Culture Fiend

Take a Film Class With the Producer of The Kids Are All Right

J. Todd Harris talks you through screenplay development at TheFilmSchool.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Jan 24, 2012 at 11:10AM 1 Comments

Coffee’s for closers Producer J. Todd Harris teaches you how to sell your screenplay.

Just got word that J. Todd Harris, producer of last year’s sleeper Oscar pick The Kids Are All Right, will teach next month’s Substance and Sale Seminar at TheFilmSchool at Seattle Center. It’s a three-day intensive that’s designed to improve your screenplay (or fledgling screenplay) and teach you how to market yourself and your work, which is often the hardest part of filmmaking. The school only takes the first 30 people who apply—you can choose to observe or participate in the class—so if you’re interested, send in your application now. The details are below:

Substance and Sale Seminar
TheFilmSchool at the Film Center, Seattle Center

February 17, 6–9pm
February 18 & 19, 9–9

Workshop Overview (courtesy of TheFilmSchool):
This course takes you through an in-depth development process, asking the same questions that a good producer would: Does the screenplay have the underpinnings of a compelling premise? Does your original vision shine through a masterful working of the three-act structure? Does your lead character’s personal journey drive the story forward? Are there key turning points, a powerful scheme for the antagonist, and a number of other specific narrative elements which will catch the reader’s eye? Over three intensive days, we’ll work and rework through these craft issues at a professional level. The end result is to learn how to make your script’s key dramatic intentions come across as strongly as possible in the finished work, and at best, this process helps move your material to the next level at the right production company.

To apply
Enrollment is limited to the first 10 who apply to observe (attend seminars, join discussion, but your work won’t be edited) and the first 20 who apply to participate (your work will be critiqued). Submit a one-page synopsis of your script with your application online at thefilmschool.com.

Cost To observe = $299 ($254.15 early enrollment discount until next week)
To participate = $495 ($420.75 early enrollment)

Application deadline February 16

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Tags: Filmmakers, TheFilmSchool

New AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix Exhibits to Open at Experience Music Project

Plus: Learn the history of the leather jacket.

Posted by: Brian Colella on Jan 24, 2012 at 09:45AM 2 Comments

Photo courtesy: VARA (Beeld en Geluidwiki – Gallery: Fanclub), via Wikimedia Commons

See EMP’s new collection of Hendrix memorabilia, courtesy of the estate of Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell.

EMP released a schedule of four new exhibitions slated for 2012, including a collection of Jimi Hendrix paraphernalia focusing on the artist’s time in London, where the Jimi Hendrix Experience was born and where Hendrix died in 1970. Among the items: previously unseen artifacts from drummer Mitch Mitchell’s estate.

Here’s the full lineup:

AC/DC: Australia’s Family Jewels
Apr 28–Sep 24, 2012
The touring exhibit makes its only stop in North America, presenting more than 400 items—including guitars, promotional posters, Angus Young’s schoolboy costume, and Bon Scott’s Highway to Hell sweatshirt—from the Aussie band’s nearly four decades in rock and roll.

Icons of Science Fiction
June 9–Ongoing
Coinciding with the reopening of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, EMP hosts some of sci-fi’s best known props and costumes from film and TV: an Imperial Dalek from Doctor Who, Captain Kirk’s chair, and Yoda’s cane, among others.

Worn to be Wild: The Black Leather Jacket
Oct 20, 2012–Jan 20, 2013
Follow the leather jacket as it transcends its utilitarian beginnings and becomes an emblem of badassness. The leather on display includes outfits belonging to Elvis, and couture by Jean Paul Gaultier and Gianni Versace.

Hear My Train a Comin’: Hendrix Hits London
Nov 17, 2012–Ongoing
The home of the world’s largest Hendrix collection celebrates what would have been the guitarist’s 70th birthday, and the 45th anniversary of the infamous performance at the Monterey Pop Festival that ended with Hendrix igniting his guitar and smashing it to bits.

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Tags: exhibit, Seattle Center, Jimi Hendrix, Experience Music Project

Coriolanus, From Stage to Screen

Why Shakespeare’s antihero is making a comeback this month.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Jan 23, 2012 at 02:00PM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy John Ulman.

Tullus Aufidius (Mike Dooly) and Coriolanus (David Drummond) face off in Seattle Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.

