Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Monday, June 15, 2015
Film: The Trials of Spring, directed by Gini Reticker, 2015
Shot on the streets during violent suppression of protestors, and using news media journlism footage, this intense film covers the chronological events that have alternately given the women of Egypt hope and despair for the future. The star, Hend Nafea, and other dissenters, men and women, have fought for a more free society in Egypt since the January revolt in 2011 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revolution_of_2011). The goal of many activists since the fall of Mubarak has been to achieve freedom from police and military brutality and to receive fair trials in the court system. Unfortunately, conditions in Egypt have become worse with every successive regime since 2010. Instead, many Egyptian people have been cruelly apprehended, tortured and unfairly tried in an attempt to rule the country with an iron hand. Hend Nafea has made heroic efforts to expose each regime's unjust use of violence against men and women; in March 2015, Hend herself has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Fortunately, she has been able to leave the country.
We were thrilled at the film's screening to learn that Hend herself was in attendance, answering questions and eloquently expressing her concern for the need to publicize current conditions. The Egyptian people are being exposed to the ruthless Sisi government tactics of random kidnapping, imprisonment and execution without trial.
This film made it very clear that the future achievement of women's personal freedom and political power will go hand-in-hand with the spread of peace and stability in the world. Egypt should be made to have a Truth and Reconciliation process to come to grips with past abuses of power; and Egyptian women need to be empowered to be physically safe in private and public spaces, and to become judges who have the freedom to judge, based on the law, fairly and not politically.
-dp
Film: This is My Land, director Tamara Erde
A film which asks the question: Can there be reconciliation between the embittered people of Israel and Palestine when their respective public educational systems perpetuate sentiments of passionate nationalism and revenge? It became very clear in the film that young people on both sides have virtually no understanding of the historical pressures and persecution of the other side that has led to the current conflict. Perhaps a broader inclusion in school textbooks covering the historical developments of each people prior to 1948 would help lead the next generation toward an understanding of the "other" and a way toward peace instead of violent conflict. -dp
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Music: Oracle Hysterical with New Vintage Baroque
What happens when fate separates a work from its creator? What meaning is gained or lost from a piece devoid of a clear history? In this concert, members of New Vintage Baroque wade into the ambiguous territory of anonymous, misattributed, and spurious works. Accompanying them on this journey will be the composing-singing-bards of Oracle Hysterical, writing companion pieces to the Passionate Pilgrim, an anonymous anthology of 20 poems once attributed to one “W. Shakespeare.” Featuring new works by Brad Balliett, Doug Balliett, Elliot Cole, and Majel Connery.
(Works not listed in program order)
Sonata a Quatour Stromenti in B-flat major, attrib. George Frideric HandelQuartet in D-minor, TWV 43:d3, Georg Philipp Telemann (formerly Handel)Concerto for Oboe and Bassoon in C-minor, attrib. Handel“The Passionate Pilgrim” (premieres)Brad Balliett, Doug Balliett, Elliot Cole, and Majel Connery
Whitebox Art Center
329 Broome Street, NYC
(Between Bowery and Chrystie)
Friday, May 8, 2015, 7:30pm
About Oracle HystericalThe Oracle Hysterical is Brad Balliett, Doug Balliett, Elliot Cole and Majel Connery. A book club and a band, OH is devoted to literature recounted through music. Its genre-crossing body of work explores new ways of narrating stories through chamber, folk and orchestral music, hip hop and opera. OH has created and performed retellings of Hogarth’s Rake’s Progress, Grimm’s folktales, Euripides’ Hecuba, Melville’s Billy Budd, and other stories. Its collaborators include the Chicago Composers Orchestra, New Vintage Baroque, the Metropolis Ensemble, the Franklin Quartet, Washington Square Winds, and the Lucerne Festival Academy, where they were Spotlight Artists in 2011.
Theater: Doctor Zhivago, the musical on Broadway
http://doctorzhivagobroadway.com/about/
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO is a heartbreaking epic romance, revolving around the search for love during the final days of Czarist Russia. Raised as an aristocrat, Zhivago is a political idealist, physician, and poet whose life is tossed by the tides of history as he is torn between a life with his close childhood friend and wife, and the passionate and mysterious Lara. Zhivago, however, is not alone in his yearnings for Lara, and must compete with both revolutionaries and aristocracy alike to win the heart of the woman he cannot live without.
