Arts & Society

Mary Bird • August 15, 2013

Moulin Rouge was the theme of Knock Out Abuse’s Nov. 1 gala at the Ritz-Carlton. The sell-out event, founded by Cheryl Masri and Jill Sorensen as a counterpart to Fight Night, was chaired by Charrisse Jackson-Jordan and Michelle Schoenfeld. This year, it raised more than $600,000 to benefit victims of domestic violence. WUSA9’s Andrea Roane emceed the evening as more than 750 prominent women heard author, model and women’s health advocate Carré Otis speak of her personal experience with abuse. Once the gentlemen of Fight Night joined the ladies, the dance floor jumped to hip-hop star Doug E. Fresh. [gallery ids="101058,137002,136996,136990,136982,137016,136976,137021,137026,136969,137031,137008" nav="thumbs"]

Ari Post •

There is an exacting notion of displacement that permeates the current work of artist Taryn Simon, on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art through Feb. 24 of next year. At its essence, A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I – XVIII is a tapestry of 18 fractured and unresolved stories of small familial communities all over the world. This is not an easy show to deal with. It is psychologically unsettling, often times disturbing, and frankly cold, its presentation rigid, systematic. However, the experience is unlike anything else on display in Washington.

The show asks us to deal with pasts and realities that are not our own in a way that is neither fictional nor specifically historical. It tests our limits of empathy and estrangement, ultimately exposing our own interpersonal narratives in how we cope with and perceive these lives we will never know but instinctively judge.

Simon, whose past documentary work has included a series on wrongly convicted prisoners (“The Innocents”) and another on items detained at U.S. customs and post offices (“Contraband”), is fascinated by the concept of bloodlines. For A Living Man, she spent four years traveling the world, researching, cataloguing, determining an order for, and finally photographing the ascendants and descendants of eighteen individuals and their family trees. She categorized her findings into 18 “chapters,” with each corresponding to a single bloodline.

They are each displayed as a panel that includes a grid of portraits of the family unit, a written statement about the bloodline’s significance, and supporting photographs acting as narrative elements to the stories she came across in her research. Each includes a numbered key with biographical information about each subject who sat for her.

In Chapter I of the project, from which the title of the series takes its name, Simon focuses on the story of a man and three of his living family members in India who died—at least as reported by their local government. Accordingly, they are listed as legally dead in the local registry, which was done to deny them any hereditary transfer of land.

Another chapter documents Latif Yahia, an Iraqi citizen who was forced to become the body double of Uday Hussein, the psychopathic son of Saddam Hussein. Simon tells the story of Yahia’s facial reconstruction surgeries and of the threats he received upon his family when he initially refused to go along with the plan. In a frame on the photographic evidence page sits a gold-plated Iraqi AK-47 and sniper rifle, both seized by the Americans when storming Uday’s palace. In a rare, if odd, moment of comical brevity, Yahia does impersonations of Uday.

Chapter XVII, which documents a group of displaced children from Ukranian orphanages, is an interesting sample. The lack of a clear bloodline is actually a defining factor. The orphanages for children between the ages of six and 16 are often just a temporary holdover before the children are released and immediately and targeted for human trafficking, prostitution and child pornography. The images show children dressed in clothing that is surprisingly nice but rarely well fit (as they are donated).

No one is smiling in any of these portraits. At first glance from across the room, this could be an entomological display—hundreds of moths and butterflies in a glass case.

“The works are designed to imply patterns and codes and systems, and to imagine the collision of order and disorder,” says Simon, “representing something that came before, that’s happening now and will happen again.”

Up close, Simon’s subjects indeed look like they were posing for a much more archaic portrait—say, for instance, a 17th-century oil painting. Like the curious, young Infanta Margarita in Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas, perfectly still and wary of the artist who is capturing her likeness, Simon’s subjects face the camera, arms down, unflinching and without emotion save for the corrosion of despair, pride, resentment, fear or whatever default setting that has come to define their existence.

Ultimately, as the work suspends in time these slow and unrelenting human dramas, what the audience is left with is an ominous sense of cyclicality: are these currents of history that its players are inevitably caught in, just ripples fol- lowing in the wake of their past? And will their next generations evolve, or are they crashing against the shore only to get pulled back out to sea?

Without asserting an opinion on the wide array of social and political discord rampant through these visual bloodlines, Simon packs a brass-knuckled punch to the emotional gut of her audience. The displacement lies in the external forces of governance, religion territory, power and luck that play out during the lives of every individual, clashing against internal forces of psychological and physical inheritance.

