Reflections

New exhibit behind the glass at Woolworth Windows
published in the Weekly Volcano, Aug. 30, 2007

Tacoma scenes shine in the latest Tacoma Contemporary installations in the Woolworth Windows.

In the Broadway windows, the city is represented by reflections-within-reflections and grids-within-grids in painted constructions by Paul McKee. I don’t know who wrote it, but someone sent out on an arts listserv an intriguing description of McKee’s work:

“Paul McKee’s ‘Destiny Reflected’ is a series of paintings that began with careful observations of reflections of Tacoma’s buildings. McKee installs an urban portrait in the City of Destiny itself. By giving reflections solidity, he examines the complex exchanges in this energetic small city. The visual experience of these fluid forms swirling through their support grid is compounded by them being displayed in a grid of real windows that reflect their surroundings.”

There are three paintings by McKee. Each one completely fills a large display window. The shapes are contained within window-like grid structures that vary from painting to painting. In one, the grid is made of painted silver bars; in another it is more like a series of building blocks; and the one in the center is a series of wood boxes with cut-out and painted shapes within each box. Of the three, this one is by far the most fascinating, but all are interesting. McKee’s use of color is outstanding, with a range of blues and browns that glow like candlelight. The interplay of real and illusory depth is also intriguing.

Patrick Grenier looks at Tacoma landmarks with a humorous outlook. He is showing a pair of painted models of the Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass, placed in the context of the surrounding streets and the bridge that connects them. The structures rest on their sides and hang suspended like tinker toy models that have been tossed in the air. They are painted in tones of gray and black with the only touches of color being the yellow stripes on the street and the two blue glass sculptures that stand guard above the bridge of glass. I’d be hard pressed to call this work art, but it is a delightfully playful little construction.

David Traylor’s ceramic and mixed-media sculptures in the Commerce side windows have nothing to do with Tacoma. They are powerful and menacing black forms that dominate the space. One piece is a black ball that hangs from the ceiling with tentacles extending in all directions and what looks like white ping-pong balls on the ends of each. I have no idea what it is supposed to represent, but it looks dangerous. Most of the pieces are vertical forms, either free-standing or suspended from the ceiling, made of sleek, black ceramic and draped in cloth. They look a lot like chess pieces or like totem poles, or maybe spears and shields.

According to a wall text, they are inspired by Commedia dell arte figures such as Harlequin, Pierrot, Touchstone, Feste and Dogberry. The text also speaks of the sinister contrasts of “hard and severe” forms “clothed in soft fabric.” I think that description may nail the essence of these pieces.

Back up to the Broadway side, there are two more installations: one by Heather Joy and Matthew Olds and the other by Margot Myers.

The placement of McKee’s and Grenier’s installations, both of which depicted Tacoma scenes and landmarks, called out of a consistency of theme at least on the Broadway side. All of the works are interesting, but they don’t fit together well.

[Woolworth Windows, 24/7 through Nov. 3, 11th Street at Broadway and Commerce, downtown Tacoma]

NOTE: If I had not had limited space I would have said much more about Margot Myers' installation. The way she combines three layers of similar drawings on different surfaces is nice.

Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein is a monster hit

published in The News Tribune, Aug. 25, 2007

Mel Brook’s “Young Frankenstein” has huge shoes to fill, and I’m not talking about the oversized clodhoppers worn by the monster; I’m talking about the giant footsteps left by Brook’s last movie-to-Broadway mega-hit, "The Producers" starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick.

If audience reaction at Thursday night’s opening at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre is any kind of barometer, Brooks and company have another monster hit (pun most definitely intended).

The Seattle audience was by far the most rambunctious theater crowd I have ever seen – a fact gleefully acknowledged by Brooks himself when he made a surprise curtain-call appearance and said he had a bus waiting outside to take the whole audience with them.

Like “The Producers” – which won 12 Tony Awards, the most ever for a single production, and ran for six years on Broadway, making it the longest-running musical comedy in history – “Young Frankenstein” is a re-write of a film by Brooks, the 1974 hit film of the same name starring Gene Wilder. It’s funny in the over-the-top way that all of Brooks’ films and plays are funny. It is filled with show-biz shtick and running jokes that are almost run into the ground. How many times can we hear horses neigh at the mention of Frau Blucher’s name or Dr. Frankenstein ask Igor if his hump was on the other side before it ceases to be funny? Apparently there is no limit, as Brooks operates on the principal that anything worth doing is worth over doing. (The hump shtick, by the way, is a setup for a clever twist when Igor thinks his hump has vanished, and there are equally clever variations on the horse-neighing bit.)

