The World On Stage

We just had the MOST fun at Tap Day at the Cutler Majestic!...

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:45:31 -0400

We just had the MOST fun at Tap Day at the Cutler Majestic! Beginners and experts alike sharing the stage to celebrate tappin’!

3 performances of Tappin’ Thru Life: An Evening with Maurice Hines. Don’t miss this!

11/12 into 12/13 Season

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 09:29:35 -0400

What were your favorite moments in the 11/12 Season? What are you most looking forward to in 12/13? We want to know! Share your thoughts by commenting below.

Inside Look: ArtsEmerson's Ticket Access Program

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:37:30 -0400

By Sara Bookin-Weiner

“You will never know the impact of what you did – my urban, low-income school kids have been so profoundly changed in such a positive way by going to the theater.”—Nancy Barile, Revere High School teacher

It’s not every day that someone sings to you over the phone at work. But when you administer ArtsEmerson’s Ticket Access Program (TAP), that can happen. I realized just how special this program is while talking to the contact for a new organization joining the program. Upon learning that the tickets would be free for her group, she literally sang out in joy, “ah-ah-ahhhhh!!!!” Needless to say, members of her organization have become frequent and ardent theatregoers.

TAP provides so much more than free or discounted theatre tickets to underserved communities. Whether a respite from medical care, a rare outing, a bonding experience for a mentor and mentee, or an introduction to the excitement of live performance, TAP gives new and old theatre-lovers alike the chance to see the world on stage. During the 11/12 Season, it’s been a pleasure to see this program develop and hear how much it means to community participants.

So how does the program work? Organizations can apply to join TAP online—and if you’re reading this and thinking, “Hey, I think my organization qualifies for this super-awesome program!” then you can fill out the online application form by clicking here. When tickets are available, selected organizations are contacted to coordinate ticket purchasing and/or distribution.

I’ve been delighted with the growth of participating organizations in TAP this season. Even though we doubled in size—going from serving 15 to 30 different groups—we’ve still been able to accommodate all of these communities at our performances. In fact, ArtsEmerson distributed over 850 tickets this season alone! So who are these audience members?

We have a wide array of organizations participating in TAP, which in turn diversifies our audience. From younger generations getting their first taste of theatre (including the Home for Little Wanderers, Boys & Girls Clubs, South Boston T.E.A.M.) to those who love attending performances, but otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it (Hale House, Hearth, the Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly) to burgeoning artists themselves (Boston Arts Academy, Zumix, Artists For Humanity, Gateway Arts), each ArtsEmerson production is an opportunity for both relaxation, enjoyment, bonding and new ways of thinking about entertainment.

I receive a lot of heartwarming emails and thank you notes from organizational contacts—but if you’re an ArtsEmerson donor, these are for you just as much as they are for ArtsEmerson. Your donation makes this program possible—read below to see how much the community appreciates this opportunity.

“I spoke with a mentor yesterday who couldn’t stop saying amazing things about the Ameriville performance, and how much it meant to be able to see that show with her mentee. She talked about how much they enjoyed being entertained, but also learning so much about what happened in such a creative way – way better than, say, a movie is what she remarked. I appreciate the opportunities that you have enabled us to share with young people in our program who might not otherwise be exposed to the arts.”—Bo-Stacey Nicholson, South Boston T.E.A.M.

“The plays and events featured through the TAP program are always so cutting edge that my students feel part of an elite, “cool” and cosmopolitan group of theater-goers, and this will certainly help level the playing field for them when they go off to college and need to compete with their wealthier peers.”—Nancy Barile, Revere High School

“[The performance] provided an amazing night of relaxation out of the medical environment.”—Matt Kiggins, Dana Farber

“I have been filled today with the genius of G.Gershwin. Last night’s performance was simply superb! My Friend felt the same, and we both thoroughly loved Hershey Felder— A man who is so gifted. Thank you so much, for this lovely gift.”—Arleen, Jewish Big Brother Big Sister

“ArtsEmerson provided our children and families an opportunity to see plays, bond, spend time with one another. It also provided staff a moment to have ‘date nights’ with their spouse to add to their quality time since much of their time is giving to the care of children. It was truly priceless and I am grateful for your generosity.”—Janine Spinola-Taylor, Victory Generation

To keep TAP going, please consider making a charitable donation to ArtsEmerson. With your help, I look forward to another wonderful season of bringing the Greater Boston community together through the arts!

A Special Thank You from Rob Orchard

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:57:00 -0400

This week marks the end of public performances in our second season. I like to call it our toddler year. We started wobbling with a big smile and a wide-eyed sense of the universe at the end of our first season, and we’ve navigated our way through year two without too many bruised knees to a point where the world under our feet is now much more steady - a typical, healthy (I’m happy to report) two year old.

And this is due to you, our audience, for your embrace in helping to raise this new being and your skills encouraging and mentoring us in these dynamic growth years. I have never experienced such generosity of spirit and such good will from an audience.

All I can say is THANK YOU a million times over and please always be in touch with your ideas, observations, and thoughts about how together we can mature with a shared sense of joy and possibility.

With enormous gratitude,

Rob

What did you think of GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE?

Tue, 29 May 2012 09:18:51 -0400

What were you surprised to learn about George Gershwin and his music? Join the conversation by commenting below.

What are your favorite Gershwin tunes?

Wed, 23 May 2012 10:21:17 -0400

Get ready for Hershey Felder as George Gershwin Alone, at the Paramount Center Mainstage MAY 30 - JUN 10, by sharing some of your favorite Gershwin melodies! Comment below and see what songs and numbers other audience members enjoy.

