Performance
All That Jazz, Georgetown
Two Tales of Two Losses, at Arena and Woolly
• September 25, 2013
I cannot think of two plays that might be more different than “Detroit” by Lisa D’Amour and “The Velocity of Autumn” by Eric Coble, both works by relatively new, but definitely rising and shining, playwrights.
“Detroit,” the season opener at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre (through Oct. 6), and “Autumn”, which is the season opener at Arena Stage (through Oct. 20), march to the tune of different drummers and rhythms, with different concerns and ambitions. The productions are physically different and treat the audiences to different views and viewpoints, literally. “Detroit” is, in some ways, a circus in which the elephants and clowns have escaped together, wreaking havoc. “The Velocity of Autumn” is more of a chamber work, a two-character play in which rueful, sometimes bitter-and bitter-sweet rise to the surface to do battle with here-and-now contemporary anxieties and fears.
Different the two plays are, and that’s as it should be, but they are also bold examples of playwrights dealing with the way we live and connect — or not — now. Not so oddly, the two are also often very funny, even if the laughter gives you pause and sours the echo of the last giggle. More importantly, to my mind, both are electric and powerful examples of why—in a world increasingly experienced through the magic filter of a plethora of gadgets and digital toys—we still almost urgently go to the theater, not, God forbid, because it’s good for us, but because it holds up a mirror to life in the hands of gifted artists, playwrights, designers and actors. What happens and how things happen and move in front of us at performances of these plays are every bit as right now as anything we access through the apps on our devices, on our phones, computers and pads.
In “Detroit,” playwright Lisa D’Amour, who is part of PearlDamour, an Obie-award winning interdisciplinary performance company with Katie Pearl, is chronicling, in high-dudgeon, low-comedy, angst-ridden and kinetic fashion, the societal crumblings that have occurred in the wake of a still wounded national economy, particularly those affecting the younger middle class, made up of those who once worked but now are hanging by their fingernails — and of those who completely derailed into drug-filled anarchy.
Which is to say we give you Mary and Ben, who own a house in a slightly decaying suburban development just outside of trembling Detroit, and their new neighbors, the antsy, hyper-ventilating Sharon and Kenny, who moved into a relative’s house next door, after, they say, having met and fallen in love in rehab. Mary and Ben have invited have invited Sharon and Kenny over for a barbecue, a telling little almost obligatory social gathering.
Ben and Mary are in dire straits: she works in a law office, he’s just lost his job at a bank, but says he’s working day and night building a website offering financial advice. Sharon and Kenny are something else again—they have no furniture, and apparently subsist on junk food, but they’re rich in flaky, lightning-like energy and give off a kind of stormy anything-can-happen, half-sexy, half-mordant vibe. They have a kind of freedom—to completely implode, flee, reach out, sing and dance, travel to the forest or to ruin, theirs or anyone else’s. They’re a kind of naked, made-up mystery.
Director John Vreeke has staged the goings-on like a disjointed parade—things fall apart, nobody gets to where they’re going, the clowns are constantly stepping on nails, hurting themselves and each other. Much of this—the clashes between Ben and Mary’s attempts at normalcy with Sharon and Kenny’s almost rock-and-rollish anarchy—is funny, but it’s done against a background, where we –the audience—cannot escape the flying debris. The designers have put two sets of chairs front and back, with the stage—the two back yards and flimsy-appearing homes—in the middle. Every now and then, the houses are flaked and patterned by traveling videos played on their exterior and serenaded by stormy and discordant music.
It’s a comic tragedy in some ways. You can see how the anything-goes, barely contained dance of Sharon and Kenny undoes Ben and Mary, who put up a fight but are drawn to them, nonetheless.
You’ve got a quartet of terrific actors, especially Gabriela Fernandez-Coffey as Sharon, who combines an appealing, puppy-sexy way with the pain of someone being eaten alive by electronic impulses. Danny Gavigan makes a good mate for her—patient, confused, dazed and jumble, while Tim Getman acts the part of a man fraying before our eyes. Emily Townley keeps trying to keep her head above water through all this. It’s like she can handle almost anything except that incoming tidal wave that’s forming not so far away. But then, the struggles of the two couples are on display almost every day in our travels, our news and blogs. Things fall apart in real life. In this play, which seems like a tale told of real life in another country but looks like a familiar street.
Woolly—in its staging, in its environmental lobby works and in all this — continues to be Woolly, amazingly edgy, right here and quite a bit ahead of the game, our forward-looking theater pied piper.
