Spark-e's Place - The Official SparkOC Blog

OC-bred opera stars headline "Annie Get Your Gun" in New York

2011-07-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

Two opera super stars from Orange County are playing the leads in "Annie Get Your Gun" at Glimmerglass Opera Festival in Cooperstown, New York--Deborah Voigt & Rod Gilfry (ArtsOC is honoring Rod at the 12th Annual OC Arts Awards on September 20th). Here is what the New York Times said today about their performance.

New Palm Court Arts Complex Opening at OC Great Park

2011-07-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

Anyone expressing impatience over the ultimate fulfillment of the dream to create a "great park" on the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro first needs to be reminded that some of the greatest parks, like New York's Central Park and San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, took many decades to evolve.
But, second, they owe it to themselves to pay a visit to the park, which just welcomed 25,000 people on Saturday to its anniversary celebration, "Growing the Park," complete with hands-on arts activities, performances, exhibits, food, air show and fireworks. Arts Orange County coordinated more than a dozen arts organizations and performing groups for the event.
During the celebration, the public had its first opportunity to visit the latest step in the park's evolution: the opening of its Palm Court Arts Complex.
The Palm Court (so named because of its expansive plaza containing 54 gigantic, shade-producing Canary Island palm trees) consists of two former squadron buildngs that have been renovated into an art gallery and a raw studio space for the park's new artists in residence program (ArtsOC consulted with the park on the selection process for that program).
The official opening of the inaugural art exhibition in the gallery is on July 23rd, and I'll post something about it at that time.
But mark your calendar to attend and to explore some of the other riches the park has to offer.

Shag returns to sign more autographs!

2011-07-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

In case you missed last Saturday's opening and signing with SHAG, he will be at Grand Central Art Center again, August 6, 6:00-7:00 p.m. signing more posters, books, and merchandise.

Et tu, Brute?

2011-07-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

"Julius Caesar" opens the season at Shakespeare Orange County in the Festival Amphitheatre in Garden Grove.I served as managing director from 1987-1990 of its predecessor organization, Grove Shakespeare Company (aka Grove Theater Company), which also operated the adjacent Gem Theater, a restored 1920s movie theatre (now operated by One More Productions).
When I was being interviewed, during the summer of 1987, I saw Grove Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in a splendid production directed by Jules Aaron.
In addition to "Julius Caesar," Shakespeare Orange County is presenting "The Comedy of Errors" and "The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged".

3D--OFF the screen

2011-07-05T06:32:00.000-07:00

It's not just Hollywood that's going 3D these days (though there are some who say that it's already "jumped the shark").
Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in the Santa Ana Artists Village opened a 3D-themed exhibition by its affiliate artists last Saturday night.
Since this is a varied group of creative individuals, their expression of the theme was quite eclectic. I was most taken by the provocative neons of Joella March, like "Conspire to Transform Reality," appropriately exhibited within its own niche, and the worm-like paintings of Pamela Grau (pictured: "Entangled")--a continued evolution by a talented artist whose work I admire (it was great seeing her there, sporting a full head of hair, following a chemo regimen last year).
But there is much more to enjoy in this show, which runs through July 30th.

Born to Bossa Nova

2011-07-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

Returning from this morning's workout, I had Pandora on my iPhone, listening to the "Burt Bacharach" Channel I had created, which led me into the world of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao and Astrud Gilberto, and "Wave," a world in which I would live a carefree existence forever.
That's the world in which an artist named "Shag" lives, or so it seems to me. The 49 year old Josh Agle's work (his name comprises the last two letters of his first and first two letters of his last name) is well known to Southern California art lovers from multiple group and solo exhibitions, the latest of which is "Hand Pulled: The Complete Shag Print Collection" at Cal State Fullerton's Grand Central Art Center Gallery in the Santa Ana Artists Village.
The beatnik, 50s deco line drawing caricatures set against day-glo oranges, yellows, blues, magentas and greens are OF that era--but not FROM that era. Judging by the line around the block of perhaps 100 or more Shag-lovers waiting to get posters & books signed by him before Saturday night's opening, his work has struck a chord right out of "Girl from Ipanema" territory. I hesitate to call it retro because he's no johnny-come-lately to his style--rather, I'd say he was born to bossa nova.
And for someone like me, it was something to revel in.
The exhibit continues through August 6 and admission is free.

Absentee blogger returns

2011-06-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

My only excuse for the long absence is that I was directing a play, which has now opened. Also, that I haven't been quite as motivated to blog since it's easier to just post one-liners on Facebook and Twitter.

At last, though, an issue has arisen that certainly got my attention and made me want to comment: the protest campaign against The Chance Theater for its upcoming production of "Jerry Springer: The Opera," a hit musical from London that also has played in New York.

I saw the London production--in fact, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones were sitting right behind us!

There is a Catholic organization that has sent over 1500 emails to the Chance Theater today to protest what they claim is a blasphemous show. Well, they might as well protest the Jerry Springer show on TV as well, since this is a relatively faithful (though satirical) facsimile of the daily melees representing the worst excesses of American life. And, like the creators of the satirical animated show South Park, "Jerry Springer: The Opera" is an "equal opportunity offender," taking aim at just about everyone and everything.

Satire isn't everyone's cup of tea, and let's face it, some people don't have a sense of humor about their own political or religious beliefs.

In one of my earliest years at the Laguna Playhouse, I produced the classic play "An Enemy of the People" by Henrik Ibsen. This was at a time when Laguna Beach environmentalists were fighting the development of the 73 Toll Road. The play is about a doctor who discovers that the spa waters in his town are severely polluted & orders it to be shut. His brother, the Mayor, refuses to do so because it's the town's primary driver of the local economy. Townspeople storm the doctor's house & declare him an enemy of the people. He is bullheaded & refuses to leave or to rescind his order.

Well, our play managed to offend both the environmentalists--who did not like the critical portrait of the stubborn doctor in this play--AND the development community--The Mission Viejo Company withdrew its support for the Laguna Playhouse because of the play.

So, kudos to The Chance Theater for taking on a controversial play. The protesters, however, are probably doing a big favor to the theatre, which is getting far more attention for it as a result of their efforts.

Give me that old time music

2011-05-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Dikram Gobalian was in town on Saturday. Nobody knows him by that name--he's Leon Redbone to you & me, and nobody has done a better job of preserving & interpreting music from the turn of the 20th century, teens and twenties that this mysterious guitar player and singer. As unusual as he seems in his recordings and early TV appearances on Saturday Night Live and other late night programs in the '70s and '80s, he's even more eccentric in live performance as witnessed at Saddleback College's McKinney Theatre before a full house of devoted fans. The 90 minute intermission-less set was comprised of about 25% humorous smalltalk with his talented stride pianist Paul Assaro, complaints that he hasn't been feeling well (a ruse to set up a string of lamenting blues songs), feigned forgetfulness and playfulness. Amusing as these were, I would have welcomed more music and less talk, notwithstanding his endearing persona. He constantly cajoled the audience to sing along to obscure songs nobody knew (even after the song was over), but rewarded them with a few better known classics like "Sweet Sue" and "Shine On Harvest Moon." As a musicologist and preservationist, he has made a major contribution to our appreciation for a bygone era of unique and outstanding work. And amidst an age in which "over the top" was the only way to draw attention, his low key, old fashioned style set him apart. It was a privilege to experience him live.

"Disappeared" at Monkey Wrench Collective

2011-04-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

It's hard to resist a theatregoing experience where you walk into a playing area transformed into a bar, they have a classic Wurlitzer jukebox churning out your personal favorite hits of the '60s, and they hand you a beer.

It's equally hard to resist a play with an eccentric and mysterious protagonist who may or may not be a murderer, and then you're still left to speculate at the end.

That's Phyllis Nagy's Disappeared, which runs through May 22 at Monkey Wrench Collective under artistic director Dave Barton's direction.

A few thoughts came to mind as I watched the play last night:

Our proclivity to jump to conclusions, and our endless pursuit of some ideal of objective truth, despite the fact that three different people can witness the same occurrence yet see three different things (a la the classic Rashomon).

The differences between writing for the live theatre and for film--evidenced in this play by a number of short scenes designed to advance the plot or provide some essential bit of information that make perfect sense in a movie, but tend to sell short the unique storytelling opportunities afforded by the stage.

Nevertheless, Nagy shows herself adept in both media as her meatier opening and closing scenes demonstrate and through a truly compelling second act opener.

Whether the disparate styles belong together has been an ongoing debate in the theatre world where more and more script submissions look like screenplays and fewer writers seem to have mastered the craft of live theatre.

Perhaps Nagy believes that a successful fusion of the two is achievable. Disappeared doesn't entirely convince me of that, but I'm open to being persuaded.

Triptych of Artists at OC Fine Art Storage in Anaheim

2011-04-12T15:23:00.000-07:00

This art storage and restoration facility is attempting to carve out a name for itself as a place to view small exhibitions, like last month's "Aunt Doris" show. Its latest presentation is works by three respected local artists: Jane Bauman, David Michael Lee and Jay Sagen. Each artist has a distinctive abstract style but their works are complementary to each other's. I think you'll be able to tell that Lee is a longtime studio assistant to Tony DeLap from the semafore-like painting above, but that's really a departure from his oeuvre, which is actually rather eclectic (I know that because I've seen quite a bit of his work around). I'm less familiar with Bauman and Sagen, but think it noteworthy that Sagen has jumped on the Yupo bandwagon--that's a synthetic sheet material that watercolorists in particular have acquired a real fondness for of late. Anyway, OC Fine Art Storage is open Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm, but David Aeppli there says don't hesitate to call if you want to see the exhibition outside of those hours.

How I Learned to Drive or The Unexpected Guest

2011-04-12T15:21:00.001-07:00

Take your pick for the best title to STAGEStheatre's new drama--a car plowing into its storefront facility! Check out the photos on their Facebook page.

To review or not to review

2011-04-01T05:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not a professional critic, and my approach in this blog has been to report more than to review arts experiences in our community. So, my reports have generally taken a "glass half full" approach to describing what I see, making any critical points in a gentle or subtle fashion. That has led me on occasion to skip writing about something I couldn't find enough positive things to say about, like last night's performance of An Evening With Mark Twain at the Coach House. There is room for artistic endeavor at all levels of talent in our community, and it's my job to encourage it. I will be writing on that subject in greater depth very soon when an Arts Orange County project is completed by two intrepid students in the Claremont Graduate University arts management program. Its findings are likely to be controversial.

"An Evening with Mark Twain" -- Where?

2011-03-28T14:09:00.000-07:00

I've been to a lot of great concerts at San Juan Capistrano's The Coach House over the years--saw the legendary jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli there TWICE when he was already in his 80s, and more recently Judy Collins and Savoy Brown, as well as Suzanne Vega, Michael Franks, Michael McDonald, Little Feat and others.

But I have to say that I never imagined The Coach House as a venue for theatre--so when I learned that they have booked in "An Evening with Mark Twain" featuring actor Kurt Sutton for this Thursday evening, I just had to check it out.

I'm sure I won't be the first audience member to have seen the legendary Hal Holbrook perform the "Mark Twain Tonight" solo performance he's done for over 50 years. But it's a rarity to see him do it today (he's now 86), and he's never totally "owned the franchise," as several actors over the years have toured widely in their own interpretations of the life of one of America's most important and intriguing men of letters.

So, I look forward to seeing Sutton bring him to life in this unexpected venue, and will let you know what I think.

Festival Ballet Theatre's "Coppelia"

2011-03-28T10:55:00.001-07:00

Hopefully by now people know that they don't have to wait for annual "Nutcracker" performances for the kind of delightful storybook ballet suitable for all ages. Festival Ballet Theatre reminded OC audiences at the Irvine Barclay Theatre last weekend of that fact with a production of "Coppelia" that featured two stars of the New York City Ballet, FBT professional company members, and even some of the littlest students in FBT's Southland Ballet Academy.

