The Geoffless Janet overcomes technical difficulties with help from stunt Brit Nick Smith (and a desperate phone call to Don Lewis) to record Charleston Academy of Music faculty members EunJoo Yun, Irina Pevzner and Susan McAdoo talking about their students’ performances during Piccolo, the angst of turning pages, playing with passion and other good stuff.

Hear today’s podcast direct by following this link, or why not subscribe permanently here throughout the duration of the festival and get it fed to your MP3 player automatically. There’s also our guide to podcasting here.

Adam Parker sends this review of “Burial At Thebes” …

Judge not, oh mortals, lest ye be judged.

The conflict between the “law of life” and the law of kings is among the themes at the heart of “The Burial at Thebes,” poet Seamus Heaney’s rendering of Sophocles’ tragedy “Antigone.” The spare and effective production by the Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company was presented outdoors in The Cistern Thursday night, the first of five performances.

The story is the culmination of Sophocles’ three great plays about the Oedipus saga (though it is thought to be the first of the three he wrote). In it, Antigone, Oedipus’ daughter-sister insists on performing the traditional burial rites over the corpse of her brother Polynices, who committed treason against the state by forming an army in Argos to wage battle against Thebes.

That betrayal causes Creon (brother-in-law of Oedipus), now king, to threaten the Thebans with death should they disobey his command to let the corpse on the hot hill feed the birds and dogs. So when it’s discovered that Antigone has rejected this command, she is sentenced to death. For how can a mere woman contradict the king? And aren’t the gods as concerned with civic law and order as they are with the sanctity of life and death?

Paul Bentall, with fire in the belly (and a misbehaving wireless microphone round his head) played Creon as though he were born hard-headed and paranoid. Obsessed with the idea that “money brings down leaders,”that the “walls have ears,” and that “personal loyalty must always give way to patriotic duty,” Bentall’s Creon is, as the Guard aptly explains it, “the judge (who) has misjudged everything.”

His performance invited the audience to hate his tyranny. In an ancient Greece used to warfare, though, such kingly decrees likely would have provoked ambivalence from audiences, perhaps even a little sympathy. But this production chose to be fairly black and white about the whole thing.

Catherine Hamilton played Antigone with fervor and smarts, clearly articulating the dilemma. She projected a moral fortitude that never wavered, even as she was able to convey in her words and expressions the hypocrisies of the circumstances. The scene in which Antigone expresses anger at her sister Ismene for her moral floundering and hesitation in appeasing the gods perfectly encapsulated the profound ethical questions while simultaneously conveying the emotional trauma of Antigone’s condition — and, by extension, the state’s. Read the rest of this entry »

No, this is NOT a story about a restaurant diner who pulled a gun and refused to pay for his meal.

It is the headline I saw several years ago over a story about the eating habits of pandas. This was prompted by a terrific Piccolo Spoleto Fringe show I enjoyed last night at Theatre 99.

It was called “I Eat Pandas” and featured two VERY imaginative - and energetic - young ladies and their off stage piano player.

The hour improv presentation started with a 30-minute skit inspired by the audience suggestion of “laundry.” A large clock on the stage allowed the audience to do a “count down.”

Glennis McMurray (L) (blonde) and Eliza Skinner then did an hiliarious 15-minute reprise of the main characters and, finally, a 5-minute wrap-up of what had become a musical. No, really. Both ladies sang well and the piano/harmonica accompaniment was excellent.

On the keyboard was Jonathan Wagner, a last-minute fill in, and - he said - a member of Second City.

They announced they were doing two more shows at the Meeting Street venue so go check them out. It’s a nice “Fringe” benefit.

More Chucker on Spoleto at Chuckography.

Due to a glitch in the matrix,  SpoletoToday.com has been making you register and log-in to make a comment  and several users have had problems with this. We’ve made some administrative changes and it should be a piece of delicious cake to comment now. If you have any problems, please don’t hesitate to email us at SpoletoToday@postandcourier.com. Thanks for your patience!

Spoleto Festival USA announced today that they have added a fourth performance of “The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac” to the schedule. The additional show will be held at 10pm on Monday, June 2, at the Emmett Robinson Theater at College of Charleston. You can buy tickets as of now.

Here’s the festival’s synopsis: “Sedition meets sequins in an unforgettable evening of cabaret, political tirade and stark-raving fabulousness. Armed with little more than a ukulele, a suitcase of outrageous costumes and an utterly charming/disarming sense of humor, this New York performance art legend offers wry and incisive commentary on the world and sings original songs about everything from love to Lynne Cheney.”

