of presence and detail combined with an expansive, nicely reverberant room sound that I thought only those fancy Dutch recording engineers get using about 80 microphones.
But a great hall or a great setup don’t make a dumb performance into a great one. What we heard in Bass Saturday evening, quite precisely, was what wonderful work Zimmermann has been doing at UT, where before we only sort of got the idea.
Neither piece on the program — the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with student soloist Soo Jin Nam and the Beethoven Symphony no. 9 with a solo quartet of young professionals and the massed UT choruses (excellently trained by John Len Wiles)—was note-perfect. And I could quibble about some of Zimmermann’s interpretive choices (Beethoven wrote only F’s for the timpani in the second movement; don’t add stuff at the end). But Zimmermann’s interpretation made sense, it honored the piece that Beethoven wrote and he made the whole performance totally persuasive.
This is not the first time that a conductor who is an artist and a seasoned professional has led a talented and enthusiastic student orchestra (with an expanse of rehearsal time thrown in that most professional orchestras would kill for) and produced thrilling results. But those results happened in Bass Concert Hall on Saturday in a big way.
One more thing. I generally don’t like talking from the stage at music concerts; but Zimmermann’s spoken introduction to the Beethoven, witty and revelatory, was as valuable as the performance that followed it.
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Report finds Texas’ creative sector growing, but lacking state funding
By the year 2016, one out of 12 jobs in Texas is projected to be in the creative sector. And Texas will need to prime its future creative workforce with more arts education in public schools.
So says a new report, commissioned by the Texas Cultural Trust, that was released Friday at a press conference on the steps of the Capitol.
Among other findings, the report also found that currently Texas’s creative sector employs nearly 675,000 workers and had an employment growth rate of more than 20 percent in the past five years.
In Austin, the study revealed that creative sector jobs account for 11.8 percent of the workforce — more than in any other Texas metropolitan area. Statewide, creative sector jobs accounted for 6.7 percent of the workforce on par with the national average which is 6.6 percent.
Yet, Texas spends 22 center per capita on state funding for the arts compared with the national average of $1.14 per capita.
The study was conducted by TXP Inc., an Austin-based economic analysis and public policy consulting firm. The report used statistics from the Texas Workforce Commission and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics among other sources. The creative industries as identified by the report include digital media, film, music, preforming arts, visual arts and arts-related tourism.
The Texas Cultural Trust, a state-wide non-profit arts awareness organization, released the report as part of the launch of its Create Texas campaign, a multi-year marketing and public relations effort to the promote arts education in Texas.
“The arts are real power behind the Texas economy,” said Amy Barbee, Texas Cultural Trust executive director.
Barbee praised the efforts of Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano), chair of the senate education committee for her work on Senate Bill 3, the education accountability bill, which passed the State Senate Thursday. Shapiro amended SB3 to include a four-semester fine arts requirement for middle schoolers. The bill also specifies the inclusion of fine arts in the Texas accountability system.
“The arts are an integral part of a complete education,” said Shapiro. “The creative industries are the future and incorporating arts into education is the way to get there.”
Download a copy of the report at www.createtexas.org.
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Explosive new music: Free on Saturday
It’s something of a fitting finale to Fusebox — Golden Hornet Project unleashes new sounds in two free concerts tomorrow that will surround the audience with mesmirizing sound.
PVC in Surround: Piano, Cello and Violin in 5.1 Surround Sound.
When: 2 p.m, and 5 p.m, Saturday May 2
Where: 100 Congress Ave.
Who: Music composed by Peter Stopschinski, Gabriel Prokofiev (US Premiere), DJ Spooky, Josh Robins, and Graham Reynolds. Performed by Reynolds, Stopschinski, Leah Zeger (violin) and Hector Moreno (cello). Sound by Robert Fisher.
Graham Reynolds writes:
“Piano, violin, and cello is one of our favorite combinations, and it’s reasonably compact so we decided to create this show as our tour-able line-up of instruments and pieces. But the surround sound element is not particularly tour-able, so that will most likely be special to Austin and this performance. Robert Fisher is helping us out with this, putting the instruments through crazy effects that will send the sound all over the place. I recorded Austin’s fleet of trash trucks at 5:30 in the morning last week and am building a piece with those sounds in preparation for the Forklift Danceworks show later this year. Peter’s got these crazy drumbeats that swirl around the room.”
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