Dance, theSTEADY,
Pioneering performance art in KC
Innovation. Collaboration. Dedication.
For Co-Founder and Artistic Director Anthony Magliano these three words embody Quixotic Performance Fusion. Fellow Artistic Director Mica Thomas would add integration to the list. "The integration between all the different elements of the group - that's key," Thomas said.
Magliano, a musician and graphic designer, explored the idea of incorporating art forms for a long time before acting on it. He and his wife Kimberly Cowen, a professional ballerina with the Kansas City Ballet, talked about the possibility of creating a performance that would equally feature various artistic elements.
"Kim introduced me to Keelan Whitmore from the Kansas City Ballet, who really into wanting to explore and experiment with choreography," Magliano said. "So we got together and basically talked about collaborating and doing something that is pretty unique to dance and utilizing the local talent here - local dancers, local lighting people, costume designers, musicians and composers."
The show that developed out of this concept laid foundation for the future company.
Quixotic's debut was held at the Boley Art Gallery and was sponsored by the Urban Culture Project, an extension of the Charlotte Street Foundation. The performers succeeded in exploring new dimensions of dance, music and design, but what really made the performance unique is that it was stripped of any distractions. There were no chairs, no fancy ceilings, no stuffy surroundings. It was literally a blank canvas that was transformed before the spectators' eyes.
"The whole goal was for everything under that roof to be all original, all live and experimental," Magliano said.
The co-founders did not predict that Quixotic would exist after the weekend performances were over, but their experiment turned out to be hugely successful. "What happened was the response went over really well," Magliano said. "There was a lot of people that showed up and everyone was asking, 'When are you doing the next one?"
They were excited to be received so well but knew they would need some time to brainstorm the workings of another event. They realized that to continue producing such complex, high-quality shows it would require additional funds, resources and planning.
First, they talked. To friends, to family and to local organizations. They attracted enough people and businesses to begin receiving donations and finding other artists interested in participating. This included Thomas who joined Quixotic's artistic team in the second year, primarily as a lighting designer.
Their second show was the following summer - and was equally successful. But it was in the third year that Thomas and Magliano said they really saw the company begin to transform into a single, cohesive unit.
Instead of showcasing a compilation of short, separated segments, the various artists focused on constructing a story in which each section and each element intertwined to create a complete experience. This perspective became Quixotic's objective.
"We're not just doing a dance performance, we're not just doing a show," Magliano said. "We like to say we're creating experiences for people. We want to step it up to that next level where when people leave, they're inspired all around."
The company's mission fueled Magliano and Thomas to test their limits and push themselves to discover fresh and modern ways to fashion experiences and fuse each aspect. "We wanted to figure out a way to step it up, to make it even more of a multi-sensory experience," Magliano said.
The directors explored new software programs, performance spaces, cutting-edge props and additional lighting techniques. They also hired their first permanent dancer, Laura Jones.
Jones, who has been with the company for more than a year now, came across Quixotic's website while looking for local dance companies. With a strong interest and background in contemporary dance, she was drawn to the company's unique aesthetic. "Its fun exploring all the different kinds of movement and creating completely new ballets instead of just bringing back old stuff," Jones said.
But before she had the chance to pursue the opportunity, Magliano heard about Jones from a mutual friend and called her to come audition.
"I was really excited about it," Jones said. "We met and he showed me some video footage and photographs from shows they had done, and I was amazed by what they could do - the company - having been around for just a short time." It did not take Jones long to find her niche in the group. She has become a main image for Quixotic and also has broadened her performance résumé to include aerial work. "It was frustrating at first because there are so many variables in aerial work and I felt like I would never get it," she said.
Now, Jones loves the thrill she gets from the aerial experience, but said the rehearsal process for it is complex, strenuous and dangerous if not done correctly. She performed an aerial section in Quixotic's Lux Esalare show in June where she was attached to a rope on stage and cast member Matt Bennett was attached to the other end of the rope in the wings.
"It was a little scary at times just because the timing had to be perfect because Matt had to go down when I went up and vice versa," she said. "But I learned to trust him a lot." Cooperation and coordination are essential parts of the production process or else the final outcome will not warrant a completely coherent experience.
"I personally think that Quixotic is a group, a multi-disciplinary group, where what's exciting and why it is important is it gives a true opportunity for multiple artists to work together and nothing is more important than the next," Magliano said.
This rare perspective is what truly separates Quixotic from most dance companies who rehearse by themselves and do not see the various elements come together until tech week. With Quixotic, dancers are working with the composers who are collaborating with the lighting designers who work side by side with the graphic designers who team up with the scenic designers who also conceptualize with the costume designers. Each artist has the opportunity to contribute to the other's success and in the meantime learn to respect each element for what it has to offer.
With the wide range of art forms one can experience in a single show, Quixotic has virtually no limit to who they can attract. "We appeal to the 18-year-old college girl as much as we do to the 60-year-old arts lover," Magliano said. This infinite, mass appeal allows the company to constantly market their mission to new groups of people. Someone might show up for the music but leave with a greater appreciation and interest for dance or fashion.
Magliano and Thomas hope that their edgy commercial appeal will help in their most recent aspiration for the company - to become a full-time, internationally recognized company. "The goal is to take what we've been working on for the last three years ... and take it outside of Kansas City and gain regional and national and international audiences," Magliano said.
A new show with big names is already in the works. Along with their local, corps team, Quixotic plans on touring New York and Boston next August and will feature renowned contemporary dance couple Drew Jacoby and Rubinald Pronk. Until then they will continue to give back to the city that has helped them get to where they are today.
"Kansas City has really helped us out," Magliano said. "It would have been really, really hard to do a project like this somewhere else. And I think the excitement that nothing else like what we do is going on in Kansas City has helped us to grow here."
Their next performance, Live in the Crossroads, is Friday, October 2nd at Mid-America Arts Alliance. As usual they plan on incorporating original music, dance and visuals to fill what the space calls for. And, as always, they strive to break boundaries, exceed expectations and remain a pioneer of performance art.
