By James Foritano BOSTON - “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” currently on stage at the BU Theatre, is a volatile brew of sex and danger, exploitation, oppression, death and the devil. But you wouldn’t know that from the dilatory conversation of the ‘boys in the band’ — four black musicians assembled in a Chicago recording studio to rehearse and wait for the arrival of Madame ‘Ma’ Rainey. It is the 1920s and New Orleans-inspired music is leaking slowly northward as the Great Migration rolls from every southern city and hamlet towards Chicago’s burgeoning ghettos and jazz dens. This music, though, is not the ‘hot licks’ that will erupt from the horns and drums of isolated rebels, but the tamed product, the ‘jug band’ music, with just enough sass, but not too much, to enliven but not threaten white audiences. August Wilson’s finely-drawn characters practice that restraint, that affectionate … [Read more...] about “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” by August Wilson at the BU Theatre
Artscope Online
Exculsive artscope interview with Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak
The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University is hosting “101 Photographs for Freedom of the Press: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Reporters Without Borders,” an exhibition of works by over 60 MAGNUM photographers to support the worldwide initiatives of Reporters Without Borders in defense of freedom of the press from March 21 through April 22 at the main gallery at Lesley University, 700 Beacon Street, Boston. One of those participating photographers, Thomas Dworzak, who joined Magnum Photos in 2000 and became a full member of the organization in 2004, conducted an email interview with artscope managing editor, Brian Goslow. ARTSCOPE: Where are you and what are you working on? DWORZAK: Am back in the Caucasus again, mostly based in Tbilisi, Georgia. Just spent almost a year on and off with the Georgian troops in Afghanistan. ARTSCOPE: What made you choose this line of … [Read more...] about Exculsive artscope interview with Magnum photographer Thomas Dworzak
“Time Stands Still” by Donald Margulies at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston
By James Foritano BOSTON - “Time Stands Still” for this observer, stood far too still. Or, perhaps the dramatic arc lifted off the ground in a place where I wasn’t, and I never caught up. The play opens with James Dodd, played by Barlow Adamson, and Sarah Goodwin, played by Laura Latreille, in the living room of their Williamsburg Loft in Brooklyn. Somehow the symbolism seems just right, since the inside is furnished Yuppie tasteful but the large loft window admits a cloudy light definitely of this unredeemed, pre-gentrified world. James and Sarah, though a successful, upwardly mobile couple, in tune with their domestic interiors, also emit a murky light, as though their souls have been climbing rougher slopes than many of their ambitious peers. And they have. Both are photojournalists back from war coverage in a violent Muslim world, licking their wounds, “enjoying” the R&R of … [Read more...] about “Time Stands Still” by Donald Margulies at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston
My MisAdventure at the MassArt Garden Lab
By James Foritano BOSTON - Here I was, sipping a shot of wheatgrass in Brant Gallery of the Garden Lab Project at the Mass College of Art and Design. It was a giddy group and motley as today’s students, even teachers, will be. But if it lacked the decorum of dinner jackets and white tie, at least, I consoled myself, with the belief it bristled with integrity. I’m an esthete, an art-snob; I admit it. I like best pontificating upon matters abstract that only I fully appreciate. And here I was ingesting this Constable- green cocktail, that, according to Dan Silva, a second year graduate student, can be grown easily by anyone who cares for our environment and our bodies. Well, I certainly do care! So, I reined in my pique and edged over towards a ‘conversation arbor,’ a tangle of woody vines (what else?), with professor Jonathan Santos. I own an abstract by professor Santos — an abstract … [Read more...] about My MisAdventure at the MassArt Garden Lab
Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51 at the Central Square Theater
By James Foritano CAMBRIDGE - “Photograph 51,” Anna Ziegler’s play which has just had its current run at the Central Square Theater extended through March 18, is about degrees of separation and loneliness between scientists and the human beings who inhabit them more or less uneasily. The Daniel Gidron-directed setting is the post-war race for, as James Watson terms it, ‘the secret of life’ or the double-helix structure of DNA. The race has narrowed to a team of Americans led by Linus Pauling at Berkeley, and two teams of British scientists: Francis Crick and James Watson at Cambridge and Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin at King’s College, London. The first degree of separation is between winners and losers. Although science may be all about knowledge pieced together by generations of seekers, he (or she) who crosses the finish line first wins prizes, status, grants and all the … [Read more...] about Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51 at the Central Square Theater
Eighth Annual Juried Colleges of Worcester Consortium Art Exhibit at ARTSWorcester
By Ash Saraga WORCESTER - In the early days of February, the ARTSWorcester gallery in downtown Worcester opened its doors to the Eighth Annual Juried Colleges of Worcester Consortium Art Exhibit. This show is a unique blend of paint, sculpture and photography by a number of young artists studying at schools around the city. The collection is an eclectic presentation of pieces from rising artists. As you begin to tour the gallery, you notice a raw and edgy recurring theme found in each piece that you can only really find in works by younger artists. The feeling that you’re seeing a career in action, as it really begins to take off is extraordinary, as it allows you to appreciate the beautiful artwork to an even fuller extent. “Fear,” by artist Victoria Grogan, is a seemingly simplistic piece at first glance, but a second look reveals an immense detailing in Grogan’s use of color and … [Read more...] about Eighth Annual Juried Colleges of Worcester Consortium Art Exhibit at ARTSWorcester