Check out these films, books and music related to GEORGE GERSHWIN ALONE

Tue, 01 May 2012 12:23:07 -0400

By Corrie Glanville

FILMS

Manhattan (1979)

No matter how many times I have seen Woody Allen’s Manhattan, I never tire of its shimmering black and white cinematography, its equally sparkling wit and its timeless Gershwin score and possibly the best use of “Rhapsody in Blue” in a film, ever. While this comic masterpiece follows the fate of two couples as they fall in and out of love, Allen’s real love affair is with the city itself. Zubin Mehta leads the New York Philharmonic on the soundtrack, which includes sweeping instrumental versions of such favorites as “Someone To Watch Over Me,” “Oh, Lady Be Good” and “Embraceable You.”

Funny Face (1957)

Although only four of Gershwin’s songs from his 1927 Broadway musical were included in the film version, this gorgeous MGM musical boasts Audrey Hepburn as a shy bookstore clerk and Fred Astaire as fashion photographer, Dick Avery, loosely based on Richard Avedon who actually designed the opening credits. When Astaire discovers Hepburn in a Greenwich Village bookstore, he convinces her after much protesting, to go to Paris and become his model. The unlikely opposites conveniently fall in love, but it’s awfully hard not to be charmed by Hepburn who spends most of the film cavorting all over the City of Lights in costumes by Hubert de Givenchy.

An American in Paris (1951)

It’s hard to imagine a more romantic ode to Paris (even if it was shot in Hollywood) than the sixteen minute ballet in Vincent Minelli’s 1951 MGM musical as Gene Kelly and the exquisite Leslie Caron dance their way through an unforgettable dream sequence. The love story between an American painter and a Parisian shop girl is told partly through dance numbers choreographed by Kelly and set to the songs of George and Ira Gershwin including the classics “S’Wonderful,” “I Got Rhythm” and “Our Love is Here To Stay.”

BOOKS

The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift and My Family’s Legacies Infidelities by Katherine Weber (2011)

Author Katherine Weber’s maternal grandmother was the composer Kay Swift who became the first woman to have a Broadway hit show, Fine & Dandy, and carried on a passionate decade-long affair with George Gershwin…though she was already married to economist, James Paul Warburg. Of this intimate family portrait, The New York Times says “Ms. Weber is able to arrange words musically, so that they capture the elusive, unfinished melodies that haunt our memories of childhood. As her grandmother’s lover might have put it, she’s got rhythm.”

George Gershwin: An Intimate Portrait by Walter Rimmler (2009)

While Gershwin was able to achieve enormous popular success before his tragic death at age 38, he never garnered the validation he so desperately wanted by the “serious” music critics until decades later. Walter Rimmler includes newly discovered letters by Kay Swift and Ira and Leonore Gershwin in his biography of the beloved composer. The Wall Street Journal pronounces, “More thorough biographies than Mr. Rimler’s slender volume exist … but for those of us interested less in the technical details of Gershwin’s music and its performance than in the comet called George Gershwin that blazed briefly across American skies, Mr. Rimler is the astronomer of choice.”

The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole and a Crew of About Fifty by Wilfred Sheed (2008)

Wilfred Sheed looks at the Golden Age of American songwriting from Tin Pan Alley to Hollywood in this anecdotal, musical history. Beginning with Irvin Berlin, a Lower East Side immigrant who composed his way from downtown music halls to Broadway, Sheed spent years interviewing the great songwriters and their families in order to create a portrait of dazzling musical era and its major players.

MUSIC

Porgy & Bess: New Broadway Cast Recording (2012)

I consider myself privileged to have seen Audra McDonald’s achingly beautiful performance last fall at the American Repertory Theater in the reimagined version of Porgy & Bess directed by Diane Paulus. Now enjoying great success on Broadway, it’s hard to wait for the cast recording (releasing on May 22) which also features Norm Lewis as Porgy and David Allen Grier as Sportin’ Life. I couldn’t agree more with The New York Times that said of Audra McDonald’s Bess “it’s a God-touched voice that turns suffering and ugliness into beauty.”

George Gershwin: Ultimate Collection (1998)

For those who want a collection that includes both the best of Gershwin’s popular favorites as well as his symphonic works, this is the perfect 2-CD set. The singers include Sarah Vaughn, Fred Astaire, Dinah Washington, Bing Crosby and the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald while the Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Pops interpret overtures from Funny Face, An American in Paris and Porgy & Bess.

Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue / An American in Paris by Leonard Bernstein (1997)

Since ArtsEmerson is hosting Hershey Felder in his solo performances as both George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, this CD would seem especially fitting to recommend. In fact, Leonard Bernstein was an enthusiast of Gershwin’s classical work when few would take him seriously. Bernstein conducts the New York Philharmonic in the two title works along with Ferde Grofé’s “Grand Canyon Suite. “

What did you think of MAESTRO: LEONARD BERNSTEIN?

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:29:52 -0400

What were you surprised to learn about Leonard Bernstein and his music? Join the conversation by commenting below.

Hershey Felder: The Man Behind the Maestro

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:36:43 -0400

By Corrie Glanville

Few contemporary theatre artists have the versatility of Hershey Felder, the Canadian-born pianist/singer/actor/conductor whose specialty is bringing seminal composers to life on stage, including Gershwin, Beethoven, Chopin, and most recently, Leonard Bernstein.

Felder, who began studying music and acting at the age of five in Montreal, had grown up listening to Bernstein and even met the composer before his death in 1990. But he actually knew little of George Gershwin (the subject of George Gershwin Alone)until he was 19 and performed “Rhapsody in Blue” at his concert debut in London. “Nothing prepared me for the live audience response,” said Felder. “I was very taken with how much the public loves Gershwin music. I played the Rhapsody again and again, and the public loves it, and this is true of any performance of it, not just mine.”