By contrast, “The Velocity of Autumn” seems less problematic. It’s easier to look at the characters, hearts and mind, problems to solve, secrets to reveal. But the more you stay and the longer you listen, the closer it gets to being a risible, long-lasting memento you’ll carry with you.
It sure sounds a little crazy: Alexandra—an elderly woman whose children want to take her out of her brownstone in Brooklyn and put her into a nursing home—resists by threatening to burn down the house with an impressive array of Molotov cocktails. All it takes is the flick of a lighter, which she holds firmly in her hand.
We first see Alexandra sitting snugly in an easy chair in a cluttered living room, the door to the stairs barricaded, the cocktails in evidence, a room full of books and old records. There’s a big window where her son, Chris, can be seen clumsily trying to climb the tree and get in, scaring her and him half to death.
And so it goes. Chris, who’s been absent for years, is on a mission of reasonability, but he doesn’t have a clue what’s really going on. Old secrets, old wounds, older loves and resentments, losses and memory churn through the air like wounded birds who can speak. Chris is a failed artist, whereas his mother was an artist who painted abundantly.
This is material that could quickly and easily turn maudlin and—the critics’ satan sin— sentimental, but it doesn’t. First, because director Molly Smith lets the play—no intermission, 90 minutes—flow along with ease as well as urgency. Second, because Coble is a terrific writer, he treats his character with a combination of tough love, affection and halting respect and honesty.
Third and, probably most importantly, are Stephen Spinella as Chris and Estelle Parsons as Alexandra. Spinella makes rueful humor and a spindly awkward clumsiness sources of charm, just an edge away from panic. Parsons is, as most know, a theater treasure, who was most recently in “August: Osage County,” a terrific gift for actors. She is also remembered for her Oscar-winning role in the film “Bonnie and Clyde.”
Parsons’s Alexandra, raccous, angry, resentful—“I just want to be left alone. I’m good at it.”—could get on your nerves. She’s not warm and fuzzy, but she has a gift that she hoards and treasures, and that’s what it’s all about. It’s about art as well as people. It’s the gift that is in danger, the ravages of lost memory.
Things happen here that happen only in the intimacy of theater. The feelings engendered in our presence make their way into ours, and the words lodge our in memory. In this play, it’s about parents and children, mothers and sons, and some of us remember right then and there.
Some Top Gala Picks: Go to What You Love and Support
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“Do I have to pick just one?” asked Kevin Chaffee, senior editor at Washington Life and senior associate at Qorvis Communications, when asked about his favorite galas and charitable events. Among other editorial duties, Chaffee has covered the Washington social scene for decades, beginning with assignments around Georgetown to the Washington Times and then to Washington Life.
Chaffee looks to events, seasoned with style and creativity. While saying that the opening nights for the Washington National Opera, Washington Symphony, Washington Ballet and other performing arts galas are always high on the list, Chaffee tagged the PEN-Faulkner Gala as a top favorite, which he has attended for many years. “It always has an interesting theme,” he said. “I look to see how the authors run with the one-word theme.” The gala is on Oct. 7.
The Georgetowner’s own social scene correspondent Mary Bird had a few favorites on her mind. “There are so many gala events to attract supporters of every persuasion that it is difficult to single out only a few,” she said. ” The competition is fierce. My personal loves are animals and the arts. Major events that I support — the Washington Humane Society, Sugar and Champagne, Fashion for Paws and the Bark Ball — do not occur in the fall.”
“If I were to single out a few for the season just launched, I would start with the Harman Center for the Arts, on Oct. 6,” Bird said. “This year, Elizabeth McGovern will accept the William Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre and the Sidney Harman Award for Philanthropy in the Arts will be presented to KPMG, LLP. The evening begins with a reception and performance at Sidney Harman Hall after which guests are escorted to the National Building Museum for dinner and dancing.”
Bird’s other favorites include: Unmask the Night, “a grande masquerade soirée,” presented by the Jeté Society and the Women’s Committee of the Washington Ballet on Oct. 26; the 25th Arts for the Aging Benefit Gala on Nov. 5; and a longtime care, Knock Out Abuse, on Nov. 14.
As for yours truly, choosing what to cover is mostly an editorial choice for our readers. I agree with what my colleagues said. I also enjoy events that focus on the sciences and the military. For me, National Geographic Gala this year knocked it out of the park. The upcoming Georgetown Gala is a must: fun with the neighbors. Also, S&R’s Night Nouveau should prove interesting. Be that as it may, go to what you love. [gallery ids="101466,152950" nav="thumbs"]
Fusion at the Art Museum of the Americas
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Walking through “Fusion,” the recent exhibit of modern Latin American paintings at the Art Museum of the Americas, art historian and exhibit curator Adriana Ospina spoke to me about rice.
