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Life and Times: Episodes 4.5 and 5 @ FIAF

Last winter, Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s Life and Times saga took the New York theatre world by storm at the Public’s Under the Radar Festival. (Check out our review here.) Now they’re back with two more installments that ran this weekend at the French Institute Alliance Française.

Life and Times is based on a series of telephone conversations with company member Kristin Worrall about her life… so far. The result has been a series of theatrical episodes that uses Worrall’s story word-for-word, including the “likes,” “ums,” and incomplete thoughts that make up authentic human speech. The episodes are all genre-specific, and so far Nature Theater has tackled music, singing, dance, and Agatha Christie-esque mysteries as framing devices. Episodes 4.5 & 5 continue to push the theatre-making envelope. Episode 4.5 is a short animated film, with super titles of the dialogue on the screen. Said dialogue is actually sung, which is a welcome element from previous episodes. Episode 5 takes the form of an illuminated medieval-style manuscript.

Episode 4.5
Episode 4.5

While visual art may be the obvious theme of 4.5 & 5,  the evening is still strongly theatrical. Before Episode 4.5, the audience is given manilla envelopes with instructions not to open them. At the start of Episode 5, a man dressed in a tuxedo with a blue cummerbund instructs the audience to open the envelope, which contains a flashlight, a book, and earplugs. While the man plays the keyboard set to sound like an organ (thus the earplug option), the audience has forty-four minutes and twenty-eight seconds to read the book.  Reading a book in itself doesn’t seem theatrical; reading the same book in the cover of darkness in a theatre filled with people doing the same thing does. It feels as if we were all voyeurs, reading the narrator’s diary with a flashlight under the covers. This is no mistake, as we learn the narrator’s first diary, like the book in our hands, has a blue cover. The voyeurism is only intensified by the illustrations, Kama Sutra-stylings with likenesses of Nature Theater founders Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska in a variety of sexual positions. As Copper writes in the book’s afterword, it becomes a “Nature Theater sex tape.”

Episode 5 also takes on a scholarly edge. It’s as if the audience takes on the role of anachronistic scholars, as the electric-powered organ music accompanies calligraphied descriptions of a remodeled teenager’s bedroom. The countdown clock on the screen seems to promise a post-show exam.

Episodes 4.5 & 5 are relatively shorter than previous episodes, but the multimedia creation is a satisfying installment that excites, surprises, and takes us to the end of the narrator’s junior year of high school.

To be continued…

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A 12 foot tall Mr. Darcy statue (as played by the Firth) is working it in Hyde Park, London.

http://now-here-this.timeout.com/2013/07/08/oh-mr-darcy-yes-therea-giant-colin-firth-floating-in-the-serpentine/

LOL OK

Can we do one of Hugh Jackman in Central Park PLEASE? (Ya know, before we work on getting universal healthcare or some other nonsense.)

This Is What Happens When Fangirls Grow Up And Make Money

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TARGET FIRST SATURDAYS @ BROOKLYN MUSEUM

Native New Yorker that I am, I had never been to the Brooklyn Museum before. This was recently rectified when I attended its Target First Saturday,when the museum is open at night every first Saturday of the month and features special art and entertainment events.

Unfortunately, I didn’t catch any of the special events besides a hip hop group performing in the lobby. Instead, I got to see the fantastic collection the museum has, from an extensive Egyptian collection to contemporary installations littered throughout the museum. My favorite piece is The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago’s feminist installation artwork that has been a part of the Brooklyn Museum since 2007. The Dinner Party showcases famous women throughout history in an elaborate dining room. Each place setting denotes a different woman, with ceramic Georgia O’Keefe-esque plates as the centerpieces. What makes the work even more significant is that each place setting represents scores of other women, as outlined in a series of displays outside the room.

I’ll just have a salad.

The atmosphere of the museum during July’s First Saturday had a fun, youthful edge—as if it was a field trip for well-dressed twenty-somethings. And once the museum closes, there are several bars in the area to continue one’s weekend studies.

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T-Shirt Alert: Edgar Allan Poe and other Clever Bastards

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PopUpTee.com is having a sale of OneBluebird’s “Master Minds and Evil Geniuses” series. Some of the usual geeky graphic t-shirt suspects are featured (Sherlock, Doc Brown, Voldemort), but my personal favorite is his intricate print of Edgar Allan Poe. Can you catch all the literary references in the design?

For more info on OneBluebird, check out the artist’s Facebook page.

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80’s Style Game of Thrones Characters

Check out these AWESOME Game of Thrones character posters dressed up in John Hughes-esque 80’s garb.

I was going to try to make up an 80’s/GoT pun but I can’t think of any. Womp Womp.

80’s Style Game of Thrones Characters

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UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL: 2 Dimensional Life of Her


Part art installation, part short film, and part one woman show, 2 Dimensional Life of Her is an exciting piece that challenges our concept of theatre. The space itself looks like a paper wonderland: huge pieces of paper line the walls, and a blank canvas is propped up on an easel. A paper cut-out of a woman stands on a chair. Shredded pieces of paper litter the stage floor.

It begins with the image of a woman (Fleur Elise Noble) projected onto the paper cut-out. The first surprise is when the woman begins to move. The next surprise is when the woman leaves the cut-out, her footsteps echoing throughout the theatre. She proceeds to clean the huge pieces of paper, revealing even more surprises and scenes that are scrubbed, torn, or scribbled into existence. Filmed drawings and puppetry give the visual life of the scenes, while clear sound effects make them heard. 2 Dimensional Life of Her follows the woman as she finds her paper cut-out and engages with her artistic creations.

