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(11/19/02 4:51am)
"Saturday Night Fever," the stage version of the 1977 film that helped rocket John Travolta to stardom, will play at 8 p.m. Nov. 19 and 20 at the IU Auditorium.\nThe stage version, originally produced in London's West End, takes us back to a time when Jimmy Carter was Chief Executive, bell-bottom pants were the rave and disco was hotter than the surface of the sun. \nSNF's story starts out with an apathetic paint store clerk Tony, who is a regular at the disco Odyssey 2001 with his occasional dance partner in Annette. One night he meets Stephanie Mangano, a better dancer than Annette, and he starts to court her affections. Stephanie makes Tony realize his life his going nowhere, and can change that if he can devote the same determination and passion that he devotes to disco to the rest of his life. The story deals with Tony's rejection of Annette and a stormy relationship with Stephanie. The course of the show is set against the background of the problems of his family and friends. Is there an undertone? Yes. It is the escape from the drudgery of the 1970's working class life through the swirling lights and pulsating rhythms of disco, typified by the Bee Gees soundtrack.\nRyan Ashley is a professional DJ based in Los Angeles and is the leading man playing the role of Tony Manero. Manero says being a DJ on the side is what kept him from waiting tables to make ends meet during the rotten downturn of work for the entertainment industry following Sept. 11th. For six months he did nothing, until he joined Sir Paul McCartney on his "Driving Rain" USA tour. \n"It's really an exciting role to do," Ashley said. "Not only is he a tough guy. He's a nice guy." \nAshley said there is no relationship between how he is playing Tony and the way Travolta portrayed him on the screen.\nSNF also features hits by music group the Bee Gees. \nBorn to musical parents on Britain's Isle of Mann, the group consists of three brothers named Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. And their over 30 year career yielded many top 10 hits featured in the show. Their soundtrack for the 1977 film may be one of the largest selling soundtracks to leave the recording studios. According to a press release, music stores have sold more than 110 million copies of their other albums. They have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.\nSNF actors boogie down to several Bee Gees numbers including "Stayin' Alive," "Night Fever," and "Jive Talkin"
(11/15/02 5:25am)
Italian printmaker Mario Teleri Biason's overall demeanor was that of an artist with archetypal artistic flair and mannerisms as he spoke at the opening reception of an exhibit on Italian printmaking Nov. 8 at the IU School of Fine Arts Gallery.\nThe exhibit runs until Nov. 23. \nSpeaking with a heavy accent, Biason talked about the type of materials typically used for printmaking, which ones he preferred and how art brings the "light of knowledge."\nThe exhibit's opening is part of an agreement made between IU Professor Edward Bernstein, co-head of the Printmaking Department of the School of Fine Arts.\nIn 2000 while in Rome, Bernstein and Biason had a conversation where they proposed curating exhibits at each other's galleries. In January 2003, Bernstein will show an already-curated exhibit of eight contemporary American printmakers, selected by Masters of Fine Arts Printmaking students in his Graduate Printmaking Seminar. Il Quadrato di Omega is the gallery founded and run by Biason and Delhove.\nL'Arte della Stampa was funded by grants from the COAS Arts and Humanities Institute, Katherine Barr-Koon Fund from the Department of French and Italian, the School of Fine Arts and Bernstein's Printmaking Department donated money along with the Metals Department.\nThe eight artists chosen by Biason and Delhove range from 26- to 74-years-old and represent a large scope of techniques and ideas.\nOf the six techniques present, Bernstein said most of the prints present are made from two techniques -- etching and relief on wood.\nBernstein said etching is done with primarily copper or zinc as plates. Etched prints are made by covering the plates with wax, then scraping away the bits until it makes an image you want. An artist then covers the image with acid so it creates a trough to hold the ink when pressed against paper, thus making a print.\nThe second method present at the exhibit was relief on wood. The printmaker carves away all the parts of a slab of wood that does not look like the image wanted, then presses plate against paper to make a print.\n"Printmaking was for some time the lesser child of the visual arts, but with the mixing of media and format, this is no longer the case," Bernstein said. "Therefore, in some ways printmaking is really at the cutting edge of contemporary art-making both here and in Europe."\nPrintmaking is involved in so many aspects of art making -- from traditional printmaking techniques to digital imaging and mixed media -- that many people are using printmaking in some way all the time, Bernstein said.\n"Art is not a style," Biason said. "Art is improving on something day by day…I'm upset with art historians because they don't think printmaking is art."\nBernstein, an art historian and self-proclaimed "Italio-phile," said he feels Biason's anger is directed specifically at Italian historians -- not art historians as a whole.\nOn Nov. 12, Biason and Delhove hosted a lecture on "Contemporary Printmaking and Art in Italy."\nThe gallery's hours are Tuesday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m., and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. For more information call 855-8490.
(11/14/02 5:40am)
Located at 312 S. Washington St. are the offices of a Bloomington theater company founded 22 years ago in 1980 by two IU Masters of Fine Arts students Tom Moseman and Jimmie Leonard. The two founded the continually financially troubled arts organizations so there would be another venue for local artists to perform as well as have their work performed. \nThe mission of the Bloomington Playwrights Project, according to their Web site, is "dedicated to the furthering of new original plays and theatre." This mission statement fulfills a two-fold purpose; it allows beginning playwrights an opportunity to have their scripts produced, which is something that a small minority of writers can ever do successfully. And it provides the not-for-profit arts organization with a cheap way of getting material to the stage. \nThe organization performs original works largely generated from beginning playwrights and obtained through play reading contests. It is, of course, much cheaper to get scripts from talented locals than to pay Bobbs-Merrill or Samuel French the royalties.\nThe original scripts become the mainstage shows the BPP mounts seven times a year.\nIn addition to these main stage shows, the BPP also shows strong traces of being an experimental theater company with its "Dark Alley Series." The "Dark Alley Series," was founded during the 2001-2002 season by former Artistic Director Richard Ford. These short plays run no more than an hour, and play close to 35 minutes after the main stage show on the billing ends. \nIt's almost like movies in the days of the studio system. You go to the theater, see a little show of some kind and then watch a main attraction. \n"The 'Dark Alley Series' offers theater that cannot be done elsewhere due to its short length and its content," Dark Alley Series Producer Rick Fonte said. "Very few places in the U.S. feature new plays like the BPP does. Even fewer feature new plays of a short length, and I'm sure even fewer of questionable decency -- the IU community has really embraced the edgy shows we've been able to include in the series."