Arts & Society

Georgetowner • April 11, 2014

Washington dance patrons and Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company members gathered at Cyril Brenac’s Bistrot Lepic in Georgetown on Apr. 1 for a fundraising wine-tasting honoring the company’s history-making residency at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Burgess is the first-ever choreographer in residence at the museum, where his portrait currently hangs alongside dance pioneers such as Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan, and debuted the piece “Homage,” inspired by the “Dancing the Dream” exhibition there in November last year. Burgess is premiering his newest work, performing two shows at the National Portrait Gallery’s Kogod Courtyard, on Saturday Apr. 19 at 1:00 and 2:30 PM.

Georgetowner •

More than 400 women gathered at the Four Seasons on April 1 for the Ninth Annual Women & Wine, benefitting the Nina Hyde Center for Breast Cancer Research at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. The women-only event raised a record $259,000. Claudine Isaacs, M.D., and Shawna Willey, M.D., presented updates on the latest breakthroughs in breast cancer research and treatment, followed by a question-and-answer session. The evening included a cocktail hour with silent auction and dinner, after which emcee Greta Kreuz of WJLA-TV presented the 2014 Spirit of Life Award to Karen M. Gifuni as a person who exemplifies character and leadership in promoting breast cancer research and awareness.

Georgetowner •

NMWA Women’s Committee President Fran Usher was delighted that past president Cyd Everett arranged for four artists who are committee members to discuss their work at a special presentation at the museum on April 3, followed by a buffet luncheon on the mezzanine. Clarissa Bonde described her precise botanical works as “both a science and an art.” Korean-born abstract artist Su Kwak said she tries to paint from inner strength. Joanne Turney opined that “abstract art is purely mental” and likened art to the “making of a prayer.” Watercolorist Irene Schaffner, who paints “only in color and only in Washington,” concluded the program on a springtime note. The State Department has chosen her art as gifts to visiting dignitaries.

Captions: Irene Schaffner, Clarissa Bonde, Fran Usher (NMWA 001.jpg)

Cyd Everett, Linda White (NMWA 002.jpg)

Joanne Turney, Christine Kursch (NMWA 003.jpg)

Vibeke Lofft, Su Kwak (NMWA 004.jpg)
[gallery ids="101701,143866,143874,143872" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

The Latino Student Fund celebrated 20 years of creating educational opportunities for Hispanic-Latino children in our area at an annual benefit gala at the Organization of American States, hosted by Arturo Ulises Vallarino Bartuano, Permanent Representative of Panama to the OAS, and his wife. The evening featured cocktails and a silent auction followed by dinner. Erika Gonzalez of NBC-4 emceed and Steve Little conducted an exciting live auction. The gala drew more than 230 attendees and raised more than $220,000 to benefit the organization’s educational programs for under-served youth. Services include academic tutoring and scholarships, college prep and family outreach. [gallery ids="101697,143919,143921" nav="thumbs"]

Erin Schaff •

Running Star hosted its eighth annual Women to Watch Awards Dinner April 2 at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, celebrating some of the most impressive young women leaders in the country. [gallery ids="116782,116776,116787" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

The Choral Arts Society of Washington board member Jenny Wallace welcomed guests to the George Town Club for a mid-March cocktail reception and expressed appreciation to club president Sharon Casey. A number of guests were visiting the club for the first time since its recent renovation and were enthusiastic about the freshened decor. Artistic director Scott Tucker said, “It’s so great to see you here in my living room.” Always a highlight of the holiday season, this year’s gala will be chaired by Janet Phillips. It will take place at the Kennedy Center Dec. 15. [gallery ids="116779,116785,116753,116761,116774,116768" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

At the April 4 opening reception of “Manon Cleary, Obsessive Observer” — which presents a new perspective through her photographic studies and will remain on view until April 26 — the club’s exhibition committee chair Pat Moore spoke of the extent and expanse of the late artist’s creative spirit and process. The exhibit is produced by Cleary’s husband F. Steven Kijek and explores the use of photography in creating her paintings and works on paper. Jack Rasmussen, director and curator of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, is guest curator. “This woman taught me how to see, not with my eyes, but with my heart,” Kijek said.

Captions: F. Steven Kijek, Arts Club President June Hajjar (Manon 001.jpg)
Peggy McNutt, Arts Club Vice President Judith Nordin (Manon 002.jpg)
Edward Purcell, Molly Ruppert of Warehouse Theater and Gallery (Manon 003.jpg)
Arts Club Gallery Manager Nichola Hays, Jack Hinman (Manon 004.jpg)
Jack Hannola, Chris Graff (Manon 005.jpg)
F. Steven Kijek, Mark Ohnmacht (Manon 006.jpg)
Charles and Joy Hagel Silverman (Manon 007.jpg)
[gallery ids="101699,143907,143891,143886,143895,143900,143905" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

Only in Washington. You go to see a play, and you’re in the middle of a historic moment about history itself. History in the flesh.