The set of Seattle Shakespeare’s Coriolanus looks so…familiar. The graffitied walls, the placards carrying the voice of Rome’s 99 percent: “We Are the City.” “We Are Rome.” It seems Occupy Rome has set up camp at Center House Theatre. And despite this being a 17th-century tragedy, the demands aren’t that different: We need corn. We’re hungry. We need help. Why are the rich getting richer, and the poor getting poorer?

The timing couldn’t be better to stage one of the Bard’s most overtly political pieces, written in the same period he completed heavy hitters Macbeth and King Lear, but just as timely during the 2012 election season. Shakespeare makes a statement about the growing divide between Plebeians and politicians, and at the story’s center is an antihero for the 21st century. Caius Martius Coriolanus, a Roman general and lifelong soldier, is a god on the battlefield who can’t make the transition to city living once the war is over. When he doesn’t fit in neatly as a Senator (he actually says what he means!), he’s cast out as a traitor. It’s a cautionary tale about how we treat our returning veterans—and there are none so misunderstood as Coriolanus.

In Seattle Shakespeare’s production, David Drummond is a hulking presence as the war hero: clean-shorn and fearsome as he towers over the rest of the cast, eyes bulging as he chews out the Roman citizenry like they’re the greenest of recruits. It’s a tremendous performance, and an excellent primer for anyone considering seeing Ralph Fiennes’s silver-screen update of the tragedy (out February 3). After spending the past decade frightening children as Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, Fiennes risks being typecast as a villain in his next few projects; but Coriolanus is the perfect transition role. He can scowl, sneer, and shove a knife at anyone he wants—and we can still root for the one honest guy in the Senate.

Coriolanus
Thru Jan 29, Center House Theatre

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Tags: Theater, Film, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Seattle Center, Center House Theatre

Coming in June: Hugh Laurie and the Copper Bottom Band

Dr. House is now a piano man—see him at Benaroya Hall.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Jan 23, 2012 at 10:30AM 0 Comments

The Hollywood triple threat is back.

Seems there’s a new genre of music on the rise: Hollywood’s leading men play the blues. Cynics might call it “aging white men and their midlife crisis band,” but a few of these acts are legitimate. Steve Martin won the top bluegrass prize of 2011 with the Steep Canyon Rangers (but then again, we knew the Renaissance man had musical chops ever since he payed tribute to King Tut). And Woody Allen, now touring with his New Orleans Jazz Band, has been playing the clarinet since his teens. Jeff Bridges has gone Method, living out his folk hero role from Crazy Heart in real life, and Tim Robbins? Well, let’s just say he was getting over Susan Sarandon with a really talented backing band…

The latest leading man to reinvent himself is House star Hugh Laurie, who released his debut New Orleans blues album, Let Them Talk, in September. We’ve seen Dr. House at the piano every now and then, but that’s only an inkling of all the pent-up jazz riffs that have occupied Laurie’s ‘gawky English frame’ since he was little. With his backing Copper Bottom Band, he warms up with a little Thelonious Monk or Louis Armstrong; the Brit even takes us down the “Suwannee River.” And he’s not half bad (watch the clip below). The best part about actor/comedians-turned-musicians? A serious upgrade in audience banter.

Hugh Laurie and the Copper Bottom Band
June 4, Benaroya Hall, tickets ($35–$75) are on sale now.

Watch Hugh Laurie: Let Them Talk on PBS. See more from Great Performances.

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Tags: Concert, Benaroya Hall, Ticket Alerts, Celebrity Appearance

Week 2: Master Class with Isaac Layman

Snowmageddon can’t keep a good artist down.

Posted by: Adriana Grant on Jan 20, 2012 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

Snow drives us online for our second studio visit.

Editor’s note: For this new four-week series, Culture Fiend’s art writer Adriana Grant has enrolled in a master class with Seattle photographer Isaac Layman at the Frye. This is her story.—LD

It’s week two of Isaac Layman’s master class at the Frye and I’m already behind. I’m not the only one. My classmates have also been unable to commit to the 20-hour weeks of studio time Isaac assigned.

"It’s frustrating for a teacher,” he said during our studio visit, via Skype because of the bad weather. “I am taking your art that seriously, and it’s hard to see the students not, or think they can’t.”

