Vivid Bellarmine Production Delivers Comprehensive Biography of Frida Kahlo

November 12, 2012, 5:11 am

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Frida Kahlo: A Portrait

Written by Carlos-Manuel

Directed & Choreographed by Carlos Chavarria

Reviewed by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Keith Waits. All rights reserved

Frida Kahlo: A Portrait is a work of dedication on the part of its creator, Carlos Chavarria. In his director’s notes Mr. Chavarria details the motivation to make his own statement about the famous Mexican artist after watching a film and a play about her life and feeling less than satisfied. After a period of research that included visits to Mexico and Friday Kahlo’s home, now a museum, he spent years shaping his script and planning this production.

The devotion to the subject is evident in the comprehensive docu-drama structure and fulsome biographical detail, as we follow Frida from childhood through a lifetime making art and enduring a tumultuous marriage to famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. Extensive narration is delivered by a chorus of six actors who also rotate through supporting roles as key people in Kahlo’s life, in scenes that develop characterization and give us the opportunity to hear the titular character express her emerging philosophy and radical worldview (Kahlo was a proud Communist).

The piece works best in these scenes, wherein the actors are allowed time and space to connect to the audience. But the abundance of narration spent cataloging incidents in Kahlo’s life is so exhaustive as to be, at times, exhausting, and distracting from the emotionally impactful moments. Too often the text seems to belabor the numerous extra-marital affairs that complicate the marriage to Rivera and, later, the seemingly endless series of health problems and arduous surgeries that plagued her later years.

As a director, Mr. Chavarria works hard to in overcome these problems. The blocking is alternately formal, often ritualistic, establishing a reverent tone that is broken up by instances of expressive and energetic choreography; most notably in a macabre yet highly entertaining number that opens up the second act. The colorful and evocative sets and costumes (some of the items were handmade by Mexican Indians) as well as an effective musical score that was smartly employed provide rich aural and visual textures that lend authenticity to the production. The visual motifs are dominated by Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) iconography and include a character named La Pelona, who represents death.

It is in this character that the play makes its boldest statement, as the spectral, skeletal figure is an almost constant presence, as portrayed here, the most significant relationship in Kahlo’s life. Embodied as a fully realized and controlling physical presence by Amanda Goebel, and featuring startling and beautifully executed make-up and costume, it is a potent inclusion of magic realism. The notion of mortality leading Frida through all of the pain and suffering, both physical and emotional, that followed her throughout her life is powerfully depicted.

In the title role, Victoria Reibel is called upon to express that agony in no uncertain terms, perhaps more often than is necessary; but the young actress throws herself headlong into the role with unparalleled energy and commitment. Despite an overbearing make-up design that threatens to make the trademark prominent eyebrows too much the focus (perhaps an always controversial element in any dramatic portrayal of the artist), Ms. Reibel builds a solid and consistent characterization that breaks away from the common perception of Kahlo as more emotionally reserved and delivers a performance that, while at times over-emphatic, remains grounded enough to make its go-for-broke attack seem a triumph.

If the writing overreaches, it seems to be from zeal to be comprehensive in covering the life of its subject in fullest detail. Yet the conception is fresh and exciting and the execution polished enough to reveal a powerful and confident heart at the center. For fans of Kahlo, the show offers welcome immersion in her story. Anyone unfamiliar with her will encounter an engaging introduction couched in specific and vividly rendered cultural context.  

Frida Kahlo: A Portrait

November 9, 10, 15 & 16 @ 8 pm

November 11 @ 2 pm & 7 pm

November 17 @ 2 pm & 8 pm

Bellarmine University Theatre Program

Black Box Theatre, Wyatt Center for the Performing Arts

www.bellarmine.edu/cas/theatre

502-272-8188

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Delightful Production from One of the Area’s Longest-running Theater Companies

November 12, 2012, 5:14 am

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Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Book by Jeffrey Lane, Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek

Based on the film written by Dale Launer and Stanley Shapiro & Paul Henning

Directed by Mike Seely

Reviewed by Craig Nolan Highley

Entire contents copyright © 2012 by Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.

There used to be an old joke that went something like this (and I’m sure I’m paraphrasing): “I heard that’s a good book, I’ll just wait for the movie!” It seems that these days, you can rework that to: “Was that a good movie? Well I’ll just wait until they turn it into a musical!” That really seems to be the trend these days, from hit classic shows like Applause (from All About Eve), Sugar (Some Like it Hot), Little Shop of Horrors and Here’s Love (Miracle on 34th Street), to more recent fare like The Full Monty, Hairspray, Reefer Madness,The Producers and Legally Blonde.  Like it or not, it’s a trend that is here to stay, and like any trend, it has its winners and losers.

One of the better examples in recent years is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The libretto by Jeffrey Lane captures the hilarious spirit of the original film flawlessly, and composer David Yazbek’s songs are memorable and addictive. The current production at Clarksville Little Theater, under Mike Seely’s direction and with fun choreography by Rebecca Chaney, mostly succeeds at recapturing the fun and is a worthy introduction to anyone unfamiliar with the material.

The story involves successful swindler Lawrence Jameson (C. Kevin Swansey), living the high life by bilking money from wealthy females on the French Riviera. His successful operation is threatened by the arrival of another grift artist, Freddy Benson (Jeff Ketterman), and complicated when they both set their sites on newly arrived target Christine Colgate (choreographer Chaney). To tell any more about the plot would give away too much, as the plot twists and complications are what keep the tale fun.

Some really strong performances keep the show afloat despite some problematic moments. Ketterman carries the show as the likable rogue Freddy, and Chaney turns in one of her best performances ever as Christine, demonstrating some of the best range she’s ever given.  Jayme Thomas and Carrie Cooke shine as two of Lawrence’s other targets, and Josh O’Brien is absolutely a delight as crooked Chief of Police Andre Thibault.

On the downside, there were some awkward moments during the opening night performance I attended, mostly dealing with several moments when actors obviously went blank during musical numbers. It’s always a bit distracting when lines of dialogue are dropped, but completely destructive to a musical when songs come to a screeching halt. Sadly, this happened more than a couple of times. Hopefully, this will be rectified in the later performances.

Technical aspects of the show are first rate, from Dennis Basham’s clever set design to the work of an un-credited light and sound designer.

Overall, this was a fun show whose positives far outshone the negatives, and another delightful production from one of the area’s longest-running theater companies.

Featuring Larry Chaney, Rebecca Chaney, Carrie Chastain, Carrie Cooke, Mackenzi Cooley, Victoria Hay, Jeff Ketterman, Candace Kresse, Diana Merritt, Janet Morris, Josh O’Brien, Mary Stuart Peace, Tom Pettey, Karina Richardson, C. Kevin Swansey, and Jayme Thoma.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

November 9, 10, 15, 16 & 17 at 8:00 p.m.
November 11 at 2:00 p.m.

Tickets $8-$15 For Reservations Call: (812) 283-6522
On-Line at www.clarksvillelittletheatre.org

Clarksville Little Theatre

301 E. Montgomery Ave.
Clarksville, IN 47129

812-283-6522

http://clarksvillelittletheatre.org/

Savage Rose’s Pirandello One-Act Is a “Performance Like None Other” at SLANT Culture Theatre Festival

November 12, 2012, 5:17 am

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The Man with the Flower in His Mouth

Written by Luigi Pirandello

Directed by Alec Volz and J. Barrett Cooper

A review by Kate Barry

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Kate Barry. All rights reserved.

I am always curious about the plays with which Savage Rose Classic Theatre Company has decided to tinker. An absolute dream for any theater fanatic who favors the great works, this theater company makes it a point to take really wel-known plays by the likes of Wilde and Shakespeare and mix them in with Greek tragedies and obscure modern British dramas. The latest installment happens to be The Man with the Flower in His Mouth by Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello. This production is part of The Slant Culture Festival, a collection of pieces united by the shear thrill of experiencing live theater that might be…a little less than normal.

Performed in Walden Theater’s unique and intimate AltSpace, the production is certainly less than usual. As an audience, we aren’t exactly watching a performance but rather experiencing it. I felt more like I was eavesdropping on a conversation between two men in a café rather than an audience member at a play. Furthermore, the AltSpace’s intimacy really added an extra discomfort throughout the production’s prolonged silence. Pauses in dialogue in addition to the tight space between audience and performers created moments both awkward and curiously suspicious. 

Tad Chitwood, a man with a terminal illness, and Gerry Rose, a man who has missed his train, engage in a chance meeting in a late night café. Chitwood treads a line of detachment and lucid with hapless muttering and introspective rambling. As the play’s title character, Chitwood’s stricken man with epithelioma is haunted by his fatal disease as well as the love he no longer shares with his wife. Rose, on the other hand, is placed on stage as a hurried man who is more concerned with day-to-day matters. Where the audience is passively sitting at a distance, Rose is the interactive observer. He is just as curious about the man sitting next to him as is his audience. Chitwood and Rose share a dialogue that is both dark and lingering as they patiently await the events of their life to transpire.

It is safe to say that Savage Rose Classic Theatre’s production certainly fits the bill for the Slant Culture Festival. The festival strives to provide obscure and fascinating plays both old and new while giving an outlet for local theater artists. With an experimental theater space and a lesser-known piece by one of the founders of the Absurdist theater movement, The Man with the Flower in His Mouth is a performance like none other.

The Man with the Flower in His Mouth

November 9-11, 15, 17-18

Savage Rose Classical Theater Company

AltSpace at Walden Theatre

Part of The Slant Culture Theater Festival

Savagerose.org

Slantculture.com

Improvisational Comedy Takes the Long Form at the SLANT Festival

November 13, 2012, 5:50 am

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Buy the Book

The Louisville Improvisers at the SLANT Culture Theatre Festival

Reviewed by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2012, Keith Waits. All rights reserved.

Jenni Cochran, Chris Anger, Brian Hinda and Alec Volz. Photo by Lily Bartenstein.

In Buy the Book, The Louisville Improvisers trade in their usual menu of short form improv games for a daringly extended format that takes its inspiration from one source. A local author reads a brief passage from their latest book, providing the raw material for the four-member group to depart on a 45-minute journey into the absurd.

