Munch extended through Sunday at the National Gallery of Art

Edvard Munch, The Vampire, 1895 (printed 1896/1902) lithograph and color woodcut with watercolor on thick china paper. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund and Gift of Lionel C. Epstein

© Munch Museum/Munch Ellingsen Group/ARS, NY 2013

 

 

A few precious days remain to see 20 of Edvard Munch’s prints and drawings in a special exhibition at the National Gallery of Art which commemorates the 150th anniversary of the artist’s birth (December 12, 1863).

Probably the most celebrated artist from Norway who drew one of the world's most recognizable works, if not the most recognizable, The Scream (1895), Munch said he used art to interpret the world and "explain life and its meaning to myself."

 

If you don't know anything about Edvard Munch, the etchings in the one-gallery show reveal his turmoil, depression, sadness, and anger at women who dominate the display. (They are in 18 of the pieces.)

Edvard Munch, Self-Portrait with Skeleton Arm, 1895, lithograph sheet: 45.6 x 31.5 cm (17 15/16 x 12 3/8 in.) National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

© Munch Museum/Munch Ellingsen Group/ARS, NY 2013

 

He was born in a farmhouse in Norway, the son of a doctor and a woman half his father's age.

When Munch was only five, his mother died of tuberculosis, and he and his four siblings were raised by their conservatively religious father (whose father was a minister) and aunt. It was an oppressive environment where the father often admonished his children about their behavior, saying their mother was watching them from heaven, upset by what she saw. (“She knows when you are sleeping, she knows if you’ve been bad or good…”) He told his children tales of horror, including some by Edgar Allan Poe.

 

Said Munch: “I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born.”

Contributing to his lifelong angst was the death, when he was 13, of his beloved sister, Sophie, at 15, another victim of tuberculosis, who had become somewhat of a substitute mother for Munch.

His first major work, The Sick Child (1894) represents his break from impressionism and naturalism, and captures the pain and his immense sadness over his sister's death. The label quotes Munch: "Scarcely any painter has ever experienced the full grief of their subject as I did."

Edvard Munch, The Sick Child, 1894 (printed 1895), drypoint on thick cream paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

© Munch Museum/Munch Ellingsen Group/ARS, NY 2013

His love life was often in shambles.  Two married women drew Munch's ardor (because they were unavailable?), an obsession he experienced for several years, and, later, he spurned marriage with a long-term lover who finally gave him up after a shooting incident and married a younger man. 

Bitter and angry, Munch took to the drawing board.

Could he have been a misogynist? Carrying anger remaining from the death of his mother who "abandoned" him, grief which engulfed him at the time of his adored sister's death, and lovers who wouldn't love? They all "left" Munch.

As a viewer moves from print to woodcut in the show, one cannot escape the obvious:  Edvard Munch was extremely troubled by women and their desertion of him.

The entrance to the tribute show for Edvard Munch at the National Gallery of Art/Patricia Leslie

 

Nothing affirms this in the show quite as well as Love and Pain, later titled Vampire which is as the name suggests:

A woman engulfs a man in a haunting embrace with her arms and bloody red hair, the major color in the woodcut. Both anonymously faced subjects look down.

Is the man a child seeking comfort in his mother's lap? Or sympathy from a lover who seems to suck blood from his neck? Every man? Every woman? Is this a perpetual trap by women with their fangs out? (I am here to tell you it doesn’t work.) Munch was unsettled by the women’s “revolution” of the late 19th century and their growing independence.

 

In 1889 he moved to Paris where art by Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec excited and influenced him. Three years later, his one-man show in Berlin closed abruptly due to controversy.  Even then, "bad press was good press," and Munch relished the talk.

From time to time his father had helped him with living expenses but frowned upon the nudes his son drew and was known to have destroyed at least one of Munch's impressions, but, like many artists, Munch's works became "his children,” and he resisted letting them go.  Or selling them sometimes.

During his later years Munch drew many nudes from the models who visited him at his home near Oslo where he lived in solitude and feared the creeping Nazis and what they would do to his art which filled the second floor of his home.  Munch died in the house January 23, 1944, four years after the Nazis invaded Norway. 

Last year the most colorful of his Screams sold for almost $120 million.  Munch's works are the first by a Western artist to be exhibited at the National Gallery in Beijing.

