Shameless promotion of “Shameless”

“Shameless” on Showtime is a guilty pleasure that I can’t stop watching. Objectively I can say nothing good about it, but it is addictive. We’ve been catching up by binge watching. We’re well into season three.

Everything about this show is overblown. They can’t go two minutes without someone using the F-word, plus somebody is effing in every other scene. Now I enjoy a good, healthy sex scene and provocative nudity as much as anybody, but it is way, way overdone in this show. Just about the only adult under 80 who doesn’t have a nude scene is Joan Cusak as Sheila, who shacks up with her sex-addict daughter’s sex-addict boyfriend (they met at sex addicts anonymous); and even though Cusak doesn’t do nudity she does sex scenes that are more implied than shown because what she likes to do to men can’t be shown even on cable TV.  

The show revolves around Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy) and his brood of brilliant but crazy kids. The running joke that epitomizes his character is “That’s a new low even for you, Frank.” There is no limit to how low he will stoop to bilk people out of a few bucks. If he destroys everyone he loves in the process, so be it.

Here’s the premise: Frank’s mother (Louise Fletcher) is in prison for cooking meth and his alcoholic, drug-addicted, bipolar wife has abandoned the family to live with her lesbian lover, and Frank , who has never been sober for more than a few hours, repeatedly abandons his six children to fend for themselves, returning home only to scam or steal money from them. The oldest daughter, Fiona (Emmy Rossum) has raised her younger siblings with the help of the next-to-oldest, Lip (Jeremy Allen White), who is a high school student and an off-the-chart genius.

Fiona is in love with Steve (Justin Chatwin), a car thief, who is really Jimmy, the son of a wealthy doctor (Harry Hamlin) who is married and having an affair with Fiona and Lip’s gay brother, Ian (Cameron Monaghan).  Grandma gets out of prison and comes home to pamper her grandchildren, which involves getting the youngest to help her cook meth in the basement; Frank’s wife leaves her lesbian lover and comes home to reclaim her family; and Steve/Jimmy is secretly married to a Portuguese nymphomaniac whose father is a drug lord who murders his daughter’s lover in front of Jimmy/Steve and forces him to honor his marriage vows. Yes, it’s something of a soap opera.

There is nothing believable in this show. The hyperbole is off the charts and almost every scene offends good taste in one way or another. Yet, despite all that, the familial devotion is sweet and tender, and you can’t help loving these characters (well, except for  Frank, whom you will love to despise).

The art of perception

 The Weekly Volcano, Nov. 14, 2013

Artists have played with tricks of visual perception forever. The ancient Greeks used optical illusions in their temples. Michelangelo used it in his sculpture of David tapering the figure so that it got larger toward the top in order to look normal when viewed from below. Perhaps the most famous pioneer of modern op art was M.C. Escher — he of the stairways that go nowhere.

 

Spencer Moseley, Kiss, 1964. Polymer on canvas, 48 x 48 inches. Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of the artist.

Op art became a popular movement in the 1960s and early ‘70s with artists such as Bridget Riley, Richard Anuszkiewicz and Victor Vasarely with their brilliantly patterned paintings that seemed to shimmer and pulsate, and reverse positive and negative, in and out.

Tacoma Art Museum is now celebrating that movement with a collection of works from its permanent collection including works by Riley, Anuszkiewicz, Vasarely and others. They stretch the definition of optical art to include photo-realist paintings because paintings that look like photographs are a kind of optical illusion. Michael Fajans’ “Net (Public People),” for example, is an astonishing realist painting of a group of people. It is large at 48 by 70 inches and does indeed look like a photograph. It is a striking painting with sharp edges to the figures that make them look like they’ve been cut out an collaged in, but the only bit of optical illusion is a printed logo on a piece of clothing that casts a shadow and looks like it is suspended in air.

Also not fitting in the theme is a wonderful soft-focus portrait of a boy by George Luks, a member of the famed ash can school (early 20^th century American art). It’s a great painting but hardly op art and looks like it actually belongs in the portrait show Sitting for History in an adjacent gallery.