\nFollowing Ford's leaving the BPP to pursue other interests, current Artistic Director Richard Perez came to Bloomington with a B.A. in theater from Hunter College in New York City and has an M.F.A. in performance from Arizona State University. Perez has also worked at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. His acting experience includes being a former apprentice at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville where Perez appeared in the Humana Festival's world premiere of Arthur Kopit's "The Road to Nirvana" with Julianne Moore. Perez's "Secret Things" was chosen as a participant in the Director's Project at New York's Lincoln Center this summer.\nAnother sideline of the BPP's is its Cabaret Nouveau Series created by current Marketing Director Candace Decker. Cabaret Nouveau runs year round with eight different selections created by local artists. The cabaret is a mix of traditional cabarets with songs and stories, with other less orthodox original one-person shows, usually focused on the star's life. Two Cabaret's have been performed so far this season. The most recent being by IU M.F.A. student Carmen Meyers called "Hot, Wet, Fun" based off the actors life issues including marriage.\n"I created the Cabaret Nouveau Series because before moving to Bloomington I worked as an actress/cabaret singer in Chicago and Washington D.C. I had just completed a program called the NY Cabaret Symposium as a fellow where I worked with National and International cabaret artists," Decker said. "It was a life changing experience for me personally and as an artist. I found I was able to create, write, perform my own show, and I was perfectly cast as me. It was very empowering."\nWhile the Cabaret has a faithful following, its days may be numbered.\nDecker may soon be leaving. Her husband Steve is a third year M.F.A. student, and if work can't be found in Bloomington, the two will have to pull up stakes, Sonja Johnson, volunteer director of development for the BPP, said.\nWhile producing and staging plays is the main mission of the BPP, Johnson said no theater company can survive without additional means of income beyond ticket sales. The BPP has educational programs including a School of Dramatic Arts, or SODA as its called, a mini-play festival in March of 2003, and a Youth Theatre Ensemble.\nSODA is "Classes for kids ages 8 to 80," according to BPP's Web site.\nSODA classes are offered to anyone from the age of 8 to 80, and include instruction in playwriting, acting, directing, technical theater, musical theater, storytelling and can even cater to the class clown. There's a class on clowning. \nJohnson calls SODA the BPP's most significant program.\n"They introduce theater to people of all ages. It begins to build an audience of the future…as well as theater artists of the future," Johnson said.\nThe Mini-Play Festival is a program where area school age children can write and submit a script to a judging panel of artists. The winners can then have their plays produced.\nIn June, Shakespeare is performed, and in July, a musical is produced as part of the Youth Theatre Ensemble. This is one of the rare times the BPP does non-original work, and it is designed to give exposure of classical theater to children.\nRevived for the 2003 season is the organization's Diversity Play Festival in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. held January 20. This is the only program that is free of charge to the public, Johnson said. The festival's message is "That people really are different from one another in significant ways, but they also are profoundly similar in their search for happiness, meaningfulness, love, acceptance, shelter, nourishment and so on," Johnson said.\nWhile the BPP is an operation whose mission is devoted to the bettering of the Bloomington area, it does garner national attention with its annual Reva Shiner Full Length Play Contest. Every year the Reva Shiner contest rewards an unproduced full-length play with a cash prize and a full production as part of the theater's season. \nThe contest is advertised in several venues devoted to playwriting including the "The Dramatist's Sourcebook," which is published every two years. \nDoug Bedwell, the BPP's literary manager, said the contest is also given space in the "The Dramatists Guild Resource Directory." \n"This is a handbook published annually by the Dramatists Guild, and is only available to members of the Guild," Bedwell said. "The Dramatists Guild is an organization of and for professional playwrights, the closest thing we have to a union." \nSubmissions have come from Alaska to Hawaii.\nThe BPP obtains its funding through ticket sales as well as grants from corporations and state and federal agencies including the Indiana Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, and operates on a yearly budget of between $130,000 and $150,000.\nFor information about the BPP's education/outreach programs such as SODA, or for ticketing information, call (812) 334-1188.
(11/11/02 11:07pm)
"Cubic Zirconia" opened at 10 p.m. Thursday at the Bloomington Playwright's Project following the mainstage show "Kate Crackernuts." Written by Keith Tadrowski and created through the Chicago Dramatists Workshop, the show is satirical in its depiction of what goes on in dysfunctional homes where husbands are physically and emotionally abusive, and the wives are lushes.\nThe show ran 20 minutes and is directed by IU senior theater major Brad Fletcher. Fletcher did a great job directing his cast, who acted well. They performed an abrasive, disgusting and unimaginative script wonderfully.\nTadrowski's show has a little to be desired -- like quality. The show consisted of the physically abusive husband Roger walking around and kicking the crutch out from under the arm of his wife, Madge. Madge, by the way, has a crutch because Roger tripped her as she went down a flight of stairs. \nEarly in the show, while waiting for dinner guests, Roger goes off to look at what Madge calls his "collection of lesbian porn." After the other couple, Don and June, arrive, the audience hears Roger off stage enjoying his collection.\nThroughout the remaining part of the 20 minutes, the foursome trades barbs and cusses the paint off the walls.\nRoger's off stage asexual delight was cheap and revolting. What purpose did hearing the sounds of masturbation and shouting instructions to the women of his fantasies have?\n"Cubic Zirconia" is definitely one of those shows written by an aspiring playwright who was bound and bent to transmit some kind of message in his play. And to be perfectly honest, if there was one, I sure didn't see it. I felt bad for the four actors when they made their bows. I almost wished director Fletcher would have pulled the fire alarm so their misery could have ended by the show's untimely end.\nBecause the show opened at 10:30 p.m. on a Thursday night, it was up against a lot. Thursday night is not a prime opening night by any means, and 10:30 p.m. is way too close to many people's witching hour. There were other things against this play when it was finally over, like the audience. What audience? We could have all gone home in one cab; all three of us.