There is plenty of familiar music in the Leon Delibes score that carries the tale from E.T.A. Hoffmann about two young lovers whose romance is temporarily derailed by the attraction of a "new girl in town" who turns out not to be real, but a doll. It's sort of a cross between "Nutcracker" and "Pygmalion," but the sweet silliness of the plot is mostly just a vehicle for some lovely dance, and Megan Fairchild and Andrew Veyette, the guest stars, were captivating, in choreography by Arthur Saint-Leon staged by FBT Artistic Director Salwa Rizkalla.

It marked the end of the current FBT season except for their May 6 Gala of the Stars, which will featured guest artists from American Ballet Theatre and San Francisco Ballet, also at The Barclay.

Saturday Night Satire at Breath of Fire

2011-03-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

For anyone who watches satirical revues like Saturday Night Live it's a given that some sketches will hit the mark while others will miss by a mile--so your experience rolls with the punchlines. But the other essential to enjoying satire is being aware of all the targets of the humor.

The full house that enthusiastically received Las Ramonas Gone Wild at Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble last night (running through April 2) knew all the reference points and reacted with peals of laughter. That we, seemingly the only non-Latinos in the house, laughed at all during the two hour show (even when we were clueless as to the meaning) was largely because of the talented three-woman Xicana comedy troupe from LA whose skillful antics were irresistible. The material didn't always rise to the level of their performances, but that's sketch comedy.

It's great to see Breath of Fire partnering with talented artists like these throughout the region. It will be even greater to see their upcoming production in South Coast Rep's new Studio Series (May 13-15) of the play, Angel of the Desert by Janine Salinas and directed by Breath of Fire's Artistic Director Sara Guerrero, which I suspect will be more representative of the work this company typically produces. And it's a wonderful opportunity for Breath of Fire's work to be seen by a wider audience.

Saturday in the galleries

2011-03-13T16:29:00.000-07:00

I finally made it over to OC Fine Art Storage in Anaheim. Co-owner Brian Ross has been nagging me to get there, so when I received an invitation to a showing of works by Doris Rosenthal, I seized the opportunity. OC-FAS is not a gallery per se but a secure, climate-controlled facility to store art for museums (all of OC's major museums use it), for collectors and for businesses. Periodically, Brian hangs a show in the front half of their facility, which has one gallery-sized room and several smaller rooms with wall-space enough to display about 40 works--the number in the Rosenthal showing. Her works (above right is one of the oil paintings on display) are mostly depicting peasant life in rural Mexico where she spent most of her life as an artist after having studied in New York at the famed Art Students League in the 1930s (though she was originally from California). She was the recipient of three Guggenheim fellowships, and was most active in the 1950s and 1960s. Her step-grand-nephew Dennis has lovingly assembled the bulk of her works, had them restored and reframed, and opened them for view to invite museum curators to consider them for future exhibitions. Her compositions offer perspectives that are unexpected and demonstrate a hand skilled at capturing the spill of natural light.

I first met Enzie Shamiri at a dedication of murals installed at the Laguna Hills City Hall a year or so ago, but we had already been Facebook friends. She is the featured artist right now at Artist Eye Laguna Gallery where a collective of 17 artists exhibit. Enzie has a particular fondness in Oriental art throughout the ages, but especially oil paintings that portray Middle Eastern life in realistic style--and she often posts images of works she comes across on her Facebook page. In her own oils, she also explores these themes, but some of her works reflect a slightly more heightened, almost dreamlike quality--like in the portrait of the girl above, a lovely yet rather haunting image.

Peter Blake remains an OC treasure as he exhibits in his Laguna Beach gallery the work of cutting edge artists--some famous, like Tony Delap and Lita Albuquerque, some less-known but established artists, as well as emerging artists. The recession has been a struggle, Peter admits, but the "enthusiasm" in the art market is returning, he said. Delap's deceptively simple angled geometrical paintings in forest green, white and black--some on a burlap colored textile--evoked for me the national flags of some African nations. Pastine's subtle gradations of of solid color have always appealed to me.

Arpana Dance at SCR's New Studio Series

2011-03-11T07:19:00.000-08:00

The stated goal of SCR's new Studio Series is "to create stronger ties between arts organizations and expose audiences to the rich diversity of the local arts scene." Last night's preview of Ganga...life as a river featured Orange County's Indian dance organization of longstanding, Arpana Dance Company, and its artistic director Ramya Harishankar (left). It continues through Sunday.

Ramya, an internationally respected choreographer who has preserved the legacy of Indian dance by educating new generations of artists here in Southern California for many years, stepped outside her comfort zone when she married the traditional "Bharata Natyam" program that she choreographed with a second act original contemporary work utilizing traditional idioms that she partnered with Priya Srinivasan to create.

There is an altogether different kind of athleticism required in Indian dance from its Western counterparts--yet no less physically demanding. There is also a refreshing attention to smaller gestures, facial expressions and even vocalization that instills a high degree of drama and humor in both the traditional and contemporary pieces performed.

Musical Theatre Geekdom

2011-03-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

Over the past two weekends, I've seen two local shows that glorify & lampoon musical theatre geeks: The Drowsy Chaperone, produced by 3D Theatricals (new tenant at Plummer Auditorium in Fullerton), and West Side Terri at Monkey Wrench Collective in Fullerton.

The Drowsy Chaperone is precisely what you would expect: a big, sprawling production with eye-popping costumes and scenic elements. Its narrator, a self-described musical theatre geek, confesses his love for an obscure (fictional) musical of the 1920s, the album for which he lovingly cues up on his LP turntable to play for us as he recounts its plot and the scuttlebut he's collected about its lead performers. The musical unfolds behind him, a silly-but-fun show redolent of (but nowhere as good as) Cole Porter. The cast worked hard to keep the show's 1 hour 45 minute intermissionless length peppy, but the conceit of the narrator occasionally slowed things down (probably a necessity to cover scene shifts and costume changes), and the way the script hints broadly at his being a closet homosexual reinforces the stereotype of gay musical theatre lovers that by now seems hackneyed. Critical reaction to The Drowsy Chaperone when it first appeared on Broadway was mixed, yet the show found an audience there and even more success on the road. And the former FCLO Music Theatre audience appeared to love the show--and there were definitely moments of undeniable entertainment gold that made seeing it worthwhile.

West Side Terri turned out to be a much more honest and satisfying expose of musical theatre geekdom, as accomplished local actress Terri Mowrey confides her obsession with West Side Story and proceeds to perform it almost in its entirety for us. In the hands of a less-skilled artist, this could have been excruciating, but Mowrey is a committed actor, unafraid of baring her soul. Anyone familiar with the film or stage productions of West Side Story will howl at her near-perfect replicas of some of the show's biggest moments--down to the Jerome Robbins choreography. Yet, as she hilariously deconstructs the scenes in her unabashed way, she also portrays with aplomb how easily seduced she was by the allure of musical theatre--especially one as great as West Side Story--and all in just slightly over an hour.

Having had a love-hate relationship with musicals all my life, seeing these two shows hit closer to home than I feel comfortable sharing!

Oversupply-side Artsonomics?

2011-02-04T08:09:00.000-08:00

National Endowment for the Arts Chair Rocco Landesman spoke out recently--and the arts community talked back to him.

Charles Isherwood's NYTimes blogpost (and the many comments to it) address Landesman's statement that maybe there's an oversupply of the arts (specifically, theater) for what the market can bear.

Criticisms of his comments have focused on how Landesman's a commercial theatre producer--not from the government or nonprofit sector--so his opinion on this matter is suspect.

I don't buy that.

But, it does strike me that nobody ever says we have too many businesses in America. Isn't the basic idea that the market will sort out the winners and losers? If it's true of business, it's also true of nonprofits--even if some of us don't really want to admit that.

But the real question this raises is what has this to do with where the National Endowment for the Arts is headed? There is all sorts of speculation on how the NEA will divide up its pitiful ly small (though the largest amount in a lot of years) $167 million now that Rocco is running it.

Is the NEA spreading the money too thin, weakening its impact but satisfying political imperatives of keeping some money going just about everywhere geographically?

The problem is that it has become even more of a political imperative at a time when a high profile group of GOP members of Congress have included on their list of proposed government cutbacks the entire elimination of the NEA, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Such suggestions have certainly surfaced periodically--most notably due to the so-called "culture wars" of the 90s when Sen. Jesse Helms ran roughshod over the agency.

Now it's the "eliminate government from everything in our lives" armada that was elected in November that is targeting it -- but arts & humanities cuts are dwarfed by the many other items on their lengthy checklist.

The NEA and CPB survived the Helms era--and with some strong advocacy by the arts community, I feel confident they can survive the newest assault.

What kind of things the NEA will fund, however, remains to be seen.

Isherwood calls Landesman "Cowboy Mouth," a vocal shoot-from-the-hip type, whose comment on "too much theater" he tempered when there was an outcry.

Hopefully, he learned that an NEA chair should never be publicly stating that "less art" would be good for America!

Sir Ken Robinson Will Deliver ArtsOC's 2011 Creative Edge Lecture

2011-01-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

The dynamic, brilliant and funny Sir Ken Robinson, one of the world's noted authorities on creativity, has been announced to deliver ArtsOC's 2011 Creative Edge Lecture on Wednesday, March 30, 10 am-11:30 am in the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. It is presented in partnership with Orange County Department of Education, Fourth District PTA and Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The Boeing Company is the title sponsor of the event. The title of Sir Ken's lecture is "Launch A Creative Revolution," and is sure to be provocative, inspiring and entertaining. Tickets are on sale now here.
Last year's Creative Edge lecture drew more than 1,000 people, so don't delay getting your tickets!

Segerstrom Legacy

2011-01-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

It's my belief that you can't say thank you enough to the generous philanthropists who support charitable organizations, and yesterday, Orange County's largest cultural organization delivered a huge thank you to its largest donors, the Segerstrom family, by re-naming the Orange County Performing Arts Center the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Some of the details appear in articles today in the Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times.

Amidst all the hoopla of renaming OCPAC after a family that has given well over $100 million in cash and land, I hope it's not lost on the community that the word "Performing" has been removed from the title, leaving it as "Arts."

That is a strong signal that a renewed effort is under way to fulfill the dream of moving the Orange County Museum of Art onto the vacant piece of land just south of the concert hall.

One of the strongest symbols that the Segerstrom Center for the Arts is committed to the visual--as well as performing arts--took place prior to the opening of the concert hall, when a gift of Henry Segerstrom was installed: the dramatic sculpture by Richard Serra.

And that's not all: the Center announced that it will be making 10,000 tickets available for $10 each to a broad spectrum of its events this year, supplementing the increasing number of free events it has been hosting on its plaza.

The Center may still be a palace for the finest artistic experiences and a central gathering point for affluent business leaders and socialites, but it has worked extremely hard in recent years to ensure that everyone in the community has access to these experiences and feels welcome in the facilities.

The Segerstrom Center for the Arts truly belongs to all the people of Orange County, and we have the Segerstrom family and thousands of other generous donors to thank for that!

Pictured above: the Segerstrom family on stage with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Center officials at the renaming event yesterday.

Reports of FCLO's death premature?

2011-01-09T14:03:00.001-08:00

On a weekend when first reports of Congresswoman Giffords' shooting stated she was dead (thankfully, she survived and the doctors are cautiously optimistic about her condition), the FCLO story was further illuminated in an article by Paul Hodgins in the Orange County Register.

It suggests that FCLO will continue to produce dinner theatre in its "Skyroom" facility, that Larry King will make a fund-raising appearance to help them resolve their remaining debt for renting Plummer Auditorium, and that they and 3D Theatricals will "cross-market" to each other's audiences.

