Santa Monica

I recently found myself sitting on a couch in a dark room inside the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts at USC watching a play-test of a brand-new interactive video game.  I use the term ‘interactive,’ because it was less like your typical Nintendo or PlayStation proceeding, and more akin to one of those ‘choose your own adventure’ movies, only digitalized, intricately detailed, and not a little influenced by the likes of Spielberg or Christopher Nolan.  The game takes place in a slightly futuristic society, and at one point, the protagonist, a detective, is sitting in his beat-down, windowless office going over clues, when he puts on a pair of special sunglasses.  These sunglasses allow him, and by proxy, us, the audience, to perceive his spacial environment as a pristine mountain-top, or a Redwood forest.  The effect is novel, and provokes a round of ‘wouldn’t-that-be-cool’ comments from anybody who’s watching, yet it also brings up an interesting, modern phenomenon.  I call it the ‘it’s not to you’ syndrome, and it works like this: you’re sitting in a beat-down, windowless office, but…it’s not to you.

Don’t get me wrong, this syndrome is hardly new or original, although it is intensifying in our digital age.  And one person who’s exploring this intensification is artist Jeffrey Wells with his newest exhibit Seeing While Seeing at the Bergamont Station Arts Center, a part of the Santa Monica Museum of Art.  Wells attempts to recreate the optical illusions of everyday life—the after-image of an exit sign, the undulating intersection of two vertical walls that meet at a right-angle—using video projections.  Thus the viewer is left questioning whether or not an illusion is physical or digital.  Both are percepts, separate from what some would call “objective reality,” but only one is an intentionally manipulated percept.

What Wells—along with the interactive video game, to a certain extent—may be attempting to illustrate is the danger of the ‘it’s not to you’ syndrome.  Because how do you really know what is?  Or who’s presenting what to you, for that matter?  And as the line between what is and what is to you gets smaller and smaller, what becomes of you?

Jeffrey Wells’s Seeing While Seeing is on view until April 17th at Project Room 1 in the Bergamont Station Arts Center, a part of the Santa Monica Museum of Arts.  Bergamont Station is located at 2525 Michigan Ave, Building G-1.  For more information, please call (310) 586-6488, or visit www.smmoa.org.

American composer Robert Kurka’s only opera, Good Soldier Schweik, began life in 1956 as a six movement suite based on characters from the popular Czech antiwar novel of the same name, by Jaroslav Hask. New York City Opera became interested in turning the suite into an opera and Kurka expanded the orchestra from his original scoring for 7 woodwinds, to 16, plus brass and percussion, and began working with librettist Lewis Allan – a songwriter known for the celebrated anti-lynching song, “Strange Fruit,” and the Frank Sinatra hit, “The House I Live In,” but chiefly, as the adoptive father of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s sons after the couple had been convicted of espionage and executed.

Kurka died in 1957 at the age of 35, four months before the opera’s successful NYCO premiere. Within the next 40 years, Good Soldier Schweik had seen over one hundred productions throughout the world, and been translated into 12 languages.

The work combines elements of American musical theatre, jazz, and Czech folk music, to underscore an explicitly anti-war story. The Long Beach Opera company’s cast of singing and dancing actors – led by tenor Matthew DiBattista in a powerhouse performance – delivered the goods in director Ken Roht’s dazzling multi-media production at Barnum Hall in Santa Monica. The orchestra – well, band, in this case – played with stylish pizzazz under Conductor/Artistic Director Andreas Mitisek.

Ably realized through Dan Weingarten’s inspired lighting and Justin Jorgensen’s novel set design, the production utilized scrims, projections, choreography, and outlandish props to whisk the plot from scene to scene at a breakneck pace, so that the audience was as disoriented as Schweik by the experience.

The house – mostly all long-time Long Beach Opera fans, and mostly very elderly – was packed, attesting to their pleasure at not having to endure a schlep to Long Beach. This brings me to my only gripe with this enterprise: somehow, LBO’s marketing missed the mark, hugely. Where was the large, 20-to-30-something demographic that would have been enraptured – and captured – by this stunning example of what opera has become in the 21st century?

- By Penny Orloff

To see Long Beach Opera’s full calendar, please click here.

What does pop culture mean to you? The first thing anyone might think is Andy Warhol – largely considered the father of pop art – and his Marilyn Monroe, Campbell’s soup, and Mickey Mouse prints.  On now through February 20 at the William Turner Gallery at Bergamot Station is your chance to redefine pop art for our generation.  Large-scale, colorful prints by two artists, Mikel Alatza and Kadir Lopez are full of color, texture, and familiar faces and things.