(11/08/02 5:05am)
I saw Camilla Williams, the 83-year-old opera soprano and the first black professor of voice at IU, sing 8 black spirituals to a crowd of over 100 at the Neal Marshal Education Center on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Williams performance was sponsored by the Collins Living Learning Center.\nWilliams is a ground-breaking performer. She was the first black performer to get a contract with the New York City Opera and then appear in a role not specifically written for a black performer. She played Cio-Cio San in "Madame Butterfly" in 1946. Williams soon played leading roles in Puccini's "La Boheme," Bizet's "Carmen," and Verdi's "Aida." After a 1947 recital in Richmond, Va., a critic with the Times-Dispatch said Williams could "create compelling moods in the realms of both beauty and deep pathos." \nBut while the art world recognized her talent and not her color, while touring she was still made to take the most expensive rooms while her white colleagues were allowed cheaper ones. And in some cases, she had to stay in people's homes, as hotels wouldn't take her in. Williams helped to overcome segregation when she sang at the 1963 Washington rally where Dr. Martin Luther King made his now famous speech "I Have A Dream."\nWhen she let out the first bars of "Ride on King Jesus," I was taken aback. I wasn't expecting her to belt out such a perfectly pitched note with her crystal clear vocal chords. The levels she put her voice at throughout her selections of the evening were amazing. The ups and the down were all performed with great agility as she sang other numbers like "This Little Light of Mine," and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."\nThe voice is a physical instrument. And just like the rest of the body, age takes its toll. But her voice was just as firm as her skin and as strong as her zest for life. There were a few points throughout the work where I thought she might be straining. And indeed there were certainly some points where she was a little crispy. But that is to be expected. Williams is an artist past her prime. But unlike Liza Minelli's recent appearance on Larry King Live, Williams didn't make an idiot out of herself trying to hit notes she couldn't. \nShe chose her pieces very carefully. They were simple, easy, and non-intricate pieces with chords easy for the veteran soprano to reach.\nOf Williams' performance, Dr. Estelle Jorgensen of the IU School of Music said, "She still sings with clarity and sweetness with great emotion and feeling." \nDr. Iris Yob, Academic Coordinator of the Collins LLC and says the event had been in planning since the fall of 2001 when an instructor named Stephanie Shonekan who teaches at the residence center proposed a class to Yob called "Black Women in Music." Of the class Yob says, "the course taught about diversity, arts, and had academic rigor." \nConcerning Williams, Yob continued, calling her "one of the treasures of the music world. We are very privileged to have her as a subject of inquiry in one of our Collins courses and her performance tonight for Collins and the whole community"
(10/28/02 5:13am)
Beverly Sills, 73, the noted operatic soprano who has appeared on stage in more than 70 roles spoke at 3:30 p.m. Friday in Auer Hall. The IU Foundation sponsored her visit. Sills will also attend the third annual presentation of the Herman B Wells Visionaries Awards, given at a dinner later Friday evening.\nGwyn Richards, dean of the IU School of Music, introduced Sills to a crowd of roughly 250 people by calling her "a cultural icon and national treasure." He then spoke for a few minutes repeating what he told the IDS earlier last week when he said he felt it was ironic that Sills would speak at IU on the same day "Julius Caesar" would open at the IU Opera, a work important to Sills' career. So important that following her opening night of "Julius Caesar" in 1967 with the New York City Opera, Sills received invitations to then appear at many of the world's most well-regarded opera venues, including La Scala and Covent Garden.\nSills entered the stage dressed in a black, loose-fitting dress and proceeded to speak about her career from its beginning to her current title as Chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera. Sills spoke for 55 minutes and talked about fond memories of her mother's efforts in fighting against her father for Sill's right to enter a music career, which began on popular radio children's shows like "Major Bowes Amateur Hour," whose number of listeners was second only to those of dead-pan master Jack Benny. After recording her first singing radio commercial for a laundry detergent, Sills said her mother hoped she would surpass Shirley Temple.\nJames Patterson, a professor in the Kelley School of Business who enjoys the opera and listens to it for relaxation, said he thought she was humorous.\n"I thought she brought in some nice family ties and pleasant memories," he said.\nSills, who may have been the highest paid opera singer in the world, spoke seriously of her multi-decade career as an opera diva. She mentioned an incident where on a radio show as a little girl she said she wanted a sled for Christmas. Within a week, she had over 60 of them sent to her by listeners. In another anecdote about her mother and father, Sills recounted an incident when her mother got a piano. When her father asked what it was, Sills' mother came back with: "Don't worry, it's something to put your ash tray on."\n"I very much enjoyed the lecture by Ms. Sills," IUB Chancellor Sharon Brehm said. "She is a warm and engaging speaker, and tells wonderful stories about her life and times. She is also an inspiring role model for all of us, though perhaps particularly for women. Her drive, determination, talent and great sense of humor obviously all contributed to her enormous success."\nFollowing the conclusion of Sills' talk, she invited the audience to ask questions. Sills' final comment during the question session was "Don't be taken in by other people's opinions…be true to yourself"
(10/28/02 4:11am)
Brilliant. Excellent. Powerful. These arethe words that describe the Saturday night performance of Eugene O'Neill's "A Moon for the Misbegotten." The show opened Friday at the Wells-Metz Theatre on Jordan Ave.\n"Moon" is set in a beat-up farm house in 1923 Connecticut, with drinking pals James Tyrone, Jr. (Ira Amyx) and tenant farmer Phil Hogan (Chris Nelson) amusing themselves while in a drunken stupor. In a casual joke, Tyrone says he'll sell his farm and evict Hogan. Hogan, now afraid for his home and way of life, schemes to manipulate the affections between Tyrone and his daughter Josie, played by Sheila Regan.\nThe symbolic curtain rose at 8 p.m. on the dot with Josie milling about the rock-dotted farm, wielding her Irish accent. Normally I consider an accent to be cheap blocking if done badly. Regan's mastery of the accent was continually good and consistent. Her character was the irreverent tomboy who helped her father work the farm who seemed to have classified ads larger than most of the men she supposedly slept with. Her warmth, and range of emotions from happy to angry, from caring to hateful, continually kept the audience paying attention and falling in love with her honesty as a person and as a down to earth country girl.\nJames Tyrone (Ira Amyx) started out the show demonstrating a lack of projection and clarity. I strained to hear him, and he was monotone in his delivery. I basically gave up on him until the third act. And boy, did he come around. His monologue in the third act as he leaned himself on the breasts of Josie talking about his guilt over his mother's death, and his battle with booze brought tears to the woman next to me. I can understand that. I've seen some things on stage that almost made me cry. It wasn't because I liked them, either.\nIf Amyx hadn't have held himself back against his two counterparts earlier in the show, we wouldn't have seen the powerful contrast we did. Amyx is a character actor who captured beautifully the desperate expression of an alcoholic looking for a drink who then became a mean drunk. He played the part showing the inner psyche of someone haunted by bad memories, regrets and the feeling of emptiness depression and addiction brings.\nThe play moved well throughout. The pacing was excellent. It moved at a constant level of energy with distinct levels plunging first into depression, pulling out of it with a laugh line, and then repeating the process. The dialogue was delivered flawlessly. I only recount one or two stumblings that Josie made. IU Physics professor Bennet Brabson sat behind me. When we talked about the show, the first thing he mentioned was the nice closed ending.\n"A Moon for the Misbegotten" is a definite must-see, enhanced by the three-tiered Shakespeare style theatre-in-the-round at the Wells-Metz theatre. Director Steve Decker did a great job tackling one of the most complex works ever written by an American playwright. His talent will serve him well, and I don't usually review things that nicely.