It appears that 3D will still become the successor professional producer at Plummer, which is what 3D stated in their press release.

One Theatre's Loss is Another's Gain in Fullerton

2011-01-07T06:35:00.000-08:00

The plucky new professional company 3D Theatricals, which found itself left out in the cold after impressing many with its debut season at the OC Pavilion in Santa Ana--only to be booted out when Pavilion owner Mike Harrah sold the theatre to OC High School of the Arts--has announced that it has now found a new home at Fullerton's Plummer Auditorium and will succeed the now-defunct FCLO Music Theatre (formerly Fullerton Civic Light Opera) as the resident producer.

3D announced a season that includes two performances by Sally Struthers--in The Drowsy Chaperone (an OC premier) and in Always, Patsy Cline, which I produced at Laguna Playhouse for a sold-out summer run in 2002. They also plan to revive All Shook Up, which they produced this past year.

In a magnamious gesture (3D's second in the past month: they offered to save Crystal Cathedral's The Glory of Christmas but were turned down by the church leadership), 3D Theatricals is offering to honor all tickets sold & seating currently held by FCLO subscribers and single ticket buyers.

FCLO's demise came as a shock to the theatre community. Some believed that the FCLO leaders Griff and Jan Duncan had not changed enough with the times to keep it a vital producing organization, but it was at least as much the fault of an audience that turned up its nose at any of the occasional newer musicals and premieres offered by FCLO. The quality of their productions was generally very high, and not only could the best SoCal talent be seen regularly on their stage, but they attracted Broadway stars as well. The lack of support from the City of Fullerton and the expensive rental of Plummer from the high school certainly contributed, in this time of recession, to shaky ground for FCLO.

It remains to be seen whether 3D will succeed. Members of the media have liked what they've produced but they were not attracting big audiences at the Pavilion (downtown Santa Ana has enjoyed a revival thanks to the arts, but still faces a stigma among traditional musical theatre audiences). 3D made clear that this family endeavor possessed a big bankroll to launch right into productions of high quality (their debut show Peter Pan was outstanding), but skeptics have wondered how long the money will last until they attract a sufficient audience.

Their eviction from the Pavilion appears to have been a blessing in disguise. Certainly, Plummer Auditorium's location and history as a successful theatre venue gives 3D a fighting chance to gain solid footing.

Stuffed & Unstrung at Irvine Barclay

2010-12-30T09:05:00.000-08:00

You just can't resist splitting a gut when you watch Jim Henson's puppets behaving badly (and, in this case, "naughtily"). Henson Alternative has put together an adults-only improv show using decades-old Henson puppets. It's now playing at The Barclay through January 2. Patrick Bristow, the well-known comedic actor seen on many a TV sitcom, serves as emcee and pulls suggestions from the audience for the puppeteer/actors to use as material for each short sketch. It's great to be able to see both the puppets and the puppeteers--while at the same time improvising their sketches. One of the biggest laughs of the evening (and there were too many to count) was when the lower row of teeth of one particularly goofy looking puppet came loose. The actors never skipped a beat in taking advantage of the opportunity to incorporate it into their sketch.

FCLO Tickets Being Honored at Area Theatres

2010-12-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

FCLO Music Theatre (formerly Fullerton Civic Light Opera), which announced it would likely be forced to close its doors in January, has updated its website and says that four area theatres have agreed to honor FCLO tickets for their shows.

Right Brain Initiative

2010-12-20T10:47:00.001-08:00

Was just introduced to this terrific video on arts education from The Right Brain Initiative in Portland, Oregon, when I attended WESTAF's convening of state arts agency leadership last week. Check it out!

OCHSA cuts ribbon on new theater

2010-12-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

Five months after announcing that it was acquring Michael Harrah's OC Pavilion in downtown Santa Ana, the OC High School of the Arts offered its opening production there last weekend.

The former bank building was converted to a Vegas-style show room, presenting some name acts plus rentals to the new 3D Theatricals, a professional company presenting plays and musicals.

Now, it's a dedicated facility for the public high school, located nearby, which has not had its own theatre for curricular purposes and public performances.

And 3D Theatricals is now without a home, but actively negotiating with a number of area venues & producing companies to join forces.

OCHSA (disclosure: I serve on its Community Partners Advisory Board) is well-regarded for its academic programs (the same state-mandated curriculum as every other public high school) and its arts conservatories (the quality of which is bolstered by some heavy-hitters on its foundation board who give and raise substantial sums to support it).

Among its notable success stories is Susan Egan, the Tony-nominated star of Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Broadway.

Break a leg!

Artis Omnipotensis: The Power of the Museum Director

2010-12-14T07:49:00.000-08:00

Over the past several days, two very striking examples of major museum directors striking works of art from public view have hit the headlines.

It's deja vu all over again!

What do these two men fear will happen? Are the works in question truly "dangerous"--i.e. in "artspeak": do these art-dukes risk losing funding for their museums by keeping them on view?

There is no question that some art is "too hot to handle" for "institutional" art museums, but savvy leaders usually pre-censor their exhibitions. In the case of the National Portrait Gallery and LA's Museum of Contemporary Art, these took place after the fact. The Andy Warhol Foundation has threatened to withdraw its funding for the Smithsonian, which operates the National Portrait Gallery, and in LA, everyone who was skeptical of turning MOCA over to art dealer Jeffrey Deitch is saying "I told you so."

Hidden Places

2010-12-09T05:28:00.000-08:00

The title of the current Huntington Beach Art Center show has the unintended effect of reminding us that this little gem of a gallery is just not as well known as it should be.

It only recently--finally!--got its own website (though it still has its information page on the site for the City of Huntington Beach, which owns and operates it).

Its capable leadership Kate Hoffman and curator Darlene DeAngelo are struggling mightily to maintain a high quality program amidst city funding cutbacks.

When the gallery was first created, it gained notoriety (and not a little push back from the City) for its provocative programming. Now, 20 years later (about), it has not backed off from presenting artists with an edge--even if it discreetly avoids anything that might bring down the wrath of the elected officials who approve its budget.

The current show is a case in point.

The work of three artists with distinctly different viewpoints on nature have been cleverly grouped into an exhibition that melds Cathy Cooper's abstract mixed media sculptures with Daniel du Plessis' lacquered-over fantasias (pictured above) and Leslie Yagar's installation of butterflies. All of these works have the capacity to delight AND to disturb, proving that HBAC has lost none of its desire to be about real art.

The show continues through December 18.

Show-biz transformation for San Juan's tree-lighting

2010-12-09T05:17:00.000-08:00

Admittedly, it's been several years since we made our way down to the Christmas tree lighting ceremonies here in "O little town of" San Juan Capistrano. Back then, it was a modest affair.

No more!

The stage was set for a glitzy musical theatre entertainment by Kids Next Door from the so-called "Musical Theatre University" a branch of one of Laguna Beach's community theatres. Front & center were some fairly talented young people (less so in the rear of the group), and while select numbers were pretty sophisticated, there didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the order of the numbers.

No matter!

By my count, there were at least 3,000 people gathered in Town Square Park for the event, and most were delighted to get a "Broadway" show leading up to the very anticlimactic moment when a wimpy Santa dragged in by an overly gregarious Mrs. Claus finally switches on the tree.

Ho ho ho!

Will bodice-ripping art disappear?

2010-12-09T05:11:00.000-08:00

Today's New York Times story about the migration of romance novels to the e-book world and how it saves readers from the embarrassment of being caught in public with a bodice-ripper in hand made me wonder what will become of the artists struggling to make a living as creators of the "mullets and the man chests," as blogger Sarah Wendell puts it in the article. It pains me greatly to think that e-books might be putting artists out of work!

Not your father's Christmas concert

2010-12-09T04:45:00.000-08:00

There was a palpable puzzlement at the hour-long de Angelis Vocal Ensemble "Annual Holiday Concert" when the nearly full audience Basilica in San Juan Capistrano came to the realization that only two of the selections were familiar Christmas "tunes." Well, probably not for the die-hards who know full well what to expect when this taut a cappella sixteen member singing group performs: the programs usually containe undiscovered gems, premieres of new works, and old texts (sacred and secular) freshly cast into new music or new arrangements. That is really what makes de Angelis a standout in Orange County's crowded choral music scene, and the fact that they do it so well is a testament to its artistic director Matthew Gray, whose gently instructive, light, brief introductions of each piece make the Basilica feel like you're in his living room. Smartly taking advantage of the opportunity to address the crowd about supporting the ensemble, its volunteer managing director Lesa Truxaw keeps it short and heartfelt--no doubt, one of the reasons why the de Angelis donor list seems to be growing along with its ticket-buying audiences. Pacific Chorale's leadership was there on Sunday, too, to hear the concert: music director John Alexander and president Kelly Ruggirello--another sign that this six year old vocal organization is attracting serious attention. They will be back in March.

Will another theatre bite the dust?

2010-12-02T10:02:00.000-08:00

The past month has not been a good one for OC's theatre scene: 30 year old Curtain Call Dinner Theatre called it quits and now FCLO Music Theatre (aka Fullerton Civic Light Opera) has announced that, barring a miracle, it will shut its doors at the end of the year, stranding subscribers to the rest of its 40th season. (See Paul Hodgins' article in the OC Register.)

Too bad these arts institutions aren't "too big to fail" and eligible for a government bailout.

FCLO is Orange County's third largest budget professional producing theatre company. Its founders, Griff and Jan Duncan, have lovingly produced many fine stagings of musical theatre's standard repertoire, with an occasional new(ish) musical thrown in. By design, they focused on subscriptions and ticket sales, so they lack a sizable, generous donor base that typically provides some balance when the occasional show misses its box office target or a recession affects subscriptions. Without that philanthropic support, they have been at the mercy of the lagging economy, and are crying uncle.

I hope they are able to find a way to keep it going.

However, as a longtime theatre producer myself, I must say that the landscape has changed greatly since FCLO and Curtain Call were founded. The heyday of civic light operas and dinner theatres across the US has been over for some time. Few dinner theatres continue to operate anywhere these days and whether they go by the civic light opera name, few musical theatre-only producing organizations around the nation remain.

Neither trend should be construed as signalling the end of musical theatre in America--but the access to Broadway touring productions (greatly increased with the advent of the "jukebox" musical over the past decade) and the shift in resident nonprofit professional theatre programming from classics and new works to more musical theatre (usually not homegrown, but rather co-produced with several other similar companies) have contributed to changes that most dinner theatres & CLOs have found difficult to overcome.

There is no segment of the performing arts, however, that hasn't suffered from the societal changes of the Internet era. We have limitless leisure time possibilities for entertainment and enrichment timed precisely to our whims and schedules through DVR/TiVo and Inernet streaming. For most people, something has to be very special and different to get them off their couches to drive to a theatre for a performance. CLOs and dinner theatres, which largely specialize in the "tried and true" (which some folks love, but others find "stale"), have seen their audiences die out and been unable to replace them.

Yet having local theatre companies where young and emerging professional talent can cut their teeth is an important part of the overall ecology of the performing arts in any community--and many fine performers trod the boards at Fullerton CLO and Curtain Call over the years to appreciative audiences.

Whether a renewed philanthropic effort in Fullerton can salvage its CLO's future remains to be seen. The City of Fullerton has apparently already determined that Fullerton CLO is not their problem.

"New Yorkistan"

2010-11-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

On the drive the work today, I was listening to KPCC-FM, and hear a reference to this New Yorker Magazine cover illustration that included such places as "Kvechnya" and "Khandibar." It was a great way to start the day!

