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The title of the article is "Grey Gardens Is Missing Its Heart. The Musical Gets Better as Its World Gets Worse". The article was published by Adrian Ryan on March 27, 2013 and is taken from The Stranger magazine. The article is about Grey Gardens musical and the reporter's appreciation of it. 

Grey Gardens is a musical based on the fascinating real-life story of Edith and Little Edie, a mother and daughter from the wealthy Bouvier-Beale clan. They are great socialites who became fallen, cat-food-snarfing shut-ins.

As the author reports the performance was damned. He describes every act in detail giving his own exclamations in brackets. 

The first act needs to have a context, to introduce the family, and to properly frame their fall, but from the author's point of view this part is too short and is definitely not the most interesting of the Grey Gardens story. 

Act one also suffers from its in-the-round staging, a hurdle for many plays and any musical. Actors' voices are not enough loud and are not heard in all four corners of the room. Besides the family's background another important information is garbled and lost, forcing the audience to figure it out or forget about it.

The reporter is also unsatisfied by the actors' playing. Patti Cohenour, who plays "Big Edie", is feckless and conniving while Little Edie plays deeply ashamed and resentful. Only Allen Fitzpatrick saves act one, but in the second act he is not good at all and the scene where he is a singing cat is not appropriate. 

What is more, the musical has historically wrong things, for example, the main characters cooks food with gas, though in 1975 there is no gas. 

Further the author reports that act two is better than act one. Hunt's Mother Darling is a heart of the show as her voice is much better than her younger self in the first act. The reporter also praises her acting and advises everyone to see her number "Revolutionary Costume for Today". 

The reporter comes to the conclusion that the performance is not worth seeing. I don't know whether the author is right or not, maybe for amateur spectators the play is not so bad as he describes.

Finding Neverland (Review)

Director: Marc Forster
Genre: Drama, biographical film
Lead actors: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Radha Mitchell,Julie Christie, Dustin Hoffman
Release Year: 2004

Country: United States
Run Time: 106 minutes

Main characters:

Johnny Depp as J. M. Barrie
Kate Winslet as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies
Dustin Hoffman as Charles Frohman
Julie Christie as Mrs. Emma du Maurier
Radha Mitchell as Mary Ansell Barrie
Freddie Highmore as Peter Llewelyn Davies
Nick Roud as George Llewelyn Davies
Joe Prospero as Jack Llewelyn Davies
Luke Spill as Michael Llewelyn Davies
Ian Hart as Arthur Conan Doyle
Oliver Fox as Gilbert Cannan
Mackenzie Crook as Mr. Jaspers
Kelly Macdonald as Peter Pan
Angus Barnett as Nana/Mr. Reilly
Toby Jones as Smee
Kate Maberly as Wendy Darling
Matt Green as John Darling
Catrin Rhys as Michael Darling
Tim Potter as Captain Hook/George Darling
Jane Booker as Mary Darling
Eileen Essell as Mrs. Snow
Jimmy Gardner as Mr. Snow
Paul Whitehouse as The Stage Manager
Plot:

J.M. Barrie is a playwright who is looking for the inspiration he lost. He finds it when he meets the Davies’ children in his favourite park, and their mother by chance. Sylvia Llewelyn, is the recently widowed mother left with four young sons whom she dearly loves. Peter is a changed boy since his father’s death, and J.M. Barrie hopes to rekindle this little boy’s spirit into an imaginative one. J.M. Barrie soon becomes very attached to this family, much to the Davies’ grandmother and his own wife’s chagrin. His relationship with his wife gets more strained as rumors flit around about J.M. Barrie and Sylvia's relationships, although their love is entirely platonic.

Finally, he gets the inspiration to write his well-loved masterpiece ‘Peter Pan’.
Its title character is inspired by none other than Peter himself. The play ‘Peter Pan’ is loved by all its audience. Unfortunatelly, Sylvia gets sick but she doesn't die, she just goes away to the made-up world - Neverland.

Well, I can say that this film is really worth seeing! The sets were simply beautiful. The film is very bright and avokes happy recollections about our own childhood. It is also shows us that we should value any moment with dearest people, don't give up and hope for the best.

A brilliant acting of the main actors supplements and completes impression.The part where Kate Winslet is watching the play was very, very moving and brought tears to my eyes. Acting of Jonny Depp is beyond any comparison. He is the best as always. Freddie Highmore is very good too. I have whatched some other films with him and I think he is a really promising actor.