(10/25/02 7:04pm)
Eugene O'Neill was the only American playwright to win the Nobel Prize, and the last work written before his death "A Moon for the Misbegotten" will run for 10 performances beginning tonight (Friday) at the Wells-Metz Theatre.\nThe realist playwright Eugene O'Neill explores the frailty of the human condition by using well drawn characters, humorous despair and does so with the skill that makes him the noted dramatist of the 20th century he is.\n"Moon" is set in a beat-up farm house in 1923 Connecticut, with drinking pals James Tyrone, Jr. (Ira Amyx) and tenant farmer Phil Hogan (Chris Nelson) amusing themselves while in a drunken stupor. In a casual joke, Tyrone says he'll sell his farm and evict Hogan. Hogan, now afraid for his home and way of life, schemes to manipulate the affections between Tyrone and his daughter Josie, played by Sheila Regan.\nThe two "misbegotten" lovers come to understand the love and lies that stain their pasts and futures. And they then seek a measure of redemption that might grant them hope. \nDirecting the show is Steven Decker. Decker's past credits include directing a production of "True West" and the 2001 T300 Studio Theatre production of "Fish in the Desert." \nThe work still has social value despite its age, says Decker "I think about the world we live in today- increasingly isolated, many single parents raising children the best they can, addiction is on the rise, some quest for fame over substance, everyone living with regret...we see it all in this play."\nWritten by O'Neill as an act of homage to his brother, who drank himself to death in 1923. And a year after the death of their mother, the play is about being able to love and be loved despite the masks we wear even with those closest to us. \nOf director Decker, Chris Nelson says, "He is laid back but also intense. He has ways of getting the best of his actors without telling them too much…He is passionate about what de does, and I feel that more often than not, that passion will rub off on al those having to do with the production."\nTwo opportunities are being offered to learn more about the playwright and production itself. The IU Department of Theatre and Drama interim chairman Ronald Wainscott delivered a lecture on Thursday on lobby mezzanine in the Theatre and Drama Center at 7th and Jordan. Wainscott is a noted scholar on 19th and 20th Century drama and has also studied Eugene O'Neill. The lecture is free and open to the public. On Tuesday, Oct. 29 there will be a curtain talk with the company, directors, and designers following the performance. \nHarvey Cocks is a former Broadway performer and theatre/film historian who supports the notion devised by scholars at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland: "O'Neill is the paternal figure of the American stage. His works serve as a transition from escapist melodrama to work that show a mental depth with techniques considered experimental. He used masks. His influence shows in the writings of the likes of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Edward Albee."\nA "A Moon for the Misbegotten" plays October 25, 26 and 28 through November 2 at 8 p.m. On both Saturdays of the run, there will be a 2 p.m. matinee. Tickets can be purchased at the IU Auditorium Box Office and through TicketMaster at (812) 333-9955 or (317) 743-5151. For more ticketing information, call 812-855-1103. Tickets are $15. $13 for students and seniors. Parking is available at the Jordan Avenue Parking Garage or the Lilly Library lot.\nAs a special note to IU students, at 30 minutes prior the start of any performance all students with a valid ID may purchase a ticket for $10 cash, a $3 savings from the normal price.
(10/25/02 4:42am)
IU Graduate Student Carmen Meyers will star in a cabaret of her own creation opening tonight at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, 312 S. Washington St. \n"Hot Wet Fun" is the title that came from an inspiration Meyers had while in Brown County.\n"… I spotted a beautiful little chapel, with a sign reading: Wedding Chapel. And underneath in bold black letters Hot Wet Fun," she said in a BPP Press Release. "I thought any wedding where you could offer "Hot Wet Fun" to all in attendance was something to consider. So I decided to offer the same to my audience."\nMeyers is no stranger to the stage. She appeared last season in the BPP's Dark Alley series production of "The Dream Journal" by John Drago, another IU MFA student. She has been seen in "Cole" at the Brown County Playhouse. Meyers has also performed in IU Theatre Department productions including "Noises Off" and Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman."\nRichard Perez, Artistic Director of the BPP, spoke of cabaret performers and the music they choose when he said "A lot of singers will take music that relates to their experiences and they weave that around a theme."\nMeyers is basing her cabaret around the themes of life, love, motherhood, aging and getting married, and marriage is currently very pertinent to Meyers' life, as she was recently engaged to Richard Perez. \nThe Artistic Director denies the engagement influenced his judgment the work had artistic value. The issue seems to be immaterial since much theatrical collaboration is marriage based. \nMeyers comes to Bloomington having earned a Bachelor's in Fine Arts from Arizona State University in 2001. Reflective of her credentials, she graduated from the Shakespeare Theatre Summer Conservatory in the nation's capital and the Southwest Shakespeare Conservatory in Phoenix, Arizona.\nSonja Johnson, a retired IU administrator, now serves as the BPP's Development Director.\n"The first Cabaret was enormously successful in that it was wonderfully entertaining, completely original and of very high quality," Johnson said. "I've seen Carmen in only one show. 'Dream Journal' (one of our Dark Alley shows) at the BPP last April. She was excellent"
(10/21/02 3:10pm)
Beverly Sills, the noted operatic soprano who has graced the stage in more than 70 roles and was recently made chairwoman of the Metropolitan Opera, will visit IU Friday. She does so on behalf of the IU Foundation and will participate in ceremonies related to the third annual Herman B. Wells Visionaries Awards.\nSills is scheduled to speak at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the IU School of Music's Auer Hall, capable of seating 352 people. The overflow can watch Sills via a remote feeding in Sweeney Hall. Both Auer and Sweeney halls are located in the Simon Music Center at Third and Jordan, near the Musical Arts Center.\nIn the evening, Sills will speak again at a private dinner where the awards will be presented. The Visionaries Awards make note of those who have shown vision, entrepreneurial spirit and a record of outstanding achievement. Sarah Beggs, the IU Foundation coordinator of special projects, says this spirit embodies someone "who dreams to do something a little better than it was done before." Past speakers include former Amer-ican Red Cross President and current North Carolina senatorial hopeful Elizabeth Dole. Secretary of State Colin Powell has also spoken.\nSills will arrive in Bloomington early Friday morning and leave the same evening traveling by a jet donated by an unnamed benefactor. Beggs said the Foundation paid Sills an undisclosed speaker's fee to attend. Beggs said, "She has agreed to come because of the reputation of Dr. Wells and the School of Music."\nWhen asked why the Foundation recruited Sills for the Wells' Visionaries Award event, Beggs said, "She is far greater than the music she performs. She is an activist for humanitarian causes … She loves music and people, and so did Dr. Wells."\nBeggs continued, "It seemed a natural fit to bring someone whose world could connect so well with our School of Music."\nChancellor Sharon Brehm said she was delighted to hear Sills was speaking.\n"She is one of the best opera singers of all time," Brehm said. "Anybody who knows anything about opera will not disagree with that."\nBrehm said she will be attending the awards dinner.\nGwyn Richards, Dean of the IU School of Music, says of the visit, "It's ironic Sills will be in Bloomington on the same day we open Handel's Julius Caesar, an opera important to her career. With that work she made lasting impression on the cultural life of this country."\nSills was born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn, N.Y. Sills is a performer some would call dazzling and is known the world over. The opera star has performed at such venues as The Met, the New York City Opera -- a place she was General Director from 1980-1990 -- La Scala and with many of the major opera companies that dot the globe. \nSills can back her talent up with a diverse grouping of awards including a Grammy, the European Edison Award and two Emmy's. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the New York City Handel Medallion, Kennedy Center Honors, and honorary academic degrees from 14 institutions of higher learning. Earlier this October, Sills was selected with a handful of other artists to receive the 2002 New York Heroes Award, the highest honor bestowed by the New York Chapter of the Recording Academy. \nSills is a leading spokeswoman for the arts in the United States. She serves on the President's Task Force on the Arts, and puts in an appearance at every White House function connected with the arts. She is also a panelist of the National Endowment for the Arts.\nIn a statement released by IU last week, Sills said, "Art is the signature of civilization"
