jcgcollaborations

MEMORIAL LUNCHEON - SATURDAY NOON - DECEMBER 10 - EL CHICO's

2011-12-06T21:24:00.001-06:00

- MEMORIAL LUNCHEON FOR JERELYN -

EL CHICO's - 4015 Fern Avenue - Madison Park - Shreveport - 318-865-4687

dear friends - this coming saturday, in jerelyn's honor, there will be a lunch get-together of family and friends at el chico's, one of the places she enjoyed for lunch - there will be individual ordering for lunch

if at all possible, RSVP would be greatly appreciated in the event additional tables are needed - all are welcome regardless - if you are unable to have a bite to eat, please feel free to just come by and say hello if you wish - anyone who wishes to say a few words or who has a story to share, we hope you will do so - please pass the word for those who may not be hooked into facebook or blogland - we look forward to seeing you then - jenean and family

to view the menu, please check out their website at http://www.elchico.com/menu.php

IN MEMORY OF JERELYN CHARLINE GILSTRAP 10/29/1940 - 12/02/2011

2011-12-05T15:00:00.001-06:00

SPIRIT ASCENDING
december 2, 2011

jerelyn

you have left us far too soon

but your light stays with us

fly on fly on

and know that you are missed

ANNIVERSARY 1948

2011-11-22T12:59:00.000-06:00

JFK ASSASINATION 48 YEARS AGO

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution .

. – John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

– John F. Kennedy

BACK TO THE REAL ? WORLD

2011-09-08T20:06:00.000-05:00

Arrived home yesterday after another hospital stay - although my cast of "Two Rooms" sustained rehearsals, the new equipment being installed at Minicine? necessitates more time than thought -- so production dates are Dec. 2-3. More info shortly.

SPECIFIC DATES and VENUE FOR "TWO ROOMS"

2011-08-05T23:06:00.000-05:00

Our first production of 2011, the Pulitzer Prize nominated "Two Rooms" by Lee Blessing will be produced at the newly renvated indie film/arts venue, Minicine, in historic downtown Shreveport. Dates are September 23-24.

"Two Rooms" is a contemporary love story in which a couple's love and devotion transcend their tragic circumstances.

The cast includes company members Christina Bailey, Stephen Scarlato and Harvard R. Taylor. Linda Berglund, formerly of L.A. is guest actor. Callie Manning serves as stage manager.

A LOST STAR AMIDST A TOO-LONG LINE OF OTHERS

2011-07-24T11:22:00.000-05:00

AMY WINEHOUSE amazing talent and lost soul dead yesterday at 27 years of age. This girl in the photo is the girl I saw underneath the debacle of most of her recent performances - the girl who often could stand only with great difficulty, whose hair piece was teetering on her head, whose eyes rolled back in her head and who seemed as if she could not complete the performance without passing out. But she did. I don't recall ever seeing her smile during a performance - she seemed totally focused on just remaining standing and getting the words out.

It was easy for many to ridicule her, coming on stage in an almost non-functional state - but looking under the consequences of her addictions, there was a gifted singer and a forlorn soul who sadly finally lost her struggle to remain standing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA

2011-07-04T18:31:00.000-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA!!

MAY YOU RECOVER

ANNE CARSON, contemporary poet

2011-07-04T18:11:00.000-05:00

"Time isn't made of anything.
It is an abstraction.
Just a meaning that
we impose upon motion."
Ann Carson

FILM ACTOR DECEASED

2011-06-26T11:40:00.000-05:00

PETER FALK, ACTOR, died recently, in his 80s. Falk was famous for the wrinkled trench coat detective in the tv series, "Colombo." He made over fifty films, including numerous films with director Nick Cassavetes.

2011-06-16T22:40:00.000-05:00

A vivid, often anguished imagination shines through in [Zustiak's] work... THE NEW YORKER

Amidst is a site-specific live performance/video installation that focuses on nostalgia as a place of entrapment on a journey “home.” It is the second installment of The Painted Bird Trilogy, a work in three parts choreographed and directed by Pavel Zuštiak. The trilogy’s title comes from Jerzy Kosinski’s controversial novel of the same name. Amidst is presented in a fluid theatrical structure, as audiences move freely amidst a sensory immersive installation at the intersection of dance performance and visual art.

Concept, Choreography, Direction: Pavel Zustiak;

GO TO thepaintedbird.org for video

GOOGLE BRINGS WORLD-FAMOUS MUSEUMS ONLINE

2011-06-14T20:04:00.000-05:00

Google has brought over 1000 works of art online in great detail from seventeen world famous museums, including documentation on works, bios of artists, 360 degree tours of the galleries.

VISUAL ART vs. THEATRE

2011-05-24T10:03:00.001-05:00

"The biggest difference between theatre work and visual work
is the use of the observer's time.

In theatre, the creator determines the time an image is observed.
In a work of visual art, the observer himself determines this time.

In my theatre work I use the notion of the 'borderline image'.
This is an image which, because I extend the normal duration of the observation,
has time to penetrate into the observer's brain.

This image then makes history for the observer.

The image becomes a memory.

At this moment the distinction between a borderline image (in the theatre) and a visual work ceases to exist.

If art does not penetrate into the observer's memory,

it does not exist."

John Lauwers, Needcompany Dance, Belgium

MESSAGE FOR ACTORS - VIA DIRECTOR ANNE BOGART

2011-05-19T22:25:00.000-05:00

Veteran acting teacher Steve Wangh developed an exercise that he suggests can teach an actor most of what they need to know about acting. Five or more actors enter the stage together, each with the task of getting the audience to look at them and them alone. Although it seems that this might lead to a free-for-all demonstration of blatant narcissism, in fact actors quickly learn that being loud and obvious does not necessarily attract and hold the attention of the audience. To become un-dismissible demands a concentration of energy and intention into intensely focused action. The audience becomes interested when they begin to suspect rather than be sure of something about an actor’s state. In this way, the actors learn the importance of keeping a certain amount to themselves. Their privacy engenders fascination on the watcher. Too much sharing does not stimulate attraction.

IMAGINATION: RIVERA & LENNON

2011-05-01T17:02:00.001-05:00

Driving through Hollywood, I noticed this huge wall poster that had been pasted to a cement wall. It was of Lennon, Ono and a sweet dog. Although the image had been rained on, I could see their figure a block away. I knew they were there to connect the frequency of energy and spectrum of revelations with one triangulating message that Lennon and Ono had written in the poster, "All you need is Love." This was their 5 word pattern message as a united, creative duo. It was simple, and in that simplicity penetrated internationally and inter-generationally, making me ask myself on my ride home: what is your message to the world?

One of my messages is the belief that the imagination exists and it is the key to our individual and collective future. I had felt it with the group that day and I knew it by heart. Then, a flash: the sound of the song "Imagine" arrived, twirling into clarity of gesture. The lyrics laid themselves before me. Whatever you can in your greatest vision imagine is only half of what is possible, but that half you are fully responsible in creating.

Diana Rivera, Creativity Empowerment Coach

Lyrics | John Lennon lyrics - Imagine lyrics

BLOG STATS

2011-04-30T22:56:00.001-05:00

Just for the curious, mostly myself - the top three most visited pages are:

ANNE BOGART'S CURRENT POSTING

MAY 8, 2010

2011 AUDITIONS -- jcgCOLLABORATIONS FEB. 1, 2011...

Jan 19, 2011

FLUTTER TUNNEL - Flutter Tunnel The Flutter T...

Mar 20, 2010

and the top four visiting sources:

U.S.

Germany

Canada

India

PINA BAUSCH

2011-04-25T02:17:00.000-05:00

"I am more interested in what moves people, than how they move."
—the late Pina Bausch

WORLD DANCE DAY APRIL 24, 2011

2011-04-25T02:07:00.000-05:00

On the 29th of April, as every year since 1982, the official Dance Day will be celebrated all over the world by millions of dancers. It is an initiative of the International Dance Council CID, UNESCO.

The main purpose of Dance Day events is to attract the attention of the wider public to the art of dance. Emphasis should be given to addressing a “new” public, people who do not follow dance events during the course of the year.

122nd BIRTHDAY

2011-04-15T19:23:00.000-05:00

What do you want meaning for? CHARLIE CHAPLIN

Life is desire,

not meaning! 122 BIRTHDAY

IMAGINATION MEANS NOTHING WITHOUT DOING.

SIMPLICITY IS A DIFFICULT THING TO ACHIEVE.

GOV'T. EFFECTS ON MUSEUMS, GALLERIES

2011-04-08T11:31:00.000-05:00

clipped from hyperallergic.com

This weekend, the usually free National Gallery of Art might not be — in fact, it could not be open at all. With the distinct possibility of a government shutdown looming as a result of disagreements between Democrats and Republicans over setting a national budget, public museums may be the first to close their doors at the end of this week.

So if the government actually shuts down for want of a budget, will public museums close? The short answer is yes, they will. From zoos to parks to art museums, most employees won’t be able to work and visitors won’t have any access to the institutions. But don’t worry about the art, the animals or the plants — key employees, the people who really keep these places running behind the scenes will remain on the job.

500,000 visitors could be turned away from the National Zoo and the major Smithsonian museums on the Mall.

How’s that for budget shortfalls?

APT METAPAHOR FOR ROLE OF ARTIST IN ANY CULTURE

2011-04-07T13:17:00.001-05:00

The South African writer, Antjie Krog, described meeting a nomadic desert poet in Senegal who described the role of the poet in his culture. The job of the poet, he explained is to remember where the water holes are. The survival of the whole group depends on a few water holes scattered around the desert. When his people forget where the water is, the poet can lead them to it. Anne Bogart

LOVE IS AN ACTION

2011-04-07T13:07:00.000-05:00

Love is not a feeling. No matter how much you feel, love means nothing when unrelated to action. Love is an action. In order to engage in effective action you must first find something that you value and put it at the center of your life. When you put your life into the service of what you value, that action will engender other values and beliefs. Through engagement, things happen. Movement is all. ``Anne Bogart

ROBERT WILSON, PHILLIP GLASS AND EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH: Diana Rivera

2011-03-28T21:12:00.002-05:00

Albert Einstein, Robert Wilson and Phillip Glass on the Beach by Diana Rivera

creativeempowerment1 | March 28, 2011 at 4:18 pm | URL: http://wp.me/pyz2k-3z

I include the following in its entirety - in hopes many of you will not only read it, but give it some serious thought.

Many of you were born about the time Robert Wilson and Philip Glass made experimental theatre an American commodity that, unfortunately, became and still is a European art commodity. America can't or won't accept a theatrical budget as large as is necessary for Wilson's work. Just occasionally. I saw his work numerous times in New York City, Washington, D.C., Boston and Montreal.

Wilson's life story is as interesting as his epic theatre works are spectacular. The biographical irony I enjoy about him is that he's from Waco, Tx!

An overly simplified description of his work would start with the fact that he usually begins with a subject or public figure about whom there is common knowledge. He gathers collaborators from around the world - light and sound designers, set designers, singers, musicians. For many years he worked only with minimal text (the reason is a whole other epic story). But he works with elements of a drama like vocalists and musicians laying out different tracks for a recording. Only Wilson's "tracks" do not necessarily have any association with one another - it is the juxtaposition of the elements that is his artistry.

"Wilson’s awards and honors include two Guggenheim Fellowship awards (’71 and ’80), the nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama (’86), the Golden Lion for sculpture from the Venice Biennale (’93), the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for lifetime achievement (’96), the Premio Europa award from Taormina Arte (’97), election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (’00), and Commandeur des arts et des lettres (’02) among others. . . . .

Wilson’s collaborators include diverse writers and musicians such as Susan Sontag, Lou Reed, Heiner Müller, Jessye Norman, David Byrne, Tom Waits, and Rufus Wainwright. Wilson has also left his imprint on masterworks such as The Magic Flute, Wagner's Ring Cycle, Madama Butterfly, Dreamplay, Per Gynt, The Threepenny Opera, Shakesepeare’s Sonnets and Krapp's Last Tape."

So, before I get totally embroiled in my "Wilson's genius" rant, just read and think about the following.

