another great play by Alice Childress: Wedding Band

 

Of all the fine plays I saw last year, Trouble in Mind, by the late, great Alice Childress, was my favorite, so I was thrilled to learn that another play of hers, Wedding Band, was being revived by Theater for a New Audience.

I saw Wedding Band last weekend and found it, if anything, even more brilliant, powerful, and unforgettable than Trouble in Mind. Directed by Awoye Timpo, it's performed by a terrific cast, with the extraordinary Brittany Bradford in the lead role of Julie, a black woman in love with a white man she can't legally marry. Though set in 1918, the play feels as timely as ever.  

Wedding Band has just been extended until May 22. Catch if if you possible can.

https://www.tfana.org/current-season/weddingband/overview

Meanwhile Trouble in Mind has just received several well-deserved Tony nominations, including best play revival, lead actress (LaChanze), and featured actor (Chuck Cooper). I hope that more Childress revivals are in the works--I'd like to see everything she wrote. She's one of the greats.

A BLOCK IN TIME: Christiane Bird's latest

My friend Christiane Bird, a wonderful writer and intrepid traveler, has authored several classics, beginning with The Jazz and Blues Lover's Guide to the U.S. (first published in 1991, now in its third edition).

Next came Neither East Nor West: One Woman's Journey Through the Islamic Republic of Iran (2001) which begins thus:

"I went to Iran to flirt with my childhood. I went to Iran to court the unknown. I went to Iran to see the effects of the Islamic Revolution for myself."

She followed with another book on the Middle East, based on her travels in Kurdistan and research into the history and culture of the Kurdish people: A Thousand Sighs, A Thousand Revolts: Journeys in Kurdistian (2004).

 Next, in 2010, came a fascinating popular history, The Sultan's Shadow: One Family's Rule at the Crossroads of East and West.

 

I can't wait to read her latest, A Block in Time, which, in Chris's words, "tells the story of NYC through the prism of a single block and the lives of people who once lived and worked there. Among them: a freed slave, who was the first owner of the block; a Dutch family with ties to the pirate Captain Kidd; an abortionist rumored to have had an affair with a high-society man; and an arriviste who dared breach the social hierarchy of the Gilded Age."

 

The block in question is next to Madison Square Park: 23rd Street to 24th Street between Broadway/Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue. Tomorrow, Monday, March 21, she'll be reading close to that block: at Rizzoli's Bookstore, 1133 Broadway.  (I'll be there.)

 

Then on March 23, at 12:35 pm, she'll be doing a radio interview with Alison Stewart on WNYC. I'll try to catch that, too.

 

JANE ANGER at the New Ohio Theatre

 

Back in 1589, one Jane Anger published the earliest known feminist pamphlet in English, Jane Anger, her Protection for Women. Pretty much all we know about Jane (assuming she was indeed a she) is in those pages, of which only one copy survives.  

But playwright Talene Monahon has huge fun envisioning a history for Jane involving William Shakespeare in Jane Anger: The Lamentable Comedie of Jane Anger, that Cunning Woman, and also of Willy Shakefpeare and his Peasant Companion, Francis, Yes and Also of Anne Hathaway (also a Woman) Who Tried Very Hard.

As you might assume from the title, this is no deep dive into feminist history, but it is deeply hilarious, providing many a welcome belly-laugh. 

Played with over-the-top verve and gusto by Amelia Workman as Jane, Michael Urie as Shakespeare, Ryan Spahn as Francis, and Monahon as Anne Hathaway, and directed by Jess Chayes, it's at the New Ohio Theatre through March 26.

https://newohiotheatre.org/

Don't miss the LEMON GIRLS!

 

The Talking Band's latest is a beautiful, spirit-lifting show.

See my friend Elizabeth Zimmer's review in the Village Voice:

https://www.villagevoice.com/2022/03/14/the-artful-artlessness-of-the-lemon-girls/

 

THE TALKING BAND--LIVE AGAIN!

One sign that New York City theater life is beginning to return to some semblance of normal is a new, live show by the Talking Band.  The last time I saw a show of theirs in a theater was Theater of No Illusions in February, 2019--a show that in retrospect might seem to have been slightly prophetic, set, as it was at a funeral parlor near the US-Canadian border where two asylum seekers take refuge.

Last night was opening night of their latest--Lemon Girls or Art for the Artless--which La Mama, their frequent venue, describes as  "A comedic and revelatory music and dance/theater celebration of older women and the thrill of unlikely art."

