The critical consensus on "Mamma Mia," which Beehiver Will still hasn't seen even though he keeps talking about going, seems to be is that the film has some major flaws but is still a lot of fun to see -- if you're into movie musicals. Still, there are some pretty feisty defenders of the film out there. Here's a sample call in reaction to my review from a reader named Tina, who from the sounds of it took a small multigenerational army to the multiplex:
We just took about 12 people to see "Mamma Mia" today. You know what, you are so off base with your review, dude ... I don't know what kind of movies you really do like, but I'll tell you, the whole auditorium was clapping. So Pierce doesn't have a voice … but you know what, Meryl Streep's role in that show is phenomenal. My 17 year old daughter loved it, my 91 year old residents loved it, I'm 45 and I loved it ... So you are way off base on this one, dude. You missed the mark, buddy. Maybe you'd better take some people with you and pick their brain before you slaughter a really great movie. Take care. I'd love to hear your singing voice someday. Bye.
Tina: (Or may I call you Mrs. Dude?): If you read to the end of my review, you'll find that I concluded my "Dancing Queen" metaphor with this line: "The movie version might not count as royalty, but any Abba fan will want to take a chance on it anyway." I think that's pretty fair. P.S.: I am in no way Broadway (or even local theater) caliber in terms of my singing voice, but I think that I (and about 200 million other U.S. citizens) could belt it out better than Pierce Brosnan.
Call me a purist, but I think that the musical "Chicago" should be more sexy than funny. Sure, there are lots of frivolous and laugh-out-loud moments in the oft-performed John Kander/Fred Ebb/Bob Fosse stage version, which got a big boost from the Oscar-winning 2002 movie. But the laughter should be sharp and cutting. This is a show about skin, sex, corruption, gyrating bodies, tight costumes and -- not to forget -- murder, along with the whole theme of glorifying empty celebrity. Goofy and slapstick don't fit nearly so well on that list.
Consider the second-act courtroom scene, a near-train-wreck-moment, on opening night of the Good Company Players production at Roger Rocka's Dinner Theater. Steve Souza, playing all the members of the jury as is customary, hopped from chair to chair just as you'd expect. As he created different characterizations, he pretended to pick his nose, chat on the phone, use binoculars, drink out of a flask, etc. All this takes place as Roxie Hart (played by Julie Lucido), on the witness stand for murdering her lover, is undergoing friendly examination by her superstar attorney, Billy Flynn (Peter Allwine). The trick is to make the multiple-jury-member gag wryly amusing without disrupting the flow of the action.
As staged by Scott Hancock, however, the scene bogs down.
(UPDATED 7/26: Roxie's "husband" corrected to "lover.")
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.
FRIDAY July 25
We made it. After more than 40 public events, all sorts of free culminations, hundreds of hard-working students, a bevy of world-class guest artists -- another CSU Summer Arts comes to a close. Today is your last chance to get a taste of this popular festival with the final round of student performances. (And they're all free!) I'd get there REALLY early for the Steppenwolf culmination -- the theater is small and the show, Lanford Wilson's "Balm in Gilead," is powerful. (I saw it the last time Steppenwolf came to Summer Arts.) Here's a list of culminations:
I've been tickled for days over The Fresnan's brilliant technique for dealing with obnoxious people who trumpet inane cell-phone conversations in enclosed public spaces: He tapes them and posts them online. That's what he did at a recent "Dark Knight" screening at Broadway Faire when some guy jawed on for 20 minutes before the previews started. The audio quality isn't great, but it's more the genius of the idea than the actual content of the conversation that makes it a kick.
Just think: Militias of cell-phone-recording activists could record annoying conversations and then go home and post them. Web sites could be built; millions could be made. If someone wants to blab in your face, fine, but maybe folks would think twice if they knew that their very public conversations were being recorded for posterity.
The Kronos Quartet, which wowed an audience Tuesday night at Fresno State as part of CSU Summer Arts, is not your great-great-grandmother's string quartet. No staid Sunday afternoon music recitals or Victorian-upholstered private garden parties here. Mozart and Schumann? Let them get in line behind John Adams, Clint Mansell and a bevy of international composers whose names you might trip over and whose music speaks of a world view, not just a Western one.
Sitting on a square, slightly raised platform in the John Wright Theatre and flanked by floor-level stage lights, a scattering of exotic stringed instruments and giant speakers, the quartet exuded a sort of hip, relaxed modernity. Audiences have experienced the Kronos Quartet in literally thousands of concerts over the past 30 years in some of the world's great venues, but it's hard to imagine a more intimate space than the John Wright to experience this group's potent personality.