“In the United States, Cuba and South America, we consume a lot of it,” she said. “Rice in the Americas grew through the influence of Asian immigration in the 19th and twentieth centuries, and now it is just a part of us. No one talks about it, but that cultural influence is always present.”
After centuries of human migration throughout the world, history has long proven that the cross-pollination of coinciding cultures is basically inevitable. When two groups come together, they react by forming a new group built from their combined history and experience. Call it symbiosis, call it obvious, call it anything, but this occurrence is in many ways the engine behind a profusion of anthropological and historical knowledge.
Perhaps most obviously apparent in language, food and religion, this active cultural evolution bubbles beneath the surface of our everyday lives. There are infinite examples around the world, from the consumption of Indian tea in England, to the ever broadening and diversifying reach of the Catholic Church in South America, to the heavy influence of European justice systems on the United States Constitution.
With a focus on Latin American art during the late nineteenth and early 20th centuries, Fusion traces Asian migration to the Americas through art, generating a dialogue on cultural diversity by exploring its resonating effects on specific artists and their ancestors who relocated to the Americas from Japan, China, India and Indonesia. The exhibit enhances our perception of the complex and interwoven tapestry of modern Latin American and Caribbean societies, highlighting the exchange of ideas that this multiculturalism has generated.
In addition to (and aside from) the ambition of its social and cultural mission, it also functions strikingly as an exhibit based purely on the merit of its artistry. An audience can walk through admiring the paintings for their sheer aesthetic splendor, or take away a broader message of the rich and diverse societies of the Americas.
What is most interesting about the paintings on display in the exhibit is perhaps their conspicuous absence of political or social agenda. Many of these paintings are collegial equals of the more prominently known work of their day. The expansive canvases of Manabu Mabe (1924 – 1997), a renowned Japanese-born Brazilian painter, are truly on par with the groundbreaking work of the 1950s and ’60s. His paintings evoke the bravura brushwork of Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and even Frank Auerbach, (with a surrealist tang of Dali or Miro), but with a unique expression that weaves a fluid and graceful line amid bursts of color and monochromatic backgrounds, which can be traced to Mabe’s practice of Japanese calligraphy.
Mabe, like many great artists (as a few mentioned above), was an immigrant, whose clash with multiple cultural institutions seems to have caused a creative eruption born from a natural inclination to codify environments and experiences. The difference is that Mabe is foremost considered as a Latin American artist in the European tradition, as opposed to an “artist,” unburdened by a genealogical addendum.
As Michele Greet, a Ph.D. in Modern Latin American Art, writes, “The tendency… has been to isolate Latin America as a geo-political entity in the conception of exhibitions, university courses, and scholarly texts… Studies of Latin American art thus tend to explain images produced in this region as motivated by a desire to promote an ‘authentic’ national or cultural identity and avoid in-depth consideration of migration, mixed racial heritage, and global interchange…”
She goes on to write that our understanding of this art is a “part of a global network of artists and ideas, rather than an isolated development,” for that is precisely what art in the modern era is. On the whole, modern art is not an overtly political vessel. It is a venue for exploration, analysis and interpretation that simultaneously sets us apart and brings us together. A work of art does not have to display a political message in order to incite cultural sentiment or political debate.
Communicating this idea so effectively is where Fusion ultimately succeeds. From the influence of Indonesian heritage on Surinamese-born artist Soeki Irodikromo (b. 1945), whose painting of an Indonesian dragon incorporates local motifs of the Surinamese jungle, to the faint connotation of Chinese ancestral veneration in the surreal lithographs of Cuban-born artist Wilfredo Lam (1902 – 1982), this exhibit shows us how our multifaceted pasts effect us as an undercurrent, influencing our lives without taking precedent over our personal progress and collective cultural evolution.
The Organization of American States, the parent organization of the AMA, has long upheld their mission to implement democracy, development, human rights and freedom of expression throughout the Americas, promoting the benefits of immigration and offering positive, enriching examples through community outreach, political discourse and, with the AMA, through art.
“Fusion,” as much as an art exhibit can, fulfills this mission.