I have been seeing friends and watching movies—things Isaac suggested we give up for our art, just this month. But I have been spending more time writing (my chosen practice) these weeks than ever before. I’ve averaged 45 minutes a day, far short of the three-hours-a-day goal. I did take a self-styled writing retreat—my first ever—at a friend’s mom’s cabin on the Tulalip Reservation, and spent two full days writing prose poetry. I’d create a collage of lines overheard during conversations, things my friends said, or phrases from newspapers or online. My Word doc is a catch-all of notes, quotes, and half-finished pieces; I’ll edit poems in progress, or revise an old piece. I read over finished work to remind me of where I want to go.

“Give me call the moment you feel you’ve exhausted yourself,” Isaac said. “That’s what I’m talking about. I want you to be exhausted. And it hurts a little it and it makes you sore. That’s the most useful thing I can tell you, and people tell me they can’t do it. I think they quit too fast.”

Isaac suggested I pull an all-nighter.

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Tags: Visual Art, Master Class , Isaac Layman

Met Picks: Fitz and the Tantrums, BAMignite: Mad Men and Martini Party

The top 10 things to see or do this weekend.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Jan 19, 2012 at 12:15PM 0 Comments

Things are about to get funky. Fitz and the Tantrums play the Showbox this weekend.

Weather pending, these are your best bets for the weekend:

CONCERT

Jan 20 & 21
Fitz and the Tantrums
Ever since the release of their debut album Pickin’ Up the Pieces (2010), front man Michael Fitzpatrick and his LA soul band have had a touring schedule that would exhaust James Brown. There isn’t enough of their dance-friendly funk to go around. Showbox at the Market, $25.

THEATER

Jan 19–22
Rabih Mroué: Looking for a Missing Employee, and The Pixelated Revolution
Lebanese performance artist Rabih Mroué has an eye for political theater, using monologues and video to probe his country’s troubled past. He gives audiences a glimpse of his latest work in progress, The Pixelated Revolution, a monologue about the role of mobile-phone photography in the Syrian revolution, and showcases 2003’s Looking for a Missing Employee, a series of videos investigating the disappearance of a low-level member of the Ministry of Finance in Beirut. On the Boards, Jan 19–21 (Employee), Jan 22 (Revolution), $25. UPDATED 3PM. The Jan 19 performance has been postponed until Jan 21, 4pm. Call 206-217-9888 to switch your tickets.

Jan 20–Feb 4
A Short-Term Solution to a Long-Term Problem
Stranger associate editor and consummate funny man David Schmader examines his life post-9/11—including new love, a scary diagnosis, and marrying a Mormon man in California—in his new solo show on Capitol Hill. Richard Hugo House, $15–$20.

DANCE

Jan 20–29
Seattle Dance Project and Inverse Opera Present Project 5: Brahms Afoot
For its fifth season, modern dance company SDP teamed up with Inverse, a new collective of classically trained vocalists, to create a lyrical dance set to Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes. Founding Mark Morris company member Penny Hutchinson is slated to choreograph. ACT Theatre, $20–$25.

Jan 20–22
The Bridge Project
Four emerging choreographers enjoy a three-week incubation period at Velocity—working with its artist in residence and using the center’s rehearsal space to create all-new dances in just three weeks. Witness the finished product this weekend. Velocity Dance Center, $12–$18.

Whim W’Him: Cast the First Rock in Twenty Twelve
Olivier Wevers’ modern dance company performs two new comedies— La langue de l’amour and Flower Festival with an all-male pas de deux—and and the premiere of tragic thrown, invoking a stoning with sets by local sculptor Steve Jensen. Intiman Playhouse, $25.

SPECIAL EVENT

Jan 21–28
Lunar New Year 2012: Year of the Dragon
Celebrate the Year of the Dragon during the Wing Luke Museum and the ID’s annual Lunar New Year festival. The fun starts this Saturday with a lion dance, and culminates in the second annual food walk—20 restaurants offering $2 menu items—and the third annual children’s parade and costume contest. International District, free–$5.

ART PARTY

Jan 20
BAMignite: Mad Men and Martini Party
Bellevue Arts Museum—now showing a retrospective of industrial design guru George Nelson’s bubble lamps and marshmallow sofas—hosts a late-night Mad Men–themed party with lounge music, blackjack, and martinis. Attire is WWDDW: What Would Don Draper Wear? Bellevue Arts Museum, $10.

CLASSICAL & MORE

Jan 22
David Garrett
The young German violinist indulges his Nirvana impulse (he already has Kurt Cobain locks) on his Rock Symphonies II tour, performing hits by Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, and Beethoven’s rhythmically rockin’ Fifth. Paramount Theatre, $37–$62.

