Arts & Society

Mary Bird • November 3, 2011

On Oct. 6, store director of Louis Vuitton Chevy Chase Yasmine Abdo hosted Knock Out Abuse with 2011 event chair Jaci Reid and co-founders Cheryl Masri and Jill Sorensen. The well-attended cocktail reception benefited KOA’s support for organizations in the Washington metropolitan area that offer services, assistance and shelter to women and children who are victims of abuse as Louis Vuitton donated a portion of event sales to the KOA Foundation. [gallery ids="100332,108592" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

On Oct. 14, Susan and Michael Pillsbury welcomed friends to their stunning Georgetown home to celebrate the launch of Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave’s Light of Healing Hope Foundation. Her prayers on 9/11 led Alexandra to write three books of poetry that have been given as gifts to the 9//11 survivors’ families, military families and those experiencing personal tragedy. She has now founded The Light of Healing Hope Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to providing inspirational books as gifts in hospitals to bring hope to patients and their families. After Alexandra thanked everyone for their support, a patient spoke of the gift packages as “a reminder of what is good in the world.” Alexandra closed her remarks with a quote “Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.” [gallery ids="100334,108622,108638,108627,108635,108632" nav="thumbs"]

Georgetowner • November 2, 2011

A fetching canine proffering a red rose graced the invitation to this year?s Love Ball with the question ?May I have this dance?? Who could refuse? The annual event took place on Oct. 22 at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda to benefit the Montgomery County Humane Society. It is the county?s only full-service, pubic shelter which each year helps nearly 9,000 potential pets, farm animals and wildlife. Sue Palka of Fox5 emceed the evening which included a cocktail reception, seated dinner, silent and live auctions, and dancing. Canine guests particularly enjoyed a doggie bar and potty area sponsored by Johnson?s Landscaping conveniently located in the parking garage.

Georgetowner •

The Smithsonian Women?s Committee held the Craft2Wear Advance Chance Party at the National Building Museum on Oct. 21. The weekend exhibit featured jewelry and wearable art by 40 artists previously juried into the Smithsonian Craft Show. Guests enjoyed first chance shopping enhanced by wine and hors d?oeuvres with music by the L?Enfant Ensemble. The evening was highlighted by David Muir, Weekend Anchor of ABC World News and Correspondent for the ?Made in America? series, honoring exhibitors who exemplify the finest ?Made in America? wearable art. The event is produced by the Smithsonian Women?s Committee to support education, outreach and research within the Smithsonian Institution.

Georgetowner •

Now in its 62nd year, the Salvation Army’s Women’s Auxiliary Luncheon and Fashion Show drew an elegant crowd to the Ritz-Carlton Washington on Oct. 19. Mistress of Ceremonies Pamela Brown of ABC7/WJLA-TV and New Channel 8 termed it “Washington’s compassionate fashion event.” This past year over 62,000 individuals were assisted in our area at a time when the need for food donations rose 47%. Fashion Show Chair Carmen Stull said that “giving to the less fortunate enriches our lives.” Jay Parker and Ellie Weilenmann received awards for their dedicated service. Guests enjoyed a perfect fall luncheon as well as fashions presented by Saks Fifth Avenue Chevy Chase.

Gary Tischler • October 31, 2011

For sophisticates, the very hip, cool and urban trendy, there are so many targets in Samuel Hunter’s “A Bright New Boise” (now at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre through Nov 13) to feel smug, snarky and snide about that it could have been a buffet of satire, enough material for a lifetime of Bill Maher monologues.

We gave religious zealotry of the way-out-there-waiting-for-the-Rapture-and-Apocalypse kind. We have corporate dullness and the intellectually empty space of places like Idaho, interrupted only by malls and truck stop traffic. We have a central character so bland that he could disappear easily in a crowd, if only there were crowds to disappear into.

So what does Hunter, a gifted writer and observer, do with this material? He showers it with a deep and imaginative empathy, even love, for the characters he’s created, characters that live in a world very much reflective of our hard-scrabble, economically harrowing times. Hunter makes his play—set in a Hobby Lobby store in Boise, Idaho—a kind of microcosm of the way quite a number of Americans live today—on the edge, hanging by broken nails, embracing the outer limits of apocalyptic faith, trying to find the inner creative flame to ward of the dullness of the days while thinking about the end of days.

At its center is a guy named Will, the new guy in town, who just applied for and got a low-paying job as a clerk in the local Hobby Lobby store, specializing in selling the equipment for arts and crafts things to do—buttons, cloth, paper, paint and none-such. It’s not a big place, and the people we see are Will, vaguely religious, hugely ordinary in his checkered shirt and blue jeans, smart and a little mysterious; Pauline, the branch manager with a tainted heart of gold and a potty mouth; Anna, sensitive, abused, halting, hungry and eager for attention and a little knowledge; Leroy, an in-your-face artistic type who makes obscene T-shirts which he wears to work; and Alexis, a quiet high school kid with secrets and talent.