“The numbing persistence of birth and death and the accumulation of all the stories between—are all of these stories and lives just piling up, or is something unfolding?” Simon asks. “There is no conclusion or overarching declaration, it’s about the difficulty and understanding of what we’re all doing here and what it all leads to.”

Gary Tischler •

Every year the holiday season seems to stretch a little further and longer. In these pages, we will celebrate the season with celebrations of performance over the holidays.

Usually, that means trumpets, nutcrackers, Scrooges, elves, Santa Claus, and Christmas or seasonal music, concerts that celebrate the holidays, and concerts that occur during the holidays, plays that are about the holidays and plays that are not, but seem to indicate a celebrate a celebratory or musical spirit.

We give not all, but some, of the traditional, best and most eclectic choices folks can have on Washington stages and venues. Dancing and singing and the playing of music will be involved, and familiar characters—and some not—will be heard from and familiar music will be played, as well as some music less familiar but by familiar stars in the music world.

So here we go:

Pick a Nutcracker, Any Nutcracker
There are numerous performances of “The Nutcracker” to be seen in the Washington area over the holidays: at the Puppet Theatre, in Glen Echo, for instance, or at the Kennedy Center, or the Moscow Balles’s Great Russian Nutcracker version at the Music Center at Strathmore or George Mason University, or Nutcracker in a Shell at Broad Run High School, or at the Thomas Jefferson Community Theatre in Arlington, or the Ernest Community Cultural Center Theater in Annandale, the Franklin Park Performing Arts Center in Purcelville, Battlefield High School in Haymarket, George Mason High School in Falls Church, the Maryland Youth Ballet in Rockville, and at the Northern Virginia Community College and many, many more, but . . .

There will always be the Washington Ballet’s now an annual D.C. holiday presen- tation with George Washington, as the hero and George III as the Rat King. Every year, Tchaikovsky’s music seems to fit perfectly with the Revolutionary War. The ballet, beautiful and intact, is at the historic Warner Theatre Nov. 30 through Dec. 23 and at THEARC Theatre Nov. 24 to 28. Maki Onuki, a Washington Ballet star and favorite stars as the sugar plum fairy.

‘Hansel and Gretel’ for the Washington Opera
Engelbert Humperdinck’s classic chil- dren’s opera “Hansel and Gretel” begins a new tradition for the very busy Washington Opera Company Dec. 21 to 23 in the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. The family opera stars current stars and alumni of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and is directed by David Grately, with the WNO Orchestra conducted by Michael Rossi. Sarah Mesko and Julia Mintzer star as Hansel and Emily Albrink and Shantelle Przybylo star as Gretel.

More Holiday Alleluias At the Kennedy Center
One of many Messiah’s being performed over the holidays will be the National Symphony’s in the Concert Hall Dec. 20 to 23 with guest con- ductor Rolf Beck conducting soprano Katherine Whyte, countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, tenor Sunnyboy Vincent Dladla, and bass-baritone Panajotis Iconomou. There will also be a Messiah Sing-Along in the Concert Hall Dec. 23.

Ballet West will bring its version of “The Nutcracker” Dec. 5-9 at the Opera House.

The traditional “Merry Tuba Christmas!” will be at the Millennium Stage Dec. 13, while the NSO Pops will perform its “Happy Holiday” concert in the Concert Hall Dec. 13 to 16.

In a Millennium Stage (Free) Christmas tradition, there’s the All-Star Christmas Day Jazz Jam Dec. 25.

But that’s not all:

The NSO Pops Orchestra will feature Megan Hilty, Broadway star and star of the hit show “Smash” on television in “Luck Be A Lady: Megan Hilty Sings Sinatra and More” Nov. 23 and 24, while Linda Lavin is in the “Barbara Cook’s Spotlight” series Nov. 16.

There’s also lots of music in theater at the Kennedy Center:

“Jekyll & Hyde,” a musical, will hit the Opera House Nov. 20 through 25, starring Constantine Maroulis and Deborah Cox.

The much anticipated “Million Dollar Quartet,” the Tony Award-winning musical features characters called Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lew Lewis in the Eisenhower Theatre, Dec. 18 through Jan. 6

But the most essential Christmas show of all is “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” based on the classic holiday movie that featured the likes of Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, Dec. 11 through Jan. 6 in the Opera House

Music Center at Strathmore
Mark O’Connor: An Appalachian Christmas, Dec. 13 American folk, classic Christmas.