Quixotic
Live in the Crossroads
Friday, October 2 at 8 p.m.
Mid-America Arts Alliance
2018 Baltimore, Downtown Kansas City, MO
Free admission
For more information visit www.quixoticfusion.com
KC Events this week and beyond
Click here to see all the events on the KC Events performing arts calendar.
How do you list your events on KC Events? It is easy!!
As an arts organziation or musician, you can add and edit your own events.
KCMetropolis.org's mission is to promote traditional and independent classical music, dance, theatre and independent film. We are very sorry, but we do not cover pop, rock, Christian or country music; we do not cover the visual arts or non-performing arts community events. If you would like to send a press release about an upcoming performing arts event, please send to press@KCMetropolis.org.
KC Events Categories are:
Traditional & New Classical Music
Dance
Theatre
Jazz
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KC Events this week and beyond
Check out all the events on the KC Events performing arts calendar.
How do you list your events on KC Events?
As an arts organziation or musician, you now have the ability to add and edit your own events.
KCMetropolis.org's mission is to promote traditional and independent classical music, dance, theatre and independent film. We are very sorry, but we do not cover pop, rock, Christian or country music; we do not cover the visual arts or non-performing arts community events. If you would like to send a press release about an upcoming performing arts event, please send to press@KCMetropolis.org.
KC Events Categories are:
Classical Music
New Classical Music
Dance
Theatre
Jazz
To Submit Information:
- Please go to the KCM front page and click on the login tab located at the top right-hand side of the website.
- Create a login account and then sign-in.
- Read the KC Events Terms of Service before proceeding
- On the left-hand nav is a category called Submit Content
- Click on Submit an Event or Manage Your Events.
- Listings will be approved with 48 hours if it fits the KCMetropolis.org criteria
theSTEADY, Jazz,
Snuff Jazz: Musical assassins free jazz
"It originally had a real violent, revolutionary meaning," Mark Southerland confesses. "Kill the old guard so the free jazz freaks could fly their flag."
The evocative, sinister name suits the would-be musical hitmen who make up Snuff Jazz.
No need to worry, jazz traditionalists. Southerland and his crew are more interested in killer jams than assassinating their old music tutors. Following in the spirit of free jazz, their long form improvisations are explorations of musical topography covering all sorts of terrain-from the melodic to the atonal, the measured to the arrhythmic, the whimsical to the dystopian and all points in between.
Snuff Jazz is but one iteration of the many guises of Mark Southerland, who also leads Wee Snuff and Urban Noise Camp. The prolific and innovative output netted him a Charlotte Street Foundation Generative Performance Artist Award in 2008.
A multi-disciplined artist, Southerland integrates his musical skill with visual art and fashion, disassembling instruments into conjoined, wearable horn sculptures and Frankensteined instruments he affectionately calls bastardized horns.
One such creation was featured throughout the Snuff Jazz performance I attended on Saturday, September 26 at Jardine's. It perched beside its maker all night, looking like the illegitimate child of a saxophone and a flugelhorn.
"The 'bastard horn' you saw was part of an old soprano sax with an even older marching mellophone bell," Southerland explained. "In addition, it has an elbow from a car horn and a couple extra keys."
And just as Southerland, an accomplished saxophonist, has found freedom in making his own instruments, Snuff Jazz is a liberated exploration of improvised alternative jazz.
The full house in attendance at the dimly lit Jardine's last Friday was treated to nearly two hours of music created organically on the spot.
"Snuff Jazz is almost entirely improvised. Occasionally we land on a 'cell' or idea that is recurring in our sets. These cells develop over months and years of playing together."
The rotating lineup includes both free jazz rebels and jazz traditionalists who sit in and revel for an evening of music with no boundaries. The uninitiated may find only chaos and noise in such seemingly anarchic proceedings. Conventional song structures are absent. There's certainly no verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-final chorus road map to follow.
But there is always a method to the madness. Southerland and Rich Wheeler (both on tenor saxophone) begin the performance with a duet. The notes sound dissonant. The lack of a traditional melodic hook is alienating.
Soon, however, an aural image begins to take shape. As Mike Shanks (drums) builds tension with tom rolls, Southerland and Wheeler jump intervals like pachyderms dancing a jig. And then the snare and cymbals kick in and the elephants and hippos morph into a belly dance fantasy.
Jeff Harshbarger, freshly released from his Friday evening stint in the orchestra pit of the KC Repertory Theatre's production of Into the Woods, slips quietly in the front door and onstage.
His mates don't bring the song to a resolution or even acknowledge his presence. They play on. As soon as his upright bass is out of its case, he joins right in and the song becomes a groove piece. All of a sudden the music struts with night club cool.
Mark sets his tenor sax down and picks up the sax/horn hybrid, his "bastard horn." The voice that issues forth is unique but not altogether unfamiliar. It may have been played by a mythical snake charmer confronting a psychedelic hydra. After about twenty-five minutes, the first of many epic pieces comes to a resolution.
Such is the experience of listening to free jazz. It may be disconcerting but it can also seduce you. If you choose to listen hard enough, narratives begin to appear within the staccato bleats, freak squeaks, and frenetic movement of the music.
Snuff Jazz is happy to deliver the enigmatic message. They utilize repetition and motifs to allow notes snatched out of the air to form images. An hazy morning dialogue between cranky neighbors. Basset hounds and bullfrogs and nuclear alarm sirens. A religious ritual. A battle cry.
Southerland and Wheeler play well off of each other, giving and taking the stage with authority and mutual respect. Shanks provides subtle percussive support but occasionally throws down some serious thunderstorm, hard rock drumming.
Harshbarger has a grand time throughout, playing both upright and electric bass, utilizing bows and mallets in ways both conventional and novel. He almost always plays with a fury. At times, his hands move up and down the neck of the upright as if propelled by a flurry of twelve or thirteen fingers.
It's well past one in the morning when Southerland announces, "We're gonna do one more song of indeterminate length." He grins. "Such are our lives."
