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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > May
May 2010
Review: Capital T Theatre’s ‘Bug’
Sequels are tricky. Formerly fresh characters and clever stories can seem too familiar the second time around. Tracy Letts’ play “Bug” is not technically a sequel to his play “Killer Joe,” but he wrote the former for the cast of the latter.
Austin’s Capital T Theatre has taken a similar tactic by casting most of last year’s summer theatre hit “Killer Joe” in the company’s production of “Bug,” which opened Thursday at Hyde Park Theatre.
“Bug,” like much of Letts’ work, alternates between horror and comedy, but the script feels limited and overwritten. The play gives little detail to lead character Agnes, a downtrodden waitress played by Katie deBuys. In contrast, Joey Hood as Peter Evans, the baby-faced paranoid military vet, and Kenneth Wayne Bradley, Agnes’s ex-con husband, have more developed characters to inhabit. Agnes’s two-dimensionality makes the audience’s path through the play difficult, since the audience’s path into Peter’s delusional world of bug infestation and conspiracy theories parallels Agnes’s for much of the play.
DeBuys did an admirable job with Agnes, particularly in Act II. Her new delusions practically seemed to have turned her into a bug. She sat curled up in ratty motel bedspread, her arms and legs bent like a praying mantis. Hood had the best sense of comedic timing. Mark Pickell’s directing used ample silence to heighten the play’s foreboding sensibility, but over the course of the two-and-a-half hour production, the silences became too many, too long.
Bradley’s goofy takes on burly bad boys seemed the best holdover from “Killer Joe.” Pickell and Tommy Grubbs’ uber realist set design also made a hit. The evocative, often humorous detail in the set offered at least one possible way around the repetitious details of the characters’ descent into delusion. If 15 bright yellow roach traps hang from the ceiling, is it necessary to tell the audience the room’s inhabitants are worried about bugs?
‘Bug’ continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturday through June 19. www.capitalt.org
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Blanton meets fundraising challenge for two exhibits
The Blanton Museum of Art has met a fundraising challenge to support the costs of two traveling exhibits.
Austin philanthropists Teresa and Joe Long pledged $100,000 in April 2009 to help bring “Matisse as Printmaker” — currently on view — and “Turner to Monet: Masterpieces from The Walters Art Museum,” which opens in September.
The Longs challenged the Blanton to raise $200,000. The Blanton to date has raised $232,701 has been raised toward the goal from 246 museum members and other donors.
“The outpouring of support from the community not only shows their interest in and hunger for good art but also shows that even with a downturn in the economy the public is willing to and will support exhibitions of high quality,” Joe Long said.
Major donors to the challenge include: Mr. and Mrs. Jack S. Blanton, Sr., RBC Wealth Management, Sarah and Ernest Butler, Booth Heritage Foundation, Patricia and Dee Osborne, Carolyn and John H. Young, Mary Ann and Larry Faulkner, Leslie and Jack Blanton, Jr., R. Bruce Buckley and Mrs. Vincent Buckley, Elva J. Johnston Foundation, and Eliza and Stuart Stedman.
Look for a review of “Matisse as Printmaker” in Sunday’s paper and online at www.austin360.com/arts.
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‘A Night To Remember: A Prom’
For the past nine years, the University of Texas’ art program has staked out a claim in East Austin with its Creative Research Laboratory gallery, inside the warehouse that’s home to Flatbed Press.
It’s been a great run. The CRL has been terrific off-campus venue for showing the work of faculty and student artists.
Butow, with the new Visual Arts Center opening on campus this September, the CRL is closing up.
But not before a big party Friday night. DJ 2gayfe 000 and DJ Realness will provide the electro beats while party-goers compete for prizes in the ‘Create Your Own Attire’ competition. Come in your prom attire made out of anything you can think of.
‘A Night To Remember: A Prom’
8 to 11 p.m. Friday
Creative Research Laboratory, 2832 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Free
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Austin Children’s Choir announces 25th Anniversary Season
The Austin Children’s Choir is gearing up for its 25th season. And artistic director Kathleen Turner has announced its silver season that is literally taking the choir around town to a host of locations.
Stay tuned to www.AustinChildrensChoir.org for developing details, but here’s the season as it’s now planned.
— Late October 2010: Season Opener: Thank You Austin! at St. Matthew’s Episcopal
— Early December 2010: The Grinch with special ‘honorary Grinch’ locations TBA
— Mid December 2010: Candlelight Lessons and Carols, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest
— Early February 2011: Inspiration Station and Taste of Sou, George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center
— Mid May 2011: Shine 2010! Judith Arnold joins the Austin Children’s Choir and Shine 2010 participants location TBA
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‘Matisse as Printmaker’ showcases evolution of a master
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2010 Big Range Dance Festival announces line-up
The indie Big Range Dance Festival has announced its line-up for its 2010 iteration. Big Range — which runs June 25-July 4 — is organized by Ellen Bartel, long-time Austin indie choreographer and artistic director of Spank Dance Co.
All Big Range performances will be at Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Road. For tickets see www.bigrangeaustin.org.
Program A: Mix Showcase
8 p.m. June 25-26
A mixed showcase of new contemporary dance, multi-media and movement based-performance art from established and emerging choreographers from Austin and across the country.
Choreographers: Leah Smiley Tubbs, Ann Berman, Sheep Army (Lisa Del Rosario), Mary Chase Rosalyn Nasky, Ariel Dance Theatre, Toni Bravo,
Program B: Composer Challenge
8 p.m. July 1-2
Six choreographers create dance to the same pieces of music by three Austin composers.
Composer 1: Adam Sultan- Choreographers: Meredith Cook, Shawn Nasralla
Composer 2: Graham Reynolds- Choreographers: Kendra Slack, Cristina Jesurun (NYC)
Composer 3: Amalia Litsa/Aaron Dugan- Choreographers: Amanda Jackson, Katherine Hodges
Program C: Music and Movement Improvisation
9: 15 p.m. July 1-2
See how genres can complement each other in new and unexpected ways through music and movement improvisation. The performers developed the score together, setting boundaries and bridging new ideas.
Musical Director: Owen Weaver. Movement Director: Pat Stone. Dancers/Creators: Whitney Boomer, Matthew Cumbie, Karen Carlson, Melinda Chanson, Emily Babb, Lilly Slone, Amanda Jackson, Meredith Cook
Program D: Mix Showcase
8 p.m. July 3, 2 p.m July 4
A showcase of new contemporary dance, multi-media and movement based-performance art from established and emerging choreographers from Austin and across the country.
Choreographers: Lilly Sloan, Bethany Nelson, Spank Dance, Elizabeth Rose (Seattle), Noblemotion Dance (Houston), Brenna Kuhn, Anuradha Naimpally
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New inductees to the Austin Arts Hall of Fame
The Austin Critics’ Table has inducted four cultural leaders to the Austin Arts Hall of Fame.