And like the spread of rice throughout the Americas by way of Japan, most of us can agree that it is quite a good thing. [gallery ids="101461,152993" nav="thumbs"]
D.C.’s Webster Checks Out the Emmys
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With a good amount of shows set in Washington, D.C., although not filmed here, Elizabeth Webster of the District Council paid her own way to the 65th Primetime Emmys Sept. 22 in Los Angeles. Working on Councilman Vincent Orange’s team to promote film production jobs in D.C., Webster met with her Hollywood friends to attend the big show. “Veep,” “Homeland,” “House of Cards” and “Kennedy Center Honors” grabbed some Emmys Sunday night. [gallery ids="101465,152959,152958,152953" nav="thumbs"]
Getting Ready for the Meridian Ball, Global Summit
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Committee members gathered Sept. 10 at Meridian House in anticipation of Meridian’s daylong summit and big ball on Oct. 18. The Global Leadership Summit is part of the Meridian-Gallup Global Leadership Series, which examines the state of global leadership at the global and national levels and discusses factors driving public opinion of U.S. leadership in more than 160 countries. The Global Leadership Summit will culminate at the 45th Annual Meridian Ball Oct. 18 at Meridian House. [gallery ids="101463,152986,152987,152981" nav="thumbs"]
Komen ‘Honoring the Promise’ and Sen. Ted Kennedy
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The Susan G. Komen Honoring the Promise Gala got the Kennedy Center pulsing pink Sept. 20 as it honored Victoria Reggie Kennedy, who accepted the Betty Ford Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously for her husband, Sen. Ted Kennedy, a lifelong proponent of universal health care for cancer victims. (Kennedy died of brain cancer in 2009. His son, Ted Jr., had his leg amputated as a 12-year-old from bone cancer. His daughter, Kara, died of a heart attack two years ago and fought lung cancer.) Notables included Sen. Patrick Leahy, Rep. John Dingell, Rep. Aaron Schock, Ray LaHood as well as Susan Ford Bales, Olympian Dorothy Hamill, Redskins wide receiver Josh Morgan, actress Fran Dresher and Susan G. Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker. Entertainment included Kool & The Gang.
McLean Drama Company Presents a 10-minute Play Festival in D.C.
• September 23, 2013
Each year, the McLean Drama Company sponsors a 10-Minute Play Contest. The first-, second- and third-place winners have their plays presented by the drama group at a selected venue. This year’s MDC 10-Minute Play Festival features national contest winners’ plays that are being performed in a staged reading at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Melton Rehearsal Hall, 641 D St., NW. Opening night is 8 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 21. Sunday matinee is at 3 p.m., followed by a “talk-back” with the audience, players and playwrights. Ticket price: pay what you can.
Rachael Bail, founder and president of the McLean Drama Company, is a playwright, producer and journalist. She is a former Voice of America editor and Supreme Court correspondent, who now lives in Washington, D.C., and originally began the drama company in McLean, Va., but has moved the staged readings to Washington. Renana Fox, also of D.C., is the director, and Ely Lamonica is artistic director.
MDC’s mission is to present and inspire dramatic writing and new American plays, by playwrights from Northern Virginia, the Greater Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area and nationwide. In the past, MDC has performed at the Capital Fringe Festival and the 450 seat Alden Theatre in McLean, Va.
This year’s winning plays are: the first prize winner, “The Brazilian Dilemma” by William Fowkes, a comedy about relationships; second prize winner “Peppered Precinct,” the story of sexual harassment in a police department, by Cynthia Morrison and “Nik & Ida,” scientist Nikola Tesla against the world, by Jerome Coopersmith.
This is MDC’s first experiment with “Pay What You Can” admission.
For more information: www.mcleandramacompany.org.
View our photos of the winning plays taken during rehearsal by clicking on the photo icons below. [gallery ids="101440,153762,153765,153756,153752" nav="thumbs"]
Book Hill Galleries of Georgetown Host Fall Season Art Kick-Off
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Up on Wisconsin Avenue, the galleries of Book Hill celebrate the autumnal equinox and open their doors to art lovers.
‘Ruffception’ Welcomes Canine Ambassador Edie
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Washington’s Fairmont welcomed Fairmont Pittsburgh’s Canine Ambassador Edie to a “Ruffception” on Aug. 15, where the pearl bedecked canine held court with her hotel’s P.R. manager Julie Abramovic. After training as an assistant dog, Edie’s outgoing personality pinpointed her for the hospitality industry where she greets hotel guests with style. She chose a monogramed scarf for her next day appearance at the hotel’s midday 4th Annual Sustainability Fair. Exhibitors showcased the eco-efforts of many local organizations as well as the hotel’s own green program with guests enjoying treats from the Fairmont’s garden and rooftop beehives.
