A group of 30 artists have brought 160 works from 1974-1984 together in the experimentally playful exhibition, The Picture Generation. Hosted at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the collection features photograph, primarily, but also touches upon painting, sculpture, film, and audio, exploring how images mold our perceptions on individuality and the world around us. These politically and socially charged works are on display through August 2nd.
The corporate world is known neither for excitement nor fun. Leave it to Academy Award winning film maker Ethan Coen to make it undeniably hysterical. Offices opened last night at Manhattan’s Atlantic Theatre Company where it will enlight and entertain audiences through June 7th.
The hour and thirty minute production is brimming with character as three, one-act plays take life on stage. In these separate offices, home life and the workplace don’t always mesh and “climbing the ladder” appears misanthropic and alienating. The cast, under the fabulous direction of Neil Pepe, is sensational. Aya Cash takes on three separate roles with ease and agility while F. Murray Abraham is uproariously entertaining as the bum in “Struggle Session”. His character had to be one of my favorites. Philosophical and paradoxical with a dialogue you would never dream of falling asleep to, but really, would you expect any less from our Coen brother? I think not.
Society’s obsession with physical beauty and the ways in which it can wound people has been a subject on playwright Neil LaBute’s mind with works such as “Shape of Things” and “Fat Pig” and now his third, “reasons to be pretty“, which opened on Broadway April 2nd.
The play opens with Steph (Marin Ireland) and Greg (Thomas Sadoski), the protagonist of the story, in a heated word against word argument which ends with Steph calling the relationship over, moving out and moving on. It follows the ex-couple and their two friends as they struggle with their dead-end, blue collar jobs and ask questions like what does it mean to be a man? and what is the real gain in beauty, anyhow? LaBute, in a note, said, “it’s the first coming-of-age story [he's] written”. It’s about “making choices that are hard and adult and not easy.” Shaken by the break-up, Greg is forced to reexamine his life and the type of person he has become.
Piper Perabo plays Carly, an attractive security guard who is married to Kent, played by the quite astonishingly great actor Steven Pasquale. The raw and, at times, quite brilliantly awkward acting is so cleverly and simply enhanced by the scenic design of David Gallo.
Grab tickets. reasons to be pretty will be showing at the Lyceum Theatre until early September. Maybe post viewing you’ll dance a little harder, sing a little louder, talk a little more freely because life is about being brave and standing up for what we believe in.
The woman known for bringing us some of the best “street photography” in the history of American Photography died last month at the age of 95. With breathtaking dexterity her photos of life on the streets in New York City captured a familiarity about the subject that made them feel like family.
Born and bread in Brooklyn, Levitt dropped out of highschool and taught herself photography. In 1943 Levitt’s first solo exhibition opened at The Museum of Modern Art entitled “Helen Levitt: Photographs of Children,” and continued to create inspired works until the 1990s when sciatica prevented her from being able to stand for long periods of time. The woman who claims her talent was purely luck has left a huge hand print on the world of photography.
Tina Howe newest comedy Chasing Manet opens on April 9th at The 59E59 Theater. The story follows two woman as they form an unlikely bond in the Mount Airy Nursing Home and plan to run away to Paris together but find their plan is easier said than done.
Sex, gender, pleasure, pain, anatomy, relationships- these we all relate to, we all have awareness of, and we all have opinions on. Therefore, in 2002 when NYC opened the first museum dedicated completely to sex, the response was that of intrigue and fascination, winning awards for the opening exhibit, NYCSex. Since then the museum has generated over 12 exhibits and has proven to be an incredibly unique institution completely dedicated to exploring the history, significance, and evolution of sexuality.
From interpretations of the human body to sex education, photography to technology the museum covers a wide array of works, including pieces by Pablo Picasso and Keith Haring. The Museum of Sex is definitely not your “typical” museum but its worth a visit.
As is the sad truth for countless artists, Martin Kippenberger did not receive wide recognition until after his death from liver cancer at the young age of 44. Known for his “live fast and drink hard” life style, this German artist created a vertiginous range of works that have been since featured at prominent art museums such as the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Now Kippenberger’s pieces are being featured as a new retrospective exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art. Starting March 1st the 6th floor of the MOMA will be filled with Kippenberger’s paintings, sculptures, works on paper, installations, multiples, photographs, posters, announcement cards, books, and music. Make your way up to see all the brilliance and don’t forget about Target Free Fridays.
Prospect Theater Company is celebrating 10 years of existence with a spectacular theatrical collaboration. Collage-like in essence, The Dome encompasses three separate story lines, monologues, solos, and inspiration from the very space in which the performance takes life.
The West End Theatre on Manhattan’s upper west side has worked with Prospect since 2003 and is closely linked to the church residing within the same building. The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul has housed various religious communities in need of space. After gaining landmark status in the 1980′s the interest to develop the theater space grew but questions on how to fund the process became a major concern. Benevolently enough, Paramount Pictures found the space and wanted to shoot the movie “Keeping The Faith” there which was a solution to the financial situation. The architecture of the building became a major model for which The Dome was built on. Cara Reichel, artistic director, expressed that the space is “designed both to allow us to escape ourselves, and to make us aware of our humanity” which coincides with the themes of universe and birth that saturate the performance and cause the audience to contemplate philosophies of the world all around us.
I was continually impressed by the manor in which the very separate story lines and solo scenes flowed so naturally, as if we the audience were sitting on the outside of earth, looking in. Was the audience sitting in the perspective of god, empathetically watching lives unfold where time and space all meshed into one or were we just a part of the bigger picture asking the unanswerable along with the characters in which we observed? All that is certain is that life, whatever it may be, is the heart that continues to beat, beat… beat.
The Dome is playing through March 1st at the West End Theater. Get tickets, period.
Exit The King, Le Roi se meurt, is a drama of absurdity where King Berenger the First struggles to come to terms with his 400 year reign coming to an end. Berenger was at one point able to command nature and force his will upon others, but when the audience meets Berenger he has been made aware that death is around the corner, his powers are slowly dwindling and his kingdom is falling. Geoffrey Rush is unbelievably endearing as the king, personifying a sort of irritating distress while remaining unquestionably lovable. Susan Sarandon and Lauren Ambrose, as the two queens of the king, maintain their polarized demeanors, creating continual depth and understanding.
Exit the King sets itself apart from “the Berenger Cycle” in that as the play progresses the characters start to dwindle, where in every other play by Euguene Ionesco progression leads to more and more characters and objects on stage. Ionesco has said he wrote Exit the King while he was sick and frightened of death which could atone for its break away from the avant-garde and its lean more towards the classical.
Under the direction of Neil Armfield and music by John Rodgers, stars like Geoffrey Rush, Susan Sarandon, Lauren Ambrose and Andrea Martin, hands down, make the 14 week engagement one you don’t want to miss.
Closing night: June 14, 2009.
Elisabeth Charlotte Rist, nicknamed Pipilotti, is well known for her colorful and musical super 8 films. The subjects of the films vary but remain linked to issues like sexuality, gender, and the human body. The exhibit at the MOMA is found in the grande atrium in order to give the visitor’s a sense of space so their bodies can breathe and stretch. Projectors play her films all along the walls and a large seating area, also designed by the artist, is available for on-lookers to sit and relax. The exhibit is open until February 2nd, 2009. Dont forget, every Friday at the MOMA is free from 4-8!
