Woe be to the audience member who attempts to take a flash photograph from the front row of a David Shiner show. When that happened in the opening minutes of clown master Shiner's CSU Summer Arts performance at Fresno State on Saturday, the temptation to impose public humiliation on the offender was just too great to pass up. Shiner, a lanky fellow with an almost liquid flow to his stage movements and a razor-sharp ability to convey exaggerated emotions with a few wrinkles of his expressive face, was immediately all over the guy: rolling his eyes in mock outrage, miming a machine gun, taking an imaginary camera and stomping it into the ground, even dropping to all fours and doing his "doggie duty" on the offending device.
It was very funny stuff. Especially because -- and I'm sure every audience member was thinking the same thing -- it wasn't me.
Clowns terrify some people. After watching Shiner's smooth and expertly paced show at a packed John Wright Theatre, I'm thinking that at least some of that childhood terror comes from a fear of being plucked from the audience.
In my Sunday Spotlight column I write about the "Dark Knight" phenomenon and the massive audiences attracted to the film in its opening weekend. How much of its popularity can be attributed to Heath Ledger's untimely death? Was Ledger's creepy turn as the Joker his best performance? Beyond that, it's fascinating how cinema can freeze an actor in a state of eternal youth.
Here's your chance to talk about "The Dark Knight's" opening weekend. Was every screening in the area sold out? What did you think of Ledger's performance? And (be honest here) were you more likely to go (or plan to go) because of all the publicity? [Photo: comicbookmovie.com]
As the California State University Summer Arts program continues at Fresno State, we envision this Beehive post as a place for news, recommendations, reader reviews, gripes, background information -- anything related to the program. You can leave a comment here or send an email.
SATURDAY July 19
This last full weekend of Summer Arts is a busy one indeed. On Saturday night, David Shiner will present a clown/theatre performance. As I told Heather for inclusion in her weekend roundup, Shiner is one of the world's leading clowns. He started out as a street mime in Paris and performed with various European circuses. He's also been prominent on Broadway: He played the Cat in the Hat in "Seussical" and directed the touring production of "KOOZA" for Cirque du Soleil. I know that some people have issues with clowns and mimes, but I've heard great things about Shiner -- this is on a whole different level than that scary clown who tried to make you laugh at your fourth birthday party. (7 p.m. Saturday, John Wright Theatre)
On Sunday afternoon, composer Howard Frazin will give a music composition lecture. From his bio: "Frazin is President of Composers in Red Sneakers, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based composer’s collective. His recent commissions include working with the Boston Classical Orchestra and the Wellesley Symphony, among others." You can check out his Web site here. (2 p.m. Sunday, Conley Lecture Hall)
On Sunday evening, one of the big names to hit Summer Arts will give a theater lecture: Gary Sinise. Felicia Matlosz plans to attend this event. As she told Heather: Most people think of him as Lt. Dan in "Forrest Gump" or in his current role as the star of "CSI:NY." But he's also a respected stage actor and co-founder of the prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre Company. I'm really looking forward to his reflections on life as an actor. (7 p.m. Sunday, John Wright Theatre)
This was how anxious last night I was to read the New York Times review of the new Broadway musical "[title of show]" starring Fresno's own Heidi Blickenstaff: I found it on the Times Web site on my mobile phone at the intermission of "The Music Man," and just as I was able to scroll down to start reading, the house lights dimmed. And since the Times, true to form, didn't have a headline that actually told you whether it was a postive or negative review, I had to put my curiosity on hold through the second act.
Well, it was worth the wait. Here's what Christopher Isherwood, the second-string critic for the Times, had to say:
It is genial, unpretentious and far funnier than many of the more expensively manufactured musicals that make it to Broadway these days ... Consider “[title of show]” the class clown of Broadway. Certainly it will never be part of the popular crowd, like those snooty smash hits “Wicked” or “The Lion King.” It’s not the straight-A, critic’s-pet type like “Spring Awakening,” either. But like all class clowns, it wins you over by making fun of the big shots and bursting with its own distinctive personality.
The musical also got a strong review from the New York Daily News, but it got panned by the Post.
Did Heidi and her gang luck out by opening when first-string critic (and noted terror of Broadway) Ben Brantley was out of town or on vacation? Perhaps. But a Times review is a Times review, and a positive one means a lot. Congrats to all. [Photo: New York Times]
Big, bright and with enough zip to power every Wii in Clovis, the new production of "The Music Man" at CenterStage Clovis Community Theatre is an energetic and ambitious version of the oft-performed classic. A huge cast of 63 nicely fills out the big Mercedes Edwards stage, and director Greg Grannis shuffles his enthusiastic players on and off with such efficiency and vigor that many, many calories are burned.