 Sounds good to me!  I'll be at this Sunday's matinee.  You have till March 27 to catch it.

https://www.lamama.org/shows/lemon-girls-2022

 

 

 

Art of Glass

 A few days ago I wandered into a gallery specializing in art glass, and in their back room found a small show of extraordinary works by by Lino Tagliapietra, a glass artist in his late 80s, who's recently retired from glass blowing,

The show will be running through this Saturday and possibly into early next week at the Heller Gallery, on 10th Ave. just south of 28th Street in Chelsea.  

For further information, check out

https://www.hellergallery.com/lino-tagliapietra 

and

https://www.linotagliapietra.com/

where you can see a video of the artist at work.

my favorite play this year: Trouble in Mind

After a successful run off-Broadway in 1955, Alice Childress's first full-length play was scheduled to open on Broadway.  But Trouble in Mind had some tough things to say about racism in the theater, so the author was asked to asked to tone it down.  She refused--and the run was canceled.  Now, a mere 66 years later, you can catch Childress's masterpiece on Broadway with an excellent cast led by the brilliant LaChanze, Tony Award winner for The Color Purple. Produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company, it's running through January 9 at the American Airlines Theatre.  Don't miss it!

From The Wooster Group: The B-Side: "Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons"

 Three years ago, at St. Ann's Warehouse, Jim and I caught the Wooster Group's extraordinary show The-B Side, directed by Kate Valk--a rendition of the 1965 album Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons: blues, work songs, spirituals, and other music and talk from the state's segregated agricultural prisons, recorded by folklorist Bruce Jackson. While the LP was played, performers Eric Berryman, Jasper McGruder, and Philip Moore sang along, and Berryman added commentary from Jackson's book Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues.  Through Monday, September 14, the Wooster Group is making The B-Side available on their website:

http://thewoostergroup.org/blog/

It was like nothing else I've seen.  Catch it if you can!

 

 

THE GUEST AT CENTRAL PARK WEST

 

 

I don't know how I missed this terrific play by Levy Lee Simon when it was first produced in New York City in 2008.  Maybe it had a short run, and I was out of town.  But in any case, I'm so glad to have caught the recent reading or The Guest at Central Park West--presented by its original producer, the Workshop Theater Company, and featuring the original cast.

It seems that back at the time of its first production, The Guest at Central Park West was widely turned down by regional theaters, largely because of an ending then seemed outrageous--and now seems prescient.  It's play that now feels timelier than ever, and I hope it will go on to find the audience it deserves, in many more readings and productions.

You can catch this reunion reading online through Monday, August 10, at 7 pm:

 

https://www.workshoptheater.org/

 

 Your donation will benefit the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A story and an essay

The mission of the online journal Craft is to not only publish fiction but examine the making of it.  Each writer whose work is accepted is asked to provide, as an Author's Note, a 400-500 word essay about the piece. The editors provide illustrations and thoughtful introductions.  I was especially pleased to have my short story "The Wishing Pot" published there because the story about how the story came to be is unusual, and something I wouldn't have been given the chance to tell in other publications.

https://www.craftliterary.com/2019/08/09/wishing-pot-kathryn-paulsen/

 Craft pays modestly and publishes a new story every week.

WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME: see it before it closes

. . . if you haven't already.  The story of how, as a teenager, actor/writer Heidi Shreck put herself through college by performing in debates about the U.S. Constitution sponsored by the American Legion, What the Constitution Means to Me is a unique and extraordinary show--and timelier than ever.

The play--nominated for Tonys and other awards--is running through August 24.  If you miss it in New York,  try to catch it (with a new cast) in the national tour, scheduled to begin in Los Angeles in January 2020.

First begun in 1938, the competition still exists.  For a description, see

https://www.legion.org/oratorical/about

and the rules

https://www.legion.org/oratorical/rules

Can't wait to read!

The Great Eastern, Howard A. Rodman's imagining of Captain Ahab confronting Captain Nemo, forthcoming in June from (appropriately) Melville House.

The Great Eastern

For information about Howard' book tour (including an appearance at the  Center for Fiction in Brooklyn on June 12:

howardrodman.com

Brooklyn Folk Festival this Friday

It took me a few years to get myself to the Brooklyn Folk Festival, but, with a rich variety of terrific performers, music and dancing workshops, historic documentaries, jams, crafts, and eats,  it soon became one of the highlights of spring for me.  


http://brooklynfolkfest.com/.