But it is not the expected funny bits that make this show a delight. It is the wonderful ensemble song-and-dance numbers and the incredible sets and special effects. The real stars of the show are Robin Wagner’s scenic designs, Peter Kaczorowski’s lighting, special effects designed by Marc Brickman, and a crew of stagehands that pulled off some of the most seamless set changes ever seen.

The big ensemble numbers are in the tradition of old-time Broadway spectacles like “Oklahoma” and “Fiddler on the Roof,” and the ensemble dancers are athletic and energetic. They are humorously sophisticated as they glide through ballroom dances without touching one another on “Please Don’t Touch Me,” and absolutely fabulous on the wild romp, “Transylvania Mania.”

The biggest hit of all is the tap-dance duet with Frankenstein and monster “Putting on the Ritz,” in a magical takeoff on Fred Astaire’s dance to the Irving Berlin song.

Director and choreographer Susan Stroman and co-writer Thomas Meehan both worked with Brooks on the film and stage versions of “The Producers,” as did leading man Roger Bart, who plays Dr. Frederick Frankenstein (which he says is pronounced Fronk-en-steen about a million times). Other leading roles are all played by Broadway, film and television stalwarts. Getting top billing along with Bart is Megan Mullally as Elizabeth, but the other leading lady, Sutton Foster as Inga, actually has a larger part. Foster, who has handled such demanding roles as Eponine in “Les Miserables” and Millie in “Thoroughly Modern Millie” on Broadway, shines most beautifully while frolicking and yodeling on the hayride song “Roll in the Hay.”
All of the stars fill their roles well, but none stand out. The bona fide standouts are Christopher Fitzgerald as Igor, Shuler Hensley as the monster and Andrea Martin as Frau Blucher.

The Paramount Theatre engagement is a pre-Broadway tryout. “Young Frankenstein” will open on Broadway at the Hilton Theatre Nov. 8 after preview performances beginning Oct. 11.

SIDEBAR: Young Frankenstein
WHEN: 7:30 8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday through Sept. 1
WHERE: Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle
TICKETS: $25-$100
INFORMATION: 206-292-ARTS
http://www.youngfrankensteinthemusical.com/

Olympia Little Theatre seeks pro polish

Published in The News Tribune, August 24, 2007


I sit down on a ratty old divan in a partially-built set at Olympia Little Theatre and talk to new OLT board member and publicity chairwoman Bonnie Vandver and longtime board president Kathryn Beall. “Olympia Little Theatre is taking a real professional upswing this season,” Vandver says.

By bringing onboard a new production manager, Tim Samland, and artistic manager, Chad Carpenter, they hope to ensure smoother productions.

“We will model our productions the way professional theaters do,” Vandver says, explaining that she expects sets, props and all of the technical aspects of productions to come together in a more professional manner, which she says is “something new for OLT. We’ll see more seamless productions with stronger vision. I’m really excited about it.”

Vandver, originally from Cleveland, has been involved in theater for most of her adult life. She was active with a theater company in Cleveland, and – before coming to Olympia three years ago – she taught drama for 12 years in the Bethel and North Shore school districts.

“I missed being on stage, so when I quit teaching I got back into it,” she says.

In Olympia, she has done volunteer work with Harlequin Productions and Olympia Little Theatre, and last year she performed in the Theater Artists Olympia production of “The Taming of the Shrew.”

Samland, who also serves as vice president of the board, has been working with OLT for years, building sets and directing and acting in plays. Last year he directed “When the World Was Green,” which went to the regional American Association of Community Theater competition in Walla Walla and took a second-place award.

Carpenter, who doubles as co-chair of the board, also has extensive backstage experience building sets, running lights and stage managing.

This season will mark OLT’s 68th year, making it the second-oldest community theater in the region, just behind Tacoma Little Theatre. Vandver and Beall say that a noticeable change in the new season will be a lineup of more modern plays. More modern plays means more adult language and situations. Many of this year’s plays have strong language and sexual innuendo, and at least one – “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” – has graphic violence.

Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” for instance, “has 17 (obscenities)” Beall says. But she says she senses South Sound audiences are ready for more adult fare. Plus, she points out that both copyright laws and respect for playwrights demand that language not be watered down.

On the other hand, Beall says, “There will be no more nudity on stage” – referring to last year’s production of “Take Me Out.”

The season opens Sept. 14 with Ken Ludwig’s hilarious backstage farce “Moon Over Buffalo,” directed by Tim Samland and starring Tom Sanders, who directed and starred in “Take Me Out.” Also appearing in this comedy will be Cynthia Gibbs (in the role originated by Carol Burnett on Broadway), Barbara Ann Smith, Christina Bargel, Paul Gisi, Erik Cornelius, Alberto Cintron and Hannah Eklund.

“Moon Over Buffalo” relies heavily on familiar shtick such as revolving sets and mistaken identities. The action is fast-paced, and there is excessive physical comedy, including a mock fencing match and a wrestling match. In the Broadway production, there was even a pratfall into the orchestra pit. Since OLT does not have an orchestra pit, we’ll have to wait and see how they handle that. They do, on the other hand, have a revolving set that will be used for the first time in 20 years.

Next up will be “Visiting Mr. Green” in November. This contemporary drama is described in a company publication as “a heartwarming and tender story about friendship, family and forgiveness.”

In December, OLT will present the Christmas classic “Miracle on 34th Street.” In January, it will do the comedy “Moonlight and Magnolia,” a behind-the-scenes Hollywood story about movie moguls trying to pull together a new epic version of the classic “Gone with the Wind.”

Next will be Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosensweig,” followed by Simon’s “Rumors.” Ending the season next June will be “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” a dark drama strictly for adults. This production continues an Olympia Little Theatre tradition of ending the season with a risky play, which, in some ways, might typify much of this whole season.

Olympia Little Theatre is at 1925 Miller St., Olympia. More information is available on its Web site, www.olympialittletheater.org, or by calling 360-786-9484. There are no reserved seats. Tickets will be available at the door and online at www.buyolympia.com/events.

Women rule

a.o.c. gallery host female printmakers
published in the Weekly Volcano, Aug 23, 2007
pictured: “Politepointer” (detail), vintage letterpress by Jessica Spring

Do I detect a trend, or is it mere coincidence that for two months in a row a.o.c. gallery has featured four women artists?

The last time it was a quartet of fiber artists. This time it’s printmakers. Good ones, too.

The best in this show are Klara Glosova and Betsy Best-Spadero. As for the other two, Janet Marcavage is an artist whose work seldom fails to fascinate but is not up to her previous level of excellence here. In this show, she presents works from a series she calls “Molecular Portraits.” They are figures and silhouetted portrait heads done in lithography, relief and intaglio embossing. There are five figures done with white-on-white intaglio and fields of dots to give color to the flesh (looking a lot like Australian dot painting) and a series of four silhouette heads facing expanses of space filled with intricate dot patterns (which look like writing in Braille but with no spaces between words).

The fourth artist, Spring, is showing a number of prints that incorporate drawing and collage techniques with old-style letterpress type and found imagery. In addition, she’s showing a few small sculptural items. Among the more fascinating items are some tiny vintage photographs framed side by side with snatches of poetry in old light-switch wall plates.

Best-Spadero’s prints are decorative and narrative, and they hint at symbolic meanings that could perhaps be interpreted in a number of ways. In a printed statement, the artist speaks of her work reflecting the everyday experiences of a “stay-at-home mom living in the suburbs.” One group of prints depicts swimmers in black bathing suits awash in green water. Scanning picture-to-picture, the swimmers seem to be tossed about by the waves.

Gallery owner C.J. Swanson said they symbolize the struggle to keep a marriage afloat. That’s an interesting concept, but I had to be told; the message was not successfully transmitted visually. Visually, what these prints consist of are single, flat figures in old-fashioned black bathing suits more or less centered on a green background. They sorely lack visual interest.

Much more fascinating is her series of figures playing ball on diamond-patterned backgrounds. Each print in this series shows a man and a woman playing with a ball. They wear black leotards with striped tops (he) and leggings (she) and kick and toss the ball back and forth in a kind of adagio dance. Various symbolic objects frame the figures trellislike. In one picture, the figures are shot with arrows. The game they play is the game of life, and it is a game fraught with peril.