The informal organization of arts critics this year will honor attorney Jo Anne Christian, a founding board member of the Austin Lyric Opera and a leader of the effort to build the Long Center; Maria Salinas, founder of Aztlan Dance Company; pianist James Dick who founded the Round Top Festival Institute; and photographer Alan Pogue.
The honorees will be recognized at the Critics’ Table Awards June 7 at 7 p.m. at Cap City Comedy Club. The event is free and open to the public.
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‘Matisse as Printmaker’ opens this weekend at the Blanton Museum
Though he’s most typically recognized as a sculptor and painter, Henri Matisse was arguably one of the most prolific fine art printmakers of the 20th century.
Culled exclusively from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation, a new traveling exhibit lands at the Blanton Museum of Art this weekend. ‘Matisse as Prinkmaker’ features more than 60 of the French modernist master’s exquisite prints that demonstrate his fluidity of line and his intense focus on his subject matter.
‘Matisse as Prinkmaker: Works from the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation’
Through Aug. 22
Blanton Museum of Art,
On Saturday at 2 p.m., Jay McKean Fisher, curator of the exhibit will discuss the importance of printmaking to Matisse’s oeuvre. In the Blanton Auditorium. Free, but tickets required. Tickets may be obtained beginning at 1 p.m.
Image: Henri Matisse ‘Marie-Joe in a Yellow Dress (III),’ 1950 Color lift-ground aquatint Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Courtesy American Federation of Arts
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Francesca Gabbiani’s improbable scenes
Los Angeles-based artist Francesca Gabbiani crafts improbable scenes — flattened, almost hyper-realistic intricate collages that read as paintings at first glance. Gabbiani grabs her influences from film, creating people-less mise-en-scenes from thousands of delicately cut pieces of paper carefully layered.
Gabbiani’s is compelling work, the kind that rewards prolonged looking.
‘Dream Baby Dream’ is Gabbiani’s third solo exhibit at Lora Reynolds Gallery. The show opens Saturday. The reception is from 6 to 8 p.m. Gabbiani gives a talk at 7 p.m.
‘Dream Baby Dream’
Through July 10
www.lorareynolds.com
Image: Francesca Gabbiani, ‘House of Falling Leaves,’ 2010. Giclée print, colored paper and gouache on Museo Max paper. Courtesy Lora Reynolds Gallery.
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‘Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris’
Jacques Brel was a French-speaking Belgian singer-songwriter who penned dark, satirical yet also romantic cabaret songs throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Although a number performers have recorded Brel songs in English — among them David Bowie and Judy Collins — Brel was little known in the United States until a musical revue of his songs, translated into English — ‘Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris’ — opened off Broadway in 1968, ultimately running for four years.
Perhap Brel’s best-known song to English-speaking audiences is ‘Ne Me Quitte Pas,’ famously covered by Nina Simone
Now, award-winning Austin music director Michael McKelvey leads a new production of ‘Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris’ at the Austin Playhouse.
‘Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris’
Austin Playhouse, Penn Field, 3601 S. Congress Ave.
Opens Friday. Show continues 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 5 p.m. Sundays through June 27
www.austinplayhouse.com
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Springboard: East Side Arts Showcase
On Saturday you can spend the afternoon — and part of the evening — visiting East Austin’s largest artists’ studio complexes during ‘Springboard,’ an open house event from 2 to 9 p.m. The event is free.
Open studios
— Pump Project, 702 Shady Lane. www.pumpproject.org
— Pump Project Satellite, 1109 Shady Lane
— Big Medium, 5305 Bolm Road, www.bigmedium.org
— Art Post, 4704 E, Cesar Chavez St.
These cooperative facilities provide studio space for more than 80 artists and artisans working in an array of styles and media. The free event offers the chance to browse the studios, meet the artists and see their work — and perhaps buy something.
At 5 p.m. sculptor Hank Waddell about his installation “Wonderlanded” in Pump Project’s main gallery. Pump Project Satellite Flex Space will feature an exhibition of wood- fired ceramics by Craig McNeil and metal work by Croix Williamson.
The gallery at Big Medium will feature work from print media artists Jason Urban.
Image: “Hank and His Grandson with Tree Roots,” from the installation “Wonderlanded. Courtesy Pump Project Art Complex.
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Austin Museum of Art seeking new works
The Austin Museum of Art is revving up for their fourth triennial “New Art in Austin” exhibitions. The highly-competitive group exhibit showcases a curated selection of emerging and lesser-known artists from Central Texas.
“New Art in Austin” will be on view at the Austin Museum of Art Feb. 26-May, 2011.
Eligible artists must live within a 50-mile radius of the Texas State Capitol. The deadline is July 29.
See the complete entry guidelines here.
The curator of “New Art in Austin” is Andrea Mellard, assistant surator at the Austin Museum of Art. Joining Mellard in the curatorial effort will be Kate Bonansinga, Gallery Director of the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas at El Paso, and Toby Kamps, senior curator of Contemporary Art Museum in Houston.
Image: Ali Fitzgerald. Detail of “Sad Little White Girl Goes to Boarding School,” Mixed media installation. From “New Art in Austin” 2008. Photo courtesy Art Palace Gallery.
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Austin Symphony announces first student composition contest
The Austin Symphony Orchestra has just announced its first Young Composers Competition for Texas students. The purpose is to encourage young composers — and at 18 and younger, ASO mean young — to try their hand at writing symphonic music. The winning piece will be played next season during the orchestra’s high school concerts in Austin.
Here’s the requirements of the contest:
- ASO invites young composers 18 years and younger to submit full, original (not arrangements) orchestral compositions between five to seven minutes in length. Works should use standard orchestral instrumentation and doublings. Works requiring electronics or special effects are not eligible. Works must not have been previously performed, recorded or published professionally.
- The winning composition will be performed during the Austin Symphony’s High School Concerts Tour, January 18 - 21, 2011. The winning composer and their parents will be offered transportation and hotel accommodations to Austin to attend rehearsals and performances of the work. In addition, an archival recording will be made for the winning composer’s personal use.
See www.austinsymphony.org for more information.
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Sarah Greene Reed & Gladys Poorte at D. Berman Gallery
Sarah Greene Reed creates collages digitally manipulating images of quotidian elements as fabric, fruit, doodles, bottle caps, zippers and wire.
Of her new series of paintings “Unavoidable Outcome,” Glayds Poorte says: “My paintings are constructions of concrete objects that refer to an elusive narrative.”
The two display their work in a new show at D. Berman Gallery which opens Thursday with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The exhibit continues through July 3. www.dbermangallery.com
Image: ‘IX,’ from the ‘On the Dot Series’, 2010. Archival pigment print of digital collage. Sarah Greene Reed. Courtesy D. Berman Gallery.
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Conspirare nets Chorus America commissioning award
Five time Frammy-nominated Austin choir Conspirare has received a $5,000 award from Chorus American to support the commission of a new choral work by Seattle composer Eric Banks.