Opening night the author was broadcast anchor Barry Bernson reading aloud from his memoir, Bernson's Corner: A Reporter’s Notebook, a section that provided the image of a five-year-old aspiring newshound in 1952. For anyone familiar with The Louisville Improvisers, the action begins much as it would in their customary “day in the life” segments, with the facts quickly being forgotten in the wake of a more imaginative version of the seed story.

Chris Anger took the role of little Barry, The Boy Who Can Read – a child gifted with literacy in a world in which this is a rare skill. The fact that his journey to adulthood encompassed summer camp, a visit to the Great Wall of China, and involvement in a secret plot controlled by two mysterious German agents named Hans and Dieter is indicative of the inspired lunacy that sprang to life onstage. It was fascinating to see how the improvisation grew from seemingly random choices in which the players (besides Mr. Anger, Jenni Cochran, Brian Hinds and Alec Volz) are eagerly seeking laughs, to a fully-fledged narrative structure, albeit a sprawling and nonsensical one, that incorporated elements as disparate as the history of carbon paper and Jason Vorhees (from Friday the 13th).

Good improvisational comedy feeds off of the audience, and opening night was graced by a good-sized crowd that found the exercise a raucous pleasure, including a clearly delighted Mr. Bernson, who seemed to take no umbrage at the extremity of the literary license being taken with his life. The show format will be repeated during the SLANT Culture Theatre Festival with other authors, but Mr. Bernson will return for a second round on Friday, November 16, at 9:30 p.m.

Buy the Book

November 10, 11, 16, 17

The Louisville Improvisers

Nancy Niles Sexton Stage at Walden Theatre

Part of The SLANT Culture Theater Festival

Improvlouisville.com

Slantculture.com

Comedy with A Little Edge: Louisville Improvisers present “Ricketts and Randy”

November 13, 2012, 5:52 am

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Ricketts and Randy

The Louisville Improvisers at The SLANT Culture Theatre Festival

Reviewed by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2012, Keith Waits. All rights reserved.

Chris Anger and Keith McGill are Ricketts and Randy. Photo courtesy of Louisville Improvisers.

A late entry to the SLANT line-up, this is a show that exemplifies the quest for experimentation called for in the festival mission statement. Unusual in that it is a (mostly) scripted piece of material that includes some window for improvisation, it also dares to take a decidedly dark turn that moves it into deeper, more introspective territory.

The premise is simple: Randy is a ventriloquist working children’s parties with his dummy, named Ricketts. Party hats are distributed among the audience and the “act” begins as one might expect, with terrible, obvious routines and “knock-knock” jokes that become funny because they are delivered in the context of a performer so uncomfortable and anxious that one can see the flop sweat.

As the ventriloquist’s act begins to fall apart and the dummy’s dialogue turns sarcastic, it becomes apparent that Ricketts is very much an alter ego; the Hyde to Randy’s Jekyll. It is not necessarily a new idea; we’ve seen many variations on the notion of an inanimate object providing voice to the inner demons of the human psyche. But this performance stakes out a singular piece of ground: the need for identity to reconcile conflicts within itself and what happens when such conflicts defy resolution.

I know, I know, it IS a comedy show and it did bring the laughter. But it also brought considerable irony to the situation, introducing edgier themes in ways both serious and funny, but mostly funny. The result is theatre that is as provocative as it is entertaining, and runs the risk of alienating the audience as much as engaging it. I don’t easily imagine that Ricketts and Randy will fail to entertain in any of its scheduled run during the SLANT Festival; but it also stands a good chance of catching you by surprise, and that’s a good thing.

Keith McGill makes for a suitably neurotic and nervous Randy, while Chris Anger is remarkably restrained as Ricketts. I count restraint as an especially worthwhile value because a human playing a ventriloquist’s dummy is a casting rife with opportunity for overplaying. As the conflict between the two increases, Mr. Anger and Mr. McGill work closely together both physically and verbally to maintain the integrity of the premise so that the point is never lost.

Ricketts and Randy

November 9, 10, 15, 17

The Louisville Improvisers

AltSpace at Walden Theatre

Part of The Slant Culture Theater Festival

Improvlouisville.com

Slantculture.com

Three Chords and the Truth

November 13, 2012, 12:21 pm

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A Few Honest Words: The Kentucky Roots of Popular Music

by Jason Howard

foreword by Rodney Crowell

Lexington, Kentucky:  University Press of Kentucky

258 pp.; $24.95

Review by Katherine Dalton.

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Katherine Dalton. All rights reserved.

“Three chords and the truth” is how Country Music Hall of Fame songwriter (and Kentuckian) Harlan Howard defined country music. But in this book, author Jason Howard makes the case that his words apply to all of what Howard regards as “roots” music.

His definition is wide-ranging, and his subject is not roots music as most would define it. Instead, the musical genres Howard covers are many – and the title of this book is misleading to the extent it implies he is writing about the Kentucky links of popular music in general. What it is about is current popular music, with Kentucky roots.

A Few Honest Words contains is a series of interviews with songwriters and singers who have strong ties to Kentucky, even though many of them (though not all) have left it far behind. Those interviewed include country music giants such as Naomi Judd and Dwight Yoakam, rock singer Jim James of the band My Morning Jacket, and well-regarded bluegrass artists such as Dale Ann Bradley and Matraca Berg. It also includes soul/fusion artist Joan Osborne, the rap group Nappy Roots, a jazz musician and a classically trained cellist, among others.

The glue that holds this wide-ranging book together is Kentucky, and Howard has asked each artist what Kentucky means to him or her artistically and personally and how the state's landscape and people have influenced the music. 

Dwight Yoakam only ever lived in Floyd County, Kentucky, on the weekends. He grew up in Ohio, one of the many Eastern Kentucky families who moved north for work, and his family drove hours back home every Friday night in order to keep in touch with grandparents and to be at home. But despite all his years in Ohio and then Los Angeles, you would never mistake him for a Buckeye or a Californian.

He told Howard that “my music, I hope, is an expression of the love I felt and the familial culture that I knew. I think had I not moved so far away, things wouldn't have crystallized so acutely for me as a writer perhaps. I was certainly able from this vantage point to write in a more specific way because I only had my thoughts to recall everything by.”

Yoakam is not the first to find that his home culture became clearer to him on the leaving of it, and he is not the first to talk about that clarity with some emotion. To move on in the world, even to move up in the world, is to lose what you leave behind. Dwight Yoakam has had great success, but he knows that to move away is to keep your home place only in your head.

This is a interesting book for anyone interested in keeping up with popular music made by Kentuckians. Some interviews are richer than others, and some well-known artists are missing (notably indie-folk singer Will Oldham, who was probably asked and said no). But some of the artists profiled here were new to me yet well worth knowing, and this is certainly a book for those who want to hear just how Kentucky has been translated from living experience into current music.

Walden Theatre’s “Salvation Road” Is “Moving and Well-crafted” Entry in the SLANT Festival

November 13, 2012, 12:33 pm

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Salvation Road

Written by D. W. Gregory

Directed by Alec Volz

Reviewed by Cristina Martin

Entire contents copyright © 2012 Cristina Martin. All rights reserved.

Ciaran Brown, Ethan Brown, Ethan Corder, Nan Elpers, Courtney Doyle in Salvation Road. Photo courtesy of Walden Theatre.

Quick – a biology quiz: What is a slant culture?

Think of a test tube with a certain amount of liquid in it. There’s a limited amount of surface area (where the liquid comes in contact with the air above it) where organisms might grow if they were so inclined, right? But speaking of inclines, if you tilt the test tube, this surface area gets bigger…and the potential for the development of even more plentiful, vibrant organic matter is increased.

Clever name for a new theatre festival, isn’t it? From the looks of the program and the excitement of opening night, Louisville’s Slant Culture Theatre Festival promises a fresh mix of staged performances, improv, interactive workshops, discussions, staged readings and more, all destined to spawn and cultivate new ideas. “A laboratory for uncommon theatre,” the festival features experiments sure to produce memorable outcomes.

D.W. Gregory’s Salvation Road is a play in one act, presented on Walden Theater’s main stage under the direction of Alec Volz. In keeping with the original directive behind the Slant Culture Series of plays to encourage young actors to “seek inspiration from a new angle – inward,” Gregory draws very bravely from sensitive autobiographical material to create a poignant, thoughtful piece. A vibrant, idealistic young woman named Denise (Courtney Doyle) – modeled after the playwright’s own sister – becomes heavily involved with a fundamentalist religious group on her college campus. Her family is unsure of her whereabouts, as she has cut all ties with her former life in favor of devotion to the group’s agenda. The play, narrated by her brother Cliff (Ethan Corder), focuses on the impact this has left on Denise’s family as it follows the efforts of Cliff, his friend Duffy (Chris Lockhart), and his younger sister Jill (Tess Varga) to find Denise and talk to her.

Salvation Road follows a neat narrative arc that is never too predictable, and profound themes are balanced by lighthearted moments and funny dialogue. The actors are very well cast and do a remarkably believable job. As Cliff and Duffy take to the road, Jill remains at home, at least initially. Chris Lockhart’s laid-back Duffy makes a great road-tripping partner to the more intense Cliff and keeps the action grounded. (Sure, they’re on a mission to find a person in possibly dire straits; but who doesn’t have time to flirt with the girl behind the counter at McDonald’s and get a shake?) 

It’s remarkable that despite flashbacks and the use of stage space to suggest multiple settings (sometimes at the same time, as when two characters, both on stage, are speaking to one another on cell phones), the production is temporally and spatially as clear as a bell. With judicious placement of just a few stools and another piece of wood or two, we’re convinced we’re looking at a band performing in a bar, or two guys driving in a car, or a fast food counter in a strip mall. Amazing, really. The play is staged in the round, which works well for the most part. Once or twice I felt myself wishing I could see the action from a better angle, but these instances were rare.