Over the course of the MTV competition show "Legally Blonde The Musical: The Search for Elle Woods," I was a fan of 28-year-old Autumn Hurlbert from the start. She had the best voice of all 10 contestants, and I just had the feeling that she'd best be able to handle the rigors of performing eight shows a week on Broadway.
But I will admit that in the last couple of weeks of the show, Autumn faded a little. She never really clinched the deal for the role, you could say, and I think that's why it ultimately went last night to Bailey Hanks, who always had the clear advantage of absolutely looking the part.
The cool thing is that all four of the top-ranked contestants got roles with the show. Playbill.com sums it up:
Finalists Hurlbert, Rhiannon Hansen and Lauren Zakrin have all been cast in either the Broadway production or the first national tour of the musical, which launches in Providence, RI, Sept. 23. Hurlbert, the first runner-up in the competition, will understudy the role of Elle Woods on Broadway and will perform in the ensemble. Zakrin, the youngest contestant on the reality show, will understudy the tour's Elle Woods, Becky Gulsvig, and will also be a member of the ensemble. And, Hansen will play the role of Margot, Elle's best friend, on tour.
The story behind "The Dark Knight" just keeps getting darker. Various outlets, including AP on The Bee's home page, are reporting that "Batman" star Christian Bale was arrested in London:
Bale's mother and sister complained they were assaulted by the 34-year-old actor at the Dorchester Hotel in London on Sunday night, a day before the European premiere of his latest film, "The Dark Knight." The women made the allegation at a local police station in southern England on Monday, Britain's Press Association news agency said.
It didn't take long for the story to explode. In fact, the way I found out about the arrest this morning was when an email landed in my inbox at 7:41 am from someone wanting to be interviewed about media-crisis management:
The arrest of Batman star Christian Bale for assaulting his mother and sister in a London hotel threatens to damage the Batman brand (as well as Bale’s). The summer’s largest blockbuster could take a box office dive unless studio executives, and Bale himself move quickly to address the crisis. Ronn Torossian, CEO of NY based 5W Public Relations, which works extensively in crisis communications, including work for Sean “Diddy” Combs, Pamela Anderson and Snoop Dogg can discuss how executives should handle the latest crisis surrounding Dark Night:
“Christian Bale being arrested shortly after Batman being released has huge implications for the Batman movie. Many questions will arise, and both Bale and studio executives need to move quickly to address this crisis, particularly given cast member Heath Ledger’s earlier drug overdose death. There are huge implications for the brand as a whole. What will parents say to their children when they take them to the movie about why Batman beat up his mother?” said Torossian.
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]
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.
Woodward Shakespeare Festival struggles a little with "Twelfth Night," which opened the company's fourth season last weekend. It's easy to guess why: This hard-working theater company has had a lot on its plate recently, most prominently a well-publicized move from the Woodward Park amphitheater to a more intimate space at the park's group activities area. That move required building a temporary stage and arranging the basics of lighting and sound design in an outdoor space, all from scratch.
There's a lot of heart on display in this earnest production -- and some nice theatrical moments as well. But in terms of the company's body of work, "Twelfth Night" is not in the top tier. I trust that as the company gets more comfortable with the logistics of its new performing space, it will have more time to focus on the nitty-gritty of performing Shakespeare.
The strongest element in this "Twelfth Night," directed by Lars Thorson, is a focused group of women. Casey Ballard's Viola, the shipwrecked twin who disguises herself as a man, has some fine moments as she eases into Shakespeare's silly cross-dressing plotline. Her scenes with Gabriela Lawson, as Olivia -- the noblewoman who has fallen in love with "Cesario," who is Viola in disguise -- have a nice zip and romantic crackle. (Both are pictured above.) When they're on stage together, the production moves past a mere recitation of text and into the realm of theater. They come closest to fulfilling this play's great potential for romance.
After 10 years, opening night of the California State University Summer Arts festival at Fresno State is like an old friend. So much is familiar: the first-day-of-camp excitement in the air as Summer Arts students settle in for their two-week sessions; the amusingly dry and irreverent introduction by head honcho Jim Spalding as he declares to the audience that he has "the best job in the world"; the outrageous minimum bid suggested by Spalding in the inevitable fund-raising auction before the show; the powerhouse performance by a world-class dance ensemble; the impatient waiting by the crowd in the courtyard for the ice-cream social afterward.