The Dale Warland Singers Commission Award will be presented June 18 at the Chorus America’s annual conference.
Banks will compose a work to be entitled “This delicate universe,” in the form of an a cappella cycle for 16-part chamber chorus, based on five poems by the Greek-Egyptian poet Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933). The piece will be performed in both Greek and English. Many of Banks’s choral compositions are macaronic, i.e., composed in multiple languages.
Banks said: “My plan for This delicate universe is to set Cavafy’s strophes of Greek text in the background of the choral texture, and to declaim the English translations in the foreground, by a combination of soloists and small ensembles. I will utilize the full potential of Conspirare’s forces to create a choral soundscape that employs both the linguistic variety of modern Greek and the musical vocabulary of maqqam - the scalar system known throughout the Arab world for its ornaments and microtonal variation. I hope that by coupling such diverse sounds - Greek syllables and Arabic melodies - with my English translations, that Cavafy’s work will reach a wider appreciation with American audiences.”
Conspirare expects to premiere the new work within two years.
Up next for the choir are performances of Durufle’s Requiem on June 5 and the Bach Mass in B Minor of June 13.
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Recent arts coverage
In a compelling art video, Marina Zurkow reveals the fluidity of environmental catastrophe | Dan Graham’s cogent essay-as-art-film on rock music & religion
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Summer school for the creative sector: City offers free admin, biz training
The City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division is once again hosting “Take It To The Next Level,” a summer series of free workshops, brown bag lunch conversations, a speaker series and symposia all geared to help those in the creative industries sector build administrative and business skills.
It’s like summer school for Austin’s arts and culture industries. And it’s all free.
Among the workshops are ‘Creating a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit,’ ‘Social Media 101 for Cultural Creatives,’ ‘Multicultural Marketing’ and ‘The Art of the Proposal: Lessons in Advanced Grant Writing.”
There will also by a brown bag lunch conversation on cultural tourism.
All of the events are free, but some do request you reserve a place. See the Take It To The Next Level website for a complete schedule and to register.
And after you’ve taken that Social Media 101 class, you can particiapte in the ‘Public Art Crawl: Go-Crawl-la Tour.’ The city’s Art in Public Places program challenges everyone to create their own public art tour using the smartphone app Gowalla. Entries will be collected July 1-31 and the winning Gowalla trip will be the official route for the 2010 Public Art Crawl on Oct. 2.
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UT appoints new chair for Dept. of Theatre and Dance
The University of Texas has appointed Brant Pope, currently head of the Department of Theatre at The University of Illinois, has been appointed chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, the College of Fine Arts announced today. Pope has also been appointed as holder of the Z .T. Scott Family Chair in Drama. Pope’s appointment is effective June 1.
Pope succeeds Holly Williams, interim chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, who will continue in her position as professor and head of the master of fine arts in dance program.
Pope has held academic positions at Pennsylvania State University, Florida State University and Virginia Commonwealth University. He served as director of the Florida State University/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training and associate artistic director of the Asolo State Theatre, in Sarasota, Florida from 1991-2001.
Pope has been seen Off-Broadway and in regional theater with The Hartford Stage Company, Asolo Theatre Company and Park Square Theatre. He is the author of the play, “Sins of Omission.”
Pope earned a bachelor of arts degree from The University of Minnesota, master of fine arts degrees from The University of Connecticut and Florida State University and a doctorate in American Studies from Michigan State University.
Pope is an active member of The Theatre Communication Group, and serves as
a program accreditation reviewer for the National Association of Schools of
Theatre.
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Austin Critics’ Table 2009-2010 nominations
The Austin Critics’ Table — an informal group of arts critics from the American-Statesman, the Austin Chronicle and Might Be Good — announce the nominations for the 15th annual Austin Critics’ Table Awards.
Winners will be announced at an informal awards ceremony — free and open to the public — at 7 p.m June 7 at Cap City Comedy Club. All are invited.
VISUAL ART
Museum Exhibition
“David Bates Since 1982: From the Everyday to the Epic,” Austin Museum of Art, curator: Dana Friis-Hansen
“Desire,” Blanton Museum of Art, curator: Annette DiMeo Carlozzi, curator
“From Out That Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe,” Ransom Center, curator: Richard Oram, curator
Solo Gallery Exhibition
“Beilu Liu: Bound,” D Berman Gallery
“Colby Bird,” Okay Mountain
“Erin Curtis: Perspective Threshold,” Women & Their Work
“Noriko Ambe: Artist Books, Linear-Actions Cutting Project,” Lora Reynolds Gallery
“Off the Edge: The Experimental Prints of Cynthia Brants,” Flatbed Press
“Texas Instruments: New Paintings by Esther Pearl Watson,” Domy Books
Group Gallery Exhibition
“I am not so different,” Art Palace, curator: Rachel Cook
“Ideas of Mountains,” Creative Research Laboratory, curator: Xotchi Solis
“Mark-making : Dots, Lines and Curves,” Lora Reynolds Gallery, curator: Lora Reynolds
“Over and Under,” Yard Dog Gallery, curator: Jenny Hart
“Polymict,” Okay Mountain, curator: Nathan Green
‘Practice, Practice, Practice,’ Lora Reynolds Gallery, curators: Michael Smith and Jay Sanders
Work of Art: Independent or Public Project
‘East Austin Sunset at 15mph,’ Rachel Stewart, Co-Lab
‘Eclipses for Austin,’ Pablo Vargas Lugo, Blanton Museum of Art
‘July Transplants,’ Nick Falduto, Elliot Gaylord Lehnen, Cole Ludstrom, Mariel Mentink, Jess Pane, Bridget Quinn, Mali Voglund, and Eric Wicks, East Austin Studio Tour
‘One Hundred Black Women/One Hundred Actions,’ Wura Natasha Ogunji, Fusebox Festival
‘24 Hour Roman Reconstruction Project,’ Liz Glynn, Arthouse
‘Traveling Video Show #1,’ Circulatory System
Work of Art: One of A Kind
‘Halliburton Archiving Solutions (II), 1987,’ Adam Schreiber, “One on One on One,” Art Palace
‘2nd Street Window Project: How the West Was Won, I Am Immortal I Have Inside Me Blood of Kings, and Sunset #1,’ Carlos Rosales-Silva, “One Swallow Doesn’t Make a Summer”
‘I Want to Live in America,’ Santiago Forero, “Young Latino Artists 14,” Mexic-Arte Museum
‘Merged Mirage,’ Jonathan Faber, “Broken Gold,” AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center Courtyard Gallery
