Arts & Society

Mary Bird • January 16, 2015

“Southern Celebrations Traditions Handed
Down” was the theme of this year’s Washington
Winter Show at the Katzen Arts Center at American
University which began with a welcome to sponsors,
benefactors and designers followed by a
gala patrons and young collector reception on
Jan. 9. The next day was highlighted by a lecture
“Exploring the Charleston Kitchen” with awardwinning
authors Matt and Ted Lee and a tasty
Southern picnic lunch. On Saturday, Julia Reed
spoke of “Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and Other
Southern Specialties.” This year’s loan exhibit
was “Celebrations at Stratford Hall Family, Food,
and Festivities.” Forty-five premier American and
European dealers participated in the show that benefited
the Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys,
THEARC and the Founders Board of St. John’s
Community Services. [gallery ids="101600,147189,147195,147184,147178,147174,147155,147169,147165,147160,147192" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

The District Council’s Elizabeth Webster — staffer for at-large council member Vincent Orange,
who is an advocate of small businesses in D.C. and film and TV production — was in Los Angeles
Jan. 12 for the Golden Globes and the many parties around town that included the W Magazine party
at Chateau Marmount, the “12 Years a Slave” party at the Mondrian, the BAFTA party at the Four
Seasons and post-award parties at the Beverly Hilton. Webster’s and Joyce Chow’s dresses were by
Sue Wong; their friend and actor Vincent De Paul wore a tuxedo, designed by Judah Estreicher at
D.C. area’s JBD Clothiers. [gallery ids="101601,147154,147148,147145,147141,147137,147117,147133,147127,147123,147152" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

The Fours Seasons Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue was especially full of Christmas cheer Dec. 16, as the seventh annual Georgetown Jingle — a benefit for Medstar Georgetown University Hospital’s pediatric oncology programs — expanded its festivities for two parties in Seasons restaurant. The hotel lobby already held Christmas trees, created by a designer for a special patient at the hospital.

Hosted by Fours Seasons and Washington’s interior design community, Jingle rang out for the children first in the afternoon with “Winter Wonderland” and then for the adults with “Pamala Live!” after 7 p.m.

Children met the likes of Ironman and Captain America, enjoyed sweets from Georgetown Cupcake, Dolci Gelati and Paul Bakery. Of course, the star of the day was Santa Claus, who arrived courtesy of TTR Sotheby’s International Realty.

With tasting from such restaurants as Bourbon Steak, Rouge 24, Proof, Bibiana Osteria Enoteca, Taco Bamba, Banolero, Katsuya Fukishima, the Source and the Blue Moon, the evening’s fun was highlighted by chanteuse Pamala Stanley with her versions of disco and current pop hits — along with a wide-ranging silent auction that included jewelry, a wine collection, artwork and autographed football helmets.

Washington-area Toyota dealers, courtesy of Darcars Automotive Group, donated a Toyota Prius c as the grand prize for the raffle drawing.

Georgetown Jingle benefits the pediatric programs at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital. The funds raised by the 2011 Jingle have established a pediatric bone marrow transplant unit in collaboration with Duke University Hospital, funded unique patient rooms that inspire and support the healing process and funded the special initiatives for the Childhood Cancer Survivorship Program.

The funds raised by the 2012 Georgetown Jingle will continue to support the operational and training facilities for the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit. This year, the event expands its support to include the growth of social worker and educator support in the pediatric palliative care program to provide the highest quality of life for children and families throughout the course of illness. The programs are directed by Aziza Shad, M.D., one of the region’s most respected oncologists.

Over the past six years, Georgetown Jingle has raised $1.5 million for these pediatric programs. The charitable event helps spotlight childhood cancer, the leading cause of death among American children between infancy and age 15. The 2012 event chair was Donna Shank, the mother of Daniel Shank-Rowe, a Medstar Georgetown University Hospital patient ambassador and cancer survivor.

Each year, Washington’s interior designers festoon a total of 17 holiday-themed trees and vignettes in the lobby of the Four Seasons. Arlington-based designer Michael Roberson was the 2012 design chair. Sandi Hoffman of Sandi R. Hoffman Special Events created the majestic centre tree in the Hotel lobby. The theme for her centre tree is “The Shaker Abecedarious” based on the 1880s children’s alphabet book, “A Peaceable Kingdom,” by Alice Provensen.