The Nazis called works by him, Picasso, Klee, Matisse, Gauguin, and others, "degenerate,” and they removed 82 of Munch's pictures from German museums.  Munch illustrated life's sorrows and their emotions and pain.

Wikipedia quotes Adolph Hitler: "[These] prehistoric Stone Age culture barbarians and art-stutterers can return to the caves of their ancestors and there can apply their primitive international scratching."

Enjoy “scratchings” in “the cave” at the National Gallery of Art!

The exhibition curator was Andrew Robison, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings, National Gallery of Art.

What: Edvard Munch: A 150th anniversary Tribute

Admission: No charge

When: Now through Sunday, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., and from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., all other days

 

Where: Ground Floor at the West Building, the National Gallery of Art, between Fourth and Seventh streets at Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.

Metro stations: Smithsonian, L'Enfant Plaza, Archives-Navy Memorial, or Judiciary Square

For more information: 202-737-4215

patricialesli@gmail.com

 

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Free Rita Coolidge concert Aug. 10 at American Indian Museum

Rita Coolidge

Grammy winner and legendary singer/songwriter Rita Coolidge will sing many of her classic hits and new songs, too, in a free concert at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall beginning at 5 p.m. August 10.

Some of her best known hits include "Your Love Has Lifted Me (Higher and Higher)," "One Fine Day," "Only You," "The Way You Do the Things You Do," and "Fever."

Ms. Coolidge, 68, a native of Lafayette, Tennessee, claims Scottish Cherokee ancestry.  She is a founding member of Walela, a Native American music trio which includes her sister and her niece.  In Cherokee, Walela means hummingbird. 

Her performance is part of the museum's Indian Summer Showcase series. 

Click here for a Cameron Crowe biographical sketch of Ms. Coolidge written in 1978 when she was married to Kris Kristofferson:  "Much more than a song stylist," Crowe wrote, "Rita Coolidge is an artist's artist."  She hasn't
changed.

The National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

 

Who:  Rita Coolidge

What:  Free concert

When:  5 p.m., Saturday, August 10, 2013

Where:  Potomac Atrium, First Level, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, Fourth Street at Independence Avenue, S.W. , Washington, D.C.  20560, between the Air and Space Museum and the U.S. Capitol.  The American Indian Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. - 5: 30 p.m.

How much:  No charge

Metro station:  L'Enfant Plaza, exit Maryland Avenue/Smithsonian Museums

For more information:  202-633-1000

patricialesli@gmail.com

'Bye Bye Birdie' is a hit in Manassas

Conrad Birdie (Landon Dufrene) is surrounded by his fans in Prince William Little Theatre's current production, Bye Bye Birdie. On his right leg is Ursula Merkle (Clare Baker) and on his left, the mayor's wife (Tina Mullins) whom the mayor (Don Wilson) tries to unhitch.  At the rear is Albert Peterson, Conrad's agent (Josh Wilson), and hidden is Rosie, Albert's "fiancee" (Holly McDade).  Photo by David Harback.

 

Now I know why the pleasurable memory of Bye Bye Birdie that I saw way back in high school in Danville, Virginia has stuck with me over the years. It’s so entertaining!

The newest local rendition is on stage now in Manassas, gleefully performed by members of the Prince William Little Theatre who have as good a time putting on the show as the audience who watches the dancing and hears the Fab 50s songs of Conrad Birdie (Landon Dufrene) and his many fans.

Conrad’s story parallels that of a big 1950s star, one Elvis Presley when he was drafted in the Army, and Conrad is drafted, too! We hate to see him go.

The show starts out a little slow before it picks up steam and starts rocking to the tunes of Conrad's agent (Josh Wilson as Albert Peterson) and his wannabe wife (Holly McDade).

The most enjoyable songs are the group harmonies (Put On a Happy Face, Kids, Ed Sullivan, One Last Kiss, One Boy, A Lot of Livin’ To Do, Baby, Talk to Me) and a short solo by Danny Waldman who plays Hugo Peabody, the boyfriend of a starstruck teen (Kim MacAfee played by Megan Griggs).

Favorite actors are Dave Ermlick as Mr. MacAfee, Kim's father whose acting takes lift once he quits his silence and sulking “in his chair” to become a man frightened by current events.  

Without uttering a word, the mayor’s wife (Tina Mullins) captures attention in one of many large group scenes with her polka dots and her “falls” for Conrad, amidst all the screaming teens. (The large cast of 39 increases audience pleasure.) 
 