That’s about the only way you can describe what happened when Arena Stage hosted the April 3 “red carpet” world premiere of “Camp David.” The play, by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lawrence Wright, is a two-hour dramatization of the 13 days in September 1978 that gave painful birth to the first and only peace treaty between an Arab state and Israel. Unexpected, unprecedented, the treaty was probably the signal achievement of the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

It’s hard to look at the production – which began haltingly, then kicked into gear with humor and power – as a critic. It had already been in previews leading up to this premiere, and it will continue through May 4. However, there will be no staging that resembles this one.

This night, with the audience in the Kreeger Theater on its feet clapping, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, who had been the centerpiece of what amounted to a theatrical state dinner, settled into their seats, and the staging of the play became something beyond itself.

Here we all were, watching a play in which actors were assembled on a Camp David set, knitting together the nights and days of difficult negotiations that would end in the words “Habemus Pacem” (“We have peace”): Richard Thomas, once John-Boy on “The Waltons,” but now a seasoned 55-year-old portraying Carter; veteran actor Ron Rifkin, inhabiting the part of Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin like a rumpled suit; Tony Award-nominee Hallie Foote bringing sharp and gentle humor as Rosalynn Carter; Egyptian actor and activist Khaled Nabawy, matching the charisma that was part of the soul of Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat.

Even as the play heads for a climax that is preordained, there were times as events unfolded, and the arguments between Sadat and Begin reached the point of animus and rancor, when you could almost entertain doubts that the peace treaty would be signed.

The guiding force behind the production was Gerald Rafshoon, a television and film producer who was director of White House communications in the Carter Administration. It took him decades to bring it to the stage. Arena Stage Artistic Director Molly Smith directed.

Much of the material in the play is new, a good chunk of it coming from diaries kept by the Carters. Other material was garnered from interviews with participants in the negotiations. What you are seeing sounds as fresh as a batch of secrets spilled unexpectedly at a White House press conference.

The emotion that accumulated during the course of the drama on stage achieved its peak when the Carters – Jimmy Carter, now 90 years old, and Rosalynn Carter, 85 – slowly came up to the stage to meet the actors during the curtain call, to the applause of audience and cast. They were joined by Jehan Sadat, 80, the widow of Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated in 1981. “That was a moment,” someone remarked.

It was a Washington moment. The Carters did not stay for the post-play reception. Rafshoon, Smith, Wright and the actors mingled with audience members, including longtime Washington media stars such as Chris Matthews, Bob Schieffer and Andrea Mitchell. “I was a White House correspondent then,” Schieffer said. “This is what it was like. It felt exactly right and true.”

The play seems hardly dated, though time has worked its way with everyone alive in 1978, 35 years ago.

Begin died in 1992. The peace treaty, in which Egypt recognized Israel as a state and Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt, remains in place. In 1993, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Yasser Arafat, the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, signed an agreement of principles, the Oslo Accords, under President Bill Clinton. Rabin was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultranationalist.

The four actors all inhabited their parts with the passions and quirks of real persons. Who knew, for instance, that Carter frequently prayed to and even railed against God? Thomas lets us see the whole man, insistent and unwilling to give up. Nabawy and Rifkin shine the most when, as Sadat and Begin, they are trying hardest to find common ground, especially when they share their experiences of time spent in prison. All three men were infused with their religious beliefs: Carter raised Southern Baptist, Begin haunted by the Holocaust, Sadat daring much in the Yom Kippur War and in going to Jerusalem and then to Camp David.

We saw it all up close, thanks to full, warm performances by Thomas, Foote, Rifkin and Nabawy. That’s all to the credit of the actors, directors, writer and producer. On this night, we got to see and feel a lot more than that. That’s theater, but that’s also Washington.

We woke up to read a story about the difficulties encountered by Secretary of State John Kerry in the Middle East: “With peace talks at impasse, Kerry’s image may be at risk.”

