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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > November
November 2009
Review: ‘Dickens Unleashed: Improvised Tales of Bleak Victorian England’
That the sprawling Victorian tales of Charles Dickens can make for good improv theater shouldn’t seem all that strange.
After all, Dickens’ tales are filled outsized caricatures and long and winding episodic story lines that are riddled with bizarre and unexpected twists.
Anything can happen, and frequently anything does. Wholly benevolent characters appear out of nowhere to change the course of events. Utterly evil characters appear out of nowhere to change the course of events. Amazingly good luck occurs. Amazingly bad luck occurs.
Indeed, Dickens offers a narrative free-for-all that’s ripe for some fun farce. Fun is what ‘Dickens Unleashed: Improvised Tales of Bleak Victorian England’ is. Running Saturdays through the end of the month at the Hideout Theatre, the show offers a troupe of improv actors in Victorian garb who ask for just one prompt from the audience. And from that spins a 70-minute improvised show that at once plays homage to Dickens’ tales and has utter fun with their maudlin style.
Period costume improv? You bet. And it works. ‘Dickens Unleashed’ is ‘Masterpiece Theatre’ gone mad and goofball.
Smartly, directors Jessica Arjet and Kaci Beeler don’t allow for any cheap anachronisms to filter in to this offbeat Victorian world. No silly iPhone jokes here. Instead, it’s all pocketwatches and stovetop hats, orphans and buckets of coal, silly Cockney accents and lots of British balderdash.
That all makes for some pretty refreshing comedic twists and turns — and plenty of improv challenge for the eight-member troupe (the line-up varies a bit from each performance). Beeler does a particularly sharp turn as the striving orphan girl at the center of the action. And as the narrator/protagonist. Kareem Badr booms the very Dickensian-sounding narrative while sitting at a writer’s desk even if it’s delightfully off-kilter Dickensian narrative.
In a nice gesture, there’s a family-friendly version of the show offered, with a band of “orphans” (studnets from the Hideout’s youth improv classes) offering an opening set.
Yeah, “orphans” — it’s Dickens, you know.
‘Dickens Unleashed: Improvised Tales of Bleak Victorian England’ continues 8 p.m. Saturdays through Dec. 26. Family-friendly show at 6 p.m. on Saturdays. Hideout Theatre, 617 Congress Ave. $11. www.hideoutheatre.com.
Pictured: Kareem Badr and Kaci Beeler.
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AVAA announces inaugural Austin Visual Arts Awards
The Austin Visual Arts Association is hosting its first Visual Art Awards this Friday.
The long-standing arts service organization will hand-out awards in a variety of categories. Winners will be presented with a “Fearing” Award, a bronze metal designed by sculptor Bob Coffee, named after this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, William Kelly Fearing.
The event is at 7 p.m. Friday, Austin Museum of Art, 823 Congress. Tickets are $25. For information see www.avaaonline.org.
AVAA called on representatives from a dozen organizations and businesses to select the finalists after a nominating committee of 23 organizations, galleries and museums made nominations.
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2009 Award Finalists
- Artist of the Year 2 Dimensional Art: Jennifer Balkan, Shawn Camp, Erin Curtis, Ray Donley, Laurie Frick, Roi James, John Mulvany and Jana Swec
- Artist of the Year 3 Dimensional Art: Beili Liu, Hank Waddell, Catherine Lee, Sunyong Chung, Phillipe Klinefelter and David Everett
- Artist of the Year Photography: Roberto (Bear) Guerra, Barry Stone, Lesley Nowlin, Anna Krachey and Sandy Carson
- Artist of the Year New Media: Sean Gaulager, The Totally Wreck Institute, Michael Smith
- Artist of the Year Early Career: Debra Broz, Alonso Rey Sanchez, Heather Tolleson, Sterling Allen, Nathan Green, Jules Buck Jones and Carlos Rosales-Silva
- Collectors Circle Award: Helmutt Barnett, Damian Priour, Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, Sydney Yeager and Jack White
- Lifetime Achievement: William Kelly Fearing
- Lifetime Achievement In Memoriam: Robert Dale Anderson
- Lifetime Achievement In Memoriam: Michael Frary
- Service to the Arts: TBA
- President’s Award: TBA
- Patron to the Arts: TBA
- The Selection Committee
- Austin Chronicle - Robert Faires
- Austin Museum of Art - Andrea Mellard
- Art Palace - Arturo Palacios
- Art in Public Places - Meggan Crigger
- Austin Arts Commission - Gloria Mata Pennington
- The Blanton Museum of Art - Risa Puleo
- Carver Museum - Bob Jones
- Mexic-Arte Museum- Sylvia Orozco
- Texas Art Collectors of Austin & San Antonio - Carl McQueary
- Texas Society of Sculptors - Nancy Cardozier
- Tribeza magazine - Karen Landa
- Wally Workman Gallery - Wally Workman
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Review: Katie Maratta and Owen McAuley at D. Berman Gallery
Artists Katie Maratta and Owen McAuley share an abiding love and fascination for a sense of place yet take different creative approaches to create their artistic valentines to place.
And yet, on view together currently at D. Berman Gallery, those differing approaches make for a pleasant synergy of comparison and contrast.
The endless expanse of the West Texas landscape inspires Maratta. But forget reverent, colorful homages. Instead the Austin-based Maratta gives quirky graphite drawings all only one inch tall yet some that sprawl four or five feet in length. With meticulous draftsmanship, Maratta renders the stuff of stark rural scenes — barns, highway signs, dust devils, windmills, birds on a power line, endless flat fields — in miniature.
The detail is compelling. And like you do in order to experience the wide open plains, so do you have to travel at length across Maratta’s long drawings in order to see them in their entirety. Diminutive as these landscapes may be, they nevertheless cleverly represent the vast openness of the West Texas plains.
Like Maratta, McAuley also jiggers with preconceived notions of how place is artistically represented. McAuley, who studied at the University of Texas and now lives in New York, focuses on the most quotidian and downright anonymous locations and spaces.
Tire tracks through snow disappear into darkness in one small graphite drawing. A floor lamp barely brightens an almost bare wall in one of McAuley’s darkly luminous oil paintings. In another, a ceiling light casts a glare into the corner of a room while the rest remains dark.