Much more typical of op art paintings are Spencer Moseley’s “Kiss” and Francis Delentano’s “Alternating Phalanx.” And Jeffrey Simmons’ “Flux,” multicolored stripes painted on epoxy resin which hover an eighth of an inch above the surface. And Nora Sato’’s untitled painting that bends around a corner of the gallery in a clever way, and John Buck’s “Dragon House,” which has drawing on sculpture in front of a painting on canvas with similar marks so that the sculpture seems to be a part of the painting even though it stands a few feet in front of it.

One of my favorite pieces is Margie Livingston’s “Zip #1.” Livingston, a Seattle painter, pours paint on flat surfaces and then peels the paint off and hangs is like skin on the wall. This piece is quite beautiful and needs to be studied carefully and up close. 

 [Tacoma Art Museum, Optic Nerve, Wednesdays–Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Third Thursdays 5–8 p.m. through April 20, 2014, adult $10, student/military/senior (65+) $8, family $25 (2 adults and up to 4 children under 18), 5 and younger free, Third Thursdays free from 5-8 pm., 253.272.4258, www.TacomaArtMuseum.org]

Photo: Spencer Moseley, Kiss, 1964. Polymer on canvas, 48 x 48 inches. Tacoma Art Museum, Gift of the artist.

The Ladies of Lyric and Song”

Sharing the press release I received for this musical event -

Erin Guinup presents her new one-woman show, “The Ladies of Lyric and Song” on Saturday, November 16th at 7:30pm at the University of Puget Sound’s Schneebeck Concert Hall.  This performance is FREE to the community thanks to a grant from the
Tacoma Artist Initiative Program.

“The Ladies of Lyric and Song: A Musical Reflection on the Ground-Breaking Female
Composers and Lyricists of the American Musical Theatre” is a unique concert experience, incorporating theatrical elements, fascinating stories, and a wide variety of songs.  The history of 100 years of musical theatre is traced through the words and music of the women who helped shape it.  Music includes operetta, jazz, golden era, folk-rock, and contemporary musical theatre songs.

Directed by local theatre icon Patti Cohenour (Tony-nominated for Big River, Christine
Daae in original Broadway cast of Phantom of the Opera, and Gregory Award winner for
Edith/Little Edie in 5th Avenue’s recent production of Grey Gardens), Guinup is joined on stage by pianist Tim Strong.

Erin Guinup has performed a wide range of operatic and musical theatre roles with
Tacoma Opera, Rainier Family Opera, Capital Playhouse, Mormon Festival of the Arts, and Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. Roles include Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Musetta in La Boheme, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Mrs. Nordstrom in Sondheim's A Little Night Music and both Mary and Mary Magdalene in productions of Savior of the World. Guinup earned her degree in Vocal Performance and Music Education from the University of Puget Sound and works as a performer, voice teacher, stage director, conductor, and composer.

For more information Contact:
Erin Guinup eringuinup@gmail.com Phone: 253-777-8478

Chapbook Anthology of Regiional Women Poets to launch at King's Books

As part of Tacoma’s Art@Work celebration, former Tacoma Poet Laureate Josie Emmons Turner will launch the chapbook anthology Sarasvati Takes Pegasus as Her Mount .  The chapbook is a collection of the work of regional women poets concerning the theme gods, goddesses, and myth and is an outgrowth of a reading the 16 women did last spring during the Tacoma Community College’s exhibition, Greek and Roman Mythology. 

Participating poets include:  Peggy Barnett, Glenna Cook, Julia Cousineau, Caroline Hunter Davis, Maria Gudaitis, Mary  Hake, P.C. Kennedy, Patty Kinney, Kay Mullen, Tammy Robacker, Marjorie Rommel, Emilie Rommel Shimkus, Josie Emmons Turner, Connie Walle, Juniper White, Carolyne Wright. 

The book launch will be November 21, 7:00, at King’s Books, 218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma.

For more information contact Josie Emmons Turner, josie.turner.poet@gmail.com or 253.678.6117

Giant Art Sale

We’re doing it again!
More than 150 paintings!
Drastic price reductions!