“How can you be so sure?” is the question the rational, skeptical Cliff longs to ask Denise if and when he finds her. The playwright treats the often difficult subject of religion deftly; in fact, what has caused Denise to join the Fellowship, as it’s called, is much more the subject in question than are religious tenets themselves. How can any of us really be so sure of anything that we’re willing to throw ourselves wholeheartedly behind it, leaving behind that which was previously important to us? What’s the pay-off? We, too, are invited to look inward and to explore fundamental questions of human nature, individuality, and belonging.

Cliff and Duffy search out shrewd Sister Jean (Chandler Dalton), a Catholic nun on campus known for her experience dealing with young people swept away like Denise has been. Sister Jean argues that the Fellowship’s recruitment methods are very calculated. Using a “bait and switch” tactic, they seem to offer friendship to students new to college, out of their comfort zone and seeking to belong somewhere…and end up demanding that these young people renounce all that makes them them. They don’t allow them to see their families and even insist that members take on new names. What’s the difference between that and Sister Jean’s religious order? She joined with the full knowledge of what was involved, she says. And her feistiness makes clear that she has definitely retained a capacity for independent thought. Chandler Dalton brings out the somewhat enigmatic aspect of Sister Jean very effectively. The nun is stern and no-nonsense, but her cocked head and long stare suggest that the wheels are always turning, taking the measure of people and situations. When she sends Cliff to talk to former Fellowship member Simi (Helen Lister), it’s ostensibly to help him find his sister, though Sister Jean arranges the meeting in view of a very calculated effect on both Cliff and Simi. Ethan Corder seemed to really allow Cliff’s feelings about Denise to come through in this conversation with Simi in a more immediate way than they do when he narrates. It felt as though the audience got to know him better when he wasn’t talking directly to them.  

Ciaran Brown plays student Fellowship leader Elijah with a chilling otherworldly creepiness. Brown manages to radiate a kind of hypnotic self-assurance that makes Elijah’s particular brand of charisma plausible. He seems mild-mannered enough, until we witness the sort of absolute power he wields over his group. In one wrenchingly powerful scene, Fellowship members surround Denise under Elijah’s direction and confront her about her “sin of attachment” to her music. Recognizing her passion, they enfolded her at the start by asking her to play music for their services; now they say her music engenders pride and therefore stands between her and Salvation. Publicly humiliated, she gives up her beloved guitar – and receives smiles and hugs all around. Whatever your religious beliefs, you can’t remain unmoved at a scene like this.

Cliff marshals his rational arguments:  The Fellowship’s founder used to be a vacuum cleaner salesman! He sits in a big, fancy house while his followers peddle carnations to help the hungry! Surely such hypocrisy would disgust Denise. But it’s not to Denise’s reason that the group appealed, and, intelligent as she is, it’s not via rational argument that Cliff is going to get her to leave them. Ultimately, he can just speak to the truth he knows: that Denise’s absence leaves a gaping hole in the family and in him. That he’s sorry for the times he didn’t pay as much attention to her as he might have, that he loves her, and that he wants her back. How the conversation will go is for us to surmise.

Salvation Road is a moving and well-crafted play, impressively staged and acted as part of Louisville’s first Slant Culture Theatre Festival (of many, let’s hope!). The play stirs emotions and engenders thought that will occupy audiences long after the stage is bare. Fine experimental theatre indeed!

Salvation Road

November 8-18, 2012

Walden Theatre, as part of the

SLANT Culture Theatre Festival

1123 Payne Street

Louisville, KY 40204

(502) 589-0084

www.slantculture.com

www.waldentheatre.org

Mester’s Master Plan on Full Display in November Concert

November 18, 2012, 3:52 pm

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Jon Gustely, horn. Photo courtesy of Louisville Orchestra.

Michael Colvin, tenor. Photo courtesy Intermusica.

 Louisville Orchestra: Glass, Britten, Bizet

Jorge Mester, conductor
Featuring Michael Colvin, tenor
and Jon Gustely, horn

Reviewed by Scott Dowd

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Scott Dowd. All rights reserved.

When Jorge Mester returned six years ago as music director of the Louisville Orchestra, he came armed with an artistic master plan. The plan included a conscious effort to rely less on big-name, expensive soloists and feature members of the ensemble more prominently than before. The maestro’s plan was evident in his selections for this week’s classics concerts, which included the Symphony No. 3 of Philip Glass; Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Op. 31; and George Bizet’s Symphony No. 1 in C Major. Thursday morning, I joined several hundred others at the Brown Theatre for the Treyton Oaks Tower Coffee Classic performance.

The concert opened with Glass’s Symphony No. 3. It is a unique work in the symphonic repertoire in that the piece is scored for only strings, and not even the full string section at that. This is a challenge in the Brown, which needs the power of numbers to overcome acoustical idiosyncrasies. This left the performance lacking some of the brightness and clarity usually expected from Glass. Minimalist music is deceptively intricate and each instrument is, as Dr. Mosley mentions in his program notes, essentially a soloist. As in cooking, when you do something simple it has to be done perfectly, and there were some issues with balance and timing that marred the first movement. By the second movement, the ensemble found its center of gravity that allowed concertmaster Michael Davis’s solo to soar.

With the performance of Benjamin Britten’s Serenade, the maestro again achieves his previously stated goal of bringing individual musicians to the fore. The extraordinarily accomplished principal horn Jon Gustely was joined by Irish-Canadian tenor Michael Colvin in this performance. Thursday’s performance realized another of the Mester’s goals in that the 70-year-old work had not yet been performed by the Louisville Orchestra. Britten wrote the piece in 1943, and it was performed by Denis Brain and the composer’s life-long companion Peter Pears originally. Both the Prologue and Epilogue are set for solo horn and strings and demand technical perfection – a fact that has long made this work a favorite for those wishing to demonstrate their virtuosity. Gustely’s confidence was evident as he deftly delivered his stunning and flawless interpretation of the music. Not to be outdone, Colvin captured the audience from the first note of the Pastoral, in which Britten set to music the beautiful words and ideas of Alfred Lord Tennyson. Despite its seven decades, Britten’s canny juxtaposition of tenor and horn and the color lent by his notation that the horn rely on its natural overtones gives this piece a sense of modernity.

The program concluded with the full orchestra in a performance of Bizet’s long-forgotten Symphony in C Major. Bizet, the child prodigy, had already been eight years at the Paris Conservatory when he wrote the symphony in 1855. He was seventeen, and for reasons lost to us seems never to have mentioned the work or attempted to publish it. The piece was rediscovered in the conservatory’s archives nearly eighty years after it was written. It is easily understood why for many years this work was favored by students at the conservatory as a work to prepare conducting students. The bones of this symphony are solid and mature, its orchestration textbook perfection. It is in the adagio of the second movement that Bizet’s genius for melody can be heard, as the oboes sing a phantasmal song. We can only hope that interim principal Jennifer Potochnic and interim Alex Winter can be retained as permanent members of the Louisville Orchestra. That we have fewer musicians under contract is a simple fact of life and resources. That being the case let’s be sure they are each of the caliber Maestro Mester requires to produce the kind of program I experienced on Thursday.

Louisville Orchestra: Glass, Britten, Bizet

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Friday November 16, 2012

Louisville Orchestra at

The Brown Theatre

315 W. Broadway

Louisville, KY 40202

https://www.louisvilleorchestra.org/

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As Yet Unnamed Theatre Company “Outdoes Itself” with “The Light in the Piazza”

November 20, 2012, 6:34 am

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The Light in the Piazza

Book by Craig Lucas

Music and Lyrics by Adam Guettel

Based on the Novel by Elizabeth Spencer

Directed by Sandy Richens Cohrs

Reviewed by Craig Nolan Highley

Entire contents copyright © 2012 by Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.

Jennifer Poliskie as Clara Johnson and Jason Button as Fabrizio Nacarelli  in The Light in the Piazza. Photo courtesy of As Yet Unnamed Theatre Company.

The Light in the Piazza. With a title like that, you just know you’re in for something shamelessly romantic. And you’d be right.

Created in 2003 and running on Broadway in 2005, this adaptation of Elizabeth Spencer’s short novel is an unusual piece of modern musical theater. There are no big dance numbers, no show-stopping 10:00 p.m. numbers, and really no truly memorable songs. Even though it is a traditional, break-into-song musical, the songs here feel more like the underscoring of a film: lovely and melodious, but never really seeming to take on a life of their own. And surprisingly, it works!

Craig Lucas’s libretto is the real driving force of the show, owing a lot to its fidelity to the source material (and more than a little influenced by the novel’s 1962 Olivia de Havilland-starring film version). It tells a sweet, only slightly tragedy-tinged story of young love and a mother’s devotion, and it had me riveted almost from the start.

It centers on three characters: Margaret Johnson (Sharon Kinnison), a devoted mother whose seeming overprotectiveness proves to be well founded; Clara Johnson (Jennifer Poliskie), her bursting-with-innocence daughter; and Fabrizio Naccarelli (Jason Buttons), a handsome shopkeeper smitten with Clara’s beauty. The three are brought together when Margaret and Clara are vacationing in Rome, and the story doesn’t play out exactly as you’d expect.

The entire cast is excellent, without a single bad performance; but it is this central trio that really drives the show and I can’t imagine better casting. Kinnison humanizes Margaret in such a way that even when you don’t yet understand her motivations, you can’t really root against her. This is a loving mother protecting her daughter, and her performance is never for a moment anything less than genuine. Likewise, Poliskie radiates naiveté and innocence, to the point your heart aches for her and you are genuinely elated when she finally finds the strength to assert herself. And Buttons is just so convincing as the lovelorn Fabrizio, it’s hard to believe the actor isn’t really Italian; his accent is flawless, and he speaks and sings in Italian for the majority of the show.

The supporting characters are also well played by some very fine actors, including Bryce Blair and Sarah Mueler as Fabrizio’s bickering brother and sister-in-law, Michael McCollum as Margaret’s distant husband (and Clara’s absent father), and Richard Ray as the patriarch of Fabrizio’s family. Andrew Pickerill has some nice moments as well in multiple roles. A very good cast, and they are all well served by Sandy Richens Cohrs’s expert direction.

