Marina Nebro: Arts and Culture

I had a very busy day planned out for today. The original list went as follows:

Quidditch 10:00-12:00
Finkel, Finkel & Rutkowski 1:30-3:30
Habit 4:00-5:30
Broadway Flea Market 6:00-8:00

You must agree, that seems a little bit impossible. And it was. I didn’t have enough stamina or energy to get through the entire day. And you have to realize, these events weren’t neighbors. It would be downtown to uptown to downtown to midtown. A little bit crazy! So here’s the final schedule:

Quidditch 10:00-12:00
Lunch on Columbus Avenue 12:50-1:30
Finkel, Finkel & Rutkowski 1:30-3:30 (I ran a little late)
Columbus Avenue Street Fair 3:30-4:30 (more…)

As a class we ventured into the city on a Friday afternoon to visit the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum to see the Rineke Dijkstra exhibit that we had been discussing in class. A docent took us as a group around the museum through the temporary as well as permanent exhibits. There was a great variety in styles of artwork: Dijkstra‘s blunt photography, Manet‘s fuzzy impressionist portraits, and Kandinsky‘s early non-objective paintings. After the guided tour, we were free to go exploring on our own and were each assigned different floors of the Dijkstra exhibit. The Krazyhouse, a video displayed on the fourth floor of her exhibit and on the seventh floor of the overall museum, captured our attention as it differed from her stagnant photographs and really engaged the viewer through movement and sound.

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The Krazyhouse

Close your eyes. You’re walking from a brightly lit room into a narrow passage leading you to a large box-of-a-room. There is little light. Each of the four walls sports a white screen and each screen has a designated projector hanging from the ceiling. One at a time, never overlapping, the screens light up with the image of a lone person. You can’t take your eyes off of that one person; there is no where else to look. It’s flesh on white. No where to hide. No where to disguise your awkwardness. Watch as the figure begins to dance to the music. Judge them. See the fear in their eyes. Or the complete freedom they feel. This is The Krazyhouse. (more…)

If you’re following my blog, you will know that I’m taking an Introduction to Theatre Design class my first semester here at Queens College. I’ve just completed my final assignment for the first play we’ve read: The Liar by Carlo Goldoni. For a brief synopsis of the play, there is a young man named Lelio who has come to Venice from Rome. He sees these two beautiful young women, Rosaura and Beatrice, atop a balcony and decides that he is going to make them fall for him. Through many mischievous lies, he gets both of the sister to fall in love with him. He takes credit for many gifts such as a serenade, lace, and a poem given to Rosaura by her secret admirer, Florindo who is too shy to let her know of his love. The entire play is fairly short and it’s entertaining to see the characters get fooled again and again by Lelio’s lies.

For my final project on Goldoni’s The Liar, we were split into groups of two to design costumes and sets for the play.

Project #1: The Liar by Carlo Goldoni (Collaboration and Analysis) due September 24th.

Groups of two – Costume and Scenic Designer

• Research for two different concepts of the play (some examples of a “concept” would be: Modern Dress production, Traditional Commedia, Futuristic, Non-Western Culture, or Parody of Current Events)
• Set Designer: 2 Sketches or collages depicting each concept’s environment (4-5 sketches total)
• Costume Designer: 2 Costume renderings for your assigned characters depicting him/her in each concept (4 sketches total) (more…)

Queens College’s Goldstein Auditorium held a Spanish language theatre performance on September 13, 2012, called “So Now?”. The play was co-sponsered by the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Center for Ethnic, Racial, and Religious Understanding, and the Immigration Studies Working Group. Iker Ortiz de Zárate, the writer of the play, and its main actor, held a talk-back afterwards, and created some interesting and open discussion about the idea of forgiveness. (more…)

College just started. Music just given out. Only five rehearsals to get it perfect. The Aaron Copland School of Music’s College Orchestra, conducted under the outstanding director Maurice Peress, did it. They were phenomenal! I went with my roommate, a girl who appreciates the realm of classical, orchestral music, but who, unlike me, doesn’t listen to it exclusively. She hasn’t been to many live performances of great composers before. I enjoyed seeing her face glow as she heard Copland’s scenic melody, as shewitnessed Erica Gailing’s flawless performance, and as she waited in such anticipation to shout out “MAMBO!” It’s always an experience to listen to live orchestra. There are certain vibrations and emotions in the air that are simply not there when listening to the radio or to CDs. It’s impossible to simply give an overview of the entire performance so…

Let’s go piece-by-piece, shall we? (more…)

This semester I’m taking a very interesting and enjoyable class: Drama 111 – Introduction to Theatre Design. It turns out, the class is pretty much an art class where the students have to design sets, costumes, and occasionally lighting and sound cues. It is taught by Professor Healey who happens to be a professional puppet and costume designer.

For the first assignment, the class had to read Carlo Goldoni’s “The Liar: a Comedy in Three Acts.” Written in the mid-18th century, this play was considered part of the genre called Commedia del’Arte. The actors in these plays wore masks to identify them as certain characters. Going off of this tradition, Professor Healey asked the class to create a mask while keeping the following in mind. (more…)

I’ve read Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and I’ve enjoyed performances of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but I’ve never been in Shakespeare’s Macbeth… until now.

Many know the story of Macbeth and the setting. Macbeth (Matthew Baguth) is Thane of Glamis and as he walks through the woods one night with his friend Banquo (Thomas Stagnitta), he stumbles upon three witches – the Weird Sisters (Nina Chubalashvili, Krisztina Foldi, and Kelly Noll). They tell him many things: Macbeth will be Thane of Cardor and Macbeth will be king. Stirred on by these prophecies, Macbeth is encouraged, especially by his wife Lady Macbeth (Shaunette Wilson), to kill King Duncan (Kevin Schwab) so that he can take his predestined place on the throne of Scotland. Once this happens, however, Macbeth becomes crazed and paranoid. He would do anything to remain on the throne and to see his sons as heirs.

That’s as simple as the plot gets. A crazed man and his crazed monologues interspersed with other characters and conversations. But this adaptation of Macbeth is a little different and not the traditional theatre performance. (more…)