I was not surprised by the fact that this film has won many awards, for example, Best Young Performer- Freddie Highmore, Best Film, Outstanding Film Music Composition- Jan A.P. Kaczmarek and Best Original Score-Jan A.P. Kaczmarek.

Individual Reading W. S. Maugham "The Moon and Sixpence" Summary Chapters 51-58

In Tahiti the story-teller also met Tiare, a very fat and kind woman. She told him that after Strickland's death all his works were sold for peanuts. Although when he became famous many people regreted that they had not bought pictures. Tiare was also a person who acquainted Strickland with Ata. She told about the artist's life on the island and about his illness, but she had not any idea how he had died. 

The person, who could tell about Strickland's last days was doctor Coutras and the narrator visited him. As it found out, Strickland had developed leprosy. As this desease was catching people had avoided to meet him. Only Ata with two children had stayed with him. The man had refused any medical care and kept painting. One of his children had died and he himself had become blind. After three or more years Strickland died. 

Later the narrator returned to London, found mrs. Strickland and told her and her children what he had got to know about the artist's life. 

Individual Reading W. S. Maugham "The Moon and Sixpence" Summary Chapters 41-50

A month later the narrator met Strickland. The artist didn't feel pangs of conscience about Blanche's death. Having talked for a while Strickland decided to show his works to the story-teller. At first the pictures puzzeled the latter, but then he felt their innate strength. 

Time went on and the narrator visited Tahiti where he found out what had happened with Strickland after their last meeting. As captain Nichols, Strickland's fellow, told, the artist went to the French port of Marseilles willing to go to any South country, but circumstances made him stay there for several months. He with the captain had to sleep in different doss-houses, eat not more than once a day and work hard. Strickland prefered to buy paint and paper rather than food and drink. However, he was lucky to be hired on ship going to Tahiti. There he met a young Tahitian  girl, Ata, and got married to her. They began to live in a hut, where Strickland continued painting. 

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The title of the article is ‘Paradise Costs. Romance, Razors, and Pistols in an Indoor Forest’. The article was published by Brendan Kiley on March 6, 2013 and is taken from The Stranger magazine. The chief aim of the article is to give the reader some information about a new way of performing of The Satori Group. Now the stage is covered in dirt, the room is crowded with tree trunks, and tarps and blankets hang from wires and branches.

As the author reports the collaboration between Satori and playwright Martyna Majok, reWilding, has more like a Burroughs cut-up than a regular plot. Its residents are people from everywhere and the only thing which unites them is a wish to forage their own food, sew their own clothes, and reinvent the conditions of their lives.

The author points out that there people are free and can do what they want. He gives some examples of people’s behavior and according to his words the atmosphere of this place can be characterized by words "primitivism" or "anarchism".

Further the author reports about the performance itself. It is directed by Caitlin Sullivan and doesn’t have a real plot but creates a particular mood. Some characters change, of course: the new girl, through her trials by fire, transforms into a regular resident, and two young boys with conservative religious families discover their desire for each other.

In conclusion the reporter says that there have already been 14 performers and though the show isn't perfect, but it's a successful experiment. All in all, I think it is an interesting idea to join such unusual people together. Maybe I would visit this theatre if I had a chance because such extravagant people with so different views of life can make other people look in a different light at some things.

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The title of the article is ‘Approaching Heaven. Four Modern Masterpieces at Pacific Northwest Ballet’. The article was written by Melody Datz on March 20, 2013. The main aim of the article is to give the reader some information about performances which are shown in the Pacific Northwest Ballet and are called by the author ‘Modern Masterpieces’.

According to the text, one of four pieces of Modern Masterpieces is Dove's ‘Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven’. During staging the performance for a year, Dove lost a parent and 12 of his closest friends, many to the AIDS epidemic. That’s why the main theme of this work is the depth of love and loss between two friends. As the reporter said it is the most powerful piece of dancing of the last few years.

Mournful tolling of bells in the music of Arvo Part, and lighting by PNB's Randall Chiarelli that falls over low-hung metal bars onto the dancers' stark white costumes, casting shadows under their eyes, their muscles, and their feet- all this help to achieve a certain effect and to reflect dancers’ emotions.

In addition to ‘Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven’, Twyla Tharp's piece, ‘In the Upper Room’, is performed in the theater. It is the second version of the play. It was developed with white smoke. The author stresses that this performance is unique because it is not an ordinary dance but a blatant endorsement of mixing classical and modern dance, with cast members separated into "stompers" and "ballet dancers".

Among the leading actors we can name Carrie Imler as a "stomper", Kaori Nakamura as a "dancer", and Kiyon Gaines, who moves between the "stomper" and"dancer" transitions.

