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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > June > 01
Monday, June 1, 2009
Austin Critics’ Table Award Winners 2008-2009
The 14th annual Austin Critics’ Table Awards for 2008-2009 were presented tonight at the Cap City Comedy.
ART
Museum Exhibition
‘Reimagining Space: The Park Place Gallery Group in 1960s New York’ Blanton Museum of Art, curator Linda Henderson
Solo Gallery Exhibition
‘Lee Baxter Davis,’ Texas Biennial 2009
Group Gallery Exhibition
‘Photography in the Abstract,’ Lora Reynolds Gallery, curator Maureen Mahony
Independent or Public Project
‘12:19 Library,’ Ron Berry, Phil Soltanoff, Scott Wilcox; Fusebox Festival
Work of Art
‘‘Let Me Entertain You,’ Jill Pangallo, Texas Biennial 2009
Artist
Sterling Allen
Touring Show, Art
‘Birth of the Cool,’ Blanton Museum of Art
New Kid on the Block Award
Co-Lab: A New Media Project Space
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
Welcher: Symphony No. 5, Austin Symphony Orchestra
Chamber Performance
‘GHP 10,’ Golden Hornet Project with Tosca String Quartet
Choral Concert
Verdi: Messa da Requiem, Conspirare Symphonic Choir, Texas State University Choirs, Victoria Bach Festival Chorus and Orchestra
Opera
‘Dialogues of the Carmelites,’ Austin Lyric Opera
Singer
Elizabeth Petillot, Viola by Choice
Emily Pulley, ‘Dialogues of the Carmelites’ (Austin Lyric Opera)
Original Composition/Score
‘Between Steel and Stardust (Songs of Texas Women),’ Graham Reynolds and Carrie Fountain
‘Symphony No. 5,’ Dan Welcher
Body of Work Award
Viola by Choice
Instrumentalist
Anton Nel, Anton Nel in Recital
Michelle Schumann, Gershwin: ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ (Austin Chamber Music Center)
Touring Classical
Onix Ensemble, UT Performing Arts Center
Old Wine in New Wineskins (or Margarita Glass) Award
Lyova Rosanoff, Steve Saugey, and Shaun Wainwright-Branigan for their Austincentric libretto to ‘The Bat’
THEATER
Production, Drama
‘Cyrano de Bergerac,’ Mary Moody Northen Theatre
Production, Comedy
‘Age of Arousal,’ Austin Playhouse
Production, Musical
‘The Last Five Years,’ Penfold Theatre Company/Austin Playhouse
Direction
Michelle Polgar, ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’
Dustin Wills, ‘Ophelia’
Acting in a Leading Role
Annika Johansson, ‘The Last Five Years’
David Long, ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’
Tom Truss, ‘The Idiot’
Jennifer Underwood, ‘The Casket of Passing Fancy’ / ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’
Acting in a Supporting Role
Verity Branco, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ / ‘An Ideal Husband’
Shavanna Calder, ‘Caroline, or Change’
Jenny Gravenstein, ‘Age of Arousal’
Marc Pouhe, ‘The Three Sisters’ / ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’/ ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Ensemble Performance
‘The Red Balloon,’ Tongue and Groove Theatre
David Mark Cohen New Play Award
‘Dug Up’, Cyndi Williams
John Bustin Award for Conspicuous Versatility
Michael McKelvey
Music Direction
Jeff Hellmer, ‘Queenie Pie’
Movement
Jennifer Sherburn/David Yeakle, ‘The Red Balloon’
Touring Show, Theatre
Elaine Strich at Liberty, Austin Cabaret Theatre
‘Spectacular,’ Forced Entertainment, Fusebox Festival
None of the Above
‘The Casket of Passing Fancy,’ Rubber Repertory
W.H. “Deacon” Crain Award for Outstanding Student Work
Mark Scheibmeir, UT Department of Theatre & Dance
DESIGN
Scenic Design
Kevin Beltz, ‘Still Life With Iris’
Costume Design
Michaele Hite, ‘Queenie Pie’
Ariana Schwartz, ‘Still Life With Iris’
Lighting Design
Lih-Hwa Yu, ‘The Shape of White’
Sound Design
Buzz Moran, ‘Hamilton Township’
Video Design
Duncan Alexander, ‘The Color of Dissonance’
DANCE
Dance Concert
‘Skate! A Night at the Rink,’ Forklift Danceworks
Short Work
‘Crandall Canyon Mine,’ Sharon Marroquin, Big Range Austin Dance Festival
Choreographer
Sharon Marroquin, ‘Garden’ / ‘Crandall Canyon Mine’ / ‘Desprendimiento’
Dancer
Paul Michael Bloodgood, ‘Episodes’/ ‘Hamlet’ (Ballet Austin)
Ashley Lynn, ‘Episodes’ / ‘Hamlet’ / ‘Left Unsaid’ (Ballet Austin)
Touring Show, Dance
‘Grub,’ Teeth, Fusebox Festival
“A Gore-us Line” Award
Henri Mazza and the Alamo Drafthouse, Shawn Sides and the Rude Mechanicals, Indiana Adams and Flash Mob Austin, for Thrill the World Austin
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Robert Dale Anderson 1949-2009
Robert Dale Anderson, artist and art lecturer at the University of Texas, died unexpectedly at his home Sunday afternoon, a spokeswoman with UT’s College of Fine Arts confirmed today.
Anderson was 60 years old. No cause of death was given, though natural causes were suspected, the spokesperson said.