The crowd cheers. All of them seem to have gotten their money's worth. Some enjoyed having music serve as a backdrop for their evening out. Their conversations floated throughout the room mingling with the cacophony onstage.
There were many other faces, silent and attentive, who tabled their discourse for tens of minutes at a time, scrutinizing the music for a codebreaking clue to its meaning. One woman in particular seemed to have divined its secret. I never saw her utter a word, but her lips were pursed in a smile, her raised hands were swinging and swaying, her body was translating for her.
Review:
Snuff Jazz
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Jardine's Restaurant and Jazz Club
4536 Main St., Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-561-6480 or online at www.jardines4jazz.com or www.hornsculpture.com
Upcoming gigs:
Snuff Jazz
Saturday, October 17 at 10:30 p.m.
Jardine's Restaurant and Jazz Club
4536 Main St., Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-561-6480 or online at www.jardines4jazz.com or www.hornsculpture.com
Mark Southerland presents
Installation Operetta
"Moon Bears and Sister Wives"
Friday, October 23 at 8:00 p.m.
La Esquina
1000 W. 25th St., Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-221-5115
Mark Southerland presents
Installation Operetta Part 2
"Moon Bears and Sister Wives"
Friday, November 6 at 8:00 p.m.
La Esquina
1000 W. 25th St., Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-221-5115
Snuff Jazz
Saturday, November 21 at 10:30 p.m.
Jardine's Restaurant and Jazz Club
4536 Main St., Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-561-6480 or online at www.jardines4jazz.com or www.hornsculpture.com
Film,
Doomed love portrayed brilliantly in "Bright Star"
Rock icon and self-described poet Jim Morrison once wrote, "Did you have a good world when you died? Enough to base a movie on?" While early 19th century poet John Keats, a tragic figure in his own right, may not have thought he had a good world when he died at the age of 25, his life and love were epic enough to inspire the drama Bright Star.
Set against the backdrop of 1818 London, the always struggling Keats (English actor Ben Whishaw - The International, Stoned) becomes entranced and vexed by an 18-year-old girl next door named Fanny Brawne (Australian actress Abbie Cornish - Candy, Somersault), the woman he would refer to as his "bright star."
The opinionated, flirtatious Brawne thinks of herself as a fashion designer and is just as passionate about it as Keats is about his poetry. They gradually fall madly in love, which proves frustrating for Keats whose bouts of jealousy compound his sense of not being able to understand women. It also seems to have an adverse effect on his continually failing health caused by tuberculosis.
The one person who is most upset by their love affair is Keats's close friend and fellow poet Charles Armitage Brown (North Carolina-born actor Paul Schneider - Away We Go, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). Brown is thoroughly disgusted by what he sees as Brawne's distracting feminine games. And out of his deep respect and brotherly love for Keats, he treats her rudely.
Despite the protestations of nearly everyone around them, which are valid in the sense that Keats is essentially destitute, their relationship continues to the point where they become secretly engaged. Alas, their Shakespearean-type love affair is a doomed one; yet the inspired poetry that Keats creates during this time frame helps his posthumous reputation as being one of the most important figures in the Romantic movement.
Bright Star has to be one of the most richly written films to come along in recent memory. Thanks to writer/director Jane Campion (The Piano), it has a dialogue that is as just rewarding to listen to as is Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" or simply the sounds of nature on a warm spring day.
Campion's piece is also a reminder of what we have seemingly lost in the modern computer/internet age - the power of the handwritten word on paper. When was the last time you, the esteemed reader, actually received a handwritten letter in the mail? Color me old-fashioned but texts and e-mails simply don't have the same emotional power. I would like to think that Keats and Brawne would agree.
Schneider and Whishaw are excellent in their roles, but it is Cornish who is simply breathtaking. Her radiance on the silver screen comes not just from her looks, but the emotional depth she is able to produce as Brawne. I believe it to be Oscar worthy. At the very least, Bright Star deserves a nod for its outstanding costume designs.
Yes John Keats, you did have a good world when you died. Certainly enough to base a tremendous movie upon.
On a letter grade scale from A being excellent to F for failing, Bright Star receives an A.
Bright Star is rated PG and has a running time of 119 minutes.
Now showing through October 22 @
Tivoli Cinemas
Westport Manor Square, 4050 Pennsylvania, KCMO
Visit www.tivolikc.com or call 913-383-7756 for showtimes.
Classical,
'Sturm and drang’ at KC Symphony’s opening concert
Michael Stern, conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, summarized the opening concert of the KCS's classical 2009-10 season perfectly when he mentioned "role reversal" while describing the Haydn and Rouse pieces. In a strange move that did not work musically, the works were performed seemingly out of sequence. Instead of the typical "opener, concerto, symphony" format of most concerts, the Symphony performed Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 49 in F Minor "La passione," Christopher Rouse's Rapture, and Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major in that order. Now, I like all these pieces and applaud their programming; however, this program would work better as a mid-season concert.
Opening with a relatively-obscure Haydn symphony in a minor key with an Adagio first movement was a very lackluster, yawn-inducing way to begin what, when glancing at the upcoming performances, looks to be a solid season. The problem with putting the Haydn first was compounded by the fact that Rouse's Rapture was the PERFECT program opener. Rapture had everything a concert opener should: a great build in intensity, texture, dynamics and tempo from start to finish, large ensemble forces, dueling timpani, suitable length, etc. The crowd's reception and unforced standing ovation following Rapture's performance further speaks to its appeal and functionality. This piece will get your crowd going... a Haydn symphony... not so much.
Overall, the maestro and musicians performed well despite a couple flubs and some questionable wind intonation. I found the split-string seating (which apparently the New York Philharmonic under the new leadership of Alan Gilbert is also trying out this season) more sonically fulfilling. I often found the cello/bass sound could be lost into the rafters; switched with the second violins, however, the lower frequencies are more prevalent and the sound of the orchestra seems fuller. Here's hoping Maestro Stern keeps this configuration.