Mummenschanz

2010-11-21T18:48:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I'd never seen this famous Swiss theatre company, and jumped at the chance to see them this afternoon at Irvine Barclay Theatre. The four 60 and 70-something actors are remarkably spry and produce illusions that demand the audience to use its imagination muscles in ways they probably never have. Though the 90 minute show (with one intermission) gets a bit repetetive, it is mostly comprised of 1-2 minute scenes involving extraordinary costumes & props. They are remarkably un-PC when it comes to scenes involving violence and sex (however mild)--especially for a show marketed for kids & families. No bother: the audience adored them, and was comprised of all ages. I would have to say it is equal parts puppetry and mime--with large scale masks and devices manipulated in clever ways. Mummenschanz has been around since the 1970s, and is the sole non-spoken word theatre company to have succeeded on Broadway (a three year run). Others have emulated and built upon their work, but Mummenschanz is the real deal: high art that doubles as mass entertainment. You can't beat that combination.

Too Drunk--Or just Drunk Enough--to Say I Love You

2010-11-21T18:37:00.000-08:00

First, sad news that Caryl Churchill's one-act, Drunk Enough to Say I Love You, closed today at Monkey Wrench Collective--two weeks early. MWC Artistic Director Dave Barton attributes it in large part to the fact that Orange County theatregoers don't embrace politically-themed plays (though this was not marketed as such). I countered to him that it's American audiences who don't embrace political theatre--not just OCers.
I'm familiar with Churchill's plays--saw Frances McDormand in Far Away at New York Theatre Workshop a couple of years ago. Audiences walked out mystified, and though I loved it, I can only say that I understood maybe 10% of her imagistic script. (There was, however, a fabulous scene of chained inmates forced to do a fashion show of Easter Parade-style hats!) Churchill's plays perform linguistic gymnastics--it's like the theatrical equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting.
Dave Barton thoroughly made this piece accessible and the clarity of Uncle Sam desperately seeking love from those he exploits (and tortures) in the world was an unavoidable political statement that produced shock and awe.
The few who saw it understood that, so Dave's disappointnment notwithstanding, the production was a success.

Irvine Valley College's Dance "Perspectives"

2010-11-20T12:28:00.001-08:00

My lunch hour detour to Irvine Valley College's relatively new performing arts center far exceeded my expectations. Full disclosure: I'm not an enormous dance fan. I appreciate it as an art form. I've even seen some of the great artists & companies live, like American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Erick Hawkins Dance Company, to name just a few--plus plenty others on video. It just takes a lot to keep my attention riveted, as I'm a verbal-oriented person, which is why theatre has been my artistic medium.

That being said, I responded to an 11th-hour invitation from Marie de la Palme, IVC's Artistic Director, to attend this hour-long performance of 6 short pieces with brief remarks by the choreographer of each. I had met Marie for the first time a few months ago in the ArtsOC offices, but was not familiar with her work.

I have to say that what I saw convinced me that Marie is an extraordinarily gifted choreographer--5 of the pieces (all very different) were hers, and each was substantive in content and in style but, most of all, clear--something I find so often missing from dance works I experience. Some of her pieces are exceptionally acrobatic, and she was fortunate to have two men and a woman who were fully capable of executing her moves.

The one piece by guest choreographer Teresa Avina, "Unplugged," had a terrific concept in which the dancers were turned on and off again (symbolized by light fixtures on their costumes). Avina spoke of wanting to show the distinction between the two: on=robotic, off=fluid. In actuality, there was not as sharp a delineation between the two styles as I thought was called for, but it may have been her intention to be more subtle.

Here's to more lunchtime arts experiences!

2 New Exhibits at Irvine Fine Arts Center

2010-11-20T08:29:00.000-08:00

The Irvine Fine Arts Center (IFAC) is one of the few City-operated galleries in Orange County (other notable City galleries are Huntington Beach and Brea). IFAC consistently exhibits work of very high quality, and mixes exhibitions by artists outside the area with works by local artists.

The 2010 All Media Show that opened last night was juried by Karen Moss, Curator of the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), so I was especially eager to see what she had found among the many submissions that might meet her rigorous standards. I was not disappointed.

There was extraordinary vitality and variety to the works on display, from the small (a delightful and intricate homage to the pinned insect display boxes seen at science fairs--but created with man-made materials) to the sizable (like a mettalic white sculpture made of styrofoam, fiberglass and auto body paint that burst out from the wall).

I ran into Ellen Breitman, former curator of the OCMA-predecessor organization, Newport Harbor Art Museum, who praised Karen's work on this exhibition.

And then one of the artists, whom I knew previously only by e-mail, introduced himself to me: Emet Martinez, a fine art photographer. Two of his photos were selected for the show, including the Paris street scene above.

IFAC usually opens two exhibitions simultaneously. The All-Media show was in its larger gallery space and an exhibit of works by Bill Jaros in the smaller space. Jaros creates sculptural wall pieces (and some tabletop works), and most of those on exhibit were made of corrugated boxes that had been stiffened into shape using plaster and colorful pigments. If you didn't look at their edges, you wouldn't necessarily have guessed at the original box material. Other works were assembled from wood.

A Virtual Art Opening by Gallery 212

2010-11-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

Throughout the past two years of this Great Recession, I have heard people say that there is opportunity in adversity (I prefer to think of it as survival of the fittest). Among those necessarily adjusting to the "new normal" are artists, and I know I'm not the first to point out that they are finding new ways to exhibit and sell their work.

Last night's opening by Gallery212 was a case in point.

Gallery owner Ruth Q. Harrell talked the landlord at Costa Mesa's Back Bay Center into allowing her to hold a one-night exhibition in a vacant unit. She used to have a regular gallery space in Seal Beach, but says she found that most of the sales took place at the opening receptions, making her ongoing lease redundant. So she's gone virtual--it's Gallery212.com these days, with periodic artist receptions in temporary spaces like Back Bay Center.

Last night, her "urban gallery with only original art" featured works by Erica Wolfsen, whose small acrylics have been ubiquitous at the Santa Ana Artists Village on Art Walk nights, and an artist named Industry Giant among several others. (I clarified with Ruth that it's "Mr." not "Ms." Giant.)

All the work on display was characteristic of much work I see by young artists these days at such places as The Artery at The LAB Anti-mall and the Santora Building in Santa Ana--fresh and colorful, whether representational or abstract, often resembling iconic artists like Warhol and Rauschenberg or derived from cartoon art, graffiti and commercial advertising. Some were well-executed, others less so, but there was an exuberance to them all. Ruth says she is committed to the work of young artists, and they are fortunate to have someone like her finding new ways to champion them.

New Sondheim book reviewed by none other than Paul Simon!

2010-10-31T13:45:00.001-07:00

Today's NY Times Book Review section cover is singer/songwriter Paul Simon's review of Stephen Sondheim's new book, Finishing the Hat, about the lyricist side of his career, and Simon's eloquent & insightful review is a terrific read.

Wait, what?

2010-10-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

Back east in June, picked up this phrase from my 17 year old nephew: "Wait, what?" It wasn't something I'd ever heard out hear on the West Coast.

Well, you know it's becoming ubiquitous when it appears in The New York Times (in a tidbit item today about the TV show "Mad Men").

Googling it came up with this interesting "Language Log" blogpost.

I'm hoping for a fuller etymological analysis in the "On Language" column in the Sunday New York Times Magazine soon!

You know it's an election year because OCMA is staging its Biennial...

2010-10-25T14:54:00.001-07:00

One of the most highly anticipated events of Orange County's contemporary art scene is the OC Museum of Art's California Biennial, which assembles the works of dozens of new, undiscovered or fugitive artists throughout the state--tracked down mercilessly by OCMA's curator-du-jour and thrown willy-nilly against the stark white walls (and floors and ceilings and grounds) of the museum to see if they will stick.

At Saturday night's opening, I viewed only a fraction of the exhibition because this event is a mob scene of the hip and the restless, mashed into bar queues, ambushing the hors d'oeuvres trays as they emerge from the kitchen, and sidewinding their way through the tubes of party-loving art addicts as techno music blasts from one of the galleries.

I was distracted, too, because I was there in an "official" capacity: escorting my friend and colleague Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, Chair of the California Arts Council. Though she grew up in the OC, she lives up in Santa Monica these days, so I couldn't very well throw her into the mosh pit of this opening without a tour guide.

I look forward to returning when things have quieted down and I can absorb (or be happily repelled by) the works I saw only in a blur as I breezed past them. Luckily, the show is up until April!

TTFN!

"Shopping and..." [Content Warning!]

2010-10-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

For his first full-length play, written in 1996, UK dramatist Marc Ravenhill hits the mark most of the time as he peers into the pathetic lives of penniless, aimless and addicted young people who have concluded that life consists of little more than dangerous transactions in which sex and drugs are equal opportunity employers. The glimmer of hope, at least in the case of one man and woman, is their fascination with hearing and telling stories--not that the stories themselves ever seem to end happily. But the play, Shopping and F***ing, also sports absurdly funny moments that occasionally balance out the pervasively grim lives of its characters. A few scenes Ravenhill needed to drive the plot forward exhibit some clunkiness--not unexpected from a then-novice writer. Yet the play demonstrates an overarching sophistication in its world view and a perceptive display of the lyrical argot spoken on the streets in Britain--the authenticity of which poses some challenges for the ear of American audiences. (I remember visiting family in Scotland many years ago, and I couldn't understand more than 25% of of what they spoke! As the saying goes, we are "two nations divided by a single language".)

Monkey Wrench Collective's production, staged by artistic director Dave Barton, takes the raw material of this play (and some of it is very raw indeed, though the nudity and heartless sexual encounters never appear gratuitous), and makes clear that Ravenhill's is truly "the well-made play" in its adherence to theatrical conventions. And even if the specific characters and the explicitness in the telling of their stories seems fresh, the structure and motifs remain planted in archetype and wholly recognizable. It bears some resemblance to the subject matter of the book Trainspotting, which preceded it (better known from the 1996 film about young heroin addicts in Glasgow, Scotland), and to Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which came out two years earlier. That's not to suggest that it's derivative of these--just my effort to provide you with some guideposts as to the subject matter and, to some degree, the style of Shopping and F***ing--my own obtuse "content warning," I suppose.

(Disclosure: the printed program for Shopping and F***ing says that I'm directing a play for Monkey Wrench later this season. Who knew?)

Walking Out

2010-10-25T07:20:00.000-07:00

Observing three audience members linger during intermission and then decide to depart yesterday's performance of the Monkey Wrench Collective production of Marc Ravenhill's Shopping and F***ing made me speculate about their motivation.
Throughout my long career in the theatre, I've witnessed plenty of walkouts. There's a tendency to assume that people are leaving because they're offended, and a similar expectation that artists are smugly satisfied because of it.
While there may be some truth in those perceptions, the reality is, not surprisingly, a bit more complicated.
After all, these days, most people are fairly well-informed about what they're going to see and theatres go to great lengths to publish content advisories: caveat emptor. So it's rare that anyone is "duped" into attending something they'll find offensive; more likely that they make a conscious decision to attend in spite of it.
Even so, there are many reasons people leave early: they're tired, they're hungry, they're bored, they've actually "gotten" it by intermission and don't need to see the rest, etc. (Hey, I've left performances for the same reasons.)
There are, of course, those who willingly embrace the opportunity to be offended and to express their dissatisfaction. I think of Luc Bondy's production of Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera last season that was roundly booed by the audience, especially when the director ascended the stage for his curtain call (as reported in The New York Times)
Perhaps the first time I'd ever observed such behavior was at a performance of Quebec playwright Michel Tremblay's play Damnee Manon, Sacree Sandra at Syracuse Stage, a major resident professional theatre company. Syracuse New Times critic Jim MacKillop described it recently as the most controversial production in the history of that theater--it took place 30 years ago!
At the performance I attended, a number of patrons rose from their seats within minutes of the beginning of the play--two alternating monologues about the sacred and the profane by a devout woman and a drag queen--and they did not leave quietly: some expressed their disgust to the actors on stage while others directed their venom to the audience for accepting this in "their" theatre. (Full disclosure: I will be directing this play at Monkey Wrench Collective later this season.)
It was thrilling to witness--and I must admit to similar adrenaline rushes when seeing theatregoers leave other plays I've attended or produced or directed. At least these were audiences with a "pulse"--unlike the tepid response accorded the premiere production of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom which I brought in to Hartford from Yale Rep. (The fact that they could not recognize his genius was genuinely upsetting to me.)
I used to consider it a "badge of courage" to find that my work was provocative enough to send theatregoers to the exits, but I'm far more circumspect today: I hate to drive anyone away from the theatre. I respect those who opt not to attend because it won't be "their cup of tea" (but that won't prevent them from returning to see something that is). I'm far less tolerant of those who pay no heed to the warnings, come anyway and leave in a huff. They've asked for it.