Cathedral Choral Society: A Dickens Christmas—a staging of Scrooge with chorus, brass and madrigal ensemble, Dec. 17.

The Washington Chorus: A Candlelight Christmas, Dec. 21

The Brian Setzer Orchestra: Christmas Rocks Extravaganza. Rocking around the Xmas tree, Dec. 4.

Dave Koz and Friends: Christmas Tour, Dec. 3, with David Benoit, Javier Colon, Sheila E and others.

National Philharmonic: Handel’s “Messiah,” Dec. 8.

Holiday Music by the Stocking-full
Family Christmas Concert Series— The Georgetown Concert Series presents the American Boychoir in a family Christmas concert at St. John’s Episcopal Church Dec. 2 at 5 p.m. American Boychoir is considered America’s premier concert boys’ choir.

Tudor Nights—The annual holiday celebration will be held at historic Tudor Place, Dec. 6, between 6 and 8 p.m. Spiced ginger cocktail on hand.

A Celtic Christmas—The Barnes and Hampton Celtic Concert will be featured in the Dumbarton Concert Sesaon Concerts by Candlelight Series, Dec. 1, 2, 8 and 9.

The Embassy Series—Luxembourg at Holiday—A highlight of the series, this annual holiday event at the Embassy of Luxembourg has been expanded to three evenings, Dec. 6, 7 and 8, and will feature the Thomas Circle Singers, Marc Weydert on Baroque trumpet, Maurice Clemont on piano, baritone Jerome Barry, and George Peachy on piano in a celebration of mostly baroque music. Deluxe buffet dinner, refreshments, champagne and elegance.

Washington National Cathedral—The WNC will have its Christmas Pageant on Dec. 22, Carols By Candlelight Dec. 23 and 24, the Festival of the Holy Eucharist Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, its annual Creche Exhibit, performances of Handel’s “Messiah” Dec. 7, 8 and 9, a “Joy of Christmas” concert Dec. 15.

The Christmas Revels—The 30th annual production and community celebration of the Winter Solstice will be performed at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium, Dec. 8, 9, 14, 15 and 16.

Children’s music superstars the Laurie Berner Band will perform a special holiday concert at Lisner Auditorium Nov. 18.

Gay Men’s Chorus—The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington will presenst its “Winter Nights” holiday concert Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 with the Virginia Bronze handbell ensemble at Lisner Auditorium.

Washington Performing Arts Society— Yo-Yo Ma performs solo cello pieces by Bach, Turkish composer Ahmet Adnan Saygun, with bluegrass violinist Mark O’Connor and George Crumb at the Kennedy Center, Dec. 3, Concert Hall.

The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela is at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Dec. 4, and will play Mexican compose Carlos Chavez’s “Sinfonia India” with conduc tor Gustavo Dudamel.

Theater
Shakespeare Theatre Company— It’s hard to think of a play not about Christmas more festive than
Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” This production of magic, mistaken lovers, groundlings and kings and queens and a donkey’s head, is directed by the ever-surprising Ethan McSweeny, Nov. 15 through Dec. 30, in the Sidney Harman Hall.

Arena Stage—Almost as festive is “My Fair Lady”, the Lerner and Lowe music based on Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, staged and imagined anew by Molly Smith, and starring Manna Nichols, Benedict Campbell and Nicholas Rodriguez. Through Jan. 6.

Signature Theater—The big Michael Bennett hit “Dreamgirls” gets the Signature Theatre Treatment through Jan. 6.

Les Miserables—Just in time for the movie version is the 25th new anniversary production of Cameron McIntosh musical version of Victor Hugo’s classic novel of revenge justice, revolution, and romance. At the National Theatre Dec. 12 to 30.

Cinderella at Olney—Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “Cinderella” is being staged at the Olney Theatre through Dec. 30.

Round House Theatre—“Young Robin Hood”, a world premiere production by Jon Klein will run Nov. 28 through Dec. 30, a rousing, swashbuckling new adventure version of the old Hollywood-and-Nottingham legend

Adventure Theatre—“A Little House Christmas” Nov. 16 through Dec. 31, based on the popular Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books, directed by Serge Seiden.

Imagination Stage—“Seussical,” the smash Broadway hit about Dr. Seuss and his many characters will be staged at the Lerner Family Theatre in Bethesda through Jan. 6.