EAT & DRINK

Jan 22
Free Rigatoni Day at Tavolàta
Read it and eat: Ethan Stowell will celebrate the fifth anniversary of Tavolàta by handing out gratis bowls of rigatoni with spicy Italian sausage. Tavolàta, dine-in service required.

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Tags: Met Picks, Weekend

Win Two Tickets to Whim W’Him This Weekend

Seattle’s hottest new dance company debuts three original works by Olivier Wevers.

Posted by: Seattle Met staff on Jan 19, 2012 at 11:30AM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy Bamberg Fine Art / Whim W’Him.

Lucien Postlewaite and Chalnessa Eames rehearse thrown before its January 20 debut.

Enter to win two tickets to see Seattle modern dance troupe Whim W’Him in its season opener, Cast the First Rock in Twenty Twelve, on Saturday, January 21, at 8pm.

Since leaving PNB stardom last year, former principal dancer Olivier Wevers has been winning awards nationally for his playful, provocative choreography. With his new dance company Whim W’Him, which made its debut in January 2010, he’s placed familiar Seattle dancers in new contexts— swapping gender roles, breaking classical ballet lines, and donning neo–tutus. “It would be great if there is someone who discovers a new path to ballet [with these shows],” Wevers told Seattle Met in 2010. His latest work is equally evocative. Cast the First Rock in Twenty Twelve features two new comedies— La langue de l’amour and Flower Festival with an all-male pas de deux—and and the premiere of tragic thrown, invoking a stoning with sets by local sculptor Steve Jensen.

To enter to win tickets, email SeattleMetTix@gmail.com with “Whim W’Him” as the subject, and a reason why you want to see the show, by Friday, January 20, at noon. The winner will be notified by email shortly after the deadline.

Whim W’Him: Cast the First Rock in Twenty Twelve
Jan 20–22, Intiman Playhouse, $25

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Tags: Dance, Intiman Theatre, Whim W'Him

Free Tickets to Oklahoma! at 5th Avenue Theatre

They’re giving away 2,100 tickets this Saturday—time to queue up.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Jan 18, 2012 at 12:00PM 3 Comments

Eric Ankrim is Curly in Oklahoma!, opening February 3 at 5th Avenue Theatre.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Eric Ankrim is Curly in Oklahoma!, opening February 3 at 5th Avenue Theatre.

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Spectrum dancers rehearse the dream ballet in Oklahoma!.

It’s like Black Friday for thespians. Starting at 8am this Saturday, 5th Avenue Theatre will hand out free tickets to its February 5 performance of Oklahoma!. There are more than enough passes to go around (2,100), with a limit of four per household. All you have to do is queue up—hopefully not in the snow—and accept that fact that you’ll be missing the Super Bowl.

Ah yup. This free show is at the same time as the big game. But 5th Ave knows its audience—this giveaway is for the men, women, and children who only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials (and you can DVR those anyway). In exchange for a night of nachos, light beer, and extreme grunting, you’ll get to see an updated production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, with new choreography by Spectrum Dance’s Donald Byrd.

The Tony-nominated choreographer earned accolades for his work on Broadway’s The Color Purple and his collaborations with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. But since signing on as artistic director of Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theater a decade ago, he’s taken the lead locally in creating unflinching, emotionally charged dance performances, interpreting everything from domestic abuse to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through modern dance. In his hands, and with the help of director Peter Rothstein, Oklahoma!will receive a more critical treatment. Don’t dismiss it as a lightweight cowpoke love story with a jaunty score (“Surrey With the Fringe On Top,” anyone?). There’s a darkness to the script regarding turn-of-the-century race relations—in 1906, the Oklahoma Territory was home to one of the nation’s largest communities of freed slaves—and 5th Ave plans to honor that reality with an interracial cast. It’s a new look with a familiar score. The wind, as always, will go whipping down the plains.

Oklahoma!
5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave, Feb 3–Mar 4

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Tags: Theater, 5th Avenue Theatre, Spectrum Dance , Ticket Giveaways

Seattle-Area Shows Canceled Because of Snow (UPDATED: For a Few, the Show Must Go On)

Stay home. Watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Jan 18, 2012 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Snow day!

If you have tickets to a show tonight (or this weekend, for that matter), it’s best to call ahead to make sure it’s still on. Several events have been postponed or canceled within the last 24 hours, including:

Andrew Ross: Phoenix: Lessons from the World’s Least Sustainable City
Jan 18, Town Hall. Postponed.

