Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Pictures! Washington Capitals Stanley Cup Championship Parade
Thursday, June 7, 2018
You don't have to be Jewish to love Herndon's 'Bad Jews'
I loved these Bad Jews, and at the end, the single word which popped into my mind as emotions swept me, was "powerful" which was the word a woman two seats away said out loud.
If two of us think so, it's got to be.
Three cousins meet in New York after their grandfather's death to try and sort things out.
In one corner of the boxing ring stands Daphna (Sophie Schulman), the wicked witch of the show whose mouth runs negative non-stop, and on the other side is Cousin Liam (Noah Schaefer), equally as domineering and loudmouthed, although kinder and gentler, qualities which Daphna has no knowledge nor possession.
To convey some idea of the power of the script and director's Cristina Alicea's skill with Ms. Schulman, it takes just a short while for the audience to develop intense dislike of Daphna and increasing astonishment over her choice of words.
What happened to her? Was she ever loved by anyone? Has she ever loved? Liam wants to know.
Just like a dog (but not a Golden Retriever), Daphna constantly grooms her hair all over the place, spinning her web and taking ownership. Liam complains.
Where is the vacuum? And the civility?
Liam's discourse is spellbinding, such that I hoped his head's protruding blood vessels did not explode when he did.
Adding balance and levity to the scenery are Liam's brother, Jonah (Vitaly Mayes), and Liam's girlfriend, Melody (Elizabeth Kate Vinarski) who is as pretty as her name implies, with all the freshness and innocence of a blooming yellow rose, in contrast to a suffocating insecticide. (Kind of like the Good Witch and the Bad Witch in the Wizard of Oz, or Melanie and Scarlett in Gone With the Wind, although Scarlett to Daphna is baking soda to cayenne pepper.)
Bad Jews takes place in a contemporary studio apartment right on Riverside Drive which overlooks the Hudson, with stylish kitchen, entryway, living area, and ceiling and hallway lighting to easily divide transitions and script. (Kudos to scenic designer Jack Golden and lighting designer Sarah Tundermann.)
Costume designer Kristina Martin dresses Daphna all in black, of course (at least, to start the fireworks which glow better in the night) which match Daphna's hair color.
Since many of the lines seem to be lifted from our national dialogue and chieftain, I imagined that playwright Joshua Harmon wrote it within the last year, however, it opened off-Broadway in 2012, and he wrote it the year before.
The dark comedy is filled with messages which hit us in the gut and remind us what it's all about.
I imagine many of us have a Daphna in our midst, or a variation of her (why is it always the woman?) which made me happy at the end, knowing my family is not quite as bad as Liam and Daphna's. We mostly treat each other with respect because, like my mother used to say: If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all.
This NextStop Theatre production continues to strengthen Herndon's growing reputation as a suburban center for professional theatre in Washington.
Other Bad Jews crew members are: Caitlin M. Caplinger, assistant director; Jonathan Powers, sound designer and composer; Laura M. Moody, stage manager;
Kristen Hunter Fitzgerald, assistant stage manager; Sarah Kamins, properties designer; Casey Kaleba, fight choreographer; and master electricians,
Jonathan Abolins and Maeve Nash
What: Bad Jews
When: Thursday through Saturday nights at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. through June 17, 2018. A Saturday matinee will be presented at 2 p.m., June 9.
Where: NextStop Theatre Company, 269 Sunset Park Drive, Herndon, VA 20170 in the back right corner of Sunset Business Park, near the intersection of Spring Street/Sunset Hills Road. Right off the Fairfax County Parkway. A wee big hard to find on a first visit, so allow an extra 15 minutes. The program notes that GPS map systems often give incorrect driving directions once inside the Sunset Business Park. From the "Taste of the World" restaurant, circle counter-clockwise around the building and look for maroon awning.
Free parking: Available near the door.
Admission: Tickets are $35.
Duration: About 90 minutes without intermission
Language rating: X, like Samantha Bee's and plenty of it
Sex and skin: None
For more information: 703-481-5930 info@nextstoptheatre.org
patricialesli@gmail.com
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Women composers featured at free noontime concert, June 6, St. John's, Lafayette Square
Selections by three women composers are the program for a free concert Wednesday, June 6, at St. John's Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square beginning at 12:10 p.m.