Spark-e! undergoes transformation

2010-10-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

Starting next week, your weekly Wednesday e-newsletter about arts & cultural events in the OC will have a new name, a new look, and some new content.

In partnership with the Orange County Register, Arts Orange County will transform Spark-e! into OC ARTS, bringing the e-newsletter into conformance with best practices in the e-news field and adding editorial content to its listings. Links to OC Register features and reviews will be included in the newsletter along with the events listings you've come to expect from Spark-e! All listings will link to SparkOC's complete listings and our discount ticket partner, Goldstar, will continue to have a link for your convenience.

YOU MUST SIGN-UP TO RECEIVE OC ARTS since we are not able to transfer our subscriber list (in fact, we promised you we wouldn't, and we're holding to that promise!).

Tomorrow's Spark-e! will be your last, so SIGN-UP HERE RIGHT NOW FOR OC ARTS!

de Angelis Season Opener Highlights Minimalist Compositions

2010-10-17T21:42:00.001-07:00

Arvo Part, John Tavener and Henryk Gorecki works were among the dozen short choral pieces sung by the intrepid de Angelis Vocal Ensemble at the Mission Basilica in San Juan Capistrano at their season opening concert Saturdyay. Artistic Director Matthew Gray has not shied away from the unusual works that unnecessarily frighten some concertgoers, demonstrating that in the realm of vocal music, at least, these contemporary compositions hold their own quite well. To his credit, he has attracted an audience of well over 100 to soak up the atmospheric music in the atmospheric surroundings of the Basilica's blindingly gold retablo and live acoustics. His introductions to each piece gently ease the audience into what might, for many, be unfamiliar territory; their response, however, validates his success. Not every upcoming concert will push the envelope quite so far, with holiday music and tin pan alley scheduled later in the season, but this was certainly an auspicious debut and validates Gray's penchant for exploring new work. More power to him!
Coincidentally, this morning's New York Times Magazine included a feature on Arvo Part, whose work has gained favor by many mainstream orchestras and ensembles.

And why classical music IS elitist...

2010-10-08T05:52:00.000-07:00

This is a very thoughtful and provocative analysis of the imagined barriers to classical music, one of which is the trend of using it in certain public places as a weapon against loitering youths and graffiti.

Why Opera Is Not Elitist

2010-09-26T16:07:00.000-07:00

I must share with you this extraordinary New York Times Op-Ed piece by New Yorker magazine music critic Alex Ross, which is one of the most persuasive arguments for opera being for everyone.

Survivor of "The Body Snatchers" Dead at 96

2010-09-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Photo at left of me and Alison with Kevin circa 1985 in Hartford, Connecticut.

Kevin McCarthy, best-known to many for the original film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and to millions of television viewers for a famous episode of "The Twilight Zone," ("Long Live Walter Jameson," about a man who has never aged or died), has left us at 96.
I had the great pleasure of working with him once when I presented a week-long run of his solo act as Harry S. Truman in "Give 'em Hell, Harry!" (he took over the show after it was originated by James Whitmore) in Hartford, Connecticut 25 years ago. What a gentleman he was! One night, a followspot shorted out and left a smoky film wafting through the theatre. Kevin took a beat, said "I'm going on with the show," and never looked back. He came from a talented family: his sister, Mary McCarthy, wrote the critically-acclaimed best-seller, The Group, and was one of our nation's most prominent literary figures until her death in 1989. Somewhere, I have a picture of Kevin & me, which I'll have to dig up & post here.
What a great guy: his talent was much bigger than his ego. RIP

"Quixotic" cuisine?

2010-09-11T15:52:00.000-07:00

I split a gut when I read an ad for Anaheim's historic White House restaurant (I remember when it used to be called, quaintly, "Thee White House").

It described its cuisine as "quixotic" (as opposed to "chaotic"?).

I puzzled over what they were trying to convey.

Is their food a futile effort? Do they marinate windmills they believe to be baby back ribs? Must they bear with the unbearable sorrow of nobody coming to eat there? Do they whip up their omelettes in a grimy shaving bowl?

One hopes not.

Two Sides of Southern California in Adjacent Exhibitions

2010-09-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

Two art openings last weekend in Santa Ana offered a stark contrast between "white bread" and "corn tortilla" culture in Southern California.

Santa Monica - The Art of Summer at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art through September 25 offers an eclectic array of works inspired by SoCal beach culture and the beauty of Santa Monica and its historic pier. While not every work sings the Beach Boys, there is a quality of light in many of the paintings that suggests rose-colored glasses even when the subject matter is abstract, satirical or distinctly non-idyllic. The abundance of large canvases dominating OCCCA's expansive space (once an automotive repair shop) were impressive in their style and execution, curated expertly by Jeffrey Crussell. OCCCA is also hosting CAN Castle (riffing on the sand castle motif of its beach-inspired show), inviting visitors to participate by contributing canned food items destined for a local food bank.

Across the street at Grand Central Art Center's Gallery is Detras de las Cortinas (Behind the Curtain), an exhibition of works by SoCal Latino artists through October 17. Equally vivid colors await you here, while the subject matter ranges from more sobering reminders of barrio life to traditional Day of the Dead imagery to model "low rider" hot rods embellished with flames. You won't find abstracts here--real and surreal images dominate. This exhibition, too, has been curated with wisdom and panache.

The concurrence of these adjacent shows (admission is free to both) was certainly not coordinated by these independent organizations, yet it provides an exuberant contrast that makes them, in my view, a tandem must-see experience.

News on the Pro-Am Divide

2010-09-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

The Royal Shakespeare Company's artistic director Michael Boyd has announced a major initiative that will place amateur theatre practitioners front and center at Britain's large, prestitious theatre company.

"There’s been a sort of crucifix and garlic mutual relationship between the amateur sector and the professional sector for too long," said Boyd in an article in the UK publication The Stage.

This was brought to the attention of many in the US arts world through ArtsJournal.com blogger Chloe Veltman on her blog lies like truth.

The Pro-Am Divide is a subject that is of immense interest to me--especially now, when the lines are being blurred by popular culture through such vehicles as American Idol. Interestingly, the Pacific Chorale has for the past two years produced a Choral Festival in which it selects local amateur choirs to sing with the professional Chorale in a free concert.

While audiences for established arts institutions continue to dwindle (with some notable exceptions), much has been made of the continued strength of the participatory arts--people are even more desirous of being arts practitioners than ever (perhaps as an offset to media overload?). What I see is a real opportunity for audience building for professional arts by engaging with--rather than negating--the amateur artist.

Photo: Pacific Chorale rehearses with community choruses its 2010 Choral Festival.

Anaheim's Chance Theater likes Costa Mesa--a lot!

2010-08-18T12:44:00.000-07:00

Just one year after South Coast Repertory brought in The Chance Theater's production, Jesus Hates Me (right photo), to its Costa Mesa theatre complex, the Orange County Performing Arts Center will bring in Chance's production of The Who's Tommy (left photo) into its facility across the street, according to this story in BroadwayWorld.

Both SCR & OCPAC are to be lauded for partnering with this small-but-ambitious company, and I hope they'll consider inviting some other intrepid small performing organizations, too.

Anaheim would do well to take care of The Chance and its other cultural resources lest they get poached by rival Costa Mesa! (:-)

UPDATE: See Paul Hodgins' article in the Orange County Register about this news.

Ardor for Arden: Helena Modjeska's Return to OC

2010-08-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

The renowned turn-of-the-century Polish actress known for chewing up the scenery in Shakespearean productions throughout Europe and the United States, Helena Modjeska, ultimately made her home in the canyon and beneath the peak that were named for her in Orange County.

She made a brief re-appearance this past weekend in three sold-out performances at the Camino Real Playhouse in San Juan Capistrano inhabited by Ewa Boryczko, a Polish-born American actress, in Modjeska! An Artist's Dream, a solo performance piece being developed by the actress/writer, director Jon Kellam and producer Kris Cieply of the Helena Modjeska Society.

This is not the first time the tale of Modjeska's life has been brought to life on stage in Orange County: South Coast Repertory premiered Richard Hellesen's full-length drama Once in Arden 20 years ago, with the late Nan Martin in the title role.

Sierra Leone Refugees All Stars

2010-08-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

Popped over to The Coach House on Wednesday night to see this band in response to seeing their concert listed in the Goldstar events newsletter I received on Tuesday. The description of this group of refugees from the west African nation of Sierra Leone who spent years in a refugee camp in Guinea was intriguing enough, but the fact that they play a blend of African, Afro-pop and reggae music incited me to take the leap. They didn't come on stage until almost 10 pm after two (presumably local) warm-up bands, and they were still playing non-stop when we finally left at 11:30 (after all, it was a work night). Their matching print costumes (pajama-like) were as colorful as their stage presence: one young member of the band engaged in some wild gyrations in about a 5 square foot space between his fellow musicians, teetering on disaster from time to time but always regaining his balance. The same man (who also played bongos) came into the audience & grabbed my hand to get me and my fellow concertgoers off our duffs and into some dance gyrations of our own. Most of the band's members (generally middle aged) are far more low-key, simply exercising their virtuosity on keyboard, drums, guitars, bass, and vocals. The musician pictured here took the prize for the best hair--the photo doesn't quite do it justice, as his hair is down to his waist.

"Digging Up the Dirt" at Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble

2010-08-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble has teamed up with See-what Productions to present this World Premiere play by Cherrie Moraga.

The subtitle "An Old Story of Loving to Death," sets up two parallel tales, one of which echoes closely the well-documented murder of Selena, the "Queen of Tejano music," by the president of her fan club. The other is the murder of a woman by her son, for reasons that are not completely clear, but may relate to her relationship to "The Poet," a woman she loved who narrates much of the play.

Author Moraga suggests that the death of Sirena (Selena) is also related to lesbian love for her by her friend and admirer Josefa, and the complexities of lesbian relationships comprise the central theme of the play--for better and for worse.

I say that because the excellent cast have brought to life Moraga's knack for capturing tender and awkward moments between lovers with sensitivity and humor. Yet on a few occasions the author seems to lack the confidence to allow her characters and their story to stand on their own, opting to comment, through the mouthpiece of The Poet, about the difficulty of living life as a Latina lesbian.

Nevertheless, this is the strongest production I've seen so far at the seven year old Breath of Fire company, marked by a standout performance by Adelina Anthony (The Poet) who also co-directed with the author and an equally fine cast across the board. It was also great to see they had a full house and a really diverse audience.

e.impulse at OC Center for Contemporary Art

2010-08-08T13:38:00.001-07:00

Three widely dissimilar styles are on exhibit in the latest show at OCCCA in the Santa Ana Artists Village, entitled "e.impulse".

Kim Ye takes us to another galaxy, it seems, with rubbery constructions that look like aliens or their body parts, all in flesh tones, some illuminated from within. There is a bit of the tongue-in-cheek about it all, with a couple of the large sculptures sporting white mannequin human feet.

Evalynn Alu's abstract paintings may not break new ground but are skillfully executed explorations of geometric shapes with vivid contrasts of color and brushstroke. Many are indeed beautiful to gaze upon, leading me to believe they would be highly suitable decorative elements in a home or office.