The MeX Theater is challenging to set-designers, and generally the simpler the better. Gary Tipton has made very nice use of the stage, with minimal scenery that still manages to evoke the period and the setting. He also has created some lovely original paintings that are being auctioned off (see the program for more info on that).

The As Yet Unnamed Theater Company has really outdone themselves with their latest offering. Thanks to stellar performances, expert direction, and a literate script, The Light in the Piazzais an incredibly beautiful experience from start to finish.

The Light in the Piazza

Featuring Bryce Blair, Jason Buttons, Jamie Cohrs, Sandy Cohrs, Amanda Davenport, Sharon Kinnison, Michael McCollum, Sarah Mueler, Andrew Pickerill, Jennifer Poliskie, Richard Ray, and Jeanne-Marie Rogers.

November 16, 17, 23 & 24 at 8 p.m.
November 18 & 25 at 2 p.m.

The As Yet Unnamed Theatre Company

The MeX Theatre, The Kentucky Center

501 West Main Street

Louisville, KY 40202

502-584-7777

This Year’s "Christmas Pageant" at StageOne Is Delightful Take on the Traditional Story

November 20, 2012, 8:41 pm

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The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Photo courtesy StageOne Family Theatre.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

By Barbara Robinson

Directed by Lucas W. Adams

Reviewed by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2012, Keith Waits.  All rights reserved.

So many holiday shows tend towards heavy-handedness, with the requisite message of peace on earth and goodwill. And while this production of the venerable stage adaptation of Barbara Robinson’s 1971 book doesn’t abandon that trend exactly, it is notable for the more subtle moments it discovers.

The plot is a simple, tidy story about a woman who inherits the direction of the annual church Christmas pageant after the woman who has produced it for several years breaks her leg. The unexpected challenge turns into a pending catastrophe when the six delinquent Herdman children volunteer for the production. Although their initial motivation is the free snacks, they quickly force their way into most of the primary roles and threaten to derail the whole enterprise.

What is really taking place, however, is that the rough-and-tumble kids from the wrong side of the tracks shatter the complacency of the mundane pageant experience, forcing the church members into a new appreciation of the Christmas story and perhaps their overall faith as well. What is really nice is that this observation is so effectively enacted by the cast without calling too much attention to itself – a refreshing lack of preachiness in a holiday show directed at children and families.

As Grace Bradley and her husband Bob, Leah Roberts and Doug Scott Sorensen play off each other with expert comedic timing, and the other handful of adult cast members provide well-balanced support. But the heart of the story is with Imogene Herdman, and she was vividly played the night I saw it by Elise Martino. (All children’s roles are double-cast.) The most emotionally impactful moments belong to this young actress, and she carries them off beautifully. The other Herdmans, as well as the more well-behaved children, are also effectively realized by the disciplined young cast.

Director Lucas W. Adams keeps the production firmly grounded in the traditional story but provides enough fresh nuance and detail to call this Pageant his own. Clocking in at a swiftly paced 60 minutes, the laughs and pathos are well-judged and result in a satisfying holiday treat that will delight the kids and give the adults in the audience enough laughs to hold their interest.

           

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

November 24 & December 8 & 15 @ 2 p.m. & 5 p.m.

December 20, 10 a.m. & 12 p.m.

StageOne Family Theatre

The Kentucky Center, Bomhard Theater

501 West Main St.

Louisville, KY

502-584-7777

www.stageone.org

“Solid Acting” Makes for An “Interesting” Production of “True West”

November 21, 2012, 7:28 am

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True West

By Sam Shepherd

Directed by Adam Rapp

Reviewed by Emily Pike

Entire contents copyright ©2012 Emily PIke. All rights reserved.

William Apps and Nate Miller in True West. Photo by Alan Simons.

The program cover depicts what appear to be two adolescent wolves in some state of aggression (or play?). And the set – a mid-1980s-style kitchen boxed in on all sides by eight-foot-tall plexiglas panels – instantly transforms the stage into a large enclosure. You are visiting an exhibit at the zoo decorated in its species’ natural habitat; or looking at a very large, well-appointed rodent cage. From the moment you take your seat for Actors Theatre of Louisville’s new production of True West, you get a clear sense that what you are about to see is wild creatures on display.

Estranged adult brothers Lee and Austin have run into each other at their mother’s home while she is on vacation. Austin, a Hollywood screenwriter with an Ivy-league education and young family of his own, was invited to housesit and has been spending his time quietly working on a new screenplay. Lee has shown up unannounced, covered in a thick layer of dust and with plenty of beer in tow, after several months living alone in the desert. He is looking to rob some of the homes in his mother’s suburban Los Angeles neighborhood and to get out before anyone traces the thefts back to her. The play explores the brothers’ relationship through a series of events and several interactions with other characters, all within the confines of their mother’s kitchen, the metaphorical heart of the home where they grew up. It is within these walls that family dynamics shaped the personalities and life choices of these two men – two boys raised by an alcoholic father and a mother unable to cope with reality, whose marriage ultimately came to an end, though not before sufficient damage had been inflicted.

The acting in this production is solid all around. Actors Nate Miller (Austin) and William Apps (Lee) are entirely believable as brothers, and they let their ingrained sibling dynamics show through at all the right times. Miller’s immediate retreat at the first sign of Apps’ aggression is memorable, and the progressively growing boldness in his responses to his brother makes the arc of their relationship throughout the play all the more evident from beginning to end.

Connor Barrett is appropriately full of crap as Saul Kimmer, the Hollywood hotshot looking to produce Austin’s latest screenplay, but there were times when the banter between him and Lee felt uncomfortable and forced. This is not at all in keeping with the events of the plot, where Saul is so instantly won over by Lee that they agree to play golf and do business together within minutes of meeting for the first time. Perhaps Rapp was trying to more deeply explore the insinuation on Austin’s part that Lee had somehow threatened Saul into the business deal. But as this is not supported by Saul’s own demeanor or words in a later scene, it doesn’t work.

Finally, a very delicately neurotic performance by Emily McDonnell does a wonderful job of tying the play together at the end and highlighting the dysfunctional elements of the brothers’ childhood. Unfortunately, I personally couldn’t get past wondering about her age. Was it just me, or did McDonnell look like she was about the same age as Miller and Apps? Perhaps I am mistaken, and she just has very good skin; it was hard to be certain with distance and a sheet of plexiglass between us. But it was a little disappointing to be distracted from her very good performance by the physical reality that she just didn’t look like their mom.

Design elements come together neatly to serve Rapp’s choice of presenting this play as a study of human behavior. Lighting and sound are utilitarian and unobtrusive, serving as natural backdrops that help place the action in time. The set, already discussed, creates a physical barrier between the observer and the observed. It makes the “fourth wall” style of performance quite literal, which creates an especially interesting dichotomy for a performance space in the round. The kitchen space is small and bright but sparsely decorated, hinting somewhat at the emotional hollowness of the family that once inhabited it and, perhaps, of the woman who still does. Costume details help paint characters, from Lee’s ragged and too-tight denim cutoffs and Austin’s bland button-downs to Sal’s big-shot-casual garb and their mother’s fashionably sensible outfit. They also help to illustrate Austin’s journey, in particular, as he devolves from said button-downs into stained undershirt and skid-marked tighty-whiteys by the final scene. It is clear that no one, not even the successful son, is able to escape the pervasive influence of this family’s dysfunctional past.

All in all, an interesting production of a very good play. Perhaps four out of five stars. However, it never quite found that je ne sais quoithat could’ve really knocked my socks off. It made me think, it made me laugh (a lot). But more than anything, it made me wish fervently that I had been able to see the Broadway production with Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly. That said – solid acting, cohesive design, clear direction, excellent writing. Despite not hitting it out of the park, still highly recommended.

True West

November 15-December 9, 2012

Actors Theatre of Louisville

Bingham Theatre

316 West Main Street

Louisville, KY 40202

(502) 584-1205

www.actorstheatre.org

Irving Berlin and Good Song and Dance Make “White Christmas” a Winner

November 21, 2012, 8:17 am

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Irving Berlin’s White Christmas

Music & Lyrics Irving Berlin

Book by David Ives and Paul Blake

Directed by Lee Buckholtz

A review by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Keith Waits. All rights reserved. 

Brian Bowman, Sarah Ann Koster, Matthew Brennan & Julie Evins  in White Christmas. Photo courtesy of Derby Dinner Playhouse.

For me, White Christmas has always prompted comparisons. Many have seen it as a loose remake of an earlier film, Holiday Inn, which also featured Bing Crosby and the first appearance of his most famous song in a movie. His co-star then was Fred Astaire, which is about the only element that White Christmas failed to improve upon. Danny Kaye was an ingenious comic actor and accomplished dancer, but in the latter department, he was no Fred Astaire. Still, the later film, filmed many years later in a lavish Technicolor production, is by far the more developed, polished and appropriately seasonal offering.

Bringing the story to the stage seems an obvious and winning notion, although trying to fill Bing’s shoes is a tall order for any actor; and stepping up to warble the title tune is likely a daunting task, no matter how good his vocal training.

I grew up watching White Christmas as a child, and it was missing for many years from the catalog of holiday television broadcasts. Now that it has taken its rightful place among the multitude of holiday offerings, a stage version is welcome, if for no other reason than to have a reason to perform songs by one of the greatest of the great American songwriters, Irving Berlin. Not all of the original group of songs is retained:  “Mandy” and “Choreography” are missing, perhaps because they were the most lavish and complex dance numbers. But the replacements are still top drawer Berlin standards, like “Let Me Sing and I’m Happy.”

The revamped story sacrifices many details, which lent the narrative urgency and strengthened the bonds between the characters: Davis no longer saves Wallace during combat in World War II; and the two no longer rescue the Haynes sisters from the sheriff by hopping a late-night train out of town. It leaves us with relationships that seem to exist only because we expect them to. White Christmas may seem like holiday fluff to some, but these changes underscore how well crafted the original screenplay actually was.