Scrooges Galore
At Ford’s Theater, its production of “A Christmas Carol” is a popular tradition, and this year once again features D.C. acting great Ed Gero as Scrooge, with Michael Baron directing, Nov. 16 through Dec. 30.

Olney Theatre will do “A Christmas Carol” (A Ghost Story of Christmas) adapted and performed by Paul Morella, Nov. 30 through Dec. 30.

The Keegan Theatre on Church Street in Dupont Circle will feature “An Irish Carol” beginning Dec. 15. [gallery ids="101059,137045,137024,137039,137030,137036" nav="thumbs"]

Jade Floyd •

Fair Chance’s 2012 Butterfly Bash on Oct. 19 supported the organization’s efforts to create opportunities for low-income DC children and youth. The Butterfly Bash revenues will allow Fair Chance to help speed up and build up 10 youth-serving organizations in the coming year with 350 hours of coaching and support. Supported by honorary chairs, Jean-Marie and Raul Fernandez, a host committee of 160 community members, and more than 35 corporate sponsors, this year’s Butterfly Bash raised more than $325,000 making is the largest in Fair Chance’s 10-year history. [gallery ids="101038,136256" nav="thumbs"]

Nico Dodd •

This Halloween, Friends of Rose Park hosted its annual Pumpkin Fest. This year’s festival was the biggest ever, according to Friends of Rose Park president David Dunning. Children dressed as animals, ghouls and superheroes decorated cookies and took part in two parades around the park. The event coincided with the final farmer’s market of this year. The Rose Park farmer’s market will return in May 2013. [gallery ids="101045,136345,136338,136360,136330,136365,136370,136323,136375,136353" nav="thumbs"]

Adra Williams •

Andre Wells’ annual Costume Gala, “Come and Play” never ceases to top the year before. 2012’s costume gala, held at Decatur House on Lafayette Square was action packed. Amazing performance by Chelsea Green and The Green Project set the energetic tone of evening and sent guests going wild! Lavish decor, delectable buffets by, photo booths, the fabulous DJ Tye and to top it off, a surprise performance by a marching band!! [gallery ids="101037,136259,136243,136255,136250" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

The 2012 Georgetown Gala, “Putting on the Glitz,” and put on by the Citizens Association of Georgetown, returned to the Russian Embassy Oct. 26, with vodka, caviar, champagne, a dinner buffet and a live auction — and, of course, dancing and more dancing, this time to the tunes of the Kool Kats. Hundreds of residents, business leaders and politicans were on hand to honor Pamela and Richard deC. Hinds for their work on historic preservation and public safety.

Gala Co-Chairs were Nancy Taylor Bubes, Michele Evans and Patrice Miller. Sponsors included “community pillars,” Long & Foster, Exclusive Affiliate of Christie’s International, Vornado Realty Trust & Angelo Gordon & Co. on behalf of the Shops at Georgetown Park, along with M.C. Dean Inc., MRP Realty, Washington Fine Properties (Nancy Taylor Bubes), Western Development Corporation, EagleBank and The Georgetowner.

Unlike last year, Mayor Vincent Gray could not stay for the dancing — there was a hurricane coming, after all. [gallery ids="101036,136226,136238,136219,136242,136213,136247,136206,136253,136232" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

The Millennium Stage Series at the Kennedy Center since its inception has been a venue for the surprising, the new, the varied and diverse. On Monday, Oct. 22, 6 p.m., that will be especially true and special when Laurie Rubin takes the stage.

The young, heralded mezzo-soprano brings her astonishing voice and sharp, powerful insights to the event, sharing excerpts from her memoir “Do You Dream in Color? Insights from a Girl Without Sight” (Seven Stories Press, to be published Oct. 23), telling her story in effect, and singing excerpts from a recent album which is also entitled “Do You Dream In Color?” along with Broadway and opera favorites. She will be accompanied by pianist/clarinetist Jenny Taira.

The question is a fairly recent one, but it’s a critical one for Rubin. In a phone interview, we had asked, almost naturally, whether or how she dreams. “I can’t see anything, specific colors,” she answered. “But I can see shapes. I can see light, and, of course, I hear. Recently, I had a dream that I was talking with my mother, but my mother’s voice was not hers. Strange. But yes, I dream.”