To me, Jeff Alu's works were the most inspired in this three-person exhibition. One series of his black and white photographs dwelt upon derelict electric poles, transformers and wires--an eerie landscape of desolation. He leaves it to the observer to determine if he's captured the stark beauty of these elements or if they are making a statement--either will suffice.

But Jeff Alu is also a filmmaker (the OCCCA back gallery has seats arranged to view one of his videos) and a tinkerer with technology (a computer screen & headphones is available for visitors to play with a soundscape that can be manipulated--listen to solo tones or a cacophony, it's your choice).

The exhibition runs through August 29th, and admission is free.

Spark-e has returned

2010-08-08T13:36:00.000-07:00

I've been in and out of town, owing to the decline in health and passing of my mother back east. Thanks to the many who have expressed their sympathy.
Glad to be back on the circuit, and eager to report on two OC arts events I attended last night.
Read on!

Comedy = Tragedy + Time

2010-07-09T22:59:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help but think of that theatre cliche after seeing Brad Fraser's True Love Lies at Monkey Wrench Collective tonight.

It's an urbane drama in which a monkey wrench (sorry) is thrown into the lives of a seemingly normal family, wreaking all sorts of havoc and revealing "side B". Dysfunctional families have since ancient times been fodder for playwrights, and while it's the universality of the relationships that makes such stories archetypal, the best re-tellings echo the Zeitgeist, and there could hardly be one more evocative of our era than this one (though I haven't yet seen the new film The Kids are Alright which some critics are saying hits the bullseye).

As the boomers' kids come of age, they're finding out all sorts of things about the youthful indiscretions and proclivities of their parents at the same time they're discovering themselves, trying things out and making their own life decisions.

It isn't always a pretty picture.

That's the basic premise for True Love Lies (I won't spoil its many surprises by providing a plot synopsis), and it provides ample space for author Fraser to explore the extremes of family behavior when confronted with the truth--extremes that have potentially tragic consequences.

While there is no "happy ending" for these characters, by the end of the play they do achieve a kind of equilibrium, which places the story solidly in the "comedy" column, proving (I guess) my title equation.

Luckily, we don't have to wait until the end to find that out: the bitingly funny dialogue punctuates each twist and turn of plot from almost the moment the play begins. But it's character-driven humor--not appliqued punchlines--that is fresh and insightful. The audience departed from the theatre wounded and bleeding from hilarious indictments hurled (mostly) by the two young characters, whose observations about their parents, their peers and even themselves were shocking-but-true.

This, the fourth Monkey Wrench Collective production, is the most accessible and demonstrates that its founders aren't wedded to any single style or subject matter as long as it is thought-provoking. True Love Lies certainly is that, but it's also the first comedy the new Monkey Wrench has produced (albeit one containing adult language and brief nudity).

Director Dave Barton's staging is fluid, sensible and copes well with creating multiple locations within the confines of the small performance space. It's also very well-cast and acted convincingly by its five performers.

Photo by Will Blakely: Jill Cary Martin and Anthony B. Cohen

Help Wanted: America's Orchestras

2010-07-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

Today's New York Times reported that, in the depths of America's current employment crisis, several major orchestras have a surfeit of openings for musicians:

New York Philharmonic - 12

Boston Symphony - 10

Chicago Symphony - 9

Los Angeles Philharmonic - 7

Cleveland Orchestra - 4

Philadelphia Orchestra - 3

Pittsburgh Symphony - 3

Dallas Symphony - 3

San Francsico Symphony - 3

These numbers may not sound like a lot, but in the world of classical music, it's generally rare to have so many openings.

So, tune your vuvuzelas*, everyone! (See Tim Mangan's Arts Blog post today for a hilarious classical vuvuzela video!)

*For non-World Cup fans: the ubiquitous plastic horns popular among South Africa's soccer fans.

Monkey Wrench Finding Its Groove

2010-06-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

Or should that be finding it's gear-tooth?

Monkey Wrench Collective has wasted no time in launching its first three productions, and all have played to full houses at the performances I attended. Fullerton is working out to be a better location for them than the Artists Village in Santa Ana. Their storefront on Harbor Blvd. & Amerige places them in the heart of a district packed with restaurants, bars and art galleries, like in Santa Ana, but it also comes with convenient free parking, which they lacked at their previous venue. There's also something to be said about the charm of their tiny brick-walled space--though charm is hardly a word one associates with their brand of theater.

They've got a snazzy-looking website, but like a lot of small arts groups, find it easier to keep the buzz going on their Facebook page than in updating their website (their next production of Brad Fraser's True Love Lies makes its West Coast debut July 9 under the direction of Dave Barton, according to their Facebook page today, but it's not yet on their website.)

Any new venture has a few kinks to work out, and Monkey Wrench has had more than its share, mostly associated with keeping the City of Fullerton's building inspector happy, but it's always a big undertaking to start a theater company, particularly without a paid staff.

Of their first three productions, pool (no water) by Marc Ravenhill was the strongest by far. Each was very different from the others, a sort of coming out party for the Collective to show its range of interests and fool the pundits.

Here's what the UK's Independent said about the upcoming True Love Lies when it premiered in London in February 2009:

What comes across at first as an evening of slick jokiness, glittering with
sexually explicit dialogue, develops into a play of remarkably complex texture.

Sounds like a Monkey Wrench Collective play to me!

[Photo is of Canadian playwright Brad Fraser.]

Prokofiev & Grieg & Andre Watts

2010-06-14T16:26:00.000-07:00

Pacific Symphony's season finale at the Segerstrom Concert Hall was a "must" for me because it featured Prokofiev's 5th Symphony, a piece I fell in love with in college and listened to over and over again.

It's a complex amalgam of melodic themes intertwined with distinctly 20th century musical idioms, a piece that echoes the folkloric roots of so much Russian music while hinting at influences from jazz and American film music (after all, this symphony was composed in 1944, so it's not farfetched to think that Prokofiev had listened to Gershwin and Copland.) Moreover, this is a work that is profoundly influenced by the experience of World War II in the Soviet Union and dictator Joseph Stalin, under whose murderous rule artists like Prokofiev were always living in fear. As such, there are ominous undertones but also triumphal fanfares subject to a variety of critical interpretations. I had never experienced this piece live, so this was a real thrill!

The other thrill of the evening was legendary pianist Andre Watts performing the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor, one of the most popular pieces of latter-day classical music. Watts seemed effortless in his performance, and why not? He probably has played the piece hundreds of times in his long career. That doesn't mean that he wasn't brilliant--he just never seemed to break a sweat!

Eclectic "Best: A Group Show" at Crussell Fine Arts

2010-06-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

My second visit to Jeffrey Crussell's Eichler home gallery over the weekend demonstrated again why he is one of our most perceptive fine art curators of contemporary art in Orange County: there was hardly a piece I wouldn't have wanted in my own home despite the fact that the spectrum of work was enormously varied.

Natasa Prosenc's video of a woman in the desert emerging from a bubbling natural mudhole, walking across a barren landscape and eventually cleansing herself under a waterfall was mesmerizing.

I shared the experience of sitting and watching the video with a charming stranger who told me she also thought it was a remarkable work. We got to talking, and I learned that she is an artist exhibiting in the show as well. Evalynn Alu is her name, and she confided to me that she had only devoted herself to her art fully for the past few years after a long career as a teacher. When I encountered her work a little while later, a black and white and red painting on the wall in another room, it was one of those moments when you wouldn't have connected the artist with her work, which leads to all sorts of self-consciousness about how we often make assumptions about people.

I told artist Pamela Grau "I see you're working in metal, now," having just admired the patina of her brass abstract sculptural works, and I was floored by her telling me that they weren't metal at all, but rather a composite of clay and paper. Another guest asked her if she fired them in a kiln, and Pam surprised us again by saying "no," she had only baked them for 20 minutes at 350 in her kitchen oven! She's an artist with an unbridled imagination who works in various media, never failing to surprise and delight.

There is an online gallery with samples of the artists work here.

Shacking up

2010-06-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

Wedging our way through the hundreds (no exaggeration) who attended the Laguna Art Museum's opening reception for its new exhibition, Art Shack, made it almost impossible to savor the art. But it certainly was an "event"! Iconoclastic imaginings of small abodes ranged from miniature to life-sized, and from the whimsical to the socio-political. Will definitely have to return to wander them at leisure.

Jazz in the OC

2010-06-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

Picking up on my comments in the OCWeekly interview last week, ever-vigilant Tim Dunn of the Orange County Performing Arts Center sent over a list of every jazz artist the Center has presented since it opened in 1987.

It's quite an impressive list, and represents a veritable "Who's Who" of great jazz performers. Some of my favorites on the list are Wynton Marsalis and Dave Brubeck (both of whom I've had the pleasure of presenting myself in the past), Michael Franks, Modern Jazz Quartet, Linda Hopkins and George Benson.

The number of annual jazz presentations by the Center has varied from 5 to 10, some in the large Segerstrom Hall and others in the intimate Samueli Theater, and I've enjoyed several.

OCPAC is not the sole presenter of jazz in our community--nor should it be--but they've done a great job of helping to make sure we have access to some of the best in the genre.

Have you wondered what ArtsOC does?

2010-06-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Dave Barton of OCWeekly has, and he explored that subject (mostly) with me in this interview that appeared today.

Happy 200th birthday, Robert Schumann!

2010-06-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite pieces of his, the Symphony No. 1 "Spring", performed by Vienna Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein here.

The Wooden Floor

2010-06-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

Just back from a relaxing week in the desert in time to catch the annual performances of The Wooden Floor at Irvine Barclay Theatre.

What's "The Wooden Floor"? Check out this video and see!

(OK, they were formerly known as Saint Joseph Ballet.)

New OC Theatre Reviews group launched

2010-05-28T07:19:00.001-07:00

Just like the post-performance conversations we all have with our friends, some folks in Fullerton have launched OC Theatre Reviews and are podcasting such discussions. The first two are of Monkey Wrench Collective's pool (no water) and STAGEStheatre's Steel Dragnolias, and are archived here.

Is there "objectivity"?

2010-05-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

When I produced the Michael Frayn play Copenhagen at Laguna Playhouse in 2002 (and then on a national tour), some audiences were mystified by it. I saw it really as a contemporary version of Rashomon, the classic play in which an event is related differently by the three people who witnessed it. Of course, Copenhagen throws in a lot of physics, too, for pseudo-intellectuals like myself who like to say they understood it while others scratch their heads. (:-)

According to the Slate review of a new book, Quantum:

Much of the debate between Einstein and Bohr revolved around Einstein's
intuitive rejection of the implication of the Copenhagen interpretation -- which
is that objective reality, independent of any observer, doesn't really exist.
Bohr, by contrast (and sounding a lot like Wittgenstein), insisted that physics
isn't concerned with what is but solely with what we can say about it.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody's there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Are you man enough for Rachmaninov?

2010-05-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

(My apologies to the creators of The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!, which I produced in its West Coast Premiere at Laguna Playhouse several years ago, from whence the blog title lyric.)

For many people, Rachmaninov (or Rachmaninoff, if you prefer!) = Heavy Russian Music.

Sunday evening's Pacific Chorale introduced OC audiences to the Rachmaninov (they prefer the "v" as in...) "Vespers", an hour-long work more reverential and sonorous than flamboyantly Slavic.

Program notes suggested that the composer created this a cappella work in a way that transforms a chorus into its own accompanying orchestra, and even my tin ear could detect a fluidity of sound that, at times, sounded like strings or blended winds.

All in all, it was a lovely piece, and a nice conclusion to the Chorale season.