These rooms, those tire tracks, could be anywhere. Or everywhere. Never mind the exact the locale — it’s not important because McAuley delivers the emotional potency of place.
Katie Maratta & Owen McAuley
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays through Dec. 12
D. Berman Gallery, 1701 Guadalupe St.
www.dbermangallery.com
Images: Detail of ‘Three Silos,’ Pencil and ink on transfer paper. Katie Maratta (top). ‘Untitled.’ 2008. Conte on paper. Owen McAuley (bottom). Courtesy D. Berman Gallery.
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‘Over & Under’
Austin artist Jenny Hart shook up the DIY crafting world several years ago when she introduced her “Sublime Stitching” line of embroidery patterns and stitching kits for a new generation. Exercising her love of mid-century graphic arts and illustration, Hart compiled and published intriguing new embroidery patterns for a new generation of crafters to take the domestic art of stitching to a new retro-cool level.
Now, Hart uses her sharp curatorial judgment to gather a sampling of new work made by artists like herself who are pushing the edges of the needlework. The exhibit “Over & Under” brings the work of more than a dozen international artists to Yard Dog Art Gallery.
There’s plenty of boundary-blurring going on in “Over & Under.” Especially the blurring of the difference between art and craft. What’s on view in Hart’s show is craft that’s been transformed into art without ever leaving behind the beauty of the craft of stitchery itself.
These are drawings and paintings made with thread that are all evocative of the trends and concerns of contemporary illustration and art. Strange and quirky riffs on comic book art, decorative mod designs, ironic visual narratives — the zeitgeist of “Over & Under” is very now.
And yet, with their careful tiny stitches, these small-scale works carry an unmistakable nostalgia. It’s a handmade and heartfelt quality that’s hard to resist — and it’s made all the more interesting through sometimes edgy, sometimes odd imagery.
‘Over & Under’
Yard Dog Art Gallery, 1510 S. Congress Ave.
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Exhibit continues through Sunday.
www.yarddog.com
Images: ‘Cake for John,’ (upper) Jennifer Porter; ‘Taretentokaku’ (lower), Takashi Iwasaki. Courtesy Yard Dog Art Gallery
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Kennedy Center initiative comes to Texas
Earlier this year, Kennedy Center President Michael M. Kaiser launched the Arts in Crisis Initiative, an effort to help the arts community in the face of the recession.
To spread the help, Kaiser — author of “The Art of the Turnaround: Creating and Maintaining Healthy Arts Organizations” — embarked on a 50-state tour to take his project on the road, offering free workshops on fundraising, building more effective boards of trustees, budgeting, tickets sales, marketing and audience development.
On Tues. Dec. 2, Kaiser comes to the Lone Star State. He’ll present his arts leadership symposium from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the San Pedro Playhouse in San Antonio. The symposium is free.
For more information, see www.artsincrisis.org
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Austin Children’s Choir founder dies
Bernard Gastler, founder of the Austin Children’s Choir, died Saturday. Gastler died of a stroke. He is survived by his wife, Ruth Meyer Gastler, and two children, Connie and Gregory. Gastler was 80 years old.
Founded in 1986 by Gastler with the support of Concordia University, the choir performed throughout the country and locally. Gastler served as the choir’s conductor and artistic director for 23 years.
Over the course of his career, Gastler worked as an elementary school teacher and minister of music at Trinity Lutheran Church in Port Arthur and at St. Paul Lutheran Church and School in Austin, where he has also served as an organist. In 1982, he became a professor of music at Concordia University Texas.
Memorial services are pending.
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Review: Austin Symphony Orchestra and Conspirare
The soaring articulate voices Grammy-nominated choir Conspirare proved the star Saturday night at the Long Center when joined forces with the Austin Symphony Orchestra.
And Cary Ratcliff’s sweeping oratorio ‘Ode to Common Things’ proved to be the hit — a captivating, charming ride.
Collaborations between two of Austin’s major classical groups are always rewarding. That this one featured contemporary repertoire — not so typical for ASO — was decidedly refreshing.
Too bad, then, that attendance was far less than capacity. Empty seats — sometime whole rows — were scattered around the house.
The Rochester-based Ratcliff set music to poems by Chilean writer Pablo Neruda who, throughout the course of his life, devoted four volumes to odes to ordinary, everyday objects. Ratcliff selected five, keeping the text in the original Spanish.
Percussionists and harpist stayed busy with the shifting rhythms. Two pianos and a synthesizer (which added echoing sounds and Dopple shifts) gave the music dimension.
Starting with the percussive ‘Ode to Things,’ Ratcliff’s score rapidly shape-shifted through many moods yet the fury never overwhelmed. There was pleasure in the racket Ratcliff created — the almost 100 voices of Conspirare generating the rhythm with the textures of short consonants and open vowel sounds of Spanish.
The musical, and emotional, dimension grew deeper with ‘Ode to the Bed’ before the reflective ‘Ode to the Guitar.’
Among the trio of vocal soloists, mezzo-soprano Dana Beth Miller impressed in ‘Ode to the Guitar’ particularly in the almost edgy duet with acoustic guitar which echoed the darker, thoughtful tonal colors and complex harmonies.
The mood shifted again with ‘Ode to Scissors,’ a gentle parody of sorts of Orff’s over-played Carmina Burina. Syncopations ruled here, rhythms snipped along.
The final ‘Ode to Bread’ was as much urgent as hymnal, a reminder of our connection to the universal life of the everyday.
On the program’s first half, ASO music director Peter Bay placed Mendelssohn’s Incidental Music to ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Performed nicely, it was nevertheless an oddly formal counterpoint to Ratcliff’s expressive, emotive work.
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Review: Tapestry’s ‘20/20’
Many a dancer would cite a dance studio as a second home or fellow dancers as a second family. Austin’s Tapestry dance company celebrated twenty years of making dance and making connections Sunday afternoon at the Long Center’s Rollins Theatre.
A variety of Tapestry alums returned to dance alongside the current five-member company and company co-founders Deirdre Strand and current artistic director Acia Gray.