YouTube is one of those places on the Internet where gifted people naturally are drawn in, showcased, illuminated and in Rubin’s case there’s a tape and interview that showcases her voice, her slender, attractive looks, the emotion and ranginess of her mezzo tones. Consider the first lines of the song, “Do You Dream in Color,” and hear a phrase so loaded with emotion, a phrase she seems to take apart letter by letter, consonant by consonant, vowel by vowel. The composition is by Bruce Adolphe, the poem, the words, the lyrics are by Rubin, sparked by a question from a child:

“Do you dream in color? She asks/watching me apply my makeup/her question gives me pause/as I fumble in my bag/for that perfect shade of purple.”

“I dream what I experience,” she tells the child in the poem. “I dream the smell of flowers, the taste of chocolate.”

The subconscious seeing or not is a powerful motivational tool. It’s always with you. “When I think of things be it chocolate which is a major weakness of mine or anything else, I think in musical terms, like chocolate as a musical note.”

Raised in California, Rubin was diagnosed as being blind very early. From the beginning, however, the state of being blind seemed more of a challenge as opposed to a wall you couldn’t get around for her. “I had a gift, a voice,” she said. “But early on, in spite of all the help from your parents, your teachers, the encouragement, you do feel isolated. I think that’s the key difficulty, not what you can or can’t do. I can ski. I design jewelry. I am a bona-fide shopaholic. I navigated the streets of New York with my guide dog Mark. I read. But the difference, when I was younger, always remained. You felt outside. In high school, friends were into or sang pop music. I loved classical music from the start. That sort of thing.”

She speaks at a great distance from Hawaii, where she lives now pretty much like she writes. There’s a musicality to her voice that is rich with range and energy. She lets you into her imagination. She’s direct and open, not like a book, but like a song that you react to. Her writing moves fast—she’s telling the stories of her life—at Oberlin, at Yale in music studies, where—even though she has operatic ambitions—she was in the end not cast for parts because others were afraid she could not find her way around a stage.

Blindness isn’t always obvious. It’s certainly not an impediment to singing and can be essentially enriching because other senses are emboldened, heightened. “That adds something to how I sing, certainly,” Rubin said. And that’s been noticed. The New York Times chief classical music critic Anthony Tommasini wrote that she has “compelling artistry” and “communicative power” with a voice that displays “earthy, rich and poignant qualities.” Rubin has been praised and supported in her concert work and stage work as well as recordings by the likes of opera legend Frederica von Stade and singer-song writer Kenny Loggins. The album marks the world debut of “Do You Dream in Color?” Rubin has recorded “Faith in Spring” with Graham Johnson and David Wilkinson on the Opera Omnia label, and she made her solo recital debuts at Wigmore Hall in London as well as at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

There’s a more prosaic but no less moving encounter on YouTube in which Rubin sings “You Lift Me Up” at the Israel Guide Dog Center, bringing her long-time service dog Mark on stage on the day of his retirement. “He has been with me for a long time, my friend,” she said. Naturally, we talk about dogs, how a replacement standard poodle “freaked out” in the city, about a new pet, about the patient qualities and intelligence of Mark. On the phone, we’re talking about qualities of blindness, about colors, sound, music. Phones take away what you think you know, talking like this, and you find a way to see each other in the talking.

Robert Devaney •

Maybe it is because the Meridian International Center encourages global dialogue and international understanding; maybe it is because it is housed in an old, welcoming mansion on a hill on 16th Street. The Meridian Ball, the 44th on Oct. 12, never fails to delight and bring people together. After the dinners at embassies and in the mansion, crowds met for dancing and catching up, D.C.-style, even as some listened to the Nationals’ final game. Inside, Peter Duchin led his band to quieter fare which also included some Lady Gaga. Outside in the dance tent, DJ Pitch One spun some disco, hip hop tunes as well as the latest — getting upright Washingtonians to do it “gangnam-style.” And congrats to Ashley Taylor Bronczek, who was jetting off on her honeymoon the next morning. [gallery ids="101023,135815,135775,135809,135804,135783,135798,135792" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

Diana Bulger gathered her media savvy pals for a dishy luncheon in the Fairmont Hotel’s Colonnade room on Sept. 21. Regional vice president and general Manager Mark Andrew called the guests “the voice of our industry,” not difficult while feasting on Maine lobster mac & cheese. Tasked to bring a media scoop, some were juicier than others. JW Marriott’s Mark Indre shared the happy news of his recent union to long term partner and pastry guru Jeff Shorter. Barbara Bahny gave a heads up for the Willard InterContinental’s upcoming musical programs for the holidays. I suggest consulting future tabloids for other tidbits. [gallery ids="102484,120311,120293,120316,120330,120302,120323" nav="thumbs"]