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by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson on January 31, 2012
Stabat Mater Fabulosa
The Morningside Opera company offered up a quite singular interpretation of Pergolesi‘s Stabat Mater in their Fabulosa rendition on January 26th at Dixon Place, which proved, at once, a scholarly as well as a quite literal undressing of the original. Composed in 1736 – the year of Pergolesi’s death at the august age of 26 – the piece has been an iconic work in the canon of western sacred music ever since and has enjoyed an unbroken record of performance for nearly three hundred years. This surely says something about a work, to have endured so vigorously the vagaries of artistic, musical, and religious change, never mind or dare one say, taste. Which in many ways explains its attraction for Morningside Opera, who see their role as boundary-pushers wishing to invigorate dialogue between traditional and new modes of the form. Their stripped down presentation was both scholastically dense as well as visually provocative.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on January 29, 2012
Flux Theatre Ensemble’s production of Menders (written by Erin Browne and directed by Heather Cohn) currently playing at The Gym at Judson will catch you by surprise – but not all at once. It will do so in subtle ways, often, and always differently than it did moments before.
First you will be drawn in by the simple aesthetics of the piece, which unfolds with a wisp of mystery but a promise of payoff in the end because, of course, that’s the way all good stories wrap up. Not necessarily with a good ending, or a bad ending, but a powerful ending which simply means one interlude has come to its natural conclusion. Director Heather Cohn understands how to build the perfect scaffolding around this story, which is a story of stories — each story within it also coming to not a good ending, or a bad ending … simply a powerful one.
Next you will be moved by the poem Mending Wall by Robert Frost which is recited in part by each character in kind as they move about the stage and gather items, disappearing and reappearing from behind several substantial walls that dominate the set (beautifully and cleanly designed by Cory Rodriguez). You’ll know what they’re reciting if you’ve read your program cover ahead of time — if not, it will come up soon enough and the elegance with which the symbolism is used is exquisite; each time lines from the verse are repeated they catch your ear differently, each iteration vibrating with a deeper meaning of what it means to keep people out, or in, or know precisely which it is that is being done. I’m sure those who have already seen the show were quick (as I was) to sit with the poem and see it through fresh eyes.
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by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson on January 26, 2012
- John Sowle in Horripilation!
/ Photo by Steven Patterson
The writer and performer of Horripilation!, John Sowle, is unquestionably a shining light in the fields of research and preservation of obscure global theatrical traditions, as well as being an imposing performative figure in the relating and embodiment of these same traditions. In 1973, with a Fulbright fellowship to research a doctoral thesis in dramatic art, he spent time at the Kerala Kalamandalam in southern India, where he was obliged to rise each morning at 3 a.m. in order to begin his day’s grueling training in traditional dance movement and actorly craft. Kept on his feet for hours at a time, in a highly repetitive form of dance stepping, his relief would come finally in the form of a massage administered by his teacher (asan), who would walk up and down his back while he lay in a formally controlled position. It should come as no surprise that classical traditions of drama and dance, wherever they originate, involved a regimen of severe physical hardship and mental discipline, but the sharing of these events in the performance by Mr. Sowle, as he reproduces the exercises nearly forty years later, is quite something to witness.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on January 23, 2012
It isn’t easy to tell an entire story without one word of spoken dialogue, let alone give proper attention to two concurrent plots that run simultaneously but never intertwine, except emotionally. Yet SEASONS does just that, and with such deep resonance that sold-out houses were sobbing as they watched the four central characters of Elaine Pechacek and Katie Hammond’s original musical live through one very specific year that, for them, was filled with love, joy, regret, confusion, despair, birth, and death. Continue Reading…
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on January 21, 2012
“There is failure and there is success. What better way to measure this than the piano?”
If you were the child who spent your afternoons inside practicing the piano (or another musical instrument) while you could hear other children running around in the sunshine you no doubt have an ache in your heart when now, as an adult, you hear other people discussing their memories of playing in the streets, or even watching endless hours of after-school cartoons. Sure, you may have agile fingers which allow you to type an error-free 75 WPM but aside from that, are you really any better off? Was it worth it?
Let’s take it one step further. Imagine you are Mei (Lynn Craig), grown daughter of Lily (Satomi Hofmann), who monitors her daughter Kim’s practicing from the other room. Distractedly tapping away on her blackberry she suddenly hears the words of her mother boom from her own lips as Kim prepares for recital day: “You will practice that piece until you can play it 20 times perfectly!” Stunned, Mei realized she has stepped up and taken on the Legacy of the Tiger Mother.