From Alec and Gabi Clayton:

We have been severely impacted by the financial meltdown and have both lost work we depend on to meet our basic living expenses.

untitled, acrylic on paper, 8"x5", Gabi Clayton

So … we’re having a two-day art sale at our home in Olympia on November 30th and December 1st, 2013.

Paintings will be sold at WAY BELOW gallery prices with unstretched paintings discounted even more.   Alec’s oil and mixed-media paintings on canvas and wood panels sell in galleries at prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to $4000. We’ll have many paintings in the $200-$400 range and many unframed works on paper as low as $20 to $50.

This time we’ll also offer for sale a large selection of Gabi’s works on paper. She majored in art for two years before switching majors to film and animation.

Naked Lunch, oil on canvas, 33"x46.5", Alec Clayton

Alec has a Master’s Degree in Drawing and Painting and has taught from first grade through advanced college classes. His paintings have been shown in galleries across the country and even once in Korea! He is currently represented by B2 Fine Art Gallery in Tacoma, which has graciously ok’d this sale.

He retired from making visual art in 2002 when he had open heart surgery (other than finishing up a handful of works in progress). His last exhibitions were a group show at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle in 2009 and a one-person exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College in 2007. Neither of those had works for sale. His last commercial gallery show was at B2 Gallery, January through March 2013. 

The sale will be first come first served, held in our home.
    
Saturday, November 30th - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sunday, December 1st - 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
    
1327 25th Court NE; Olympia, WA                     

Info: 360-628-8412 or alec@alecclayton.com

Dukesbay Productions’ Driving Miss Daisy

L-R: Boolie (Robert Geller), Daisy (Syra Beth Puett) and Hoke (Malcolm J. West), photo by Jason Ganwich

There’s a new theater in town, and it has kicked off its season with it’s one and only play for 2013:

Alfred Uhry’s  Driving Miss Daisy.

Dukesbay Productions was founded in 2011 by Tacoma theatre artists Randy Clark and Aya Hashiguchi Clark. Popular personalities on the South Sound theater scene, the Clarks already have a long and lustrous history. Randy has been active in the Tacoma theatre scene as an actor and director since the 1970s. His work has been seen at Lakewood Playhouse, Tacoma Little Theatre and Theatre NW. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Tacoma Little Theatre. Aya has appeared at several Seattle/Tacoma theaters, including ReAct Theatre, SIS Productions, Renton Civic Theatre, Tacoma Musical Playhouse, Tacoma Little Theatre and Lakewood Playhouse, and served as producer for eight plays and a Playwrights Festival for Burien Little Theatre.

They built their new theater in the historic Merlino Art Center in Tacoma, home to The Grand Cinema, The Tacoma City Ballet and Corina Bakery. It is a lovely performance space with a well-designed seating arrangement. There is not a bad seat in the house.

Driving Miss Daisy was written by Uhry in 1987 as a tribute to his Atlanta-based family.  It won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Outer Critics Circle Award.  The film adaptation starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy won four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Screenplay.

The story begins in 1948. Miss Daisy (Syra Beth Puett) has wrecked her car and her son, Boolie (Robert Geller) believes she is not a safe driver any more. He hires an elderly black man, Hoke (Malcolm J. West) to be her chauffer. Daisy is a 72-year-old widow, a fiercely independent Jewish woman. At first she is disdainful and refuses to let Hoke drive her anywhere, but gradually he wins over, and as they age — she lives to be almost 100 — he becomes her best and only friend.

It is a sweet play about their developing friendship and mutual dependence played out against the backdrop of the civil rights movement in Atlanta, Georgia, presented as a series of short vignettes with a lovely set designed by David Wehmhoefer with effective lighting, also by Wehmhoefer and sound effects by Nic Olson.

While the struggle for civil rights in the South is a constant element in this play it is kept secondary to the developing relationships between Daisy, her son and her chauffer.  Similarly, class and religious differences play a role but are subsumed by the personal.