‘Slurb,’ Marina Zurkow, Women & Their Work
‘Spectator Sport,’ Jade Walker, Austin Museum of Art
Work of Art: Installation
‘Camp Base Camp: Everest Friends,’ Peter Reichardt, Mary Rothlisberger, and Kristyn Weaver, “Ideas of Mountains,” Creative Research Laboratory
‘Dust Storm (Night),’ Jeff Williams, Art City Austin
‘Epic,’ Teresita Fernà ndez, “Teresita Fernà ndez: Blind Landscape,” Blanton Museum of Art
‘Plastic Mountains, Paper Trees,’ Christa Mares and Teruko Nimura, “Ideas of Mountains,” Creative Research Laboratory
‘(Re)Kirk,’ Leslie Mutchler, Barry Stone, Michelle Marchessault and Virginia Yount, Art City Austin
Touring Show, Art
“Chuck Close, A Couple of Ways of Doing Something,” Austin Museum of Art
“Francisco Matto: The Modern & The Mythic,” Blanton Museum of Art
“The Lining of Forgetting: Internal and External Memory in Art,” Austin Museum of Art
“Teresita Fernà ndez: Blind Landscape,” Blanton Museum of Art
THEATER
Production, Drama
‘The Cherry Orchard,’ Breaking String Theatre
‘Dionysus in 69,’ Rude Mechanicals
‘The Jungle’, Trouble Puppet Theatre Company
‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night,’ Ar Rud
‘Rabbit Hole,’ City Theatre Company
‘Three Days of Rain,’ Penfold Theatre Company
Production, Comedy
‘Black Snow,’ Tutto Theatre Company
‘bobrauschenbergamerica, ’ Mary Moody Northen Theatre
‘Body Awareness,’ Hyde Park Theatre
‘House of Several Stories,’ Imagine That Productions
‘Killer Joe,’ Capital T Theatre
‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ The Hidden Room Theatre
Production, Musical
‘Bat Boy: The Musical,’ Texas State University
‘Evil Dead: The Musical,’ Doctuh Mistah Productions
‘john & jen,’ Penfold Theatre Company
‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery,’ Tutto Theatre Company/Vortex Repertory Company
‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’, Zach Theatre
Direction
Beth Burns, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’
Madge Darlington/Shawn Sides, ‘Dionysus in 69’
David Long, ‘bobrauschenbergamerica’
Michael McKelvey,’ john & jen’
Mark Pickell, ‘Killer Joe’
Graham Schmidt, ‘The Cherry Orchard’
Ken Webster, ‘The Collection/The Atheist’
Dustin Wills, ‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery’/’Black Snow’
Acting in a Leading Role
Martin Burke,’ House of Several Stories’
Pamela Christian, ‘Mary Stuart’
Ryan Crowder, ‘The Taming of the Shrew’
Robert Faires, ‘Henry V’
Babs George, ‘The Cherry Orchard’
Thomas Graves, ‘Dionysus in 69’
Joey Hood, ‘The Atheist’
Joni L. Jones/Omi Osun Olomo, ‘delta dandi’
Lauren Lane, ‘House of Several Stories’
Gabriel Luna, ‘Black Snow’/’Orestes’/’Endgame’
Meredith McCall, ‘House of Several Stories’
Helen Merino, ‘Mary Stuart’
Matt Radford, ‘Measure for Measure’/’The Cherry Orchard’
Michael Stuart, ‘Frost/Nixon’
Nicole Swahn, ‘Eurydice’
Jacob Trussell, ‘Peer Gynt’
Acting in a Supporting Role
Michael Amendola, ‘Our Town ‘(Zach)
Smaranda Ciceu, ‘Black Snow’
Shelby Davenport, ‘Measure for Measure’
Jude Hickey, ‘Leave It to Beverly’
Julia Lorenz, ‘Sleeping Beauty’
Sean Martin, ‘Mary Stuart’/’Three Days of Rain’
Jordan McRae, ‘Our Town’ (Zach)
Josh Meyer, ‘Dionysus in 69’
Nigel O’Hearn, ‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’/’The Cherry Orchard’
Corley Pillsbury, ‘Evil Dead: The Musical’
Sofia Ruiz, ‘Our Town’ (UT)
Erica Saenz, ‘Keeping Track’
Jose Villareal, ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’
Ensemble Performance
‘Arrhythmia,’ Uprise! Productions/Vortex Repertory
‘Black Snow,’ Tutto Theatre Company
‘bobrauschenbergamerica,’ Mary Moody Northen Theatre
‘Dionysus in 69,’ Rude Mechanicals
‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery,’ Tutto Theatre Company/Vortex Repertory Company
‘Our Town,’ Zach Theatre
‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ The Hidden Room Theatre
‘The Trojan Women,’ UT Dept. of Theatre & Dance
‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,’ Zach Theatre
David Mark Cohen New Play Award<
‘American Volunteers,’ John Meyer
‘House of Several Stories,’ John Boulanger
‘Keeping Track,’ Erica Saenz
‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery,’ Elizabeth Doss
Music Direction
Lyn Koenning, ‘The Difficulty of Crossing a Field’
Todd Lindamood, ‘Bat Boy: The Musical’
Michael McKelvey, ‘john & je’n/’City of Angels’/’Evil Dead: The Musical’
Mark Stewart and Andy Tindall, ‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery’
Movement
Madge Darlington/Shawn Sides, ‘Dionysus in 69’
Lisa Del Rosario, ‘Leave It to Beverly’
Danny Herman and Rocker Verastique, ‘bobrauschenbergamerica’
Robin Lewis, ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’/’Bat Boy: The Musical’
Dustin Wills, ‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery
Touring Show, Theater
‘The Color Purple,’ Texas Performing Arts
‘The Doyle and Debbie Show,’ Long Center for the Performing Arts
‘Dreaming of a Song: The Music of Hoagy Carmichael,’ Austin Cabaret Theatre
‘In the Heights,’ Texas Performing Arts
Patti Lupone and Mandy Patinkin, Long Center for the Performing Arts
‘Paved Paradise Redux,’ Fusebox Festival
‘Spring Awakening,’ Texas Performing Arts
‘A Western,’ Fusebox Festival
DESIGN
Scenic Design
Connor Hopkins, ‘The Jungle/’A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits’
Lisa Laratta, ‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery’/’Black Snow<’br>
Anne McMeeking, ‘Three Days of Rain’
Michael Raiford, ‘Rockin’ Christmas Party’
Sonya Rainey, ‘The Difficulty of Crossing a Field’
Robert N. Schmidt, ‘Peer Gynt’
Leilah Stewart, ‘bobrauschenbergamerica’/’City of Angels’
Costume Design
Sachi DeCou, ‘Impermanence’
Pamela Fletcher-Friday/Griffon Ramsey, ‘Sleeping Beauty’
Alison Heryer, ‘The Trojan Women’/’The Difficulty of Crossing a Field’
Jennifer J. Madison, ‘Mary Stuart’/’City of Angels’
Kim H. Ngo, ‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery’/’Black Snow’/’Peer Gynt’
Susan Branch Towne, ‘The Life of Galileo’
Ariana Schwartz, ‘Pride and Prejudice’
Lighting Design
Jason Amato,’ Impermanence’/’Henry V’/’Mary Stuart’/’Sleeping Beauty’/’Our Town’ (Zach)
William Meadows, ‘Ellen Fullman and the Long String Instrument’
Megan M. Reilly, ‘Murder Ballad Murder Mystery’/’Black Snow’
Stephen Pruitt, ‘bobrauschenbergamerica’/’The Trash Project’/’Ears Wide Open’
Cheng-Wei Teng, ‘The Trojan Women’
Tony Tucci, Voice Dance Company/’Truth & Beauty: The Bach Project’/’City of Angels’<’br>
Lih-Hwa Yu, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field
Sound Design
Craig Brock, City of Angels/Our Town (Zach)
Bill Henry, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field
Taylor Kirk, Our Town (UT)
Content Love Knowles, Eurydice
William Meadows, Impermanence/The Trash Project
Buzz Moran, Peer Gynt
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Symphonic Performance
Mozart: Concerto in F Major, Austin Symphony with Leon Fleischer & Katherine Jacobson Fleischer
Ode to Common Things, Austin Symphony with Conspirare Symphonic Choir
Bolcom: Spring Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, Barber: Piano Concerto, op.