The characters bump against each other in the employee lounge, sometimes used by Anna to hide out in and read and by Will to work on a blog that’s becoming a novel and has fans on the worldwide web. The story he’s writing is very much like the “Left Behind” novels that were about the end of days and the humans left behind, a very popular Christian series, especially so among Evangelists.

Will—if it weren’t for his secrets and the fact that he’s looking for the son he gave up to be adopted, and for his embrace of the rapture – would pass for the most ordinary, nicest of guys, the kind of guy that for no reason at all goes postal. But Woolly regular Michael Russotto has a gift for making the ordinary seem special—Will is at turns kind, talkative, a good listener, speculative, and haunting as he confronts his past and the pain of never escaping it, erasing it and starting over.

Russotto underplays him to the point that Will is like someone in a video, an old family movie, easy to be around, difficult to know, and when his frustrated, bleeding soul comes up for air, it’s a shattering moment.

Everybody in the cast is affecting—there’s no dissing the characters, the way they live, what they say, especially Kimberly Gilbert, who’s own special gift as an actress has always been to make the sometimes more than mildly weird seem oddly affecting and attractive, and she puts it good use her in a full-bodied portrait of Anna.

Will’s life is a mess, and it’s accentuated by his surroundings, his ruinously fumbling attempt at reunion with his son, the stifling routines and weirdness of the Hobby Lobby. The employee’s lounge is never ever distant from a television monitor which routinely runs a maddeningly dull monotone-voiced in-house video featuring the Hobby Lobby founders handing out tips and news, oddly interrupted occasionally by bursts of videos showing graphic medical procedures, which nobody seems to able to eliminate.

Much of “A Bright New Boise” is sharply observant and funny, without being in any sense an exercise in cheap laughs. Much of it, more importantly, is dark and incredibly sad. You can see how Will’s (and the others’) endless days of monotony might lead to the end of days, might lead him to embrace that annihilation with a raging scream that breaks hearts.

Mary Bird • October 26, 2011

Audra McDonald touched hearts at the Washington Performing Arts Society’s opening season event at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall Oct. 4. Her exquisite delivery, breezy comments—thank you for telling me where to find the nearest Chipotle—and grace captivated her listeners. She shared that her young daughter was a definite critic having daunted her at age three with “mommy your singing makes my ears cry.” No one else shares that sentiment as Audra has just finished a Boston run as the immortal Bess in Porgy and Bess, scheduled later this year for Broadway. Her rendition of Adam Gwon’s I’ll Be Here from Ordinary Days in tribute to the losses of 9/11 left few dry eyes. WPAS’s staunchest supporters segued for a lovely dinner at the Roof Terrace and tributes to the evening’s star. [gallery ids="100331,108577,108598,108582,108594,108587,108591" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird • October 19, 2011

The centerpiece of Duncan Phillip’s collection has been returned to its original location in the Main Gallery to celebrate the 90th anniversary of America’s first museum of modern art. The Sofitel Washington, D.C. Lafayette celebrated the occasion with Renoir-inspired cuisine prepared by Chef Olivier Perret and other enticements. Phillips Director Dorothy Kosinski expressed her delight that the painting is displayed close to its original placement amid works by Braque, Cézanne, Monet and Picasso. Duncan Phillips’s 1923 purchase set a record price for the time. [gallery ids="102423,121822,121815,121828,121832" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

Over 400 guests attended the 18th Annual Benefit and Auction for Nyumbani at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Sept. 30 to celebrate Nyumbani’s success in transforming the lives of thousands of Kenyan children and their families affected by the HIV virus. What began as a hospice for HIV+ orphans has evolved into a broad based support organization which has enabled HIV+ children to become educated, grow to adulthood, and lead productive lives. With Kathleen Matthews serving as Mistress of Ceremonies, the evening’s program honored Dr. Ryan Brunette, Dr. Gary Cohen, Krista Thompson and Conrad Person for their efforts in the recent completion of a state-of-the- art diagnostic laboratory on the grounds of the Nyumbani Children’s Home. Barbara Albert received the John and Patty Noel Humanitarian Award for spearheading fundraising efforts. Sister Mary Owens, Nyumbani’s Executive Director, spoke of recent accomplishments and of future challenges. Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen described his visit to Nyumbani this summer and his two son’s experiences serving as volunteers there. [gallery ids="100313,108017,108038,108022,108034,108027,108031" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Bird •

The Women’s Committee of the Washington Ballet took to the dance floor to music by DJ Pitch One at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 30. Mandy Delk and Elizabeth Wrege were event chairs for the Annual Ballet Soirée which included a suite from The Great Gatsby danced by Washington Ballet company members. Women’s Committee member Charo Abrams and her husband Larry provided a scrumptious buffet through their RSVP catering. Mont Blanc was a lead sponsor. Howard Parzow was the live auctioneer for items that included holidays in Greece, Paris and Turkey and dining opportunities with Artistic Director Septime Webre and Michel Richard at Citronelle as well as “kitchen theater” with Septime and Patrick O’Connell and The Inn at Little Washington. [gallery ids="100314,108057,108052,108047,108066,108042,108070,108037,108074,108078,108032,108062" nav="thumbs"]