Glosova is showing a group of solar-plate prints taken from her many sketchbooks. She has filled many a sketchbook with drawings of strange and mysterious figures, many of which she says come from dreams. She scans the drawings and prints them with a process similar to photographic development but using exposure to sunlight on the printing plates. The resulting images are “drawings” with a tonal richness that probably far exceeds the richness of her black-and-white drawings. I say “probably” because I haven’t seen the original drawings, but I know that ink drawings seldom have such velvety blacks.

When scanning her pages of drawings, she opens her sketchbooks to facing pages and scans them to include the spiral binding between the pages and often includes a blank facing page, and in many of her prints, she includes large areas of solid color in a kind of face-off between dense figures and open spaces.

She says that the image of the spiral binding “whether interpreted literally or symbolically … holds together visual ideas, exposing their relationships and allowing for their interactions.”

Glosova’s prints are strangely ominous and utterly fascinating.
There are a lot of small works of art in this show. Take your time and study each piece carefully.

[a.o.c. gallery, through Aug. 30, Tuesday-Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., open till 8 p.m. third Thursday, 608 S. Fawcett, Tacoma, 253.230.1673 or 253.627.8180, www.artoncenter.com]

Paintings new and old

I just finished a new painting and found a couple of forgotten ones. I finished the new one (pictured at top)yesterday -- that would be Monday, 20. I called it "Dr. Strangelove" because the odd missle-shaped form at the left reminded me of the bomb Dr. Strangelove rode to his death (and, I guess, the end of the world) at the end of the movie.
The other two are older paintings I recently "found" in my studio. For some reason I have never shown either of these, and I never before took photos or slides of them. I can't remember why, but I stuck them aside and forgot about them.
The oldest of these is titled "Decade No. 70." I painted it in 1993. At the time, I was working on a series of paintings, all called "Decade." There were close to 100 in the series. I was really turning them out back then.
The last one is called "Apocalypse." I painted it in 2000.
I plan on showing all three of these in my show at a.o.c. gallery in October.

Bold pencil

Julia Gfrörer’s pencil drawings are worth a look at Black Front Gallery
published in the Weekly Volcano, Aug. 16, 2007
pictured: pencil drawings by Julia Gfrörer courtesy Black Front Gallery

If you happen to be in downtown Olympia when The Black Front Gallery is open, stop in to see Julia Gfrörer’s exquisite pencil drawings. They’re simple and easy on the eye, and it won’t take you long to give them the kind of thorough study they deserve. But I bet you won’t easily forget them.

In a way, Gfrörer’s drawings are like contour drawings done by almost every college art student who has ever taken a figure drawing class in, say, the last 40 years. Yet, there is something unique about these drawings. They are sparse and bold with a sensuous line quality. And they are brutally honest. By that I mean that they are unadorned, not showy, devoid of gimmicks — unless you consider a fine spray of dots a gimmick (more about this later).

The drawings in this show are all either self portraits or drawings of the artist’s boyfriend. Most are nudes. Gfrörer and her boyfriend are both skinny, almost emaciated. As depicted in these drawings, neither one of them is particularly beautiful; they’re simply people living comfortably and without shame in their skin.

There is not a complete figure in the show. Most of the works show torsos only with heads and extremities either cut off or fading into the white of the paper. There are no backgrounds — just naked bodies in white space. Some show faces, and some are of legs only. Most are small works on paper. There are 24 pencil drawings on paper, six framed and 18 unframed, and one brush drawing done directly on the wall in gray paint.

I asked gallery owner Jason Sieling what kind of paint Gfrörer used for this wall painting. He said she used some gray latex house paint that just happened to be in the gallery. The drawing was an image from one of her smaller pencil drawings that she projected onto the wall and painted.

Prominent in all of the drawings is a deliberate contour line drawn slowly and with sufficient pressure to dig into the soft paper. Not quite so prominent are light lines of the kind Italians (and art professors) call pentimenti, meaning evidence of preliminary drawing or painting that is left as a personal mark of the artist. These lines were drawn more quickly and are sketchier. In some instances, they are partially erased. One drawing in particular has pentimenti of a different sort. Parts of the figure, including the head, were drawn with careful contour lines that were completely erased but left behind ghost lines where the pencil dug into the paper.