Albert Einstein, Robert Wilson and Phillip Glass on the Beach by Diana Rivera

Did you know that Einstein interviewed poets to learn about the nature of intuition and imagination? It was a form of collaboration between artist and scientist (Einstein was in fact a versed violinist who would, in a moment of scientist block, play his violin to help him find an answer to his theories), and is beautifully divergent from a stagnant perception that scientists are not artists, and have no interest in the arts. It's almost symphonic to imagine the words shared between them. Fast-forward years later to a buzzing conversation between the accomplished Theatre Director, Robert Wilson, and Composer, Phillip Glass, regarding the basis of a collaboration on a 4-5 hour long opera.

Conversations like these are as vast and symbolic as the beach. The ebb and flow of the ocean summons in the tidal wave of an idea; the sky comfortably and sometimes turbulently crowns the idea by demanding more of your attention just to see if you can think in the grand sense of the stars and planets. In both cases, such conversations led Einstein (whether with a poet or a violin) to create his posthumous findings, along with Wilson and Glass to invent for the four walls of a black box theatre, a galaxy of an idea called "Einstein on the Beach."

Wilson and Glass will tell you: they were broke before they even began the project in the 1970's in NYC. Broke but larger than life with a creative notion to collaborate on a popular work of theatre fusing an anti-linear narrative with movement and opera.

Wilson would tell you himself that the opera community was at first unsure of this kind of work. It should be in some artist loft space, not at the MET. With Einstein symbolically at the helm, Wilson and Glass were the poets of this creative equation who knew they were on to something and so it was worth the momentary hardship to produce "Einstein at the Beach."

Check out this video on the process:

watch?v=b26E0D2pm1c&feature=related

So, where does this information lead us in our thoughts as a creative community? Whether it's Einstein, Wilson and Glass at the beach, how can we think and believe as large as the sky and create a project as massive as a galaxy? To this result, collaboration is the primary route and it must be done by like-minded and not so like-minded folk. As individual creators, a synergistic conversation between thinkers of different domains (poetry and science or music and dance) can provide a 'galactic' quality that advances information and/or the finding of a scientific theory or the basis of a show.

Whatever the outcome might be, the value is higher when having orbited through the fine art and science of conversation. In fact, Einstein's theories live on for present-day collaborators and Wilson and Glass' show is set to reopen in 2010 internationally.

Points to ponder:

If you are in the incubation process of an idea, invite a colleague to the beach of your thought process. This colleague could be of the same domain and a different one (again, this means someone of a different field). What is the nature or theme of the conversation you are looking to address? How can you let go of your theories, expand your notions and think 'galactic.'

ZOE KEATING, CELLIST AND ROBERT HODGIN, LIGHT DESIGNER

2011-03-26T23:20:00.001-05:00

Into the Trees

Zoë Keating and Robert Hodgin
Commissioned by ZER01 and presented with the support of the Irvine Foundation

Composition for the ears meets composition for the eyes in an organic, evolving world of sight and sound. Zoë Keating will create a lush soundscape of live, layered cello, which Robert Hodgin will translate into light.

Zoe Keating and Robert Hodgin

FIRST WOMAN ON MAJOR PARTY NATIONAL TICKET DIES

2011-03-26T19:10:00.000-05:00

Ferraro was the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a major party national ticket. According to a statement released by her family, she died . . . after battling multiple myeloma for twelve years. A family statement was put out for the press: "Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro was widely known as a leader, a fighter for justice, and a tireless advocate for those without a voice. . . . Her courage and generosity of spirit throughout her life waging battles big and small, public and personal, will never be forgotten and will be sorely missed." After years in a private law practice, she took a job as an assistant Queens district attorney in 1974. She headed the office's special victims' bureau, which prosecuted sex crimes and the abuse of children and the elderly. Starting in 1978, Ferraro began three terms of serving New York's ninth congressional district.

LEADING AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT DIES

2011-03-24T21:09:00.000-05:00

Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Lanford Wilson has died of pneumonia complications . . . .

Wilson was one of the founders of the Circle Repertory Company, an off-Broadway repertory group where he premiered his plays. Known for such works as "The Hot l Baltimore" and Talley's Folly", he explored such themes as contemporary gay identity, youthful angst and the modern lack of the usual social or ethical standards.

A number of Wilson's plays reached Broadway, and he received three Tony nominations for best play. But today

he is most closely associated with the off-off-Broadway scene. He won the Pulitzer for "Talley's Folly."

A revival production of "Burn This," directed by Nicholas Martin, is set to open at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles on April 3. underthelobsterscope.blogspot.com

LSUSproduced "Burn This"a few years ago.

NEW COMPANY MEMBER

2011-03-21T11:51:00.000-05:00

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBER

HARVARD R. TAYLOR comes with solid experience in stage, film and tv work. A graduate of the Northwestern State University, his major roles include "A Raisin in the Sun," "To Kill a Mockingbird," and "I'm Not Rappaport." Film work includes, "Straw Dogs," "Drive Angry," and "Cool Dog. Harvard also has considerable work in Shakespeare.

TODDLER SWAGGER

2011-03-17T17:32:00.000-05:00

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN TODDLER

SWAGGER??!!

i THINK THIS MAY BE IT.

Josiah Michael Reine

age 2

WASH., D.C. PHILLIPS GALLERY 90TH ANNIVERSARY WORK BY SAM GILLIAM

2011-03-17T16:30:00.000-05:00

The Phillips Gallery in Washington, D.C., housed in a 19th century house a block from where I lived for so many years was a favorite haunt of mine. For its 90th anniversary, my friend and collaborator (on my theatre work) is creating new work for the gallery which gave him his first solo show so many years ago. Hope you enjoy. . . .

SEE VIDEO IN POST BELOW THIS ONE

2011-03-17T16:21:00.000-05:00

2011-03-17T16:11:00.000-05:00

100TH BIRTHDAY GOES UNNOTICED IN SHREVEPORT, BUT CELEBRATED AROUND THE REST OF THE U.S.

2011-03-16T21:03:00.001-05:00

"Tennessee Williams would have turned 100 this month, and towns and cities around the country are hosting fetes in his honor, but none more fittingly than Columbus, the playwright’s birthplace and his home until age 7. "

(However, here in the depth of the south, thus far this month, to my knowledge, The Shreveport Times has not covered that story, nor the current production of "Streetcar Named Desire," which so appropriately opens the long-awaited Shreveport Little Theatre's refurbished opening. That is a great disappointment and a sad note on the importance of the dramatic legacy of one of America's greatest playwrights and one of the south's own.)

"Williams-themed festivities will include an exhibition of playbill and movie paraphernalia related to his stage and screen work at the Columbus-Lowndes Library (317 Seventh Street North); tours of St. Paul’s Episcopal (318 College Street), where his grandfather preached (don’t miss the stained-glass windows mentioned in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”); and performances of one of his more obscure plays, “Strangest Kind of Romance,” at the Rosensweig Arts Center (501 Main Street).

But the centennial’s key event will be the unveiling of Williams-related plaques around town on March 26, closing with a cake and punch reception at the newly renovated Tennessee Williams Home (300 Main Street), which the town spent $450,000 to restore. The yellow-and-green gingerbread Victorian, outfitted with copper piping, heart-pinewood floors and a red tin roof, is slowly filling up with Williams paraphernalia, including a laurel wreath salvaged from his funeral and a collection of early photographs with his sister Rose, and his nursemaid, Ozzie.

About four hours south of Columbus, New Orleans will play host to the CenTENNial (March 23 to 27; tennesseewilliams.net), the biggest of the Williams festivals. The playwright claimed his “first contact with a free society” in the city’s French Quarter, whose misfit transients inspired characters like Stanley and Stella from “A Streetcar Named Desire.” (The couple will be immortalized in the festival’s Stanley and Stella Shouting Contest in Jackson Square on March 27.)

The CenTENNial is a broad literary event, with writers like Armistead Maupin discussing their own work, but it also includes liberal doses of Williams, including a scholars’ conference, panel discussions of his film characters, and theatrical performances of well-known works like “The Glass Menagerie” and obscurities like “The Pretty Trap.” A lecture from the director John Waters on Williams’s influence promises to be a highlight.

Two other Williams events are scheduled for the fall. The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theater Festival (Sept. 22 to 25; twptown.org) brings the playwright’s Southern flavor to his favorite Yankee hideout on Cape Cod, where the autobiographical “Something Cloudy, Something Clear” will be performed. And the Mississippi Tennessee Williams Festival in Clarksville (Oct. 14 and 15 this year; www.ccc.cc.ms.us/twilliams), soon to be the subject of a television documentary in Germany, is hosting a series of porch-plays — one-acts performed on a porch and viewed from the lawn — in Williams’s childhood neighborhood.

“The entire country still needs Tennessee Williams as a voice for kindness,” said William Gantt, director of the Southern Literary Trail. “His work continues to champion outcasts, and his compassion for them will make him relevant forever.”

A version of this article appeared in print on March 13, 2011, on page TR4 of the New York edition.

COMPARISON OF ARTS CUTS & BONUSES TO FINANCIAL COMPANIES, NYC

2011-03-15T20:01:00.000-05:00

The New York Times recently reported that $18.4 billion was paid in bonuses to employees of financial companies in New York in 2008, despite a loss of 38% in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. That was the most severe loss since the stock market crash of 1931.

In comparison, the entire 2008 budget for the National Endowment for the Arts was a total of $144.7 million. Yes, you read that right. The entire budget for the NEA was less than 1/100th of what Wall Street used to pat itself on the back for a job well done in 2008.

See how that compares

HOUSE APPROVES AMENDMENT TO CUT NEA FUNDING

2011-03-15T19:32:00.001-05:00

Action & Advocacy

House Approves Amendment to Cut NEA Funding

8 votes.

That was the narrow vote margin of 217 to 209

by which the House approved Rep. Tim Walberg’s amendment to cut

an additional $20.5 million from the already reduced budget of the

National Endowment for the Arts.

All but 3 Democrats voted against the funding cut.

Only 23 out of 241 Republicans voted [...]

from post on today's Dance Journal Blog.

If you think that doesn't apply to or affect you or someone you know -- you are sorely mistaken.

"STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE" OPENS REFURBISHED SHREVEPORT LITTLE THEATRE

2011-03-07T14:10:00.000-06:00

America's classic, "Streetcar Named Desire" (Tennessee Williams) is a fitting opening for the refurbished Shreveport Little Theatre's long-awaited opening. i am looking forward to the performance, especially because of two of my favorite actors. Reece Middleton who gave a stellar performance in "Copenhagen" last year and talented Rachael Magill, a young actress with even more potential.

"Streetcare...," of course, is the stage play that in its movie version catapulted Marlon Brando to legendary fame.

Upcoming last week-end - make your reservations now.

WORK IN PROGRESS

2011-03-07T10:47:00.001-06:00

DEAR READERS - Please bear with me - I am still in the throes of self-learning to make this blog more functional and attractive. It's a slow process - or, maybe I'm just a slow learner, It will happen. jcg

DYLAN'S 'FREEWHEELIN' MUSE DIES LEAVING HER OWN LEGACY OF THOSE CHANGIN' TIMES

2011-03-04T19:18:00.000-06:00

It was the '60s - she was seventeen - he was twenty. The place was Greenwich Village - the landscape of bohemia. He was not yet a legend in his own time. The times, they were a' changin'

Suze Rotolo, who strongly influenced Bob Dylan's songwriting and walked beside him on the album cover for The Freewheeling Bob Dylan, died of lung cancer on Friday. She was 67.

"I see history as a reliquary—a container where relics are kept and displayed for contemplation. So much has been written about the sixties that the more distant those years become, the more mythic the tales and the time seem to be. Facts and statistics are pliable. Truth and accuracy are truly Rashomon- like. Each story is true from the teller's perspective; the weight shifts. My decision to add my relics was not an easy one. Hindsight meddles with memory, after all, so the best I can do in writing about those long- ago years is to try to make them recognizable.

The stories I tell are about my place within that time and about the early years that made me who I was when I migrated from Queens, New York, to Greenwich Village. . . .

