Don't Miss "Just Ancient Loops"

At the Bang on a Can Marathon in 2012, Jim and I watched riveted as cellist Maya Beiser played Michael Harrison's haunting and hypnotic Just Ancient Loops,  accompanying overlapping loops of herself playing the same music--which comprised the score of Bill Morrison's film of the same title,  being projected beside her.

It was fabulous and unforgettable, one of the most extraordinary performances I've seen in recent years, and I was thrilled to learn that tomorrow,  Thursday, October 23,  8:00 p.m., at the Museum of Modern Art, Beiser will be doing the same thing in a program that includes two other  films as well.

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/22083 

On Saturday, November 8, 8:00 pm, in Washington, DC, Beiser will be performing a program that includes  Just Ancient Loops  at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.

http://www.washingtonperformingarts.org/calendar/view.aspx?id=2617

Composer Michael Harrison will likely be in attendance at both events.

Not to be missed if you have any interest in new music (or experimental film or the cello).

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/22083d



http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/22083 Moses Fiction Prize

Don't miss: Daughters of the Sexual Revolution

Here's how the WorkShop Theater describes its latest mainstage production, Daughters of the Sexual Revolution by Dana Leslie Goldstein:

"As the country commemorates its revolution, three women engage in their own revolutionary activities.  Against the backdrop of post-Nixon America, they face ethical dilemmas, and question what it means to be faithful—to one’s values, one’s partner . . . and one's self."

Given the subject  and the general high quality of the WorkShop's offerings, of course I had to see the play,  but I kept putting off doing so--perhaps expecting an overly earnest and formulaic feminist tale, a didactic time capsule.

I needn't have feared.  Beautifully written and performed, Daughters of the Sexual Revolution is moving, funny, and thought provoking, with richly conceived stories and characters brought vividly--and memorably-- to life.


See it before it closes--the last performance is Sunday, October 11.

Workshop Theater Company
312 W. 36 St.

http://www.workshoptheater.org/workshop-events/2014/9/18/daughters-of-the-sexual-revolution

Tickets are only $18 ($15 for students and seniors)--a bargain in NYC for theater of this quality.

Found at the green market . . .

an eggplant


that in a day or two
will be
ratatouille.



But I hate to
cut it up.

The song in my head

Every time I watch Preston Sturgis’s Hail the Conquering Hero, I go around hearing "We want Woodrow for Our Mayor," for a day or so.

Today, there’s a darker, deeper song on my mind: the Horseflies’ "Sally Ann."

I first heard the Horseflies in the 90s, at CBGB, on the recommendation of the Village Voice, which described their music as something like "warped old time." Whatever you’d call it, it thrilled my ears and my brain, defying labels.

A few years later, I heard the Horseflies at the Falcon Ridge and Dance Flurry festivals, where I discovered that besides making memorable and original boundary-transcending music, they were a dynamite contra dance band.

Then at the 2009 Flurry, the Horseflies performed at the Cafe Lena, and Jim captured the concert  on a little Zoom recorder.  The band gave him permission to post the recording here:

archive.org/details/horseflies2009-02-15.CafeLena

For more information about the Horseflies go to

thehorseflies.com


They'll be back at Falcon Ridge this year.

My top 10 + plays for 2013

For me, at least, last year was a great year for theater in New York City--much of it in small venues off and off-off Broadway.


Here are 10 of my favorites--shows I'm hugely grateful for. Many are shows I'll remember for years--and will see again if I have the chance. (See my earlier posts about some of them.) In order from the beginning of the year:

Life and Times: Episodes 1-4 by the Nature Theater of Oklahoma, a Soho Rep production at the Public Theater. I look forward to parts 5-?

The Laramie Project Cycle by the Tectonic Theater Project at Brooklyn Academy of Music:

Part I: The Laramie Project
Part II: The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later

I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Mark Nadler, directed by David Schweizer at the York Theatre

Marcellus Shale by the Talking Band at La Mama

Arguendo by the Elevator Repair Service at the Public Theater

Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, by Anne Washburn, directed by Michael Friedman at Playwrights Horizon

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, set at a women's prison, directed by Philippa Lloyd at BAM; a powerful production from the Donmar Warehouse

Iyom by Lou-Lou Igbokwe, directed by Jessica Creane at the Workshop Theater

Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, a reading directed by Katrin Hilbe at the Workshop Theater.
In Childress's extraordinary play--daring for its time and still relevant now--a majority black cast with a white director rehearse a Broadway play about lynching. Childress was an African-American actress as well as playwright, and Trouble in Mind, her first professionally produced play, won an Obie in 1956. It never reached Broadway because Childress was unwilling to make the changes, including a new title and an upbeat ending that optioning producers wanted.

Why have I never until now heard of this woman or this play, I wondered, as I watched and listened. I hope to see a full production of it one day soon.

Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw, staged and performed by Bedlam

Hamlet by William Shakespeare, staged and performed by Bedlam

The Hamlet next door

Say there's a castle next door, and the prince is a guy you hang out with. Except for his title, about which he has no pretensions, he's just an ordinary guy--though an unusually smart, sensitive, and witty one. He's a great listener, a great storyteller. He's never been attracted to guns, but he enjoys fencing--with words or rapiers.

Meet Hamlet, as played by Eric Tucker, who also directs, in what is the most unusual production of the play I've ever seen. This Hamlet, the second production of the new Bedlam company, is pulled from the chilly realm of Elsinore to your town, your neighborhood, your living room. You know these people, they're part of your world, and at any moment one of them might be sitting next to you, addressing you. With four actors playing more than two dozen parts, this is Hamlet boiled down to the bone.

Four actors: Tucker spends most of his time as Hamlet, but also keeps watch as the soldier Francisco and may be glimpsed as the ghost of his dead father. Edmund Lewis, as Polonius, takes off his glasses, transforming himself into his son Laertes, and amazingly both characters are vividly alive for us, in the same moment. Andrus Nichols works similar magic with Gertrude and Ophelia, and Tom O'Keefe with Claudius and Osric.

The moving set, with coordinates changing at each intermission, amounts to little more than a few chairs and, beginning with the graveyard scene, dirt scattered on the floor, beneath the actors' feet and close to yours.

That dirt--and the powerful flashlights that probe the darkness at the beginning of the play--helped convey its essence.

For me, watching this Hamlet was almost like seeing it for the first time--at the very least, hearing the words anew, and seeing images that will stay with me always.

In repertoire with Shaw's Saint Joan, Hamlet is playing through March 9 at the Lynn Redgrave Theater, 45 Bleecker Street.

When you go: If the actors ask you to sit in a certain place, do it.

http://www.theatrebedlam.org/