Anderson’s intricate, detailed graphic drawings combined a kind of obsessive articulation and composition but had a wholly original sense of fantastical subject matter. Biomorphic forms inhabited complex tableaux that seemed both utterly classical and also distinctly futuristic.
“Everything that Bob did he did at an intense level,” said Ken Hale, artist and senior associate dean of UT’s College of Fine Arts. “He taught with intensity, he played with intensity and he collected friends with great enthusiasm. Added to these characteristics were four plus decades of intense studio practice. Bob was an artist who created images of great intensity. Even in a small 8” X 10” pencil drawing there is a universe of information.”
In a recent artist statement, Anderson wrote: “What is realized through silent contemplation is content that polite society does its best to hide - decay, disease, death, dementia, and chaos: the dark side. Siding within the traditions of the erotic, carnivalesque, fantastic, surrealistic, and psychedelic we find malignant growth and movement, a rotting world turned upside down in disorder, twisted grotesque bodies, beautiful monsters and decaying ruins.”
Anderson was represented by Conduit Gallery in Dallas and D. Berman Gallery in Austin. His work is in countless private collections as well as in the collections of the Blanton Museum of Art, the Ransom Center and Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Born in Glendale California in 1949, Anderson received his M.F.A. and B.F.A. at California State University at Long Beach. He moved to Austin in 1988 when he joined the faculty the University of Texas.
Anderson is survived by a sister, Thalia Larson, of California, and his companion, Peggy Linehan, of Austin.
“Bob was a natural networker,” said Hale. “His friends are located from coast to coast and beyond. He reached out constantly to give information to his friends and to stay connected. Bob was a supporter of his colleagues and a mentor to his students. He attended every opening he could. If there was one thing you could count on, it was that you could not count on what Bob was going to say or do.”
Memorial services are pending.
‘After Party,’ graphite on paper, 2004.
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Revlew: ‘Faster Than the Speed of Light’
“Faster Than the Speed of Light” is billed as new sci-fi, multi-media musical about robots, love, and chaos. It comes off more as a live-action music video for a Bowie/”Blade Runner” concept album love child. It’s catchy, but nonsensical, and fun and occasionally emotional, but with the ephemera of pop.
Brilliant scientist Atom attempts to create the perfect life for himself in the form of robotic domestic bliss. What comes out are two sides of himself, Chaos and Serena. Both want him, for ominous or romantic reasons, and he must choose.
At least, that’s my reconstructed gist of the story. More like an opera than a traditional musical, “Faster” eschews dialogue for music. Unlike an opera, there aren’t notes providing back story and the songs favor capturing the sense of a moment over its plot points. It’s all exciting energy and little clear exposition.
That said, the music, created by producers and lead actors Stanley Roy and Jeremy Roye, is almost enough to push the play forward. Combined with a sci-fi shabby set design and costume aesthetic ripped from a dystopian American Apparel shoot, the music sets a tone that can range from the uncanny to the sentimental. Drawing from a palette rich enough to include stripped down drum, bass and vocal arrangements or piled on with electropop, cello, bassoon, and ukulele, the accompanying album might be a necessary purchase just to satisfy the inevitable earworm.
Ultimately it’s not quite enough to make the experience of the production itself last. The second half, which centers more on Serena’s lost love than the frenetic, mindless followers of Chaos, gets an emotional hook through the presence of a lovelorn and talented Kathleen Fletcher. But by that time it’s hard stay involved with the world of Atom, played by a sometimes off-pitch Roye, and Chaos, played by a permanently leering Roy. Throughout, though, the play is buoyed by Clock. Mute, sentimental, and comic, Clock is assistant to Atom and the latest in a line of Andrew Varenhorst’s standout (and varied) side roles in rock musicals.
A lot of the right elements are in place for “Faster.” It just doesn’t gel well into a final product. The story could be interesting, but the broad strokes push it towards inaccessibility and ridiculousness. The songs could punctuate climactic moments, but they stand alone. And there are hooks to show, but they’re in the music, not on the stage.
(“Faster Than the Speed of Light” continues Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. through June 13 at Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. $12. 474-7886, fasterthanthespeedoflight.org.)
Joey Seiler is an American-Statesman freelance theater critic.
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Review: ‘If There Is A Heaven’
Toni Bravo and Diana Huckaby the creators of “If there is a Heaven …, Though shalt not pollute!” chose well when they picked the Umlauf Sculpture Garden for their performance last weekend. The garden’s mix of art and nature invites dance. Swirling pathways and small and large artworks create a kinetic overlay of lines and shapes.
While the garden offered a lovely performance site, the work lacked thematic linkages, even though it circled back several times to environmental themes. In individual moments, the political message was clear: honor the earth. But how the dances—twelve in all, most choreographed by Bravo—added up to homage to the Earth was unclear.
The audience walked through the garden led a large coffin hoisted high by four men, a clanging cowbell, and somber drums. The pieces had a variety of tones. Some were comedic: “The Jesters” had a vaudevillian acrobatic flair all the way down to the dancers’ striped socks, and “The Explorers” had a jungle theme, complete with stuffed monkeys hanging from the trees. (Why add a silly prop to an already lush landscape?)
Some of the more successful individual works were more somber. “Mother Earth’s Angel,” danced by Chika Aluka, drew strength from its central sculpture, a huge, single bird’s wing. In the first half of “The Warriors,” choreographed by Anu Naimpally, dancer Annelize Machado demonstrated how bodies and sculpture make beautiful shapes, not just by hitting positions, but by sending energy out along extended lines.
But moments of depth never became more than moments. And important social messages never became more than didacticism.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