After consultation with the Gershwins who opened their archives and private collection to him, Felder embarked on years of research and the meticulous process of constructing a portrait of a popular figure that many either adored or despised. Felder has said that he created “the character of George Gershwin in order to tell the story of a man who died before truly knowing the depth of his contribution, and of course, had the opportunity to play a work that the public all over the world relishes.”

After being asked by respected colleagues to portray Leonard Bernstein, Felder gave the possibility much consideration before deciding to create Maestro, which premiered in Los Angeles in 2010. Like so many people, Felder was enormously influenced by Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts, which served to bring classical music to a wider audience. But Felder also chose to delve into the darker side of Bernstein’s long and often turbulent life including his relationship with his father, his struggles with bisexuality and the antagonistic reception of his later work by critics and the public.

Unlike Gershwin, with Maestro Felder portrays a figure from the more recent past. Many musicians who actually played with or for Bernstein are still alive. This allowed Felder even more opportunities for research, although he notes: “I know that I can never capture entire lives in a 90-minute presentation, but what I can do is give the essence of what the individual was about, and to do that, one has to know pretty much everything there is to know.” When asked what he wants people to take away from Maestro, Felder says simply: “Bernstein’s genius.”

As for Felder’s own encounter with the legend, he says: “I was in that circle in New York; I met him just at the end of his life. I was just a kid. It was interesting to create this piece, especially with the family members still around. I panicked when they came to see the show. But it was fine. There were a lot of tears.”

Hershey Felder in Maestro: Leonard Bernstein runs APRIL 28 - MAY 20 at the Paramount Center Mainstage.

Check out these films, books and music related to MAESTRO: LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:37:59 -0400

By Corrie Glanville

FILMS

Leonard Bernstein: Omnibus - The Historic TV Broadcasts (2010)

Long before Alastair Cooke became the host of Masterpiece Theatre, he made his American television debut in the long running interview program Omnibus, which featured prominent figures in the arts and sciences. Leonard Bernstein first appeared with Cooke in 1954 with his fascinating analysis of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Bernstein won two Emmy awards for his shows on jazz, conducting, musical comedy, 20th century composition and Bach. Now, for the first time since their original live broadcasts, these acclaimed performances can be seen in their entirety, restored and re-mastered on DVD.

Leonard Bernstein, Reaching for the Note (1998)

No other conductor did more to bring classical music to a wider audience than Leonard Bernstein. This PBS American Masters portrait offers both a professional and personal glimpse of Bernstein’s life from his early years as a young conductor to his later triumphs as a composer while touching on his private battle with depression. Along with archival footage, revealing interviews with his brother and children as well as collaborators Jerome Robbins, Isaac Stern and Stephen Sondheim are included.

The Making of West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein (1985)

This feature-length documentary takes us behind the scenes as Bernstain records the first-ever complete recording of his masterpiece with opera superstars Kiri Te Kanawa, José Carreras and Tatiana Troyanos; it alternates between the intimacy of the rehearsal room to the final takes of beloved numbers including “Tonight,” “America” and “Maria.”

BOOKS

Something’s Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination by Misha Berson (2011)

Award-winning theatre critic for the Seattle Times and regular contributor to American Theatre magazine, Misha Berson has fashioned a comprehensive view of one of the most influential musicals in history. From its four brilliant and turbulent creators (Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents) to Hollywood film success to continued revivals, Berson examines the impact of West Side Story on the American musical particularly as a predecessor to the “youth musicals” of Hair and Rent.

Leonard Bernstein: American Original by Burton Bernstein & Barbara Haws (2008)

While not a comprehensive biography, this series of essays including a forward by his brother, Burton, covers the period from 1943 to 1976, considered Bernstein’s most prolific. Each chapter is written by a different author who explores the astonishing force of Bernstein’s life and work as composer, conductor, social activist and cultural icon. Filled with black and white photos, Booklist called this “a flat-out wonderful book.”

The Joy of Music by Leonard Bernstein (2004)

Originally published in 1959, this collection was the composer’s first work and unlike traditional (if stodgy) writing about classical music, Bernstein used the device of imaginary conversations to illuminate his passion for music in a more intimate tone. A perfect introduction to a towering figure in American music.

MUSIC

Joshua Bell ~ Bernstein - West Side Story Suite (2001)

Nominated for the 2001 Grammy Award for “Best Crossover Album,” violinist Joshua Bell, a sensation in the classical music stratosphere, demonstrates his commanding artistry in arrangements from “Lonely Town” and “New York, New York” from On the Town and composer John Corigliano’s exquisite arrangement of “Make Our Garden Grow” from Candide. This collection also includes Bernstein’s riveting “Serenade after Plato’s Symposium.”

The Complete Solo Piano Music of Leonard Bernstein (1999)

Internationally celebrated as both a conductor and virtuoso pianist, Alexander Frey performs the 33 tracks on this collection of Bernstein’s lesser known piano compositions. BBC Music Magazine declared that Frey “plays with not only accomplishment but an audible deep affection for the music and the composer who inspired such devotion in so many.”

Leonard Bernstein’s New York (1996)

Praised by Entertainment Weekly as “lovely and sumptuous,” this collection features 19 tracks from Bernstein’s On the Town, West Side Story, Fancy Free and Wonderful Town. Backed by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, these beloved classics are reinterpreted by Broadway greats such as Mandy Patinkin, Audra McDonald and Donna Murphy as well as soprano Dawn Upshaw.

What did you think of CAFÉ VARIATIONS?

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:29:00 -0400

Were you inspired by the interactions in Café Variations? Would you have the courage to ask “is this seat taken?” Join the conversation by commenting below.