As mentioned earlier, Stern referred to this concert as one of role reversals: in the case of Haydn, with Symphony No. 49, the typically amicable composer wrote a piece epitomizing Sturm und Drang. With it moody opening Adagio to the finale's brisk Presto, the strings were the stars. Their playing was clear, Classically light, and their intonation was superb. The first movement was marred, however, by some sloppy releases between the winds and strings. The third movement's too-brief trio section of the Menuet was a delight as the soli strings paired lovely with the winds and harpsichord.
Christopher Rouse's music is typically dark and aggressive. Written in 2000, Rapture, while aggressive, is much more optimistic and tonal than his other more substantial works like Gorgon, Phaeton, and his symphonies. The principal woodwinds played their difficult solos beautifully and expressively. The stereophonic, back-stand string soloists played with aplomb in their rare chance to shine (even if a note or two were missed). The entire piece had an organic flow that swept the audience along with it. In its Kansas City premiere, Rapture was well received and well performed. Stern excels with interpretations of living composers' works and he seemed more comfortable in this milieu than he did in the Haydn.
I had my own "role reversal" with Brahms this summer, with this piece and with this soloist. For the second time in as many months, I have had the good fortune to hear Yefim Bronfman play the Brahms Second Piano Concerto. I believe everyone has that one composer that they are supposed to like, but for one reason or another, can't. Brahms is that composer for me. I am completely indifferent to his music. Yefim Bronfman is that special type of performer, however, that can make anything sparkle. The orchestra and his playing in the first movement were a bit heavy, but the other three movements were sublime. The scherzo second movement was brisk and capricious and the allegretto fourth was riotously flashy and jaunty. The playing in the third movement of the concerto was the most stunning - it was two months ago in Aspen and was again on Friday night. The cello obbligato played by Mark Gibbs, and later, accompanied delicately by oboist Barbara Bishop, was gorgeous, emotive and romantic. It was the perfect match to the balanced control and precision of Bronfman's playing. Bronfman seemed to coax sound out of the piano at every phrase. His performance was deliberate, no-nonsense, and achingly musically. So I guess Bronfman has won me over to Brahms... for this concerto at least.
Lastly, welcome back Kansas City Symphony and welcome to the newest members!
Review:
Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony
with Yefim Bronfman, piano
Friday, September 25, 2009
Lyric Theatre
www.kcsymphony.org
Classical,
Youth and passion equal brillant playing
After a surprisingly calm Beethoven sonata to begin his September 26 Harriman Jewell Series concert, the young violinist Stefan Jackiw displayed great sensitivity, feeling and not a little fireworks in welcome performances of Copland, Lutoslawski and Brahms.
Beethoven's Sonata No. 1 in D Major, an early work, is admittedly not of the period of Beethoven's great booming symphonies, but still calls for some degree of passion and flair from its performers. Jackiw's able collaborator Max Levinson on piano, seemed to possess more of it than did the violinist in the recital's opening number. Although Jackiw displayed a delicate soft touch, and more than sufficient technical skill for the piece, his interpretation was a bit too restrained for this reviewer's taste. In a word, Beethoven should be more robust.
The rarely performed Sonata for Violin and Piano by Aaron Copland, however, offered a contrast in style which brought great pleasure to the Folly Theater audience. Written during the World War II years, Copland's Sonata came at the end of his quirky early compositional period and is just at the cusp of the years when he brought forth many of the popular ballet and symphonic scores which are the foundation of his fame. Foreshadows of his mature, angular style abound in the Sonata, and while dissonances are heard, they are relatively tame by modern standards and do not stand in the way of a truly beautiful sound. Jackiw and Levinson, equal partners in this one, seemed to have a real feel for the passion of Copland's work, and alternated spirited attacks with expansive feeling, just as one feels the composer would have intended. It was an impressive rendition, and showed the piece worthy of being heard again and again.
Jackiw opened the recital's second half with a furious rendition of Subito by Witold Lutoslawski, a 20th century Polish composer who emerged from the shadows of Nazi oppression to become a significant force in music during the 1950's and 1960's. His six-minute composition is fiendishly demanding on the performers, calling for terrific technique and furious abandon. It is the musical equivalent of a short fireworks display, and both performers leaned into it with gusto.
Saving the best for last, Jackiw and Levinson offered a glorious rendition of the Brahms Sonata No. 3 in D Minor. Johannes Brahms didn't write any operas, but he didn't have to; in his orchestral pieces the instruments are given stirring melodies as great as those in any opera, and in the best performances the instruments are made to sing. This point was not lost on these performers, and both violinist and pianist offered a gloriously Romantic and passionate reading, expansive and dramatic at all the right moments. Both displayed impressive technique, but it was all at the service of expression, as it should be. They were lost in Brahms' world, and took the audience right along with them. It was a performance to treasure.
Only 24 years old, Jackiw already demonstrates a brilliant ability to lift his audience and carry them along with him. As he matures and gains even further nuance, his career may well become one of the most celebrated of our time.
REVIEW
Harriman Jewell Series
Stefan Jackiw, violinist
With Max Levinson, piano
Saturday, September 26, 2009
www.harriman-jewell.org
Theatre ,
There is always a first time
During My First Time, currently running at the Unicorn Theatre, I was met with an evening of offbeat and often shocking anecdotes. Through a series of monologues, the actors were able to speak for nearly every one's first sexual experience. The stories were broken up by statistics about sex, virginity and first times. Audience members were asked to fill out a survey and their answers were read anonymously during the show.
Based on a website first made popular ten years ago, where people could share their "first time" stories anonymously, www.myfirsttime.com, while I'm sure therapeutic for the thousands of contributors, was occasionally distasteful. In fact, it was verging on pornographic. With that in mind, I was apprehensive about what the show would actually contain.
Walking into the Unicorn Theatre, the set was lit with lamps and candles. A large bed was stage center with cushioned benches on either side, along with a few random bits of furniture. Each would be used in many different ways for many different stories. Scenic designer, Gary Mosby, provided all necessary elements for each story, without allowing the stage to feel crowded. The mood was set.