Mikel Alatza’s works range from a skull with the Mastercard logo to a clowned, vibrant, contorted painting of Julia Roberts.  Angelina Jolie has been given fire engine red hair and a bright red clown nose next to Paris Hilton whose tan looks even more fiercely dangerous than usual.

Kadir Lopez takes a more muted and almost vintage approach to the pop art world.  His Shell print features a river and skyline fitted within a Shell gasoline sign while his Wrigley’s piece has a distinctly political, textural feel.

Andy Warhol had his finger on the pulse of popular culture in the 70s (we still use the phrase he coined “fifteen minutes of fame” with great frequency) and perhaps its time we find an artist who knows how to transform our current pop culture icons into wild, vivacious prints that speak to us today.  Are you team Alatza, team Lopez, or both?

Mikel Alatza and Kadir Lopez’ exhibits will be up at William Turner Gallery through February 20.  Please call (310) 453-0909 or click here.

Narelle Autio, breath, 2006

This past Sunday afternoon with the clouds heavy with rain, I made my way west to check out Photo LA.  This art fair signaled the beginning of a series of art fairs to grace Los Angeles and beckoned art-lovers, collectors, and dealers alike to scope out a wide stylistic range of photographs, which lined the impromptu walls of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Wandering through the booths of galleries from the US and abroad, there were a plethora of celebrity photos and black and whites  — and black and white photos of celebrities for that matter.  But also, politically themed photos, documentary pictures, and classic historical photographs set me in the correct mindset for more contemporary works while also flashing me back to an art history class of yesteryear.  A few of my favorites included Harry Callahan’s Eleanor, Bill Brandt’s Nude, and a few special Edward Weston’s.

The MR Gallery, a gallery from Beijing, presented a series of photos by artist Mo Yi that rendered brilliantly colored comforters being aired on a clothesline.  I fell in love with the fabric patterns and the intimacy the photographed captured.  There were 16 individual shots of the comforters arranged in a 4 x 4 grid.  Sometimes simplicity is key.

The Hous projects, a gallery that hailed from New York, featured Narelle Autio’s stunning underwater photographs of people seemingly caught in an undertow and floating with air bubbles sticking to their twisting bodies.  These photos captured magnificent color, light, and motion.

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Once you’ve been in South Pacific, The Pajama Game, The Light in the Piazza, and Jekyll & Hyde, you can generally be considered a Broadway big dog.  Having been nominated for three Tony Awards and two Outer Critics Circle Awards, perhaps Broadway heavyweight is more appropriate.

Kelli O’Hara, official Broadway heavyweight, is known for playing the doe-eyed ingénue a la Clara in Light in the Piazza, for example, or Nellie in South Pacific. The New York Times credits her with “single-handedly rescuing the ingénue from extinction.” Blonde and with a look as American as apple pie, O’Hara may play the young, impressionable, sweet girl, but she’s earned her stripes enough that she’s also performed concerts at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and with the Philly Pops.

Now, perhaps most importantly, she’s performing a solo concert at the Broad Stage on Wednesday evening.  Singing the songs that made her loved, the concert will be a surefire way to see just how strong of a performer she is and will serve as a reminder not to judge a book by its cover – that sweet, gentle girl can sing!  After the show, you can head to Angel’s in Santa Monica for the After Party to meet O’Hara in person.  Make sure to practice your handshake with friends before you go – don’t want to give a heavyweight a weak hand.

Kelly O’Hara will perform at the Broad Stage on Wednesday, January 20 at 7:30pm. For more information, please call (310) 434-3200 or click here.

Pretty much all of last year you watched art fairs come and go in other cities.  The Armory, Art Basel, Frieze, and Art Basel Miami Beach left you reading minute-by-minute updates online and feeling a strong sense of wanderlust.  They all were so close, yet so far away…

Now you needn’t look any further than your own backyard because there’s a batch of Angeleno art fairs to serve all of your artistic inclinations.  There’s Photo LA, Los Angeles Art Show, and Art Los Angeles Contemporary.

First up, Photo LA starts this Friday at the Santa Monica Civic.  It features galleries based in Los Angeles (Fahey Klein Gallery, Frank Pictures, Rose Gallery) as well as galleries coming as far as the Czech Republic (Czech Center of Photography) to exhibit works of emerging, mid-career, and established photographers.