38, Prokofiev: Suite from Romeo and Juliet, UT Symphony Orchestra
Symphony VI, Golden Hornet Project
Chamber Performance
Anne Akiko Meyers & Anton Nel, Jessen Series of Distinguished Faculty Artists
The Complete Brahms Violin Sonatas, Austin Chamber Music Center
Ellen Fullman and the Long String Instrument, New Music Co-op
Jorge Caballero and Friends, Austin Classical Guitar Society
Tango on the Terrace, Austin Chamber Music Center
An Evening of Works by Robert Schumann, Texas Piano Quartet
Choral Performance
Ellington: Sacred Concert, Austin Chamber MusicCenter/Huston-Tillotson University Concert Choir
‘A New Year’s Conspirare Classic,’ Conspirare
Ode to Common Things, Conspirare Symphonic Choir with Austin Symphony
‘A Time for Life,’ Conspirare
Vaughan Williams: Dona Nobis Pacem, UT Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Singers, Concert Chorale, and Choral Arts Society
Opera
‘Albert Herring,’ Butler Opera Center
‘La Bohème,’ Austin Lyric Opera
‘The Difficulty of Crossing a Field,’ UT Department of Theatre & Dance
‘The Star,’ Austin Lyric Opera
‘A View From the Bridge,’ UT Butler Opera Center
Vocalist
Jennifer Adams, ‘The Difficulty of Crossing a Field’
Cristina Caldas, ‘A View From the Bridge’
Rubin Casas, ‘A View From the Bridge’
Liz Cass, ‘The Star’/’Hansel and Gretel’
David Farwig, ‘A Time for Life’
Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, ‘The Star’
Haley Hussey, ‘The Difficulty of Crossing a Field’
Abibail H. Lennox, ‘A Time for Life’
Gitanjali Mathur, ‘La Serva Padrona’
Brad Raymond, ‘Albert Herring’
Original Composition/Score
“Bounce: Suite in A Minor,” Graham Reynolds
“Princess Songs,” Russell Reed
‘Conversatio Morum,’ Stephen Barber
Symphony VI: Rough Night With Happy Ending, Peter Stopschinski
‘The Trash Project,’ Graham Reynolds
“Toward and Away From the Point of Balance,” Travis Weller
“Two Cautionary Tales,” Steve Snowden
Instrumentalist
Elaine Barber, harp, Symphony VI: Rough Night With Happy Ending
Douglas Harvey, cello, Don Quixote
Nick Hennies & Travis Weller, box bow, Ellen Fullman and the Long String Instrument
Anne Akiko Meyers, violin, Anne Akiko Meyers & Anton Nel
Michelle Schumann, piano, Sonatas and Interludes
DANCE
‘Ears Wide Open,’ Tapestry Dance Company
‘Impermanence,’ Blue Lapis Light
‘Move,’ Ballet Afrique
‘No Time to Fly,’ Deborah Hay Dance Company
‘The Trash Project,’ Forklift Danceworks
‘Truth & Beauty: The Bach Project,’ Ballet Austin
Short Work
“Angel of My Nature,” Truth & Beauty/The Bach Project
“Balkan Chicks,” Voice Dance Company
“Fanfarneta,” Truth & Beauty: The Bach Project
“For You Lucia,” IN under & Through
“Lest,” IN under & Through
“Nina Remixed,” Move
Choreographer
Thang Dao, “Quiet Imprint”
Acia Gray, ‘Ears Wide Open’
Deborah Hay, ‘No Time to Fly’
Sharon Marroquin, “For You Lucia”
Stephen Mills, ‘Truth & Beauty: The Bach Project’
Allison Orr, ‘The Trash Project<’br>
Leah Smiley Tubbs, ‘Move’
Nelly van Bommel, “Farfarnetta”
Dancer
Don Anderson, “The Crane Dance”
Katelyn Harris,’ Ears Wide Open’
Deborah Hay, ‘No Time to Fly’
Masa Kolar, “Your Provision”
Aara Krumpe, ‘The Firebird’
Sharon Marroquin, “For You Lucia”
Anuradha Naimpally, ‘Parampara: Traditional Dance of India’
Rosalyn Nasky, “Temple”
Frank Shott, ‘Truth & Beauty: The Bach Project’
Jaime Lynn Witts, ‘Truth & Beauty: The Bach Project’
Ensemble
‘Alone, Alone,’ Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company
‘Ears Wide Open,’ Tapestry Dance Company
‘Impermanence,’ Blue Lapis Light
‘Quiet Imprint,’ Ballet Austin II
‘The Trash Project,’ Employees of the City of Austin Solid Waste Services Department
‘Truth & Beauty: The Bach Project,’ Ballet Austin
Touring Show, Dance
Black Grace, Texas Performing Arts
‘Comme Toujours Here I Stand,’ Big Dance Theater, Fusebox Festival
Grupo de Rua, Texas Performing Arts
‘.more’, Headlong Dance Theatre, Dance Umbrella
‘P.I. (Pays) or Presentation Intimes,’ Julie Dossavi, Dance Umbrella
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Review: ‘A Chorus Line’
Everybody can sing “One,” the best known song from “A Chorus Line.”
“One! Singular sensation every little step she makes.”
Seeing the song performed in the context of the national touring show Tuesday at UT’s Bass Concert Hall imbues the lyrics with new meanings. The song doesn’t just describe the force of a chorus line performing as one dancing unit. The musical, with its focus on dancers’ dreams and lives, demonstrates that inside that singular sensation known as the kick line stand a number of very different people who bring a variety experiences to the stage.
The 1975 musical, directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett with music by Marvin Hamlisch, a book by James Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, and lyrics by Edward Kleban, is much richer than the 1985 movie.