Summer Arts, which brings together students from all the California State University campuses, has been in Fresno long enough to make it a cherished part of the community. And at Sunday night's opening performance of the Urban Bush Women, a Brooklyn-based ensemble, once again it was clear that the month-long program was being kicked off in style.
There are some other things going on tonight, ahem, but I don't want anyone to forget about opening night of the fourth season of the Woodward Shakespeare Festival. The company performs "Twelfth Night" at 8 p.m. Thursday in the group activities area of the park, which is a different location from the past. I give a rundown on the new performance space and the production in today's Life section.
If you're on the fence between this and the Bulldogs, think to yourself: What would Shakespeare do?
My colleague Gail Marshall, over on The Bee's opinion blog, received an amazing letter to the editor. Gail writes:
Some people march; some compose letters and blogs; some sing; some create artwork. The stories about the recent gay marriages in Fresno spurred artist and author Jean Ray Laury of Clovis to send me this three-dimensional letter to the editor -- a photo of a quilted wall hanging called "I Do I Do," which she created a few years ago. It expresses her views in the way that best suits her - with humor and creativity as sharp and pointed as her sewing needle.
Among the words on the wall hanging:
Gay marriage threatens society? More than Halliburton? Enron? The national debt? Lack of health care? Same sex weddings make a mockery of marriage? When 50% of them now end in divorce? In February 2004, a Massachusetts court ruled gay marriage legal. George Bush and the panicked Moral Majority want a constitutional amendment. When 40% of women and 60% of men now have aldulterous affairs?
It's common for artists to make political statements through their art, but the usual delivery system for such statements is through a gallery or museum show. Laury demonstrates that there's more than one way to get a point across through the media. Gail says she'd love to hear from other artists who express their opinions through art. Maybe we've stumbled upon a whole new artistic genre: letters to the editor that you can hang on a wall.
Andrew O'Hehir of Salon has a fascinating (and scary) story that, quite frankly, goes against the current of most of the positive news that we've heard about the independent film movement in recent years. The business is in a serious downturn: distributors are going bankrupt, attendance is down and crossover titles are few and far between. Sure, the cost of producing a small-budget motion picture has fallen sharply in the digital age, but that also means that the competition has only gotten keener. ( in 1993, the Sundance Film Festival received roughly 500 submissions. For 2008, that number had swollen to more than 5,000.) Mark Gill, CEO of the independent production and financing outfit the Film Department and former president of Miramax and Warner Independent, is pessimistic:
Most of those 5,000 movies, in his words, are "pre-ordained flops," made by people "who forgot that their odds would have been better if they'd converted their money into quarters and taken the all-night party bus to Vegas." First of all, there's the simple fact that the market can't support more than 10 percent of those movies in a given year, and probably a much lower ratio than that. In 2007 a reported 603 films were released theatrically in the United States, the vast majority of them coming and going almost unnoticed. Everyone in the business agrees that number is unsustainably high; a more reasonable level might be 250 to 300.
Now to balance some of the gloom: I saw "The Visitor" at the UA Clovis Towne Center on Saturday and highly recommend it. Richard Jenkins, pictured, a recognizable character actor (he played Nathaniel Fisher on "Six Feet Under") but not the type who's usually cast as a leading man, gives a terrific performance. I've just learned that the film will be continuing for at least another week in Clovis, so if you're into smaller films, don't miss out.
Now I know what I'm getting my fellow Beehivers for Christmas:
From Core77 Design Blog: In case your current multi-screen setup with the overclocked glowing tower and the Aeron wasn't earning you quite enough nerd cred, here comes the Emperor Workstation: a massive techno-womb that cradles you in ergonomic comfort, three 19" screens, THX Dolby, filtered air, and no reason to ever stop working. Most previews are focused on its potential as a never-get-up-except-to-pee gaming system, but we're thinking it's just the thing for those marathon CAD sessions. Price and specs to be released in late July.
I couldn't help thinking, while watching the talented cast in Good Company's "Rough Crossing" at the 2nd Space Theatre goof it up with skill and aplomb, that this farce by Tom Stoppard was almost working despite the script. This might sound strange, but it crossed my mind that if the cast were doing the show in German, say, it'd still be about 60% as funny as it would be in English -- thanks to the cast's expert physical comedy, exaggerated vocal inflections and well-staged action. Sure, many of the pertinent plot details would be lost if it were in a different language, but most of the evening's biggest laughs at the opening-night performance -- at least from the audience's point of view -- came from straight slapstick.