Walk through the Four Seasons’s lobby and delight to the work of the other 2012 participating designers with these themes:

1. Barry Dixon Interiors (Barry Dixon) — Holiday Punch, a Taste of the Holidays

2. Sandra Meyers Interior Design (Sandra Meyers) — Bells Will Be Ringing

3. Darlene Solutions (Diane Darling) — Martini Tree

4. JDS Designs (David Herchik and Richard Looman) — Santa’s Candy Land

5. Samantha Friedman Interior Design (Samantha Friedman) — Lego Tree

6. Chistopher Patric Interiors (Christopher Patrick & Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice) — Season’s First Snow

7. Alter Urban, LLC (John Coplen) — Winter Wonderland Dollhouse

8. Case Design (Allie Mann) — Suess-tacular

9. Patrick J. Baglino Jr. Interior Design (Patrick J. Baglino, Jr.) — Journey to Oz and Back

10. The Velvet Frog (Debbie Henry) — Believe

11. Dolci Gelati & JDS Designs, Inc. (Nick Beck Anastasia Kessler) — La Dolce Vida

12. Corcoran College of Art & Design ASID ( Kate Roberson and Whitney Osterhout) — Deconstructed Textile Tree

13. Barnes Vanze Architects (Miriam Dillon and Evelyn Smith) — Festival of Italian Torches

14. Darlene Molnar LLC & ETSK Design (Darlene Molnar and Sara Knowles) — Storybook Tree

15. The Queen Bee (Allison Priebe Brooks, Paul Baldwin and Don Patron) — 12 Days of Christmas

16. Housework Interiors (Dee Thornton) — Paint the Holidays
[gallery ids="101111,138781,138775,138768,138762,138756,138793,138750,138797,138743,138803,138736,138809,138787" nav="thumbs"]

Ari Post •

A groundbreaking era in the history of human innovation, the decades surrounding the turn of the 20th century were marked by the achievements of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, along with medical breakthroughs from insulin and cardiology to blood transfusions and x-rays.

As a natural response to the rapid development of science and technology, the arena of fine art underwent many distinct mutations toward the end of the 19th century. The most clear and immediate of these was the advancement of photography, which made owning and taking photographs available to a broad audience of artists and visual thinkers.

Photography opened the door to an entirely new understanding of composition, value and spatial relationships, re-energizing artists’ methods and creative visions. However, with the ability of the photograph to capture the existing world, painting and drawing were left to find a new direction of visual communication.

“A Subtle Beauty: Platinum Photographs from the Collection,” an exhibition on view at the National Gallery of Art closing Jan. 4, gives visitors a close look at some of the finest photographic images from the turn of the century.

Revered for their luminous, textured surfaces, from a velvety matte to a lustrous sheen, platinum prints played an important role in establishing photography as a fine art.

The photographs are also prized for their extraordinary tonal range: from creamy shades of white to delicate gray midtones and from warm, sepia browns to the deepest blacks. These qualities made platinum prints a preferred choice among the pictorialists, an international group of turn-of-the-century photographers who championed the medium as a means for artistic expression.
There is something of a 19th-century romanticism about many of the photographs – particularly the portraits – which makes the occasional drama of a subject’s pose seem perhaps silly to the contemporary viewer. But at their best, they capture an almost literary transience, with the subject’s eyes imparting a depth of intellect and emotion in the moment that it is materializing. Heinrich Kühn’s portrait of his brother Walther (1911) has this tremendous affect, as does Alfred Stieglitz’s mesmerizing and balanced portrait of his elevator operator, Hodge Kirnon (1917).

The effects of those portraits are brought together with a hallowed, atmospheric brilliance in Edward Steichen’s portrait of August Rodin (1907), positioned in a contemplative pose reminiscent of the sculptor’s most recognized work, “The Thinker.” Perhaps given the famous subject, the portrait takes on a decidedly eternal quality, which was probably not mere chance.
Maybe the most beautiful photograph in this intimate exhibition is Frederick H. Evans’s “York Minster” (1902). Evans captured without equal the cavernous, grand and reverberating awe of a cathedral. The way the soft light washes over the relief ornament and suspends itself palpably in the vaulted space between the high windows and the crowns of the arches is a true source of bleary-eyed, skip-a-heartbeat beauty.

Gary Tischler •

From a distance, you could mistake them for tourists checking out the sights at the Kennedy Center—mom, older brother, young sister.