"pool (no water)" - Monkey Wrench Collective

2010-05-24T09:54:00.000-07:00

Wayne Booth's landmark 1961 treatise on literary criticism, Rhetoric of Fiction, was a reaction to critcal trends that erased the authorial voice as a defining (or, at least, recognizable) presence in fiction. I have always tended to agree with his conclusions. No matter how much an author tries to divorce himself from the work he is crafting, there will always be telltale signs of his own DNA.

Sometimes, the deeply-rooted angst of the writer is obvious from the public individual we see or read about. But even reclusive authors like the late J. D. Salinger and Thomas Pynchon tell us much about themselves through their fiction without our having to read the details of their private lives splashed onto tabloid covers.

[Booth was also a moralist who happened to believe that authors should be accountable for the moral stands they take and that amorality was an unpardonable sin (James Joyce's Ulysses was not exactly one of his favorite books, as I recall)--I've always had a more difficult time agreeing with him about that.]

I mention these points because the inaugural production of Monkey Wrench Collective in its own new space on North Harbor Blvd. in downtown Fullerton prompts a discussion of them.

British bete noir dramatist Mark Ravenhill has gained attention by pushing people's buttons, while at the same time attracting critical favor at the artful way he does it. pool (no water), first produced in London in 2006, is the latest of his works to be produced and directed by Dave Barton, Monkey Wrench's founder and a co-founder of the now-defunct Rude Guerrilla Theater Company. Dave's had a fascination with Ravenhill's drama and has become regarded as an expert on the subject.

pool (no water) concerns a circle of friends, bohemian artists all, who find time passing them by. The growing success of one of their number, whom they adore, reveals an underside to their feelings that thrills them but also repels them: jealousy & hate. She invites them to her home where she now has a pool and implores them all to skinny-dip as they did when they were younger. Their reluctance (their bodies are saggier now) gives way to her pleas and they gleefully strip down, surround her and toss her into the pool.

To disclose more of the plot could be a bit of a spoiler. Suffice it to say that the narcissistic and self-destructive behavior of this group of friends, as described by Ravenhill, inevitably makes one wonder if this is a sort of coming-of-age story by its author--reflecting on, perhaps, his past bohemian ways and his current success.

The successful artist, mostly known to us from her friends' comments, does not especially seem to be rubbing her good fortune in their faces to warrant their ire; but when she eventually lashes back in a brief display of anger towards their behavior, I suppose it's natural to wonder for a moment if there wasn't just a little something about the person she's become that justified it. If so, perhaps we're capturing a glimpse of conscience (and self-consciousness) on Ravenhill's part.

Then again...the structuralist critics could be right, and the whole thing has nothing to do with Ravenhill "the man".

As for Monkey Wrench's production...their tiny, brick-walled storefront on the main street is a lovely space for this kind of work. Dave Barton and two other credited directors Melita Ann Sagar and Lee Samuel Tanng have taken Ravenhill's 70-minute musings and woven into them a kinetic, lively and engaging production, carefully choreographed and infused with music. The cast is a well-oiled ensemble that never misses a beat. It's playing to full houses on the weekends through June 6, and is a welcome addition to Fullerton's bustling scene of small, hip theatre companies.

Fullerton Museum in a Purple Haze

2010-05-24T07:09:00.000-07:00

I had about 45 minutes to kill before seeing Monkey Wrench Collective's production of "pool (no water)", up in Fullerton, so I walked around the block and discovered the Fullerton Museum Center, which I had not yet visited in my 23 years living in the OC. And I'm glad I did.

I had heard about their permanent exhibit about Leo Fender, creator of the legendary Fender electric guitar, who was born in Anaheim and went to high school in Fullerton.

Programmatically, it made total sense, then, that they are presenting an exhibition of psychedelic posters from 1960s San Francisco (and a few from London). Most are two-color showcards that reflect the initial influence of Art Nouveau and the woodcuts of Aubrey Beardsley (books of his work were very popular in the 60s and 70s). But it's interesting to observe their evolution as they embrace a typography that is more contemporary and, alternatively, submerge the type into the design to the extent that it is almost unreadable, concealed within the fluidity of the illustrations. I have to think that it was less important to know which band was playing (Grateful Dead, The Doors, The Who, Big Brother & the Holding Company, etc.), dates, times and ticket prices, than to see a poster like that and just know that it stood for the next lineup at Fillmore.

You only had to see the contrast between them and the one poster on display from Woodstock--in which the marketers ruled the design so that everything was readable in an instant--to realize that, for presenter Bill Graham, advertising was more about the mystique he created--and that brand was recognizable instantly to the market that mattered to him.

The exhibit is punctuated by a few flat screen TVs with looped videos of Jimi Hendrix playing his (Fender?) with his teeth and the inimitable voice of Grace Slick piercing through the Jefferson Airplane instrumentals.

In further homage to the period, black light paintings by a contemporary artist, Adam Slater, are also being exhibited.

It all reminded me of the song Incredible String Band (also featured on some posters in the exhibit) called "Way Back in the 1960s" which came out in 1967 and wryly satirized all those who were taking themselves just a bit too seriously.

PS--tie-dyed t-shirts are on sale for $44 in the museum gift shop!

Another Inventive Program from de Angelis Vocal Ensemble

2010-05-17T11:11:00.000-07:00

The plucky de Angelis Vocal Ensemble, just a few years old now, concluded its current season with a concert in the Mission San Juan Capistrano Basilica that featured songs based on Shakespeare by 20th century composers.

The hour-long program commenced with slightly challenging music (by Swiss composer Frank Martin, 1890-1974) and then moved on to more lyrical, melodic pieces (by Finnish composer Jaakko Mantyjarvi and American Matthew Harris).

Artistic Director Matthew Gray has assembled imaginative groupings of traditional and contemporary vocal music before, but focusing on the theme "Shakespeare: The Eternal Bard" enabled him to share a large number of brief songs inspired by the writer's poetry.

At the concert, attended by about 150 enthusiasts, de Angelis's new season was announced--expanded to five concerts--beginning in October.

OC's Gay Theatre Tackles Renaissance Tragedy

2010-05-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

Theatre Out, which moved last year to the Empire Theatre in the Santa Ana Artists Village from Fullerton, has been producing an eclectic 8-play season there. Though musicals, camp and drag have found their way onto the lineup, Theatre Out has also committed itself to some ambitious dramatic work--like the Christopher Marlowe play it just opened last night, Edward II.

Marlowe was a contemporary of Shakespeare, and some scholars consider him to be superior to the Bard as a dramatist and poet. Many believe that he was gay, based in part upon his treatment of the subject in his works, such as Edward II. (Shakespeare, too, has had such speculation about his sexuality based upon his Sonnets--but historians often characterize Elizabethan-era notions of love between men as distinct from our own contemporary concept of homosexuality.)

Edward II was one of England's least successful monarchs, ruling in the early 14th century. His favor for one of his knights, named Gaveston, contributed to rumors of his homosexuality, though he also married and fathered children.

In Darcy Hogan's verion of the Marlowe play (which she adapted & directed at Theatre Out), the King is so love-struck by Gaveston that me makes unwise decisions that anger the court, the Church and his pricipal rival, Mortimer. Hogan has shortened Edward II, but otherwise allows it to breathe as a period piece rather than contemporize it, and she has cast it mostly with actors capable of handling the Elizabethan verse in which it's written, and it dwells somewhere between the presentational demands of Renaissance theatre and a more naturalistic style which most contemporary actors (and audiences) consider to be a comfort zone.

Her cut of the play makes for a long first act (one hour and twenty minutes) and a short second act (30 minutes), and there was at least one earlier moment that seemed a more fitting point to break.

In this production, it appears that Theatre Out has attracted some committed and talented artists, and the whole experience--from ticketing online to lobby decor to welcoming staff and cleanliness of the facility--was professional and caring.

Like Edward II, Christopher Marlowe met an untimely, violent death speculated to be related to political intrigue (he was rumored to be a spy) or to a jilted lover. Nobody knows for sure, but there are some critics who believe that had his life not been cut short, Marlowe would have surpassed Shakespeare as the greatest of writers in the English language. Some have argued that Marlowe collaborated with Shakespeare on one or more plays while others believe that each of the writers borrowed heavily from each other.

Edward II really doesn't quite rank with Shakespeare's major tragedies, but it is certainly a compelling enough piece of theatre to devote an evening to. And since it's so rarely performed, Theatre Out is providing a valuable opportunity to experience it. It runs through June 5.

Iconic photos at OCMA

2010-05-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, my new headshot represents my 15 minutes of fame. It was taken at the OC Museum of Art exhibition opening last Saturday. I rather like it, even if I cringed a bit at the thought of having my picture taken there--thematically it fits with their exhibition, but it also is sort of theme park-ish (and as a matter of fact, the prior Sunday, my photo was taken similarly as I entered th Pacific Symphony Gala at the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland).

All that aside, I cannot recommend highly enough the photography on display in OCMA's show. You may be lured by the names Ansel Adams and Andy Warhol in the title of the exhibition, but they represent just the tip of the iceberg. There are dozens and dozens of photos by some of the world's best-known art photographers--some familiar works and others I enjoyed discovering for the first time.

As always, it's hard to really absorb it all at an opening, with socializing weighing heavily upon the agenda. So, I've made up my mind to return for a closer look.

Photo of James Earl Jones by Lawrence Schiller.

Happy 50th Anniversary: "The Fantasticks"

2010-05-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

Try to remember the first time you saw The Fantasticks...I'll bet you were callow and life was mellow!

Today is the 50th anniversary of its original off-Broadway opening, and after zillions of performances and thousands of productions, this little show retains the heavyweight title of longest running musical anywhere and is still running in NYC.

It's a testament to Harvey Schmidt & Tom Jones, its creators, that they chose not to work against the simplicity of the source material on which they based their show. These talented men went on to create a number of other memorable musicals, like the hits I Do, I Do, 110 in the Shade, and lesser-known but still revered works like Celebration.

Back in 2000, I had the pleasure of hosting these two gentlemen (and, believe me, they are gentlemen!) for a summer at the Laguna Playhouse in their retrospective revue The Show Goes On. What a delight getting to know them.

So, here's a toast to Harvey & Tom, and if you remember, "then follow!"

Karma & creativity

2010-04-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

Our presentation last night of author and educator Peter Clothier at Fullerton's Muckenthaler Center drew a small but enthusiastic group of creative people eager to hear Peter's thoughts on "persistence." (His new book is Persist: In Praise of the Creative Spirit in a World Gone Mad with Commerce)

They were treated to a lot more than that.

After reading a short written piece, he spoke extemporaneously about his life as a writer and how he seemed to lose his way for a number of years, distracted by all the things that usually induce artists to lose focus.

How he regained mastery over his artistic self was a story well worth hearing--and instructive to those of us who wish we could be true to our aesthetic aspirations.

If you missed it, don't fret: we're presenting him again next week (Thursday, May 6, 7 pm) at Casa Romantica in San Clemente, and admission is free.

You can read a bit about Peter's own thoughts about last night's gig on his blog.

California's nonprofit arts revenues = California's convenience store revenues

2010-04-27T06:53:00.000-07:00

"Last week, I was in California, and I learned that nonprofit arts organizations there have annual revenues of $2.4 billion, which is roughly equivalent to the revenues of California's convenience stores. That is significant," said a smiling Landesman. "But arts workers make more than Slurpees, they make places." The arts, Landesman said, help "change the ethos of a town or community. They enliven it, they activate the public life."

--Rocco Landesman, Chair, National Endowment for the Arts

(March 27, 2010, The Washington Post)

One artist's wry twist: FUNDING THE ARTS

2010-04-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

I've known dancer and choreographer Felice Lesser since high school in Connecticut, and by the early 1970s she had already founded her own contemporary dance company in New York. The Felice Lesser Dance Theater has managed to survive all these years, continuing to present brief seasons in Manhattan and to tour occasionally, and the work I've seen has always been interesting.