The 1960s were an amazing time, an eventful time of protest and rebellion. An entire generation had permission to drink alcohol and die in a war at eighteen, but it had no voting voice until the age of twenty- one. Upheaval was inevitable. Talk made music, and music made talk. Action was in the civil rights marches, marches against the bomb, and marches against an escalating war in Vietnam. It was a march out of a time, too—out of the constricted and rigid morality of the 1950s. The Beats had already cracked the façade and we, the next generation, broke through it.

Traveling with the past within us, we were ready to roll into the future. It has now become a historical time made up of many personal stories, songs, and sidebars. There are many reliquaries from that era in American life. This is mine." npr.org 3/4/11

From A Freewheelin' Time by Suze Rotolo, published by Broadway Books

QUOTE OF THE DAY FROM 13th CENTURY

2011-03-04T12:05:00.000-06:00

UNAVOIDABLE PRODUCTION DELAY

2011-02-25T01:57:00.002-06:00

Several occurrences make it necessary for jcgCOLLABORATIONS to postpone the opening production of Lee Blessing's "Two Rooms." But this beautiful play will come to production this spring, as well as the other slated productions: "Freud's Last Session" (St. Germain) and "Yankee Tavern" (Dietz) .

Keep watch here for new dates.

SURVIVAL OF CULTURAL ICON'S LEGACY QUESTIONABLE

2011-02-20T11:42:00.002-06:00

MERCE CUNNINGHAM (1919-2009) was a leader of the American avant-garde throughout his seventy-year career and is considered one of the most important choreographers of our time. Through much of his life, he was also one of the greatest American dancers. With an artistic career distinguished by constant innovation, Cunningham expanded the frontiers not only of dance, but also of contemporary visual and performing arts.
It is sad and unfortunate to note that amidst the drastic arts budget cuts and even elimination of some state arts organizations, yet another cultural icon's work may succumb. The New York Times reports today that the coming New Year's Eve performance of Merce Cunningham's Legacy Tour will be the last. It is not known if it or any of his legacy will survive. The NY Times makes no reference to the reasons for this closing, but, quite likely, finances are at least a partial reason.

Cunningham passed away two years ago at age 90. I am fortunate to have seen his work on several occasions. For those of you who are perhaps too young to be familiar with him or his work, you are fortunate that there are videos of his work - "Google" in "Mondays with Merce" and you can choose from a number of them.

ARTS ACROSS NATION IN TROUBLE

2011-02-18T00:02:00.001-06:00

Arts programs in public schools have already been drastically cut in the last few years. At present, state arts agencies are either subject to increasingly severe cuts or to being eliminated completely. Now, National Public Radio is to lose its federal funding, the bulk of its support.

I wonder if we would allow our elected officials to do the same with sports?

Theoretically, our congressmen and women work for us. Have you told them what you would like them to do on this issue?

Film director, Steven Soderbergh: “I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating. I don’t care if it’s a book, a film, a painting, a dance, a piece of theater, a piece of music. Anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us. I think the world would be unlivable without art.”

Why do we need killing people in Afghanistan more than the Joys of Art?

2011-02-12T19:09:00.000-06:00

The above heading is 'borrowed' from a blog which I follow, "Under the Lobsterscope.blogspot.com. Bill T. is a former theatre producer/director, currently teaching at his local university. If you are inclined to agree with his politics, as his blog with his theatre coverage also shares space with his politics and are in the mood for a chuckle -- seek him out, as he is often full of wit.

I was struck by the heading because it expresses a point of view I have held for many years. I know all the potential responses to the question -- but, in my opinion, after all the reasons are given -- why do those in favor of such cuts not realize - or care - that making those cuts is saying, "We do not care that we are failing to leave an enormous segment of culture behind to express who we were - what we valued -- " I simply fail to understand this -- the devaluing of cultural posterity -

I am open to the offering of explanations.

ORIGINS OF VALENTINE

2011-02-11T22:30:00.000-06:00

Why do we single out Feb. 14 to celebrate romance? It's said to be the day St. Valentine, a Roman priest during the third century, was executed. Legends about Valentine vary. Some say he was killed for illegally marrying Roman soldiers; others claim it was for helping Christians escape punishment at the hands of the pagan emperor. Just before his death, it's believed that he sent an affectionate note to the beautiful daughter of his jailer—the very first Valentine.

Another interesting fact is that in the Paleolithic cave drawings by Neanderthal man the woolly mammoth is drawn with a red heart in the appropriate place in the animal's body.

2011-02-06T13:13:00.000-06:00

In thinking about the characters' insights in one of my upcoming productions - a play that shows the ineffectiveness of violence but acknowledges that often understanding does not lead to a resolution. I was struck by a NY Times columnist's report on his experiences while on the scene of the unrest in Egypt. He described the shelter and protection given him by the Tahir Square protesters at their own great risk from the brutality of pro-Mubarak side.

"I think of Hamdi, a businessman who looked pained when I asked whether Egyptian democracy might lead to oppression or to upheavals with Israel or the price of oil. “The Middle East is not only for oil,” he reminded me. “We are human beings, exactly like you people.”

“We don’t hate the American people,” he added. “They are pioneers. We want to be like them. Is that a crime?” Nicholas Kristoff, Op-Ed columnist, NY Times,

February 5, 2011

FROM ONE DICTATOR TO ANOTHER

2011-02-06T10:16:00.000-06:00

"Mubarak's fate is sealed, not even the support of the United States will be able to save his government. The people of Egypt are an intelligent people with a glorious history who left their mark on civilization. 'From the top of these pyramids, 40 centuries of history are looking down upon us,' Bonaparte once said in a moment of exaltation when the revolution brought him to this extraordinary crossroads of civilizations."

- Fidel Castro

That was from Castro's blog... the 84-year-old Former Cuban Dictator now plays the blogosphere with the rest of us.

ACTORS - ARE YOU "GETTING BETTER?"

2011-02-05T12:47:00.002-06:00

Again, I'm posting a post of director Anne Bogart from her blog. It's about the concept of "getting better" from the standpoint of an actor. It is also a concept I have seen among only a few actors I've met here. And from those whom I do see their desire, intent to improve, it is, of course, a welcomed attitude. As an acting teacher it increases my desire to help them "raise the bar" in their development. Even when acting is an avocation, rather than a profession, the bar is there to be raised or not. From my point of view, "if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well - or not at all." A position of complacency goes nowhere.

So, actors, this is a call to arms - read Bogart's post and determine what you want to do with the bar!

http://siti.groupsite.com/post/february-2011-getting-better

ROLES STILL OPEN IN TWO PRODUCTIONS

2011-02-04T22:58:00.000-06:00

With over 100 hits on the audition post, plus a notice on Shreveport Actors Hub and FB, there was about a 1/10th turn out. Disappointing and confusing. Two great stories, each with great characters. Thanks to those who came and gave wonderful readings.

SOME ROLES STILL OPEN: 1 YOUNG MAN (23-28); 1 M (30ish to 40)

I'm auditioning several people early this coming week. If interested, email - jcgcollaborations@gmail.com.

"Two Rooms" Lee Blessing

"Yankee Tavern" Steven Dietz

Milton Babbitt, a Composer Who Gloried in Complexity, Dies at 94

2011-01-30T10:02:00.000-06:00

Mr. Babbitt, who had a lively sense of humor despite the reputation for severity that his music fostered, sometimes referred to himself as a maximalist to stress the musical and philosophical distance between his style and the simpler, more direct style of younger contemporaries like Philip Glass, Steve Reich and other Minimalist composers. It was an apt description.

Although he dabbled early in his career with theater music, his Composition for Orchestra (1940) ushered in a structurally complex, profoundly organized style that was rooted in Arnold Schoenberg’s serial method.

But Mr. Babbitt expanded on Mr. Schoenberg’s approach. In Mr. Schoenberg’s system, a composer begins by arranging the 12 notes of the Western scale in a particular order called a tone row, or series, on which the work is based. Mr. Babbitt was the first to use this serial ordering not only with pitches but also with dynamics, timbre, duration, registration and other elements. His methods became the basis of the “total serialism” championed in the 1950s by Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono and other European composers.

What Egyptians want to change? A chat in Tahrir Square, Cairo

2011-01-30T09:52:00.000-06:00

From the blog of Tahir Imran, 1/29/11

Mr. Imran gathered a few friends to "...chat about what’s next for Egypt? Why this is happening and what is in it for them?

The debate started and Zainab opened it in the backdrop of chanting crowd. She told me that it is about them getting back their identity and pride. They feel the world has moved and they are standing still at the same place. She told me that for them it is about development and keeping up the pace with others around the world. They feel they are living in a bubble away from the world where individual rights and freedom are necessity they have the clock stopped in early 80’s.

One of the groups added that the president is a victim of time, when he came in power he had the great leaderships behind him. He could have taken steps towards freedom and progress. But he decided to close himself and the nation from others. From outside they were free and there lives improving. But from inside they were living in a society closed as ever.

I asked what is the future, which they want to lead them and what future holds for them?

The answer was simple, let us choose what we want, we don’t want America or Israel to affect who leads us or who we elect. We are adults, intelligent enough to decide what is right and what is wrong for us.

While Gamal was uttering these words the shining in his eyes made me think with youth like him they can never choose wrong, provided they are given a chance to elect. We ended the debate and decided to move.

SOCIAL MEDIA SUPPORTING SOCIAL ACTIVISM

2011-01-30T09:21:00.001-06:00

Fractured Atlas, the artists' services organization to which I belong, posted interesting information citing the various social media as a means of supporting the activism happening at the moment in the Middle East. As one who "came of age" in the midst of America's social activism of the late `1960s and '70s, it is very different but interesting concept. I provide an excerpt below:

". . . social media is definitely opening up greater possibilities. Things for the arts sector to note:

“Viral” has no borders: this all started in the boondocks of Tunisia. A whole cohort of people took to the streets after one vendor had enough. And others in the same psychographic took up across the Arab world. Demography is one thing, but when everyone’s responding on the same wavelength, it’s unstoppable.

The online makes the “real” happen: Twitter, Facebook, and mobile undoubtedly all reinforced feelings of dissent and calls to action. But if people didn’t actually take to the streets, we would not be watching the news. There’s an “echo chamber” effect of social media that is often decried, but it can be heartening when you are doing something physically dangerous.

Social media is still “under the radar”: Egypt is scrambling to cut off communications, but it’s too late. The emotion (on Twitter at least) was palpable, and all the protest plans were fairly accessible. But now that people are actually connected to a movement that exists in physical space, shutting down social media won’t stop events. The connections made online now have a life of their own.

So that’s where we are at. And yes, the Egyptian Museum is on Tahrir Square (where all the protests are), so there is the possibility of Baghdad Museum déjà vu."Fractured Atlas post 1/30/11

WHO QUESTIONS THE VALUE OF THE ARTS? NO ONE WHO'S SEEN THIS!!

2011-01-28T17:27:00.000-06:00

REMINDER -- AUDITIONS -- REMINDER

2011-01-28T14:14:00.002-06:00

AUDITIONS - TUES., FEB. 1, 2011 - BROADMOOR PUBLIC LIBRARY - LARGE CONFERENCE ROOM -- 1212 CAPTAIN SHREVE DRIVE - 4:00-6:00

"TWO ROOMS" and "YANKEE TAVERN" offer a range of characters and story lines

which challenge and delight actors. The former produced in the small, intimate space of 516 Texas Street and the latter, hopefully, produced in a real diner with the requisite jukebox.

At the center of "YANKEE TAVERN" a young couple planning their wedding find themselves surrounded by a myriad of characters speculating on causes of national events. Then the young woman discovers her fiancee has kept secrets from her. The playwright spins mysteries and puzzle pieces from a multitude of true, accurate facts. Regardless of what one makes of the many pieces of the puzzle, Mr. Dietz stands by the accuracy of his facts.

A total of five men and two women are needed. Production times are late March and early May 2011.

THE MAKING OF A FIRST VIDEO

2011-01-28T12:32:00.001-06:00

I have finally successfully learned how to insert a video into the blog -- amazingly simple, actually. In the post below is a small segment of my first directed/produced video. It was a commissioned work by the Cultural Program of the State Department to document Sam Gilliam's large multi-media installation that traveled around the world to various galleries, accompanied by the video.

It was a joyous year-long job - there is nothing, absolutely nothing greater than waking up knowing you heading out to have the most fun possible and get paid for it!