The program’s first half focused on the returning dancers, many of whom danced a favorite piece from their time in the company while a video screen projected recordings of their original performances above them.
Alum Molly MacGregor choreographed the half’s only new piece, “Current,” a tribute to her Tapestry teachers. As her hands repeatedly reached up and forward, flicking the air and then opening MacGregor effectively combined spry intensity and thankful blessings.
In the program’s second half, attention shifted to the current company, who danced solos often excerpted from larger, more recent group works. Katelyn Thompson’s solo from Sarah Petronio’s “Joy Spring” coupled intensity with playfulness. Thompson is always successful at holding the stage on her own.
Siobhan Cook, the last current company member to dance a solo and Strand’s daughter, had the simplest performance but it summed up the program’s sentiment. Cook reprised her role as “The Child” from the company’s 1996 “The Games People Play,” walking about the stage and hugging dancers new and old. Her embrace sent them into motion. The moving portrait suggested dancing together creates a set of relationships that sustain much more than the next double pirouette.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Review: DJ Spooky’s ‘Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica’
Appropriately, DJ Spooky, aka multi-media artist and brainy hip hop deejay, Paul D. Miller, started his ‘Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica’ by playing a piece of ice. A haze filled the Hogg Auditorium Friday night before the show while sounds of crunching glaciers grew louder. Then Miller took the stage, a piece of a dry ice (the source of the haze, as it turns out) on a silver platter before him. Across the ice he slowly drew a set of metal chimes to create eerie tinkling sounds.
‘Terra Nova’ is Miller’s sometimes mesmerizing, sometimes not so mesmerizing, musical and visual consideration of Antarctica.
Riffing on the concept of Ralph Vaughan Williams ‘Sinfonia Antarctica,’ (Williams’ seventh symphony which originated with the composer’s score for the 1948 film ‘Scott of the Antarctic.’) Miller composed a 70-minute piece for piano, two violins and cello to lead by his live re-mixing of digital and found sounds.
Austin’s alt-classical ensemble Golden Hornet Project — here represented by Graham Reynolds, Hector Moreno, Alexis Ebbets and Joseph Suffield - accompanied, giving full throttle to Miller’s charging and very cinematic score. (GHP collaborated with Miller on his latest release, ‘The Secret Song,’ playing on six tracks.)
On two rear projections screens images flashed by in choreographed collage - swooping aerials of the startling Antarctic landscape, scientific data charts on rising sea levels, footage of a 1950s-era Soviet polar exploration, maps historic and current and deliberately provocative phrases such “ice is a geological clock.”
Though cleverly edited, the hardly-subtle, nor deep, collage grew repetitive. And in the end, Miller’s new millennium travelogue didn’t necessarily take us to a new point: Mostly, we already know the polar environment is threatened.
But if the unoriginality of the visuals wore, the music redeemed. And when considered as a live chamber symphony with some video and digitized accompaniment — rather than a new visual/aural re-mixed art form as may have been suggested — then ‘Terra Nova’ pleased.
Miller stylized his score with a kind of driving crescendo-filled minimalist repetition. Cinematic, often dire or plaintive in mood and only partially reflective, the music nevertheless communicated a sense of urgency.
Miller’s media mix-up isn’t for everyone. Some audience members walked out Friday night. But for others ‘Terra Nova’ deserved a very spontaneous standing ovation. Likely, the final point to ‘Terra Nova’ is somewhere inbetween.
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Is EAST the SXSW of art?
Chatter surrounding this year’s East Austin Studio Tour — now extended over two weekends and sandwiching a week happenings and programs — has some calling it the SXSW of visual art.
Is it?
Not really. After all, EAST is a neighborhood-specific local-only event. SXSW is a major international affair.
But EAST does this year have that sense of occasion and community that can emerge from a festival experience. And there’s that frenzy of so many things to do and see that creates a certain kind of shared excitement.
One more weekend of EAST. And while it’s hard to choose what to see, a worthwhile starting place is with the kind of indie galleries and collaborative studio complexes that give East Austin a specific vibe — like Big Medium, Pump Project, Co-Lab and Birdhouse.
‘Two Houses’ by Dan Kaplan at Big Medium
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Tapestry Dance Company looks back
Twenty years ago, Acia Gray and Deidre Strand, both accomplished tap dancers, dreamed of merging other dance genres with the rhythm-oriented tap style. The outcome of that dream is Tapestry Dance Company, an Austin professional nonprofit dance company that has delighted audiences with its signature blend of modern, ballet and world dance all woven together by explosive tap dance. The company also maintains a busy dance academy in South Austin and has garnered a slew of local awards. In 2002, Gray was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame.
Most recently, Tapestry took its show on the national road. ‘The Souls of Our Feet: A Celebration of American Tap Dance,’ which restages noted historic and contemporary rhythm tap dances, is currently on tour through the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces program.
This weekend, Tapestry celebrates with a retrospective show at the Long Center that features the company’s current dancers as well as alumni from seasons past.
Gray answers questions in a Q-and-A here. Below, are some of her further thoughts.
Q: Any thoughts what you’re discovered about the mixing of not just dance styles, but dancers trained in different styles and audiences accustomed to seeing certain styles?
When Deirdre and I started Tapestry in 1989, we were drawn to not only utilizing our dance training as individuals but creating a foundation of non-restriction in our creativity. At the time, Hubbard Street was the only “multi-form” dance company in the US and there was little cross-discipline choreography. We were both members of Austin On Tap and working consistently in tap dance not only locally but a broad touring schedule.
With my degree in Acting from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Deirdre’s from TCU, we were hungry to explore the possibilities of a company that could play not only with diverse dance disciplines and their shared experience but the exploration of rhythm - sharing the power of dance as a communication tool not only as a technique but a living experience for our dancers and our audiences.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), what made Tapestry different is still what distinguishes the company: tap dance. But with that, it seems that tap is what our audience really want to see. What they don’t realize is that it’s the juxtaposition of the other “styles” within the company’s work that creates a window to see that beautiful American dance form in a different way - an emotional connection that is historically new. At least 20 years ago before Tapestry. We will always be a multi-form company making that connection.