Puett, who was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and grew up in the Deep South seems born to play this role, and she is outstanding. Her Southern accent is natural and believable; she ages gracefully, and displays a range of emotions that are captivating.

West is solid as a rock as Hoke. He nails the speech patterns and demeanor of a proud and sensitive man who works as a domestic servant in the South during those years. Geller also nails the speech patterns, accent and gestures.

I need to inject a personal note here. Like Puett, I was born and grew up in the Deep South. I knew people just like Daisy and Hoke and Boolie, and these three actors made me feel like I had been transported back home and back in time.

Congratulations to the cast and crew; outstanding director, Julie Halpin; and producers Randy and Aya Hashiguchi Clark.

Driving Miss Daisy is a short play, running about 90 minutes with no intermission.

WHERE: The Dukesbay Theater in the Merlino Arts Building, 508 S. Sixth Ave. #10
WHEN: Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m. through Nov. 23
TICKETS: $15, includes coffee and an assortment of baked goods

For reservations:
By phone (253) 267-0869
By email: info@dukesbay.org
Reservations are recommended. Tickets payable at the door by cash, WA State check or credit/debit card.
www.dukesbay.org.

Also see Michael Dresdner's review.

The Weir at Tacoma Little Theatre

from left: Robert McConkey, Brian Jansen, David Wright, Ellen Peters and Gabriel McClelland

Published in The News Tribune, Nov. 8, 2013

I attended a rehearsal for The Weir at Tacoma Little Theatre. The set was not yet in place. They rehearsed on the set for Steel Magnolias, and one of the actors, David Wright, was still on book because he was a late replacement for another actor in the role of Jack – who has more lines than any other actor in the play. Despite these difficulties in seeing what the play may look like with full set and lighting, I was mightily impressed.

The five-person cast and Pug Bujeaud’s direction were exemplary. Wright was particularly impressive. His Irish brogue was great and he brought the crotchety old Jack to life with excellent timing and expression. He made it seem easy, probably because he is a veteran actor performed in the same play years ago and recently did a similar play by the same author at Harlequin Productions in Olympia.

The Weir was written by the great Irish playwright Coner McPherson. It won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play of 1997-98 and was voted one of the 100 most significant plays of the 20th Century in a poll conducted by the Royal National Theatre, London. McPherson won the Critics' Circle Award as the most promising playwright that year.

This play is masterfully written, quiet, funny in places, spooky and emotionally draining. It is the story of four working class men who hang out in a small town Irish pub, drink excessively and talk a lot. An outsider joins their ranks: a woman named Valerie (Ellen Peters) who has recently arrived from Dublin. Her presence changes the dynamics of the four old friends who are accustomed to kidding around with each other. Although competition for her affection is never spoken of directly, the underlying sexual tension is undeniable.

The men take turns telling stories, which become increasingly spooky with talk of ghosts and fairies, and then Valerie tells her own story – a heartbreaking story that takes unexpected turns. Until this point in the play Peters plays Valerie as a polite and circumspect woman who remains mostly in the background, but as her story unfolds Peters’ depiction of emotion becomes overpowering.

Performing in this show are some of Puget Sound’s most talented actors. In addition to Peters as Valerie and Wright as Jack, the cast is rounded out with Gabriel McClelland as Finbar, a married businessman who spends most of the evening being protective of Valerie and mad at his friends; Brian Jansen, who plays Jim as a haunted man; and Robert McConkey, who is excellent in the role of the amiable barkeep, Brendan. All of them play their parts with such realism that you feel you are in the bar with them.

This show is recommended for ages 13 and older.  It contains strong language and some mature content. I found it to be captivating and haunting, and despite the strained emotions somehow comforting.

Tickets are $12.00 and may be purchased online at www.tacomalittletheatre.com, or by calling our Box Office at (253) 272-2281.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2:00 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 17

WHERE: Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N “I” St., Tacoma

TICKETS: $12

INFORMATION: 253-272-2281, www.tacomalittletheatre.comt.

Also see Michael Dresdner's review. 
And see Michael's review of
See Michael Dresdner's review of Pride and Prejudice at Lakewood Playhouse.