Jonathan Faircloth has multiple roles, but he and partner Katy Chumura's dancing stands out, noticeably because they are quite the professionals with genuine smiles and steps right in sync.

But, without question, the show stopper, the scene stealer, is the mother of mothers, Susy Moorstein, perfect as the nagging parent, always dressed in a long fur coat, white gloves, black hat, old woman’s purse, and 1950s pointed glasses. She’s a riot.

 

 

Albert's mother (Susy Moorstein) and Albert (Josh Wilson) ponder relationships in Prince William Little Theatre's Bye Bye Birdie.  Photo by David Harback

Theatergoers are so happy when she waddles back on stage time and time again to wave and make snide comments, mostly about her son’s girlfriend, but to also beckon pity for a poor mother, as in “When you get back, can you stop by the kitchen and take my head out of the oven?”

For the play the simple set of neon backdrops fits the times and was adequate.

Tucked away on an upper level beside the stacked audience, an orchestra adds immensely to the show with music that suggests more than four pieces (Meredyth Stirling, piano; William Schillinger, guitar; Marie Juliano, percussion, and Theresa Arnold, bass).

What makes the production all the more charming are a couple of miscues: The phone rings while Kim is talking on it and her mother (Danica Shook who also acts as choreographer) is exiting the stage.  Mother doesn't miss a beat and turns around and flashes an irritated look: “What’s that?”

In another scene, the lights went out for a few seconds in the middle of dialogue, but no one was affected. The microphones worked sporadically.

What is awkward is the too large multi-stepped wooden platform which performers constantly struggled to move between scenes, under the lights. (The only scene changes without dimmed lights were accompanied by a crash or two.) Direction got mixed up for one scene (probably more), and the platform had to be moved again, taking more time than usual and stretching the performance to almost three hours with one intermission.

 

The evocative costumes were designed by Ms. Moorstein, a stage star for more than 29 years.  Don Petersen directed, and Melissa Jo York-Tilley produced. 

 

Why sit home when you can get out, support the arts, and exit happy, made possible by the crew of the Prince William Little Theatre?  It's a night for laughter.  Enjoy!

What:  Bye Bye Birdie   

When:  July 27, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; July 28, 2 p.m.

Where:  The Gregory Family Theatre of the Hylton Performing Arts Center, George Mason University, 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas, Virginia

Duration:  About two hours and 45 minutes with one intermission

How much: $20 for adults and $16 for seniors and students and groups of ten and more.

For information:   703-993-7759 or 888-945-2468 (for tickets, or save $ and buy tickets at the box office.  Call ahead to see if seats are available.)

Language:  Nothing objectionable.  Take the family!

patricialesli@gmail.com

Botanic Garden's phallus plant stars in D.C.

On the day before Britain's Royal Baby arrived, the American "Royal Baby" made its appearance at the U.S. Botanic Garden to the delight of thousands who filled the Garden to witness (and sniff) the rare blossom which erupts every few years (or decades) and features a rotting odor/Patricia Leslie

 Now, wouldn't you stand in line on a hot day to smell what's known as the "corpse flower" with a "fragrance" similar to rotting meat?  Yes, and so would thousands of others. The line extended in a half circle from the Garden's entrance on Maryland Avenue down and around the corner of Third Street. Guards said the wait was 60 to 90 minutes, but it was less than 30.  A FDA microbiologist traveled from College Park, Maryland to witness the pageant/Patricia Leslie

It could be an upside-down lamp! (The yellow cylindrical leaf is the lamp post and the flower or spathe, which can come in different colors just like at the shops, the lampshade.)  Or, a ballerina iceskating on her head?  A yellow dolphin showing off in the green ocean?  A candle? What do you see? Botanists see an amorphophallus titanum, native to Indonesian rainforests and first discovered in 1878. Although "Andy" arrived at the Botanic Garden in 2007, this was the birthing of its first blossom which the Houston Museum of Natural Science says probably will not happen again/Patricia Leslie

Holy Mother of Jesus! That looks like the Holy Mother of Jesus carved at the top. Do you think this is related to the pope's visit to Brazil? Save the titan arum (the nickname) and do not let it collapse before we make copies and sell them for $20 each.  The blossom usually fades after 24 to 48 hours/Patricia Leslie