Kyle Cease
Jan 20, Neptune Theatre. Rescheduled for Friday, Feb 10, 9pm—tickets will be honored.

Trio Con Brio Copenhagen
Jan 18, Meany Hall. Canceled.

Cheryl Dalsanders on Everyday Heaven
Jan 18, Third Place Books. Canceled.

Judy Barnes Baker on Nourished
Jan 19, Third Place Books. Canceled.

Jeff Ross Roasts America
Jan 19, Neptune Theatre. Rescheduled for Feb 19.

Seattle Symphony Orchestra
Jan 19, Benaroya Hall. Canceled.

Cavalia
The horse-capade (think equestrian Cirque du Soleil) is slated to open tonight, January 18, under the big top at Marymoor Park, but management will decide between noon and 4 today whether to postpone the premiere. Tickets for tonight’s show will be honored tomorrow. Check cavalia.net/en today at 4pm for updates. UPDATED 2:30PM. Tonight’s Cavalia performance has been postponed until tomorrow.

Closed January 18 and 19:
Frye Art Museum
Henry Art Gallery
Richard Hugo House
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Asian Art Museum, and Olympic Sculpture Park

The show must go on!
Seattle Opera’s Attila
Jan 18, McCaw Hall, $40 rush tickets available for tonight’s performance, starting at 5:30.

Chris Minh Doky and the Nomads with Dave Weck
Jan 18, Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, doors at 5:30, show at 7:30
Jan 19 show canceled.

We’ll update this list as the day goes on, but if the snow keeps up, bet that tomorrow’s events will be postponed, too. For good reason. Have you seen how people drive in Seattle when there’s an inch of snow? So embrace the snow day. Stay home. Watch Ferris Bueller, or a whole season of Downton Abbey. If you get cabin fever, you can always head to the local bar—here’s a list of what’s open.

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Tags: Snow Day!

Silent Movies at the Hunt Room

The Sorrento Hotel serves up cinema classics and cocktails.

Posted by: Allison Williams on Jan 17, 2012 at 03:00PM 1 Comments

That’s what she said.

It doesn’t get more retro than silent movies—and they’re staging a comeback. Not only are Hollywood flicks The Artist and Hugo earning rave reviews and awards, but First Hill’s Sorrento Hotel is adding pre-talkies to its bar menu.

At the cozy Hunt Club on the hotel’s first floor, a new screen plays silent films in an ongoing loop. The restaurant already dishes up time-tested meals like prime rib and wedge salad; the movies just add to its old-timey aura. While the films may fade into the background, they take center stage three times a week with themed cocktail specials. Every Sunday at 5 and Wednesday at 8, watch black-and-white classics (your Charlie Chaplin, your Rudolph Valentino) and enjoy $6 drinks.

Meanwhile, Fellini Fridays feature the likes of La Strada and La Dolce Vita paired with $6 Italian-style quaffs starting at 8. We hear you, film geeks—Federico Fellini didn’t make silent movies. But since they’ll be subtitled and played on mute, it’s basically the same thing. Feel free to recite the lines using funny voices of your own.

More silent film outings:

Trader Joe’s Silent Movie Mondays: First Academy Awards
Paramount Theatre, Jan 23–Feb 13, $10–$34
Enjoy four of the earliest Oscar winners: Tempest (1928, best production design), Street Angel (1928, best actress for Janet Gaynor), The Last Command (1928, best actor for Emil Jannings), and the original best picture winner, Wings. Jim Riggs accompanies on the historic Wurlitzer organ.

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Tags: Paramount Theatre, Film, Bar Events, Sorrento Hotel

A Fiendish Conversation with Mark Siano

In our new Q&A series, we chat with local artists and performers about their craft. Up next: the Soft Rock Kid.

Posted by: Allie Oosta on Jan 17, 2012 at 12:30PM 0 Comments

Photo courtesy marxiano.com.

Comedian Mark Siano is, roughly, a quintuple threat. By day, the thirtysomething is a receptionist at a medical clinic. By night, he’s the Soft Rock Kid, mocking the hits of the ‘80s and ’90s with a troupe of backup Freedom Dancers. Or he’s crafting a Clandestine Cabaret show, or a Triple Door musical act (coming this March) called “Modern Luv,” about the perils of relationships in the texting-and-Facebook era.