"A Constellation of Moments"

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:30:00 -0400

Magda Romanska, Emerson professor and dramaturg for Café Variations provides behind the scenes insight into the production…

The trouble is
I can’t make sense of my life at all.
I can’t see a beginning and a middle and an end
It seems to me to be just a bunch of random vivid moments
I think, when I am on my deathbed,
I won’t look back on a story of my life
I’ll just remember a constellation of moments
vivid moments
but just that.

– Charles Mee, Café le Monde

In our precarious world of virtual friends appearing and disappearing under our fingertips at the click of the mouse, SITI Company is something akin to a miracle. Founded in 1992 by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki to redefine and revitalize contemporary theatre in the United States through an international collaboration, SITI has just celebrated its 20th anniversary.

I have been working with the group on Café Variations for six weeks now. As a bona fide lifelong social outcast, I’ve doggedly trained myself – by desire and necessity – to descry the most diminutive movements: the elusive twitching of one’s eyelid, the subtle smirk at the corner of one’s mouth, the furtive glances, sudden silences, subdued signs and stealthy stares, the entire shadow game of our past passing through our bodies and our faces. The skill can be both a blessing and a curse for the dramaturg. I dubiously pride myself on being able to read with paranoid precision all of that inconspicuous symphony of micro-gestures that shamelessly betrays our history: recoiled-from love affairs, thwarted ambitions, the quotidian discontents of our lives.

Like any group of people who have known each other for over two decades, I expected SITI to carry its own history, but I can discern none of it. We have been working together now for six weeks, and the invisible incessantly eludes me. In the rehearsal room, there is no past; there is even no future. There is only the present moment, the now, the immediate. Every rehearsal room aspires to create that unbearable lightness of the present moment, when both past and future are shed like street clothes, but SITI turns being in the present into an art . . . a metaphor for theatre and for life . . .

The history of Western drama is invariably connected to Western man’s ontological and epistemological predicament – we construct meaning out of our lives in the same way we construct our dramas: following the Aristotelian model. According to Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and the first dramaturg, a well-structured play should have a beginning, a middle and an end. In this model, the meaning of the drama comes from the well-defined progression of deliberately arranged narrative elements: exposition, conflict, climax, denouement, catharsis. However we choose to create meaning in our lives – through love, sex, God, family, intellectual, artistic, altruistic or hedonistic pleasures – we follow Aristotle’s narrative structure, with a redemptive narrative and hope for a cathartic death at the end. This is particularly true for Americans, the eternal optimists compulsively making sense out of the most random, violent, senseless events – no death can go unredeemed, with foundations, memorials or new laws proudly flying in the face of the cosmic meaninglessness of it all.

But that is not how our lives are: old love affairs end with no poignant closure; unresolved friendships we’ve lost on the way to better pastures find no redemptions; lost letters, forgotten people, meaningless tragedies and moments of pure eudemonia appear and disappear with no higher purpose, out of nowhere and for no reason. Our lives are made up of a constellation of moments, with no promise of catharsis. The elusive connection between our dramatic tradition and our existential predicament is perhaps the reason behind the luxating anxiety we feel when theatre postpones the alembic gratification.

Café Variations is constructed from a constellation of moments from many lives, some arranged into stories, with a beginning, middle and end, others left unresolved, without closure, without meaning. The denizens of the café move through each others’ lives abruptly and on the sly, cruelly and gently, torn and lost, trying to both hold on to and escape one other, driven by love, fear and desire. Leaving and moving on, driving each other crazy, violently yearning for human touch, and megalomaniacally indulging in the solipsistic pleasures of rejection, they seduce, comfort, amuse and savage each other. We, the Tellurian creatures vis-à-vis our serendipitous universe. If you leave our café with one thought, perhaps let it be this one: there might be no grand meaning to our existence – perhaps “all of this happens by chance, by pure chance” – perhaps our lives are just that: “a constellation of moments” – but so what? Maybe this realization is as tragic as it can be funny. Maybe neither happiness nor unhappiness has to make sense. Maybe it is still all all right . . .

CAFÉ VARIATIONS: Meet the Choreographer

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:02:26 -0400

Dramaturgy student Tierra Bonser interviews Barney O’Hanlon, choreographer.

Barney O’Hanlon, aside from playing the role of Harold in Café Variations, is working as choreographer on this (as many of the designers have described) immense piece of musical theatre comparable in size and vastness even to an opera. With as many as thirty people on stage and dancing at one time, O’Hanlon said his ultimate hope in regards to the choreography is for “the audience to want to get up and dance, to tap their toes,” and to feel the joy of seeing swing-style dance in full action. He and I talked about the intrinsic joy in that kind of movement and O’Hanlon mentioned how, because humans are full of empathy ions, when a body sees another body moving in space, it cannot help but respond with another kind of movement. So, ladies and gentlemen, plan on bouncing out of your seats.

Drawing on inspirations ranging from Pina Bausch to Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, O’Hanlon said his process began with learning the music by heart. He already had his eye on two pieces of Gershwin instrumentals to be what he called “chair dances” (the name is self explanatory) and started with them alone in the studio. From there he incorporated dances from the 1940’s and 1950’s for the big group scenes and continues to develop as the process continues.

O’Hanlon has been working with Anne Bogart since before the creation of the SITI Company so her style and process are not new to him, and he mentioned Anne’s interest, even in the ‘80’s, in how people are together in both the public and private spaces. He recalled a piece that the two of them worked on called “Behavior in Public Places”, based on the book of the same title by Erving Goffman; the same book that was revisited in the work-shopping phase of Café Variations. O’Hanlon talked about the way café culture has changed and, even now, how very different it is as a cultural phenomenon in the U.S. compared to Europe. He looked at me in all seriousness and with a gesture of his hand said, “What we’re doing right now…is rare. Especially now because you have…you know,” and he pointed surreptitiously behind me to a student on a laptop, completely absorbed and ignorant to the world passing by the window in front of his face but behind his glossy screen.