What is more, the author reports that PNB's Paul Gibson presents his fifth world premiere for the company with Mozart Pieces. It was also developed and changed and now it has two female dancers, while originally there were only male dancers. The reporter mentions that unfortunately though Gibson's piece is nicely tailored for these dancers, they seem to lack the deep passion exemplified in the Dove and Tharp pieces.

Further the author reports that the oldest piece in the theater is George Balanchine's Concerto Barocco. It is famous for its classical style and preference for stick-thin ballerinas defined ballet for generations. No smoke, no eye-catching set, no elaborate costuming-nothing can distract the eye from the dancers' technique. There are just bodies in thin white leotards.

The author comes to the conclusion that Pacific Northwest Ballet's Modern Masterpieces is a perfect place to see the bodies that move in such ways that most of us can only dream of. To crown it all I think that it is a really wishful place for ballet admirers. It also can attract people who are looking for new experience and just want to enjoy the beauty of human body.

Individual Reading W. S. Maugham "The Moon and Sixpence" Summary Chapters 34- 40

Summer began and the narrator was overloaded by work when his friend, Dirk Stroeve, came to him. He was in despair as his wife, Blanche, had committed a suicide. As it found out Strickland had left her and having not born it she drank oxalic acid. Doctors did their best but she didn’t want to live. What is more she didn’t allow anybody to see her and though Dirk kept visiting his wife she didn’t talk with him.

After horrible torments she died. Her husband was shocked and in blank despair. He had no idea where to go and what to do. At last he went to his and Blanche’s house and there he found Strickland’s picture depicting naked Blanche. Her was impressed by Strickland’s genius and asked the artist to go to Holland with him. Strickland sharply refused and Dirk Stroeve decided to go to his homeland where his parents lived. After his wife’s funerals he said goodbye to the narrator and went to Amsterdam.

Individual Reading W. S. Maugham "The Moon and Sixpence" Summary Chapters 24-33

Not long before Christmas Dirk Stroeve came to the narrator and asked him to help Strickland. The artist was desperately ill and hadn’t eaten anything for several days. They decided that there was no better solution than to settle the sick painter in Stroeve’s house. However, they faced a problem- mrs. Stroeve didn’t want to see Strickland in her house. Only after insistent entreaties of her husband she agreed. Though the Stroeves took care of Strickland and helped him to recover, he wasn’t grateful but rude and impudent. After a while Strickland could get up and began to paint pictures in Stroeve’s workshop with undue familiarity.

After three weeks Dirk Stroeve visited the narrator and told him that his wife had left him and gone with Strickland. The latter was indifferent to her but allowed to go with him.
Both Dirk Stroeve and the narrator knew that it would come to a bad end. As Dirk’s love was unfailing he had left Blanche the house and was always ready to take her back. He didn’t blame anybody but himself. He wrote her letters and looked at her when she went shopping, but his devotion and care didn’t prevent a tragedy.

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The title of the article is New York Performing Artists Share Inspiration on ‘Made Here’ was written by Felicia R. Lee on March 13, 2013 on the website of the New York Times. The article is about “Made Here,” a documentary series and interactive Web site that gathers interviews, performances and other footage to showcase the lives of New York City performing artists.

According to the article, with the help of this site many well known actors and actresses can talk about issues like gender, criticism, influences and staying in New York as well as offering advice for the next generation. The Web site has attracted roughly 36,000 visitors, from more than 77 countries. Moreover, with each season’s premiere, a new episode will become available for streaming online. The author of the article quotes Tanya Selvaratnam, a writer and actor who is one of the series producers. She jokes that the challenge was to turn each episode “into a dialogue, a conversation. There are so many artists it’s a series that can continue for a long time.”

Further the reporter adds that “Made Here” emerged from the HERE Artist Residency Program, which provides long-term developmental and production support to New York-based performing artists. Since the series began, the project has released 30 episodes featuring 68 artists, and has covered a wide range of issues affecting the performing arts community, including real estate, family balance, technology and money.

In conclusion we get to know that public screenings and events for “Made Here” will take place over the next two seasons, beginning with a premiere screening and conversation on April 10. The event is free and open to the public.

From my point of view, “Made Here” is a very useful and helpful site for beginners in acting. I’ve visited it and really enjoyed videos with actors and their words about their profession, life-style and outlook. I believe these videos can inspire you to do something outstanding, something what you have wanted to do for a long time.