The last words of “Camp David,” like a pungent reproach, still echo from the night before: “We have peace.”
[gallery ids="116858,116849,116853,116841" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

The Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington, the nation’s largest local prevention of blindness agency, hosted its 28th Annual Night of Vision gala on March 29 at the Four Seasons. Doreen Gentzler of NBC News4 emceed. Ophthalmologist Richard A Garfinkel received the 2014 Professional Service Award, and American Girl series author Valerie Tripp received the 2014 Community Service Award. The event’s theme, “Celebrity Sightings,” combined Hollywood décor and an auction that included over 100 celebrity-related items such as athletic memorabilia, autographed photos and celebrity eyeglasses. A live auction featured luxury travel and group dinners at the residences of the ambassadors of the Philippines and Egypt.

Gary Tischler •

The pianist Simone Dinnerstein, the late-blooming star of the classical musical world, is—to put it in Willie Nelson’s terms—”on the road again,” and she’s not traveling light.

It’s not that Willie Nelson has anything to do with the occasion, but you wouldn’t now be surprised to find out that he did.

In 2007, Dinnerstein soared into the musical stratosphere with her recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “The Goldberg Variations,” a kind of daunting test that pianists worth their salt or fingers seem compelled to play or record, and not just because it’s an intrinsically difficult piece, but because others have climbed that particular mountain, most notably Glenn Gould.

Dinnerstein soared with the “ Variations” and her self-financed recording on Telarc Records in 2007, scoring the number one classical recording that year, and tackling the challenge at a time when she was pregnant. Last year, she went on tour with a program of “The Goldberg Variations,” stopping at the Music Center at Strathmore. Not only that, but she came out with the album “Night,” collaborating with singer-songwriter Tift Merritt, an eclectic program of new works and classical music.

Now, she’s coming back, this time on Sunday, Feb. 9, in a 3 p.m. recital at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall, presented by the Washington Performing Arts Society. She’s once again with her old boon companion and lifetime passion, Johann Sebastian Bach, performing his 15 two-part Inventions, which headlines an eclectic program that includes Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op 111 and two very different contemporary composers, Nico Muhly and George Crumb.

In addition, her most recent recording on Sony, “J.S. Bach: Inventions and Sinfonias,” debuted in the top spot on the Billboard Classical Chart in its first week of sales.

“The first time I ever encountered the ‘Inventions,’ I was nine years old,” she said. “I thought then I could never play them, that they were wholly beyond my abilities. Bach meant the ‘Inventions’ to be educational tools for musicians, a guide for teachers and musicians. But they are much more than that, they taught me about duality, about two voices. I’d always thought until then that music was melody and accompaniment. When you listen—and musical training is as much about listening as it is about playing—you hear two continuous and independent voices.”

“I like the presence of the works by Crumb and Muhly. Crumb is fearless with his compositons, in terms of what he tackles. Muhly is still young—he’s in his thirties, he’s written the opera, “Two Boys,” and he’s working with old, traditional English Virginal music while at the same time being something of a minimalist.” The connection to Bach’s two voices becomes obvious when you listen to her talk about the music.

She will be playing Crumb’s “Eine Kleine Mitternacht Musik,” which is a nine-movement suite for amplified piano, based on Theolonius Monk’s 1940’s jazz standard “Around Midnight.” On its face, it seems like an illustration of resonant point counterpoint.

Muhly has composed works for ensembles, soloists and organizations, he did the score for the film, “The Reader,” for which Kate Winslet won an Oscar. Muhly’s work, he has said, was designed “to be navigation challenge for Simone Dinnerstein, who, aside from her technical prowess, has an emotional and interpretive virtuosity I was very interested in exploring.”

She will be playing Muhly’s “You Can’t Get There From Here,” commissioned by the Terez Music Foundation, which was named after a World War II concentration camp.

“I love this program,” WPAs President Jenny Bilfield said. “And I love that this program focuses the lens on the tandem of talents of composer-pianists spanning several centuries.”

Dinnerstein has brought something else with her: her cherished “Bachpack” initiative, complete with a digital piano by Yamaha, bringing the piano, and herself and her unique gifts and some of Bach’s Inventions to District schools over a period three days, working with children and using the Yamaha Remote Lesson technology found in the Disklavier reproducing piano. Dinnerstein began the Bach packing initiative, in 10 New York-area schools in January. She has also founded Neighborhood Classics, which was launched at P.S. 311, where her son attends school and her husband teaches.

This week, she brought the program to Lafayette Elementary School, Watkins Elementary School, Savoy and Patterson elementary schools, the Washington Latin Public Charter School and Ballou High School as well as Duke Ellington High School for the Arts in Georgetown, participating with Ballou through the Disklavier piano technology this Friday.

She’s also hosted a master class with adult amateur pianists at the Washington Conservatory of Music in Bethesda.