The Botanic Garden staff passed out literature and never lost its cool, perhaps because cool went missing on the hot day. Plant stench was nowhere to be smelled at the Botanic Garden on Monday, however, one visitor reported an ample supply of human essence/Patricia Leslie

The American Royal Baby's gestation period was seven years. At blossom it weighed approximately 250 pounds (!) and grew four feet in 10 days. Its height can reach 10 feet. What does it eat?  Just in case, visitors did not stand too close/Patricia Leslie

Meanwhile, back outdoors with the humans:  By 7:15 p.m. the line stretched to reach Independence.  Everyone was in good humor, though, waiting to see and smell a stinky plant.  The Botanic Garden offers much more to see and smell than just one plant.  Check it out/Patricia Leslie

What:  The U.S. Botanic Garden

When:  Everyday including weekends and holidays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where:  100 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20001

How much:  It's free

Metro station:  Federal Center Southwest

For more information:  202-225-8333

Patricialesli@gmail.com

Capital Fringe's 'Politician' scores big win

The playwright, John Feffer, is a. D.C. resident who has never worked for the U.S. government, but is well versed in its composition, stemming from his background as a D.C. journalist, pundit, and foreign affairs authority. Last year his Fringe production of The Pundit sold out, and this year's version, The Politician, picks up the story, but you don't need the first to know which way the winds blows.

At the Politician's Fringe premiere, the audience packed the Goethe-Institut 's main stage in Chinatown, eager to see
another political show, for in this town, another political show is always welcome. (Many are not on stage yet.)

The Politician is all about one assistant assistant undersecretary at the State Department, "Peter Peters," (Sean Coe) a typical Washingtonian A-lister moving up and over bodies to reach higher and higher plateaus, none which remain satisfactory for longer than a nanosecond. Isn't that the nature of the human beast? (Especially the ones in D.C.)

Peters advances to assistant deputy secretary to under secretary, and next stop: NATO.

Wait!

Along the way he’s got to deal with his wife (Lisa Hodsoll; does she have to call so much?), his son (“No! I don’t have time to go to his violin concert!”), interns, interviews ad nauseum, a terrorist from Kharzaria (?), and even a pesky radio d.j.

The play is a comedy-drama with lots of great lines, many coming from the hilarious but serious terrorist, Ruslan X (Ethan Kitts) who says his parts with the solemnity of a bomb about to detonate. To the audience's delight, he often mixes up his English: "puddle" for "splash," and "ghost us" for "haunt us." (You have to be there.)

For Fringe, it’s a big cast of seven, with four who have two or more roles (and five who are the radio callers). Smooth transitions gave no hint about multiple parts, only afforded the experienced. No weaknesses were observed in any presentations, however, "show stealers" were Conor Scanlan, Peters' intern who also acts as his son, and Morganne Davies in three roles, including Peters' mistress.

It's not often you see one person in four roles, deftly acted here by Michael Crowley. In one of her two parts Sarah Strasser delivered the ideal exaggeration and inflection of an entertaining television reporter.

The sound director deserves special recognition, but at left center stage was a burned-out light bulb needing replacement. Microphones would have aided reception. Costuming was match perfect.

Doug Krehbel directed with assistance from Christine Barry.

Although the performance lasted two hours (long for Fringe), I was not ready for it to end, and would welcome a combined production on a bigger platform, like maybe Woolly Mammoth's? Latecomers' intrusions would be thwarted.*

Whatever, not to miss!

*About latecomers: When I placed my order for a Fringe ticket package, I had to acknowledge three times my understanding that latecomers would not be seated, but they were at the Goethe-Institut. Not just one or two individuals, but trickling groups, too. The entrance to seating at the Goethe is at the front, so latecomers have to walk on the stage platform. Which is what they also did after intermission. Maybe they were politicians on waivers. 

What: The Politician

When: July 24, 5:45 p.m. and July 28, 12 p.m.

Where: Goethe-Institut, Main Stage, 812 Seventh Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001

Duration: About two hours with one short pause

How much: $17 + a one-time charge for the $7 Fringe button required at all venues or buy discounted seats in multiples

Metro stations: Metro Center, Mt. Vernon Square-Convention Center, Gallery Place-Chinatown, Archives

For more information: 866-811-4111

Language: X-rated 


patricialesli@gmail.com

Capital Fringe's 'STATUS' is an experiment, all right

Limousines, Inc.