I got beat up a little by readers for my review of last year's CenterStage summer musical, "The Sound of Music." It can be very unpopular for a critic to call a community-theater production "adequate at best." But I just didn't think that the show represented the full potential of the Clovis company. Thankfully, there's a striking difference between this year's production and last year's effort. "The Music Man" is in a whole different league in terms of staging, choreography and general overall competence. Even the tremendous sound problems experienced last year, in which the live orchestra drowned out some of the lyrics, have been immensely improved.
I have an interview in Friday's 7 section with Greg Grannis, who is commanding an impressive army of 63 cast members plus full orchestra in CenterStage Clovis Community Theatre's production of "The Music Man," which opened Thursday at the Mercedes Edwards Theatre. Here's a continuation of the interview:
What's your own background with "The Music Man"?
"The Music Man" was the very first full-scale production I was cast in as a kid. I so admired the teen dance ensemble in that show that when I came home from college, The Music Man was the first show I did upon returning home...that time as a teen dancer. Since then, I've helped out on several other productions, and finally (after having performed the show over 100 times myself), now am getting to direct and choreograph the true American classic that first cemented my love for musical theater. It feels a bit like everything's come full circle, with flashbacks of past productions popping into my head as I watch rehearsals. And it doesn't hurt that with my family's mid-western background, I feel like I actually grew up knowing some of the these characters in real life.
Frankly, folks, I got a little scared when I went to the Sierra Vista Cinemas 16 Web site this morning to check on this Friday's movie openings. Here's what the site lists as the ticket prices:
General Admission - $13.00
Student Discount - $8.50
Children 3 – 11 & Senior 60 & better – $9.50
Matinee daily until 6pm – $10.00
I haven't been out to the theater for a month or so, but could this be true? I can't see how it could be. Thirteen bucks is a whopping $3 more than Regal charges. (And can you believe $10 for a matinee?) On Movietickets.com, the official online site for the theater, the top ticket price for Sierra Vista is listed as $9.75, so I'm assuming the higher prices must be some kind of Web site error. But what if it's dummy type for a planned future price increase? With $4.50/gallon gas and $13 ticket prices, people are going to have take out loans if they want popcorn with their movies.
UPDATE 5:30 p.m.: Well, that got fixed fast. The Web site has been changed. Looks like the $13 rate structure is for 3-D movies. Regular top price is $9.75. Still, I felt as if I've seen the future, and it isn't pretty.
Speaking of ticket prices: We have an announcement in Friday's upcoming issue of 7 that Regal's Clovis Towne Center 8 theater will be changing over to a discount movie house. Tickets will be $3. That means first-run films won't open there anymore. It remains to be seen what this will mean long-term to the art-house films such as "The Visitor" and "Young@Heart" that have been playing there recently, but as of Friday, those titles remain. And $3 sounds a lot better than $13.
Most of us never get to see the raw footage from movies. By the time we get to the final product, the film has been carefully edited -- and while most of us are dimly aware that a lot more footage is shot than actually makes it on the screen, it's never an idea that is front and center.
With Monday night's Summer Arts lecture, the audience got a rare peek at what the editor of a film is confronted with: lots and lots of raw footage that has to be shaped into some kind of cohesive experience. The film is "Ars Medicina," a documentary from Bklyn2LA productions and MEDIA OFFLINE. It follows a group of Los Angeles doctors who take an annual week-long trip to rural Guatemala to offer medical assistance. The film at this point in time is smack in the middle of the creative process, with the footage all in the can but the editing still to go.
There's been a lot of lively reader discussion on my Beehive "Twelfth Night" review thread, so if you want to experience some spirited back-and-forth between local theater types, click away. This Woodward Shakespeare Festival production has two weekends left in its run, and it's been interesting to read what people have to write about the show as the run progresses. Some folks are positive:
I liked this show. I was also there on opening night and there were technical issues, but I thought the acting was good and it was a pleasant evening. All of Woodward's shows have a mixed bag of experienced and inexperienced actors, and Donald picking on the younger men was a tad unfair, but I thought most of the cast knew what they were doing and were having a good time.
Others disagree:
I saw "Twelfth Night" on Thursday last and was disappointed. Not with the new venue--it was lush and inviting and much cooler than the concrete of the amphitheater. I was not disappointed with the acting, sound, or lights, but in the obvious lack of structure or direction. Mr. Thorson calls "Twelfth Night" Shakespeare's most romantic play. I saw no hint of romance. There was little chemistry between any of the actors in the quadrangle (Olivia/Orsino/"Cesario"/Sebastian). I would have liked the director to have taken more time to develop those relationships.
ON THE JUMP: More on "Twelfth Night," a new executive director for the Warnor's Center is named, a Good Company Players veteran stars in a national tour, and is anyone out there as addicted to "Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods" as I?
