December 2009
18 posts
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In the Front Room, Virtually →
Kristi noted some time ago (i.e., several posts back) our “new toy,” the wonderful book-based-on-an-exhibition, The Front Room. Well, here is the website accompanying it, with much wonderful detail (and links back to the nifty institution who hosted the original exhibition). This is all apropos of the upcoming production of Kwame Kwei-Armah’s new play, Let There Be...
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The world of Kwame Kwei-Armah →
A brief profile of Kwame from the Telegraph that ran back when he was initially premiering Let There Be Love at London’s Tricycle Theatre (where it was a commission). Though short, the piece gives a pretty good sense of his energy, enthusiasm, and incredibly broad range of interests and applications.
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Trek Love →
We are all, naturally, more than delighted that veteran actor Avery Brooks—seen recently in Shakespeare’s Othello at the nearby Shakespeare Theatre in DC, among a host of other celebrated roles—will be joining us for Kwame Kwei-Armah’s US premiere of Let There Be Love. However, what seems to be garnering the most attention in some sectors is Mr. Brooks more popularly...
Denver Center Theatre Company season reflects... →
Interesting piece from last March on how DCTC was encountering then downturn, and planning for/around/despite it. And features a nifty little tidbit, seems like a fruitful collaborative venture between major regional theater and the local paper: artistic director going through the season selections point by point. Nice use of online media, there.
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Intersections Play Festival →
Check out this wonderful local (Baltimore-based) play festival, now approaching its second year with a call for submissions, featuring work by playwrights of color; or, as they put it:
The Intersections Play Festival strives to be the exemplary vehicle for new, emerging and established playwrights of color. The Festival showcases contemporary works that reflect artistic vision and enhance...
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Attendance patterns in a time of anxiety →
clairemazur:
…And then there’s this:
NEA report shows declining attendance in arts events nationwide
also, re: movie ticket prices being less than museum entry prices: someone please tell NY museums about this novel idea
hydeordie:
It may be because of the relative bargain of a museum ticket, an increased popular interest in contemporary art, or just a rainy summer, but admissions at the...
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The Invention of Santa Claus →
Little historical/cultural survey by Louise Mirrer, President of New York Historical Society, of the “invention” of Santa Claus as a 19th-century, secular contribution to the holidays in honor of increasingly polyglot & multicultural New York. In honor of Robert Dorfman’s endearing Crumpet the Elf and David Sedaris’ cynical-cum-sweet Santaland Diaries, playing through...
“I have heard boring opera scores in my time — especially those in...”
– Operatic Cyrano loses by more than a nose - Brattleboro Reformer
Geez, Frank Behrens of the Brattleboro Reformer sure doesn’t mince words.
A Self-Aware Cyrano
I’m currently putting the finishing touches on a Cyrano program piece, touching on all the various historical, mythic, and theatrical aspects of the character. Here’s a rough sneak peek:
“Now … we encounter a 21st-century Cyrano, distilled and very much acknowledged, even celebrated, as a theatrical myth. We watch not only shadows of historic truth through the filter of...
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It’s that time again.
Today, we’re going to take a quick glance at Capuchin monks. Very basic information says that the Capuchins are a branch of the Franciscans (followers of the animal-loving Saint Francis of Assisi, who made due with the barest of essentials and elected to live in poverty). The Capuchins broke into their own branch during the early 16th Century, wishing to go back...
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Apropos of 80 DAYS and Mr. Verne, a nice short... →
80 DAYS microsite, up and running. Try it. →
Rostand's Romanticism
Edmond Rostand, the author of Cyrano De Bergerac (1897, the first play to translate the historical Cyrano’s life into the stuff of theatrical history), is often credited with reviving Romanticism on the late 19th-century French stage. But for a greater sense of what exactly Rostand was reviving, we need to talk about the legacy of Romanticism on the French stage.
France, traditionally the...
“With Rostand the center of gravity is in the expression of the emotion, not as...”
– T.S. Eliot, Selected Essays (1932)
It’s interesting to compare Rostand’s idea of Romanticism to that of his French avant-garde contemporaries in Maeterlinck and the Symbolists, who also saw themselves as carrying the Romantic torch in the late 1890s. Rostand’s plays are...