by Michelle Augello-Page on March 31, 2011
Bricken Sparacino is an award winning/nominated performer, writer and director. She is also a bright, confident woman who has been involved in theatre for most of her life. To watch her work is to watch an artist with a powerful command of her talents. I have seen her ability to transform a space, as well as her own persona, as she captivates and connects intimately with an audience, provoking a wide range of meaningful responses to her performances.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on March 16, 2011
These women of the arts hail from different disciplines, but they all have an indomitable spirit and a luminescent spark that makes them amazing human beings who are out there every day, doing amazing work.
Today we continue our series with Penny Pollak. I picked this photo above ‘specially for her: “DON’T let your woman announcer be too agressive. She will antagonize all men, and many women. She must, however, speak with authority, either form experience or special knowledge of the product. A woman announcer is always a hazardous risk and few can please all viewers.” (snicker.)
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 16, 2010
Joe Yoga (photo by Brooke McGowan)
Every now and then an artist comes into your life whose music is so dynamic, powerful and moving that you just have to know the stories behind the songs. When you’re lucky enough to know this artist personally, and he’s someone that you’ve always had a great time hanging out with, you’ve got no choice but to sit down in a noisy bar, buy him a drink (Arbita Turbo Dog), and find out where all this gut punching, heart wrenching, hand wringing music comes from.
Meet Joe Yoga – bass player for Kill The Band but amazing solo artist in his own right who currently has two albums in circulation. You can download (Free! December Only!) his first album The Dreamless Sea which is a compilation of his favorite songs from his earlier days. Life Out East is a full album of new songs that were written over a year and it’s currently available on iTunes.
Over the course of an evening Joe Yoga tells me how he’s able to juggle two different musical personas, how Life Out East will take you on a journey from heartbreak to healing, and even tells me a pretty funny joke. Eventually.
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by Diánna Martin on March 17, 2010
Leslie Goshko
Storytellers. Monologists. One-Woman Shows. The lines blur in the art forms because they are often one in the same. Sometimes the difference is subtle, and I find that sometimes it has to do with how much is taken from personal life stories. An actor (hopefully) personalizes the choices he or she makes on stage; but when you are actually sharing personal tales of your life, then you are no longer acting; you are re-living those events, and hopefully, enlightening the audience with how truly bizarre/beautiful/hilarious/tragic those events are. I found Vodka Shoes (written and performed by Leslie Goshko) to be a really beautiful piece that went beyond the story of an alcoholic father and somewhat dysfunctional family; it was about how that family survived through its love – and all the little things that kept the our narrator, Leslie Goshko, sane along the way.
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by Antonio Miniño on March 10, 2010
Summer Shapiro and Peter Musante | Photo credit: Misha Kutuzov
Enter a magical world where language is unnecessary and human relationships are fresh and effective – full of whimsy and enchantment – with a simple encounter between a man, a woman and a box. With precise physical comedy and crisp clownmanship, Summer Shapiro and Peter Musante deliver a most mesmerizing performance in Legs and All, at the Frigid New York Festival.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on March 6, 2010
No Traveler - Contemplating What Lies Beyond (Penny Pollak / photo by Rebecca Chiappone)
The opening scene of Penny Pollak’s No Traveler (directed and co-created by Samantha Jones) immediately reminded me of The Triplets of Belleville (not the movie, but the weirdly enjoyable music video by M). Ms. Pollak, or rather her character Abigail, is having a great time dancing around her room to an equally bouncy French tune; she spends much of the song drinking wine, primping, getting frisky with a door, and setting the stage for some grand finale. Of course, when she pulls out the straight edged razor and steps into the bucket it becomes obvious that this was all nothing but a frivolous preamble to the real task at hand … ending her life.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on March 5, 2010
Killy Dwyer, Joe Yoga, Mike Milazzo and Bamboo Silva
I thought it was a very good sign that my latest obsession, Lady Gaga’s pulsating, driving song Teeth, was blaring as I entered Under St. Marks to get ready to see Killer Killy Dwyer’s latest offering “Kill The Band” which is not just the name of her band, but which is also the name of the show that’s part of Frigid Festival 2010. I saw it as a good omen not just because I haven’t been able to get the song out of my head these last few weeks, but more because the song is the type of song that gets down into you and makes you bop in your seat and I figured a gal who was serving up Gaga as the appetizer must have the all-you-can-eat-buffet to back it up. Musically speaking, of course.
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by 4 Cents Reviews on March 5, 2010
4 Cents Review – When 2 reviewers each give their 2 cents.
LATE NIGHTS WITH THE BOYS: confessions of a leather bar chanteuse Pictured: Alex Bond in 1977
Today Diánna Martin and Karen Tortora-Lee give their 4 Cents about Late Nights With The Boys: Confessions Of A Leather Bar Chantuse which is part of this year’s Frigid Festival.
Late Nights With The Boys: Confessions Of A Leather Bar Chantuse was presented as selections read by Alex Bond and David Carson from Ms. Bond’s novel, but aside from that we both didn’t know what to expect. The Frigid blurb promised that the reading would transport you to Dallas 1977, a magical time before HIV/AIDS, but not before ignorance and prejudice so we were eager to watch this story unfold.
Karen: I really didn’t know what to expect from Late Nights With The Boys, and almost immediately I was charmed. Didn’t you sense their warmth right away?
Diánna: Absolutely – there was something very natural and calm about Alex Bond and David Carson that affected the audience. I think the fact that they didn’t dim the house lights was interesting toward that end …
Karen: Definitely. I mean, I felt they were having a conversation with us (the audience) as much as with each other, and that sense of immediacy happened automatically.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on March 4, 2010
Mark Shyzer as Esther (Photo credit: Tanja-Tiziana, Double Crossed Photography)
Fishbowl starts off deceptively; writer / performer Mark Shyzer introduces his cast of characters with such blasts of humor, and his transformations are so successful, that you might be fooled into thinking Fishbowl was written to be little more than a vanity piece in order to showcase Mr. Shyzer’s talent of reeling off bitingly funny one-liners while embodying 5 seemingly unrelated but unforgettable characters.
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by Diánna Martin on March 3, 2010
Brian McManamon as Andrew
Frigid Festival has really stepped up their game this year, is what I was thinking as I descended down the stairs from the Red Room, still reeling from the one-man show It or Her by Alena Smith. The medium of madness is one that has so many artistic possibilities, and when performed well it can be a goldmine for the audience. Nuances and colors of the human condition can be given a larger leash with which to run. Nothing is as delightful, for me, as a luscious character study set into a well-told tale. This production is all that and more.
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