I nodded and smiled because it is true. I can’t think of the last time I went to a café with the intention of meeting someone just to talk. It’s always for a meeting, an interview, to write a paper or read a book, but then I must ask, why, if I am seeking no interaction, would I even go to a café at all? And herein lies one of the many facets of the play in production as we speak.

Image 1: Gene Kelly

Image 2: Gene Kelly & Mitzi Gaynor

Image 3: Gene Kelly, Taina Elg, Mitzi Gaynor & Kay Kendall in “Les Girls”

Image 4: Pina Bausch, Kontakthof

CAFÉ VARIATIONS: Meet the Lighting Designer

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:50:00 -0400

Emerson dramaturgy student Tierra Bonser interviews Brian Scott, Café Variations’ lighting designer.

Brian Scott describes his role as lighting designer as a “visual storyteller with light composition, the purpose of which is to support the way a story is being told as a whole and to acknowledge the importance of smaller stories within it that can be brought out through wide shots or close ups.” Thank goodness this was a phone interview, because I was knocked off my feet momentarily.

I’ve been training as a performer at Emerson for the last four years; though my track has taken me through many production positions and I’ve even worked as a tech for three of those years in the Cabaret student performance space doing basic lighting and sound, I never really connected the real meaning of lighting design in a production. I always humbly acknowledged the importance of this stage element and even was awed by its visual power, but with one fell swoop Scott changed my whole perspective; suddenly he was an active storyteller with as much stage presence as an actor in the space. He said he sees himself as a:

“Visual dramaturg whose job is to develop what the company is finding in rehearsal, but also to develop those parts of the production that I connect with emotionally. I help to craft the world of the play so that things that are important to me are seen, but also I must give the audience openness to see and follow what compels them in the story.”

Does this make him an editor, a visual manipulator? If the answer were yes, then Scott would argue that he isn’t doing his job. He does not wish to edit an audiences’ perspective of the play, he wishes to give them the opportunity to see more and to decide what they think is important and why. Scott said of Café Variations, “this piece has power enough to give audiences the opportunity to find their own bliss,” implying that if he were any kind of visual editor the audience would be trapped in finding his bliss.

As far as process is concerned, much of the work is intuitive and created when Scott enters the actual performance space. Ahead of time he has preliminary discussions with the company to determine the anticipated light requirements in the way of spotlights, specials and stage washes; but from that very basic outline, Scott enters the rehearsal ready to respond to the bodies on stage and the feelings he is picking up while watching—to fill in the so-called coloring and features of his design. In a way, what he is doing is similar to a location painter. The artist can prepare by appropriating all the required materials and might even have a sketch of the sunset in mind, but only when he arrives on the spot and sees the vast array of colors and feels the warmth of the sun’s rays on his face can he truly capture it in paint. Scott is a painter only his medium is light and his pallet is emotional resonance.

Lighting Design Inspirations

Image 1: Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942

Image 2: Edward Hopper, Summer Evening, 1947

Image 3: Edward Hopper, Rooms By the Sea, 1951

Check out these films, books and music related to CAFÉ VARIATIONS

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:56:40 -0400

By Corrie Glanville

FILMS

Brief Encounter (1945)

I had the opportunity to see Kneehigh Theatre’s captivating stage adaptation at the American Conservatory Theater a few years ago, which incorporated clips from David Lean’s mournful 1945 film. Written by Noel Coward and based on his own play, Stillife, a shabby railway station café becomes the backdrop of a casual encounter between Laura Jesson and Alec Harvey. Though Laura is trapped in a stifling marriage, they fall helplessly in love, knowing that any future is impossible. With Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson.

Baghdad Café (1987)

This delightful 1980s gem is set in a remote truck stop café and motel in the Mohave Desert owned by the financially struggling Brenda. When a German woman, recently abandoned by her husband, arrives out of nowhere, Brenda, also separated, has her suspicions, but they develop an unlikely alliance as the café is transformed into a flourishing oasis.

The Girl in the Café (2005)

Two of my very favorite actors, Bill Nighy and Kelly McDonald, play a pair of May-December lovers in this unusually intelligent romance. Lawrence (Nighy) is an older, lonely and much overworked British civil servant who falls hard for McDonald’s Gina, a haunted young woman he meets by chance in a café. On a whim, he asks her to attend the G8 Summit in Reykjavik with him. But their nascent relationship is tested by Lawrence’s professional obligations and her unwavering convictions.

BOOKS

Conversations with Anne by Anne Bogart (2012)

Anne Bogart has been siting down with many of the great theatre artists of our age in her SITI company studio since 2002; now, 24 of these riveting conversations are collected in this brand new release from Theatre Communications Group. Exploring everything from what drives them to create to the future of theatre, Bogart’s interviews include Bill T. Jones, Julie Taymor, Tina Landau, Paula Vogel, Peter Sellars and Mary Zimmerman.

A Nearly Normal Life: A Memoir by Charles Mee (2000)

Playwright Charles Mee recalls growing up in the relentlessly cheerful Midwest of the 1950s filled with football and girls until he was diagnosed with polio at the age of 14. As his carefree childhood came to an abrupt end, this elegant memoir traces how his diagnosis shaped him as a survivor and the vital role books played in his “rebirth.”

