With Spoleto wrapped, I’m left with a blur of memories, impressions and observations on the festival. Here are just a few of them.
An audience member filming Harvard Sailing Team’s opening night with her cellphone, distracting the people sitting behind her (including me) as she emailed the hilarious sketches to her friends…
Oversized patrons at the Chapel Theatre, trying to squeeze into the small seats. Some of the grossest guests had to ride side saddle.
Rodney Lee Rogers sitting patiently behind a small curtain for 45 minutes, the audience gathering around him before The Tragedian.
Two old dears I met at the first performance of A Devil Inside who’d been to so many shows that they couldn’t remember what they’d seen the night before, and started arguing about it. The festival had been running for two days.
The miserable actors in This War is Live who were fed up with the show and its technical hiccups… one complained about his simplistic character, while another called the whole experience “torturous.” He should have counted himself fortunate – he wasn’t sitting in the audience…
Sitting next to two of the playwrights of Under the Lights: 10×10 – and trying to make mental review notes without making them feel uncomfortable…
Jay Clifford courageously performing at the American Theatre despite suffering from some debilitating lurgy. After the first night, he conked out in his truck… on the second night, his manager Vance McNabb picked up his bug. They put on a great show, they’re both feeling better now and they’re no longer contagious (I hope).
Watching rehearsals with Chen Shi-Zheng, director of Monkey: Journey to the West… and being invited to look at the aftermath of The Great War after Hotel Modern’s show was over. I witnessed chaos on a model train scale.
One of my favorite elements of the festival, though, was bumping into the various local and national theatre performers, artists and filmmakers who collaborate to help make the festival function. Without their hard work and the overwhelming enthusiasm of the audience, there’d be no festival… thanks to them all.
There’s two more videos from Geoff to come, here’s one of them - some quick clips from the Piccolo closing ceremony on Saturday.
Sometimes we amaze ourselves — as with today when we manage to talk about nearly all things Spoleto, even though it’s coming to a gradual end. But we’ve had fun, right - huh? Of course we have.
The awesome Janet is back in the SpoStudio with regular BritBoy Geoff hosting.
Yesterday evening, I headed down to the Holiday Inn at Folly Beach for the 5th Annual Felder Film Festival. I had stumbled upon this event last year, and it turned out to be one of my favorites, so it was one of the of the first things to get on my Piccolo schedule this year.
According to the creators, the festival’s mission is the following:
…to help train, develop, and promote South Carolinian motion picture directors, producers, writers, and actors, and to create a forum for them to compete in the national market.
The film shorts, most clocked in at 12 minutes or less, ranged from the deeply moving The Last One Standing to the comedic Cupcake, TheKiller Kitten.
My favorites were Fear A Following, a treatise on paranoia, and Lost and Found, a thoughtful work on how guilt can block us. The retro exhibition film, Living Dolls, was creepy fun and reminiscient of the 70s TV thriller Night Gallery.
Yesterday evening, I attended an excellent Sundown Poetry Series reading by Paul Allen. His poems from his new collection, Ground Forces, were on target in describing the human condition as well as quite hilarious. The new venue for the event, the City Gallery, provided a lovely backdrop of the series as well as air conditioning.
Allen also played guitar, and sang. The line the stayed with me the most is, “In my mind, bi-polar is a bear with an interesting sex life.”
What a unique way to think of illness.
Ten Trees
After the reading, I went to check out the Ten Trees Exhibit and documentary by Sam Fleischner that was is in the back on the gallery.
The exhibit is a theatre made of ten trees worth plywood, and the accompanying film, which was made in South Carolina–one of the largest producers of plywood–was shown in the structure.
The film shows the entire process of the plywood manufacture from cutting the trees to finished product, on a truck, awaiting delivery.
The movie is very much like an episode of How It’s Made, except it doesn’t have narration or music. The only sounds are the sounds of the production of the sheets (even with workers taking breaks and looking bored).
Marc Bamuthi Joseph put on an impressive show over two dates at the Emmett Robinson last week. His poetic speech and movement was combined with hip-hop music, conversational “travel diary” monologues, video interviews shot by Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi and a large moving lighting rig choreographed by James Clotfelter.