Monday, May 4, 2015
CUFF Film: The Real American, Director : Darya Zhuk
From online: http://cufilmfest.com/films/real-american/
The Real American
A Post-Soviet Union exchange student stops fearing American culture and starts shaving her legs.
Director : Darya Zhuk
Writer(s) : Darya Zhuk, Guy Cimbalo
Producer(s) : Viktorya Aleksanyan
Co-Producer(s) : Mitch Maxman
Director of Photography : Jessica Bennett
Editor(s) : Niv Klainer
Cast : Tamara Sevunts, John Rothman, Carolyn McCormick, Gerard Assante, Stephen Stapinski, Josephine Buldo, James Crichton, Mariah Lee
CUFF Film: Pitter Patter Goes My Heart, Director : Christoph Rainer
From online: http://cufilmfest.com/films/pitter-patter-goes-my-heart/
Pitter Patter Goes My Heart
Lisa's heart desires only one thing: a fountain of blood in the shape of a man.
Director : Christoph Rainer
Writer(s) : Christoph Rainer
Producer(s) : Elsa Kremser, Mark Szilagyi, Nikolai Gemel
Director of Photography : Georg Geutebrueck
Editor(s) : Roland Stöttinger
Production Design : Claudia Frank
Composer(s) : David Furrer
Sound Design : Simon Peter
Cast : Vicky Krieps, Michael Maertens, Max Reimann, Martina Schöne-Radunski, Tom Lass
CUFF Film: Stay Awake, Director : Jamie Sisley
From online: http://cufilmfest.com/films/stay-awake/
Stay Awake
Brothers, a mother, songs from the Seventies, Xanax, and a woman named Vicki. Stay Awake explores addiction and making sacrifices for people you love.
Director : Jamie Sisley
Writer(s) : Jamie Sisley
Producer(s) : Sarah Dorman
Executive Producer(s) : Jan and Lois Dorman
Co-Producer(s) : Tom Sveen, Ko-Rely Pi, Kristin Frost
Associate Producer(s) : Grace Shin Im, Constance Hofland & Craig Johnson, Paul and Suzy Cossette, Michael Pyon
Director of Photography : Alejandro Mejía
Editor(s) : Jamie Sisley
Production Design : Jennifer Donner, Miguel Martinez
Sound Design : Ryan Billia, Rumble Audio
Cast : Owen Campbell, David Rysdahl, Rebecca Harris, Lori Brown-Niang
For more information: www.jsisley.com/stayawake
Theater: Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" at BAM, April 2015
By Alicia Dhyana House
The revolutionary and Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen (1828—1906), radically changed the history of the stage by writing about the real problems in life. Ibsen’s affinity for tearing the veil off late 19th-century hypocrisies and defiantly exposing the dirty underbelly of human nature eventually garnered him the title, “Father of Modern Drama.” Ghosts, which comes to the BAM Harvey Theater April 5—May 3, tackles social conventions and their harmful consequences on domestic life, revealing a woman caught in a repressive society. It centers on widow Helene Alving who spent her life suspended in an emotional void after the death of her cruel but outwardly charming husband.
http://bam150years.blogspot.com/2015/03/haunting-ghosts.html
Dance: Mark Morris Dance Group at BAM, April 2015
From the review:
Mark Morris Dance Group’s program at the Howard Gilman Opera House includes “Crosswalk” and “Spring Spring Spring.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/arts/dance/review-mark-morris-dance-group-at-brooklyn-academy-of-music.html?_r=0
Film: Dior and I
From the movie's web site:
Dior and I brings the viewer inside the storied world of the Christian Dior fashion house with a privileged, behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Raf Simons’ first haute couture collection as its new artistic director—a true labor of love created by a dedicated group of collaborators. Melding the everyday, pressure- filled components of fashion with mysterious echoes from the iconic brand’s past, the film is also a colorful homage to the seamstresses who serve Simons’ vision.
http://www.diorandimovie.com/
http://www.diorandimovie.com/trailer
Theater: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Found online:
USA Today said the young actor was "a revelation, his movement, expressions and voice making the boy's terrors and his ferocious intelligence seem equally natural."