One of these days, maybe I'll even catch their Banjo Toss into the Gowanus Canal. 

Stories and poems

An early story of mine, "Music of the Stairs," can be read on the website of Frontera--a new bilingual magazine:

https://www.fronteralit.com/

"Research," a piece of flash fiction, was published in the Australian web journal Scum:

http://www.scum-mag.com/category/fiction/

And you can find two short poems, "[Recovery]"  and "We of Few," in these journals:


https://maudlinhouse.net/recovery/

https://www.lockjawmagazine.com/vol6/paulsen/

 

Nassim

"It's like a pop-up book," said my friend Peter, about the play we'd just seen--NASSIM--which is named for its Iranian author, Nassim Soleimanpour, and has to do with, among other things, the challenges he's faced in getting his work into the world, and the need to overcome the barriers of language and culture that divide us. It was an astute observation:  NASSIM wasn't like anything else I've seen--but it was a bit like a picture book, and I ended up seeing it twice.

The first time, late last year, I thought, my sisters (both educators) would love this.  Then in January, my sisters were coming to town for a long weekend, and discount tickets were available, so I seized the opportunity, knowing that the show would be different since the guest actor would be different from the one I'd seen.  But there would be Farsi lessons, there would be tomatoes, and there would be audience participation.

My sisters loved the show, and, once again, I did, too.

It's running through April 20 at City Center, and for some performances you can find out who the guest actor will be.

https://www.nycitycenter.org/pdps/2018-2019/nassim/

The Talking Band's latest

I'm a huge fan of the Talking Band--for me, one of NYC's finest theatrical treasures--but I sometimes miss their shows because, typically, they only do one a year, running a mere 2-3 weeks.

This year, along with a couple of friends, I'm going to their latest--City of No Illusions--on opening night, 2/8, at La Mama. 

Here's how they describe the show, which runs through February 24:


"Set near the U.S. - Canadian border in Buffalo, New York, a funeral home run by two twin sisters has inadvertently become a sanctuary for two young immigrants."

 They're currently offering $20 tickets for the first four performances, with the discount code CITY1.
  
How can you resist? 

https://talkingband.org/works/city-of-no-illusions/ 

A Question of Honor . . .

Or, in Italian, Una questione d'onore.  Directed by Luigi Zampa and released in 1966, it's a broad satire of family feuds and honor killings in Sardinia--darkly hilarious, outrageous, and original. And as if a documentary about the culture of the region were embedded in it, the film also offers extraordinary scenes of Sardinian music, dancing, and courtship and wedding customs. 

I just saw A Question of Honor at MOMA, where it's part of a series of films starring the actor Ugo Tognazzi, billed as Tragedies of a Ridiculous Man. I hope to catch more of the other gems in the series.

You have one more chance to see this one--on December 13, at 7:30.

https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/4952

Closing this weekend--Don't miss!

I just saw a terrific production of Maxim Gorky's first play, Meshahnye, at the Theater for the New City. Written in 1901 and first produced a year later, it's a drama of family conflict during the upheaval of pre-revolutionary Russia.  Director and co-translator Jenny Sterlin introduced the show with a warning that the intermission would be a "hard" 10 minutes because "it's a long play--it's Russian."   Long it is--we got out a few minutes before 11--but worth every minute.

It closes on September 30.

theaterforthenewcity

Vietnam Veterans Plaza

Somehow I didn't realize, or had forgotten until this month, that New York City has a memorial to Vietnam veterans, created in the same era as the one in Washington, DC, the early 1980s. It's a small riverside park on South Street called Vietnam Veterans Plaza. Two days ago, thinking about John McCain, I stopped and spent some time there.

Etched on the glass wall are quotations from writings of New Yorkers who served in Vietnam, including this letter from LT JG Richard W. Strandberg:  "One thing worries me--will people believe me?  Will they want to hear about it or will they want to forget the whole thing ever happened."  And this, from a poem by Major Michael Davis O'Donnell, written shortly before he was killed in action on March 24, 1970:

And in that time  When men decide and
Feel safe to call the war insane . . .
Take a moment to embrace those
Gentle heroes you left behind . . .

Aretha, now

If you happen to see this on August 19, right now, and till midnight, WKCR (89.9) is playing nonstop Aretha.

WKCR 89.9FM NY

Can't tear myself away.