At times the work was frustrating - I was not familiar with some of the technological aspects of video, despite a lengthy course in video-making. One of my major concerns was the color reproduction - the colors had to be absolutely identical to those in the installation, because Sam is a "colorist." The original video color reproduction is accurate; however, in this copied segment, they are a bit faded looking - not as intense and vibrant as the originals.

We worked in his studio - an immense converted warehouse, where lengths of white fabric were hung in various lengths from close to the ceiling and the artist and his assistant, on gigantic ladders, poured bucket after bucket of various colors of paint onto the fabric. Sometimes the fabric was just allowed to fall in heaps on the floor and then spray painted.

Part of the installation was a huge steel sculpture, which was made and assembled there in the studio.

After many months of shooting, all the film had to be edited to a 30 minute video. I selected every frame individually that went into the video and wrote all the questions to which Sam responds on camera, including writing the questions to guide the critic in his discussion of Sam's work. Then it had to go to post-production.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience and it felt good to have given jobs to a number of artists.

2011-01-28T12:10:00.000-06:00

2011 AUDITIONS -- jcgCOLLABORATIONS FEB. 1, 2011 4:00-6:00

2011-01-19T20:30:00.001-06:00

A U D I T I O N S

Auditions for two full productions will be held February 1 from 4:00-6:00 at the Broadmoor Library, 1212 Captain Shreve St. You may present a monologue of your own choice and/or read from either of the available scripts. “Two Rooms” (Lee Blessing) will open in late March and “Yankee Tavern” (steven Dietz) will open in early May.

“Two Rooms” is a contemporary love story in which love transcends the circumstances of the moment.

It is easier to hate than to understand – but in the end, as "Two Rooms" demonstrates, hate solves nothing.

Just when you thought you’d heard every crazy conspiracy theory, a stranger walks into the “Yankee Tavern.” There, in this crumbling tavern, a young couple finds themselves caught up in what might be the biggest conspiracy of all. Dietz’s dramatic thriller is a fierce, funny and ultimately mind-bending work of theatrical power that grips you until the final word. What you don’t know can hurt you.

Age range of both female and male roles – 25 to 35; one male role – 40s to 50s.

All ethnicities are encouraged to audition. Questions – call 670-8332.

JUMP part of UNDER THE RADAR Theater FESTIVAL at Public Theater

2011-01-16T18:14:00.000-06:00

In this kaleidoscopic music-theatre exploration of the life of Sarah Bernhardt and the story of Tosca, acclaimed stage director Joanne Akalaitis joins forces with musician Nora York, legendary artist Kiki Smith and playwright David Greenspan to examine the making of art and the passion that inspires it. JUMP interweaves Bernhardt’s autobiographical writings, scenes from Sardou’s play, and arias from Puccini’s Tosca with York’s original song inventions.

NORA YORK has an amazing voice with which she "mixes" two or more pieces of music, bringing a third from this hyrid of jazz/opera/pop into creation. Her mix of Bob Dylan's "Monsters of War" with Dr. Martin Luther King's speech excerpts is brilliant and extremely moving.

Do yourself a favor and listen to many of her compositions.

PRESIDENT OBAMA AND FIRST LADY - TUCSON TRAGEDY TRIBUTE

2011-01-15T15:15:00.002-06:00

Friday, January 14, 2011\THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY - THE TUCSON TRIBUTE

THE PICTURE THAT SAYS IT ALL

FOR ALL OF US

The President:

there is nothing that i can say

that will fill the sudden hole

torn in your hearts

-

but he came close

-

YES, HE DID

YES, HE DID

POST TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM gypsywomanworld.blogspot.com

IT'S OFFICIAL!

2011-01-15T14:48:00.000-06:00

It’s official! jcgCollaborations now has access to a performance space in a downtown building on Texas Street. The building houses WC Choreography, a new dance company in town, with whom we have negotiated periodic use of the performance space. While some may be leary of coming downtown in the evening, there is on-street parking in front of the building and a pay-for-parking lot on the corner. The space at present offers the use of a small stage and/or a brick wall as a backdrop for configuration off the stage.

We will be producing two full productions and two rehearsed, staged readings in the space. Dates and further info will be posted here within the next few weeks.

DEATH OF ELLEN STEWART STORY

2011-01-14T18:34:00.000-06:00

Apologies to the many readers who visited the post about Ellen Steward before I had time to post the entire story as follows below.

ELLEN STEWART, THEATRE DIRECTOR PRODUCER DIES

2011-01-13T21:17:00.004-06:00

ELLEN STEWART

LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club, NYC

LEGENDARY THEATRE PRODUCER
DIES AT AGE 91

This will be a lengthy post - but a theatre legend has passed away and her story deserves to be heard by all interested in the arts - - her story is that of a young African-American girl from Alexandria, La. who in the early 1960s pursued her creative drive and created a haven for the development of the Amercan avant garde theatre, as well as a place of development for today's playwrights, directors and actors.. So, I leave you with an account of her life's work as described in The Village voice newspaper, NYC.

"Born in Alexandria, LA; daughter of a laborer and a school teacher; married five times. Ellen Stewart's brainchild, La Mama Experimental Theatre Club (La Mama ETC), has been the birthplace of the avant-garde since its conception in 1962. "The oldest and perhaps most influential" of Off-Off Broadway theatres, according to the . . .New York Times, La Mama numbers among its alumni such renowned playwrights, directors, and performers as Sam Shepard, Harvey Fierstein, Wilford Leach, Bette Midler, and Al Pacino. Joanne Mattera explained that the theatre got its name because it "was so much an extension of Stewart's warmly maternal personality that her friends simply called it what they called her" (Women's Wear Daily, August 5, 1985).

Stewart, nicknamed "Mama" by her friends, had no intention of entering show business when she first came to New York City in 1950. Born in Louisiana and raised in Chicago, she wanted to become a fashion designer, but, being black, she was not allowed to enroll in design school in Illinois. To choose between the two cities where fashion schools did admit blacks--San Francisco and New York-- Stewart "flipped a coin and came here," she told Mattera. Stewart calls what followed her "Cinderella story," according to Mattera. She went to work as a porter at Saks Fifth Avenue to earn tuition money, but the position "became her launching pad instead." Customers noticed the hand-made clothes Stewart wore under the blue smock she was required to wear while on the job; within three months she was promoted to executive designer. After a number of successful years with the department store, she left to work as a free-lance designer.

Yet, as late as 1961, "I was feeling sorry for myself because I didn't know what I wanted to do," Stewart told Lynn Gilbert in an interview published in the April, 1982 Ms. Her merchant friend Abraham Diamond often told Stewart she needed a symbolic "pushcart" in her life. "Even if all you have is in a pushcart," the producer quoted to Sidney Fields (Daily News, January 6, 1972), "push it, not only for yourself, but for the whole world." Stewart had been brooding about the problems her brother Fred Light and a friend, both playwrights, faced in finding a theatre to produce their plays, when she realized that she could help them and herself. "I saw a sign on Ninth Street: 'Basement for Rent': Ping! Pushcart!," she recalled to Josh Greenfeld in the July 9, 1967New York Times Magazine. "I rushed in and asked for a lease," intending to set up a theatre there for her brother and other playwrights, which she would support with her income as a designer. "And my basement looked beautiful," she told Greenfeld. "No floor. No plumbing. No nothing. But to me it looked beautiful."

Not knowing anything about theaters," she related to Gilbert, "I thought I was like playing house.... I would have this little theater and they would write plays and all their friends would be in them and live happily ever after." Difficulties soon arose, however, when the other tenants in her building, noticing the number of men entering the basement room to help fix it up, tried to get Stewart evicted for prostitution. "They didn't want to be living with a nigger," Stewart told Gilbert. Luckily, the officer called to inspect thecase was a retired actor who became sympathetic when he learned of Stewart's plans for a performance space. Pointing out that theatre licenses were difficult to obtain, he offered to help get a restaurant permit so Stewart could open a coffeehouse where they could set up a stage for performances. When asked what the name of the place would be, one of the group suggested "Mama," Stewart recalled, and someone else said, "No, La Mama," and one of the first Greenwich Village coffeehouses was born.

Cafe La Mama, as it was called at that time, became an international theatre within a few years of its founding. "Publishers wouldn't publish our plays unless they had been reviewed," Stewart told Mattera, "and the critics wouldn't come to our little basement" with its twenty-five-seat theatre and stage "not much bigger than a bed." So in 1965 Stewart sent sixteen people with twenty plays to Europe, where she had heard that virtually every play produced was reviewed. "We would have gone to Timbuktu, anywhere to get critiques so that the plays could be published," she affirmed to Gilbert. Soon after the troupe returned, twelve of the plays were published; Stewart maintained the practice of sending her troupes abroad and, in addition, hosted New York productions by many groups they met on tours of France, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and other countries. Moreover, branches of La Mama sprang up in Japan, Colombia, England, and elsewhere.

Despite the respect it earned worldwide, however, Stewart's coffeehouse still had to struggle locally to survive "against a background of Kafkaesque harassment which has resulted in two evictions, a union imbroglio and innumerable trips to the pawnshop," reported Greenfeld in 1967. To circumvent legal regulations governing the sale of theatre tickets, Stewart changed the coffeehouse/theatre into a theatre club in the mid-1960s, selling no tickets but collecting weekly "dues" from "members" who were allowed, after paying their fees, to attend an unlimited number of the week's performances. Helped by grant money, in 1969 La Mama moved to its present location, occupying six floors of rehearsal space and three stages, and for a time the theatre club thrived. La Mama's accomplishments have been numerous and varied, and include staging the first U.S. production of the British playwright Harold Pinter as well as premiering works by Americans who have subsequently achieved wide renown. La Mama presented a well-received version of William Shakespeare's Hamlet in Korean, five plays by the first American Indian theatre group, and an Eskimo Antigone, among many other unusual offerings in its over one thousand productions. "{Stewart's} success, in short, represents both a rare act of faith and an unflinching confrontation with the mechanics of moving mountains," Greenfeld declared.

During the 1980s, however, the National Endowment for the Arts and other supporting institutions began reducing their grants to La Mama considerably, which "has meant reducing the number of shows on {the theatre's} three stages, abandoning plans for a permanent repertory company and cutting the salaries ofLa Mama's staff," reported the New York Times's Michiko Kakutani (April 5, 1980). Nevertheless, Stewart has remained optimistic about La Mama's future. After all, as she told Kakutani, "Maybe I'd still be in that little basement if I was never kicked out.... Each kick has become something new." She added, "I'm just an instrument through which La Mama functions. I never dictate.... Maybe it's fatalistic, but I know La Mama has its own spirit and if that spirit wishes to keep going, it will. All I can do is be a part of it."

Such mysticism, say those who have met Stewart, plays a significant role in her life. "I do not tell La Mama what to do," she explained to Mattera. "La Mama tells me, and I listen." Despite her twenty- five years experience in the industry, she claims to know little about theatre. "I don't know how to read a play, really, to tell the truth," she asserted to Gilbert. "I don't know because I don't have an academic education in theater. But I do know a little bit about how to read a person." Stewart chooses the plays La Mama will produce more on her assessment of the playwright than on her opinion of his or her play. "If the play is good, then it's good," she declared to Mel Gussow (NewYork Times, December 22, 1985). "If it's bad, that does not change my way of thinking about the person involved.... I've never been sorry about anything I put on." Director Alan Schneider lauded her ideal: "The important thing about La Mama," he asserted to Greenfeld, "is not whether the work is good or bad, but that Ellen Stewart helps keep theater alive by constantly giving new playwrights productions." "In some ways, she could be compared to a hostess who cannot help but ask guests to her house," Gussow observed. "Her art is in inspiring the art of others."

"I started La Mama so there would be a place where a playwright could write,see and learn," Stewart told Greenfeld. "My whole joy," she affirmed to Gussow, "is knowing the person is doing whatever he is doing." By keeping her theatre alive, Stewart believes she is helping to promote art, a calling she takes extremely seriously. "Art," she explained to Mattera, "is the only thing that's free.... A mother singing to her child is art, even though she might have nothing to eat and a tent to live in. It's a God-given resource for all humankind to draw upon--many times there is nothing else." Stewart added, "A world without poverty or illiteracy would be wonderful, but without artistic expression it would be barren."