The New York Times described the experience as "the kind of smashing Broadway debut young actors classically dream about."
The New York Daily News said Sharp "dazzles as bright as the high wattage effects with a physical and emotionally intense star turn."
Over all, the Hollywood Reporter said the production shows the power of theater.
"It makes us want to reconsider the world around us, without missing a single one of its infinite details," it added.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Theater: Airline Highway, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, NYC April 2015
How to make it real, compared to what? Lisa D'Amour makes New Orleans feel real - the beauty and the ugly of it all is just a touch away. -dp
From the NYTimes (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/theater/lisa-damour-juggles-airline-highway-and-milton-a-tale-of-five-towns.html):
Glitter-strewn and bawdy, “Airline Highway” follows the residents of the Hummingbird Motel (located on the real strip that gives the play its name) as they plan a “living funeral” for Miss Ruby, a bedridden former burlesque queen and den mother to a motley set of hustlers, strippers and bike-riding poet-philosophers....
The connecting thread is work about people and issues that don’t normally get a dramatic spotlight. “One of the great strengths is her ear,” said Martha Lavey, artistic director of Steppenwolf. “She’s bearing witness, and I think she does it without judgment, and in a way that’s poetic and compassionate."
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Theater/Musical: The Last Ship, Neil Simon Theatre, NYC, Jan. 2014
A gorgeous and captivating show. You cannot deny the musical imagination of Sting, his emotional insights, and and his ability to capture emotion in song. Great characters on stage and a threading storyline that richly unfolded. A great piece of theatrical storytelling - I wish that "The Last Ship" could play on Broadway for years to come.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Theater: The Woodsman at 59E59, Jan. 2015
When a lonely woodsman falls for the slave of a powerful witch, will their love be enough to protect them from her wrath? From the forgotten writings of L. Frank Baum, Strangemen & Co. present a unique perspective on a classic story utilizing Bunraku puppetry and song.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Music: Ligeti String Quartet No. 1(Metamorphoses Nocturnes)
The following performance was found on Youtube.
Published on Feb 24, 2013
Performers: Federico Nathan, Nora Stankowsky violines, Mirelys Morgan viola , Natalia Diaz cello
We saw this amazing piece by Ligeti performed by other artists at Juilliard in Jan. 2015.
More about the composer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Ligeti):
Published on Feb 24, 2013
Performers: Federico Nathan, Nora Stankowsky violines, Mirelys Morgan viola , Natalia Diaz cello
We saw this amazing piece by Ligeti performed by other artists at Juilliard in Jan. 2015.
More about the composer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Ligeti):
György Sándor Ligeti (Hungarian: Ligeti György Sándor [ˈliɡɛti ˈɟørɟ ˈʃaːndor]; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century" and "one of the most innovative and influential among progressive figures of his time".[1]
Born in Transylvania, Romania, he lived in Hungary before emigrating and becoming an Austrian citizen.
...
Apart from his far-reaching interest in different types of music from Renaissance to African music, Ligeti was also interested in literature (including the writers Lewis Carroll, Jorge Luis Borges, and Franz Kafka), painting, architecture, science, and mathematics, especially the fractal geometry of Benoît Mandelbrot and the writings of Douglas Hofstadter.[12]
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Theater/Opera: The Scarlet Ibis, HERE Theater, January 2015
This is how life appears to the weak but precocious child affectionately nicknamed by his older brother as 'Doodle.'
With gifted singers and live musicians, the intimate story took shape and flew.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Joseph Silovsky’s “Send for the Million Men" at HERE Theater, NYC, Dec. 2014
"A brilliant and refreshing exploration of the vagaries of memory, the machinations of a government terrified of dissent, a stolen bicycle, mind blowing puppets, props, gizmos and in the middle of it all, many, many different views of two Italian immigrants with very clearly stated political ideals." - KC
The Here Theater.
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