Camille Utterback, whose massive interactive digital "paintings" were a major part of the Milwaukee Art Museum's 2008 show, "Act/React," has won a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. The museum's show was the most prominent American group show so far in Utterback's career. The 2009 "Genius Grant" is a $500,000 award that carries no requirements for future work. Utterback's works are projected "paintings," often abstractions, that interact with the viewer through the use of motion detectors and digital processing. She lives and works in San Francisco.
Bill T. Jones doesn’t think small. Commissioned by the Ravinia Festival to create a tribute to Abraham Lincoln for the bicentennial of his birth, he’s crafted a sprawling theatrical spectacle that’s an appropriate companion piece to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, his signature dance-theater piece from 1990.
Sprawling isn’t intended as a criticism. One of the refrains of Fondly Do We Hope…Fervently Do We Pray--“Lincoln is still a story to tell ourselves”—suggests one of the challenges of a piece this: how to parse the man from the image, to negotiate the path between mythology and history.
Set on a huge, multi-part stage, Fondly doesn’t so much distill as embrace. Its spine is a set of biographical portraits, spoken by an African-American man in 19th-century, Lincolnesque garb,, and danced in an area of light set to the right of the main stage. We first hear Lincoln’s life story as it might be memorized by a 5th grader. And later, the group expands to include portraits of everyday Americans from the past, present and future, including Americans who complain about taxes and speak of the duty of a soldier to fight in a war even if he opposes it.
It's not surprising that Walt Whitman should play a central role here. He's a poetic doppelganger to Lincoln's political vision of democracy. The "catalog" of Americans invokes Whitman, and his poems, "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" and "Poem of the Body" are quote directly. The latter, in fact, is used to great dramatic effect, first as a celebration of the body, and again as a chronicle of the abuses bodies suffer under war and torture.
The stage at Ravinia is sprawling, and Bjorn Amelan's setting is classical in spirit and stunningly simple. The center stage is surrounded by a sheer circular curtain, which also functions as a screen for Janet Wong's evocative projections (she also collaborated on the choreography). Shadows, writing, images suggest Lincoln's ghostly presence throughout the piece, and an image of Lincoln's "ghost train" of legend, which is said to follow the route of his funeral train once a year, is equally haunting.
The choreography is a bravura mixture of styles, often suggesting 19th-century forms. And the company delivered, particularly in the various solo turns.
But the dance here is only one ingredient in a work that aspires to do nothing less than plumb our national mood and consciousness through the prism of a figure that embodies its highest ideals. The best thing about Fondly Do We Hope...is that, like Lincoln, Whitman and America itself, it contains multitudes. And in seeing another vision of America, we can perhaps start to make sense of who we are in the 21st century.
It's only a few months old, but Youngblood Theatre has signed on to participate in one of the most ambitious theater events in recent years. The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later is the Tectonic Theater Project's "sequel" to their pioneering docudrama about the Matthew Shepherd killing in Laramie, Wyoming. On Oct. 12, over 100 theaters around the world will link up with the Tectonic folks in a live pre-show webcast about the project. A reading of the new play follows. The interepid Jonathan West has signed on to direct, and Youngblood will collaborate with UW-Milwaukee's Peck School of the Arts and other community organizations. More info HERE.
Something good, as Tony sings in West Side Story. Stay tuned for a newly invigorated Milwaukee Arts. September is almost here, rehearsals have started, and there's lots of stuff to think about.
Blooms along North Avenue at the height of summer, taken by yours truly.
The conversation over one woman's comments about Ellsworth Kelly's painting continues. There are more entries at Mary-Louise Schumacher's Art City. And some angry and sympathetic comments to my entry at Culture Club. Also, Popehat has logged in with a reaction from outside the city limits.
The testosterone hung heavy in the air at Danceworks "A Guy Thing" last weekend. Ed Burgess assembled an impressively eclectic group of "guys" that added up to a program with quite a wallop. For the complete review, see this week's Culture Club. Photo: Frophoto.
Todd Rosenthal, the Chicago-based designer who works regularly with the Milwaukee Rep might need to design a new trophy case. He won an Olivier Award last night for his design of August: Osage County, the Steppenwolf Theatre production that had a successful West End run. The show, however, didn't match its Tony Award success. Rosenthal, who also won a Tony, was the only winner among the show's five nominations.
Great reviews are coming in for Of Mice and Menat the University of Delaware's Resident Ensemble Players. The newly established professional company at UD's PTTP includes familiar Milwaukee actors Mark Corkins, Mic Matarrese and Michael Gotch, all graduates of the PTTP. In John Steinbeck's play, Corkins is Lenny and Gotch is Squiggy....no, wait--wrong drama. Michael Gotch plays George. Read the Howard Shapiro's review in the Philadelphia Inquirer here. And see video from the production here.
Critics are getting laid off left and right these days. What might that mean for the future? Google "La Sonnambula Met Zimmerman" to find out. Mary Zimmerman's production of Bellini's opera opened at the Met last night, and critic Mike Silverman was there. A search of the production yields page after page of the headline "Met Opera Makes Travesty of 'La Sonnambula.'" Silverman's review has been carried on dozens of news web sites, from FoxNews to CBS to The Denver Post to MSN. Zimmerman imposed a "play-within-a-play" structure on the opera, and Silverman (and the audience, which loudly booed Zimmerman and her production team) didn't like it.
I've not seen it. And I might even agree. But is there really a chance for conversation amid this one-man chorus of disapproval? Something to remember as more critics are laid off. AP Photo/Metropolitan Opera, Ken Howard
Perhaps David Stevens' The Sum of Us shows its age (19), but Ray Jivoff and his Milwaukee Chamber Theatre cast has found the play's sweetness and humanity, even after all these years. For my complete review, go to Milwaukee Magazine's Culture Club.
It's a new year, a new administration, and as good a time as any to rejuvinate "Milwaukee Arts." So here it is.
The issue of the day is the drive in some circles to create a Secretary of the Arts, similar to the government post that has existed for decades in lots of other countries around the globe. If you're game, you can join the tens of thousands who have signed it already right here.
But before you do, it might be worth some thought and discussion. For this post would not just be Obama's Secretary of the Arts. It might also eventually be (and excuse me here if I paint a worst-case scenario) Sarah Palin's Secretary of the Arts or Mike Huckabee's Secretary of the Arts. Discuss amongst yourselves.
n Utterback's career. The 2009 "Genius Grant" is a $500,000 award that carries no requirements for future work. Utterback's works are projected "paintings," often abstractions, that interact with the viewer through the use of motion detectors and digital processing. She lives and works in San Francisco.
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