With this collaborative journey, the company’s dancers are asked to go from one extreme to another — bare feet, tap shoes, jazz shoes/ long flexible muscles against the fast twitch muscles needed for tap. Going from one form to another or asking a tap dancing body to roll on the floor and then get up and tap a mile a minute can take its toll. Injuries are definitely an ongoing issue. Finding dancers who can go to these extremes is also a challenge.
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Artist Jeanne-Claude is dead at 74
With her orange-dyed hair, artist Jeanne-Claude was an ever-present companion to her husband Christo, collaborating on his ambitious and grand site-specific installations.
Now, the New York Times, among other news sources, is reporting that Jeanne-Claude is dead at age 74.
She died Wednesday night at a New York hospital from complications of a brain aneurysm.
Most recently, the couple grabbed international headlines when they altered New York’s Central Park with more than 7,500 metal gates draped with orange fabric. An estimated 4 million people saw “The Gates.”
In 2006, the couple visited Austin on the occasion of the exhibit ‘Christo and Jeanne- Claude: The Würth Collection’ at the Austin Museum of Art.
In an interview, she admonished me to never refer to her and Christo as the wrapping artists.
“Simply because we are not,” Jeanne- Claude said emphatically. “We have created so many works that have nothing to do with wrapping.”
Photo: AP/Ed Andrieski
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DJ Spooky’s ‘Sinfonia Antarctica’
Inspired by a trip to Antarctica, DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid (aka Paul Miller)’s ‘Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica” is a multimedia travelogue by the avant garde turntable master and intrepid re-mixer.
The 70-minute piece — which plays Hogg Auditorium Friday night — is a visual and acoustic portrait of the ever-mysterious yet rapidly changing Antarctic continent.
Read a feature story on the show here.
DJ Spooky will participate in an online chat 1 p.m. Thursday.
For the Austin gig, Miller has tapped Austin musicians Graham Reynolds on piano, violinists Alexis Ebbets and Joseph Shuffield and Hector Moreno on cello.
And as the Golden Hornet Project, Graham and Moreno, along with Peter Stopschinski, Bruce Colson, Jason Elinoff and Seetha Shivaswarmy join DJ Spooky on his new CD ‘The Secret Song,’ including on the track ‘Measure for Measure.
Photo by Rita Antonioli.
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‘The Method Gun’ heads to Humana Festival
The Rude Mechanicals are getting ready to hit the road to the prestigious Humana Festival of New American Plays at the Actors Theatre of Louisville.
For 34 years, the best of new American theater has been showcased at the Humana Festival. And the Rudes will take their wonderous ‘The Method Gun’ to ATL’s Victor Jory Theatre for a run March 16-28, 2010.
A valentine to the process of art-making, ‘The Method Gun’ impressed when it opened the Long Center’s Rollins Studio Theatre in 2008.
Then last season, the Rudes’ offered a slightly re-tweaked version at the Off Center. And as I said then, ‘The Method Gun’ ranks as one of the best productions to grace the Austin theater scene in the past few years.
See a slide show of the production here.
The Rudes next production, ‘Dionysus in ‘69’ opens Dec. 3.
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East Austin gets TCA designation
Cultural and community leaders today celebrated the official designation of a portion of East Austin as a State of Texas Cultural District Designation
Austin’s African American district was selected by the Texas Commission on the Arts as one of seven designated communities with the first official State of Texas Cultural District Designation on Sept. 3.
The boundaries of the African American Cultural Heritage District (AACHD) are Interstate-35 to the west, Airport Boulevard on the east, Manor Road on the north, and all of the Huston Tillotson University campus to the south.
Austin joins Denison, Hunstville, Lubbock, McAllen, San Angelo and Winnsboro in receiving the TCA designation.
ProArts Collective, along with its community partners, spearheaded the Austin initiative and submitted an application in June to the TCA that contained more than 1,000 pages showcasing the cultural significance of central east Austin.
There’s no funding to accompany the TCA honor, but ProArts Collective executive director Lisa Byrd said she hopes the new designation offers leverage for increased funding opportunities from more sources.
“The inventory of cultural assets found in the district represents a diverse mix of historic and heritage sites and institutions, contemporary arts and cultural organizations, and workspaces and commercial outlets of individual creative and small businesses,” said Byrd. “(The designation effort) has embraced the goals of many community stakeholders with the ultimate objective to respect the historic, ethnic and cultural character of the neighborhoods within the cultural district.”
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Artist selected for Zach Theatre public art project
The City of Austin’s Arts Commission announced today that it has selected artist Cliff Garten to create a work of public art for new Topfer Theatre addition to the Zach Theatre complex adjacent to Lady Bird Lake.
The Venice, Calif.-based Garten will receive a $150,000 commission.
Zach unveiled the design of the $20 million Topfer Theater, by Austin’s Andersson Wise Architects, in October. The sleek 430-seat theater that will be surrounded by a tree-filled plaza and grounds.
“Cliff’s beautiful and thoughtful artistry, working in collaboration with the Andersson Wise team, has the potential to enhance the site in a way that connects Zach to Lady Bird Lake and engages Austinites during the daytime and evening,” said Dave Steakley, artistic director for Zach Theatre.
Garten was selected from among 148 national artist submissions. Through his Cliff Garten Studio the artist has created dozens of public art projects including the recently unveiled ‘Avenue of Light’ sculpture in Fort Worth.
Photo by Laura Seewoester/www.pegasusnews.com
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Hey arts groups — got your own iPhone app yet?
Got an app for your art?
Mimicking a national trend, Austin arts groups are jumping on the iPhone app bandwagon and creating their very own.
The Miro Quartet — the string foursome in residence at UT’s Butler School of Music — launched their iPhone app earlier this fall. Powered by InstantEncore, the classical music info site with loads of fan-friendly tools, the Miro Quartet app pushes info on the ensemble’s latest activities, offers podcasts and sends alerts. (The Quartet plays Lincoln Center Dec. 2.)
Charity Dynamics, which works with non-profit groups created an app for the Paramount Theatre, Austin’s historic Congress Avenue venue. Users can buy tickets, check updates and get alerts.
Both apps are free and available at the iPhone App Store.
The Austin American-Statesman launched its free iPhone App this summer.