The musical, revived by Baayork Lee who originated the role of Connie Wong and Bennett’s co-choreographer Bob Avian, shines the spotlight on 26 dancers competing for 8 spots in a Broadway show’s chorus. The group dances and sings, but they also talk—not an opportunity often afforded dancers. The stories the men and women tell felt surprisingly fresh Tuesday, despite the musical’s now iconic nature.
The most moving story belongs to the character Paul, played Tuesday by Nicky Venditti. One of the best dancers in the cast, Venditti brings an anxious sensitivity to the role of the young man struggling with how to reconcile his gender—a more feminine masculinity—and sexuality—he is gay. When the unseen director forces Paul to describe how he began dancing, Venditti smartly combines his body posture and vocal delivery with his lines. He keeps his hands mostly inside his pants’ pockets, but moves them as through they are struggling to escape, and he talks in the kind of breathless, run-on sentences of a person telling a story long kept secret.
Like Venditti, many of the actors build character through movement. Hilary Michael Thompson conveys Kristine’s inability to sing by hunching her back every time she tries to croak out a note in “Sing!” Sheila, the show’s older diva, wouldn’t be recognizable without Ashley Yeater’s shoulders back, chin up posture that becomes a sort of full-bodied sneer throughout the show. (Yeater was easily one of the strongest among Tuesday’s cast.) The show’s simple set, a wall of mirrors the run across the back of the stage, sometimes highlights the group’s fixation on how they look, and other times becomes something of a stand-in audience. As Cassie (Rebecca Riker) fights with the director to stay in the audition, the mirrors brighten as she dances. Michael Bennett’s choreography for this number—at least the actual movement vocabulary—is surprisingly dated and odd, but as Riker covers more and more space, the freedom Cassie feels when dancing becomes palpable.
When the cast first sings the line “I really need this job” in the opening number, it seems their desire for employment equates to anyone looking for a job. But as the dancers keep singing and keep dancing, their desire to perform takes a different shape. Being a dancer is who they are, not just what they do. That passion and a strong cast make seeing the two-hour musical performed without an intermission fly by.
‘A Chorus Line’ continues 8 p.m. through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Bass Concert Hall, 23rd Street and Robert Dedman Drive, University of Texas campus. $20-$69. www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Four efficiency apartments, one big exhibition
Austin is alive and well with the pop-up art projects — the one-time events that turn unexpected places into exhibit space.
This weekend, the Archways apartments on Manor Road become the site of ‘The Archways Project,’ a one night curatorial initiative that features the apartment complex as an exhibition site.
On Sunday four efficiency will be transformed into itty biity gallery spaces displaying sculpture, performance, video, drawing, and painting by more than a dozen Texas artists. (See artist info below).
‘The Archways Project’ is open 6 to 9 p.m. and is free. It’s spearheaded by Kate Geha, the ambitious indie curator who’s been running the SOFA Gallery out of her campus-area apartment.
For more information see www.sofagallerytx.com
Building 2506
Apartment 316: Allison Myers curates the metalwork of Rebekah Frank. The artist recently began interacting with metals in a fine art context after working for eight years as a professional blacksmith. Engaging with historically gendered materials and processes, she creates forms that derive from idealized feminine behaviors?. In this body of work she concentrates on structures that constrain the body, uniting her interest in gender with her research into medieval torture devices, neuroaesthetics and psychology.
Building 2504
Apartment 202: Katie Anania invites Kristina Felix an Jeff Stanley to create a performance in her apartment. With the aid of images and discourse, Felix and Stanley’s joint PowerPoint performance seeks to combine the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the War on Drugs, and the entire gamut of U.S./Mexico foreign relations.
Apartment 210: Lindsey Spratt and Katie Geha pair sculptor Ben Brandt with painter Nathan Green. Brandt, interested in radio waves, material information, and the psychic gunk floating hrough our air, creates sprayed concrete sculptures that act as stand-ins for debris unearthed from deep below the sea. Green makes paintings with bright colors, expressive mark making, undulating patterns, and frenzied spaces, a type of highly intelligent child’s play. Together, the two artists experiment with a haphazard aesthetic that both accepts and rejects the domestic space.
Apartment 309: Russell Etchen exhibits the Frederick R. Etchen Collection, a group of works by artists Gordon Carver, Tim Brown, Lane Hagood, Jenny Hart, Mark Flood, Otis Ike, Eric Pearce, and Patrick Phipps. What unites these disparate artists is the commitment and friendship endemic to any personal art collection.
Image: Nathan Green.
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Last week for Lance Letscher exhibit
This is the last week to catch Lance Letscher’s latest solo exhibit, “The Perfect Machine.” Long-time favorite of the Austin art scene, Letscher has won national recognition for his meticulously assembled collages made from scraps of old books, documents and other paper ephemera. Now, Letscher’s created a new body of work that accompanies his imaginative children’s book of the same name, published by UT Press. “The Perfect Machine” is a celebration of locomotion, technology and the creative impulse.
Gallery hours 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Exhibit continues through Saturday
D. Berman Gallery, 1705 Guadalupe St.
www.dbermangallery.com
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Review: Ballet Austin’s ‘Coppelia’
Some men may want dolls, but a real woman is always a better deal.
In Ballet Austin’s Coppelia, performed this weekend at the Long Center, the real live woman, Swanilda, bests the doll that shares the ballet’s name. Swanilda’s spunk and artistic director Stephen Mills’ gift for comedic staging capitalized on the “Coppelia’s” charm and humor.
Coppelia is a women’s ballet. Women do most of the dancing, and Swanilda is their ringleader. Both of the dancers cast as Swanilda — Ashley Lynn Gilfix and Jaime Lynn Witts — were sassy Swanilda’s and dealt ably with the role’s extensive mime and dancing demands.
Gilfix has a softness to her upper body that allowed her to alternate between dainty and fierce. Witts showed great personality and technique throughout the ballet. She gleamed in the third act’s wedding pas de deux. Her performance, her first evening-length principal role, seems likely to be the first of many leads for Witts.
Neither lead woman could have pulled off the ballet’s comedy without help from their male partners. Paul Michael Bloodgood and Frank Shott alternated as Swanilda’s flirtatious lover Franz. Both men were generally strong, but Bloodgood struggled in his third act solo Saturday night.
Anthony Casati, who retired from the company two years ago, returned as the eccentric, older dollmaker Dr. Coppelius. Casati handled the slapstick well, while also tapping the role’s pathos.
A pack of strong dancers surrounded the leads, particularly in the extended dance for Swanilda and her six friends in Act I. In pairs and as a group, the seven women barreled through the space in a torrent of turns and jumps. Two of the friends, Michelle Thompson and Kirby Wallis, returned in the third act, as Aurora and Prayer respectively. As the sprightly Aurora, Thompson delivered one of her best solo performances to date. Wallis, who usually gets cast as more of a firecracker, brought a lovely serenity to the Prayer solo.