The next thing I noticed was a projection screen directly behind the bed. Before the show, famous quotes about virginity were highlighted. During the show, details about each story were displayed along with erotic art and statistics about first times. Some of the statistics were shocking. Some were amusing. Some were statistics about our particular audience. Jeffrey Cady was the projections designer.
Tanya Brown's properties were functional without drawing much attention. Alex Perry's lighting design featured a strobe light (epileptics beware), single spotlights, and plenty of lighting cues. Benjamin G. Stickels' sound design included songs like Marvin Gaye's Let's Get it On and music from Who Wants to be a Millionaire during the audience survey (clever!). Jon Fulton Adam designed very simple costumes that, nevertheless, told you something important about the kind of characters each actor would play.
Cheryl Weaver, for example, was wearing a conservative pink outfit with a cardigan. She often performed female monologues from the 1960s, or typically "good girls". Her "innocent young girls" monologue, done in silhouette was moving, but I disliked that she played all her virgin characters as nerdy or unsure of themselves. Lauretta Pope's role seemed to be a mid-twenties "normal-type". She had one particular monologue towards the end that was extremely controversial, which she pulled off admirably. Keenan Ramos, a formidable presence onstage, was given some tough character bits that he charmed his way through. Scott Cordes seemed to represent the everyman. He was a bit of a chameleon in this show, slipping in and out of each role with fanfare and delivering a solid performance.
The show, directed by Cynthia Levin, producing artistic director of the Unicorn, was done tastefully, considering the subject matter. (No nudity, thank goodness... that always makes me uncomfortable.) The blocking was brilliant, as the actors moved seamlessly from one story to another. Every part of the stage was used, and nothing was done incidentally, without purpose.
The play was written and compiled by Ken Davenport, who also created The Awesome 80s Prom and Alter Boyz for Off-Broadway. The show opened off-Broadway in the summer of 2007. In the past two years, the show has played all over the United States, and in a few international venues.
Although I try very hard to keep my personal objections out, I think it fair to warn people that this show is about sex (Duh). The virgin was ridiculed for remaining virginal. People of faith are mocked for disagreeing with the "accepted" viewpoint. The show itself is a monument to losing your virginity, getting over it, and looking forward to "the next time". The actors informed us that the gentlemen who created the website wanted to see if anyone else's first time "sucked as much as theirs did". Personally, I disagree with the prevailing attitude, but if the show sounds like your cup of tea, you could do worse.
REVIEW
The Unicorn Theatre
My First Time
Running September 25 - October 18 (Reviewed September 25, 2009).
3828 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111
For tickets call 816-531-7529 or online at www.unicorntheatre.org
Cover Photo:
Cast members Lauretta Pope and Keenan Manuel Ramos. Photo by Cynthia Levin
Theatre ,
Terrifyingly electric
In this thrilling amalgamation by Jeff Church presented by the Coterie Theatre, six Edgar Allan Poe pieces explode into dynamic and murderous life as one actor and one electric guitar-toting performer rock the theatre with passion and awesome talent.
Upon entering the darkly lit theatre from the mid-day hustle and bustle of Crown Center, the atmosphere noticeably changes. Grim and ambient metallic music fills the room. One can imagine the 200 years that have passed since Poe's birth as one's eyes adjust. The Burton-esque set designed by Rex Hobart is a masterful piece of art in itself, which was inspired by the 1953 animation of Tell-Tale Heart and which promises to set the stage for fright.
Straight-jacket clad Bruce Roach (what an apropos last name for this production) begins the performance with the poem Alone, a short work that transitions easily into The Bells, a more daunting piece, that Roach rushed through a bit. However, he happily found his way out of the straight-jacket (and gained his footing) by the lesser-known short story Wilson Wilson. Roach's extraordinary performance of The Raven led into the hair-raising enactment of The Pit and the Pendulum, given entirely and skillfully from the tabletop. The humor he brought to Tell-Tale Heart put a personal spin on the well-known classic. Roach's breadth of skill is fully showcased in his depiction of six separate narrative characters.
Composer, set designer, and technical director, Rex Hobart accompanied Roach with electric guitar. Hobart's own twangy style and dark electric riffs acted as an instrumental narrator, a transitory device, and even as the pendulum in The Pit and the Pendulum with a flashlight cleverly affixed to the neck of his guitar. Georgianna Londre's gothic costume design fitted Hobart perfectly for the sometimes wandering, sometimes lurking electric specter.
To top it off, SeifAllah Cristobal's projection design was superb and added to the sophistication of the dark atmosphere, expertly casting eerie images of floating skulls, ravens, and more. The morbid and downright frightening Poe themes moved many young patrons to find the laps of their escorts where they stayed through the duration - a testament to the horrifying performance.
This thrilling and unique rendition of classic Poe may not be for the very young, but it is for everyone else. Tell-Tale Electric Poe is a visual and musical spectacular - a must-see this season.
REVIEW
The Coterie Theatre
Tell-Tale Electric Poe
Runs September 15 - October 9 (Reviewed: September 20, 2009)
2450 Grand Boulevard, Suite 144, Kansas City MO
For tickets call 816-474-6552 or online www.coterietheatre.org
Top Photo:
The Coterie Theatre's Tell-Tale Electric Poe
Theatre ,
It's midnight at AHT
Award-winning playwright, Peter Colley's, "I'll Be Back Before Midnight," currently running at the American Heartland Theatre, kept audience members on the edge of their seats and guessing right up until the end. Somewhere between an Agatha Christie mystery and an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, this fast-paced comedy thriller doesn't disappoint.
A remote farm house sets the stage where Greg Sanderson is determined his wife, Jan, will recover from a mental breakdown. Jan's hope for recuperation quickly dissipates as their randy, off-color landlord George tells the couple of a murder in the house and of the ghost who still haunts it. Jan is obviously shaken, and husband, Greg, just fuels her emotional frenzy when he tells her of his sister, Laura's impending visit. What follows is a cleverly orchestrated plot packed with fun and fright.