INADEQUATE CRITIQUING OF PERFORMANCE

2011-01-11T19:01:00.001-06:00

I have been concerned about the lack of what I consider to be adequate coverage of theatre and performances in general by The Shreveport Times. I have been told the reason for the decrease in coverage is due to the necessary decrease in staff. So I have a suggestion for that dilemma. There are innumerable qualified, experienced theatre folks here who could provide such needed coverage. Also, students could, under the tutelage of their instructors,

learn from such an effort.

Perhaps it isn’t realized how crucial documentation is to one in theatre or dance – funding sources require it, graduate schools require it, employers require it. For actors, directors and technical crews, as well, a lack of documentation or evaluation of their work can easily mean the lost of a next role or job, loss of essential grant money or admission into a graduate program. Both audiences and theatre students could learn from coverage that focuses less on “good” or “bad” performances and more on regarding how the experience affected them: were the actors “believable” in the creation of their characters, was the thrust of the story clear and move you from point to point, did the setting support the story… . The list could be lengthy without ever employing a value judgment.

Alison Croggon, a Melbourne theatre journalist, has something to say about the quality of criticism of the arts, saying that even when reviews are positive and commendable, they are inadequate. She says,

“For here we have all the usual ails; the need to assess as good or bad, the need to decipher the theme, the meaning, the purpose of the exercise, and an idea of art as a polemic, rather than what Susan Sontag called

a thing in the world

something to sensually experience,

appreciate for its own sake.”

Several years ago I went to see one of my favorite Harold Pinter short pieces, “Silence,” at Berkeley Rep, a piece I’ve directed a couple of times. It is a lyrical, almost musical piece composed of glimpses into a young woman’s relationships with two different men – it is not narrative, we don’t receive any information except for the present moments, the text most often is fragments of dialogue between her and each man and descriptions from each of the three on their relationship with her.

Afterwards, the woman sitting next to me said, “Well, I think I liked it, but I don’t know what it means.” I suggested she drop the attempt to “understand,” “to make meaning,” and to simply regard it as one would a piece of music or a painting – to just experience it as it existed. This seemed to be an approach she had not considered and seemed satisfied with a new idea.

This approach could enlighten both audience members as well as those whose work is covered.

THEFT OF IMAGINATION, David Negrin

2010-12-31T22:47:00.000-06:00

Some time ago, I posted here about a play called, “Theft of Imagination” by David Negrin. I have finally obtained a copy of the script. Here, in short, is the play’s premise:

Theft Of Imagination, by David Negrin is about two nations that will go to war in 13 days.

Weapons in hand, two cultures of dueling faiths plan to settle their hundred year blood feud once and for all. But in the eleventh hour, seekers of peace unearth an obscure legal provision that provides a unique solution to settle their epic dispute.

A peace summit can be convened with two all powerful peace ambassadors, a pair of young boys. If these young boys, one from each nation, with innocent and unjaded hearts, settle the dispute before the deadline, their agreement will have the full force of both nations’ laws… And there will be peace.

It is a most imaginative and unique concept expressed dramatically in visiual elements that simultaneously clarify each character's unspecified ethnicity and propel the viewer through the suprising turns of events.

Can two boys accomplish in thirteen days what diplomats, politicians, and holy men haven’t been able to in one hundred years?

I have always been hopeful that visitors to these pages would take the time to offer comments to posts. I am always curious about reactions to specific scripts. This is about the third one on which I've recently posted. Comments?

SALIF KEITA -- WORLD MUSIC

2010-12-17T21:13:00.000-06:00

In 2000 ABC tv presented a documentary of the past millennium; I watched it and was struck by the beautiful music accompanying the film. A bit of research, and I discovered the composer and that the cd, "Prayer Cycle," was to be issued soon. Upon listening to the cd, I was stunned by a beautiful male tenor voice, pure and clear amongst the other several voices on the first track (Alanis Morrissette is also on that track, singing in three languages.)

And so I became an avid fan, discovering that his life story is as distinctive and unique as his voice. I offer the following to hopefully lure you to his music.

Salif Keïta (born August 25, 1949) is an internationally recognized afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is unique not only because of his reputation as the Golden Voice of Africa, but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, Sundiata Keita. This royal heritage meant that under the Malian caste system, he should never have become a singer, which was deemed to be a griot’s role.

Keita was born in the city of Djoliba. He was cast out by his family and ostracized by the community because of his albinism, a sign of bad luck in Mandinka culture.[1] He left Djoliba for Bamako in 1967, where he joined the government sponsored Super Rail Band de Bamako. In 1973 Keita joined the group, Les Ambassadeurs. Keita and Les Ambassadeurs fled political unrest in Mali during the mid-1970s for Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire and subsequently changed the group's name to Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux. The reputation of Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux rose to the international level in the 1970s and in 1977 Keita received a National Order award from the president of Guinea, Sékou Touré.

Keita moved to Paris in 1984 to reach a larger audience. His music combines traditional West African music styles with influences from both Europe and the Americas, while maintaining an overall Islamic style. Musical instruments that are commonly featured in Keita's work include balafons, djembes, guitars, koras, organs, saxophones, and synthesizers. In 1990, Keita contributed "[[Begin the Beguine}}" to the Cole Porter tribute/AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Blue produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Keita found success in Europe as one of the African stars of world music, but his work was sometimes criticised for the gloss of its production and for the occasional haphazard quality. However, shortly after the turn of the Millennium he returned to Bamako in Mali to live and record. His first work after going home, 2002's Moffou, was hailed as his best album in many years, and Keita was inspired to build a recording studio in Bamako, which he used for his album, M'Bemba, released in October 2005.

Keita's latest album, La Différence, was produced around the year end of 2009. The work is dedicated to the struggle of the world albino community (victims of human sacrifice), for which Keita has been crusading all his life. In one of the album's tracks, the singer calls others to understand that "difference" does not mean "bad" and to show love and compassion towards albinos like everyone else:"I am black/ my skin is white/ so I am white and my blood is black [albino]/... I love that because it is a difference that's beautiful..", "some of us are beautiful some are not/some are black some are white/all that difference was on purpose.. for us to complete each other/let everyone gets his love and dignity/the world will be beautiful."

La Différence is unique in that for the first time Keita has clearly and boldly combined different melodic influences to produce a highly original musical feel, with a wide range of appeal. The album was recorded between Bamako, Beirut, Paris, and Los Angeles. This unique musical feel is reinforced by soulful pitches in the track "Samigna" emanating from the trumpet of the Libanese great jazzman, Ibrahim Maaluf.

La Difference won Keita one of the biggest musical awards of his career: the Best World Music 2010 at the Victoires de la musique.

THE FANTASTICKS

2010-12-15T19:42:00.002-06:00

SHREVEPORT OPERA

presents The Fantasticks

February 19, 2011- 7:30 pm

THE FANTASTICKS is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It was produced by Lore Noto. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play "The Romancers" ("Les Romanesques") by Edmond Rostand,[1] concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into falling in love by pretending to feud and erecting a wall between their houses. The fathers then hire traveling actors to stage a mock abduction, so that Matt can heroically seem to save Luisa, settling the supposed feud and securing their fathers' blessings (which of course the young lovers have really had all along). After the children discover the deception, they reject the arranged love match. Each goes off to experience the wider world. They return to each other bruised but enlightened by their journeys, realizing that they have always been in love, and renew their vows with more maturity. Elements of the play are ultimately drawn from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, its story winding its way through Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore and Rostand's play.

The show's original off-Broadway production ran a total of 42 years and 17,162 performances, making it the world's longest-running musical. It was awarded Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1991. The poetic book and breezy, inventive score, including such familiar songs as "Try to Remember," helped make this show so durable. Many productions followed, as well as television and film versions. The Fantasticks has also become a staple of regional, community, and high school productions virtually since its premiere, with approximately 250 new productions each year. It is played with a small cast, two-person orchestra and minimalist set design. Among many revivals, the show re-opened off-Broadway in 2006. As of 2010, its original investors have earned 240 times their original investments. The musical has played throughout the U.S. and in at least 67 foreign countries.

This is truly a show for everyone of all ages and I commend the Shreveport Opera for their programing choice. It's unfortunate it is only for one evening. My
understanding is that the cast will include two of Shreveport's finest and two of my favorite actors: Reece Middleton and John Bundrick, who performed in the cast of the final year of the production in NYC.

UK's FORCED ENTERTAINMENT THEATRE

2010-12-15T12:11:00.000-06:00

FORCED ENTERTAINMENT THEATRE, one of the UK's most brilliant and controversial experimental theatre companies, together a bit more than 25 years, publish their comments on the arts. The following is worth contemplating.

We believe that the arts are important because they change lives.

Art is one of the key ways we have as a culture of seeing ourselves, and of seeing our relations to the world. Encounters with art - as school students, in further education, as adults - whether they take place in museums and galleries, theatres, concert halls, village halls, street corners, websites or in any of the many many other places that art has made its own -have the possibility to awaken us to new experiences, pleasures and questions.

Art is often talked of in terms of affirmation and celebration and just for the record, we have nothing at all against these things. But we're also proud of the role art has to challenge, to provoke and to question. Those experiences are the ones that stay with us - and for us make the most powerful argument for supporting the arts. A healthy society is one that has doubts and disputes, uncertainties and divisions - how we cope with those things, how we give space to discussing and dealing with them is the mark of our success.

Art has a double centre - it asks that we look closely at the world we are living in - that we see it, for what it is, with all of its joys, complexities and all of its problems. At the same time art asks us to dream of another space - to imagine things as otherwise, to step outside the limits of our day to day.

Art and tolerance go together.

Cuts to the arts are cuts to the imagination.

Tim Etchells. September 2010.

2010-12-12T14:03:00.001-06:00

A DREAM YOU DREAM ALONE
IS A DREAM;
ONLY A DREAM YOU DREAM TOGETHER
IS REALITY. JOHN LENNON

jcgCOLLABORATIONS 2011 SEASON

2010-12-11T17:22:00.001-06:00

.jcgCOLLABORATIONS ANNOUNCES FULL PRODUCTIONS FOR 2011-12 SEASON

Our summer production of “Shakespeare’s Will” in the sanctuary of the Universalist Unitarian Church amidst the gorgeous backdrop of the forest of trees through a two-story expanse of glass with candlelight and authentic Elizabethan music was well-received.

We are presently investigating the possibility of use of a space in a storefront downtown and have chosen the following two plays for full production, in addition to three staged readings (with movement and limited production elements).

To pique your interest, here are synopses and critics’ comments on the full productions and a synopsis of one piece under consideration for a staged reading.

This blog will keep all posted as plans for dates and performance space are finalized.

TWO ROOMS, Lee Blessing: The two rooms of the title are a windowless cubicle in a middle Eastern country and a room in Michael Wells’ home in the United States. In fact the same room serves for both and is also the locale for imaginary conversations between him and his wife, plus the setting for the real talks she has with a reporter and a State Department official. Blessing explores how two consciousnesses come together to share the same space, both metaphorically and in their hopes and dreams. The reporter hopes to turn the situation into a major career accomplishment, while the State Department representative is coolly efficient, and even dispassionate, in her attempt to treat the matter with professional detachment. Unwittingly, the wife triggers the tragic series of events that brings the play to its startling conclusion.

Provocative and compelling, this arresting work deals with a subject much in the minds of contemporary society. But, make no mistake, “Two Rooms” is not a political play. First and foremost, it is a profound love story demonstrating the power of devotion. The wife, an ornithologist, heeds the lessons of survival and devotion she finds in her observations and study of various species of birds. Caught in circumstances where logic, compassion and fairness have become meaningless, she and her husband find their mutual devotion a fortress. Photo Credits: “Two Rooms,” SuzAnne Barabas, Actors: Andy Kelso, Angelica-Lee

Two Rooms is not always easy to watch, but the strength of the writing. . . make it seem cleansing in its own way. While not escapist entertainment, . . . it is full of words and images that we should all remember now, more than ever. Theatre has the power to inspire, and it is a power Two Rooms wields to its fullest. Talkinbroadway.com

YANKEE TAVERN, Steven Dietz Just when you thought you'd heard every crazy 9/11 conspiracy theory, a stranger walks into the Yankee Tavern. There, inside the walls of this crumbling tavern, a young couple finds themselves caught up in what might be the biggest conspiracy of all. Steven Dietz's acclaimed and already widely produced dramatic thriller—a selection of the National New Play Network's Continued Life Project—is a fierce, funny and ultimately mind-bending work of theatrical power that grips you until the final word. What you don't know can hurt you.

