[note: many, if not most, of these links may no longer be working, but such is the nature of the digital. hopefully, the url and context are enough to help you find any further information you want. if not, feel free to contact me, and i’ll try to help.]
agosto 2015
¡hola, difus@s!
rather than take month's vacation, i’m keeping this boletín pretty short…
teaching a short course on art and finance had me in the city more this month than last, and, as much as i missed my beach time, the shows i caught more than compensated for that loss.
delusion of the fury was my most anticipated performance of the month, and it didn’t disappoint. partch’s music is generally interesting and, at times, gorgeous, but seeing it performed was much more engrossing. the instruments themselves are fascinating, and heiner goebbel's direction was superb. he’s clearly one to watch (could we please have him breathe some new life into the met?), as is dave malloy, whose preludes was a tender and quirky take on (rachmaninoff’s) creative stasis and (hypno)therapy—but his ghost quartet was, for me, a superior work.
the twentieth-century way was a quicksilver meditation on theater (both that which happens on stage and that in which we’re all always engaged off stage) grounded in the history of sexual anxiety and repression, which made it so much more than meta-theater. the writing and the acting were top-notch, and i genuinely hope it gets another run soon.
also deserving of another, longer run was 10 out of 12, which (were i to choose) was the highlight of the month. the narrative is simply a (time-elapsed) tech rehearsal in which fragments of other narratives (actors’ stories, their conflicts, the technical crew’s ennui and frustrations, etc.) float in and out of focus, on stage, over the speakers, through the audience’s earpieces—the sound design was absolutely mind-blowing—revealing, or at least hinting at, all that is usually invisible to the audience. most brilliantly, the play would occasionally allow those layers to recede from view, letting their disappearance be keenly felt. i can’t recall another show that has so profoundly affected (and will continue to affect) the way i experience theater.
as part of the course i was teaching, i took my students to visit the new whitney, which i’d been avoiding due to the reported crowds, and i’m not sure when i last left a museum feeling so much (for lack of a better word) joy. not only is the building marvelous, with its views and outdoor spaces, but the curation and display of the permanent collection makes such an eloquent, compelling argument about what “american art” is and what it means. i can’t wait to return.
music: taylor mac performs two shows during the first week of august, one at prospect park and the other at the park avenue armory, and taylor is always worth seeing. the international contemporary ensemble (of which i am also a devoted fan) brings two shows, a little night music and into the little hill, to the mostly mozart festival. joe’s pub hosts jane lynch and the martha graham cracker cabaret, too.
dance: the best dance this month is outdoors, with leesaar the company and kate weare company performing in prospect park. walter dunderville at jack and the ballet festival at the joyce also seem worthwhile, if perhaps less sure bets than the other two.
theater + performance: with a number of previously recommended shows continuing their runs through and beyond this month, this month’s more experimental offerings merit priority, e.g., freight: the five incarnations of abel green, the singularity, salome, and this is not j.a.w.s.
film: two one-day screenings are top of my list, hiroshima, mon amour at film forum (because i saw it there not long ago and was blown away) and julie taymor’s midsummer night’s dream at symphony space (because i sorely missing having seen that production live). a new christian petzold movie is great news, so i’ll be seeing phoenix soon (and wondering when BAM or the film society will do a mid-career retrospective of his).
art: with much of the art world on vacation for much of the month, august is a great time to do a round-up of museum shows, e.g., sarah charlesworth at the new museum, simon denny and im heung-soon at ps1, doris salcedo at the guggenheim, john singer sergeant at the met, and jacob lawrence and zoe leonard at moma. two performance pieces, too, have my eye: i can’t breathe at bric and other pursuits at the invisible dog.
soak up the remains of summer, and brace yourselves for a full fall season!
abrazos,
p
agosto / august
1-27: indie 80s (film)
1-2: philippe parreno (art)
1-5: walter dundervill: arena (dance)
1: horse money (film)
1-14: phoenix (film)
1-2: when irish eyes are wasted: a tribute to tom baker (film)
1-7: sound + vision 2015 (film)
1-11: listen to me marlon (film)
1: echoes of etta (music)
1: transformed by the counter forces of earth and world! (music)
1-22: mostly mozart festival (music)
1: taylor mac: the 20th century abridged (music, performance)
1-2: lincoln center festival (music, theater)
1-2: miss julie (opera)
1-8: awake and sing! (theater)
1-9: freight: the five incarnations of abel green (theater)
1-15: the singularity (theater)
1-16: significant other (theater)
1-: the absolute brightness of leonard pelkey (theater)
1-: the flick (theater)
3: kate weare company: unstruck (dance)
3-31: this is not j.a.w.s. (theater)
4: caleb hammons: other pursuits (art, performance)
4-16: ballet festival (dance)
6: leesaar the company, ohad naharin & guest dancers from batsheva dance company (dance)
6: hiroshima, mon amour (film)
6-8: salome (theater)
7-13: richard lester: the running jumping pop cinema iconoclast (film)
8: matthew barney: the cremaster cycle (art, film)
8: robert aiki, aubrey lowe, & ariel kalma (music)
8: the martha graham cracker cabaret (music, performance)
11-16: written on skin (opera)
12: julie taymor's a midsummer night's dream (film, theater)
13: international contemporary ensemble: music of dai fujikura (music)
14: i can't breathe (art)
16: international contemporary ensemble: into the little hill (music)
16-19: see jane sing! with jane lynch (music, performance)
27-29: bailey nolan: dumbo (performance)