Link http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/new-york-performing-artists-share-inspiration-on-made-here/?ref=theater

Girl with a Pearl Earring (Review)

                                                  

Director: Peter Webber
Genre: Drama
Lead actors: Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy, Judy Parfitt
Release Year: 2003
Country: United Kingdom, Luxembourg
Run Time: 100 minutes

Main characters:
Colin Firth as Johannes Vermeer
Scarlett Johansson as Griet
Tom Wilkinson as Pieter van Ruijven
Cillian Murphy as Pieter
Judy Parfitt as Maria Thins
Essie Davis as Catharina Bolnes
Anna Popplewell as Maertge
Alakina Mann as Cornelia

Plot:
Griet is a shy girl living in the Dutch Republic. Griet goes to work as a maid in the unhappy household of the painter Johannes Vermeer. Griet works hard, almost wordlessly, in the lowest position in a harsh hierarchy, where even one of the Vermeer's children treats her spitefully. On a routine shopping trip outside the house, a butcher's son, Pieter, is quickly taken with Griet. As Griet cleans Vermeer's studio, which his wife Catharina never enters, they become casually acquainted and he encourages her appreciation of painting, light and color. Vermeer gives her lessons in mixing paints and other tasks, taking care to keep this secret from his wife, who would react very jealously if she found out that her husband was spending time with Griet. In contrast, Vermeer's mother-in-law, sees Griet as useful to Vermeer's career. Vermeer's richpatron Van Ruijven notices Griet on a visit to the Vermeer household and asks the painter if he will give her up to him to work in his own house, a situation which ruined a previous girl. Vermeer refuses, but accepts a commission to paint a portrait of Griet for Van Ruijven.Catharina discovers that Griet used her earrings, posing her husband and tries but fails to destroy the painting, then banishes Griet from the house forever.Vermeer does not object, and Griet leaves the house in shock.

Well, the screenplay "Girl with a Pearl Earring" tells a fictional tale about how the title painting by 17th century Dutch painter Vermeer might have come to be. Inwardly, the film is about the unspoken but palpable feelings between two people of very different stature and station which may or may not be forever cast in the crazed pigments of the masterpiece.

I really enjoyed this film. It's bright colours, sensuality and thoughtfulness to details are delightful. With the main character you begin to see the world in a different light. For me, the film is good in everything: acting, directing, cinematography, costumes and the lighting especially. The whole film is seemed to be painted by a talented artist, Johannes Vermeer.
Music is also enjoyable and helps to be filled with the climate of that time.
A brilliant acting of the main actors supplemented and completed impression. I love how Colin Firth acts in many films and this film is no exception. He perfectly suits for this role. Scarlett Johansson became a pleasant surprise for me. In this film she showed herself in a best light. She is very good and is suitably restrained and innocent.
There is no surprise that Girl with a Pearl Earring won many awards. Most of them Eduardo Serra and Peter Webber have got: Camerimage Bronze Frog - Eduardo Serra, Dinard British Film Festival Golden Hitchcock - Peter Webber, San Diego Film Critics Society Award (Best Cinematography)- Eduardo Serra, C.I.C.A.E. Award - Peter Webber and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (Best Cinematography)- Eduardo Serra.

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The title of the article is “Expressionism’s Sooty Anomaly” was written by Roberta Smith on March 1, 2013 on the website of the New York Times. The main aim of the article is to give the reader some information about Franz Kline’ exhibition at Sidney Mishkin Gallery, about his works and his coming-to-be a famous artist.
According to the text, Franz Kline established himself as a major Abstract Expressionist painter almost overnight. He was exhibited in the Charles Egan Gallery on 57th Street in Manhattan when his unique style with emblematic motifs earned him a place in the Abstract Expressionist pantheon.
Kline became a member of the Abstract Expressionist bandwagon along with such prime movers as Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still. However, he didn’t spend many years or decades as others did but won popularity for a short period of time, about four years. Kline’s representational period is almost an embarrassing anomaly in the annals of Abstract Expressionism. Surprisingly, it has received little attention and sometimes been ignored altogether.
Further the author gives the description of “Franz Kline: Coal and Steel” exhibition. The show was organized by Robert S. Mattison, a professor of art history at Lafayette College, in Easton, Pa., at the Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania. Such works as “Chief,” “Caboose,” “Bethlehem” and “Ingot” show their industrial forms which are visible, highly or not so highly distilled.
Mr. Mattison takes Kline’s connection to the region beyond the titles and black-on-white forms. In his essay he says that Kline’s art is not only full of simply powerful formal devices but it reflects the ups and downs of Kline’s life. The works themselves reveal Kline’s talents for drawing and painting culminate in the architectonic calligraphies of his mature style.
The author adds that the Pennsylvania landscapes and street scenes of the 1940s have paint-loving originality and can be compared with van Gogh or Soutine than to any American artist, except the 19th-century eccentrics Albert Pinkham Ryder and Ralph Blakelock.
As for the colour Kline turned to it late in his career, however the resulting paintings are often considered his weakest. In addition, some works narrow the palette to explore variations of two or three colors, as if heading for the ultimate reduction to black and white.
The author cites as an example some artist’s works: “Chief (Train)” (1942) and “PA Street (Pennsylvania Mining Town)” (1947). Most of Kline’s works depict Pennsylvania scenes and only several of New York. In conclusion Roberta Smith that if we want to understand all the beauty of Kline’s works ,we should know his career and his background. Well, this article really interested me, I would like to visit Kline’s exhibition and feel dynamics and expressiveness of his works.