Whatever quibbles I have about the script, the performance is up to the usual Derby Dinner standard. As Wallace and Davis, Bob Bowman and Matthew Brennan make for a winning team, even if the latter proves a sharper and more agile presence. Sarah Ann Koster and Julie Evins are also an effective team as the Haynes sisters. All four leads sing beautifully. But Mr. Brennan and Ms. Evins also are strong dancers, leading the company in several well-choreographed production numbers such as the lavish ”Blue Skies” that closes the first act, and the romantic and pas de deux, “The Best Things Happen While You’re Dancing.” Other notable turns come from David Myers as General Waverly and Carol Williams as his housekeeper Martha Watson, a character enlarged somewhat from the film and given a couple of scene-stealing musical numbers. Carolyn Dodd was an irrepressible presence as the General’s granddaughter, Susan; and Derby Dinner mainstay Cary Wiger provided solid support in several roles.

Even though I miss the story elements removed in this adaptation, this production is a highly entertaining show and features some of the best song-and-dance work I’ve ever seen on the DDP stage. Pulling off such polished and complex choreography is often a challenge for local companies. But choreographer Heather Paige Folsom has outdone herself here, helping to make this a glittering holiday entertainment that works for the whole family.

Irving Berlin’s White Christmas

November 20 – December 31, 2012

Derby Dinner Playhouse

525 Marriott Drive

Clarksville, IN 47129

www.derbydinner.com

Interview with Seth Rudetsky

November 27, 2012, 7:33 am

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Interview by Scott Dowd

Entire contents copyright ©2012 Fearless Designs, Inc.  All rights reserved.

Describing Seth’s Big Fat Broadway Showis like trying to nail gelatin to a tree! His latest venture, Sethtv.com, is a video diary that allows Rudetsky to explore his many interests and share both the process and the result with his audiences. The network features short films from a variety of characters, including a brilliant feature written by Varla Jean (who will be performing live at The Kentucky Center’s Bomhard Theater on February 2, 2013, as part of the next LEO A Little Off Center presentation). I first heard Seth Rudetsky on Sirius/XM satellite radio, where he is an afternoon host for On Broadway (channel 72). I was impressed with the depth of his immersion in the genre and the passion he projects. I had actually seen him before then playing himself on comedian Kathy Griffin’s reality show Life on the D-List. Rudetsky has also appeared on Law and Order and All My Children and served as the music director/coach for another reality show, Legally Blonde: The Search for Elle Wood.

SD:  I read the “long bio” you posted on Sethtv.com. It looks like you have done just about everything there is to do.

SR:  Yeah. I sort of describe myself as an entertainer – I’ve gone into many different fields in entertainment. I started doing musical theatre when I was little. I did chorus, band, orchestra – all that kind of stuff – and then I began being a professional when I was a teenager.

SD:  You make that sound like such a natural progression: “I was a kid and then I became a professional entertainer.”

SR:  It was just like that. I don’t know what I was thinking when I went to Oberlin Conservatory. I mean, I knew I was going to go into Broadway, but there was just no program when I was in college that exactly fit me. There were few musical theatre programs – certainly not music directing. I had stopped acting right around that time, and I was auditioning as a classical pianist as a way to get into college.

SD:  Did you ever think you might become a concert pianist?

SR:  I had no intention of ever being a classical pianist. I was just so excited to get in and I loved the school, so I went. I was happy that I could keep up. I passed all my juries, but it wasn’t like that was going to be my field. I still don’t completely understand my reasoning, but I’m glad that I went that route.

SD:  Conservatories are so competitive. Your attitude must have set you apart.

SR:  Well, I was always an outcast, but a well-tolerated outcast. For the concerto competition, everybody was doing Prokofiev and I did “Rhapsody in Blue.”

SD:  How did that go over?

SR:  WhenI made it to finals, everyone was saying, “Oh, Seth is always breaking boundaries…adding his own spin on things.” I was definitely not the serious classical musician. I was just always considered the edgy, comedic, classical pianist.

SD:  You said you had stopped acting at that point, but you came back and did, among other things, Sheldon in Joe Mantello’s The Ritz at the Roundabout Theatre, and had a recurring role on All My Children as well as your own one-man show, Rhapsodyin Seth,at Actors Playhouse.

SR: I was really serious about it when I was younger and then had a horrible experience with my high school theatre teacher, who was just horrific and really pushed me away from acting. I went back to it eventually, but the good news is that I pursued music so much on Broadway that when I went back to acting, I was kind of well-known. So it was easier for me to get auditions because people knew me on the Broadway scene. I think if I had started as just an actor, it would have been harder for me to break in, whereas I had broken in as a musician so I already knew people.

SD:  So the piano was the key.

SR:  Yes – I started as a pianist and began adding on everything else – acting, writing, comedy. I kept expanding the circle.

SD:  Certainly writing for The Rosie O’Donnell Show is full bore comedy writing.

SR:  That was a good gig. I lasted two years and it led me to write for the Tony Awards, which was probably the highlight of the whole thing. I was still doing Broadway at the same time – I guess I was playing the piano for Ragtime and Phantom of the Opera in those days. But it wasn’t really what I wanted to do and, eventually, I just had to get the hell out of there.

SD: At what point did Seth’s Big Fat Broadway Show begin to come together?

SR:  I had been doing a lot of stand-up comedy. I used to play funny video clips for my friends showing vocal mistakes and people cracking – that kind of stuff. So I slipped one into my stand-up acts at the big Barbra Streisand “Gypsy of the Year” benefit – which, by the way, I have now hosted for the past five years. Back then I was just one of the acts. When Rosie saw me do that, she encouraged me to make an entire show based on the idea. Then she said, “And I’ll produce it.” So I put together this entire show and, P.S., she never produced it. Anyway, whatever…the good news is I put together this entire show that is really called Deconstructing Broadway, but that sounds too educational on the marquee. So I retitle it wherever I go. I’ve been doing it now for at least five years.

SD:  I noticed you had other shows along this line. Are they distinct productions?

SR: I have three shows that I rotate:  My off-Broadway play Rhapsody in Seth– an actual autobiographical play about me and my childhood; Deconstructing Broadway (the show that is coming to Louisville as Seth’s Big Fat Broadway Show); and then there is a branch of that one called Seth’s Big Fat ’70s Show.

SD:  How did that one come about?

SR: There’s one segment in the original where I deconstruct The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. I’ve made a whole show that also includes Donny and Marie and stuff like that.

SD:  What can people expect when they come to Seth’s Big Fat Broadway Show?

SR:  Think of it as “America’s Funniest Home Videos/World’s Greatest Broadway Bloopers/The Daily Show.” It’s very hard to describe, but that’s what it is. I am a comedian presenting funny video and audio clips accompanied by my own commentary. It is a hard show to explain, but it is a comedy show.

SD:  Maybe audience response would be a simpler metric. How do people respond to the show?

SR:  It always does phenomenally well. This show never bombs. With other shows you have to be careful who your audience is. This one I’ve taken to Amish country; to Waco, Texas; I’ve gone on the high seas. There is very little stress for me to do this show because it appeals to everyone.

SD: How much video do you have to watch to cull enough for the show?

SR:  The show is three-quarters audio and one quarter video. When people say, “You’re so knowledgeable about Broadway,” I say, “That’s what I do in my life!” It’s not like I’m researching – I listen to music all the time and I watch videos all the time. I say in the show, “When you watch a video 23 times per day, you notice these things. I’ve done the work for you and brought my deconstruction.” They say, “Write what you know.” This is my life and I’ve put it in a show.

SD:  You’ve also written a book about Broadway.

SR:  I wrote a non-fiction book of inside scoops and gossip stories, which CDs to own – it’s called TheQ Guide to Broadway. I also wrote a fiction book, Broadway Nights, about a character who is not successful on Broadway and can’t figure out why. I actually did an audio book of that one with Kristin Chenoweth, Jonathan Groff and Andrea Martin.

SD:  Your latest book actually has nothing to do with Broadway.

SR:  That’s the young adult book I wrote for Random House, My Awesome/Awful Popularity Plan, which is loosely based on me. It’s about a fat, Jewish 15-year-old with a “Jew-fro” who is not popular in high school. There is a sequel to that one coming out next year.

SD:  The way you talk about your transitions is so fluid and effortless. You seem to choose a new goal and just head in that direction.

SR:  That is the way I work. I’m not interested in asking permission. You’re right. I was in a bookstore and I saw The Nanny Diaries and I thought, “I’ll just write a book.” I remember going home that night and writing it. I showed it to my boyfriend and asked, “Is this fun?” and that was about it. I mean it wasn’t easy to get published, but I just wrote it. Why not?

SD:  You also write for Playbill and Playbill.com. How did that come about?

SR:  That started when the Grease reality show was on TV. I did Grease on Broadway and they were doing a reality show to pick the new Danny and Sandy. I had two books out at that point, and Playbill asked if I would do a weekly recap of the show for the online magazine. I guess it was pretty popular, because when that show went off the air, they asked if I wanted to write a weekly column about my life on Broadway. About a year later they asked if I could write a monthly column for the playbills in the theatres. It’s a fun little side gig.

SD:  I’ve got to tell you how much I love Sethtv.com. “Varla Jean and the Mushroom Heads” is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.

SR:  He wrote the whole thing in about a week. He’s a crazy genius and I’m so happy with the way it came out.

SD: How long has Sethtv.com been up?

SR: We started it in June. After two weeks we were on the Entertainment Weekly“Must List.” We have just finished the first “season” of my reality show, and the big thing we’re adding now is the Patti LuPone concert we filmed in Provincetown. We’ve combined all four of them into one mega concert that we are editing now. It’s really an exciting time as the network is just beginning. It feels very cutting edge because people are just learning how to plug their computers into their TVs. It’s a whole new field, and I feel like we are on the edge of what Broadway entertainment is going to be in the future.

SD:  Let’s talk about that. You are so intimately involved with Broadway. What changes do you see coming?