A guy walks into a bar and orders two beers, one for himself and one for his absent buddy. Yes, it sounds like the set-up for a joke, but with his chilling new play, YANKEE TAVERN, the prolific Steven Dietz has something darker and more sobering in mind. Dietz is a master of smart dialogue and wily storytelling. He draws us in with characters that intrigue, but the stories they spin can do a number on our beliefs and leave us shattered. Photo Credit: “Yankee Tavern,”Jason Watson; Active Theatre Company, NYC;

"YANKEE TAVERN is one helluva show. You'll be scared by the intimationsof Act One. You'll be moved by the awful events of Act Two. And when the terrible day is discussed, you will hear the millennium's fresh ghosts rattling through the walls of the theater…and feel their unhappy gaze beaming from the tavern's smudged, stained-glass windows." —Palm Beach New Times.

"YANKEE TAVERN . . . The play isn't really about what did or didn't happen; it's about the agony of uncertainty. The play's lightning flashes come from Dietz's insights into Americans' obsession with conspiracies." —Miami Herald.

"A superb playwright…an edge-of-your-seat thriller." —Palm Beach Daily News.

STAGED READINGS: One of the plays under consideration for a staged reading is “TRUMBO: RED, WHITE & BLACK-LISTED,” Christopher Trumbo, the legendary screenwriter Dalton Trumbo who stood up to the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947, was thrown in prison and blacklisted as one of the "Hollywood Ten." Based on his brilliant and razor-sharp letters to friends, former friends, and family, Trumbo reveals how the author of Spartacus, Roman Holiday, and Exodus took on Congress, Hollywood, and the Red Scare -- and won.

SEEING, DOING & MIRROR NEURONS, BOGART

2010-12-10T15:09:00.002-06:00

I have been fascinated by quantum physics for many years and when I was working on the play “Copenhagen” (Frayn), I was able to delve even deeper into the subject. When I discovered this posting by Anne Bogart, the subject of mirror neurons reminded me of much of Heisenberg’s theories. I often quote Ms. Bogart here, but anyone can go to siti.org and click on the tab ”Anne’s Blog” and read her blogs regularly. This, I post because of its relevance to the art of acting.

"It turns out that humans have mirror neurons. . . . The observation of a goal-oriented action triggers the identical synaptic activity in the observer as in the person who is generating the action. The act of watching is not psychological interpretation or conjecture; rather the act of watching is physical and energetic. Attentive watching charges our bodies with electric currents. The mirror neuron activity creates a simulation of the activity being observed in the observer’s brain and in this way the observer seems to gain a deeper understanding of a particular movement through actual physical simulation and stimulation. One of the leading neuroscientists in the study, Giacomo Rizzolatti, observed:

If we want to survive, we must understand the actions of others. Furthermore, without action understanding, social organization is impossible. In the case of humans, there is another faculty that depends on the observation of others’ actions: imitation learning. Unlike most species, we are able to learn by imitation, and this faculty is at the basis of human culture.

Mirror neurons are the cells that relate to empathy. Via action, mirror neurons create a meaningful link between the self and the other by dissolving the boundary between the two. When mirror neurons are activated, people feel empathy. And empathy is the baseline of the theater experience and the unspoken contract between actor and audience. When Hedda Gabler lifts her pistol, I feel myself inside of her." siti.org - Ann Bogart's September '10 posting.

MARCEL DUCHAMP

2010-12-09T12:20:00.000-06:00

“I like living, breathing better than working. . .

My art [is] that of living:

Each second, each breath is a work

Which is inscribed nowhere,

Which is neither visual nor cerebral,

It’s a sort of constant euphoria.

~Marcel Duchamp

VANYA ON 42ND ST ON YOUTUBEI

2010-12-08T13:38:00.002-06:00

VANYA ON 42nd STREET Recently I wrote about the "acting assignment" of watching Andre Gregory's film, "Vanya on 42nd Street." Checking out YouTube, I discovered many vIdeo scenes from it, as well as an indication that Part I of the movie is also available on YouTube - don't know about Part II.

BrookeSmith; Julianne Moore

Brooke Smith

But the reconciliation scene between Sophie & Yelena and Sophie's monologue to her Uncle about "What shall we do, uncle?. . . .We shall live . . . . " are well worth the five minutes each. Would be interested in comments . . . .

MAKERS OF THEATRE - WHAT DO YOU INTEND?

2010-12-08T09:35:00.000-06:00

Makers of theatre, give this some thought:

"Intentions are also reflected in aesthetic issues. I find James Joyce's notion of kinetic or static art very useful. Kinetic arts, he suggests, moves you. Static art stops you.

Which do you intend?

Do you want to "move" every audience member to feel and think the same thing at the same moment?

Or do you want to "stop" them by finding oppositions that trigger diverse associations, thoughts, memories, and emotions?"

comment in response to one of Anne Bogart's theatre books

FROM THE SAME PLANET

2010-12-06T15:16:00.000-06:00

Oh, you don't need a theatre,

you don't need a board,

you don't need a subscription audience,

you don't need a lot of money.

All you need is a room with some people from the same planet that you're from.'" Andre Gregory, Director

I'm sorry! I can't say that enough! Does anyone out there hear me?

LACK OF PERFORMING VENUES - LIVING ROOMS?

2010-12-06T00:52:00.000-06:00

“LIVING ROOM” THEATRE IN SHREVEPORT?

In some larger, urban cities two factors regarding performing arts are converging: minimal number of venues to accommodate the number of theatre and dance groups and a seeming desire on the part of performers and directors for high-concept, intimate theatre. This choice on the part of directors and performers has been prevalent in Europe for some time. London’s Battersea Arts Center hosted the largest one-person audience festival last month. Called “One-on-One,” it hosted 40 productions from around the world.

You may move from room to room in a mansion experiencing acts of kindness – or, blindfolded, you might set out on a journey in five segments with different themes. You can remove the blindfold at any time, but that will be the end of the journey.

A Tony award-winning set designer for ten days set up a 4x9 box in Times Square and called it Theatre for One. It featured six new plays, a dance piece, musicians, a puppeteer among others. A total of 675 people were entertained individually, first come, first served. One artist told a short story to one blindfolded audience member at a time – called “Courtesan Tales.”

It is the consensus that audiences seem to want intimacy and innovation - it flings the job of creating, meaning and interpretation back on the audience. One audience member said, “. . . the experience of sitting across from someone in a private space, , , , . We don’t often take the time to look into someone’s eyes. That’s the gift of this.” Source: The New York Times, “Theatre for One.” Aug. 2010

Two or three decades ago eastern European artists in repressive political regimes often resorted to what came to be known as “living room” theatre - going ‘underground’ by creating and performing theatre in their homes. Some went “underground” not for political reasons, but simply because their art was avant garde – definitely out of the mainstream theatre fare.

Squat Theatre (written about earlier in this blog) was probably the most famous, earning their name because they could make a performance space out of any location. After gaining fame by traveling and performing in Western Europe, they came to the U.S., bought a store front location in downtown Manhattan where they continued their innovative, often spectacular theatre.

Now, in 2011 (almost) I find myself in a city with literally no performance venues outside the established community theatres, who choose not to veer far off mainstream theatre programming, as it’s a financial risk. I understand SRAC has plans for renovating the old fire station downtown to accommodate the performing arts, as well as other purposes – that, however, is at least a year in the future.

A number of years ago when I had just moved here from Washington, DC, Dorothy Kristi Hanna and her husband, Bruce Allen, had a ‘storefront’ studio downtown. The performance I saw there was one of the loveliest evenings in theatre I’ve had – furnished much like someone’s living room, the performances flowed one into the other in a most organic manner. A privately owned vacant building downtown now is rumored as being planned for space that could accommodate performances.

In the meantime, my small company and I have pieces with small casts that are quality dramatic literature, great stories and easily produced almost anywhere. We would also like to showcase excerpts of works we’ve done and plan to do to expose audiences to our work and make our presence known.

If you or someone you know are amenable to such an idea and don’t mind having 20—30 guests, please, me via email jcgcollaborations@gmail.com or phone 318-670-8332.

DIRECTOR, ANDRE GREGORY

2010-12-05T17:43:00.001-06:00

Those of you who have taken class with me know that I often give optional "assignments:" a book, a film, etc. Here is one of the most valuable acting lessons you may ever have - rent the movie, "Vanya on 42nd Street" (with Julianne Moore among other notables) and "My Dinner with Andre."

On working with actors in a tropical country:

When I got there, I saw amateur actors, who had jobs during the day, working all night for no money and taking rum breaks instead of coffee breaks and creating this wonderful work. And I thought:

Oh, you don't need a theatre, you don't need a board, you don't need a subscription audience, you don't need a lot of money.

All you need is a room with some people from the same planet that you're from.'"

WHAT DO WE WANT FOR 2011 AND THE FUTURE?

2010-11-30T12:33:00.003-06:00

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM THE ORIGINAL AMERICANS

I am poor and naked

but I am the chief of a nation.

We do not want riches

but we do want to train our children right.

Riches would do us no good.

We could not take them with us

to the other world.

We do not want riches.

We want peace and love.

~Red Cloud, Oglala Sioux~

i'm away for a while...

2010-09-26T15:42:00.000-05:00

just to let you know that i'm away from blogland for a bit,

but so look forward to returning very soon - see you then!

NEW TERM FOR HYBRID OF PROFESSION & AVOCATION

2010-08-21T11:50:00.000-05:00

ARE YOU A "PRO-AM" OR AN AMATEUR?

A Pro-Am pursues an activity as an amateur, mainly for the love of it, but sets a professional standard. Pro-Ams are unlikely to earn more than a small portion of their income from their pastime but they pursue it with the dedication and commitment associated with a professional. For Pro-Ams, leisure is not passive consumerism but active and participatory; it involves the deployment of publicly accredited knowledge and skills, often built up over a long career, which has involved sacrifices and frustrations.

Pro-Ams demand we rethink many of the categories through which we divide up our lives. Pro-Ams are a new social hybrid. Their activities are not adequately captured by the traditional definitions of work and leisure, professional and amateur, consumption and production. We use a variety of terms – many derogatory, none satisfactory – to describe what people do with their serious leisure time: nerds, geeks, anoraks, enthusiasts, hackers, men in their sheds. Our research suggests the best way to cover all the activities covered by these terms is to call the people involved Pro-Ams.

There are going to be more Pro-Ams in more walks of life and they are set to have a significant influence on society: socially, politically and economically. Fractured Atlas Newsletter, August 2010

OPINIONS REGARDING CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN THEATRE

2010-08-20T11:42:00.000-05:00

From time to time, I post opinions, points of view of contemporary theatre professionals that I feel are thought-provoking and bear further thinking and questioning by all of us who work in theatre. Here are some for this week.