The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg (1999)

Arguably, Americans place more emphasis on the concept of the private unlike much of the rest of the world who depend on public spaces. Oldenburg makes the case for the absolute necessity of places like cafés and bookstores that allow people to gather for conversation and company; more than just hangouts to relax, but are crucial for strengthening both community and democracy.

MUSIC

Gershwin Greatest Hits (1991)

The perfect introduction to Gershwin with the inimitable Arthur Fiedler conducting the Boston Pops in this collection that includes “Rhapsody inBlue,” “Concerto in F” and a remastered version of An American in Paris.

Essential George Gershwin (2003)

For those who want a more extensive and varied collection, this two disc set contains both songs and orchestral works with classic recordings such as Billie Holiday’s “Summertime” and Fred Astaire’s “Let’s Call the Whole Off,” as well as contemporary interpreters of Gershwin that include Tony Bennett and Michael Feinstein.

Oh Lady Be Good: Best of Gershwin Songbook by Ella Fitzgerald (1996)

Very little makes me as happy as hearing Ella Fitzgerald sing “Someone to Watch Over Me”; this collection includes that classic along with other jewels like “S’Wonderful,” “Funny Face,” “But Not For Me,” and “Embraceable You.”

CAFÉ VARIATIONS: Meet the Costume Designers

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:22:42 -0400

Emerson dramaturgy student Tierra Bonser interviews Caitlin Ward and Rafael Jaen, co-costume designers.

They sat in the Emerson College costume shop across from each other and sounded like old friends, one picking up the conversation where the other left off, complementing one another and discovering new ideas as a team. “We complete each other’s sentences with design,” Rafael Jaen of Emerson College said of Caitlin Ward of SITI Company. “Caitlin paints images for the stage,” Jaen started and, “Rafael takes good ideas apart and finds fabulous ways to use the elements of them,” Ward finished.

Apparently this kind of design collaboration does not happen all too often and both designers could not be more thrilled to be working on this project that allows them to reinvent vintage shapes with splashes of color and intuitive design choices. Locating the costume design in a 1950’s silhouette, the costumes for the men are an array of sharp looking suits and the women are going to cut through space in wide organza dresses, some with Dalmatian polka-dots, others in velvet American blue.

Ward explained that her joy in working with Anne Bogart is that while many productions require period costuming or specific choices based in realism, “With her [Anne] it’s okay to be graphic or visual and that can be enough justification for a choice. She’s interested in the repetition of form—which you will see in the music, in the text, in the choreography and in the design.” This repetition of form can be found in themes like polka dots for the women, for example, where the designers are using texture and color to describe character as well; the work lends itself to a more abstract feel because, as Jaen put it, “the characters of the play are more indicative of characteristics than anything—one might be Rebellion and another Searching, for example.” So the designers get to consider fabric, color and shape with an idea like rebellion in mind rather than, “This is a woman of 35, a single mother and a corporate business woman—what would she wear on a day like this?”

Throughout their team process, Ward and Jaen Skyped, exchanged text messages and phone calls as well as research about films of the 1950’s era and even cars. They spoke about the ideas behind the design as abstracting the everyday and the commonplace—they even mentioned Chaos Theory. “The thing about realism is, I hate it,” Ward said plainly and confidently. Instead the team is looking to find abstract ways of looking at something recognizable by validating the heritage of café culture (the suits, the dresses, the heels) but making it current with choices in bright color palettes and exciting patterns and textures. They are playing with the freedom of “messing with expectations in dress coding, gender and period, of finding new ways to interpret the every day.” So you might see a 1950s suited man with an iPod or a tablecloth ripped off a table and made into a woman’s—even a man’s—dress.

This virtuoso design team is changing the way we see and experience character in a play that is all about reinterpretation and exploration of daily occurrences.

What did you think of TOMÁŠ KUBÍNEK?

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:34:11 -0400

What would you like to see Tomáš Kubínek invent next? Have an idea for a fantastically useless invention? Join the conversation by commenting below.

A Fresh Take on Gershwin: Café Variations Arranger/Orchestrator Rachel Grimes

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:07:00 -0400

Emerson dramaturgy student Tierra Bonser interviews Rachel Grimes, Orchestrator & Arranger for Café Variations.

Self-described as an arranger and orchestrator for Café Variations, Rachel Grimes has been working hand-in-hand with director Anne Bogart, as well as the many other members of the acclaimed SITI Company, to develop the music for this new musical production. Having participated in Viewpoints training many summers, Rachel Grimes contributed music to several previous SITI productions. She also tours the U.S. and Europe as a solo pianist, and recently with chamber ensemble Orchestra Kandinskij. Her recordings have been used in numerous films, dance and theatre productions.

When planning for Café Variations began, the group knew that they wanted to use the works of George and Ira Gershwin as their musical scoring and inspiration for the piece; the infinite romance and timelessness of the music made it a perfect choice. It was then up to Grimes and her team to discover how and why songs like “Rhapsody in Blue” and “Can’t Take That Away From Me” fit into the world of the play and in what ways those songs might be reinterpreted and presented in a fresh way.

“The intimidation of saying something new with Gershwin’s work,” has been Grimes’ biggest challenge thus far, but then again, that is the challenge everyone on this production is facing; in fact, it’s the whole point. Take a café—almost as familiar a setting as the home; take love and loss and reunion; take the, “Is this seat taken?” conversations—all of these things that are familiar to us, but put them together, flip them around and, as an audience, we see the daily, the commonplace, the “I’ve heard it all before,” in a whole new, important and vital way. The same goes for the music. Tweak the arrangement of Gershwin’s song or treat the lyrics as text and you’ve discovered a nuance that perhaps wasn’t there before. And this is exactly what Grimes has been doing. As part of her process she says she doesn’t even look at notes on the page until she has the lyrics completely in the palm of her hand. When she feels comfortable with content, she then approaches the numerous versions and interpretations that are available of Gershwin’s work to try to get a feel for different flavors and colors of the music. Finally, as a pianist, Grimes sits at the piano and improvises the music on her own, letting her mind free-associate with each part of the score. From the way she described it, the process doesn’t sound unlike the way an actor becomes familiar with a script, finding the breaths and the pauses and the moments of discovery.