That wasn’t the case, though. They’d been here before.

The boy, with a slightly brighter shade of blonde hair, was 12-year-old Henry Wager, with his mom, Nancy Tarr, and his young sister Naomi, 10.

Wager had just gotten his hair dyed so that he could look a little more like The Prince, or the title role in the Washington National Opera Company’s family holiday production of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s “The Little Prince,” composed by Rachel Portman, and originally staged by WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater Friday through Sunday, Dec. 19 to 21.

Wager—and his sister Naomi, who will be in the WNO’s Children Chorus in the production—is a familiar presence by now at the Kennedy Center and the WNO. Last year, Wager portrayed the part of the Angel in Jeanine Tesori’s world-premiere (and very popular) “The Lion, the Unicorn and Me.”

“Francesca asked me earlier this year if I wanted to play the prince, and I said sure, I was very honored,” Wager said. “It’s a lot different from anything I’ve done. It’s complicated, you know. He’s a prince, and he lives on this little planet by himself, and his prized possession, a rose. He’s kind of obsessive about it. And he meets this downed pilot in the desert.”

The family lived in Bethesda, but now live in Cooperstown, N.Y., home to the annual summer Glimmerglass Opera Festival, where Zambello is artistic director. For Glimmerglass, Wager performed the role of Winthrop in “The Music Man” and with the children’s chorus sang in Tobias Picker’s “American Tragedy.” So, Wager is already a fairly experienced performer in the opera world.

He’s thoughtful about “The Little Prince.” “The music isn’t like traditional opera, it doesn’t exactly sound like that, it’s modern, you now, like some American operas.”

Watching him and listening to him and his sister, you see something interesting. The young Wagers — Henry and Naomi — are very articulate about music and performing, and yet, there is no sense of self-importance, of being different from other kids. They compete, they talk each other up, they’re proud of each other.

“I want to be in a lead role someday, like Henry,” Naomi offered. “I want to travel to a foreign country.” The production of “The Music Man” traveled to Oman. “You know, the prince is really a kid, he doesn’t understand anything about adults, and he has that thing for the rose.”

“I don’t have any object like that,” Henry said. “We have the cats,” Naomi said. “They’re twins. Maple and Hennepin.”

“You know how he’s different,” Henry said of the prince, “he sees the world in numbers, that’s how he processes information.”

“They were both in the chorus,” Nancy Tarr said. “They work hard.”

“Music is a lot of lessons. I mean lots.And lots of practice.” Henry said.

“They have a normal childhood,” Tarr said. “That’s what I wanted for them. They play sports, they listen to music, they do what kids do. And they do this.”

Henry plays baseball, second base, and he lives in a town, which houses the Baseball Hall of Fame. “It’s cool to live there,” he said. His favorite baseball player Denard Span of the Washington Nationals.

“I listen to all kinds of music,” Henry said. “But I really like listening to movie scores. I love John Williams.”

Naomi currently likes singer Meghan Traynor. “That’s this week she likes her,” Henry said, skeptical. She, of course, likes Taylor Swift. “I liked “Shake It Off” and “Blank Spaces.”

They sound and look just like—still—kids. And they’re wise to it.

Naomi summed it up: “Henry’s got one year left. I’ve got three.”

What’s that? we ask. “Childhood. Henry has one year. I’ve got three.”

Gary Tischler •

In a telephone interview, the singer-actress Megan Hilty will sometimes tell you that she felt “terrified” on certain occasions in her career: when she took over the role Glinda in the Broadway smash “Wicked”, for instance, or when she performed in her first solo concert.

Yet, if you’ve seen her on stage or on television, solo or with a big cast, you notice something about Hilty. She’s a big voiced but rangy song stylist with a blonde and curvy, glittery presence. She is the epitome of people born to the stage, to the “gotta sing, gotta dance (and gotta emote and act)” world of the Great White Way. She’s a Broadway baby in the best and whole sense of the phrase.

The “Wicked” star and star of the Broadway musical version of “Nine to Five” is probably best known nationally for her turn as, well, a kind of Broadway baby in the television series “Smash,” which lasted two seasons and centered around the rivalries and tempestuous relationships and maneuverings involved in the making of a Broadway musical. For theater buffs, it was more than just a guilty pleasure, it was a high-dudgeon melodrama with love affairs, betrayals, scheming and battling for big roles on stage and behind the scenes, not to mention lots of singing and dancing production numbers. Hilty was paired with former “American Idol” star Katharine McPhee, competing for the female lead in a show being put together by the likes of Anjelica Huston and Debra Messing.