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by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson on January 12, 2012
In a late hour email before I attended the first night performance of The Mad Ones‘ Samuel & Alasdair: A Personal History of the Robot War at the New Ohio Theatre, I was notified that Con Edison were currently addressing a problem with the theatre’s heating system and I should consider dressing in a thick sweater. I grumbled a bit putting on my thick sweater as I headed out, but was actually entirely comfortable in my seat for the duration of the performance. Thinking about it now, it is not inconceivable that this alert may have been part of the very clever, meticulously thoughtful and imaginative production team’s idea at generating a theatrical reality for their play. How very 1950s to deploy a thick sweater while attending a theatre in wintertime, be it in the U.S.S.R. or the U.S.A. The production might have been dressing the audience for their performance.
The reason I am left with this speculation is because it seems there is nothing, quite simply nothing, that this production has not given some sharp thought to in their dramatization; sharp thought and imaginative response to. The thoroughness with which the team at The Mad Ones have undertaken this self-authored work is as impressive as it is deeply satisfying. Originally premiered at Brooklyn’s The Brick in 2010 – a production that garnered them a deal of notice and a clutch of NY Innovative Theatre awards and nominations – the play, allegedly, has undergone some minor tinkering and some extra polish since then. The result is a real gift for theatre lovers.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 14, 2011
Three heavy hitters have teamed up on Broadway to give audiences an evening of kinship wrapped in contention with Relatively Speaking: three one-act comedies which cover various forms of familial remedy, rivalry and racket. Four-time Oscar winner Ethan Coen, two-time Oscar nominee Elaine May and multiple award winner Woody Allen each offer up their views on the subject, resulting in short plays which each bear the distinct mark of their unique brand of writing; all delivered under the deft direction of John Turturro.
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by 4 Cents Reviews on December 13, 2011
4 Cents Review – When 2 reviewers each give their 2 cents.
Today, The Happiest Medium offers a 4 cents review of The Myths We Need -Or- How To Begin. Read on as Karen Tortora-Lee and Michelle Augello-Page each give their two cents on this exciting production by Purple Repertory Theater!
Michelle: The Myths We Need -Or- How To Begin is a contemporary retelling of the story of Adam and Eve. Written by Larry Kunofsky and directed by Jose Zayas, the play offers a unique, symbolic, and provocative look at this biblical story of original sin, and how man and woman were cast from the garden of Eden and into the world.
The garden of Eden in this play is set in no specific place, but appears to be a rural work-farm. The stage set is the inside of the worker’s living quarters, and each scene takes place in some form of darkness. Low burning lanterns on either side of the stage are subtle and cleverly utilized to illuminate the stage and indicate the passage of time. Sound is also employed to provide context and setting as each scene breaks into the next.
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by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson on December 13, 2011
Younger minds may find entertainment and diversion at 3 Ghosts, this stage musical adaptation of Charles Dickens‘ story, A Christmas Carol by Pipe Dream Theatre Productions. Everything about it resonates with an enthusiastic note of, well, glee. The attractive and animated cast strut and stand about stage looking very pleased with themselves, and the energy level is up; positive; high. They know enough to drop the smiles when the mood switches to somber – as the tale of a haunted, miserly materialist may necessitate – but you know it won’t be long before the scene is lit once more with those megawatt smiles, so de rigueur for the current generation of spotlight-hungry performers. And with an ensemble cast of forty plus, that’s a lot of light, a lot of energy. There are almost twenty musical performances, several involving choreographed dancers, and all on the modest sized stage at the Beckett Theatre. Just imagine the stage direction logistics alone!
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by Geoffrey Paddy Johnson on December 5, 2011
Does being a “fan” always mean that in some sense you are intrinsically a “fanatic”? There is ample, and shocking evidence at this point in the twenty-first century to suggest that there is, well, to some degree, a measure of being “touched” in our adoration of public and performing figures, aka “celebrities”. Some performers, of course, have a more invasive reach than others, and in this regard Judy Garland emerges as singular in her ability to stir the more extreme emotions of her devotees. Mark it down to a singularity of presence and performative intensity in her case – in so many ways a relentlessly raw nerve of emotion projecting powerfully beyond the simple melodic lyrics she could sing. Several generations have been passing the torch for Judy now, and in the gay male community she has been deified many times over. “Friends of Dorothy” have given way to worshippers of the later Garland – the obviously wounded, out-of-control spitfire who could turn it on at performance and Deliver. So when a gay male performer undertakes a role invoking Miss Judy Garland, there is an immediate and heavy-breathing audience that can be relied upon. But beware, there’s a lot of it out there so you’d better be good. And really, at this point, there better be a reason.
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