All Around the Edge

Friday night’s theme is “Before the Edge”,  with art and performances with sexual themes that are playful and teasing, such as a Atomic Cheesecake Pinup Pageant and performers such as

• Eliza Charming
• ShortStaxx
• Lee Luscious/Lee Harrington
• Coco Mource
• Dix Washington

and other art and performances on the site. The headliner is the famous sex educator, performance artist, and feminist Annie Sprinkle.

Saturday things get a bit darker, with performances featuring more BDSM and kinky themes such as flesh pulls, rope bondage, and poetry.  Some performers like Lee Harrington and Annie Sprinkle will be reprising appearances with a more explicit theme, and they will be joined by fetish performers such as Klawdya Rothschild, Julie Simone, Graydancer, Sacred Mark Sanctuary,  and more.

It all takes place at the Load of Fun gallery, 120 W. North Ave in Baltimore, beginning at 7pm. Admission is $15.

image used permission of Suzannah Gerber

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It’s only a preview, but it’s a breath of great things to come: the review of the premiere of “Another Evening: Serenade/The Proposition,” by Bill T. Jones seems to hint at a magnificent work to come. Commissioned to create a work celebrating the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, it’s a pretty tall order for anyone but Mr. Jones.

He assembled, along with his usual fantastically talented company, an amazing creative team: Janet Wong on video, singer Lisa Komara, score by Jerome Begin and Christopher Antonio William Lancaster, Liz Prince’s amazing costume design and a set consisting of moveable columns by Bjorn G. Amelan.

The review describes some tricks not working so well – video flames on the columns, for example – but on the whole it sounds like Jones once again is exploring a subject that seems so incredibly overdone in new and amazing ways. It’s a disjointed but serious look at war, racism, and other themes of the day, and his choreography, always pushing the limits of the human form, addresses it like a hologram – in pieces, but each piece containing suggestions of the whole.

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Image details: Cast Members From "Rent" Perform At Broadway For Life served by picapp.com

The question becomes, then, why does it have such appeal outside New York? If it’s too unrealistic to people who live there now, what is it that makes it appeal so much to people like my daughters (who in fact introduced me to the songs and story, and who have seen it on Broadway)?

I suppose part of it, at least, is that it’s not an original story – the theme was borrowed directly from La Boheme, and that’s not to impugn the immense talent of Jonathan Larson at all. As Robinson notes in his article, RENT captures the flavor and spirit of New York in a way that makes it, now that the wheel of time has moved on, almost a historical narrative, as accurate as any text by Herodotus. As a cultural memento of the way a microcosm of culture reacted to crisis…it is a monument as well as a work of art.

So I bid it farewell as it leaves Broadway, knowing that while I’ll never see it there, my children have, and so we, too, are a part of that cultural icon.

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The problem lies in the fact that there is both a state law in Illinois and a city of Chicago law, and the latter is forbidden from making the former any weaker. This means that an exemption for theater can be tricky – lest Chicago fall to the thespian hedonism currently infesting Minneapolis.

Before the Ban, With a Cast of Thousands

Thanks to a comment by Karl, I learned that in Minneapolis there are many bars getting around the smoking ban by declaring their bars  theatrical venues and the cigarettes props. The actors, of course, are the customers, “playing themselves before the ban on cigarettes.” It’s a pretty ingenious little loophole, and while it may seem ridiculous, so does the idea that people need that much babysitting.

Alderman Brendan Reilly, who is fighting to get an exemption for Chicago theatre, realizes that this is not a great example for the opponents of smoing in any form. Still, as he fights for the rights of the Jersey Boys and others to light up, he is confident it can be overcome. ” “The Department of Public Health will know the difference between the Chicago Theater and Joe’s Pub.”

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That’s right. Jersey Boys, currently playing in Chicago, had portrayed the doo-wop singers accurately – that is, singing on the street corners with cigarettes hanging out of the their mouths. But since Chicago has a city-wide smoking ban, an “irate theatre goer” complained to…well, to someone, but no one seems to know who, or where the complaint originated. However, the play has removed the butts from the production (ifs & ands seem to be safe, for the moment).

Think of the Stagehands!

…or something like that. The city aldermen aren’t saying that an actor lighting up a butt on stage is going to actually give anyone cancer (kind of reminds me of when I was juggling torches and I’d reassure the audience that it was ok, I was using stage flame). But still, Health Committee Chairman Ed Smith says, “”We would be duplicitous if we say it’s alright to allow people to smoke on stage. … It’s an adversity to people who come to see those plays and the stagehands.”

As for those plays where lighting up really is written into the script, his advice is that they “modify the lines of the their plays to strike references to smoking and smoke-filled rooms.” Yeah, just change those lines. And by the way, it’s rather bad to show killing, and high heels kill your back, and do you realize what ballet does to your knees? It’s an adversity!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be improving. Alderman Bernard Stone, one of a couple who tried to get an exemption from the city-wide ban on smoking for theatres, said “”When you take it out of the production, you’re changing history. If you want to be true to the times, you’ll allow them to smoke on stage. To do otherwise is like blue laws in the Puritan times.” But apparently everyone else on the council was afraid to sign for smoking…and so, the Jersey Boys, and the rest of the plays, will have to leave their lighters at home.