It’s true: Life can come at you fast, as the TV ad says. Such as when going out to dinner results in an injury that forces the cancellation of a long-anticipated and carefully rehearsed musical appearance. University of South Carolina music professor Marina Lomazov, who lives in Columbia, was looking forward to her performance in the prestigious Piccolo Spoleto Spotlight Concert Series to be held Thursday night, May 29, at the New Tabernacle Fouth Baptist Church, 22 Elizabeth St. And, for sure, at $10 a head, the 11-concert series is one of the best deals in town.

However, according to the Spotlight coordinator Norbert Lewandowski, a cellist with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, several days ago Lomazov was going through the door of a restaurant in Columbia.  When the friend with her pushed the double doors open, an 8-foot-long, approximately 50-pound dividing rod connecting the two-parts of the double doors, crashed down upon her, breaking her collar bone.

Unfortunately, this meant Lomazov would be unable to perform in a concert titled “Marina Lomazov and Friends,” featuring six of the state’s musicians performing music by Shostakovich and Schnittke.
Piccolo officials had to scramble to get someone to take her place, but Andrew Armstrong, who now lives in New York but has frequently played for events here such as the College of Charleston’s International Piano Series, agreed to take her place and the program was renamed “Andrew Armstrong and Friends.”
The good news is that Lewandowski reports that doctors expect Lomazov to fully recover within four weeks.

And, of course, there’s always next year.

Last night drummer/performer Tommy Shepherd had his flock squirming in their seats as he roved around the Emmett Robinson auditorium, asking them questions with microphone in hand. he was warming up the audience - or cooling it off - before the his cohort Marc Bamuthi Joseph came on stage.

As far as audience participation went, the audience questions were the farthest Bamuthi’s production of the break/s went. As he danced, conversed and poeticized across the boards, he created an incredible impression of a down-to-earth guy with uncanny abilities in discourse and movement.

He says he’s a frequent visitor of Planet Hip-Hop. That would explain his otherwordly skills. But he’ll be workshopping with mere mortals today at 5-7 p.m., part of the Avery Center’s free series of classes and panels.

The Avery is a research center for African-American history and culture at 125 Bull Street, downtown Charleston. Tomorrow, the center will host a panel discussion on the Amistad court case. For more information on either of these events, call the Spoleto team on 843.579.3100.

I was invited to, and actually got to attend, a party at 10 p.m. Thursday after the opening night of “The Burial at Thebes” at the Church Street home of Shea and John Kuhn. Gorgeous home, which probably goes without saying: One perk of being with SpoletoToday.com is the chance to go inside some of the beautifully restored houses one usually only sees from the street.

The first guests I see are Yuriy Bekker, concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and pianist and College of Charleston faculty member Irina Pevzner. Shortly thereafter, we were joined by Charleston Academy of Music founder and director Eun Joo Yun and CAM pianist Susan MacAdoo, and 10-year-old piano student Madeline Kuhn, up late for the big party. Yun’s academy goes beyond the usual requisite piano lessons for children. The school also offers lessons in violin, viola, cello, classical guitar and voice. An accomplished pianist, Yun has attracted instructors from all over the world to help create the next generation of musicians. Bekker and Pevzner are also on the faculty.

I also met Jeffrey Day, who is covering the festival for The State newspaper in Columbia, and John and Gretchen Stoehr. John is the arts editor of Charleston’s City Paper. It’s interesting that there are so many journalists in town and yet our paths seldom seem to intersect. I have yet to meet our own Tim Page. It’s fun to get other professionals’ takes on the performances and the city, but talk inevitably shifts to the state of the media, which is less happy party fare.

It was a crowded affair and I didn’t meet any guests of honor until it was wrapping up. I had just a minute with director Lucy Pitman-Wallace. Nottingham Playhouse has brought the reimagined Greek tragedy of Antigone from England for a run at the College of Charleston Cistern from May 29 to June 2. Rumor has it that Paul Bentall as Creon is phenomenal.

Since I’ve been telling a video story about the tribulations of the currently nomadic PURE Theatre, it just made sense to me to complete the set by attending the two productions they’re currently presenting at Lance Hall, in the middle of the cemetery at Circular Church. It was The Tragedian at 4 p.m., and Vaud Rats at 7:30…

Read the rest of this entry »