Richard Wagamese, 61

Richard Wagamese, Whose Writing Explored His Ojibwe Heritage, Dies at 61
by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, March 20, 2017

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APAP SEASON CHOICES: Dana Michel

Dana Michel performs Mercurial George
in this year's American Realness festival.

The Black Canadian dance artist Dana Michel--who made a big splash at home and here in New York in 2014 with her solo Yellow Towel--is back with a new solo, Mercurial George, at Abrons Arts Center for American Realness.

She has described the hour-long piece as an act of “wading through the hairy rubble of a preliminary anthropological dig” asking “What is the smell of a plethora of someones that you have been avoiding your whole life? What do you do with the body?” A seeming extension of Yellow Towel, with its genesis in racial stereotypes, Mercurial George implies the release of an authentic identity not imposed by others.

This is pertinent for exploration. Identity and marginal otherness--from immigration status to religion to gender--are battlegrounds with renewed real life-or-death stakes in the current moment. And Michel is a curious, fearless explorer, eccentric and mercurial indeed in her body language, fascination with the odd prop oddly used, and tendency to randomly mumble or declaim. She opens dimensions of mind and body that we usually declare unseemly and diseased and seems to say, "Look what else is here."

It's an interesting task and an interesting approach, requiring a performer who can submerge her calm, charming persona and grab hold of a viewer, no matter how resistant, for the space of an hour. Not easy. Go take a look and see what else is there.

Mercurial George
(photos: Ian Douglas)

Here's a mini-interview with Dana Michel

on the occasion of her January 2014 presentation of Yellow Towel

for American Realness.

(And here is my review of that show.)

Mercurial George will be presented again on Monday, January 9 at 4pm and Tuesday, January 10 at 7pm. Run Time: 55 minutes. For information on this and other American Realness events, now through January 12, click here.

Abrons Arts Center
(Experimental Theater)
466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Leonard Cohen, 82

Leonard Cohen, Epic and Enigmatic Songwriter, Is Dead at 82
by Larry Rohter, The New York Times, November 10, 2016

Austin Clarke, 81

Austin Clarke, Canadian Author Who Explored Black Experience, Dies at 81
The Associated Press, The New York Times, June 27, 2016

Oh, Canada!

Eh, Canada! Your new Prime Minister is gorgeous, progressive and supports the arts, too?

Why Canada’s New Prime Minister Might Be Good for the Arts, Eh?
by Gabriella Santiago-Vancak, Hyperallergic, October 20, 2015

I'm your puppet: Ronnie Burkett's marionettes at BAC

The actor Lovey Lunkhead (above)
and his creator, Ronnie Burkett (below)
in The Daisy Theatre
(photos: Hiroyuki Ito)

From the look and, especially, the sound of things at Baryshnikov Arts Center last evening, Canadian puppeteer extraordinaire Ronnie Burkett has a legion of south-of-the-border fans. And now he has one more, because I love him.

That's not too extreme a position to take, given how Burkett seeks to wring every bit of love and laughter out of audiences for his Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes, putting a positive spin on the word manipulation.

The New York premiere of The Daisy Theatre stars a handful of Burkett's forty finely-designed creations--a motley crew who are impossible to resist--in acts ranging from burlesque to opera. Improvised around each marionette's personality and John Alcorn's loopy songs, the show has elastic tendencies. Performed without intermission, it can stretch from ninety minutes to two hours, depending upon how much fun Burkett is having with his marionettes, with volunteers from his audience and with the serendipity of any given moment.

Burkett indulges himself, and us, because he is a child. He is a happy child, standing up there on the bridge, deftly working the control bars and wires that give his marionettes uncanny, supple life. With his own marionette-like jaw, resplendent smile and maniacal, motormouth voice, he resembles someone from his nomadic tribe of performers. Or the Second Coming of Robin Williams. In fact, if you find yourself gazing up at Burkett about as much as you watch the marionettes acting out below, you would not be wrong--or alone. He's a huge, huge part of the show.

Burkett and his rotating cast of characters
(photo: Hiroyuki Ito)

Steeped in fearless queer attitude, profane language and racy innuendo, The Daisy Theatre ain't puppetry for tots, and anyone under 16 will not be admitted. But anyone over 16 will enjoy the likes of sweet, yearning "fairy child" Schnitzel (a stand-in for Burkett's inner child, I suspect) and Las Vegas belter Rosemary Focaccia, a-shimmy in fringe dress and knee-high boots, hair-trigger rage and foul mouth out of all proportion ("I know people, Baryshnikov! Don't cross me!!"). An eerie segment featuring marionette Meyer Lemon--an ancient master ventriloquist--and his dummy stood out for near-literary, surreal quality and Burkett's exacting skill.

Acclaimed ventriloquist Meyer Lemon takes the spotlight.
(photo: Hiroyuki Ito)

I have no idea who--among all forty of the possible players--will perform when you see The Daisy Theatre and what they'll be up to. You'll be, in Burkett's words, one of the "poor bastards sitting in the dark not knowing what happens next."

How exhilarating!