SR:  The big change has been – and it’s truly up to people to stop it – the destruction of the orchestra. It’s mindboggling to me that critics haven’t been more vocal about it and that audiences are so stupid. People are paying $350 for VIP seats and yet Mama Mia! has nine people in the band. It’s in the same theatre where Funny Girl and West Side Story were with thirty-piece orchestras. You are paying more money than you ever have before for nine people. This is supposed to be the top entertainment in the world, but the band on Broadway is smaller than the bands in regional theatres. It’s so horrific sounding, but people don’t realize it. David Merrick said, “An audience doesn’t realize what it didn’t get, but they do know when they get it.” That is the biggest shonda [shame] on Broadway and it’s just getting worse and worse. Once in a while they’ll bring back a thirty-piece orchestra for a revival of West Side Story or South Pacific and people say, “Isn’t this special.” But why should it have to be special? I’m just devastated about that. The rest of Broadway is the same. The big thing, of course, is making a movie into a musical. Producers assume that will be a hit, but fifty percent of them fail. It has to be a good show to be a hit. But there are still great little shows, and that’s the way Broadway has always been. The frustrating thing is the radical change in the sound.

SD:  Is that the natural result of audiences listening to everything through headphones and TV speakers?

SR:  Yes. Things are so over-amplified now, and these so-called Broadway shows on TV are obviously lip-synched. Everything on TV and film is pretty much lip-synched, so people are used to this fake electronic sound that is auto-tuned on top of that. People don’t realize how beautiful an orchestra can be until they actually hear it. People have been trained to listen to crap and think that is what it is supposed to sound like.

SD: It sounds like your next move could be into the orchestral world.

SR:  I’ve been looking for a way in. I don’t have any connections yet.

SD: Back to Seth’s Big Fat Broadway Show. Is this something that people who don’t know Patti LuPone are going to enjoy?

SR:  This show is for people who know nothing about Broadway and for people who are obsessed with Broadway – The Boston Globe said that. I did not write a show just for insiders. I wrote a show that insiders will love and a show for people who literally know nothing about the genre. That’s why it’s called a comedy show!

To follow the perpetual mitosis of Seth Rudetsky, tune into Sethtv.com. While you are there, be sure to get a preview of The Kentucky Center’s next act on the LEO A Little Off Center series:  Varla Jean will appear with Leslie Jordan February 2, 2013, in the Bomhard Theater. The Kentucky Center presents an outstanding variety of music in 2013 beginning January 29 with Yo La Tengo & Calexico at the Brown Theatre. These two high-energy eclectic bands are sure to heat up the evening. Over the past 30 years, Yo La Tengo has built one of the largest followings of any indie band because of their consistently good music. A little newer on the scene, Calexico combines precise instrumentals featuring violins and mariachi horns with intricate background vocals. On the following weekend, February 5, the Brown Theatre hosts another group using traditional Bluegrass instrumentation to create a sophisticated new sound – former Nickel Creek mandolinist and 2012 MacArthur Foundation Fellow Chris Thile joins Punch Brothers. The Russian National Orchestra conducted by Patrick Summers performs in the newly renovated Whitney Hall on February 23. Their program opens with Smetana’s Overture from The Bartered Bride. Acclaimed young pianist Daniil Trifinov displays his virtuosity with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto in C major No. 3, Op. 26.

These are just a few of the diverse programs on the Kentucky Center Presents roster. You will find the remainder of their 2013 schedule at www.kentuckycenter.org, where you may also conveniently purchase your tickets. If you prefer the more traditional approach, call The Kentucky Center Box Office at 502.584.7777 for tickets and for more information about the array of talent on its way to The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts.

“Compelling” Jersey Boys Is an Inspired Jukebox Musical

November 27, 2012, 7:48 pm

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Michael Lomenda, Nick Cosgrove, Miles Jacoby and John Gardiner in Jersey Boys. Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

Jersey Boys

Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice

Music by Bob Gaudio

Lyrics by Bob Crewe

Directed by Des McAnuff

Reviewed by Craig Nolan Highley

Entire contents copyright © 2012 by Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.

Jukebox musicals come and go a lot these days, but very few of them carry the heart and soul of a show like Jersey Boys. Unlike other popular examples of the genre like Across the Universe or Mamma Mia, this winner of the 2006 Tony Award for Best Musical doesn’t just take the song catalog of a beloved music group (in this case The Four Seasons) and create a new story around them. This time the songs are used to tell the group’s true story, and the result is a fun and uncomplicated musical that plays like an ’80s-era TV biopic set to music.

One of the show’s many clever touches is its story structure, broken up into four parts, each represented by a season and each narrated by a different member of the band. We start with Spring, as told to us by Tommy DeVito (Colby Foytik), the group’s founder, and learn of their beginnings and their ties to the mafia and other skirmishes with the law. Next we get Summer, narrated by Bob Gaudio (Jason Kappus), the songwriter of the group, and chronicling their rise in popularity. Nick Massi (Brandon Andrus), the group’s quietest but surprisingly most profound performer, then takes us through Fall, in which things start to fall apart for the group. And finally, Frankie Valli (Brad Weinstock), the silver-throated lead singer, gives us Winter, filling us in on how the band became basically a solo act: Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

It’s compelling stuff, though it occasionally gets a bit too melodramatic. When one character loses a loved one, for example, he breaks into the song “Fallen Angel,” which I’m sure was intended to be a heartbreaking moment but just seemed a bit too calculated.  On the other and more light-hearted hand, another character’s loss of virginity during the “Oh What a Night” number is inspired. But for the most part, it all works – and works very well.

All four of the lead performers are fantastic in the roles, even if they don’t necessarily resemble the real people their playing. Weinstock in particular is truly incredible, playing Frankie from his shy teenage years through his sixties. Andrus also makes quite the impression as the soft-spoken (until he is outraged) Nick, and nearly steals every moment he’s on stage.

Director Des McAnuff (who mined similar ground when he turned a Who album into the show-stopping Broadway show Tommy) has done an incredible job of staging all this on a deceptively simple stage (as designed by Klara Zieglerova) and complimented by Howell Binkley’s fantastic lighting design. And speaking of the lighting, be warned:  It does get blinding at times; the transition lenses in my glasses darkened several times!

If for any reason you miss the Louisville performances of this show, it might be worth your while to seek out this touring show’s next stop. It’s worth seeing and fodder for a fantastic evening of theater. “Oh, What a Night” indeed!

Jersey Boys

Featuring Barry Anderson, Brandon Andrus, Thomas Fiscella, Colby Foytik, Natalie Gallo, Jason Kappus, Christopher Messina, Rachel Schur and Brad Weinstock.

November 20 –December 2, 2012

PNC Broadway in Louisville

The Kentucky Center

501 West Main Street

Louisville, KY, 40202

502-584-7777

http://louisville.broadway.com/

"Artebella Daily" Arrives: New Online Showcase for Local Artists

November 28, 2012, 11:48 am

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By Carmen Marti

Entire contents copyright ©2012 Carmen Marti.  All rights reserved.

When Artebella Daily, a website devoted to showcasing Louisville visual artists, launched just more than a month ago, artist Suzi Zimmerer signed up to receive the daily email once a week – who needs more messages Monday through Friday? 

But next thing she knew, Zimmerer “wanted [Artebella] every day,” she says. “I find it really fun. I’m having a terrific time reading everyone’s profile and seeing their work.”

That’s the point, says Shannon Westerman, executive director of the Louisville Visual Art Association, which sponsors the site [Artebelladaily.com]. “LVAA is very much a grass roots, artist-driven organization.” When former board member Meg Higgins suggested the Artebella concept, it matched the organization’s goals. “We were looking for a progressive, cutting-edge way to use the potential of technology to help increase the visibility of local artists,” he says. “We have a bevy of creative artists in Louisville, and we wanted to promote that to our city as well as to the world.”

Artebella Artist and collector Jacque Parsley with her husband Dr. Robert Sollinger.

And, if a viewer wants to buy a piece of art, all the better. Just ask Jacque Parsley. A long-time Louisville artist, member of LVAA and artist on Artebella, Parsley had been thinking of the site as “an easy way to see the new work of established artists and the work of young emerging artists in the comfort of my home,” she says. But when Kelly Rains’s mixed media painting popped up on day two of the website’s existence, Parsley “saw it, loved it, and called them up,” she recalls. (Actually, she emailed and a representative from Artebella called her.) “I don’t know how I’ll react when I see the real thing, but I thought it had good color and good composition. It looked well constructed…. I gave them my Visa card.”

Parsley and her husband have collected art together for 15 years; she’s been collecting since the 1970s. They are not afraid to buy artwork off the web. “One of our favorite pieces we got over the Internet and we’ve loved it,” says Parsley.

Carlos Gamez de Francisco – French Radical Fashion VI in 1789.

Selling art over the Internet is a way of life for Carlos Gamez de Francisco, another artist represented on Artebella. While he is represented by galleries across the country, Gamez de Francisco says, “I like to have art on web sites. I try to use the Internet a lot to promote my work.” He also likes Artebella because it means he sees art even when he’s too busy making it to go to the galleries. “When you make art, you want to see what other people are doing,” he says. “Now I’m closer to knowing what’s out there.”

This is true for more than just working artists holed up in their studios. Westerman says Artebella has the potential to “change how Louisville views visual art and how the world views Louisville artists. This is a contemporary way to view art. It’s not an online gallery. Ninety-nine percent of online galleries fail. That’s not our objective. We want to be sustainable.”

Toward that end, Westerman spent three years developing the Artebella concept and mapping a phased approach to its rollout. In phase one, the focus is Louisville artists. To join the site, locals must be members of LVAA ($40/year, with scholarship money increasingly available) and submit their portfolios for consideration by a panel of arts professionals. “We want it to be inclusive, but also to maintain a high standard of quality,” Westerman says. If an artist isn’t initially accepted, they are encouraged to try again. “We may even offer critiques,” he says. “This can be an education tool for artists as well.”

In phase two, artists around the state of Kentucky will be invited to submit work, and in phase three, the pool will be open to artists in the region. In the meantime, Westerman has begun talks with Jefferson County Pubic Schools about using the site in classrooms, and he hopes to develop additional programming to integrate into school curricula. “This is a very well-thought-out program,” says Westerman. “We’ve put a lot of time and energy into the design and infrastructure, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. The site will evolve. If we add value with each phase, that’s the point. And in phase one, so far so good.”