To kick off the second session of Summer Arts, organizers picked a performer with a name so towering that it only made sense to feature him at the Tower Theatre. Flamenco guitar master Juan Serrano, along with his accomplished son, Juani, made an appearance that ended with the chance for both of them to perform together. I wasn't able to attend the concert, but I knew that Beehive regular Blake Jones would be there and asked him to provide a recap, which he most graciously did:
The Tower Theater was packed. I mean packed. This was beautiful to see, but no big surprise. Juan
Serrano is loved in this town. When he came to Fresno, he already had a world-wide reputation: pictures of him with JFK, Ed Sullivan, and cello maestro Pablo Casals were all displayed proudly in his office. When he left Fresno, he left a legacy of years of music making -- he gave concerts all over the country when his schedule permitted, teaching -- he built up an impressive program for guitar at Fresno State, and mentoring --- ask the myriads of students who had the joy of being invited to hang out and talk music with him at the Student Union coffee shop after class.
But this legacy was already in place whether or not he returned to Fresno for CSUFresno’s Summer Arts Program.
Mark Larson told a Photoshop joke before a Summer Arts lecture last week. Yes, there is such a thing as a Photoshop joke. Here goes:
How many Photoshop experts does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
The answer: One, and the other 99 have their own expert ways to do it.
Larson, the course coordinator for the CSU Summer Arts digital photo seminar, might not be getting his own HBO comedy special anytime soon, but he's a very nice guy, and he welcomed me to his class Tuesday and introduced me to a few of his students. I focus on one of those students, Charlene Kassmayer, in Friday's issue of 7. (You can see a bigger image of her Barn Door photo on the jump.) Some of her fellow students shared some more tips for up-and-coming photographers:
In Friday's 7 section, I have an interview with Mark Norwood, director of Reedley's River City Theatre Company new production of "Little Shop of Horrors." Here's a continuation of the interview:
Question: Talk a little about the production. Is this going to be a big technical challenge for your small space?
Answer: I think that the creative use of our limited space is perhaps the thing that I am most proud of as we near the end or our 5th year round season. For Pump Boys And Dinettes we hung a 1946 Dodge off of our stage right wall and still managed to have the “Double Cup Diner”, “Jim’s Garage”, a four piece band and a cast of 7occupy the playing area. With the addition of a forestage, a thrust and balcony extensions, we have produced Big River, Music Man, and Oliver with casts averaging 25 performers. We have also turned the stage into a functioning beauty salon for Steel Magnolias and a saloon for The People Vs. Mona.
With all that said, Little Shop Of Horrors does present some very big challenges for our “little” Opera House.
Though the screenwriting and film-acting components don't have as high a public profile as other course offerings at the California State University Summer Arts program, there's a lot of Hollywood industry brainpower concentrated at Fresno State this week. A chatty group representing different facets of the biz -- screenwriter, director, cinematographer, casting agent, studio executive -- shared some tips with students and community members at a panel discussion at Wahlberg Recital Hall. Make no mistake, they said: It's a jungle out there.
"Everybody on the planet has a screenplay," said John Schimmel, producer and vice president of development at Ascendant Pictures.
This story probably falls more into the business/news blog side of things, but I've always had protective feelings toward Fresno's airport -- having reliable, convenient and affordable air transportation is one of those big-city things that I think we desperately need -- so I'm a little bummed with the news today that ExpressJet is pulling out of FAT. The Bee's Jeff St. John writes in this breaking update:
Fresno Yosemite International Airport officials announced today that the Houston-based carrier would end its Fresno flights on Sept. 2 ... ExpressJet started its Fresno service in April 2007, but said in a news release that it was cutting back “due primarily to rising fuel prices which have made the operations impossible to sustain.”
UPDATE: Here's Jeff's longer story from Thursday's paper.
I was just having a conversation the other night with an out-of-town Summer Arts participant and saying that Fresno's airport has really improved in recent years. Now this. Just think: 1) of all those hundreds more cars each day driving to Southern California; and 2) the minor embarrassment that you won't even be able to fly straight from San Diego to Fresno. Business travelers are going to scream, and that's going to make it harder attracting quality jobs to the area. In case you've missed the ongoing story, by the way, the U.S. air transport system is on the verge of collapse, particularly for mid-sized cities, thanks to crumbling infrastructure and soaring fuel prices. If we don't watch out, we'll be back to the way it was 50 years ago when only the very wealthy could afford to fly.
When you put two outspoken lesbian spoken-word performance artists on the same billing, it's no surprise if they make memorable sparks. When it's veteran performers Alix Olson and Kimberly Dark, you can add funny, poignant, acerbic and occasionally downright caustic to that list. Olson and Dark have carved out meaty careers in the spoken-word-slash-poetry world, but they've never actually shared the same stage until Tuesday night at California State University Summer Arts. Alternating their sets, they pumped up the audience with politically provocative fare that had a particular emphasis on queer and gender issues.