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Ballet Austin’s ‘Light’ impress in Pittsburgh
Ballet Austin artistic director Stephen Mills left Austin audiences breathless with ‘Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project’ in 2005.
This fall, Mills took his groundbreaking multimedia contemporary ballet that deftly re-visits the Holocaust to Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.
And its seems that Mills’ elegant yet visceral story of belief, bigotry, isolation, survival and hope has impressed in Pittsburgh the way it did in Austin.
The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre presentation of ‘Light/The Holocaust & Humanity Project’ is impressing Pittsburgh critics.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said “Mills succeeded in extracting a strange beauty from a horrible tragedy.”
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review calls it “powerfully emotional theatrical experience that doesn’t let go when you leave the theater.”
Photo courtesy Ballet Austin.
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Review: Trey McIntyre Dance Project & Compagnie Julie Dossavi
Early in Compagnie Julie Dossavi’s performance of “P.I. Or Presentations Intimes,” Dossavi walks in a slight crouch with musician Yvan Talbot close behind. He taps his hand drum with each step. This close connection between dance and music made “P.I.”’s performance at the Long’s Center’s Rollins Theater, presented by Dance Umbrella, absolutely engrossing.
Austin’s other notable dance performance this week, Trey McIntyre Project’s one-night stop at UT’s Bass Concert Hall was also music-driven. McIntyre’s choreography often runs parallel to his musical choices, whereas Dossavi’s work more directly intermingles dance and music.
Dossavi, who is French and of African descent, worked with musicians Talbot and Allan Houdayer, as well as singer and dancer Diarra Papa Gedeon to create “P.I.” The melding of modern dance, West African dance and instruments, and digital music offers a gorgeous example of contemporary art from the African diaspora blending technology and tradition. Houdayer hunches over his computer. Gedeon sings in the high-pitched style of his native Mali. Talbot caresses booming sounds from the djembe drum. And Dossavi dances with exacting focus, responding to every note they sound. She is not just dancing to their music. She is listening to their music with her entire body.
Dossavi is not well-known in the U.S., but in the last decade Trey McIntyre has become one of the US’s dance darlings. The Wednesday night show last week was his company’s first visit to Austin.
Before he established the company in 2005, McIntyre’s primary work had been as a frequently commissioned ballet choreographer. The now full-time company, based in Boise, Idaho, makes it possible to see entire evenings of McIntyre’s work. The verdict based on Wednesday: McIntyre choreographs along a wide spectrum of moods and music (some more compelling than others) and he has convinced some fantastic dancers to work in Idaho.
McIntyre is known for drawing inspiration from pop and classical music, often within the same piece. In “Shape,” a brief trio to indie rock by Goldfrapp and the Polyphonic Spree, McIntyre demonstrates his ability to make happy work that never feels cheesy. Three dancers playfully perform with balloon attachments: two balloons hilariously stuffed beneath Lauren Edson’s T-shirt, two balloons in Annali Rose’s hands, and one balloon anchored on Dylan G-Bowley’s head. The balloons in Rose’s hands accentuate the detail with which she uses her arms. Every motion she makes unfolds with intricate complexity, but is still clean and clear. Rose was a standout but the entire company has a clarity of line and synchronicity that makes them easy to watch.
Another trio, “(serious)” brought, not surprisingly, angular sobriety to the program. Danced by Chanel Da Silva, Jason Hartley and Brett Perry, the pieces approaches Henry Cowell’s music somewhat like what early modern choreographers called music visualization. Each movement corresponds directly to a musical note or inflection. A tremolo on the piano: Hartley quickly taps his feet against the floor in a fluttering run, for instance. The formula never gets tired in the piece (which can happen easily) because the dancers have absolute commitment and the choreography balances the simplicity of its approach with the complexity of Cowell’s score.
The program also included “Like a Samba,” and “The Sun Road.” The former brought together the intensity of “(serious)” with “Shape’s” lighthearted pleasantries. “The Sun Road,” a dance interspersed with film of the cast dancing in Glacier National Park lacked the cohesiveness of the evening’s other pieces, although the film had one of the most compelling images of the night: a male dancer lying naked in a bed of snow. Every time the picture returned he had sunk deeper, as though his body heat slowly overpowered nature.
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EAST: Co-Lab brings verve to the East Austin scene
The forward-thinking folks who started Co-Lab are tapped into where so much of contemporary art is headed: toward the temporary, site-specific, performance-based projects that bust boundaries of genre and media.
With new exhibit/performances each week, Co-Lab acts as an incubator for those artists who are pushing the edges. For the East Austin Studio Tour, Co-Lab hosts a daily changing line-up of outdoor and indoor installations, interactive pieces and performances including a collaborative wall mural and a bike-in movie.
We asked Co-Lab co-founder and director Sean Gaulager a few questions.
Tell us about the founding of Co-Lab.
Sean Gaulager: Co-Lab was founded in July 2008. Operating from an old warehouse and large outdoor area it serves as an experimental project space for new media, workshops, and sustainability.
Co-Lab is a non-non-profit in that we are a noncommercial space but are not a not-for-profit (say that ten times fast). Built on a gift-economy model Co-Lab does not offer services or products at a cost, when there is artwork for sale it is commission free and all proceeds go to the artist. Should they decide to gift back their time, talents, or monetary donations, it is entirely up to them and is not mandatory.
What kind of feedback have you had from your neighbors?
Gaulager: Over the last year and a half in the neighborhood, we’ve had a wide array of responses from neighbors. Some have been enthusiastic, some have gotten involved, some are indifferent, and some are plain unfriendly. However, it’s felt welcoming overall and I hope Co-Lab successfully projects an inviting atmosphere, open to anyone and everyone.
Did you specifically look for a place in East Austin?
Gaulager: When I was looking for a location, I wanted to return to the East side mainly because my prior involvement in other east Austin art spaces and projects had shown me a prolific, supportive, and collaborative community of artists living and working in the area.
Why is a community garden as part of Co-Lab’s programming?
Gaulager: The community garden is a way for people to come together and attempt to become more self-sufficient. It serves as an ongoing architecture, design, and sustainability project that has had some hurdles, but will continue to grow until it can provide full stomachs for all involved.