“Part of the work is discovering a way of telling a specific story with music that can stand alone, but also one that heightens, informs and inspires the work on stage,” Grimes said, and “Rhapsody in Blue” was chosen to inform the musical as a whole; this composition of Gershwin’s is “full of ideas—seven or eight themes, six sections and follows those ideas in a linear form,” and so each section of the composition informs staging and arranging for the various movements of the script and story. While some arrangements will be similar to their original scoring, others are drastically changed in composition and are interpreted in different song standards, like 1920’s or 1950’s styles.

Grimes explained that the work of the SITI Company often uses music as a stage element, sometimes to complement what is on stage and other times to juxtapose; she said in the case of Café Variations, the music might be directly related to the events on stage or it might become a dreamland for the characters, a portal that allows them, and the audience, to go to any place or any time. This process is typical of the SITI Company, but it is very new to stick with one composer and to incorporate live music and new arrangements of songs, as the company previously made great use of recorded music. In a high appraisal of Emerson students, Grimes emphasized that they helped in sculpting five pieces at this point in the process and with their voices, “the music came to life because they are fabulous singers and are completely game for anything.”

Grimes ended by pointing out that the last thing this production wants is for even the most devoted of Gershwin fans to think, “I’ve heard this before,” but instead her aim is to invite the audience into something new while giving them the feeling that they have somehow or in some way been there before; to let them experience the romance of recollection and the heartbreak of familiarity that can happen in this most common of places—the café.

The Music of Gershwin

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:34:00 -0400

By Magda Romanska

As a child, George Gershwin would constantly get in trouble; he was well on his way to becoming a juvenile delinquent. It was sheer luck that saved him when his mother decided the family needed a piano for Ira to start music lessons. However, as soon as the piano was pulled up through the window into their living room, it became obvious that it was George, not Ira, who had found his calling.

Gershwin was the musical genius of the Jazz Age, with wide ranging skills, equally at ease composing show tunes and symphonies, a man responsible for some of the most haunting, romantic and timeless songs in the American songbook, often credited for inventing the Hollywood and Broadway music of its early years. Like Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington and a few others, Gershwin balanced between so-called “high” and “low” brow art. Today, more than a century after his birth, Gershwin is still one of the most revered American composers. His songs are constantly reinvented, re-imagined and re-recorded by artists from all walks of life and across music genres, from Elton John to Sting and Cher. George Martin, a record producer, once noted philosophically that, “Many groups of today will say that they wouldn’t have existed without the Beatles. Well, the Beatles couldn’t have existed without the Gershwins.”

Amy Henderson, a cultural historian at the Smithsonian Institution, once said that Gershwin “provided the voice for what he saw and heard around him every day. It’s this vitality, this raw energy.” Scott Wheeler, award-winning composer and co-director of the Emerson College BFA program in Musical Theatre notes that “Gershwin is one of those natural talents who make all other composers despair. Like Mozart, it all seems completely effortless, full of surprises without ever being forced. Also like Mozart, he was a magpie, combining musical techniques from various sources with immense originality and charm.” Gershwin’s music was eclectic, drawing on numerous traditions from across the globe. Michael Tilson-Thomas, conductor at the San Francisco Symphony points out that Gershwin “took the Jewish tradition, the African-American tradition and the symphonic tradition, and he made a language out of that which was accessible and understandable to all kinds of people.”

Gershwin listened to the sound of the city and captured that sense of the moment in his songs. As Tilson-Thomas notes, Gershwin “expressed what it was to be alive at that moment as an American… to let people know what it feels like to stand right here on this street.” Stephen Terrel, the Head of Musical Theatre at Emerson College notes that Gershwin’s music is complex, with melody and rhythm playing off of each other. Terrell says: “What always thrills me most about Gershwin is his sense of rhythm. Even more than with melody, he used rhythm to define character, create conflict, express emotion, and even reveal the beating heart of a city. And if you want to dance…why look anywhere else?”

Gershwin became successful almost overnight, in 1924, with a jazz concerto written specially for band leader Paul Whiteman. Debuting as No. 23 on a program and titled “Experiment in Modern Music,” it was what later came to be known as “Rhapsody in Blue.” Many years later, Gershwin said that he got the idea for the “Rhapsody” while on a train to Boston (another local connection). To quote his own words: “It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ly bang that is often so stimulating to a composer…I frequently hear music in the very heart of noise. And then I suddenly heard — and even saw on paper — the complete construction of the rhapsody from beginning to end…I hear it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America — of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.” Carol J. Oja in her article on “Gershwin and American Modernists of the 1920’s” notes that “Rhapsody’s” “premiere ranked among a handful of the most important musical events of the entire decade. [W]hen ‘a lank and dark young man’ of ‘extraordinary talent’ —as New York Times critic Olin Downes described Gershwin at ‘Rhapsody in Blue’s’ premiere—appeared on the stage of Aeolian Hall, he was hailed by some as the long-awaited American composer who could hold his own against a European titans. During its first year alone, ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ was performed eighty-four times by Whiteman. Gershwin recorded it that June with Whiteman’s orchestra, and sales of the disc totaled some one million copies.” With the song, Gershwin became an instant success, with hordes of adoring fans, especially women, following his every move. At 26, he became one of the youngest persons to grace the cover of Time magazine.