The rustic set design by Del Unruh brought the audience into the living room of the shabby, haunted homestead with open rafters, worn furniture and an out-dated tape deck, used frequently by the actors and which provided a subtle musical richness to the scenes. Shane Rowse's spectacular lighting design - from the eerily lit windows and stairwells to the strikes of lightening to the spooky flashlight accents - reinforced the building drama throughout the production, and in conjunction with Donna Miller's impeccable sound design, put the exclamation point on this first-rate murder mystery.
A veteran of the American Heartland Theatre and an experienced television actor, Darren Kennedy gives an energetic and convincing portrayal of a Greg Sanderson. Kennedy effectively juggles his character's transitions in and out of the personas of concerned, caring husband, dedicated geologist, loving brother and more.
Vanessa Severo who plays opposite Kennedy, is no stranger to the Kansas City stage and her performance as Jan Sanderson displayed her talents and experience well. Severo's authentic delivery of a woman in mental and emotional agony was only slightly diminished by her overly-manipulated voice and a couple of lost lines.
From her first entrance onto the set, Jan Chapman playing Laura Sanderson is the sister-in-law you love to hate. Her palatable foulness kept the audience cringing and squirming in their seats. Chapman's deliberate use of her body moments, her coyness of voice, and near-perfect timing coalesce into a superb performance.
James A. Wright as George is the obvious audience favorite. As the redneck, landlord George, he appears at just the right moments to catalyze his scenes towards increasing doom with expertly timed hilarity and freshness. Wright portrays a knowable and open - even lovable - character whose antics surprise and humor delights.
With its wicked and worrisome twists and turns, "I'll Be Back Before Midnight" is a fearful, yet comedic tale and a good kick-off for AHT's 2009/10 season.
REVIEW
American Heartland Theatre
I'll Be Back Before Midnight
Runs September 11 - October 25 (Reviewed: September 16, 2009)
Crown Center
2450 Grand Boulevard, Suite 314, Kansas City MO
For tickets call 816-842-9999 or online at www.ahtkc.com
Top Photo:
Cast members Greg Sanderson and Vanessa Severo
Theatre ,
Where the wild things are
At the beginning of the Inferno, Dante's narrator speaks of finding himself lost at middle age "in a dark wood"; in Maurice Sendak's picture book Where the Wild Things Are young Max, after spying his mother kiss a man who is not daddy, finds himself surrounded by all manners of mythic-like beasts, and in a way becomes one, too. Transformation links both these stories, separated by six hundred years and set apart by Freudian theory. Add music and lyrics, and one has the magnificent Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine musical Into the Woods, an adult fairy tale in which the forest of the unconscious hides the beasts within us that we meet at our own risk.
Freud is linked to Grimm in Into the Woods: such well-known tales as that of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and the Baker and His Wife are interwoven with an all-inclusive Wicked Witch and connected by a blonde-haired, British speaking narrator with vines threading outwards from his costume. The music is lithe and invigorating; the lyrics are as technically demanding as they are intellectually commanding. How Sondheim and Lapine find darkness in already dark woods without yielding to the unbidden rule to entertain is one more miracle of this show, one of Sondheim's most abstract musicals yet one of his most fulfilling.
The Kansas City Repertory Theatre's presentation of Into the Woods under guest director Moisés Kaufman's God-like execution, which opened September 18th at the Spencer Theatre, brings to light the show's bedazzling interplay between the story and the songs. It is not too high praise to say that the intermission is needed so the audience can catch its breath for the second act which builds to its famous finale. Kaufman has cast wisely: many of the performers have worked in Sondheim's productions on Broadway or in national tours, though all of them register in their characters as snugly as their colorful costumes fit them (courtesy of Clint Ramos). The Spencer stage is, as Goldilocks would say, just right. The sets, by Narelle Sissons, fill the area like Rousseau paintings come to life, with a child's bedroom configured in the middle of the stage surrounded by tall trees that come and go; in the opening number "Prologue: Into the Woods," some characters (like Riding Hood, the show-stopping Dana Steingold) make their entrances through a C.S. Lewis-like open closet. Trees ascend and characters descend, just as they sometimes disappear below the stage floor. Indeed, with Japhy Weideman's sharply etched lighting, the collective staging recalls one of the Metropolitan Opera's sweeping productions.
The first act first presents the characters' problems and then finds their happy endings--or so we assume. The Baker (Zachary Prince) and his Wife (Brynn O'Malley) wish to have a child, but some spell on their house by the Witch (Michele Ragusa) prevents them. Cinderella (Lauren Worsham) has her familiar story, as does Jack (KC Comeaux) whose mother (Tina Stafford) insists he sell his one friend, his cow (whose mechanical facial reactions are worked by the great puppeteer Paul Mesner). The songs--"Cinderella at the Grave," "Maybe They're Magic," "Hello, Little Girl," the last sung to Riding Hood by the Wolf (Claybourne Elder)--gradually reveal the sadness and the uncertainty behind the characters' adventures. Sondheim's songs, routinely at odds in what they mean versus how buoyantly they are sung, gradually take over the stories. By the end of the first act, the Wolf is dead and Riding Hood is safe, the Baker and his Wife have followed the Witch's commands and been given a son; Cinderella, Rapunzel and the rest all seem happy, and the Witch is transformed into an evening-gowned socialite. Yet the ensemble song "Ever After" rings hollow. This is, after all, Sondheim, not the therapeutic-lite Shrek or even Wicked.
The ritual Sondheimesque twist comes in act two, as the assembled fairy-tale characters begin to doubt their happiness. The second half perversely reprises the first, in the manner of an earlier (still more conceptual) Sondheim-Lapine musical, Sunday in the Park with George. Jack's descent from the beanstalk (which caused the death of the giant, so that his angry widowed giantess begins to trample the countryside), in a neat psychoanalytic metaphor, sets off everyone else's descent into guilt and mutual recrimination. It is the other boot coming down on the guilty and the innocent alike, reminiscent of the last-act barber's killings in Sweeney Todd, in which victims are murdered indiscriminately and Mrs. Lovett sends them down the chute, merrily singing all the while.