~ ~ ~

"Now, more than ever, people want to get away from their laptops and go to an environment where they feel viscerally alive." . . . "Theatre is visceral," . . . "You're in it. You're in a space with other human beings. And you want to feel your blood pumping, you want to feel your energy, and you want your mind engaged. Theatre is not mutually exclusive. The emotional, the spiritual, the intellectual, and the physical, the visceral - that's the theatre, that's the theatrical event." (Diane Paulus, Artistic Director, American Repertory Theatre, Boston)

~ ~ ~

"Revolution happens in small rooms. I don't think revolution ever happens on big Broadway stages. So our responsibility is to create extraordinary events in small rooms that infect the rest of the culture. Nothing happens in a flash in the pan. You have to give time to incubate ideas and things that people are trying out. What I've learned is that exposure through time to adventurous work changes cultures, changes people. It has a big effect. But the key is time. Time is the essential ingredient," (Anne Bogart, Head of Graduate Theatre Program, Columbia University, director and author)

~ ~ ~

“. . .why is it that not only theatre, but also literature in this country is profoundly different than, say, European literature? If you look at the foundations of our theatre -- and they come from vaudeville, they come from, you know, American inventions of jazz, or the detective novel -- the idea of a department store is an American mentality -- very different from the Aristotelian development of plot through European sensibilities. That question is constantly of interest. Why do we do things the way we do them? I think they are political and historical."(Ann Bogart)

~ ~ ~

For me, the theatre is exactly, for that reason, important in our times -- perhaps more important than almost any other time I can think of. To be in the room with a sustained attention and empathetic relationship to others is remarkable. I think the theatre is a kind of gym for the soul. You go to the gym for your body, here you go for your soul, and for your ability to connect with the outside world, which I think is diminishing. For that reason, there is an appetite," (Anne Bogart)

~ ~ ~

"If people are going to invest their time and money in a different way, . . . ". . . the work being presented has to be taking a big risk as well. It's easy to sit at home or go to a movie - it's sort of cheap and you don't feel like it's that big of a risk. I think people get upset when it's ordinary, and then they feel like they wasted their money. The need for risk rises as people get choosier. . . .” (Jack Cummings III, Artistic Director, Transport Group)

~ ~ ~

AN AMERICAN GIRL IN SCOTLAND AT THE WORLD'S LARGEST THEATRE FESTIVAL AUG. 2010

2010-08-17T19:58:00.001-05:00

Hey Jerelyn!

Well, I’m flying over Kentucky at the moment, on my way to London. Our flight was delayed for almost 3 hours for repairs, so I won’t arrive until noon London time, meaning we won’t have as much time there.

Everyone is really excited though, and occasionally breaking into song. Well, what else can you expect from a bunch of actors. I’m passing the 9 hour flight by watching all the Harry Potter films and hopefully soon sleeping. Not much else to say, I’ll write later with more. I won’t be able to send this until we land, obviously.
Callie Manning

8/04/10 5:33 pm London time
Hey Jerelyn!

Right now I’m sitting in my hotel room as my friends getting ready to go out tonight. After the horrifically long flight (12 hours in the plane, 2 ½ sitting in the runway as they did repairs) in which I did not sleep at all, so right now I’m running on nothing but three cups of coffee and excitement. As soon as we left the airport we all went on a guided tour of London, seeing mostly all that dull touristy stuff we’ve all seen a thousand times in films and pictures. But I did see afew interesting things, like where the Globe used to be and the econstruction (sadly I won’t get to see a play there, I’ll have to go next time I’m here). Also, we went down the infamous Fleet Street. Of course I got pictures of all of that, as well as some other fun sites.

Well, tomorrow my friends and I will be turned loose on the streets of London for the day, to run around and shop and see all there is to see, all of that. I’m about to go eat dinner now, then go find an internet café so I can send this to you without having to pay insane hotel wifi fees.

-Callie Manning,

TDF's NEW BOOK ON THE NEW AMERICAN THEATRE, "OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE"

2010-08-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

EXCERPT FROM FLUX THEATRE ENSEMBLE ON BLOGSPOT:

Chapter 5 (of above-mentioned book) acknowledges that all of the issues addressed in previous chapters stem from a dwindling audience of diminished passion. The NEA's ironically titled "All America's A Stage" report shows that the percentage of Americans who attended a nonmusical play over a twelve-month period fell from 13.5 percent to 9.4 percent between 1992 and 2008.

And according to the interviewees of this book, the audience that remains is increasingly conservative in their taste. They do not want plays of formal innovation, cultural difference, complexity, or ambition.

Artistic Directors believe that playwrights are increasingly writing for themselves, drifting away from the concerns and interests of their audience. Playwrights believe there is a different audience out there, but theatres don't know how to reach out and retain them.

The idea of an artistic home once again is proposed as the solution: playwrights writing for specific audiences, audiences following the long term arc of playwrights.

Additionally, several conceptual shifts are recommended: audience should shift to community, product should shift to process, and marketing should shift to contextualizing. These are all ideas that have been advocated for here and elsewhere; and much of my chapter partner Scott's work has been to advocate for a uniquely local approach to artist/audience engagement. I look forward to reading his response.

I'd like instead to focus on a more theoretical question underlying this chapter: who should playwrights be writing for - themselves or the audience? And if the audience, who should be in that audience?

INDEPENDENT THEATRE COMPANY

2010-08-12T22:40:00.004-05:00

jcgCollaborations

A new, independent theatre company is forming to provide innovative theatre for area theatre-goers. Company members include: Stephen Scarlato is a fine actor and most capable in tech work, as well. He will handle publicity and take roles when appropriate. Christina Bailey, with fashion modeling and bit/extra roles in movies, is just beginning her acting training and experience. She is a highly competent props person and stage manager. Andrew Wood, a Centenary College theatre student, has a solid knowledge of contemporary theatre and quite a few substantive roles to his credit. Audra-Caitlin Moss, LSU-Shreveport theatre student with substantive theatre experience, will also accept roles as appropriate and aid in the selection of plays. Audra-Caitlin also is writing, directing and producing a web series which will be online this fall. And, Callie Manning, who is presently attending the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival, will continue her work with us as props person and assistant to the director/stage manager, giving Christina more time to accept acting roles. Other actors will be cast when needed.

We are selecting two productions and two staged readings, with my prior projects here, to put us in a competitive position for grants, as well as a fund-raiser.

One play considered for full production is Lee Blessing's "Two Rooms.”

Performances will occur at various city-wide venues. As soon as season selections are finalized and venue dates arrived at, we will provide that information through the media and on this blog, as well as Facebook.

INTERNATIONAL DANCE DAY JULY 31, 2010

2010-07-24T10:53:00.003-05:00

The International Theatre Institute (ITI) celebrates the International Dance Day. As part of the celebration, ITI chooses an outstanding dancer to write an international dance message. Chosen to do the honors for this year is Argentina’s multi-awarded dancer, Julio Bocca.

“Dance is discipline, work, teaching, communication. With it we save on words that perhaps others would not understand and, instead, we establish a universal language familiar to everyone. It gives us pleasure, it makes us free and it comforts us from the impossibility we humans have to fly like birds, bringing us closer to heaven, to the sacred, to the infinite.

"It is a sublime art, different each time, so much like making love that at the end of each performance it leaves our heart beating very hard and looking forward to the next time.”

Translated to English by Marcia de la Garza from the original version written in Spanish:
(Presidential Adviser on Culture Cecile Guidote Alvarez translated the message from English to Filipino.)

AUGUST 27, 2010 TWO MOONS

2010-07-23T17:16:00.001-05:00

*27th August the Whole World is waiting for.............* Planet Mars will be the brightest in the night sky starting August.It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will cultivate on Aug. 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on Aug. 27 12:30 am IST. It will look like the earth has 2 moons.

The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

This time translates to 11 pm CST (12 pm EST) in USA.Two moon on 27 August*

SHREVEPORT ARTS FUNDING NEWS JULY 2010

2010-07-17T10:05:00.000-05:00

Shreveport wins $100,000 arts grant

Shreveport Times - www.shreveporttimes.com

Shreveport is one of 21 cities out of a pool of more than 200 applicants throughout the United States that has won revitalization grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

JULY 24 ONE TIME PERFORMANCE PRECEDING U.S. TOUR

2010-07-15T23:16:00.004-05:00

SATURDAY, JULY 24, 2010 - ALL SOUL'S UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH - 8:00 PM - 9449 ELLERBEE ROAD - 868-3313

AN ELIZABETHAN WOMAN CENTURIES AHEAD OF HER TIME IN HER THINKING, MARRIED TO ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST PLAYWRIGHTS PORTRAYED AGAINST A TWO-STORY SOLID GLASS ENCLOSURE REVEALING THE SURROUNDING IMMENSE TREES, WITH CANDLELIGHT, AUTHENTIC CENTURIES OLD MUSIC, SOME SUNG BY CONTEMPORARY FAVORITE ARTISTS.

LISA DAYE, A THREE TIME BEST ACTRESS WINNER PLAYS THIS SOLO ROLE DIRECTED BY JERELYN C. GILSTRAP. CALLIE MANNING ACTS AS ASSISTANT TO DIRECTOR, STAGE MANAGER AND SOUND AND LIGHT TECHNICIAN. AUDRA- CAITLIN MOSS SERVES AS HOSTESS FOR THE EVENING.

THIS ONE-TIME PERFORMANCE PRECEDES THE UPCOMING U.S. TOUR.

ZOE KEATING, CELLIST

2010-07-07T09:41:00.001-05:00

ZOE KEATING, AVANT GARDE CELLIST

Zoe Keating's new cd, INTO THE TREES, is now available. Go to zoekeating.com and download a free tract, "Optimist."

LAURIE ANDERSON'S RELEASE OF "HOMELAND"

2010-07-01T12:38:00.004-05:00

LAURIE ANDERSON fans have waited almost ten years for a new release from her. She appeared on the New York avant garde performance scene in the early 70s as a young violinist playing a white violin and initially engaging in the begining of what came to be known as performance art. One of her early well-known 'performances' was playing her violin on a large block of ice - the performance ended when the ice had melted.

As her career progressed she began writing lyrics to be spoken over her compositions of "techno" music and eventually incorporating highly technical multi-media shows using huge projected images as backgrounds and using her lovely singing voice.

For readers not familiar with her work, there is a diverse body of work from which to begin -- many might find her very early "Big Science" amusing and enjoyable.

"Only Laurie Anderson, the violin-playing poet laureate of American estrangement, could make an industrial-tinged club banger that dives into the following topics with clear-eyed passion, anguish and humor: America's blind trust in authority; the media's appetite for spectacle; the subprime mortgage collapse and the ensuing domino effect on the market; and last but not least, current and former U.S. policies of pre-emptive invasion and detention without trial. Phew -- got all that? Thank goodness you can dance to it, or else you might crumple to the floor in tears.

For every overtly political turn like "Only An Expert," Anderson, on her first studio album in nine years, includes an atmospheric meditation on modern existence or, sometimes, love, giving the title, "Homeland," resonance beyond the nationalistic meaning. On "Strange Perfumes," one of the songs with vocals from kindred New York artist Antony Hegarty, she sings, "Where does love go when love is gone? To what war-torn city?" It perfectly evokes the level of deep symbolism that Anderson's working on throughout "Homeland," one where war is not only a tragedy in and of itself but a metaphor for other states of loss or alienation.

Produced by Anderson, her husband Lou Reed and Roma Baran, "Homeland" was sewn together from bits mostly recorded from improvisations on tour. The performance artist road-tested the album's powerful narratives for more than two years, bringing in performers including avant-garde saxophonist John Zorn and experimental electronic musician Kieran Hebden of Four Tet. It's a fascinating way of putting together a work that has a profoundly nomadic feel -- from the opening song "Transitory Life" to the natively wandering Tuvan throat singers who appear on certain tracks to Anderson's own roaming proclivities between music, art, political activism, all tying into a world of breathless ideas. "Homeland" isn't so much an album as it is a poetic capturing of the still moments of a restless mind."

From THE BALTIMORE SUN, JULY 1, 2010

THE BLACK REIGN

2010-06-23T18:41:00.004-05:00

oh, the black rains came
and the ocean’s in flames

the blood poured down
from those that drowned

red clay turned ebony dark
blue green crystals lost their mark

rainbow colors run and hide
tryin’ to get away from the genocide

mother’s gut grows and grows
soon be birthin’ big black crows

moanin’ and groanin’ lettin’ out a howl
her water breaks and comes out foul

but nothin’ will hold her spreadin’ girth
bigger and bigger ‘bout to give birth

big ole cracks in her birthin’ bed
but ain’t nothin’ to us nobody’s said

she didn’t want it to go this way
but mother had nowhere else to stay

and so it is the demon child is born
with money and lies it’‘s adorned

then the doors of hell gonna open wide
and blast and spew its noxious insides

and waves of greed will hit the land
leavin’ nothin’ there, not even the sand

just wonderin’ now who’s to blame
ever’body’s tryin’ to save their name

nothin’ on earth ever the same
playin and losin’ that little oil game

black tears pour from the gods on high
time for accountin’ drawin’ nigh

yeah, the earth eats itself inside out
we all know what that’s about

now, BP, don’t look at me all tongue-tied
you can run but where you gonna hide?

you - and all the others like you
you haven't a clue

where ARE you gonna hide?
where?"

jenean c gilstrap
2010

CADDO MAGNET HIGH SCHOOL, SHREVEPORT -- EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL 2010

2010-06-20T11:07:00.002-05:00

Shreveport's Caddo Magnet High School is one of twenty-six U.S. high schools to be chosen to present work at the world's largest arts festival: Edinburgh International Arts Festival in August of this summer.These students will have the opportunity to witness the world's best artists in every single discipline, as well as attend workshops and conversations with selected presenting artists.

