Arts & Society

Georgetowner • July 26, 2011

National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRH) held its 2nd Annual Last Vegas Nights Benefit on Feb. 18 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts with Carole Randolph and Karin DeFrancis co-chairing. Guests were met by plumed showgirls and could fortify themselves with a “black martini” before heading to the gaming tables with a special guest appearance by Texas Hold’em Champion Mary Jones. Mike Walter emceed the evening. Goodie bags included something for everyone—NRH playing cards, Baileys Irish Cream and Eucerin skin therapy. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, NRH is a private, not-for-profit facility in NW Washington and a proud member of MedStar Health. The benefit raised funds for the hospital’s various patient disability programs including brain and spinal chord injuries and stroke. [gallery ids="99192,103330,103314,103326,103322,103319" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

2011 Leukemia Ball. [gallery ids="99628,105165,105154,105162,105159" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

President of the Women’s Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) Cyd Everett presented a special program on Mar. 14, “Meet the Artists” followed by luncheon at the museum. Korean-born abstract artist Su Kwak discussed her painting “Evening Light” on double canvas reflecting a metaphoric message of personal and spiritual healing. Clarissa Bonde followed as an internationally exhibited botanical watercolor artist who continues to study and expand. Attendees mourned the recent loss of the intended third exhibitor, Lisa Pumphrey Turner, whose triptych on permanent exhibit was displayed. With family members in attendance, she was movingly remembered for her many qualities by incoming Women’s Committee President Fran Luessenhop. [gallery ids="99211,103480,103469,103477,103474" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

On Mar. 18 Marsha Ralls celebrated 20 years and 20 artists at her Georgetown gallery. John Blee’s Orchard Mist graced the invitation as Marsha welcomed guests to a “milestone celebration…of embracing the world of art; through it educating, inspiring, and beautifying the world.” Marsha fondly remembered Robert Rauschenberg, a mentor and friend, whom she represented. Works by William Dunlap, Patrick LoCicero, and Caio Fonseca among others will be on view through May 28. [gallery ids="99212,103490,103479,103486,103483" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

Never failing to impress, the 56th Annual Corcoran Ball — hosted by Tammie Collins — shone through rich colors, classic settings and an A-list all its own, as those other parties went on around town, April
29. With the masterpieces in ad hoc dining rooms, the thousand or so guests also viewed fresh artworks by Corcoran students. And to finish, dancing amid the alabaster splendor. [gallery ids="99666,106029,106040,106037,106034" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

On Mar. 8, Gala, The National Center of Latino Performing Arts, celebrated its 35th anniversary season. The evening honored enduring supporters The Eugene & Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Fernando & Stephanie van Reigersberg and Edwin Aparicio. Heart and soul of Gala, Rebecca and Hugo Medrano, were justly proud of their outreach that crosses “borders and frontiers.” The evening featured performances by Quin Tango, dancer Carina Losano and Gala’s Youth Company Paso Nuevo. Silent and live auctions supported Gala’s mission of creative artistic programming and commitment to arts education. [gallery ids="99630,105185,105181,105169,105177,105173" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

Ah Hollywood…Ah Washington. How the denizens of these two cities yearn for each other.

The recent death of Elizabeth Taylor, pre-pixel Hollywood’s last great star, and its coverage around Washington highlighted the nurture-torture nature of this relationship, like an electric wire was connecting the cities. People remember her here; just ask the senator, the gossip writers, theatergoers and the folks at the Whitman Walker Clinic.

She was, heart and soul, a child of Hollywood, since her violet eyes and pitch black hair made their first impact on screen as one of MGM’s child stars in “National Velvet,” when she was just twelve years old. She was a movie star long before she ever aspired to become an excellent actress.

People, of course, still have trouble taking a really beautiful woman seriously, and Elizabeth Taylor was astonishingly beautiful in her youth. As such, it’s much easier to give the wrong kind of credit than to credit the right things. People focus on her numerous marriages, the drama and the diamonds. They focus on her adulteries that broke up first the marriage of Debbie Reynolds, America’s sweetheart, and then her own and those of husband Richard Burton’s.

The local obituary seemed to me curiously snarky and petulant, going out of its way to offer quotes disparaging her acting abilities. The front-page photo showed her in her famous white swimsuit from a scene in Tennessee Williams’ “Suddenly Last Summer,” in which she shared top billing with Katharine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift, two of the finest screen actors of the time. “Despite Oscar nods,” the caption read, “she was not always taken seriously an actress.”

They could have said it the other way around: “Despite not always being taken seriously as an actress, she won two Oscars—for “Butterfield 8” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (Mike Nichols’ film adaptation of the Edward Albee play, now enjoying a satisfying production at Arena Stage), opposite then husband Richard Burton.”

It’s fair to say that she was often used for her looks—one of those cases of “don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” But those looks could be used to heartbreaking effect: Check out that scene when Montgomery Clift (again) first sees her in “A Place in the Sun.” You could see ambition rise in him like a sour soaring, and you could see him hold his breath. The film is one of George Stevens’ finest works, part of what he saw as an American trilogy that included “Shane” and “Giant,” the latter also starring Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean, who completed filming and promptly was killed in a high-speed sports car crash.