The three composers are
Grażyna Bacewicz (1909–1969) from Poland, Clara Schumann (1819–1896) from Germany, and a living artist, Margaret Vardell Sandresky (b. 1921) from Salem College, Winston-Salem, N.C.
The U.S. Air Force Strings under the direction of
First Lieutenant Philip Emory will perform Symphony for String Orchestra (Bacewicz), followed by organist Ilono Kubiaczyk-Adler to play Prelude and Fugue in B-flat major, Op. 16 No. 2 (Schumann) and Dialogues for Organ and Strings (Sandresky).
Dr. Kubiaczyk-Adler began studying piano at age 8 in her native Poland and started organ studies at 16. A winner of national and international competitions, she holds a doctorate in musical arts (Arizona State University), two master's degrees, and professional diplomas. She is the associate music director at All Saints Episcopal Church in Phoenix.
Lt. Emory is a flight commander based in Washington, who began violin studies at age 4. He holds a master's degree in conducting from the University of South Carolina and has traveled the world as an artist.
St.
John's Episcopal Church, Washington, D.C./Photo by Patricia Leslie
Wednesday's performances will conclude St. John's First Wednesday series for the year. Look for an announcement of next year's artists and save first Wednesdays on your calendar.St. John's was founded in 1815 and is known to Washington residents as the yellow church at Lafayette Square. It's often called the “Church of the Presidents” since beginning with James Madison, who was president from 1809 to 1817, every president has attended services at the church, and several have been members. A plaque at the rear of St. John's designates the pew where President Abraham Lincoln often sat when he stopped by the church during the Civil War.
Benjamin Latrobe, known as the "father of American architecture" and the architect of the U.S. Capitol Building and the White House porticos, designed St. John's Church in the form of a Greek cross.
The church bell, weighing almost 1,000 pounds, was cast by Paul Revere's son, Joseph, in August, 1822, and was hung at St. John's that November where it has rung since. Wikipedia says two accounts report that whenever the bell rings on the occasion of the death of a notable person, six male ghosts appear at the president's pew at midnight and quickly disappear.
Dolley Madison, wife of President Madison, was baptized and confirmed at St. John's, according to the National Park Service, which calls the church "one of the few original remaining buildings left near Lafayette Park today."
For those on lunch break Wednesday, food trucks are located at Farragut Square, two blocks away.
What: First Wednesday Concert featuring music by women composers by organist Ilono Kubiaczyk-Adler and the U.S. Air Force Strings
When: 12:10 p.m., June 6, 2018
Where: St. John’s, Lafayette Square, 1525 H Street, NW, at the corner of 16th, Washington, D.C. 20005
How much: No charge
Duration: About 35 minutes
Wheelchair accessible
Metro stations: McPherson Square (White House exit), Farragut North, or Farragut West
For more information: Contact Michael Lodico at 202-270-6265 or Michael.Lodico@stjohns-dc.org or 202-347-8766
patricialesli@gmail.com
Sunday, June 3, 2018
'Most Boring' Oscar goes to 'Let the Sunshine In'
Where did they come up with this misnomer? I've got a better title: Purposeless Woman Rolls In and Out.
This is a slow-go, pitiful excuse for a movie with just one single piece of redeeming social value, namely the recording of Etta James' "At Last" sung while the "heroine" (Juliette Binoche) dances solo, soon joined on the dance floor by a nameless buck who looks a lot like Mick Jagger (okay, two pieces of "redeeming social value").
Other than that two-minute splice, this ain't got nuthin' goin' for it. (A double negative which means a positive, but in this case, it's a double negative.)
"Isabelle" rolls in and out of bed with:
1. A married sleezebag who bears a resemblance to Harvey Weinstein. (Come on!)
2. An actor who "has regrets" (sure, bro') since he's breaking up with his wife
3. I lost count. I think Mick Jagger was about #7.
4. Her ex
5.
6.
7. (Maybe Mick?)