Many of the presenting artists are people whose work I've followed for thirty years - and many I've had the privilege to see their work in performance.

One can go to the web address -- eif.co.uk/multimedia and see video snippets of the performances. In lieu of that, I've chosen to provide information here about several of the chosen American groups, as well as one legendary German choreographer.

Calllie Manning, a student lucky enough to have this opportunity, will be keeping a detailed journal of her experiences, from which I will post entries here. Check back to see what Callie's first-hand experience was like.

Edinburgh International Festival:

2010-06-20T10:24:00.002-05:00

Edinburgh International Festival: GERMANY'S LATE PINA BAUSCH, CHOREOGRAPHER

About the performanceThe fascinating contrasts and complexities of Brazil form the inspiration for Água. A joyous homage to a paradise of swaying palm trees, sultry jungles and stalking leopards from one of the greatest artists of the 21st century.
During a long and distinguished career, the great German choreographer Pina Bausch, who died in June 2009, helped to redefine the parameters of contemporary dance with a unique and highly idiosyncratic brew of classical movement, burlesque humour and overt theatricality. Pina Bausch was quite simply an extraordinary force of creative energy.
In Água, her charismatic and eclectic company of dancers transports you from beach to rainforest and then back again in a playful work brimming with joie de vivre. Complete with kissing competitions, dancers illuminated by fairy lights and men and women splashing each other with water bottles like kids on the beach, Água exemplifies all that is best in Pina Bausch's profound and playful brand of dance theatre.
‘the most influential figure in European contemporary dance for the past 30 years'
The Daily Telegraph"

Edinburgh International Festival: Three weeks of the most exciting music, opera, dance, theatre the world has to offer.

2010-06-20T10:21:00.002-05:00

Edinburgh International Festival: AMERICA'S ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE THEATRE

The first world war is over, but some battles still rage on.

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway's first major novel, follows a group of weary, aimless and frequently inebriated American expatriates searching for identity, redemption and diversion in Europe. Told with spare and tightly written prose, Hemingway's story winds its way through France and Spain and lands in Pamplona where bullfighting and the fiesta rage in the streets. In this world premiere staging from acclaimed New York ensemble Elevator Repair Service, Hemingway's novel comes to life on a stage littered with liquor bottles and cafe chairs.

Elevator Repair Service's interpretations of classic American novels by F Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner have garnered critical acclaim across the world. An illuminating stage interpretation of one of America's greatest literary works, The Sun Also Rises(Café Select) features the ensemble's trademark sound design, highly energized choreography and re-imagined bullfighting.

A co-production between Elevator Repair Service and New York Theatre Workshop. Commissioned by the Ringling International Arts Festival and John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and in association with the Baryshnikov Arts Center; the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival with funding from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative; and ArtsEmerson: the World on Stage."

Edinburgh International Festival:

2010-06-20T10:18:00.003-05:00

Edinburgh International Festival: AMERICA'S MEREDITH MONK

About the performance: Where one artform stops and another starts has never been a concern for Meredith Monk as she seamlessly blends elements of music, art and theatre to startling effect. Her career blossomed in the avant-garde world of 1960s New York alongside contemporaries including Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and Andy Warhol.

Part uplifting celebration, part devotional ritual, Songs of Ascension is an ethereal, meditative work that combines music, movement and film. Buddhism and the notion of spiritual enlightenment are the inspiration for this luminous piece of music theatre which has all the hallmarks of Monk's distinctive and evocative vocal style. Songs of Ascension is a collaboration with American multi-media artist Ann Hamilton.

‘Watching Monk's work is like seeing music.' eyespyLA.com

‘Later generations will envy those who got to see her live.' The New Yorker"

Edinburgh International Festival: AMERICA'S MABOU MINES "GOSPEL AT COLONOS"

2010-06-20T10:15:00.002-05:00

"Gospel music, rock ‘n' roll swagger, a dash of soul and syncopated style are at the heart of this uplifting spectacle. Set in modern day America it is a radical reworking of Sophocles's tragedy Oedipus at Colonus. The wonderful traditions of gospel singing are centre stage and will have you jumping out of your seat to join in!

A Pentecostal preacher drives the narrative while the legendary gospel vocal group, The Blind Boys of Alabama, collectively play the role of Oedipus.

Classic Greek drama is given more than a little contemporary twist by New York based theatre director Lee Breuer.

He brings his seminal production to the Festival following success with the brilliantly theatrical Peter and Wendy last year and Mabou Mines DollHouse in 2007.

‘not just a show, it is a miracle...most electric and inventive show in American musical history!' The Atlanta Constitution
‘wonderful, hypnotic, exhilarating... makes you feel good about being human... on the way home you'll feel like flying.' The Village Voice"

Edinburgh International Festival: Three weeks of the most exciting music, opera, dance, theatre the world has to offer.

2010-06-20T10:09:00.003-05:00

Edinburgh International Festival: AMERICA'S WOOSTER GROUP THEATRE
"About the performanceCommissioned by Théâtre National de Strasbourg, Wiener Festwochen, Les Spectacles Vivants - Centre Pompidou and Festival d'Automne à Paris.
‘This house was occupied once. In my mind it still is, but by shadowy occupants like ghosts.' Tennessee Williams
722 Toulouse Street, New Orleans is a squalid rooming house where a young writer makes his home amongst restless young malcontents and elderly eccentrics. As he becomes entangled with their lives, his own fate reveals itself.

In this production, the New York-based Wooster Group forges a new mode of expression for Williams's lyric voice. The influence of Elia Kazan, who defined a style for Williams in the 1940s, is inescapable. But the Group counters the pull of Kazan by drawing stylistically from the seamy improvisational films of Paul Morrissey, produced with Andy Warhol in the early 1970s, and the recent media work of Ryan Trecartin, known for his wildly stylised performances, rapid-fire editing and digital manipulations.
Elizabeth LeCompte Director; Jennifer Tipton Lighting

SHREVEPORT PRODUCTION OF SHAKESPEARE'S WILL by VERN THIESSEN

2010-06-19T11:18:00.006-05:00

SHAKESPEARE'S WILL by VERN THIESSEN

CANADA'S PROFLIC AND HIGHLY-ACCLAIMED PLAYWRIGHT, VERN THIESSEN, HAS WRITTEN A POETIC AND POWERFUL 90 MINUTE SOLO PIECE PORTRAYING SHAKESPEARE'S WIFE, ANNE HATHAWAY, ABOUT WHOM LITTLE IS ACTUALLY KNOWN. BUT FROM THESE GAPS, THIESSEN HAS CREATED ". . .AN IMAGINATIVE AND POIGNANT LIFE OF AN ORDINARY WOMAN CAUGHT UP IN THE THE LIFE OF AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN. . . .

ANNE REMEMBERS HER HUSBAND AS TONGUE-TIED AND TACITURN, THE BEAUTIFUL WORDS THAT BOUND HIM TO THE WORLD ELUDE HIM IN THEIR PRIVATE RELATIONSHIP."

THIS PIECE HAD ITS BRITISH PREMIERE AT THE CLWYD THEATR CYMRU, STARRING NATASHA PARRY, THE INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED ACTRESS AND WIFE TO ONE OF THE WORLDS'S GREATEST DIRECTORS, PETER BROOK.

THIS STAGED READING OF THE PIECE PRECEDES THE U.S. TOUR CURRENTLY IN THE WORKS. "STAGED READING" MEANS ONLY THAT AFTER A LONG REHEARSAL PERIOD, AND WITH ALL THE USUSAL PRODUCTION ELEMENTS, INCLUDING MOVEMENT, THE ACTOR MOVES ABOUT W/ A SCRIPT TO WHICH SHE INFREQUENTLY REFERS.

PORTRAYING ANNE HATHAWAY IN THIS PRODUCTION IS TRIPLE BEST ACTRESS AWARD WINNER, LISA DAYE, EDUCATED IN MUSIC AT THE ROYAL CONSERVATORY OF CANADA. HER WORK WITH THE SHREVEPORT OPERA LED HER TO NUMEROUS NON-MUSICAL ROLES.

PERFORMANCE ~

JULY 24, 2010 - 8:00 P.M.

ALL SOUL'S UNIVERSALIST UNITARIAN CHURCH

9449 ELLERBEE ROAD

SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA

318-868-3313

TICKETS $10

2010-06-03T13:15:00.004-05:00

Henri Matisse

. . . one's life is not confined to one's body and what one says or does;
one is living all the time in relation to certain backgrounds . . . or conceptions.

~~Anne Bogart, theatre directorfrom Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own"

2010-06-01T23:56:00.006-05:00

Kazuo Ohno,

a Founder of Japanese Butoh, Dies at 103
By JENNIFER DUNNING, NY TIMES
June 1, 2010

Kazuo Ohno, a founder of Butoh, the influential Japanese dance-theater form . . . died on Tuesday . . . . He was 103 and had continued to perform beyond his 100th year.
Kazuo Ohno preforming 'Mother' (youtube.com)
Mr. Ohno’s solo performances, for which he was known, were irresistibly powerful and fraught with ambiguity. A humanist, he communicated the themes of the form through identifiable characters . . . . Mr. Ohno also embodied the dual nature of Butoh, developed in Japan after World War II. It mines the primeval darkness of life and death in harrowing theatrical physical imagery yet is also capable of the dramatic equivalent of raucous, often bawdy laughter.

BUTOH (舞踏, Butō) is the collective name for a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement inspired by ankoku butō. movement. It typically involves playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally "performed" in white-body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion. . . . with or without an audience. But there is no set style, and it may be purely conceptual with no movement at all. Its origins have been attributed to Japanese dance legends Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno.

2010-05-31T04:35:00.004-05:00

"THE GATES," NYC, 2005

There has been controversy over the currently running AT&T TV commercial depicting various arrangements of bright orange nylon draping buildings, billowing in the air for what appears to be dozens of yards when carried by numerous people. (See video of AT&T commercial below in this post.)

It seems as if at least part of the controversy has to do with the ethics of having created a TV commercial that so blatantly and clearly originates from the husband/wife team's concept. Although the TV commercial does not replicate Jean-Claude and Christo's use of the fabric, it goes beyond being derivative or even "inspired by" their work. However, no one "owns" ideas.

The husband and wife team's artistic work seemed to always provoke controversy - particularly around the concept of "what is art?" - which I've always attributed to our Western aesthetic of art containing "meaning." Regardless of one's appreciation or dismisal of their work, the art world has lost an artist, who, with her husband and artistic partner, created a half-century of innovative art.

2010-05-31T04:04:00.006-05:00

Jeanne-Claude, who collaborated with her husband, Christo, on dozens of environmental arts projects, notably the wrapping of the Pont Neuf in Paris and the Reichstag in Berlin, and the installation of 7,503 vinyl gates with saffron-colored nylon panels (The Gates, 2005) in Central Park, died late last year in Manhattan, where she lived. She was 74.

2010-05-31T03:01:00.000-05:00

LATEST RAPE OF PLANET EARTH

2010-05-30T16:17:00.003-05:00

LOUISIANA GULF COAST OIL SPILL
The gusher originates from a deepwater oil well 5,000 feet (1,500 m) below the ocean surface. Estimates of the amount of oil being discharged range from BP's current estimate of over 5,000 barrels (210,000 US gallons; . . .) to as much as 100,000 barrels (4,200,000 US gallons; . . .) of crude oil per day.(Excerpt cite: Deepwate Horizon Oil Spill, Wikipedia)