Link http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/arts/design/franz-kline-coal-and-steel-at-sidney-mishkin-gallery.html?pagewanted=1&ref=design

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The article published on the website of the newspaper “New York Times” on March 1, 2013 is headlined “Skin and Earth, Suddenly Unrecognizable”. The article gives a description of a new exhibition at Castle Gallery at the College of New Rochelle. The article provides new information concerning our outlook on art, the Earth and our body. The artists, who were exhibited, portray human skin, in hues of terra cotta, rose, brown and turquoise, which alter skin so much that it is no longer recognizable, what the paintings ultimately reveal is something known intimately to everyone.

As Katrina Rhein said, all works resemble something familiar to everybody when you are seeing are these strange places on sculpture, drawings, paintings and a mixed-media pieces. As for the sculptures of Laura Moriarty, an artist in Rosendale, N.Y., they are full of colorful encaustics, which have a geological feel. Her sculptures made of pigmented beeswax.

According to the text, there is a show-room named “The Expansive Force of Water Freezing in Cracks” in which people can see pools of swirling, bleeding color are stacked to form what looks like a 3-D version of the earth’s strata in a textbook diagram crossed with a crumbling or otherwise askew pastry shop confection.

The author, Tammy La Gorce, gives us the information about a small room within Castle Gallery called the “feature gallery” is dedicated exclusively to Ms. Moriarty and “Still Time”. The installation she created gathers 50 similar encaustics of various sizes and six paper sculptures. Ms. Moriarty says that the process of creation of a new work always involves studying cross sections, often of plate tectonics, in geology books. She wants to make people pay attention to the World around them and not treat it as it is separate from them. She stresses that we have an effect on the processes of the earth, that are really big and really hard to harness.

Further the author reports that a series of 24 gouache-on-paper panels of Gina Occhiogrosso also can attract our attention. Her piece “Slump” takes weather-ravaged billboards as its subject. The Works are represented in their twisted, dilapidated and broken forms against stark white backgrounds on each panel. The artist admits that her works are weird and that’s why they have no commercial interest and it is hard to sell them.
As for me, I don’t understand such kind of Art. It is too ambiguous, strange and not pleasant for perception. Maybe if I visited this exhibition I would change my mind, but I doubt.

Link http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/nyregion/terra-incognita-on-exhibition-at-the-college-of-new-rochelle.html?ref=design&_r=0

Individual Reading W. S. Maugham "The Moon and Sixpence" Summary Chapters 12-23

The narrator and Strickland went to have dinner. The former tried to persuade the other to return home to his family. However Strickland was obstinate and resolutely decided to stay in Paris. He admitted that his deed was awful and he left his wife and children without any money, but he didn’t worry about it at all. He knew that his wife’s relatives would help with children’s education and his wife herself would find a job. When the story-teller told about it Mrs. Strickland, she was strongly surprised. She didn’t even suspect that her husband was interested in Art. What is more she was confident that he couldn’t live in poverty. That’s why it was a severe blow to her. Mrs. Strickland asked the narrator never tell about it anybody and floated a rumour that her husband had left her because of a pretty French dancer. As Strickland had said his wife really found a job – she became a typist and soon started his own business.

After five years he narrator went to Paris again. There he met his friend Dirk Stroeve, a funny chubby artist. He found Strickland a genius, though his works didn’t enjoy wide popularity. Strouve also had a wife, Blanche, a calm courteous woman. He loved her madly. Though he always behaved silly and made people laugh at himself she disliked when people jeered at her husband. One of such people was Strickland who often made Dirk Stroeve cry by his mockeries.