Sunday, April 24, 2016

HD Live Theater Broadcast: As You Like It, The Royal National Theater





(PERSSON PHOTOGRAPHY)
From the NTLIVE.com web site: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/shows/as-you-like-it
As You Like It
With her father the Duke banished and in exile, Rosalind and her cousin Celia leave their lives in the court behind them and journey into the Forest of Arden.
There, released from convention, Rosalind experiences the liberating rush of transformation. Disguising herself as a boy, she embraces a different way of living and falls spectacularly in love.
Shakespeare’s glorious comedy of love and change comes to the National Theatre for the first time in over 30 years.
Evening Standard Award-winner Rosalie Craig plays Rosalind.
National Theatre Live
As You Like It was broadcast live to cinemas on Thu 25 February, 7pm
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House.

Theater: The Place We Built by Sarah Gancher

From the Flea Theater web site: http://www.theflea.org/show_detail.php?page_type=0&show_id=172
In a deserted neighborhood in post-communist Budapest, a group of young bohemians build a bar. Reclaiming a Jewish identity their parents’ generation abandoned after the Holocaust, they create a vibrant new subculture combining big ideas, intense debates and outrageous parties. But as authoritarianism and anti-Semitism make a surprise comeback in Hungary, they must fight to save the place they built.

This world premiere production will be directed by Danya Taymor and will feature The Bats, the resident acting company at The Flea: Brittany K. Allen, Lydian Blossom, Tom Costello, Brendan Dalton, Tamara Del Rosso, Philip Feldman, Kristin Friedlander, Cleo Gray, Rachel Ingram, Ben Lorenz, Ash McNair, Sonia Mena, Isabelle Pierre, Xavier Reminick, Leta Renée-Alan, and Tessa Hope Slovis. The creative team includes Arnulfo Maldonado & Feli Lamenca (scenic design), Masha Tsimring (lighting design), Claudia Brown (costume design), Ben Truppin-Brown (sound design), Alex J. Gould (fight choreography),Marte Johanne Ekhougen (puppet design), Zach Serafin (props master), Jocelyn Clarke (dramaturg), Charise Greene (dialect coach), Jake Beckhard (assistant director), and Tzipora Reman (stage management). Playwright: Sarah Gancher.



Theater + Opera: Science Fair at the Here Theater, starring Hai-Ting Chinn



Photos © Kate Milford
From the HERE Theater web site: http://here.org/shows/detail/1734/About the show

A live science show with lessons & lectures in song 
Science Fair is an opera singer’s love-song to science. Conceived and performed by mezzo-soprano Hai-Ting Chinn, Science Fair uses physical demonstrations and experiments, a libretto created from the words of scientists, and original music to illuminate our current understanding of the natural world. Celebrating curiosities like the formation of our solar system, the structure of the atom, and the ancient legacy of DNA, Science Fair pairs light-hearted humor with luscious operatic vocals to uplift the ordinary into the realm of wonder. 
Credits:
Conceived and Performed by Hai-Ting Chinn

With Erika Switzer, Piano and Music Direction

Music by Matthew Schickele, Renée Favand-See, Stefan Weisman, and Conrad Cummings

Directed by Lisa Rothe


Lighting Design by Lucrecia Briceno

Scenic and Projection Design by Caite Hevner Kemp

Costume Design by Hai-Ting Chinn

Slideshow Art by Maki Naro


Technical Director: Zac Blitz
Master
Electrician: Betsy Chester

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Music: Room Full of Teeth and Elliot Cole perform "Hanuman's Leap" at the Park Avenue Armory


Elliot Cole, center, performing with Roomful of Teeth at the Park Avenue Armory.
Photo Credit: Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

My own review of the show:
I saw "Hanuman's Leap" two nights in a row at the Park Avenue Armory. On the first evening when I sat front-row center, the on-stage speakers (used as monitors for the performers) had a tendency to spill sound into the audience space, muddying the clarity of some of the text. I had sat too close to the stage. On the second night I sat further from the stage and Elliot performed from a stance closer to the audience; the acoustics were balanced and clear. Poetic, fresh and fun, it was a performance of heart-pumping exuberance and optimism. Elliot has a keen sense of drama and dynamics, easily soaring through colorful complex passages performed ensemble with pounding volume, and suddenly dropping into delicate solo passages framed in silence. Roomful of Teeth are always an exhilarating and uniquely inspired group of performers, and Elliot proved himself a talented composer, vocalist and stage presence. Congratulations to the ensemble! - dp

Theater: Pan Pan performs The Seagull and Other Birds



At the front of the stage, from left, Una McKevitt, Judith Roddy and Gina Moxley in “The Seagull and Other Birds” at Abrons Arts Center. 





The Seagull and Other Birds is a roller coaster reimagining of Anton Chekhov's much-loved comic masterpiece. The performance centers around a concise new version of The Seagullintegrated with a number of works specially commissioned by the company. Through the wormhole of the new work, Chekhov’s characters find themselves in extraordinarily different contexts: classic plays, TV shows, YouTube and stuff they’ve just made up. The result is playful and uncompromising – expect lots of talk about art, some action, and tons of love.
“What we need are new artistic forms.
And if we don’t get new forms it would be better if we had nothing at all.”
(Konstantin, The Seagull, 63)

Pan Pan is the longest-established contemporary theatre company in Ireland, founded in 1991 by co-artistic directors Aedín Cosgrove and Gavin Quinn. The company has constantly examined and challenged the nature of its work and has resisted settling into well tried formulas. Developing new performance ideas is at the centre of the company’s raison d’être which is born from a desire to be individual and provide innovation in the development of theatre art. All the works created are original, either through the writing (original plays) or through the totally unique expression of established writings.
    Cast Andrew Bennett, Una McKevitt, Gina Moxley, Daniel Reardon, Judith Roddy, and Dick Walsh
    Director
 Gavin Quinn