Indeed, early analytics show a distribution list of 6,000 email addresses, a boon for artist exposure. “When could I ever say 6,000 people saw my art?” asks Parsley. And that’s across 12 countries. Parsley didn’t necessarily sign on to sell her work, but she says, “I think selling is a real possibility.” 

Artebella artist Suzi Zimmerer. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Same for Zimmerer, who also shows work on the site but didn’t sign up to sell. “I wanted to be on Artebella to be supportive of it and LVAA. And to be supportive of Louisville,” she says. “It shows that Louisville is diverse and vital and has contributed to the whole art world. If I can share what I do and make people happy, I’m for that.”

Funders have also been supportive of Artebella. Westerman says he was able to secure significant funding from a local foundation, from patrons, donors and a grant from Louisville’s External Agency Fund. “We have a nice mix of investors,” he says.

There’s also a nice mix of art, says Parsley. “Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don’t. Everybody has different taste. Most of it I like. And I like the variety.” Plus, she says, it’s “coffee and art in the morning. What better way to wake up in the morning than to see a new piece of art?”

Adds Zimmerer, “The site is really good. Everyone’s images look nice. It’s easy to use – well designed. Whoever was involved, I say ‘Bravo!’”

http://www.artebelladaily.org/

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The Zombie Apocalypse Overtakes Shakespeare at The Alley Theater

December 2, 2012, 5:52 pm

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Living Dead in Denmark

Written by Qui Nguyen

Directed and Choreographed by Tony Smith

Reviewed by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2012, Keith Waits. All rights reserved.

Since it is inherent in any zombie scenario that the nasty undead creatures have more or less taken over the world, then I suppose it follows that there is no classic literature or historical period that can be truly exempt from the specter of zombie apocalypse adaptation.  Jane Austen has been given such treatment, and now William Shakespeare has been infected.

Shakespeare gets messed about fairly often, typically by changing the setting, but playwright Qui Nguyen uses famous characters from several of the immortal Bard’s plays in a unique take on the zombie dynamic that forsakes many of the clichés we associate with horror film zombies. His version of the flesh-eating creatures seem more like vampires in that they are undead who exist in a fashion similar enough to the living that it is possible that some of the characters are slow to realize that they are, in fact, deceased.

The setting is Denmark, in and around Elsinore, five years after the events depicted in Hamlet. A triumvirate of Ophelia, Juliet and Lady Macbeth encounter Fortinbras, who is forming a resistance to the zombie hordes who seem to have the upper hand. Many vigorous and well-staged scenes of combat dominate the action, but the script is surprisingly clever and ingenious in establishing a larger conflict between ordinary humans and the supernatural characters from Shakespeare, so that Titania, Oberon, Puck and Caliban are allied with the undead in a power struggle with a mysterious cloaked figure. That there is genuine mystery to be found in a story using such familiar characters and settings is a testament to the quality of the text.

I do wish the spare production design had been slightly more fleshed out. It is material that seems designed to spark an enterprising designer’s imagination, but it seems churlish to focus on such limitations when the playing is this good. The action is led by a lost and searching Ophelia, played with sexy charm by Madeleine Dee in a lacy black dress that challenges some of her more dynamic fighting moves. As her companions, Lady Macbeth and Juliet, April Singer brings edge and bravado to the former, while Chelsea Skalski carefully essays an awkward and introverted version of the latter. Both are kick-ass fighters.  Scott Goodman and Chris Petty prove adept utility men in multiple roles, including a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern unlike any you’ve ever witnessed in any production of either Hamlet or the Tom Stoppard classic. It should also be noted that Mr. Goodman knows how to play a death scene.

Ben Unwin is a fetching Titania in a green gown set off by a red wig, and Joey Arena makes for a good and villainous Fortinbras. Director Tony Smith does double duty as Horatio, a stalwart good guy performance that is probably the least interesting character overall. And Todd Zeigler is Hamlet in a very good performance that, due to the machinations of the plot, is difficult to discuss without giving something away. Suffice it to say that his work not only holds the center but lifts the level of performance in an important way that helps a good production become something more.

Although there is some effective music, I also would not have minded hearing a more active score that tended toward hard, edgy rock played loudly. This is material that calls for a high energy presentation and, as good as it is, could have been that much better with a little harder push. Yet, it is important to remember that this sort of show is a specialty of The Alley Theater and cannot be found on any other local stage.  

Living Dead in Denmark

Fridays and Saturdays, November 30 - December 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, December 9 at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $18 advance; $16 advance for students, seniors and military
$20 and $18 day of show
Box office: 502-713-6178
All seats $10

The Alley Theater

1210 Franklin Street

Louisville, KY 40206

http://thealleytheater.org/site/

Murder and Larceny Spice Up Christmas at WhoDunnit

December 2, 2012, 6:06 pm

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Morgan Younge & Tom Staudenheimer in A Well-Timed Christmas Murder. Photo courtesy of WhoDunnit Murder Mystery Theatre.

A Well-Timed Christmas Murder!

Written by A.S. Waterman

Directed by Niles Welch

Reviewed by Keith Waits.

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Keith Waits. All rights reserved. 

A Well-Timed Christmas Murder may be set during Christmas 1934, but it eschews the trappings of the holiday season (there is one poinsettia onstage) in favor of a sturdy, character-driven mystery plot. The halls are not decked and the air is not filled with carols. Rather, mystery and intrigue are the order of the day. While other local stages are populated by all manner of Christmas décor, it is refreshing to find a show that wears its holiday connection lightly.

A wealthy, ailing scoundrel named Rocky Barton (John Lina exuding a slick, faux-patrician air) has summoned family and friends to determine who amongst them, if any, deserve to inherit his fortune: the dizzy wife prone to malapropisms (Ann Waterman); the down-on-his luck brother whose failing pig farm was foreclosed by Rocky’s bank (James Wolford Hardin); or drunken ne’er-do-well son Lawrence (Craig Nolan Highley). There is also a sister-in-law (Beth Oliges) and niece (Makayla Staudenheimer), as well as two characters whose connections to the proceedings are suitably mysterious, Marco McGuire (Tom Staudenheimer) and Sal Wilcox (Morgan Younge) and both of whom seem untrustworthy and accustomed to the seamier side of life.

Before too long there is, of course, a murder to complicate matters and secrets begin to be revealed. Almost nothing is as it seems in this tricky script filled with plot twists and resonant with a sub-text that echoes current economic woes without belaboring the idea enough to distract from the entertainment.

The ensemble work well together, yet there is also “a butler” who narrates the action and is (mercifully) removed from serious consideration as a suspect so as to avoid the oldest cliché in the genre. He is presented by Robert Thompson in an elegant and intelligent manner that makes him stand out among the otherwise motley crew of characters.

WhoDunnit continues to maintain an ambitious edge to their scripts that pushes the boundaries of format and storytelling in small but worthwhile ways while always delivering a quality entertainment.

Editor’s Note: WhoDunnit roles are double-cast to accommodate their particular schedule, and some actors mentioned here may not be appearing when you attend.

A Well-Timed Christmas Murder

Saturdays, November 17-December 15

Fridays, December 7-21

Seating at 6:30 / Show starts at 7:00

Special brunch performance on December 9

WhoDunnit Murder Mystery Theatre

Performing at the Hyatt Downtown

320 West Jefferson Street

Louisville, KY 40202

http://www.whodunnitky.com/

Original Holiday Production from Pandora Is “A Hell of A Lot of Fun”

December 3, 2012, 5:55 am

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Velma & Louise’s Holiday Balls

By Jim Hesselman

Directed by Michael J. Drury & Jim Hesselman

Reviewed by Craig Nolan Highley

Entire contents are copyright © 2012, Craig Nolan Highley.  All rights reserved.

Original plays are a hit-and-miss affair in the Louisville area, especially when they are full-length productions. Even the best ones seem to have moments when the dialogue falls flat, a joke lands with a thud, or a subplot seems to go nowhere. I think it’s because, unlike the big shows that end up on Broadway or other major venues, these plays don’t get workshopped for years before their grand opening.  An original play in Louisville is lucky to get six weeks of rehearsal between the moment the playwright turns in his final draft and opening night.

I’m delighted to say that Pandora’s latest offering, Jim Hesselman’s Thelma & Louise’s Holiday Balls, has managed to avoid that pitfall for the most part, simply by being so ridiculously over-the-top that you don’t have time to consider its shortcomings. It has a fun concept at its center and a cast of skilled performers who keep the jokes coming so fast and furious that even when one bombs, the next one makes you forget it. The result is a show that, while not perfect, is a hell of a lot of fun.

Its setup is a bit cliché, but it works.  The two title characters, a pair of Bible-thumping church ladies, put on a public-access cable Christmas show every year. This year, unfortunately, their studio has flooded and they are forced to find another venue. One of the ladies has a gay nephew (and, of course, they have no clue about his sexuality) who puts on an annual live cabaret Christmas show at a local nightclub. After some coaxing (and with no clue that it is a gay club), the two convince the nephew to combine the shows for the cable broadcast. This, of course, leads to a lot of misunderstandings and pratfalls among the lively skits and musical numbers that follow.

It’s a credit to Hesselman’s writing that he has created a gay-themed show that doesn’t rely on vulgarity and sex to entertain, making this a surprisingly family-friendly piece (something very rare in gay-themed theater). There were several children in the audience during the performance I attended, and I can honestly say there was really nothing in the show that seemed inappropriate for them.

It’s also an interesting contrast to the only other Hesselman-penned show I’ve seen – the faith-based Christmas jukebox musical SING HALLELUJAH!– in a production at the Derby Dinner Playhouse five years ago. Both shows use existing songs to propel their yuletide storylines; but they take such vastly different views on faith during the holidays that it’s amazing they were written by the same man. Obviously, this is one local playwright to keep an eye on.