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However, a little research reveals a CNN interview which may explain why. Carlin never wanted to do the traditional “[insert name of comic] on Broadway!” schtick. Like many of his acts, he wanted a bigger picture to be there. “That’s not really a Broadway show. That’s kind of using Broadway as a prop. I want to do a six-month run and do a two-act show that has a theme to it, and I’ll do it.” One has to wonder if somewhere there are notes in his handwriting for just that kind of show, tying in the Seven Words with the Blue food and wrapping it all up in some succinct little epithet he delivers as he strolls off the stage.

I doubt he’d have regretted a minute of it, though. “Broadway isn’t a very big career move, you know. … There’s no money in it and it doesn’t mean anything to your career. It’s just a nice little jewel in the crown.” Perhaps those are the words of advice he would have given Katie Holmes on her debut, too.

Like everyone else, I have my own favorite Carlinism: “Imagine how dumb your average person is. Now, realize that at least half the rest of the people are even dumber.”

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The Long Tail of the Cat in the Hat

However, being produced on Broadway is not the only way to make money from a musical. Licensing a musical to be performed by smaller troupes can also be a money maker (as Disney has found to its joy with High School Musical). And for some reason, many, many theatre groups all over the country have wanted to produce their own Suessical, making it one of the most-produced shows there is. My daughters have even been in a local production of it.

Horton Hears a Revival

Something about that popularity made producers think that it might deserve a second chance, and so in 2007 Theatreworks took a revised Seussical off-broadway and on tour. “Several subplots have been eliminated — [including] General Genghis Kahn Schmitz and the Butter Battle, the Whos’ Christmas pageant with the Grinch, the ‘Havin’ a Hunch’ sequence…” says Stephen Flaherty, one of the composers (and I have a hard time believing I just quoted that particular sentence seriously). The revisions paid off, and several critics and organizations nominated it for Best Revival of 2007

It looks like the revised Broadway cast is gearing up for a recording session, as well, as JAY Records prepares to give the Theatreworks/USA cast their own shot at immortality. Will this be called a “RBC” as opposed to “OBC” recording? Either way, it will surely be interesting to contrast and compare the two, and maybe some other musical blunders (Frankenstein?) can learn from their example.

image courtesy of Newscom

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Her son, Paul Sills, died of pneumonia today at age 80, having continued his mother’s work and shaped theatre as we know it today.

Paul Sills, the “Orson Welles of Improv”

Maybe you’ve heard of some of the places Paul Sills’ influence was felt. Second City? The Kids in the Hall? OK, how about Saturday Night Live? 30 Rock? Broadway’s Ragtime? Or how about one of his students, a fellow by the name of David Mamet who achieved a thing or two on Broadway and in Hollywood? Maybe you’ve been to a Comedy Sportz workshop or performance in your town?

Really, looking at the list of people and places influenced by and trained through Sills’ techniques is like looking at the entire shape of our cultural milieu. And yet, hardly anyone has heard of him. Jeffrey Sweet, theater historian, says “Paul was never given his due. Nobody did more for the American theater.”

So, in the interest of giving him his due…

Paul Sills & Story Theatre

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In the category of “stage to screen” I could probably somewhat justify Al Gore’s famous slideshow, An Inconvenient Truth. After all, it went on to become not just a book but also a Nobel-Peace-Prize winning movie. Well, ok, Mr. Gore got the prize, but it wasn’t for his work as V.P.

Turning It Up to Eleven

Now, however, it’s going the other way, as Giorgio Battistelli of Milan’s La Scala opera house is going to undertake to turn it into an opera, set to debut in 2011. Yes, that’s right, an opera about global warming.

Battistelli is no stranger to difficult tasks. Given an opera containing a cast clad all in underwear, wearing masks of prominent politicians and swimming in Iraqi oil, he was asked to “take out the satirical parts”, according to the Independent. He didn’t – but ended up with an opera that got a seven-minute ovation. Not too shabby.

I confess, while it seems ludicrous to me at first, I can see why it might work, and I can’t see someone of his stature taking on a project without a pretty amazing inspiration as to where it can go.

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Li Chiao-Ping is a choreographer and dancer originally from San Francisco, now living in Wisconsin. Her dance company has toured all over the world, and she has dedicated her company to “offering programs of emotionally charged and athletic works, with striking visual design and the music of contemporary composers.” She has been the chair of several dance departments and is the wife of award-winning video artist Douglas Rosenberg.

The auditions will be held June 6 from 9-11am at Dance New Amsterdam, Studio 4, which is at 280 Broadway (2nd Floor) in New York, NY. Dancers need to have strong contemporary dance skills and be willing to relocate to Madison WI – which is not so bad, as it’s only a couple of hours from Chicago, and the home of a very friendly performing arts blogger.

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