The corps had solid performances Saturday and Sunday. Their character dances were
well-executed but lacked the pride and exuberance that usually make Coppelia’s
character dances explode from the stage. Mills’ Waltz of the Hours, one of the new
choreographies for this production, looks lovely from the theatre’s higher
reaches. Its patterns loop and intertwine among themselves quite pleasingly.
Unfortunately, Anna Marie Melendez and Christopher Swaim seemed quite tense as the dance’s leading couple, undermining the lilt of the piece.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Review: ‘Dream! A Midsummer Night’s Dream’
At the Mother’s Day matinee of Austin Shakespeare’s production of “Dream! A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Zilker Hillside Theater, the mood was festive. Families brought picnics to spread out on blankets, and the crowd enjoyed the slightly cooler weather. Seeing free theatre in the park, though, means that bad weather could always cancel the show, as was unfortunately the case on Sunday.
The rainy weather was too bad, because the show was off to a rocking start—literally. In this colorful production, director Ann Ciccollela re-imagines Shakespeare’s classic comedy as a 1960s rock musical. A talented live rock band plays original music composed by Michael McKelvey and Cesar Osorio, which is integrated into the play so well you might forget that Shakespeare didn’t originally write “Midsummer Night’s Dream” as a musical.
The show’s interwoven plot involves young lovers, woodland fairies, and a group of working folks putting on a play-within-a-play. Magical love potions, (and those mischievous fairies), end up wreaking havoc on everyone’s well-laid plans.
The cast has fun with the production’s musical twist. As Hermia (one of the young lovers), Jenny Larson is spunky and sweet, while Gwendolyn Kelso plays jealous Helena with comedic exuberance. Joseph Banks delivers a clear and direct performance as Hermia’s lover Lysander (who is tricked into falling in love with Helena), and Michael Dalmon is hilariously over-the-top as one of the amateur actors, Nick Bottom.
In many ways, “Dream! A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is the perfect play for a theatre in the park experience. The show’s fantastical elements and forest setting, when coupled with live music and an outdoor Austin evening, could really be a spot-on combination. Let’s hope the weather cooperates for the rest of the show’s run.
‘Dream! A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ continues through May 30, Thursday-Sunday at 8 p.m at Zilker Hillside Theater. Free. www.austinshakespeare.org
Claire Canavan is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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‘Apocalypse Now’ — Art and environmental messaging
Artist Marina Zurkow couldn’t have known how prescient her mesmerizing animated film ‘Slurb,’ now on exhibit at Women & Their Work, would read what with a catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico currently grabbing headlines.
In Zurkow’s vocabulary, ‘Slurb’ is combination of ‘suburb’ and ‘slime.’ The 18-minute continuous loop with an ambient electronic pop-inspired soundtrack paints a slowly rolling picture of a post-apocalyptic future world that’s been destroyed by some sort of alluvial pollution-triggered catastrophe.
On Wednesday, Zurkow will lead a discussion that asks participants just how does art traffic in images of an environmentally-defined apocalypse.
7 p.m. Wednesday
Women & Their Work, 1710 Lavaca St.
Free
www.womenandtheirwork.org
Joining Zurkow on the panel are Juli Berwald, Ph.D. science eriter; Peter Hall, Dept. of Art, UT; Andrea Mellard, Austin Museum of Art; Bogdan Perzynski, Dept. of Art, UT; Erica Shamaly, the Austin School of Film; Todd Simmons, Austin Museum of Digital Art; Kate Watson, Austin Video Beem and Christi Zangrilli, environmental designer.
‘Slurb’ continues on exhibit through May 27.
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Recent arts coverage
In a compelling art video, Marina Zurkow reveals the fluidity of environmental catastrophe
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Arts options for Mother’s Day
Need something arts-related to do with Mom this Mother’s Day weekend? Here’s some of our Picks:
Free events:
‘Art of the Pot.’
Four locations, 16 ceramic artists. This free, self-guided tour offers the chance to explore — and purchase — the work of noted ceramists from around the country along with local clay creators. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Free stuff: Downloadable map and brochure at www.artofthepot.com
‘The Dream: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’
Catch a special Mother’s Day matinee of the annual free Shakespeare in the park production. Austin Shakespeare re-imagines the Bard’s ultimate romantic comedy as a 1960s rock ’n’ roll musical. Original music in the style of ’60s pop singers such as Petula Clark will be played by a live band on stage. 3 p.m. Sunday. Sheffield Hillside Theatre, Zilker Park. Free. www.austinshakespeare.org
Ticketed events:
‘Portrait of a Lady: Depictions of Women Through Time.’
Take a guided tour through Blanton Museum of Art’s permanent collection with an eye toward women. After all, from the beginning of time, women have served as artist’s muses and dominated the subject matter of sculpture, painting and photography. See the depictions and roles of women change over time from ancient goddess to loving mother, powerful ruler to sex symbol. 3 p.m. today. Free with museum admission ($3-$9). Blanton Museum of Art, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Congress Ave. www.blantonmuseum.org
‘Coppelia’
Ballet Austin stages the 19th-century comedic fairy tale ballet about mistaken identity and a beautiful mechanical doll. Live music by the Austin Symphony Orchestra. 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday. Long Center, 701 W. Riverside Dr, $27 to $77. www.balletaustin.org
Miro Quartet with Lynn Harrell
The Miro is one of the shinier chamber ensembles on the international scene — and also the University of Texas string quartet in residence. Harrell is simply one of the finest cello players around. Together they’ll play Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major and Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major. 4 p.m. today, with a post-performance talk-back with the audience. Bates Recital Hall, Music Building, UT campus. $38. www.texasperformingarts.org
Image: Ceramics by Joe Bova on Art of the Pot tour.
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James Surls prints big
He’s more known for his sinuous, graceful yet often monumental sculptures of wood, metal and wire. But for artist James Surls, it really all begins with the line.
For several decades, Surls was based in the East Texas town of Splendora. Now, he resides in Colorado. But he’s back in town this week, busy with the folks at Flatbed Press where he is printing ‘Through it All,’ a monumental wood block print. Surls carved the enormous wood block with a hand knife in his studio.
‘Through it All’ measures four feet by eight feet is printed on over-sized Japan paper. It’s printed in a limited edition of 12.
Surls will be debuting and signing his print at free reception.
5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday
Flatbed Press, 2832 East Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Photo: Artist James Surls and printers Tracy Mayrello, Heather Parrish, Katherine Brimberry and Angela Morales at pulling an impression for his edition. Courtesy Flatbed Press.
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First the Tony Awards, then the Austin Critics’ Table Awards
Check out the gallery of Tony Awards Winners, just announced this morning.
Read a list of the nominees here.
And on May 13, we’ll announce in this blog the nominees for the 2009-2010 Austin Critics’ Table Awards. This year’s ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, June 7, at Cap City Comedy Club.