(10/18/02 4:57am)
Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" opened last Friday night at the John Waldron Arts Center located at 122 S. Walnut Street. The show was directed by Terence Hartnett and based on the 1997 Tony Award winning pseudo-adaptation by Frank McGuiness.\n"A Doll's House" is about a middle-class world where a married pair slowly reveals itself to be based on a few deceptions; the threatening darkness shadows the once bright light. Questions about marriage, family, middle-class respectability and social justice turn out to be fictions? Could the world of financial freedom Nora glimpses at the play's beginning become a prison? For Nora to find the answers she must sort out her obligations to her family, but also to herself. And throughout the course of the show, all these issues are dealt with.\nBy the time I got done navigating my Buick, fondly called the Red Hornet, and getting lost in the parking garage it was just after 7:30 p.m. People had already started filing into the theater, converted from an old ballroom or large meeting room. The place had hardwood floors and five rows of seats set up on risers and could hold 120 people.\nSince the play was set in the United States during the hoppin' era of the 1950s, we were serenaded by the sounds of vocalists like Patty Page and the tunes like "We're Having A Heat Wave."\nMike Price plays Torvald, the male lead. Torvald is an ambitious character with high morals and an inflated sense of male superiority. That's right. He's a first class chauvinist -- and more of an oinker than Porky Pig. Price said his lines with good inflection and timing. He also played the self-righteous husband who thinks he has the world on a string. The character is frustrating not only because he is a pig, but also because he draws conclusions out of things that he shouldn't. And no matter how wrong he is, he's always right. Torvald (Price) conveys the exact feelings that many men had towards their wives in not only the time Ibsen originally wrote the play (1879) but also in the same time period the script Hartnett is using was set.\nStephanie Harrison played subservient wife Nora. Nora always seems to have inklings of wanting independence from male domination throughout the entire show. She wants to be free just enough so she'll flex her independent minded muscle at her husband. But when she thinks the frying pan is getting just a little too warm for comfort, she immediately plays herself more submissively to make Torvald forgive her socially unacceptable behavior. Harrison, through most of the show, said her lines much too slowly and said them like Nora was reading them instead of saying them. But some Nora is better than no Nora. In another scene where she is doing a Tango so as to distract her husband, the maid comes in and says dinner is ready. Then Nora asks champagne be served at dinner. After that Tango, I could have used a little champagne myself. But by the time the third act comes around, Nora definitely comes into her own.\nKris Lee was the most notable actor in the show. Lee plays Kronagard and continually came across as a personality most at home on a stage. Lee's character was very subdued and he did well making his voice sound older than he really is. He plays the conniver out to save his neck. While he is explaining something that is a major plot driver, he does so the same way Lt. Colombo would when he's trying to get a murderer to confess by going through the crime step by step.\nDirector Hartnett was up against a lot when he directed this show running 160 minutes including 2 ten-minute intermissions. When Ibsen wrote the play, it was the norm to construct things as long and to be delivered at a much slower pace than we in the United States theater crowd are used to. And the script he was using wasn't a condensed version, it was a translation. While the first act did run slower than what I think it should have, he did a job well done. \nBut when the third act came up, I thought it would move a little faster than the first. I was wrong. The third act had Nora making a goodbye so long, if she would have been doing it before she got on a train in Los Angeles, by the time she was done, the train would have pulled into Rochester, New York.\nBecause of the way Ibsen dared to write about women's rights in the time he did, as well as the way he structured the script, made him a revolutionary, the show would be informative and people would be well served to see it. It is a valuable social commentary.\nSeries tickets for the 10th Anniversary Performance Series and individual tickets for "A Doll's House" are available at the John Waldron Arts Center located at 122 S. Walnut St. Telephone (812)-334-3100 ext. 102. You may also purchase tickets at the Sunrise Box Office at 112 E. Kirkwood Ave. (812)-339-7641. Tickets are $12 general admission; $10 for students and seniors. Members of the BAAC receive a discount.\nPerformances are scheduled for 8 p.m. today and tomorrow and Oct. 25 to 26. There is a 2 p.m. matinee Oct. 20.
(10/11/02 5:02am)
The Indiana University School of Music's Orchestra concert was impressive, despite the fact that the house was small. Just over 100 people attended, most of whom probably qualified for membership to AARP.\nApplause greeted the first conductor of the evening, Christiaan Crans, who led the players through "Christoph Willibald Gluck's Overture to Iphigenie in Aulide," composed in 1774. Crans was dressed in white tie and tails while he perched himself atop his podium.\nWhile this number played, the stage was filled with a sea of bows moving in unison creating notes with a perfectly pleasant pitch. I heard a few people say the violins didn't hit a couple of notes. That wasn't what my ears heard. Continually, the musicians were on top of the notes, and more often than not the violins led the charge as the most noticeable section of the orchestra during Gluck. This kept with the period because at the time Gluck wrote, it was stylistically and artistically important for a composer of this era to structure the piece as he did. It was essential that an instrument led a particular section, with lower sounding instruments picking up the bass line.\nWhen Crans was finished, he bowed and then walked off stage. As is custom, he then returned for another bow or two and surrendered the stage to Maestro David Effron.\nEffron, in his well-tailored tails, brought to the stage class and confidence in himself. He then led the orchestra in Charles Ives' "1898 Symphony No. 1." \nEffron has a style unique to anything else I've seen. At times he conducted while crouching the way you do when you're playing Tug-of-War. And he tugged the best out of his orchestra the whole way through Ives' "Symphony." The audience saw the bowers bow and the drummers drum magnificently.\nParts of "Symphony No. 1" caused me to bring up images from the back of my mind of a surf hitting the beach with overcast skies and the squawk of the sea gulls flying. I felt it should be the closing moments of a sad film where someone cast another's ashes into the wash. I think it was because a few of the chords sounds a bit like "Amazing Grace."\nIt's too bad there was only roughly a quarter of a house to be as moved by the piece as I was.\nNext came a piece by Edward Elgar called "Nimrod" taken from "Enigma Variations." The selection was dedicated to the late Georgia Marriott and following its end, there was a moment of silence before the intermission.\nThe last work of the night was Robert Schumann and his "Symphony No. 2 in C Maj. Op. 61."\nI couldn't also help but notice Effron reminded me of one of the Bugs Bunny cartoons. It was the one where he mimics the late Leopold of Stowkowski fame. I can only compare him to the Bugs Bunny rendition since I was never lucky enough to see Stowkowski himself. The gestures made by Bugs and Effron included the stern look, the hand that used half the fingers as though they were calling someone closer to them, and the bounce on the platform.\nWhat I'm trying to do is point out not only can Effron lead an orchestra, but he is a fantastic performer as well. He is an excellent bonus to an already excellent orchestra. Without his personality, the night would not have been nearly as memorable.\nI simply can't wait to see Effron lead the School of Music Orchestra again.