Remaining performances:

Tonight, October 1, 7:30pm
Friday-Saturday, October 2-3, 8pm
Wednesday-Saturday, October 7-10, 8pm

Ronnie Burkett in Conversation:

A conversation with Ronnie Burkett and Kristy Edmunds of Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA will be held in BAC's Jerome Robbins Theater on Monday, October 5 at 6:30pm. Reservations are not required.

Jerome Robbins Theater
Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Robin Phillips, 75

Robin Phillips, Director Who Revitalized Canada’s Stratford Festival, Dies at 75
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, August 2, 2015

Brian Macdonald, 86

Brian Macdonald, Canadian Choreographer, Dies at 86

by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, December 3, 2014

Farley Mowat, 92

Farley Mowat, Canadian Writer and Wildlife Advocate, Dies at 92
by Ian Austen, The New York Times, May 7, 2014

Great opportunity for cultural journalists interested in circus

En Piste invites ten cultural journalists from Canada and the northeastern United States to participate in a residency program in Montreal, during the festival Montréal Complètement Cirque, July 3-6, 2014.

During the 4-day program, participants will contribute in a series of moderated thematic discussions, attend lectures by key circus experts, see three to five shows and meet with artists taking part in the festival.

At the end of the residency, participants will each be required to deliver one article (2,000 words) in English or French. These articles will be published on En Piste’s website and on all other pertinent media: social networks, newswire, blogs, etc. Journalists will also be invited to publish the articles in their respective media.

En Piste will cover costs related to the residency: plane or train tickets, local transportation, accommodation, meals, tickets for shows. There are no participation fees.

Get complete information and an application form here.

Neil Young, Diana Krall plan January benefits for First Nation activists

Neil Young to Play Benefit Shows for Native American Group

by Allan Kozin, The New York Times, December 9, 2013

La MaMa's Puppet Series opens with "The Orphan Circus"

Quebec's Les Sage Fous troupe opened La MaMa's latest Puppet Series with a curious number called The Orphan Circus, directed by South Miller.

Monsieur P. T. Issimo, mysterious circus impresario
(photo by Cinthia Chouinard)

We begin this hour in the company of two rough-looking customers--actor/puppeteers Jacob Brindamour and Olivia Faye Lathuillière--who creep around a dark alley filled with corrugated gates, trash barrels, old oil cans and other debris. After our initial impulse to hug our belongings closer, we watch the pair go about recycling trash--"orphaned objects"--into treasure, asserting the siren-like beauty in a discarded, ratty-looking doll, training a fish skeleton to be a champion acrobat, and more.

Brindamour (l) and Lathuillière with friend(photo by Theo Cote)

Christian Laflamme's score, in its pleasantly jazzy way, belies the grim surroundings and the grotesque appearance of the puppets and says "New Age Magic Act." I got the point--see loveliness and wonder everywhere and anything is possible!--but never warmed up to these puppet characters or to the slight work itself. Perhaps something more meaningful and effective could have been done with the perfunctory contact between puppets and audience (first row only).

Brindamour and Lathuillière very skillfully control their puppets via little black sticks and strings, the dim lighting and our cooperative minds rendering those maneuvers nearly invisible. Yet the grand transformation these puppeteers seek to achieve is more announced than convincingly displayed.

The Orphan Circus repeats tonight and Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm. The La MaMa Puppet Series runs through November 24, including a curated "puppet slam" on Friday, November 15 at 7pm. For information and ticketing, click here.

La MaMa (First Floor Theatre)
74A East 4th Street (between Bowery and 2nd Avenue), Manhattan

(map/directions)

Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize in LIterature

Alice Munro Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

by Julie Bosman, The New York Times, October 10, 2013

Kate McGarrigle remembered in documentary

A Lifetime of Songwriting, as Sung by Her Children
‘Sing Me the Songs,’ a Tribute to Kate McGarrigle
by A. O. Scott, The New York Times, June 25, 2013

This luminous dance film won a 1984 Oscar!

Click to watch now: Flamenco at 5:15 (1983; 29 min.)

short documentary film directed by Cynthia Scott

Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject, 1984

featuring dancer Susana Robledo, composer Antonio Robledo, and students of the Canada's National Ballet School

Uh-oh, Canada: Gillis and dance take a beating

A friend, appropriately outraged, sent me this link, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how Canadian dancer-choreographer Margie Gillis was grilled and pilloried by a TV host on what must be the Canadian version of FOX News on the issue of public funding for the arts, specifically dance. Check this out and tell me what you think!

And if you'd like to give SunNews a piece of your mind, you can contact them here.

UPDATE: To read dancer-choreographer Louis Laberge-Côté's excellent and comprehensive response to the SunNews interview, click here.

Debate: Is ballet over?

Debate: Is ballet over? (audio podcast)

Q host Jian Ghomeshi welcomes Jennifer Homans, dance critic of The New Republic and author of the forthcoming Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet (Random House) and Karen Kain, artistic director of National Ballet of Canada.

Read Is ballet over? by Jennifer Homans (excerpted from Apollo's Angels by The New Republic, October 13, 2010).

40-year-old Ottawa dance troupe to disband

Financial Straits for Arts Companies in Ottawa and Minnesota
by Melena Ryzik, The New York Times, August 5, 2009

A Woman Among Wolves

Click arrow to begin. Scroll down and click Full Screen.
And do not miss the final 10 or so minutes.