The other thing that makes these drawings unique is the use of what I referred to earlier as a fine spray of dots. That’s actually not an accurate description although I do think it accurately describes the effect if not the actual appearance. She superimposes very small brush strokes in light colors over her line drawings. They look like clouds or mist or a swarm of gnats hovering over the figure. In most of her figures, these sprays are a washed-out blue or white, but in one instance it is bright red. In the more washed-out colors, these clouds or mists are very effective in a number of ways. They work as shadows even though they make no sense as shadows, and they create a layered spatial look, pushing the figures back in space. The one drawing in which she used red does not work. The red is too dark. Instead of complementing the figure, it fights against it.

In his book “Ways of Seeing,” John Berger talks about the difference between nude and naked. He says nudes are paintings of women by men that are intended as objects of sexual desire and that to be naked is to be unadorned, natural, real. Gfrörer’s figures are naked, not nude.

[Black Front Gallery, through Aug. 28, Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-9 p.m., 106 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia, 253.284.4750, http://theblackfront gallery.com]

Critic's Choice awards cite best in South Sound theater

Published in The News Tribune, August 10, 2007


Once again I offer my Critic's Choice selections for the best community theater in South Puget Sound. My selections are purely a matter of personal opinion based on performances I have reviewed in this column during the 2006-2007 theater season.

Best actor in a musical (male): Jeff Kingsbury in "Scrooge: The Musical" at Capital Playhouse.

Best actor in a musical (female): Stacie Pinkney Calkins as Effie White in "Dreamgirls" at Tacoma Little Theatre. Honorable mention: Leishen Moore as Sonia Walsk in "They're Playing Our Song" at Tacoma Musical Playhouse.

Best direction of a musical or comedy: Alan Bryce for "A Flea in Her Ear" at Centerstage.

Best musical: "Beauty and the Beast" at Tacoma Musical Playhouse. Special mention has to go to Encore! Theater for the punk musical "Angry Housewives."

Best dramatic actor (male): Scott C. Brown as Antonio Salieri in "Amadeus" at Lakewood Playhouse.

Best dramatic actor (female): Kendra Phillips as Anne Frank in "The Diary of Anne Frank" at Lakewood Playhouse. Honorable mention to Debbie Gallinatti as the blind woman, Susy, in "Wait Until Dark" at Tacoma Little Theatre.

Best direction of a drama: Don Welch for the harrowing post-9/11 drama "A Hole in the Sky" at South Puget Sound Community College. The timing blocking in this production was perfect, and was aided by amazing light and sound effects by, respectively, Jonathan Worden and Eric Martin.

Best drama: "A Hole in the Sky" at South Puget Sound Community College.

Best comic actor (male): Jason Haws as Bottom in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Harlequin Productions. I must also give a nod of approval to Dave Wingert as Preacher Larry Finney in "Blue Plate Special" at Centerstage.

Best comic actor (female): This honor goes to Ingrid Pharris, not for one performance, but for scene-stealing comedy in a number of supporting roles, most notably as Catherine the maid in Theater Artists Olympia's "Boston Marriage" and as Bianca in TAO's "The Taming of the Shrew."

Best comedy: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at Harlequin Productions. Everything about this one was superb, from sets and lighting to acting, directing and music.

Best supporting actor: Steve Nuehring as Big Daddy in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at Olympia Little Theater. Honorable mention has to go to David Jensen as the rough and charming club owner Lewd Fingers in "Angry Housewives" at Encore! Theater.

Best child actor: Once again this honor goes to Grant Troyer, this time for a more grown-up role as the punk teenager in Encore! Theater's "Angry Housewives."

Special mentions: Finally, there were so many outstanding performances this season that I simply have to mention a few deserving of special praise. Among these are TAO's "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," Brian Jansen's comic turn in "Take Me Out" at Olympia Little Theater, Geoffrey Simmons in "Ain't Misbehavin'" at Capital Playhouse (reviving the role he played so amazingly at Tacoma Little Theatre last year), the final curtain in Tacoma Musical Playhouse's "The Full Monty," Josh Anderson's Melvin P. Thorpe in "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" at Capital Playhouse, the brilliant staging of "Amadeus" at Lakewood Playhouse and the amazing fight scenes in Harlequin Productions' "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Wow! What a year it's been.