2 Dimensional Life of Her has some of the best multimedia I have ever seen. Noble, who created the concept and design, deftly handles all aspects of the piece, from her rebellious puppets to the interplay of the filmed images and happenings on stage. I especially enjoyed her use of contrast with light and darkness.

But the real magic happens when Noble herself enters the stage and directly addresses her creations—and the audience. This is when theatre happens, as she creates a human connection between herself and her art. Until her entrance, the piece felt more like an art exhibition or a film viewing rather than a theatrical experience. One instance of this ambivalence occurs when a group of puppets “enter” the paper backdrop, armed with a movie camera. They have a conversation illustrated with text bubbles:

“Is this a movie?”

“No, it appears we have an audience!”

“They’re in the way.”

The artwork doesn’t know what it is yet, but I would love to see what happens when the artist comes to a more definitive creation.

Other UTR reviews:  C’est Du Chinois and Hollow Roots.

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“Frida Liberada” at Urban Stages

Talented, fearless, and a visionary, Frida Kahlo was an art pioneer. Her life was filled with tragedy: a debilitating accident, infidelity, and illness, events well-documented in her self portraits. Frida’s life is also portrayed in the one-woman show Frida Liberada, currently playing at Urban Stages’ Outreach Octoberfest.

The play, written by Brigitte Viellieu-Davis, begins not with Frida’s life, but with her death. Frida, played by Diomargy Nuñez, enters from the back of the house, singing in Spanish about dying and finding peace with God. This Frida is dead and knows it, eager to share the story of her life with the audience. And share she does, speaking about her childhood and her tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera–while playing all the characters.

But the most interesting character is Frida herself. Nuñez is an active, exuberant version of the aritst, singing, laughing, and moving about the stage through Lydia Fort’s clean direction. Three upstage panels show Frida’s paintings as she knew them. This Frida is alive and well–on the stage, and in our imaginations.

Frida Liberada plays until November 2nd at Urban Stages. 

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Is the Royal Shakespeare Company Racist?

The internet has blown up in recent hours about my favorite British theatre company, the esteemed Royal Shakespeare Company. They decided to produce a centuries old classic Chinese play The Orphan of Zhao, which takes place in historical China–the Yuan period, to be exact. The company did so with a very diverse cast–so diverse that the leads were white, and the 3 Asian actors that were cast (out of 17 total actors) play dogs and a maid.

The Fairy Princess points out oh so brilliantly, the RSC whitewashed this classic Chinese play set in historical China, then proceeded to market on their website (to potential Chinese audience members in Chinese) with the following poster:

So we already have some well worn racist tropes here: white washing, yellowface, etc. — in spite of the fact that the artistic director, Gregory Doran, really wanted an authentic production, even going to modern-day China to be as authentic as possible, for an authentic production in every way–except to cast Asian actors in leading roles.After the backlash occurred, the RSC put a statement on their Facebook page to explain the “Twitter debate.” Since they were casting a repertory season with rotating actors, it was necessary to have a group of actors who would fit right with all the shows that season. First off, the assumption that a large number of Caucasian actors could play historically-accurate Chinese (and Caucasian of course), is there.  And naturally, the talent wins out: the actors they chose were the best possible. We’ve seen that argument again and again (just put Jennifer Lawrence in a wig to play a darker skinned girl–she was an Oscar-nominated actress!). The RSC rehashes that sentiment, saying, “We cast the best people available for the range of roles required.”That may be true, as there are a huge amount of talented actors out there who could play any role with dignity and grace.  But while this philosophy goes unchecked for white artists, artists of color don’t get the same distinction. In a hypothetical Western revival of Amadeus, you wouldn’t immediately think of an actor of Indian descent to play the Austrian Mozart. And as a community of artists, writers, theatergoers, and critics, we have to understand that this construct exists, that it is an artificial one rooted in racism and privilege, and we must constantly work to address it.

Such an address is not “moaning,” as one Facebook commenter wrote on the RSC page, but an honest appraisal of how we make art be as meaningful as it can be. This of course, is by no means easy. It’s hard to chuck one’s privilege out the door, and recognize one’s mistakes, no matter how well-intentioned. It’s especially upsetting since the RSC has a long history of “non-traditional” casting, with actors of Asian and African descent playing leading roles in productions of  The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and many other Shakespearean plays.

They even cast a two-hearted extra-terrestrial in a West End production of Hamlet to play the eponymous tragic hero.

Gallifrey finally getting represented in Western drama.
Even more importantly, we need to be aware of this disparity as people. The RSC said in their statement that the  “multi-cultural make-up of our winter season company reflects British society.” This is how the art-reflecting-life continuum comes into play. If we have these conflicting views about race in our theatre, then it is even more crucial an issue in our lives beyond the stage.
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Reasons I Want to be in London Now

Epic-looking Ragtime production at London’s “Shakespeare In The Park”-esque Open Air Theatre. I confess, I’m a bit offended I wasn’t personally invited…Click photos for details

Art Exhibit About Invisible Art? I’ll bring my invisible art collection.

Shakespeare? AND Ben Whishaw? AND Tom Hiddleston?

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