Hilty was a natural in it—the perfect fit for a dancer and singer—and comedienne– who was hungry for a starring role.

“That was a great experience,” she said. “It gave me a chance to really act, to use all of the gifts you have.”

The Washington state-born star started out wanting to be an opera singer, but “you know, you have to really start early, it’s like you’re just like an Olympic athlete. So, I turned to theater.” She’s a 2004 graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and a recipient of the National Society of Arts and Letters Award for Excellence in Musical Theater.

Straight out of Carnegie Mellon, she auditioned for a part in “Wicked” and got a part as a standby for Glinda, in 2004. She took over the part in 2005 and ended her run in 2006 before reprising the role again when she originated the role in the Los Angeles production in 207.

“I was terrified, originally,” she said. “Kristin Chenowith is kind of the standard for that role.”

Hilty has done guest appearances on television—a memorable role in an episode of “Crime Scene Investigation”—”CSI”— with the resonant title of “Deep Fried and Minty Fresh” as the manager of a fast food restaurant called Choozy’s Chicken. “That,” she said, “was fun.”

But her favorite role was performing as Lorelei Lee, the gold-digging ambitious blonde of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” a role made famous by two American entertainment originals, Carol Channing on stage and Marilyn Monroe in the movie version.

“I absolute love her [Monroe]. She was such a smart, funny and talented woman,” Hilty said. “It was a Encore production, a concert staging in 2012, but I felt so thrilled to be doing that. I’ve seen most of her movies.”

She wowed New York critic Ben Brantley, who wrote that Hilty performed with “a finely graded style that layers filigree comic flourishes over the raw will and stamina of a top flight athlete.” “Ms. Hilty,” Brantley wrote, “sets the tone for a production that locates the athletic, all-American verve in ‘Gentlemen.’ ”

“If I had a dream,” Hilty said. “I would love to do the role in a fully, big-time Broadway production.”

It might happen. Meanwhile, she’s in town to do her second Christmas stint at the Kennedy Center, this time at the Terrace Theater, singing standards, perhaps a song or two from her 2013 solo album “It Happens All the Time”, and Christmas carols, including “Jingle Bells.”

Life moves on. She married musician Brian Gallagher. In September, she gave birth to their daughter Viola Philomena.

“That’s her in the background,” she said during a telephone interview. And indeed, there was the sound of a baby complaining a little, making her presence known.

For Hilty, the song of Viola Philomena sounds like her very own Christmas carol.

Megan Hilty’s “A Kennedy Center Christmas” is at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Saturday, Dec. 13.

Gary Tischler •

George Stevens, Jr., has ended his long reign as producer of the Kennedy Center Honors, the annual star-studded, president-in-residence bash, honoring the nation’s cultural and performance art elites, and the television show that goes with it.

By now, this isn’t news, but many Washington cultural and media remain startled by the way the news was delivered.

Stevens, introduced by Kennedy Center board chairman David Rubenstein and flanked by his son Michael, came out on stage at the beginning of the second act of the Kennedy Center Honors production and said that he would not be returning as producer next year, nor would his son. He said that the chairman had told him he wanted a new producer.

Stevens was entering the last year of a contract and was in negotiation with the board. From the podium, Stevens said, “We accept that this will be our last honors. This is our good night.”

This was the 37th Annual Kennedy Center Honors, at which singers Al Green and Sting, actress and comedienne Lily Tomlin, actor Tom Hanks and ballerina Patricia McBride were honored Dec. 7. Stevens’s announcement came as a shock to the audience, and later this week, to much of Washington.

A longtime Georgetown resident, Stevens is the son of legendary Hollywood director George Stevens, who helmed such classics as “Shane,” “A Place in the Sun,” “Giant” and “The Diary of Anne Frank” as well as “Gunga Din.”

Stevens is a much honored producer, director, playwright (“Thurgood”), and former head of the American Film Institute. Stevens won numerous Emmys for the televised production of the Honors.