The Los Angeles Art Show is next week (January 20 – 24) and will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown. The Los Angeles Art Show will feature more than 130 international exhibitors, an engaging lecture series and special events program, a sculpture garden, and special exhibit spaces, and fun-filled evening mixers.

And finally, Art Los Angeles Contemporary will be taking place at the Pacific Design Center the last week of January (January 28 – 31).  This fair will feature top international blue chip and emerging galleries with a focus on Angeleno spaces.  There will be a programming series that includes artist talks, panel discussions, and artist film screenings that will make you think you have died and gone to art heaven.

So, to put it another way, you’re booked until February.

You consider yourself a traveler, not a tourist.  You’ve often come home from being abroad having adopted local colloquialisms from wherever you’d been.  You’re absolutely ahead of the culture curve and can be often heard discussing the film that’s sure to put Belarus’ industry on the map.  All right, then, expert… We challenge you to a week of cultural “research,” if you will.

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week at the Aero Theatre on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica, you’ll have three distinct (and culturally extravagant) opportunities to see three Golden Globe nominees you may have missed.  Wednesday night, you’ll start with Italy’s Baaria (click here to view the trailer) – directed by Academy Award winner Giuseppe Tornatore (of Cinema Paradiso fame).  The website semi-promises that Tornatore will be there to introduce himself, at which point, you should probably stand up and congratulate him in his native tongue.

Thursday evening presents another opportunity to stare at Penelope Cruz for two more hours – never a waste of time.  Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces, the nominee from Spain, will be on view.  Called a “melodrama-noir delicacy,” Broken Embraces is being lauded as one of Cruz’ most unforgettable performances.  Then, if you’re not crumbling from a kind of culture or travel bug, The Maid will be shown on Friday evening.  From Chilean director Sebastian Silva, The Maid (click here to view the trailer) won the World Cinema Jury Prize at 2009’s Sundance Film Festival and if it doesn’t make you wish you spoke Spanish, we’re not sure what will.

Any expert who goes to see all three: let us know what you thought!

Baaria, Broken Embraces, and The Maid will all be screened this week at the Aero Theatre.  Please call or click here for more information.

The way you start off a new year is very important to the way the new year ends up going for you.  At least that’s what they say.  Put their theory into practice with some of January’s most promising arts events in our fair city – would you like your 2010 to look a little more Bond-like? Would you rather it looked a little more experimental than your 2009?  It’s so tempting to answer those questions with: there’s an app for that, but really your city has got what it takes to kick off your new year just the way you’d like.

Mr. Bond

Friday, January 1 is not likely to be your most shining and perky day.  That doesn’t mean you can’t start on a sleek, technologically advanced, Bond-like bend – from 7:30pm at the Egyptian Theatre there’s a double feature of Dr. No and You Only Live Twice.  You may not be at your sharpest on Friday, but you’ll soon make a better Bond than Mr. Connery.  If you’re less than interested in leaving your house that day, worry not.  Saturday evening (January 2) from 7:00pm, they’ll be screening Goldfinger and Thunderball – if you don’t have a love/hate relationship with villains after a weekend like that, you’re not cut out to be the next Mr. Bond.  And that’s no way to start a new year.

Please click here for the Egyptian Theatre’s full January 2010 calendar.

Barely There

At Sam Lee Gallery, just near Dodger Stadium, you’ll find local artist Jeff Gambill’s exhibit “Barely There,” on through January 23.  His paintings have this generally zen, colorful feeling that convey the transient, transitional message he’s going for.  Fresh from a trip to Japan, you’ll definitely see an East Asian influence in each of his works.  They don’t scream out at you, but they definitely make you want to look closer.  And what better message than looking closer at something that doesn’t shock and awe for a new year?  Time to delve a little deeper, kids.

The Sam Lee Gallery is located at 990 N. Hill Street #190.  Please call (323) 227-0275 or click here for more information.

New Year, New Music

It’s so easy to fall into an all-Mozart (or all-Beyonce) rut.  Take some time in January 2010 to break out of it.  It may not last the whole year, but at least you can say you tried.  On Saturday, January 16 at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Monica,Jacaranda invites you to discover Thomas Ades, Benjamin Britten, Peter Maxwell Davies, George Benjamin, and others.  The concert, called Licorice and Rosin (“licorice” is a slang term for clarinet and rosin is a solid form of resin used on string instruments), will present some of Britain’s more exciting contemporary music from the last twenty-five years.