As for the cast, there was not a weak performer in the lot. As Velma and Louise, Alex Craig and Jason Cooper are quite convincing in old-lady drag (although Cooper does seem to hide his masculinity a bit better), and they both have a lot of great moments. Robbie Lewis and Patrick Brophy are just precious as the nephew and his boyfriend/business partner, respectively; and C. C. Winters (a nom de plume of one of Pandora’s major players) is a riot (and nearly unrecognizable) as drag queen Candy Cane. And in smaller supporting roles, Trent Everett Byers, Susan Crocker and Richie Goff have some great moments.

I was going to make some mention of a few of the show’s flaws, but after reviewing them it seemed like splitting hairs. I had a great time experiencing this production, and I’m sure you will too.

Velma & Louise’s Holiday Balls

Starring Patrick Brophy, Trent Everett Byers, Jason Cooper, Alex Craig, Susan Crocker, Richie Goff, Janelle-Renee Hunnicutt, Robbie Lewis, Eric Sharp, C. C. Winters and Julie Zielinski-Gabis.

November 29 & 30 at 7:30 p.m.

December 1, 6, 7 & 8 at 7:30 p.m.

December 2 & 9 at 5:30 p.m.

December 8 at 2 p.m.

Pandora Productions

at The Henry Clay Theatre

604 S. Third Street

Louisville, Kentucky

(502) 585-5306

www.pandoraprods.org/

Three Louisville Arts Companies to Receive NEA Grants

December 7, 2012, 6:01 am

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National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced today that Kentucky Opera (KO) and Actors Theatre of Louisville (ATL) are two of 832 non-profit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. KO is recommended for a $12,500 grant to support the Composer Workshop featuring Paul Moravec and Terry Teachout’s world premiere of The Kings Man and its companion work, Danse Russe; and ATL for a $50,000 grant in support of its 37th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays.

Kentucky Opera’s Composer Workshop program was started in February 2009 with award-winning composer Jake Heggie and in partnership with the University of Louisville School of Music (UofLSM) and the Music Academy of St. Francis in the Fields (MA). Subsequent composer residencies included Daron Hagen with his New York Storiesand Ben Moore’s Enemies: A Love Story. As envisioned, the Composer Workshop promotes the development of new opera works by giving composers access to young singers and musicians from the partner groups. Composer Ben Moore says, “It’s an invaluable benefit for any opera composer to see their work realized at various stages of development. The opportunities for that are rare, however, because of the talent and resources opera requires.” The KO Studio Artists and students from UofL SM and MA also benefit by working and developing relationships with living composers.

KY Opera Executive Director David Roth.

KO’s General Director David Roth says, “We have received national attention for the Composer Workshop by building a useful tool for composers, while we have increased the validity of our Studio Artist Program for developing young opera artists. The ultimate goal for both programs is to leverage each into the presentation of these new works as fully staged productions through our Contemporary Opera Series, which we launched this season with Benjamin Britten’s The Prodigal Son. This NEA Art Works grant will enable us to achieve that goal.”

Actors Theatre Artistic Director Les Waters.

“Actors Theatre is proud to be the recipient of this grant, and we are delighted to have our continued commitment to the American playwright and the development of new work recognized by the National Endowment of the Arts,” said Actors Theatre’s Artistic Director Les Waters.  

Recognized as one of the nation’s most prestigious new play festivals and attracting audiences of up to 40,000 each year, Actors Theatre has grown the Humana Festival from a trailblazing theatre event into one of the most important showcases of new work in the country. It boasts a legacy of having introduced more than 400 plays into the American theatre repertoire and remains a vital platform for launching new plays and playwrights to the national stage with an impressive track record of numerous subsequent productions. The 37th Humana Festival will run February 27 – April 7, 2013and will feature fully-produced world premieres by Jeff Augustin, Mallery Avidon, Will Eno, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Sam Marks; a suite of three one-act plays by Rinne Groff, Lucas Hnath and Anne Washburn commissioned by Actors Theatre and performed by the Acting Apprentice Company; and an evening of ten-minute plays featuring a new play by Sarah Ruhl, among others yet to be announced.

Additionally, Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) announced that the Louisville-based Council on Developmental Disabilities has received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to fund an innovative new art show next year.

The grant, part of the Challenge America Fast-Track program, will go toward the production of The Striped Show, a group exhibition that will include works created by artists with disabilities. The theme of the show is diversity.

“The arts are a powerful driver of economic activity in Louisville, and they contribute immensely to our cultural growth,” Congressman Yarmuth said. “I am proud to support the efforts of the Council on Development Disabilities, and I will continue working to ensure federal recognition of the arts and their ability to broaden understanding in our community and society.”

The Striped Show will open at the Weber Gallery in April. The gallery is a program of the Council on Developmental Disabilities. Exhibitions are collaborations that showcase professional artists and artists with disabilities. But The Striped Show goes a step further, with artists, artworks and the audience participating in a coordinated demonstration of diversity.

In March 2012, the NEA received 1,509 eligible applications for Art Works requesting more than $74 million in funding. The 832 recommended NEA grants total $22.3 million, span 13 artistic disciplines and fields, and focus primarily on the creation of work and presentation of both new and existing works for the benefit of American audiences. Applications were reviewed by panels of outside experts convened by NEA staff, and each project was judged on its artistic excellence and artistic merit.

On the SoFA: State of Fine Art

December 7, 2012, 6:19 am

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By Mary Margaret Sparks

Entire contents are copyright © 2012 Mary Margaret Sparks. All rights reserved. 

Being a Georgetown College Alumnus, I love going back to my alma mater to touch base with my professors and see the new students’ work. When I heard about On the SoFA, I was intrigued by the idea of the exhibition and was curious to see what students around the state were creating. In my own experience as an art student, I experienced how disconnected and insulated art departments can sometimes be. It wasn’t until I was living in Louisville that I met other graduates from other schools and began to form relationships with young artists outside of Georgetown College. On the SoFA has helped to breach the barrier between art departments and has brought current undergraduate art students together from a variety of fields. 

On the SoFA: State of Fine Art is an exhibition showcasing one to two works of art by undergraduate visual art students nominated by art faculty from several of Kentucky’s post-secondary education institutions. [taken from exhibition gallery guide] The exhibition features a variety of work including film, textiles, printmaking, painting, glass, woodworking and more.  

Jay Ludden installation at SoFA. Photo by Mary Margaret Sparks.

The overall exhibition makes a strong impression. Many of the works were reminiscent of something I would see in a gallery on East Market Street in downtown Louisville.  As I looked around the room, I immediately noticed an on-site installation by artist Jay Ludden from Lindsey Wilson College consisting of a fleet of paper boats made from maps of Ohio. The boats prevent the viewer from getting to the wall of empty envelopes where each envelope reads ‘Open me first.’ The work is a thought-provoking representation of the relationship between people and their communities.

“I’m interested in exploring what makes spaces unique, both in terms of culture and environment as well as the common threads that connect people and communities here on the Earth we all share.” [from Jay Ludden’s artist statement]

Faville Donahue, From Callow to Callused. Photo by Mary Margaret Sparks.

So much high-quality work was present in this exhibition that I wish I could write about all of it. A few works did stand out to me though, and I think they are worth noting. “From Callow to Callused” by Faville Donahue (University of Kentucky) is a leather-and-steel sculpture representing the heart in nine stages. The hearts appear patched together to form built-up layers and scarring and serve as a metaphor for the nine months of pregnancy.

“There are many things that happen over a lifetime that can change the condition of the heart. There can be a softening or a hardening; these evolutions may not be permanent, and a heart can even oscillate between the two depending on with whom or what the emotion is entwined.” [from Faville Donahue’s artist statement]

“Born” by University of Louisville Philip Rodriguez is a blown-glass sculpture focusing on conditions of the human mind. “Underbelly” by Jenni Dickens (Western Kentucky University) represents “…the disconnect between our minds and physical selves” [taken from artist’s statement], while Morehead State University Cecily Howard’s work explores the realms of imagination through printmaking. Her “China colle” shows a young girl in a dark fantastical world surrounded by small creatures, or minions. The slightly eerie aspect of the work reinforces the dark imagery we often imagine ourselves. The narrative of a young girl looks back to childhood and the vast imagination that children express.

The opening reception featured a panel discussion that included Becky Alley from the Lexington Art League, Peter Morrin from the University of Louisville and Charla Reed from the Kentucky Arts Council. The participants spoke about opportunities for the artists, encouraging them to get involved through volunteering and submitting their work for exhibitions. Awards were then given to Seth Ernest from Asbury College for 2D art, James Webb from Eastern Kentucky for 3D art, and James Webb from Eastern Kentucky University for best overall.

James Webb, Crackle Teapot. Photograph by Darrell Kincer.

Afterwards, James Webb from Eastern Kentucky University spoke to several of us about his work “Scrumptiously Nostalgic,” a crackle ceramic teapot small and delicate in appearance but completely functional. Webb explained that he is fascinated by textures, and close inspection of the piece prompted particular appreciation for his meticulous attention to detail.

It was encouraging to see most of the participating student artists as well as many art professors in attendance at the opening. I was further heartened to see the students talking with one another about their work. This exhibition fostered a much-needed atmosphere of creativity and communication among art departments as well as memorable work by emerging artists. On the SoFA is a must-see for anyone interested in the future of Kentucky art.

In 2011, Georgetown College hosted State of Drawing (SOD) featuring works by faculty from post-secondary institutions in Kentucky. For 2012, art department faculty from post-secondary institutions nominated one or two students for On the SoFA. In 2013, Georgetown College will host State of Sculpture (SOS), featuring artwork by faculty from post-secondary institutions.

Represented institutions included Asbury College, Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College, Eastern Kentucky University, Georgetown College Lindsey Wilson College, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of the Cumberlands, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville and Western Kentucky University.

November 30, 2012–January 4, 2013

Georgetown College

Anne Wright Wilson Fine Arts Gallery

For more information, contact Laura Stewart:

Laura.stewart@georgetowncollege.edu

www.georgetowncollege.edu/galleries

James Webb Crackle Teapot photograph courtesy of Darrell Kincer.

Other photographs courtesy of Mary Margaret Sparks.