(10/11/02 5:01am)
Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" will open at the John Waldron Arts Center tonight at 8 p.m. and will run until Oct. 26. The show is produced by the Bloomington Area Arts Council and in cooperation with Detour Productions. It is the second production commemorating the 10th anniversary of the John Waldron Arts Center.\nAs Ibsen wrote it in his original script, there is a youthful woman named Nora (played by Stephanie Harrison) who becomes spiritually aware because of a series of encounters she has with those from the outside world, and also through a disappointing event with her husband Torvald (Mike Price).\nThroughout their lives together, Nora and Torvald were never blessed with money, but Torvald gets a new job and will earn a lot more money. The future is bright.\nWhen the middle-class world that the married pair enters proves to be based on a few deceptions, threatening darkness shadows their once bright light. Could marriage, family, middle-class respectability and social justice turn out to be fictions? Could the world of financial freedom Nora glimpses at the play's beginning become a prison? For Nora to find the answers she must sort out her obligations to her family, but also to herself.\nWhile Ibsen wrote the work originally in 1879, the Detour Productions version fast forwards itself in time to the 1950s, using a 1997 Tony Award winning adaptation by Frank McGuiness. Director Terrance Hartnett says the Detour version addresses "what women and men experience when relationships are overshadowed by economic concerns."\nFort Wayne resident Harvey Cocks, a Broadway veteran who lived the life of a pro in New York for more than 25 year, saw the 1997 Frank McGuiness adaptation of "A Doll's House," and said there is little difference between the original script and the McGuiness piece. \n"God, it was just a marvelous production," Cocks said. \nHe said the only changes were updating the script and getting rid of the melodrama Ibsen used. A new structure was created. "A Doll's House" slaps tradition in the face. At the time, it was normal to have the first act offer an exposition or character development. The second act would show a situation, and finally the third act would show the unraveling. Ibsen got rid of the unraveling part, and turned it into a discussion.\nThe unraveling is where the pace slows down and a conclusion comes into play. Ibsen just decided to have a discussion. For instance, Nora tells Torvald they should sit down and talk about what happened between them. \nAndrew Welfle, a stage manager for a Fort Wayne theater company, said "A Doll's House" is a realist play keeping with Ibsen's style. \n"The theme of the play revolves around the idea that people aren't happy when they fall into the mold of someone else," Welfle said. "To be happy, people have to know themselves. Nora followed her father and husband through her whole life and never learned to know herself."\nSeries tickets for the 10th Anniversary Performance Series and individual tickets for "A Doll's House" are available at the John Waldron Arts Center located at 122 S. Walnut St. Telephone (812)-334-3100 ext. 102. You may also purchase tickets at the Sunrise Box Office at 112 E. Kirkwood Ave. (812)-339-7641. Tickets are $12 general admission, and $10 for students and seniors. Members of the BAAC receive a discount. Performance dates are Oct. 11,12, 17-19, 25 and 26 at 8 pm. Matinees are Oct.13 and 20 beginning at 2 p.m.
(10/03/02 5:40am)
Indiana native and fashion mogul Bill Blass will be honored with his first career retrospective called Bill Blass: An American Designer at the IU Art Museum starting Saturday. The exhibit runs through Dec. 17.\nThe show is also being presented in conjunction with the Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume Collection, an IU organization evolving from a teaching resource in 1937 to the collection of over 19,000 items now.\nThe opening reception is 6:30 p.m. Friday at the museum. Cocktail attire is suggested.\nOtherwise the museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. Exhibits are free and open to the public.\nBlass, who died last June 12 at age 79, was from Fort Wayne and made the arrangements before his death. The show spans his 50-plus year career in the fashion industry. In this retrospective of the fashion figures' work will be some of the most important ensembles he designed.\nKathleen Rowold is the curator of the Elizabeth Sage Historical Costume Collection, and is responsible for the Blass exhibit. Rowold said the planning for this event goes back to 1998 when she and three other friends and associates of Blass' approached him. \nAnne Bass, an Indianapolis native, is a devoted customer now living in New York. The other two were IU graduates who knew Blass through their work in the fashion industry and department stores carrying the label.\nThe foursome met with Blass in a lunch meeting that Rowold says lasted a couple of hours. Rowold says Blass was "Very, very witty, very charming, very bright, a great conversationalist." She continues "he was a grand gentleman in the old world sense…very chivalrous."
(10/02/02 4:31am)
Director David Baker and his jazz ensemble opened with its first concert of the 2002-03 season to a crowd of over 200 Monday night at the Musical Arts Center. The event was free and open to the public.\nA noticeable number of the jazz lovers in the audience were today's senior citizens who danced to jazz when it first became widespread the way they did to Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey of the swing era. But the main crowd appeared to be IU students out to enjoy a free evening's entertainment.\nThe personnel strolled too slowly onto the stage just after 8 p.m. with their equipment set up just in front of a beautiful royal purple grand drape. They were applauded for demonstrating to the audience that they could indeed walk 50 feet without tripping. But future applause during the evening was well deserved by these musicians.\nThe concert featured a set list of ten numbers, and all the tunes were pleasing to my tone-deaf, but selective ear.\nThe most memorable tune was the second of the evening, and was called "The Joy of Cookin," written by Sammy Nestico. On this number Benjamin Cord wielded his trumpet with smooth and clean transitions and yielded a great deal of applause from an appreciative audience.\nAlso noticed during this number, and throughout the rest of the show was ivory tickler Paul Johnson whose notes laid an excellent undertone to all of the night's music.\nDirector David Baker has a stage presence equally stylized to the "let your hair down style" that jazz gives off. He was a treat to watch. When he wasn't facing his musicians tapping and sliding his feet, his fingers snapping out the beat, he was stage left with a profile to the audience gawking at his players and enjoying the sounds of his labor.\nAnd enjoy the sounds he should, for they were soothing and casual and everything jazz should be.\nAnother number whose notes were noticed were two movements from David Baker's own work "The Celebration Suite" written for the IU Law School centennial. One movement called "A Crystal Tear" was first to be played and the audience saw Karl Liechty on the Alto Sax with Wes Wagner on the guitar. The next movement of the suite is called "Jam Session" and featured Liechty and Wagner a second time.