Kennedy Center spokesman and communications director John Dow issued a statement from the Kennedy Center which said that “This was the last year on George Stevens, Jr.’s contract and George announced from the stage of the Honors performance on Sunday night that he would be stepping down as producer. the Kennedy Center is enormously grateful for the contributions George and his son Michael have made to the Honors over the years. The Kennedy Center Honors have grown in stature over the past 37 years to become the preeminent recognition of the performing arts in America. With Sunday night’s news, the Kennedy Center will begin a search for an Honors producer that will build upon this strong foundation in the years to come.”

Mary Bird • January 7, 2015

Karen McMullen co-founded Washington Women & Wine 15 years ago to bring active women and more than “a few good men” together monthly to network and enjoy fine food and wine. The group has traveled twice to France and to Northern Italy this past March. On June 23, Robin McKenzie-Smith of Best of Europe Tours and Cruises told guests at a dinner at I Ricchi of his plans for a fourth tour next April to Rome and Tuscany. He said the pace would be “leisurely” with four nights in Montecatini as a base for day trips to explore Tuscany’s treasures. The tempting menu featured a choice of several of I Ricchi’s signature pastas, pared with Italian wines. [gallery ids="101811,139890,139885,139895,139900,139902" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler • January 5, 2015

Ari Roth may no longer be the artistic director of Theater J, but the reactions to his firing by the D.C. Jewish Community Center in mid-December continued all through Hanukkah and Christmastime.

Roth was, according to reports in the Washington Post, fired by Carole Zawatsky, CEO of the JCC, on Dec. 18, with the stated cause being “insubordination.”

Roth had been the artistic director of Theater J for 18 years, years in which he grew the theater—which is a part of the D.C. Jewish Community Center—into a formidable force among Washington theaters, but also nationally as a prominent company presenting Jewish theater.

Theater J and Roth received accolades for the many Jewish-themed and Jewish-authored plays—the Arthur Miller canon, including a dramatic production of “The Price,” starring the late Robert Prosky and two of his sons. The theater found a wide audience throughout the region. Roth encouraged new plays and playwrights, including an original, ground-up musical based on the life of King David, and foraged for plays that centered often on plays with political and issue-oriented themes.

No one questioned Roth’s artistic prowess and his abilities as an artistic leader—even Sawatsky, in the initial burst of information about Roth leaving, said that “Ari Roth has had an incredible 18-year tenure leading Theater J, and we know there will be great opportunities ahead for him. Ari leaves us with a vibrant theater that will continue to thrive.”

Roth, in a statement reported by Post drama critic Peter Marks, made it clear that he was “terminated abruptly.”

In building Theater J’s reputation as an outstanding theater, Roth was often the flashpoint for controversy, especially when dealing with plays that focused on Israel’s political history. One such play was “Return to Haifa,” a play by Israeli playwright Boaz Gaon focusing on the plight a Palestinian family which returned to their old home in Haifa abandoned in the wake of the 1948 War for Independence. The play was performed by the Cameri Theatre of Tel Aviv, a company composed of Israeli and Palestinian actors. At an opening night production in 2011, some older members of the audience complained vocally about the play and its sympathetic treatment of the Palestinian characters.

Another Roth innovation, the Voices from a Changing Middle East festival was sometimes criticized for its political content and was not on the schedule this year. Another controversial play by another Israeli playwright Motti Lerner, “The Admission,” which was about an alleged massacre which occurred in a Palestinian village in 1948, was pared down to a staged reading.

When news came of Roth’s firing, the national artistic community responded quickly.

Playwright Tony Kushner of “Angels in America” fame, whose play “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures” was Theater J’s second production this season, wrote that Roth “was fired because he refused to surrender to censorship.” In all, artistic directors of 60 national theater companies protested the firing in an open letter — including Robert Falls of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Joe Dowling of the Guthrie Theater in Minnesota, and Howard Shalwitz of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre and Michael Kahn of the Washington Shakespeare Company in Washington.

Roth is reportedly organizing planning for a new theater company, which he will lead called the Mosaic, which may begin performing at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street in the fall.

In a letter to the arts community, Zawatsky, in part, wrote, “I want to assure you that DCJCC will continue to support Theater J as a vibrant, creative and provocative outlet for great theater. Our commitment to Theater J is as strong as ever and we will resist efforts to politicize our output.

“Ari’s creative vision—which included significant works of a political nature—were always defended and supported by Theater J and DCJCC. Our commitment to that never wavered. But Ari’s failure to maintain basic professional conduct and standards made it impossible to continue his employee relationship of the DCJCC.”