It”s always hard when a neighborhood changes or gentrifies. And East Austin has definitely been changing in the last few years. Any thoughts?
Gaulager: I don’t like that art spaces and gentrification always get lumped together as if artists are in league with the developers and loft builders. Most people don’t consider that when areas do become gentrified most of the artists get displaced as well.
Co-Lab, 613 Allen St.
www.colabspace.org
Additional EAST hours: 6 to 10 p.m. Nov. 16, 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 17-19, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Nov. 20
Image: A performance/screening by The Light Collective at Co-Lab . Photo by Don Mason
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Now, everyone can sing with Conspirare
Always dreamed of singing with Grammy-nominated choir Conspirare? Now you can as Conspirare presents its inaugural Rush Hour Big Sing.
The free community event invites everyone — regardless of their musical talents or lack thereof — to join Conspirare’s artistic director Craig Hella Johnson and members of the choir in a group sing.
Johnson will lead everyone through breathing exercises, vocal warm-ups, and short, melodic songs that can be easily learned without reading music. Conspirare Symphonic Choir members will sit among the audience to sing along and provide musical support and encouragement during the one-hour event.
Rush Hour Big Sing
5:30 p.m. Nov. 12
St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, 606 W. 15th St.
Free
www.conspirare.org
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Weekend Arts Pix
Thursday
Reggie Watts
For the past two years, the eclectically talented performance artist Watts has dazzled Austin at his sold-out shows that are part of the Fusebox Festival. Now, the inimitable Watts returns with a one-man show of improvised music, absurdist comedy and his 300 distinct vocal styles. 9 p.m. today. Scoot Inn, 1308 E. Fourth St. $15 ($10 student/starving artist). www.fuseboxfestival.com
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Saturday
‘Now That’s Kosher’
Pianist Michelle Schumann is joined by the energetic Carpe Diem String Quartet for a program featuring music with Jewish influences — by heritage and by reverence — from liturgical to folk to klezmer. Included are Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, Golijov’s Tenebrae and Glick’s Old Toronto Kelzmer Suite. 7:30 p.m. Saturday. First Unitarian Church, 4700 Glover. $25 ($10 students). www.austinchambermusic.org
Sunday
‘Regular People’
Mix the slam-bang spontaneity of improv comedy with the realistic, complex characters of contemporary and you get a one-night-only gathering of some of Austin’s most acclaimed improv groups. The Confidence Men, The Frank Mills, and ColdTowne Theater stalwarts The Glamping Trip all specialize in the naturalistic, grounded scenework that’s familiar to modern theater-goers but often absent from comic improv. This is stuff funny, but feels real. 8 p.m. Sunday. Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St. www.theinstitutionoftheatre.com
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Visual artists, you’re wanted in City Hall
City Hall wants you, visual artists.
The call has gone for submissions to the next ‘People’s Gallery’ exhibit, the year-long showing of Austin artists in the hallways and rooms of City Hall,
Here’s the notice from the city’s Art in Public Places Program:
Artists, galleries, museums and arts organizations are encouraged to apply for the 2010 People’s Gallery exhibition at Austin City Hall. Applications are currently being accepted for two- and three-dimensional artworks in any medium through Monday, Jan. 4, 2010.
A panel of arts professionals will recommend the artworks that will be on display throughout City Hall from Feb. 19, 2010 to Jan. 28, 2011.
The application procedures and complete Call for Artworks are available on the Art in Public Places website at http://www.cityofaustin.org/aipp.
All applications must be submitted online via the ASAPP! online public art application system with up to five digital images of the artists’ available artwork.
For more information about the application process, artists may attend the Artist Information Meeting at 6 p.m. Dec 2 in room 1029 of City Hall, 301 W. Second St., Austin, TX 78701.
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Review: ‘Sick’
Topically, Zayd’s Dohrn ‘Sick’ — now being staged by theater group Capital T at Hyde Park Theatre — couldn’t be more timely.
Dohrn’s dark comedy zeros in on a Manhattan family of germaphobes terrified of the world and its lethal contamination which they perceive to be everywhere. Maxine (Rebecca Robinson) is the hyper-possessive mother of this crazy family of four and she lines the windows and doors of the family’s apartment with plastic sheeting, keeps air purifiers whirring in every corner and demands that surgical scrubs and face masks be the family’s uniform.
Dohrn — son of Bernardine Dohrn and William Ayers, the former Weather Underground members who interestingly spent his early years in hiding with his parent — wrote ‘Sick’ while living in Beijing during the height of the SARS epidemic. And that was only a few years after living in Manhattan when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks set the city on alert for potential mass contamination from the fall-out of World Trade Center.
Now, just as this production hits Austin, the H1N1 flu pandemic rattles nerves and makes headlines.
Maxine cocoons her children, Sarah (Tayler Gill) and Davey (Stephen Mercantel) in the plastic-lined apartment, home-schooling them lest they become infected by bad substances in the outside world or bad ideas.
Maxine’s pristine world is rocked when her husband Sidney (Joe Reynolds), a poetry professor, brings home a graduate student, Jim (Joey LePage), in an effort to deliberately rattle.
Mark Pickell direct competently. And the cast does an able job with their roles. Yet unfortunately that — and the timely topic — doesn’t save Dohrn’s script from seeming predictable and at times rather melodramatic.
‘Sick’ continues through Dec . 5 at Hyde Park Theater. www.capitalT.org
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Review: Austin Lyric Opera’s ‘La Boheme’
How to make “La Boheme” one of the most performed and beloved operas of all times sparkle anew?
Add some youthful energy. Austin Lyric Opera does just that with its current production at the Long Center which opened Saturday night. A roster of up-and-coming soloists bring vigor to this “La Boheme.” And that gives this story of struggling Parisian artists and a doomed love affair — wrapped in achingly beautiful music — a new vitality.
The bravos started early Saturday night, coming first for French tenor Sebastien Gueze who sang the role of Rodolfo, the poet who falls in love with the tuberculosis-stricken Mimi. His ‘Che gelida manina’ — one of the opera’s most famous arias, and really, how to follow up when the likes of Pavorotti made it world-famous to a popular audience? — brought Gueze spontaneous cheers. No wonder: Gueze delivered it with a bright-toned richness and his lyric quality seemed effortless. And after that, he could do no wrong with the audience. Acting the role of the young lover, Gueze was all gangly energy and expressive emotion.