The unfailing coldness of the musical's unfolding--one senses had Sondheim written, say, The Sound of Music the von Trapp family would have been massacring Nazis while singing "Edelweiss"--is elemental to Sondheim's style. The opening notes, those three piano chords played with insistent march-like determination, announce the show's tone. But it is always a treat to hear the various song threads diverge and combine and recombine, with performers singing over one another; yet, if done right, heard just precisely enough to draw together the emotions rather than spread them apart. Sondheim's songs are composed more like logarithms than with lyrics. The technical unwinding in songs like "First Midnight" and "No One is Alone" demands that the actors truly work together. Their expressiveness in finding the heart of these songs is the key to unlocking the ardency hidden within. For few other composers in any medium can reach so far into themselves, in short pithy rhymes or in soaring ballads. As dark as Into the Woods is, it ends on a note of pessimistic optimism.
For the Rep's production, Moisés Kaufman has reinterpreted the show here and there (he turns one verse of one of the Witch's solos into a rap version that is unnecessary but adds a contemporary touch, and makes up for the Wolf just like Hugh Jackman's Wolverine) without meddling overall. On Broadway, the Witch was the star (Bernadette Peters, Vanessa Williams); here, an ensemble feel makes all the characters compelling. If certain performers stand out more, such as Cinderella's Prince whom Claybourne Elder plays with a nod to Steve Martin's comic vanity and Brynn O'Malley whose Baker's Wife's sadness is sung so sweetly, the Opening Night audience fell completely under the sway of Dana Steingold. Her Riding Hood is petite, tough-minded, and seems to be not merely singing the songs but singing them for the first time. Steingold's timing is Rolex-perfect. It is one of the theatre's magic nights when an audience meets an unknown performer and knows something special is happening. All the wild things in the dark forest remain by the show's end: but for the moment, at least, they are banished from the theatre.
REVIEW
The Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Into the Woods
Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by James Lapine
Directed by Moisés Kaufman
Runs September 11-October 4 (reviewed September 18)
NOW EXTENDED thru October 11
Spencer Theatre at UMKC
4949 Cherry St., Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.kcrep.org
Top Photo:
Michele Ragusa (Witch), Lauren Braton (Rapunzel)
City Classics, Classical,
Music and Dance through October 14
Kansas City Symphony
Rachmaninoff and Dvorak
Friday, October 9 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, October 10 at 8 p.m.
Lyric Theatre
11th and Central Streets, Kansas City, MO
Sunday, October 11 at 2 p.m.
Topeka Performing Arts Center for October 11
214 S.E. Eighth Street, Topeka, KS
For tickets call 816-471-0400 or online at www.kcsymphony.org.
Alban Gerhardt is the guest cellist for the Symphony's classical concerts this weekend, performing the gorgeous Dvorak Cello Concerto, one of the most moving pieces ever written for the instrument. If you love Dvorak's New World Symphony, one of the repertoire's great "standards," then you will also love the Cello Concerto. The great Bohemian composer shows off the instrument in all of its splendor, and why not? It was written for his friend Hanus Wihan, the cellist with the Bohemian String Quartet and one of the day's leading performers.
Gerhardt, a native of the Netherlands, debut with the Berlin Philharmonic as a 21-year-old in 1990, and has since been featured as a soloist with more than 180 different orchestras worldwide, including the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition to our Symphony, he is performing this season with Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tonhalle Zurich, the Danish Radio Symphony, the Vienna Symphony, the Orchestre National de France and the New World Symphony. When he played the Dvorak Cello Concerto in London, the London Times wrote that "once he started in on the Dvorak, mouths dropped...There was such force and feeling in that opening improvisatory flourish."
Sticking with an Eastern European theme, the Symphony will also perform the Dance of Galánta by Zoltán Kodály and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances.
Kodály made it his life's work to study the folk music of his native Hungary and to write original compositions inspired by the folk tradition. The Dances of Galánta held a very personal meaning for him, as the town of Galánta (now in Slovakia) was the place where he had grown up, having moved there as a child with his family. Returning to his hometown, he listened to the dances played by local musicians, and when turning them into an orchestral composition was undoubtedly also recalling the tunes which reverted in memories from his childhood.
Rachmaninoff is best known to modern concert goers for his three spectacular piano concertos, as well as his two outstanding symphonies. His Symphonic Dances, however, still maintain an important place in his musical output. In this delectable suite, Ravel paid tribute to the graceful music of the French Baroque. He conceived of it as a piece for piano, beginning work on it in 1914. World War I interrupted the composition, however, and he returned to it only in 1917. The war years left an indelible impact, for the piece contains an element of homage: each movement bears a dedication to a friend who died in combat. The orchestral version was produced in 1919 by the great French orchestrator and composer Maurice Ravel.
Harriman-Jewell Series
Virsky Ukrainian Dance
Friday, October 9 at 8:00 p.m.
Folly Theater
12th and Central, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-415-5025 or online at www.harriman-jewell.org
For dance enthusiasts, this program will offer an unusual opportunity to see the excitement and charm of Ukrainian dance. This folk dance ensemble is named after Pavlo Virsky, a well-known Ukrainian ballet master, who created the special form of dance for which the group has become famous. Its performances are filled with "bright colors, the unity of content and form and the vivid embodiment of its stage concept," according to the group's publicity, and embrace "the beauty of its native Ukraine, the wisdom of its people as well as the folk tradition of humor and optimism."
The ensemble has toured many different lands including Austria, England, Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Belgium, Venezuela, Greece, Ecuador, Italy, India, Spain, Canada, Korea, Mexico, Mongolia, Germany, Peru, France and Switzerland, in addition to the United States
Lied Center, University of Kansas
Orquestra de São Paulo
Friday, October 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Lied Center
1600 Stewart Drive, Lawrence, KS
For tickets call 785-864-2787 or online at www.lied.ku.edu
Considered the most significant symphony orchestra in Latin America, the Orquestra de São Paulo is led by the talented American conductor Kazem Abdullah. In this concert, the orchestra will be joined by internationally acclaimed percussionist Evelyn Glennie, and will present works by Guarnieri, Brahms, and a special concerto for percussion and orchestra by the contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan.
UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance
Conservatory Wind Ensemble
Friday, October 9 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.umkc.edu/conservatory.
The Conservatory Wind Ensemble is one of the most enjoyable of the ensembles featured by the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. Its first concert of the season will feature the music of Hanson, Bernstein, Puckett, Grainger and other American and British composers. Joseph Parisi is the conductor.
UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance Signature Series
Cypress String Quartet
Saturday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m.
White Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center
4949 Cherry, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-6222 or online at www.umkc.edu/conservatory.
The Signature Series of the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance is the Conservatory's series of concerts by headliner guest artists, often in residence for a short time to teach master classes to Conservatory students. This year the Signature Series season opens with the Cypress String Quartet, a young San Francisco-based quartet which has been singled out by Chamber Music Magazine as "a Generation X ensemble to watch."
The Quartet is known for its education and outreach programs nationwide, reaching over 100,000 students and earning the group an "Exemplary Arts Educators" award from the California Arts Council. The quartet was also recognized for its devotion to education by the faculty of the Juilliard School. They have performed at major concert venues around the world, including the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, the chamber music societies of Detroit, Columbus and Honolulu, the Ravinia Festival, and many more.
Liberty Symphony Orchestra
Young Artists Concert
Saturday, October 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Liberty Performing Arts Center
1600 South Withers Road, Liberty, MO
For tickets call 816-439-4362. For more information visit www.libertysymphony.org
Another talented Northland ensemble, the Liberty Symphony Orchestra, gets its 2009-2010 underway this weekend with the music of Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Bernstein.
The Wagner selection is the Overture from The Flying Dutchman, a challenging adventure for a community orchestra. Of Tchaikovsky the orchestra will play two selections, Joan's Aria from the opera The Maid of Orleans with mezzo-soprano Renee Taylor, and the challenging Violin Concerto with soloist Emily Shehi.
Leonard Bernstein will be represented by a performance of three dance episodes from his movie score for On the Town.
KCM News,
KCM awarded MAC Capacity Building grant
KCMetropolis.org was recently awarded a $5,000 Monthly Capacity Building grant from the Missouri Arts Council to develop and grow a new section of the online journal called theSTEADY. This new section will feature articles on generative performing arts coming from the community including independent classical music, jazz, cabaret, alternative dance and performance art. As part of the development, a new calendar category in the KC Events calendar will be added. A press release will be published inviting local artists in the genre to add their events to the calendar.
Missouri Arts Council (MAC), a state agency and division of the Department of Economic Development, provides grants to nonprofit organizations to encourage and stimulate the growth, development, and appreciation of the arts in Missouri. For over 40 years, MAC has provided vital support and leadership to bring the arts to all the people of the state.
This funding makes possible quality arts programming to communities throughout Missouri. In addition to financial assistance, MAC provides expertise in community development, fundraising, marketing, grantwriting, arts education, artistic disciplines (visual arts, music, literature, theater, dance, festivals, and film/media) and more.
Through funds from the Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Cultural Trust, and National Endowment for the Arts, MAC provides grants to make possible quality arts programming to both large and small communities. Examples of organizations that utilize MAC funds include small local arts councils like the Shelbina Arts Council and internationally renowned organizations, such as the St. Louis Symphony.
MAC allocates funding based on the recommendations of the Missourians who serve on advisory panels that meet annually to review applications from organizations seeking grants. The panel's recommendations are based on criteria that includes artistic excellence, education and outreach, community support, administrative ability and diversity of audience served.
Capacity Building grants help organizations develop special capacity-building projects that strengthen internal operations and systems; supports internal governance and leadership development; develop strategic fiscal and human resources; or create innovative strategies for community engagement and support.
KCMetropolis.org is only the second online arts organization to receive a grant from the Missouri Arts Council.
KCM News,
Help KCM make the match
KCMetropolis.org - YOUR Online Journal of the Performing Arts - is a nonprofit arts service organization designed to offer critical, quality dialogue about our community's performing arts through new online technologies and social medias. We have been publishing for over a year and feature articles on traditional and independent classical music, dance, theatre, indie films and jazz, and are in the process of launching a new section called theSTEADY that will highlight local hard-working generative performers in the community. We are a true grassroots organization and have 20+ local writers on board - talented and expert voices coming from the musicologists, professional writers, etc within the community.
KCMetropolis.org publishes weekly on Wednesdays and has 600+ articles up on the site stretching back through October 2008. This has allowed us to offer more, and more easily accessible coverage of performing arts events - both small and large - than has ever been offered in one place to the Kansas City community.
In July, KCMetropolis.org debuted a new performing arts calendar - KC Events - that allows arts organizations to add and manage their own events. It is much more than just a listing - click on the link and find an entire page of information on each performance, all with easy links to share, print, send to your mobile, etc. We are partnering with other performing arts organizations, online arts purveyors and tourism-based businesses to make KC Events easily accessible in many locations.
KCMetropolis.org was recently awarded a Missouri Arts Council Capacity Building match grant of $5000 to continue development of crucial coverage for the performing arts in our community. We are the second only online arts organization to receive funding through this government entity.
Please help make us a sustainable voice for the performing arts for many years to come - help us meet the match goal of $5000. Every little bit helps - and any donation will be gratefully accepted and gratefully acknowledged on our website.
It is easy to donate to KCMetropolis.org. Click on donate online via Pay Pal or send your checks to KCMetropolis.org at 814 East 33rd Street, Kansas City, MO 64109. All donations are tax deductible.
Thank you for your continued support of KCMetropolis.org and the performing arts in our community!
KCM Staff and Board of Directors
RSS ArtsJournal
Many thanks to ArtsJournal.com's editor, Douglas McLennan
~ Formerly an arts columnist and arts reporter with the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Weekly. Doug writes on
the arts for a number of publications (in his abundant free time)
and is currently acting director of the National Arts Journalism
Program while it reinvents itself ~
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