[gallery ids="101427,154665,154667,154660,154651,154656" nav="thumbs"]
Book Hill Galleries of Georgetown Host Fall Season Art Kick-OffSeptember 19, 2013
• September 19, 2013
The Georgetown galleries on Book Hill are one of the few true gallery clusters in the city. Along a few blocks of Wisconsin Avenue, audiences are surrounded by art, free to walk into galleries that call to them from their vibrant window displays. This group of galleries offers us a great variety of works to explore, from renowned glasswork to classic landscapes and the contemporary and avant-garde.
This Friday, Sept. 20, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., each of the six galleries will launch a fine art exhibit and host an evening stroll, welcoming the breezy autumn art season with the Fall Season Art Kick-off. Here?s a look at what?s happening on Book Hill. For more information on the Georgetown Galleries on Book Hill visit www.GeorgetownGalleries.com
**Heiner Contemporary**
Heiner Contemporary will present ?Rachel Farbiarz: Take Me With You,? an exhibition featuring new drawing, collage and installation by the DC-based artist. The exhibit, which will be on view through November 9, reflects Farbiarz?s interest in the personal, idiosyncratic resonances that course through shared public, historical and political events. Using various media, she explores subjects including formal apologies, migration, war and burial and investigates how the emotional reverberations of words, objects and ideas linger and mutate throughout generations. For more information visit www.HeinerContemporary.com
**Susan Calloway Fine Arts**
An outdoorsman who explored the wilderness in search of inspiration, Larry Chappelear (1945-2011) created paintings as a visual diary of his experiences. His landscape paintings contain intimate enclosures of nature and accomplish what many landscape painters before him have sought to do: achieve a compositional balance among form and open space, color and light. A collection of landscape and abstract works by Chappelear will be featured in the exhibition, ?Dynamic Spaces,? through October 19. For more information visit www.CallowayArt.com
**Maurine Littleton Gallery**
Maurine Littleton Gallery will host ?Glass Sculptures & Vitreographs,? an exhibition featuring three-dimensional glass works and prints by artists Dale Chihuly, Erwin Eisch, Richard Jolley, Harvey K. Littleton, and Therman Statom, through October 19. Vitreography is a printmaking process that uses glass plates instead of traditional materials such as metal, wood, or stone. Developed in the mid-1970s by Studio Glass Movement founder Harvey Littleton, vitreography has been opened up to a wide range of possibilities by artists working in sculpture, painting, and printmaking. Over one hundred artists, including those featured in this exhibition, have created more than seven hundred print editions at Littleton Studios. ?Glass Sculptures & Vitreographs? offers a unique opportunity to view sculptures and prints by master glass artists side by side, giving insight into their individual creative processes. For more information visit www.LittletonGallery.com.
**Addison/Ripley Fine Arts**
Addison/Ripley Fine Arts will feature ?John Borden Evans: Solitude,? an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper that explore the old farmhouses and surrounding rural area of North Garden, Virginia. Evans depicts rural landscapes and animals in his thickly painted works, creating texture through build up and scrape away techniques. Through October 26. For more information visit www.AddisonRipleyFineArt.com
**Neptune Fine Art**
Neptune Fine Art will host ?Objects of Desire? through October 26, an exhibit that celebrates contemporary artists and the extraordinary work they create. Featuring ten established artists, the exhibit is a tantalizing glimpse into the work of these respected artisans: William Adair, Raya Bodnarchuk, Jeff Chyatte, Will Clift, Tazuko Ichikawa, Elaine Langerman, Laurel Lukaszewski, Jimmy Miracle, Wendy Ross and Foon Sham. The exhibited works delve into a wide variety of media, reflecting each artist?s finely honed talent, producing exquisite sculpture, editions and drawings. Sculptures in steel, bronze, aluminum, wood, and wax; porcelain wall reliefs, and intricate silver point drawings combine to fill the gallery. Come by for a chance to meet the artists. For more information visit www.NeptuneFineArt.com.
**Robert Brown Gallery**
Robert Brown Gallery will exhibit the photographs of Roger Ballen, an award winning photographer who has been shooting in black and white film for nearly fifty years. Part of the last generation that grew up with the media, Ballen sees black and white as a very minimalist art form and unique from color photography in that it ?does not pretend to mimic the world in a manner similar to the way the human eye might perceive. Black and white is essentially an abstract way to interpret and transform what one might refer to as reality.? For more information visit www.RobertBrownGallery.com.