Felice is presenting her latest work, entitled Funding the Arts, at the Baryshnikov Art Center in New York in mid-May. According to the official description, it's about:

"a few rogue ex-C.I.A. agents (and their K.G.B. counterparts, now bound in a common venture), who overthrow governments around the world, rob their treasuries, and use the booty to fund their first love -- their ballet company.
But when they return to the United States in the post 9/11 world, they find they
are totally unprepared for the realities of running a non-profit arts organization. Out of money, they look for a way to keep the company afloat, while trying to bring down their arch-enemy, and save the world (not to mention dance as an art form), while an apathetic public stays home and surfs the internet."
Gotta love that!

"Will opera ever come back to OC?"

2010-04-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

This is a terrific overview of the situation by OC Register music critic Tim Mangan.

Are you the "odd man out"?

2010-04-18T04:46:00.001-07:00

Insightful, clever and fun article in the NY Times about finding yourself in the audience at an event you hate--while everyone else loves it.

It certainly happens to everyone at some point. My favorites:

- Attending CATS on Broadway with a friend and theatre colleague, both of us feeling there was no "there, there," and drowning amidst the ecstasy of hundreds of CATS-lovers.

- Presenting August Wilson's MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM in its original production, a brilliant piece of theatre, compelling, visceral and impossible not to be moved by--only to find my audiences totally lukewarm to the experience.

Feel free to comment with you own "odd man out" experience here.

Front page news: "Addams Family" musical

2010-04-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

These days, it's rare enough to find much to read in the dwindling arts sections of America's daily newspapers--even in the estimable New York Times--but today that paper ran a story on the front page of the main news section (albeit "below the fold") about the great success of The Addams Family musical on Broadway despite uniformly bad reviews.

It was almost like the Times could not believe their own critic had failed to kill the show with his venomous review, so that made it "front page news."

The Times story says that the show has already sold more than $6 million in tickets, and that only the combination of an already well-known name-brand like The Addams Family and a brand-name Broadway musical theatre star like Nathan Lane (they give scant mention to co-star Bebe Neuwirth) meant that this show could puncture the conventional wisdom of The Great White Way.

Then the arts section front page carried a story by the Times theatre critic Ben Brantley about yesterday's announcement that the Pulitzer Prize for Drama went to the acclaimed musical Next to Normal--a decision made by the Pulitzer board that overrode the recommendations of its selection panel. Brantley pooh-poohs the Pulitzers in drama as having a record of being awarded rarely to anything but mainstream and mediocre works (he should know, he says, because he was on the panel one year). And he cites a history of the Pulitzer board overriding selection panels that have chosen more daring works, so--he says--why should anyone have expected otherwise this year?

The LA Times critic Charles McNulty, apparently--(who was on this year's panel and had a hissy fit over this), and so this story winds up being a bit of an East Coast-Left Coast dig by Brantley against his counterpart.

Oh, and the Times couldn't leave it alone: they also ran a sidebar story quoting unnamed sources from the Pulitzer Prize board that board members went to see Next to Normal in the few days prior to the award announcement--as if there was some "plot" afoot to snatch the prize out of the hands of a more deserving candidate.

Although my own heart rate rose a fraction when reading these stories of "great importance to the arts community," I can only surmise that the vast majority of the world would only have yawned--if they had even noticed the stories to begin with.

And, of course, since most of the world now accesses the paper online, the concept of "front page story" is lost in translation anyway.

Go, Rocco, Go!

2010-04-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

New NEA Chair Rocco Landesman Storms Congress.

"I'm a critic--I'm a blogger--no, a critic--no, a blogger"

2010-04-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

Apologies to Faye Dunaway in Chinatown (if that reference wasn't already too strained), but this piece by theatre critic Steven Leigh Morris in the LA Weekly points to the disparity between self-appointed un-edited arts reviewers in the blogosphere vs. the professional journalists. It's really only the tip of the iceberg, but his observations are on the mark.

How best to measure artistic success?

2010-04-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

"...would a show be more of a success if it affected a handful of people profoundly, but left the majority nonplussed? Or would it be better if the majority of people seeing it were moderately affected? What if only two people came to see a show, but it changed their lives forever?"

Just a few of the questions posed in this article in UK's The Guardian about what factor determines the success of a play.

The arts have abandoned all risk-taking, says Kennedy Center's Michael Kaiser...

2010-04-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

"I have been depressed lately at the lack of spark and creativity I observe from many of our arts organizations. It seems that the leadership--in many cases people like me who have been in the field for twenty years or more--has gotten tired, conservative and frightened. We have become so scared that we won't balance our budgets that we forget that taking risk is a central requisite for arts making. We do not have to succeed every time. But if we never risk, we will never create the important, surprising projects that make people sit up and take notice of our work."

--Michael Kaiser, President, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC

But he found some hopeful signs when he visited a New York dance company's youth program. Read about it here.

Monkey Wrench Collective Debuts in Grand Guignol Style

2010-04-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

There must be something in the water in Fullerton.

The new Monkey Wrench Collective's (MWC) neighboring storefront theatres have all enjoyed success with horror film-influenced productions during the past year (Hunger Artists-Frankenstein in Love; Maverick-Night of the Living Dead, and STAGEStheatre-Borneo Bob).

Now, former Rude Guerrilla Theatre guru Dave Barton decides to launch MWC with a Grand Guignol style production of The Revengers Tragedy, that 1606 English play by Thomas Middleton in which every character except one is done away with by the, ahem, final curtain. (It runs only through April 11.)

Twenty some-odd actors fill the small temporary space in Fullerton's historic brick Ice House, including seasoned veterans and novices, in a production that interprets Middleton's script to be about how absolute power corrupts absolutely--a message Barton wants to be sure we understand applies to our own times as well.

It's an audacious debut for MWC, and I'm particularly interested in seeing their next production, contemporary English dramatist Mark Ravenhill's pool (no water).

Are 2 reviews better than 1?

2010-04-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

Today's New York Times featured a contretemps between its theatre critic and dance critic on their assessments of the new Twyla Tharp show on Broadway, Come Fly With Me.

What's so interesting about this is that it validates my belief that art inevitably provokes a wide variety of responses, and that the role of the critic is not that of Consumer Reports!

It reminds me of a famous Koren cartoon in The New Yorker back in the 1970s in which an audience member during a performance taps the critic in front of him and asks "Excuse me, is it good?"

Follow-up coverage on Daniel Pink's presentation...

2010-03-29T04:42:00.001-07:00

...by OC Register's dance & theatre critic Paul Hodgins here.

The fabulous Adler boys

2010-03-24T21:02:00.000-07:00

Today it was reported that Jerry Adler, virtuoso harmonica player, died 10 days ago. He was the "lesser known" of the fabulous Adler boys. Larry Adler garnered more fame (having the distinction of dying 9 years before his brother), but apparently Jerry was equally talented--and they were known to play duets, too. If you thought that the harmonica was only an instrument for blues, then you haven't heard these guys play. Plenty available on You Tube (playing "Rhapsody in Blue") &c. RIP and long live the harmonica concerto!

How does a museum "acquire" an "@" sign?

2010-03-24T20:55:00.000-07:00

You have to hand it to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for its p.r. hubris: it announced today that it has "acquired" the "@" sign! One might legitimately ask: is this the original @ sign? Their answer: no, of course not. All right, maybe I'm being a little picky here. What they've actually done (since it's not possible to acquire @) is to designate it a work of art, a seminal design creation worthy of celebration. I can't disagree with that.

The '@' Symbol
Image source: MOMA. Ray Tomlinson. @. 1971. Here displayed in ITC American Typewriter Medium, the closest approximation to the character used by a Model 33 Teletype in the early 1970s, according to MOMA.

"Is criticism a pointless exercise?" asks a music writer

2010-03-22T12:23:00.001-07:00

From The Boston Globe (via Arts Journal.com)

New OC appointee to California Arts Council speaks out

2010-03-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

Wylie Aitken shares his thoughts in an interview with Orange County Register arts writer Richard Chang.

Dan Pink Wows OC Audiences (Again)

2010-03-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

For someone who claims that he was not especially into the arts as a kid, best-selling author Daniel Pink has managed to become one of the most persuasive evangelists for creativity the world has ever seen! All right, perhaps I'm indulging a just a wee bit of hyperbole (perhaps it's due to St. Patty's Day!), but the verve this guy displays when presenting example after example of how it's the right side of the brain that's going to save the future of America is as entertaining as it is infectious. He certainly had nearly 1,000 people in the palm of his hand at Monday's lecture at the Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, presented by ArtsOC, OC Department of Education, OC Performing Arts Center and 4th District PTA. Three breakouts after the presentation were packed (more than 1/3 of the lecture attendees remained for them) and included panels, a video/PowerPoint presentation from ArtsOC, and Q&A sessions. This event is a re-invented reprise of his appearance in OC two years ago, which reverberated with the community so strongly that it merited a command performance again this year. It has again created a buzz that we hope will translate into action: advocacy, improved management practices in business, arts organizations and education, as well as more generous philanthropic support to make it all happen. Check out more photos of the event here. If you attended the event, please feel free to comment here--or on our Creative Edge arts education blog.

After hiccup with City of Fullerton, Monkey Wrench is back!

2010-03-12T17:24:00.000-08:00

Monkey Wrench Collective has announced its theatre production plans and has launched its website.

How the arts contribute to the local economy...

2010-03-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Anne Olin, who is a local consultant and executive administrator for the Orange County Funders Roundtable, for passing this along:

We've all heard arguments about how the arts enrich the cultural life of communities. But what about their power to contribute to local coffers? The Boston Globe reports on findings of a study that found six cultural institutions in a town near Boston "generate nearly double their budgets in local spending annually, creating scores of jobs along the way." Combined, these six institutions—arts and history centers, a public garden and library—spend about of $6.3 million annually for operations and support some 87 full-time equivalent jobs. These are numbers that the Globe says, "would make any small to mid-size business proud." More impressively, however, the report found that these organizations generate nearly double their own budgets annually—or $11.4 million—in local spending. Nearly one-third of that, or $4.1 million, is generated by the two branches of the Framingham Public Library. “We’ve become more of a cultural institution,’’ said the library’s director, Mark Contois. “We host over 700 programs per year such as Friday films and Sunday concerts.’’ And it gets better. The study predicts that if these institutions maintain their spending levels, the six organizations will spur $127 million in local spending and contribute to the creation of more than 2,000 jobs over the coming decade. If they also spend $20 million on planned renovations, the study projects it will result in another $36 million in spending and 537 more jobs. The heck with art for art's sake . . . it's the economy, stupid. —Bruce Trachtenberg

Rube Goldberg LIVES!

2010-03-09T21:57:00.000-08:00

Gotta check this out, posted by the California Arts Council.

Art in our daily lives: NYC picks condom wrapper design winner

2010-03-09T18:01:00.000-08:00

I nearly skidded off the 73 Toll Road this evening when I heard this on NPR...(this report is from the Village Voice).

"The 15th Line": The Ups & Downs of Twitter as a Dramatic Medium

2010-03-08T12:46:00.000-08:00

Jeremy Gable's on-Twitter-only play The 15th Line that I wrote about last month is now into Act III, and while it's held my interest since the beginning, it's also gotten abundantly clear that Twitter is a challenging medium for any playwright.

A few of the lines in The 15th Line seem utterly appropriate--just the kinds of things that people tweet about, telling us "I'm doing this right now," or that people representing companies tweet about, broadcasting their requests for information or pitching their wares.

But most of The 15th Line is actually comprised of highly personal messages--more like what people text to each other privately than what they would be comfortable tweeting publicly.

So, while this play uses Twitter as its medium, the less you remain consciously aware of it consisting of tweets, the more you're likely to enjoy The 15th Line.

In a sense, that means its value has more to do with plot, character and craft (like most plays) than anything inherent in Twitter.