For someone not highly regarded, she apparently had the regard of directors like Stevens and Nichols, two very serious-minded men who made classic and serious films. I would expect that even Meryl Streep, our most serious and darling film actress, might have liked to have films like “A Place in the Sun,” “Giant,” “Suddenly, Last Summer,” “Reflections in a Golden Eye” and “Cat On a Hot Roof.” Even “Cleopatra,” in spite of its excess and on-set drama, which almost ruined 20th Century Fox and boss Daryl Zanukc, ended up making money.

She was legendary, larger than life, and lived in the public eye. No need to go into details too much. Like the Kennedys, a political institution, she experienced more than anybody’s share of triumph and tragedy, heaven on earth and hell on wheels all at the same time.

One thing everybody knew: she made friends, and kept them beyond death. She nurtured the troubled and gifted Clift through car wrecks, addictions and emotional troubles. She stood up for Hudson and still loves Burton. If she was at times over the top and with a certain carnal vulgarity, especially in the two bouts of marriage with Burton, well…she was entitled. That doesn’t make her the godmother of Charlie Sheen or Lindsay Lohan.

Her stays in Washington were memorable: she married Senator John Warner of Virginia, the kind of marriage that should probably never happen. Imagine the fights in front of the mirror. But Warner remembers her with affection.

She appeared twice on stage in Washington, both times at the Kennedy Center, to mixed success and reviews. The first was as Regina in Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes,” which underwhelmed local critics, as I recall.

Then there was the time when then Kennedy Center President Roger Stevens thought that movie stars might pack ‘em in for theater. This brought us Liz and Dick in “Private Lives,” something this writer won’t ever forget. This is Noel Coward’s sophisticated play about a divorced married couple on honeymoons with new partners who run into each other at the hotel where they’re staying. Sparks fly in familiar ways. But in the middle of the play, Taylor’s Amanda says off-handedly: “You know, I’ve always been afraid of marriage.” This line brought the house down with laughter in a way that had everything to do with Taylor, not the show. Old pro Burton rode out the laughter wisely, and then ignited it again with a drawn out “Yes.”

That’s show biz. That’s legend.

She became, in a very real and practical way, the patron saint in the fight against AIDS, in the public’s recognition of what a dangerous disease it was, and the people it affected. She spoke up for Rock Hudson and everyone else who suffered from it, and she lent her name to the Whitman Walker Clinic. By contrast, the silence in Washington AND Hollywood in the early, devastating years of the disease was deafening. The Reagan, whose roots were in the Hollywood community which was being hit hard by AIDS, offered grief and condolences over the death of Hudson, while not mentioning AIDS at all, as if he had died of some peculiar strain of the common cold?

She opened minds and changed them, and her presence rose above that of the fundamentalists who called the disease the punishment of God at Gay Pride parades. She never wavered in this, and she did it out of life, not boredom or publicity seeking.

God bless her for that, and have no doubt that he and she will.

Mary Bird •

On Nov. 18, Teresa and Paul Klaassen hosted Kitty Kelley and The Women’s Forum of Washington DC for a holiday shopping extravaganza accompanied by festive hors d’oeuvres and wine bars. Vendors on each floor included Nina McLemore, Proper Topper, J McLaughlin of Georgetown, Ibhana Creations and Sissy Yates Jewelry. The Women’s Forum of Washington, DC, Inc. is an affiliate of International Women’s Forum, an organization of preeminent women who share knowledge and ideas to enrich each other’s lives and to provide a network of support to prepare future generations of women leaders. [gallery ids="102507,120185,120196,120192" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

Georgetowner Nina McLemore threw open her doors on Oct. 20 to host a fashion show and sale of her latest collection of quality clothing designed for today’s multi-faceted women to benefit the Nooristan Foundation. Nooristan is a non-profit providing humanitarian, medical and educational support for rural areas in Afghanistan. Projects include livelihood assistance and literacy for 90 families in a refugee camp outside Kabul, training midwives in Takhar province and establishing a village school in Nooristan. Nina sells primarily through independent consultants holding private trunk shows. Better specialty locations and eight recently established permanent eponymous stores showcase her wearable and travelable fashions. – Mary Bird [gallery ids="99440,99441,99442,99443" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner •

On Oct. 21, Sitar Arts Center hosted student led tours and then moved to the Meridian International Center for a reception, silent auction, fall fashion show, arts performance and even more to benefit its arts education programs. Exec. Dir. Ed Spitzberg hailed Sitar as “arguably the number one arts center in this country.” Sitar Arts Center enables underserved children and youth to study visual and performing arts in an after school safe haven. It reaches more than 700 students a year, 80 percent from low-income households. Partners include The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Washington Ballet, Shakespeare Theatre Company and WPAS. – Mary Bird [gallery ids="99444,99445,99446,99447,99448,99449" nav="thumbs"]