Dark (pictured) is a terrific presence on stage: her voice warm, her eyes lively, the physical choices she makes in terms of relationship of her body to the audience somehow reassuring and even nurturing. Yet she's also able to forge a slightly adversarial union with her listeners as well. In her opening piece, a commentary on the tendency for women to obsess about body image and weight, she challenged not only men -- for gawking natures and unrealistic expectations -- but women as well who conform to those male expectations. Dark is a strong writer, each phrase solid and calculated, and her ability to create word pictures is extraordinary. I won't soon forget the image of a woman with scalpel in hand, literally chiseling off layers of fat as if she's some sculptor working in soft stone.
Regular Beehive readers know that I'm mildly obsessed with "[title of show]," the Teensy Little Musical That Could, which co-stars Good Company Players alum Heidi Blickenstaff. (I covered the show way back when it was just starting out in New York). Well, the long-shot dream of Heidi and her cast members came true Saturday when the very first preview performance opened on BROADWAY, if you can believe that. And check out the fans who mobbed the stage door afterward:
Also, check out the amusing "[title of show]" blog account of the first performance.
Now I just have to get through the trauma of waiting for Ben Brantley's New York Times review.
Art (with a capital A) is always winding up in famous little spats with its sometime bedfellows: Art Vs. Commerce, Art Vs. Religion, Art Vs. Elitism. As our world becomes even more steeped in bytes and hard drives, there's another conflict that I think is increasingly playing itself out: Art vs. Technology. Sometimes, in a program such as California State University Summer Arts, you can really feel the tension between the two.
Was Tim Grey's Sunday night lecture at the Fresno Art Museum an example of art? Or was it about technology?
I vote for the latter. And I found it flat and uninspiring.
Will Smith can't seem to miss making his box-office magic on the all-important July 4th holiday weekend, even when he pumps out something mediocre such as "Hancock." Boxofficeguru.com reports:
Smith once again proved that he's Hollywood's most bankable box office draw. Hancock was the actor's eighth consecutive number one opener, eighth consecutive film to break the $100M mark, and gave the actor his seventh consecutive year of having a film reach the nine-digit mark ... The PG-13 film cost a reported $150M and Smith served as producer as well as star. Reviews were overwhelmingly negative but audiences came out anyway generating sales that were far from a record, but still very healthy nonetheless. Bad buzz could make the weeks ahead rocky though.
I already had my say on "Hancock" (here's my review). What's your take on the movie? Did it fit the bill for a pleasing summer blockbuster? Or did you feel afterward as if you had just ended up making an obligatory Will Smith pilgrimage?
Thirty-five years is a heck of a long time, but that's how long ago Good Company Players first graced Fresno with its presence. The first show was "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum" staged at the old Hilton Hotel. Last Saturday, cast members from that first show got together for a 35th reunion at Roger Rocka's Dinner Theater. Pictured from left: Fred Bologna, Dan Pessano, Karan Johnson (box office), Jan Pessano, Peggy Ailanjian, JoAnn Allen, Melinda Keller, Roger Keller, Ann T. Sullivan, Robert Nielsen, Ed Burke, Dennis Frost. At rear are Roger Christiansen (box office) and Steve Allen (JoAnn's son, who was born during the run of "Forum").
On the jump: "[title of show]" on Broadway, patriotic Shakespeare and more.
If anyone out there doubted the public interest in photography these days, you only had to go as far as world-traveler-photographer Nevada Wier's Monday lecture at the Fresno Art Museum. It was a packed house. I saw lots of Fresno-area professional photographers in attendance, but I also saw a hefty representation of enthusiastic amateurs. I suspect that the growth in digital photography is creating whole new armies of citizen photographers who, unencumbered by the cost of film and processing, are developing skills through sheer practice. (I know that I've greatly expanded my technique by being able to take so many more photos and not worrying about the cost. I can experiment a lot more.)
So here's to Fresno for a grand turnout and mini-rock-star welcome for a photographer.
Wier, who is one of many big names in this year's California State University Summer Arts program, gave an overview of her long and sprawling professional career. Part travelogue and part pep talk, with a few photo tips thrown in, the lecture was sure to inspire wanderlust in even the most sedentary Fresnan.
Summer Arts: David Shiner
Woe be to the audience member who attempts to take a flash photograph from the front row of a David Shiner show. When that happened in the opening minutes of clown master Shiner's CSU Summer Arts performance at Fresno State on Saturday, the temptation to impose public humiliation on the offender was just too great to pass up. Shiner, a lanky fellow with an almost liquid flow to his stage movements and a razor-sharp ability to convey exaggerated emotions with a few wrinkles of his expressive face, was immediately all over the guy: rolling his eyes in mock outrage, miming a machine gun, taking an imaginary camera and stomping it into the ground, even dropping to all fours and doing his "doggie duty" on the offending device.