Although most of Gershwin’s songs are full of vivacious joy and infectious energy, there is an underpinning sense of sadness and longing that runs deep through his melodies. Some credit it to Gershwin’s Jewish-Russian roots and family history.

George’s collaboration with his brother Ira seemed a natural fit, though reportedly the two of them couldn’t be more different. Ray White, curator of the Library of Congress Gershwin exhibit that took place during the centennial of Gershwin’s birth, notes that “George was a party animal, sophisticated and glamorous and a clotheshorse and out there playing the piano, and Ira was stay-at-home-and-read. George seems to have worked fast, in a sort of frenzy, while Ira was more contemplative or careful.”

George Gershwin died at the age of 38 of brain tumor. We can only wonder what would be the course of American music if he were to live to old age…

Café Culture History, Part 5: The History of the Cybercafé

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:26:00 -0400

By Magda Romanska

Beginning in the 1990s, many traditional cafés began transforming into so-called cybercafés or internet cafés. The transformation once again reestablished the historical role of cafés as places of public discourse, information exchange and communication. Internet cafés provide internet access to their patrons, usually for an hourly fee. Currently there are two types of internet cafés: those that provide computer terminals with internet access, and those that provide Wi-Fi internet access only, to which users connect via their own computers. The first to install internet access in a café was Wayne Gregori, in 1991 in San Francisco. The concept (and the name Cybercafé), however, was developed three years later, in 1994, by Ivan Pope. Commissioned to design the ‘Towards the Aesthetics of the Future’ art event for the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London, Pope proposed a café with internet access.

Following the event, Cyberia, London’s first internet café, opened the same year. Shortly thereafter, The Binary Café, Canada’s first internet café, opened in Toronto. Likewise, the same year, the first American internet café, The High Tech Café, was opened by Jeff Anderson in Dallas, Texas. A year later, in 1995, the CB1 Café in Cambridge was established. To this day, it remains the oldest internet café in the U.K. Shortly after its opening, internet cafés began popping up in major urban centers throughout the U.S. and Western Europe. Although their decor and clientele varied, reflecting local culture, cybercafés began developing their own unique variation of café culture while changing the way people began to communicate worldwide. The growth of internet cafés is credited with fueling the internet boom and communication revolution of the late 1990s as more and more people were suddenly able to communicate around the globe in an instant.

In 2008, the world’s first virtual internet café was released in Sweden. The virtual internet café functions similarly to the traditional cybercafé but is fully based on the internet. Instead of using their own computers on the internet, users can remotely control café computers. The virtual cybercafé permits users to have complete anonymity. Today, everyone can set up his or her own virtual cybercafé on the internet for private or community use.

Most recently, as internet use at home has become widespread throughout the West and North America, the use of internet cafés has drastically declined. Since more people now own personal computers, they no longer have a need for communal internet cafés. Many traditional cafés and fast food venues also now offer free Wi-Fi access, so internet cafés are no longer unique phenomena. Interestingly enough, however, whereas in the West internet cafés are becoming extinct, they are experiencing a second renaissance in many developing countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America, where internet access is sparse. Often, internet cafés are a primary source of internet access for a local community, providing a shared-accessed model, which is more affordable than personal ownership. The function of internet cafés across the globe varies, reflecting the global diversity of internet café culture, from the entertaining-gaming model to the business model to the social and political model, when internet cafés are a vital source of connection in times of political upheaval.

In China, internet cafés are called “wangba,” which means “net bar.” Although few Chinese own personal computers, the internet is booming mainly because of the widespread use of wangbas. In 2005, China had 110,000 registered internet cafés, which employed more than 1,000,000 people. Chinese internet cafés are primarily used for business purposes, gaming and networking. In fact, the use of internet cafés for gaming is popular across Asia, particularly in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea and the Philippines. In South Korea, for example, internet cafés are called “PC bangs,” and are frequented mostly by youngsters looking to play online games. The LAN multiplayer gaming centers allow many users to connect to the same portal to play virtual games such as World of Warcraft.

In many places around the globe, like Nairobi, Kenya, for example, people use internet cafés to find love via internet dating sites. But the internet cafés also have their darker side. First, there is a widespread concern about copyright violations by internet café users, which is prompting many café owners to discontinue their CD-burning services. Around the globe, internet cafés are also being used for more sinister purposes, such as connecting global terrorist networks, aiding in the global sex-slave trade and child pornography. In Italy, for example, to prevent the use of internet cafés for terrorist purposes, users are asked for their government issued IDs before logging in. In Singapore, internet cafés are also closely controlled to prevent distribution of pornography. In Los Angeles, internet cafés have been known to attract street gangs; thus their use there has been restricted.

Just as traditional coffeehouses played an important role in spearheading the American Revolution, internet cafés have played an important political role during the recent upheavals, particularly during the Arab Spring, when street demonstrations and information exchanges were organized mainly through the use of internet cafés. In many places, internet cafés provide the kind of cultural exchange that would not be possible otherwise. In Kabul, for example, internet cafés allow for intercity communication which would otherwise take days, as often there are no phone lines available. There is also hope that common access to the internet will empower central governments and unite various ethnic factions, thus bringing people together.

Image 1: Gamers Internet Café in Taiwan

Image 2: Gamers Internet Café in Japan

Image 3: Internet Café in India

Image 4: Internet Café in Nigeria

Image 5: Gigabet Internet Café in England (Image by Flickr user Lee Jordan (cc: by-nc-sa))

Image 6: The ExcelnetCafé in Kabul, Afghanistan

[Images courtesy of Google, BBC News, and Masters of Media.]