(09/26/02 4:00am)
One of the most well-known characters in world literature is that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.\nDoyle's creation of the world's most famous consulting detective through his short stories in the London-based Strand magazine have been performed on both the stage and screen. Almost as soon as silent films came about, a 1915 picture was made featuring one of Doyle's pieces. Most notably, Holmes and his faithful chronicler Dr. John H. Watson were played in the early days of radio by the last remains of the Victorian theater in Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson. In the 1940s, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce played the roles. In a BBC series, Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke played the roles, their collaboration continuing into the mid-1990s.\nBut with the incredibly huge number of films being produced now and in the past, many titles go by the wayside and are forgotten. It's a tragedy that even of few of my favorite Holmes titles have also become forgotten cans of celluloid.\nTwo of these are 1978's "Murder by Decree" and 1988's "Without A Clue." One is a clever intertwining of historical fiction, while the other is pure, mad-cap satire of the Holmes and Watson personas.\nYou're all familiar with the whole Jack the Ripper thing, right? You know, crazy guy in black goes around knocking off harlots in Londons slums. Well, in "Murder by Decree" Holmes and Watson are mixed in with Jack the Ripper.\nThe film stars Christopher Plummer and the affable James Mason. Mason plays Watson with an excellent amount of seriousness balanced with charm, humor, and patriotic fervor to the Empire he served in India.\nMason's acting capability is unique in that he can convey meaning with conservative body movements, but also with excellent control over his melodic, rhythmic voice. His inflection is so near perfection, that no matter what the scene -- complaining about a pea, cheering a future monarch or bashing some scoundrel with his walking stick -- he never has to raise his voice above conversation volume. It is sheer pleasure to watch Mason's portrayal of Dr. Watson. He is perhaps the most believable and honest actor to play Watson in a film version. \nPlummer's portrayal of Holmes is also unique. Doyle's original analytical, almost cold-hearted and very impersonable Holmes was played quite the opposite by Plummer. Plummer played Holmes with the normal attributes of great observation, analytical skills and dogged pursuit of justice. But he also played the role with a sense of humanity that isn't seen often. He plays Holmes with a sense of humor -- he and Watson laugh together about Watson's ability to get himself into trouble. There is one scene where Holmes is greatly disturbed that he can do nothing for a damsel in distress and he shows an intense anger and even sheds tears. Untrue to Doyle, yes, but a good way to freshen up the staleness.\nThe most unorthodox and most entertaining tale of Holmesian lore takes place in a 1988 film released by Orion starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley.\nScreenwriters Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther have Sherlock as the same dashing, flamboyant character you'd have always imagined. But just because he tends to amaze people, doesn't mean he's the brains of the crime-caper solving mastermind of the pair. \nIn this film version, Watson scripts all of Holmes's solutions and serves as the PR genius that makes Holmes's character as reknown as it is. And the reason for this is "elementary my dear fellow," as Holmes would say. At the time Watson initially created Holmes, he was trying to land a job with a conservative medical college who probably would have frowned on his moonlighting as a gumshoe.\nBut all the bumbling badness Holmes creates finally become insufferable, and Watson throws him out and tries to make a go of it himself.\nAnd the antics begin.\nKingsley, who won the 1982 Oscar for Best Actor for playing the title role in "Ghandi," plays a stern and humorless straight man in what is one of his best performances. It's flawless. Kingsley creates for Watson a publicly loyal aide, but a privately bombastic, humorless genius, whose use of the slow-burn technique creates endless numbers of good set-ups for Caine's schtick as Holmes/Kincaid.\nCaine brings his versatility as a dramatic actor and skilled comedian to this role. His timing is exquisite in getting the most out of every laugh. Most of the laughs, by the way, are ones you need to look for. While Watson is always in the foreground of the shot being a clever detective, Holmes is in the background mumbling about something totally off the wall, stealing a pair of shoes, or messing around with Watson's chemistry set to a disastrous end. I've watched this film at least eight times since I saw it for the first time in the early 1990s. Each time I watch the film, I still catch something I never saw the last time. I know every line to the film, but it's still just as fresh the eighth time as it was the first time.\nAll in all, if you have any appreciation at all for the classic tale of mystery and criminal connivery, these are definitely two movies worth the time and effort in tracking down and watching.
(09/26/02 12:45am)
One of the most well-known characters in world literature is that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.\nDoyle's creation of the world's most famous consulting detective through his short stories in the London-based Strand magazine have been performed on both the stage and screen. Almost as soon as silent films came about, a 1915 picture was made featuring one of Doyle's pieces. Most notably, Holmes and his faithful chronicler Dr. John H. Watson were played in the early days of radio by the last remains of the Victorian theater in Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson. In the 1940s, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce played the roles. In a BBC series, Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke played the roles, their collaboration continuing into the mid-1990s.\nBut with the incredibly huge number of films being produced now and in the past, many titles go by the wayside and are forgotten. It's a tragedy that even of few of my favorite Holmes titles have also become forgotten cans of celluloid.\nTwo of these are 1978's "Murder by Decree" and 1988's "Without A Clue." One is a clever intertwining of historical fiction, while the other is pure, mad-cap satire of the Holmes and Watson personas.\nYou're all familiar with the whole Jack the Ripper thing, right? You know, crazy guy in black goes around knocking off harlots in Londons slums. Well, in "Murder by Decree" Holmes and Watson are mixed in with Jack the Ripper.\nThe film stars Christopher Plummer and the affable James Mason. Mason plays Watson with an excellent amount of seriousness balanced with charm, humor, and patriotic fervor to the Empire he served in India.\nMason's acting capability is unique in that he can convey meaning with conservative body movements, but also with excellent control over his melodic, rhythmic voice. His inflection is so near perfection, that no matter what the scene -- complaining about a pea, cheering a future monarch or bashing some scoundrel with his walking stick -- he never has to raise his voice above conversation volume. It is sheer pleasure to watch Mason's portrayal of Dr. Watson. He is perhaps the most believable and honest actor to play Watson in a film version. \nPlummer's portrayal of Holmes is also unique. Doyle's original analytical, almost cold-hearted and very impersonable Holmes was played quite the opposite by Plummer. Plummer played Holmes with the normal attributes of great observation, analytical skills and dogged pursuit of justice. But he also played the role with a sense of humanity that isn't seen often. He plays Holmes with a sense of humor -- he and Watson laugh together about Watson's ability to get himself into trouble. There is one scene where Holmes is greatly disturbed that he can do nothing for a damsel in distress and he shows an intense anger and even sheds tears. Untrue to Doyle, yes, but a good way to freshen up the staleness.\nThe most unorthodox and most entertaining tale of Holmesian lore takes place in a 1988 film released by Orion starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley.\nScreenwriters Gary Murphy and Larry Strawther have Sherlock as the same dashing, flamboyant character you'd have always imagined. But just because he tends to amaze people, doesn't mean he's the brains of the crime-caper solving mastermind of the pair. \nIn this film version, Watson scripts all of Holmes's solutions and serves as the PR genius that makes Holmes's character as reknown as it is. And the reason for this is "elementary my dear fellow," as Holmes would say. At the time Watson initially created Holmes, he was trying to land a job with a conservative medical college who probably would have frowned on his moonlighting as a gumshoe.\nBut all the bumbling badness Holmes creates finally become insufferable, and Watson throws him out and tries to make a go of it himself.\nAnd the antics begin.\nKingsley, who won the 1982 Oscar for Best Actor for playing the title role in "Ghandi," plays a stern and humorless straight man in what is one of his best performances. It's flawless. Kingsley creates for Watson a publicly loyal aide, but a privately bombastic, humorless genius, whose use of the slow-burn technique creates endless numbers of good set-ups for Caine's schtick as Holmes/Kincaid.\nCaine brings his versatility as a dramatic actor and skilled comedian to this role. His timing is exquisite in getting the most out of every laugh. Most of the laughs, by the way, are ones you need to look for. While Watson is always in the foreground of the shot being a clever detective, Holmes is in the background mumbling about something totally off the wall, stealing a pair of shoes, or messing around with Watson's chemistry set to a disastrous end. I've watched this film at least eight times since I saw it for the first time in the early 1990s. Each time I watch the film, I still catch something I never saw the last time. I know every line to the film, but it's still just as fresh the eighth time as it was the first time.\nAll in all, if you have any appreciation at all for the classic tale of mystery and criminal connivery, these are definitely two movies worth the time and effort in tracking down and watching.