 

Guurrrrlll!!!  We should all have a year (or part of one) like Kathryn Elizabeth Kelly had in 2011 when her boyfriend ended their six-year affair, and she took off and said "yes" to all invitations.

Wow!  You talk about a wild side.  Or was it a wild ride?  I think it was both.  

I've heard about this in Washington, D.C., and I believe Ms. Kelly's show at Capital Fringe, STATUS - A Social Media Experiment, could be up on the big screen, and can't you just imagine the film?  I am ready to buy a ticket.

You see, my lifestyle ain't exactly like Kathryn Elizabeth Kelly's, being that I am much older (one reason) but some of us can live vicariously, can't we? And when does the movie start?

Kathryn Elizabeth Kelly stars in her own play, STATUS - A Social Media Experiment at Capital Fringe/Phil Kogan

Okay, she's a Kennedy Center dancer (she said it was a true story) who starts going out "on the rebound" real fast, like the speed of water gushing from broken pipes, to parties galore, where "Mr. Billionaire" paid her mortgage (!!!) after she agreed to try on one of the many new bikinis he kept  on his yacht on the Potomac where all the women, she said, had been his sleeping partners at one time or another. (Not all at the same time, I don't think since that would require a mattress as big as FedEx Field.  I don't guess a mattress is necessary though. Do you ever wonder how these people remain disease-free?  Maybe, they aren't!) 

(In her one-act, one-person play, Kathryn Elizabeth Kelly never mentions having sex with any of her new "friends."  Shame.)

Anyway, one party led to another and another, and four hours' sleep per night became the norm along with all those alcoholic calories and friends.  Oh, she found a lot of those on FB: to be exact, 687 she "friended" over the year. 

Once she got out her dancing shoes, it didn't take long to break into the D.C. party  circuit and rub shoulders with the elite, including one of the female U.S. Supreme Court justices, and they discussed dance:  modern or ballet? 

And pretty soon, Kathryn Elizabeth Kelly was going to all the fancy digs with so many escorts who knew their way "in," invited or not.  Just act like you know what you're doing, she said, and the hosts will be too embarrassed to kick you out.  (She didn't name the Salahis at the White House, but their images appeared to many of us.)

Ms. Kelly's props are a computer on a fold-out table, a chair, a bell, and the screen behind her where activities, friends, and male pals are displayed in a slide show.  Sadly, no real names supplied.  Just nicknames ("Captain Morgan," Mr. Liteweight," "Lieutenant Delicious.")  There is no intermission (but all the Fringe intermissions I know about are nothing more than pauses). 

Honestly, I don't think she was really acting as much as pouring her guts out about her incredible year over 60 minutes which, for sure, won't appeal to all, but I'll bet a large portion of "all" might be interested in seeing this movie.  (A book?  No.  Well, maybe, written in sixth-grade style for all those people who don't like to read.) To Hollywood or bust!

When I went last Saturday evening, the audience was about 90 percent female.

I can visualize the movie right now and all the scenes in Georgetown, on the water, the yachts (!), restaurants, and the fancy clubs and magic places.  

Let's think of titles since Status makes me think of concrete.  How about D. C. Party Girl or Diary of a Washington Dancer?  Fabulosity in the Potomac? Phabulous Phantom on the Potomac?

Kathryn Elizabeth Kelly has some tips, too, the most important of which is: 

1.  "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" as in be there and show up.  (She did not name the Bible verse, but I'll supply some:  Luke 6:31 or Matthew 7:12.)

and

2.  Never pay a cover charge. 

3. If a guy buys you a drink, you are only obligated to converse with him the time it takes you to gulp the drink. 

4. Always carry an extra cocktail dress in your car. (!) 

5. Never drink red wine when wearing a white dress.  

This was the first sold-out Fringe show I've been to this year, and thank goodness I had a reservation since the venue's box office was turning away last-minute purchasers.

What:  STATUS - A Social Media Experiment

When: July 20, 7:45 p.m.; July 21, 10:30 p.m.; July 24, 6:30 p.m.; July 27, 3:30 p.m.

Where:  Caos on F, 923 F Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 2000r

How much: $17 + a one-time charge for the $7 Fringe button required at all venues or buy discounted seats in multiples.  Buy online or at the box office.

Metro stations:  Metro Center, Mt. Vernon Square- Convention Center, Gallery Place-Chinatown, Archives

For more information:  866-811-4111

Language:  X-rated

patricialesli@gmail.com