Siano has developed a cult following with his music-comedy antics, but for his latest project, he’s staying offstage and playing producer to White Hot, the new psychodrama by playwright Tommy Smith. It’s a far cry from the silly fun Smith and Siano have as members of sketch troupe the Habit. Instead, tragedy unfolds onstage as a young couple’s marriage crumbles, thanks to Shakespearean-sized helpings of madness and betrayal. Siano found the show so compelling, he knew he had to be a part of it.

As we continue our new series of Fiendish Conversations, Siano tells us about the show, his busy days, and what’s up next.

What’s your preshow routine?
I work a 9-5 job, and as soon as I’m off the clock (and sometimes sooner, thanks to my uber-accommodating employers), I hit the emails, and get the word out about the show. Producing involves a lot of hanging up flyers, handing out checks, making spreadsheets, bugging people. My daily activities—mainly being a receptionist for an OB/GYN clinic where I talk to women about their problems on the phone all day—has made me a much better listener and problem solver.

How did you approach this show?
While I have produced dozens of shows over the last five years, this is the first time I have no artistic stake. I’m usually helping direct or performing on stage, but now I’m aiding someone else’s vision. [Director] Braden Abraham is a pro so I’m happy that I get to work with him. Also, this show is a drama, so instead of constantly making jokes that could be added to the script or scene, we’re making jokes to relieve ourselves from the really heavy material. The jokes are therapeutic—like a release valve.

What’s the highlight of this performance?
Great acting and a great script. I am particularly enamored with Hannah Franklin [a member of Washington Ensemble Theatre] who has the majority of the lines. She has been one of my favorite actresses to watch in Seattle the past couple of years.

What is the best performance in your field (local or touring) you’ve seen in the last year?
Tommy Smith’s Sextet at Washington [Ensemble Theatre] inspired me to do this show. I also loved Jose Bold’s December.

What local artist, performer, or producer in your field should we watch for?
Cafe Nordo is the new up-and-coming company—they’re rapidly going from small to medium to large. It’s art, food, and performance. Really groundbreaking work. Always entertaining. Always silly.

If you weren’t a performer, director, comedian, producer, etc., what else would you want to try?
I don’t know their actual title, but I’d be an Olympic event coordinator. I f*cking love the Olympics. When the US beat Russia in hockey in the 1980 Olympics, I was four years old and my dad immediately took me to the ice rink and laced up my skates. I grew up with fervent sports enthusiasm—my old world was sports.

What do you think of critics?
This sounds like a kiss-up answer, but I love critics. People get upset with a bad review, but that’s something you need to improve your game. They’re simply spreading the word—if there are people out there attending theatre, I’m happy.

White Hot
West of Lenin, Jan 20–Feb 11, $9–$18
UPDATED 1/19/12. The opening of this show has been pushed back to Friday, Jan 27.

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Tags: Fremont, Theater, Fiendish Conversation, West of Lenin

Arab Winter

Lebanese performance artist Rabih Mroué leads a creative rebellion in his U.S. debut.

Posted by: Laura Dannen on Jan 17, 2012 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Originally published January 2012. A text, a tweet, a cellphone photo: these were the weapons of the Arab Spring, wielded by young, tech-savvy revolutionaries who issued a call to action—a call for freedom—with Silicon Valley technology. As rebellion simmered on Facebook and spilled into the streets of Egypt, Tunisia, and Syria, Rabih Mroué took notice from his home in Beirut. The 44-year-old performance artist has long had an eye for political theater; ever since his native Lebanon ended its own 15-year civil war in 1990, Mroué has played the provocateur, using monologues and video installations to probe his country’s troubled history. The 2005 performance piece Who’s Afraid of Representation, based on the true story of a civil servant who went on a killing spree after losing his job, earned Mroué a phone call from the office of the interior ministry. They demanded a rewrite.

“To use the words of the censorship department, they tell us: We don’t censor you, we just play with the contrast, we make it less sharp, just make it more gentle, not so violent or provocative,” he told CNN last year. In turn, Mroué has worked alongside his fellow avant-guardians on the fringes of Beirut’s theater scene. His performances are more pop-up than popular, but they’ve earned him international respect, including a 2010 Spalding Gray award issued by a U.S. consortium of museums and theaters. Quite the honor for a man who’s never performed stateside before—until now.

Find out about Mroué’s upcoming show at On the Boards in our full article.

Rabih Mroué
On the Boards, January 19–22

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Tags: Theater, On the Boards, Performance Art