(09/23/02 4:53am)
The Bloomington Playwrights Project's first show of the 2002 Dark Alley Series opened Thursday.\n"The Mime Crime" tells the story of two police officers, named Sergeant Justice (Kevin Roach) and Officer Johnny Law (Mike Mauloff), going on the hunt for the murdering mime who took an onlooker and turned his head into ground chuck on the pavement.\nRoach played the humorless foil who thinks finding cream for his coffee is more important to police work. Mauloff was the funny man who delivered his farcical lines nicely and with the right inflection to make believable the weirdness of dealing with people whose lives were ruined by mimes. During one interview with the victim's wife, Ms. Lutlow (Lauren McCarthy), Mauloff's delivery of his dialogue is probably his best work of the 45 minute show.\nMcCarthy, though, steals plenty of laughs for herself in the way she describes the slippery slope her husband went down. He became fascinated with the culture of mimes to the point that it ruined the couple's marriage. His decline started when he began to mime mowing the lawn and even influenced the way he carried out carnal lust in the bedroom.\nBy far the most amusing character of the show was Dr. Durshwitz (Nicole Bruce), the blind expert who has devoted her life to studying mimes. With great skill, Bruce used a German accent that didn't come and go.\nJonathan Yukich, who wrote and directed the play, took a risk using an accent, as some would venture to call it cheap blocking. Yukich, though, can feel confident in his decision since Bruce pulled it off well. At times, Bruce struggled with her cane. It would have been a more effective prop had it been less cumbersome. Still, she got more laughs than anyone else.\nYukich's work has been seen across the United States. His work has been performed in Canada, Australia and in the home of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company in England. Yukich, who is a 2nd year Master of Fine Arts student, made his actors keep up with the pace of the show through lines and blocking. The lines wouldn't have been as funny, if funny at all, had he not demanded the speed he did of his cast.\nDespite his credentials, I can't understand why he allowed the ending to be as lackluster as it was.\nTo me it seemed the ending was simply the point in the script where Yukich decided he was tired of writing. The ending didn't tie up any loose ends. It didn't show a killer facing justice. Granted the ending does come with some levity, but albeit this, the audience was left hanging.\nWhile you can indeed tell Yukich mimes the Lucky Strike smoke-filled traditions of detective film noir, it falls short of achieving this totally. Humphrey Bogart never would have let a killer mime escape him. \nStill, those with 45 minutes to spare would do well to spend it at the BPP, 312 S. Washington, while "The Mime Crime" still plays. \n"The Mime Crime" will play at the Bloomington Playwright's Project on September 26, 27, and 28 at 10:30 pm. Ticket prices are $6 and can be purchased at the door.
(09/19/02 4:00am)
The latest retelling of Alexandre Dumas' classic swashbuckling tale, "The Count of Monte Cristo," has finally hit the DVD racks in video stores. The 131-minute film, released by Spyglass Entertainment, stars Guy Pearce and James Caviezel in a web of of intricate plot and subplot. Overall, it's a well-crafted adaptation. \nThe DVD's main menu is available after you watch a folded parchment letter sealed with wax spin around on the screen for a few revolutions against a sunset-like background. When the letter opens, the main menu is available. \nThis DVD, distributed by Touchstone Home Video, allows you to play "An Epic Reborn" and get the behind-the-scenes information on the filmmaking process. You can watch the raw footage from different angles and also get the low-down on the layer-by-layer sound design. The ever-present audio commentary is an option as well.\nBut every DVD viewer's favorite part is there, too -- the deleted scenes.\nBy playing the introduction, you can watch director Kevin Reynolds explain a brief work history on camera and why he deleted the scenes he did. A slight letdown is that there are only four scenes that hit the can. Titles of the deleted scenes include "Fernand and Danglars," "The Villeforts," "Mercedes and Fernand" and the "Villefort's Arrest," which shows more about the arrest of the chief prosecutor and the film's legal-eagle bad guy, Villefort.\nIt's a little annoying at first because, before showing the deleted scene in question, the film editor and director are on camera again talking about why they deleted the scene. This paltry selection of scenes are nonetheless interesting for the very simple reason that they are just that: deleted scenes.\nThe combination of an excellent film, combined with fantastic presentation of graphics on the menus of this DVD, make this a definite rental.
(09/19/02 1:01am)
The latest retelling of Alexandre Dumas' classic swashbuckling tale, "The Count of Monte Cristo," has finally hit the DVD racks in video stores. The 131-minute film, released by Spyglass Entertainment, stars Guy Pearce and James Caviezel in a web of of intricate plot and subplot. Overall, it's a well-crafted adaptation. \nThe DVD's main menu is available after you watch a folded parchment letter sealed with wax spin around on the screen for a few revolutions against a sunset-like background. When the letter opens, the main menu is available. \nThis DVD, distributed by Touchstone Home Video, allows you to play "An Epic Reborn" and get the behind-the-scenes information on the filmmaking process. You can watch the raw footage from different angles and also get the low-down on the layer-by-layer sound design. The ever-present audio commentary is an option as well.\nBut every DVD viewer's favorite part is there, too -- the deleted scenes.\nBy playing the introduction, you can watch director Kevin Reynolds explain a brief work history on camera and why he deleted the scenes he did. A slight letdown is that there are only four scenes that hit the can. Titles of the deleted scenes include "Fernand and Danglars," "The Villeforts," "Mercedes and Fernand" and the "Villefort's Arrest," which shows more about the arrest of the chief prosecutor and the film's legal-eagle bad guy, Villefort.\nIt's a little annoying at first because, before showing the deleted scene in question, the film editor and director are on camera again talking about why they deleted the scene. This paltry selection of scenes are nonetheless interesting for the very simple reason that they are just that: deleted scenes.\nThe combination of an excellent film, combined with fantastic presentation of graphics on the menus of this DVD, make this a definite rental.
