You’ve likely not heard of Jane Bowles, but she wrote a cock-eyed, mesmerizing play that was one of the signal achievements of postwar American drama. It’s right up there with the classic works of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Gertrude Stein, late Eugene O’Neill, Lillian Hellman, and Sam Shepard. This post is about Jane Bowles’s unjustly neglected play: “In the Summer House.” Continue reading »
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ON FOREIGN-FILM DIPLOMACY | Why this year’s Golden Globe Awards are so Eurocentric
Have you noticed that the French and the Scandinavians dominate this year’s Golden Globe nominees for best foreign language films? To a disproportionate degree. So what exactly happened that only the French and the Scandinavians grabbed most of the Golden Globes booty? Are the best of the best among this year’s foreign language films really so Eurocentric? Continue reading »
CURATORIAL ESSAY | From the Edge: Performance Design in the Divided States of America
I would go so far to say that, after post-structuralism, communication is now the dominant force in design innovations. PQ provides designers with an international art-based platform where they can wrest back the current valorization of time-based performance modes, which visual artists have ruthlessly co-opted for their own ends Continue reading »
Curatorial essay: Exhibiting a country on the edge, a U.S. approach to performance design
Vibrating within a new discipline that is up for grabs, From the Edge proposes one approach toward an American version of performance design. Future curatorial teams will really have to find the courage to contend with the challenge of displaying the U.S. anew in a competitive international environment. Continue reading »
Review: Strange forms and cautionary parable flicker in Nic Ularu’s “Hieronymus Bosch”
“Hieronymus” pulses in that liminal space in between dramatic representation and visual abstraction. It’s a picture book of a play. It’s a meditation of the plight of the artist today and a hybrid re-composition that celebrates that artist’s singular voice. Continue reading »
My picks for the world’s best theater of 2011
My picks for the world’s top-10 best theater reflects my travels in 2011 and is therefore deeply personal. Continue reading »
Report from Sarajevo: An inspiring international festival rises above a “catastrophic state of culture” in Bosnia and Herzegovina
As confusion over arts funding drags on in Bosnia and Herzegovina, how inspiring it is to discover in Sarajevo an artistically rich international theater festival that serves as another point of light shining over that country’s darkened horizon Continue reading »
Theater Review: Peter Brook’s Slimmed-Down “Magic Flute”
NEW YORK CITY: At a July morning news conference in New York City, the 86-year-old and hugely influential British director Peter Brook and his collaborators — librettist Marie-Hélène Estienne and composer Franck Krawczyk — confessed, with a laugh, that if they had their druthers, their lovely A Magic Flute would be performed entirely in English. “We … Continue reading »
Movie Review: Theatre Svoboda, a documentary film by Jakub Hejna
THEATRE SVOBODA (DIVADLO SVOBODA) Czech Republic, 2011 98 Min, Color DIRECTOR: Jakub Hejna PRODUCER: Jiří Konečný SCREENPLAY: Jakub Hejna, Barbora Příhodová DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jiří Chod CAST Josef Svoboda EDITOR Jakub Hejna MUSIC Anthony Phillips The most riveting scene of Theatre Svoboda — the feature-length documentary film about the famous Czech scenographer Josef Svoboda — takes place … Continue reading »
When Spectacle kisses the lips of Intimacy — Intersection hits the European road after Prague
PRAGUE: In Intersection, pairs of distant lovers could be spotted giving each other tight embraces inside a structure of 30 white boxes. Theater hooked up with Visual Arts. Scenography cuddled with Installation. Architecture submitted to the caprices and desires of Public Space. Spectacle kissed Intimacy’s lips. During the 11 days of the Prague Quadrennial for Performance … Continue reading »
Help us bring American artists to Prague Quadrennial, the Olympics of Design
Pat Oleszko and Paul Zaloom are American performance activists. These two brilliant artists are slated to perform live as part of the USA National Exhibit, FROM THE EDGE (Susan Tsu, artistic director) our country’s official entry to the Prague Quadrennial (PQ). I hope you don’t mind if I ask: Would you be willing to help us … Continue reading »
Book Review: Actor Martin Moran comes to terms with abuse in “The Tricky Part”
THE TRICKY PART: A BOY’S STORY OF SEXUAL TRESPASS, A MAN’S JOURNEY TO FORGIVENESS. By Martin Moran, Anchor Books, New York City. 304 pp, $14 paper. You can rage against the bastard. You can name the pervert’s name, unloading years of hurt and secrecy and disgust, and dredge up the feelings of righteous anger … Continue reading »
Randy Gener leads American musical theater conference in Romania
“Musical Theatre in the USA: American Musical Elements – From Page to Stage” Organized and Moderated by Randy Gener Featuring Michael John LaChiusa and Jose Llana Tuesday, 9th of November 2010 within the International Festival for Musical Performing Arts “Life is Beautiful” 3rd edition Bucharest, Romania BUCHAREST — Randy Gener‘s conference entitled “Musical Theatre in the USA: … Continue reading »
Randy Gener tackles “new play development from an international and national perspective”
What ways do you support the development of new work? Why do you think it’s important to “step out of bounds?” (i.e. to explore work and voices outside your local community?) Continue reading »
A TV Interview for Filipinas Magazine Show
NEW YORK CITY: On May 23, 2009, the “Filipinas Magazine Show” came to New York City to interview me in New York City. Why? That month, I became the first Asian American and Filipino American to win the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, the highest accolade for dramatic criticism in the United States. The ceremony took … Continue reading »
2010 SPJ Deadline Club Award Goes to Randy Gener
NEW YORK CITY — The DEADLINE CLUB, the New York City chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, honored the best of the best in New York area journalism June 7 at the Annual Dinner of the DEADLINE CLUB AWARDS, one of New York City’s most prestigious journalism awards. Randy Gener won the … Continue reading »
Gener Wins 2 Awards for Writing Excellence in Travel Media Competition
PASADENA, CA — The North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) today announced that Randy Gener won two awards of merit for writing excellence in the 2009 annual awards competition. “The North American Travel Journalists Association honors the best of the best in travel journalism,” says Helen Hernandez, CEO of the membership organization. In the leisure activity … Continue reading »