See a list of last year’s Austin Critics’ Table Award winners.
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Free, new music, tonight
Tonight, Austin percussion original Thomas Burritt guest conducts the University of Texas’ New Music Ensemble, leading the group in an adventurous program including David Lang’s powerful multi-part piece on memory and growing up, ‘Child,’ Belinda Reynolds ‘Path’ and new work by UT student composer Steve Snowden.
Tonight’s concert is just one of several opportunities we’ve had to hear Lang’s music recently. This weekend, Consprirare sings Lang’s haunting “Little Match Girl Passion,” winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in music. Read our interview with Lang here.
Can’t make it in person to the concert tonight? No worries — it will be live-streamed at www.music.utexas.edu
7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Bates Recital Hall, Music Building, UT campus
FREE
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Fusebox 2010: John Kelly’s Paved Paradise Redux
There is sweet pleasure in watching one person love another. That’s what watching John Kelly performing as Joni Mitchell feels like: watching a great fan honor a great woman.
Kelly’s “Paved Paradise Redux,” the latest incarnation of the New York-based artist’s drag show about Joni Mitchell, is an always sensitive, sometimes hauntingly dark tribute to Mitchell and fandom. The piece, seen this weekend at the Long Center’s Rollins Theatre, felt like a perfect ending to the ten-day Fusebox Festival.
Kelly’s creates Mitchell from precise attention to quirky details. As he moves through about sixteen of Mitchell’s songs, Kelly mirrors Mitchell’s incredible range, shifting from high-pitch trills to her soothing alto. He wears diaphanous dresses—first white, then blue velvet—that hang from stooped shoulders and trail behind as he meanders in wandering pathways atop leopard-print high heels. These details contribute to a sense his Mitchell is both in the theatre and not. The music and often-hilarious musings between songs often feel poignant, but Kelly has perfected a paradoxical stare for his Mitchell. She gazes past the horizon with such intensity, her gaze turns back on itself, ably reflecting the retrospection and longing in Mitchell’s music.
For all of the love in the show, Kelly traffics in Mitchell’s darkness a great deal, too. Even when Mitchell’s lines (many of them drawn from live concert recordings) could be funny, Kelly cuts off the end of the sentence. His refusal of comedic timing pushes the Mitchell character in a very different direction than the male-to-female drag common in mainstream media today, which so often makes fun of female figures.
Familiarity with Mitchell’s work would be a bonus at the show, but Kelly has developed such a full character that owning the albums isn’t required. Regardless of the size of one’s Mitchell CD library, “Paved Paradise Redux” offers many of the joys of live concert going. “Case of You” is probably one of Mitchell’s best-known songs. Seeing Kelly play it—after he hilariously riffs on the genealogy of the odd instrument—brings out the song’s sexy percussion.
Seeing Kelly as Mitchell also brings out Mitchell’s lyrics differently. “Paved Paradise Redux” illustrates how her poetic words are not just descriptions of the relationships of others, but are about the relationship between a musician and her listeners. Kelly and Mitchell are now friends (the dulcimer he plays in the show was a gift from Mitchell), but as Kelly performs it’s obvious that the lyric he sings early in the show “she comforts him sometimes” describes a much longer relationship between Mitchell and this adoring fan.
Songs come to life in one body,
but they often gain their fullest expression when they come to live in the bodies
and lives of others.
Clare Croft is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Review: ‘The Taming of the Shrew’
If you want to see the Hidden Room Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew,” (which you should, because it’s rowdy and fun), there are a few things you should know.
The show’s location is a secret until you reserve a ticket. You’ll get an email from a mysterious figure known as “The Matriarch,” who will tell you where to go and give you the password required to gain entrance.
The hidden room itself (located somewhere downtown) is ornate, with oversized red chairs and gold trim. Live musicians play lilting tunes as the show begins.
“The Taming of the Shrew” is notorious for gender politics that are thoroughly outdated for modern audiences. In short, many suitors desire to marry Bianca (Ryan Hamilton), the sweet and pretty daughter of Baptista (Todd Kassens). Baptista, however, requires that his oldest daughter Katherina (Ryan Crowder) be married off first. The only problem? Katherina is a fierce and unpleasant shrew. Soon, though, the money-hungry Petrucio (Judd Farris) arrives, with a plan to “tame” Kate and make her the perfect, obedient wife. Yikes.
Beth Burns directs this fast-paced, playful production of “The Taming of the Shrew” using “original practices,” which means the show tries to mimic what the production would have been like when first performed. The costumes, then, are period inspired (think feathers in caps and men in tights). And as in Shakespeare’s day, this production has an all-male cast.
Having a man play the beautiful and desirable Bianca highlights how femininity itself is, in part, a performance. But there are no too-high falsetto voices and overzealous preening here — the men in drag take their roles as women seriously.
The show’s tight ensemble is incredibly deft with big, bawdy physical comedy. The confident actors also delight in the language and rhythm of the text. Ryan Crowder is sharp, poised, and razor-tongued as Kate, yet also sympathetic. Petrucio is a cocky and clever schemer, played with great drive by Judd Farris. All the actors excel at creating detailed and lively characters.
When performed today, it’s impossible to take the play’s central premise about wifely obedience seriously. Instead, Petrucio appears to be such a callous lout that the play could be interpreted as a critique of his misogyny. You’ll have to judge for yourself. In any case, The Hidden Room Theatre’s vibrant, textured version of the show offers rich material for discussion.
‘The Taming of the Shrew’ continues through May 23, Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 5 p.m. For tickets email The Matriarch at hiddenroomtheatre@yahoo.com
Claire Canavan is an American-Statesman freelance arts critic.
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Fusebox 2010: Ballroom games with Oliver Herring
Oliver Herring’s “Three Day Weekend,” — a tri-part performance now being offered as part the Fusebox Festival — reminds one of those storied Dada or Fluxus art happenings: A spontaneous art act in which everyone — artist and non-artist — participated.
“Three Day Weekend” is a parlor game for the aesthetically curious — in its Austin form, actually a ballroom game as Herring is staging it in the ballroom of the 1919 mediterranean Old West Austin manse of arts patron Julie Thornton whose philanthropic venture Testperformancetest is funding Herring’s visit to Austin.
Using Prokoviev’s “Romeo and Juliet” — the most quintessential romantically dramatic ballet score if there ever was one — Herring is staging a ballet of his own, or sorts, with non-dancers, volunteers who answered an open call to participate in the three-day indulgence which the artist is filming for later exhibition.
Like his artistic predecessors, Herring is making his art act up as he goes along. It’s charming to watch — so reminiscent of the way many of us as children put on a backyard theatrical spectacle.
“Three Day Weekend” continues today from 5 to 7 p.m. Free admission. See www.fuseboxfestival.com for more information.
Oliver Herring, right, leads the fun in the ballroom. Photo courtesy testperformancetest.