If a church is the last place you’d like to be, Monday Evening Concerts at the Zipper Concert Hall at the Colburn School kicks off 2010 on January 11 at 8:00pm with a concert called “Mostly Californian.”  Featuring compositions by Clint McCallum, Luciano Chessa, Michael Pisaro, and others, you will hear sounds of contemporary California.  (No, that doesn’t include woeful cries for our current economic situation.) The composers in question present lyrical, theatrical works that won’t sound like anything else you’ve heard before.

Please click here for more information about Jacaranda.  Alternatively, click here for information about Monday Evening Concerts.

Soundtrack for a Revolution

The Grammy Museum just celebrated their first birthday – still haven’t been? Monday, January 11 at 7:00pm they’re presenting Reel to Reel: Soundtrack for a Revolution, a documentary that looks at the American civil rights movement and the unparalleled soundtrack that went along with it.  Filled with archive footage, interviews with civil rights leaders, and a soundtrack of freedom songs sung by modern day R&B, Hip Hop, and Soul legends like Joss Stone, Wyclef Jean, The Roots, and John Legend.  Monday’s screening will be followed by a panel discussion chock full of everyone you’d like to get advice from for a soulful 2010 – Danny Glover, filmmakers Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, producer Dylan Nelson, and music producer Corey Smyth.

For more information, please click here.

It is a shame that, in Los Angeles, a ballet company has yet to survive for a full decade.  Don’t the powers that be realize that little Angeleno children need to experience the spectacle that is The Nutcracker year after year?  With Los Angeles Ballet comes the glimmer of hope that indeed children lucky enough to be born in the city of angels will get to see the magical world of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker year after year.  Now kicking off their fourth season with their annual production of The Nutcracker, Los Angeles Ballet is becoming a staple of our city – finally.

While the company has seen a great many changes in the past four years – the good including their new rehearsal and office space as well as the introduction of new dancers, the bad including the loss of some truly gifted company members – all seems to be going well in their favor.  And they’re set to change a few more children’s lives this winter with Colleen Neary and Thordal Christensen’s beautifully choreographed Nutcracker.  Find me one little girl or boy who sat through The Nutcracker with grandma at the tender age of 7 and didn’t beg for ballet lessons for Christmas.
We recently snuck our camera into their studios (and their opening night performance) to get a sneak peak at what’s on offer this year.  Catherine Kanner’s set design and Mikael Melbye’s costumes enhance the magic inherent in this classic ballet that ignites a holiday spirit in a way that nothing else can.  Their schedule includes four performances at Royce Hall on Dec 19 and 20 followed by three at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on Dec 26 and 27.  Plenty of opportunities to remember what the holidays are all about – sugar plum fairies, harlequin dolls, fighting mice, and little toy soldiers.

Los Angeles Ballet’s The Nutcracker performs at Royce Hall on Dec 19 and 20 and at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center on Dec 26 and 27.  For more information, please click here.

Click here to have a listen to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite…

In the past decade, the writings of Jane Austen have been adapted and re-adapted for film and television so many times that you wouldn’t even recognize the young Emma Woodhouse unless she called you from UTA with an offer for the next “Pride and Prejudice” miniseries. What is it about this early 19th century woman of letters that we just can’t seem to get enough of? The charming prudery of English Regency-era manners and lovely Empire-style fashions? The repeated–and maddeningly provacative–deferal of love’s consummation? Maybe it’s just Austen’s good ol’ sly sense of humor? Whatever it may be, Hollywood is back for more–but this time, it’s on stage. And with improv comedy.

That’s right. If you thought Jane Austen couldn’t get any better than Kiera Knightley’s making out with Matthew MacFadyen while the sun sets on some English moor, think again. Beginning this Friday, the Impro Theater will be bringing its holiday showcase of their improvisational play “Jane Austen Unscripted” to the Broad Stage in Santa Monica. The Impro Theater is already famous for it’s comedic adaptations of the works of Shakespeare, Dickens, Sondheim, and Tennessee Williams, and promises to deliver Austen with expertly swift, comic severity. You’ll be sure to roll in the aisles–while Austen rolls in her grave!

-By Helen Kearns

“Jane Austen Unscripted” runs through December 20, 2009 at the Broad Stage.  For more information, please call (310) 434-3200 or click here.