As Mimi, Dina Kuznetsova had a sweet tone and manifested a sense of pathos in her tragic role.
Baritone Craig Verm — a native Houston making his Austin Lyric Opera debut - shone as Marcello, Rodolfo’s sidekick. Again, a youthful energy made for a character that was robust and forceful while Verm’s tone rich and passionate.
Liam Moran sang a touching Colline in the fourth act and Sari Gruber’s vivaciousness made a saucy Musetta.
Conductor Richard Buckley brought a gorgeous lushness along with a refreshing dynamism to the score. Puccini’s big sweeping emotional moments got all their due and then some without ever over-shadowing the tenderness of the smaller poignant episodes.
The scenic design, by San Diego Opera, only got its most interesting in the second act when giant Toulouse-Lautrec inspired posters decked out the Cafe Momus, the artists’ hangout. Indeed, the visual trappings of this “La Boheme” didn’t stray beyond the traditional.
But any conventionality to this production was undone by a uniformally lively young cast replete with excellent singers. Pucinni’s romantic coming-of-age tale rings true in this “La Boheme.”
“La Boheme” continues 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11 and 13, 3 p.m. Nov. 15. www.austinlyricopera.og.
Image: Craig Verm as Marcello, Jonathan Beyer as Schaunard, Liam Moran as Colline, Sébastien Gueze as Rodolpho. Photo by Mark Matson.
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Review: Chaddick Dance Theater’s ‘Freefall
Austin-based dancemaker Cheryl Chaddick’s choreography spans a wide range of performance dynamics.
In Friday night’s performance of ‘Freefall’ — the first of a three weekend run at Salvage Vanguard Theatre — the Chaddick Dance Theater presented an evening of Chaddick’s work, including pieces that seemed made for an audience to watch and others that seemed more about dancers on introspective journeys.
Three musical works by The Lyric Quartet framed “Three for Violin,” the most presentational of the evening’s dances. The all-female cast’s smiles contributed to the sense that they relished the opportunity to spin and leap in their metallic, layered dresses, created by costumer Elizabeth Vowell. Dancer April Mackey centered the piece, performing a calm, but strong solo in the work’s second section.
Program closer “The Watchful Sleeping Heart” featured more somber choreography that suggested women on a never-ending journey. Projections shown as backdrop moved from desert sands to rocky mountains to drenched rain forests. Some of the most striking moments occurred when the dancers ran to the wall, their silhouettes etched into the photograph of expansive landscapes.
Chaddick’s quirkiest piece, “I’m Your Lullaby,” was a welcome respite from the more overtly dance pieces. Four characters, named in program notes as Teena “Teenie” Tahtas, Toni Grover, Nutmeg, and Chanteuse cavorted about the stage doing almost unison with shades of character layered on top. Tahtas and Chanteuse were more likely to flounce. Grover and Nutmeg (Chaddick as a rather convincing drug-addled hippie) were more likely to amble. The tiny variations on a theme were sometimes hilarious, sometimes fascinating.
The program also included Chaddick’s “The Gambit” and Cynthia Chaddick’s photographic montage “Faces and Images of India,”
‘Freefall’
8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through Nov. 21
Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road
$12-$15
www.chaddickdancetheater.com
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Review: ‘The Trojan Women’
Those left behind by war — women, children, civilians — are marginalized all over again by history, their experiences typically not the stuff of record.
That’s been true to for millennia. And in a smart re-imagining of Euripides’ ‘The Trojan Women’ by Meghan Kennedy and Kimber Lee. we’re reminded that the ravages of war dramatized in ancient Greece resonate with equal tragedy thousands of years later.
Produced by the University of Texas Department of Theatre & Dance and inventively staged by director Halena Kays, this edgy, visceral interpretation of the saga of the survivors of the Greeks’ 10-year war with Troy smartly updates the ancient story to read as a contemporary parable yet doesn’t forsake the classic drama.
Grimy, exhausted, bruised and their hair shorn, the Trojan women emerge from a smoky ruin and face their fate: to spend their lives as slaves and concubines to their Greek conquerors. (Scenic designer Peter Holtin and lighting designer Cheng-Wei Teng create a dark, ruined world of urban rubble. Music by Kevin O’Donnell, played by a quartet in formal wear, adds plenty of atmosphere.)
As the Trojan queen Hecuba, Kate deBuys is alternately beaten down and raw, the life scratched out of her, and then steely with the will to rebel. When she confronts Menelaus — played as swaggering corporate swell by Rodney Richardson — Hecuba unleashes her most powerful weapon: words. And in playwright Kennedy and Lee give Hecuba nuanced contemporary words that nevertheless deliver intelligent bite.
And the cause of this decade-long war and ensuing wreckage? As Helen of Troy Verity Branco is all classic Hollywood vixen with elbow-length gloves and coiffed long dark curls. Branco exudes sensuality. Bu she is also a modern queen resentful of how she’s been made a scapegoat for a war.
Here again, it’s that smart balance of modern psychology and sensibility blended nicely classic character and drama — a balance that makes this ‘Trojan Women’ a smart story for our times.
‘The Trojan Women’ continues through Nov. 8. www.texasperformingarts.org
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Theater for germaphobes
Lately, with fears of the H1N1 flu rocking the public psyche, bottles of antibacterial hand sanitizer grace office desks and retail countertops. In some world cities, medical face masks have become the new accessory. And cultures with affectionate cheek-kissing greetings are now finding their traditions the subject of public health concerns.
A few years ago, when playwright Zayd Dohrn began writing ‘Sick,’ a quirky comedy about a Manhattan family and the absurd extremes they go through to protect themselves from pollution, he had plenty of material at hand. He was living in Beijing during the height of the SARS epidemic. Dohrn relocated to China from post-Sept. 11 New York, where health-threatening environmental fallout from the terrorists attacks was dreaded.
Now here in Austin — as H1N1 fears still makes headlines — Capital T Theatre is opening a new production of ‘Sick.’