Yet for a really intense experience, I went to Bamuthi’s two hour workshop at the Avery Research Center, part of a free “Spoleto at the Avery” program” that ran last week.
At the Emmett Robinson Theatre, Bamuthi shared the stage with all those bells and whistles. In the workshop, there were no such distractions. The performer’s work was a lot more powerful in the intimate classroom environment, and he got to show another side to his work – he mentors teen writers through a “Youth Speaks” literary arts organization.
The workshop was part writing class, part dance-off. Bamuthi began with a demonstration of what he does, switching from hip-hop speech to regular talk about his partner’s pregnancy and a planned natural birth. As he spoke he moved, creating visual images with his physical being, his expressions and his breathing.
In the tradition of Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, Paula Vogel’s Desdemona, A Play About aHandkerchief, at the Chapel Theatre, explores a Shakespearean play from a different point of view. In Desdemona, the story of Othello is brought to life by the conversations of the women–Othello’s wife Desdemona, her maid, and Iago’s wife Emily, and Bianca, the local seamstress and courtesan.
The conversations between the women about class, men, marriage, and, of course, the handkerchief, are fast, furious, and funny as well as not safe for work. They would certainly be able to hold their own with the ladies from Sex in the City any time–especially while discussing Desdemona’s shocking clandestine activities.
It’s a delightful and provocative 90 minutes that, in spite of the women’s schemes and dreams, will lead to its tragic conclusion.
I had never visited the Village Playhouse before tonight, but upon entering was pleasantly surprised to find it was perfect for a show based on the life and music of jazz/scat artist, Louis Prima. Crushed velvet flowed over walls of purple, red, and sea-foam green. Tables were topped with vases filled with peacock feathers which surrounded the main area filled with lush pleather seats and metal fold-out chairs alike…nice.
The stage was backed by brick walls and in its center a screen. The show itself consisted of a montage of historical monologue, film clips and sound bytes, and enthusiastic performances by four female and two male singers. The best part? The show was accompanied, well rather…based on, a live jazz band.
All in all, I was very pleased with the whole production. At first I felt the acoustics were off, but as soon as the singers began to use hand held microphones it was easier to get into the acts as the lyrics were no longer drowned out by the amazing band. Things really started to get “swinging” after the intermission. The performers came out into the audience and danced and things really livened up.
It was a show that left the audience singing on their way out with smiles on their faces.
The best part for me, were my “table mates”; two couples who were in the midst reminiscing about their younger years when EVERYONE lived downtown (West Ashley was the country), and Louis Prima was still on TV. Rick, Marleen, Louis (who says he’s “King Louis” at the house), and Rosemary all tapped their feet and clapped their hands the entire time. They thought it was great that a young person like myself enjoyed Prima’s work so much. My simple answer was, how could I not when he did a voice over for one of my all time favorite Disney character’s? Almost immediately after I explained my interest, it was brought up in the production. Apparently being “King Louis” in Disney’s The Jungle Book, was one of the last things Prima did before he died of a brain tumor. I feel blessed to have had an opportunity to get to know him through his music…and think it’s amazing that he was able to reach so many generations.
Oh yes, before I forget…Rick asks, “Give a shout out to my peeps.”
Sharon makes her debut behind the wheel of the “big rig” Penske rental and nothing can stop her… except that pesky emergency brake. The car seat confusion continues, and then it’s off to a Spoleto show and back to Lance Hall for the Piccolo premiere of K. Brian Neel’s ‘Vaud Rats.’
PREVIOUSLY:
EPISODE 1: PURE cofounders Rodney Lee Rogers and Sharon Graci start their day with their two youngest daughters.
EPISODE 2: Actors and family members pitch in as stage hands to construct PURE’s new theater space.
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.
Sometimes we amaze ourselves — as with today when we manage to talk about nearly all things Spoleto, even though it’s coming to a gradual end. But we’ve had fun, right - huh? Of course we have.
Yesterday evening, I headed down to the Holiday Inn at Folly Beach for the 
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