8.
9.
10. zzzzzzzz .....zzzzzzzzzz
ad infinitum
At the end, my pal, Terry, woke up from a two-hour nap just in time to ask: "Where'd the black dude come from?" Who knows? I didn't think I fell asleep, too, but maybe I got in some shuteye, because suddenly, on her elbow Isabelle had grown a new beau who wanted to take it "slow."
Yeah, right. "Slow" like in this excuse for a movie! This was actually worse than that dreadful cat movie of several years ago, and it has got to be really bad to exceed that one in boringness.
Save your money and your time. This got an 85% critics' rating at Rotten Tomatoes (natch; their rating is why I went!) and the audience gave it a 22%! The audience always wins which just goes to show you that Rotten Tomatoes has gone rancid on us.
patricialesli@gmail.com
Saturday, June 2, 2018
'Sally Mann' has left the building, headed to ...
Sally Mann: A Thousand Crossings is going to Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Paris, and Salem, Massachusetts, after a successful three-month run at the National Gallery of Art. (Please see tour dates below.*)
If you missed the big exhibition in Washington, here are a few photos from the show organized by the National Gallery and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.
The title for the presentation comes from a poem by John Glenday, "Landscape with Flying Man" with this line: "The soul makes a thousand crossings, the heart, just one."**
Despite appearances in the scene above, it was not spontaneous but rehearsed numerous times, until Sally Mann could get it just right , according to the label copy. In the picture her daughter, Jessie, wears a white Easter dress worn by Sally Mann and her grandmother, Jessie's namesake.
It's a really big show, about 110 photographs taken by Ms. Mann of her beloved South and its complexities, beauty, hauntings, and landscapes which her cult adores and who filled the galleries every time I went to the National Gallery which explains why I was never able to get a seat to see the continuously running film about her at work.
This is all (above) that remains of the Windsor Mansion, the largest antebellum Greek Revival house in Mississippi. Built between 1859 and 1861, it had four stories, 25 rooms, 25 fireplaces, and a basement with a school room, dairy, and supply rooms. It is likely that Union troops did not torch it in the Civil War, as they did so many others, because they used it as a hospital.
After the war, Mark Twain stood in Windsor's observatory and viewed the Mississippi River, observations he used in Life on the Mississippi. Later, when a guest dropped a cigarette in the house on the afternoon of February 3, 1890, the ensuing fire and flames burned it to the ground.
Windsor Mansion has been the set of several movies, including Raintree County (1957) with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Cliff. See it today on Highway 552, 12 miles from Port Gibson, Mississippi.
The battle of Cold Harbor (above) was fought in 1864 ten miles from Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy.
The exhibition spanned several galleries and was divided by five themes: Family, The Land, Last Measure, Abide with Me, and What Remains. I find Mann's photographs neither inspirational nor uplifting and they speak of a languid, bygone era which no longer exists, save the sad landscapes which continue to wither.
A friend in Blacksburg asked me if the show was, she paused before she said "depressing," we both, familiar with Mann's typical subject matter. Yes, I said, and bleak, like they usually are.
Or, that's how they strike me. How do they strike you? Perhaps, it's the black and whiteness. But for the younger generation, and heavens know, that's the only market (!) for everything, it's what they seem to want, a reflection of their existence.
*Tour dates are:
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, June 30 - Sept. 23, 2018
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Nov. 20 - Feb. 10, 2019
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Mar. 3 - May 27, 2019
Jeu de Paume, Paris, June 17 - Sept. 22, 2019
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Oct. 19, 2019 - Jan. 12, 2020.
A catalogue with 320 pages and 230 illustrations is on sale for $45 at the National Gallery of Art.
Audio and video of the show with interviews are available at the National Gallery's website.
**"Landscape with Flying Man"
I read about him that was given wings.
His father fixed those wings to carry him away.
They carried him halfway home, and then he fell.
And he fell not because he flew
but because he loved it so. You see
it's neither pride, nor gravity but love
that pulls us back down to the world.
Love furnishes the wings, and that same love
will watch over us as we drown.
The soul makes a thousand crossings, the heart, just one.
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