In Dohrn’s offbeat play, a family of germaphobes believes they have allergies to everything from junk food to cleaning supplies to the Manhattan air. When their vacuum-sealed home is invaded by a visitor, chaos crescendos.
‘Sick’
8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays through Dec. 5
Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd St.
$15-$25
www.capitalT.org
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Reggie Watts returns to Austin
For the past two years, the eclectically talented performance artist Reggie Watts has dazzled Austin at his sold-out shows that are part of the Fusebox Festival.
Now, the inimitable Watts returns with his one-man show of improvised music, absurdist comedy and his 300 distinct vocal styles. Prepare for the unexpected and the hiliarious.
Reggie Watts
9 p.m. Nov. 12
Scoot Inn, 1308 E. Fourth St.
$15 ($10 student/starving artist)
www.fuseboxfestival.com
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EAST Explosion: Studio tour keeps on growing
The event you thought couldn’t get any bigger has gotten bigger.
This year, the annual East Austin Studio Tour expands from one weekend to nine days running Nov. 14-22.
Some 154 studios exhibiting the work of more than 280 artists will be open on the weekends of the event — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 14 & 15 and Nov. 21 & 22.
And this year the tour will also feature 20 exhibition spaces, 49 happenings and 30 programs. That’s mind-boggling.
All that is EAST is free and open to the public.
Preview the list of events here.
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Tell your story to history
The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum wants to hear your story.
Austin-based production house, LifeStories Alive, and publicity firm, Frost Media Relations, have announced that they are partnering with the Bullock in an effort to raise $2 million to launch the Texas Visual and Oral History Project, a statewide oral history video project.
Once the project is funded, the plan is send a mobile video booth to various regions around the state so that anyone can record his or her story for posterity.
Any Texan, that is.
“Tweed Scott, author of Texas in Her Own Words, coined the term the ‘T chromosome,’ where he expressed that Texas is different and the people from the state have a commonality…a Texas pride, that no other state can quite emulate,” said John Sneed, executive director of the State Preservation Board, which oversees the Bullock Museum. “There’s so much truth to the T chromosome mindset, which is why we’re so excited about this partnership in gathering the stories of the people who make Texas so rich, vibrant, and larger than life.”
Funding for the project is expected to come from public/private sponsorships and reaches out to Texans across the state. In the meantime, until the $2 million is raised, the project see will place a stationary video booth at the Bullock beginning mid-2010.
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Would you live in a glass house?
Inspired by the iconic modernist Kaufmann House artist Erin Curtis pays homage to — and asks questions of — the idea of architectural perfection in her current exhibit ‘Perspective Threshold’ now at Women and Their Work.
Wednesday night, Curtis is joined by a line-up of design and art talent — Burton Baldridge, Judy Birdsong, Cindy Black, Nicole Blair, Camille Urban Jobe, Kasey McCarty & Michelle Rossomando — and together the group will discuss will how architecture both dictates and responds to the way we wish to live in the world.
‘Architecture and Desire: A Panel Discussion’
7 p.m. Thursday Nov. 5
Free
Women and Their Work, 1710 Lavaca St.
www.womenandtheirwork.org
Erin Curtis’ “Kauffman Pool Set” part of her exhibit at Women and Their Work.
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Recent arts coverage:
Jeanne and Michael Klein: Allies in Art | In visceral installations, artist Teresita Fernandez ask viewers to look - and look again | austin360.com arts coverage | Follow @artsinaustin on Twitter
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Review: ‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery’
It’s a not a spoiler to say that everyone dies by the end of ‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery,’ a new musical play by Elizabeth Doss, a co-production of Vortex Repertory-Tutto Theatre Company.
Dying — well, murder — gets going from the get-go in this free-spirited if problematic production directed by Dustin Wills.
Doss, Wills and set designer Lisa Laratta place this wanna-be allegory in a stylized world that’s a kind of bayou/Southern gothic. Actors cavort in a shallow pool center stage or climb the sprawling platform structure that rings the center seating section. A motley four-piece bluegrass band strolls around, acting as clowns and chorus both. There’s a husband-killing tough ol’ gal, legendary murderer Stagger Lee, a Bonnie and Clyde-esque young couple and a pair of young backwoods sisters whose crashing boredom leads to — oh, take a guess.
The dead and the living, the past and the present, are intimately intwined in Doss and Wills’ Americana vaudeville-esque setting. And Mark Stewart and Andy Tindall’s twangy bluegrass music provides the aural atmosphere in the perpetually half-lit world. And the ensemble cast is full of energetic acting.
But with little linearity to it, ‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery’ trades a little too much on atmosphere. Plenty is suggested and yes, quirky, delightful scenario after quirky, delightful scenario is unveiled and presented for our consideration.
But as imaginative as each of those scenarios are, they lack a kind of friction with each other. Never quite able to stick together, the individual pieces of ‘Murder Ballad Murder Myster’ just miss at being a whole.
‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery’ continues through Nov. 7. www.tuttotheatre.org
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Kleins bring passion, curiosity to Austin arts scene
Since its unveiling in January, Teresita Fernandez’s “Stacked Waters” has become perhaps the most public mark of the Kleins’ philanthropy and art world sophistication since the couple moved to Austin from Houston four years ago.
With its 3.100-square-feet of blue tiles, the soaring two-story installation in the atrium of the Blanton Museum of Art is a bold and adventurous and has a sense of playfulness about it, much like the Kleins themselves.
Read a major profile of the Kleins here.
‘Teresita Fernandez: Blind Landscape,’ a retrospective of the artist’s work, opened Sunday at the Blanton and continues through Jan. 3. Read a review of the exhibit here.
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‘La Boheme’ keeps it young
Since its debut more than a century ago, Puccini’s tragic romance about two young lovers struggling in 19th-century bohemian Paris has arguably become the basis of all subsequent struggling-artist love stories.
And while the production presented by Austin Lyric Opera that opens this weekend keeps Puccini’s story in the 19th century (created by the San Diego Opera, the sets riff on the art of painter Toulouse-Lautrec), the cast for this “La Bohème” is most decidedly young
Here’s 30-year-old French tenor Sebastien Gueze who plays Rodolfo in a recent production of ‘La Boheme.’