The result is a show that is neither as giddy nor as high-brow hilarious as I think Stoppard intended it to be. It's as if the playwright, known for such sophisticated existential romps as "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" and densely intellectual whoppers as "Arcadia," got a little too fancy with his attempt at farce.
In Sunday's Spotlight section, my column is about "Assemblage," the terrific exhibition at Gallery 25. It only runs through July 29, and I highly recommend it.
There are eight artists featured, and some have their own Web sites: Curator Karen LeCocq (who has a great site you should check out), Raphael X. Reichert, Jerrie Peters, Nancy Youdelman, Joy Johnson, Michael Garcia, Chris Beards and David Medley.
"The Love Guru," Mike Myers' new abomination of a movie, is bad. There are, at rough count, approximately 303,678 horrible things about it and one thing that is good.
That one good thing is: my new limited-edition "Love Guru" Magic 8 ball.
Sent as a studio promotional item, this hard-plastic creation features an action-figure-like representation of Myers in full-fledged guru mode (orange robe, cheesy flower lei, bushy beard) sitting atop a meditation mat. Turn it over and the 8-ball answers come into view. They're "Love Guru"-specific, of course.
It's perfect for Beehive prognostication. Let's try it out:
Question: Should you go out today and see "The Love Guru"?
I turn Mike over and read the answer: RUN AWAY NOW.
I have an interview in Friday's 7 section with director Elizabeth Fiester about "Rough Crossing," the farce by Tom Stoppard now in its opening weekend at the 2nd Space Theatre. Here's a continuation of the interview:
The last Tom Stoppard play I saw in Fresno was "Arcadia," and the director literally compiled a study guide about all the intellectual concepts that the play addressed. Is "Rough Crossing" in the same brainy vein?
"Rough Crossing" is not talking about science or mathmatics. It is a single plot line always moving forward. However, Tom Stoppard is the playwright be prepared to expand your vocabulary. I always carry a dictionary with me, when doing Stoppard.
Local blogger Brodiemash helped rally people to a budget meeting at City Hall Thursday where there was a proposal from Councilmember Jerry Duncan to kill the Fresno Film Commission. Brodiemash wrote on The Dumb Are Mostly Intrigued By The Drum blog last week:
I'm here to inform you about the latest idea out of the think tank that is the Fresno City Council: decommissioning the Fresno Film Commission. It seems like they plan to get rid of it and everyone involved.
Bee reporter Denny Boyles, who was at Thursday's hearing, tells me that Duncan withdrew his motion to cut the funding. He instead asked film commissioner Ray Arthur to provide a business plan for the coming year.
What's the back story here? Was Duncan just looking for stuff to cut in the budget? Or does he reflect a view out there that the film commission isn't effective? Just what is the Fresno Film Commission's success rate these days? The last big movie I can recall being filmed in Fresno was "Mouse Hunt," and wasn't that more than 10 years ago?
An acquaintance shuffled up to me yesterday and asked, in that expansively friendly, how-bout-dem-Dodgers tone of voice that grown men seem to lapse into when they're searching for conversational fodder, "Are you excited about the Bulldogs?"
Honestly here, folks, I thought he was maybe talking about a summer movie that I somehow missed called "The Bulldogs." It didn't even occur to me that he was talking about the College World Series. I realized my error at the last moment and offered a husky, "Yeah, pretty cool, right?"
Yes, we're in the midst of college-sports mania. Something about a Fresno State baseball team doing well in a big championship in a boring middle part of the country. Front-page headlines, live Web updates, on-the-scene video reports, the whole shebang. There's even a thread posted on the Bee's Opinion page blog noting the Bulldogs' success. (Question: If a newspaper editorial board "endorsed" a winner, wouldn't that be sort of like praying for God to smite all the other side's soldiers when they're praying for the same thing to happen to you? Is it even possible to write an editorial about a baseball game?)
Abba-cadabra
The critical consensus on "Mamma Mia," which Beehiver Will still hasn't seen even though he keeps talking about going, seems to be is that the film has some major flaws but is still a lot of fun to see -- if you're into movie musicals. Still, there are some pretty feisty defenders of the film out there. Here's a sample call in reaction to my review from a reader named Tina, who from the sounds of it took a small multigenerational army to the multiplex:
