Marina Nebro: Arts and Culture

I had no idea that the song Comedy Tonight was from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum! All I remember about this Stephen Sondheim musical is that it was once performed at Great Neck North High School, and being young, my impression of my future high school was that it was not best known for its theatrical talents – at least it couldn’t compare to “Theatre South” on the opposite end of town. But enough reminiscing! I am much older now and can appreciate a performance for what it is, and I must say, I really enjoyed Queens College’s production.

The time is two hundred years before the Christian era, a day in spring. The place is a street in Rome in front of the houses of Lycus, Erronius, and Senex. Read more »

There is no lack of fascinating, moving, and awe-inspiring Holocaust survival stories. But when one watches a documentary film based on the survival of one’s extended family, the story is all the more touching. No Place on Earth is based on the story of the Stermer family survival in the Ukraine during World War II. A cave explorer, Chris Nicola, went to the Ukraine in order to uncover his own family history. Instead, he stumbled upon a cave that had relics of past human dwelling. These humans were not “cavemen” or Neanderthals, but people in the last century! Nicola went on a quest to figure out who these people were, but believed the trail would run dry.

Read more »

If only this was the last blog post of the semester, I would have come full circle as my second post this year was about the Queens College Drama Department’s production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. But alas, this is not my last blog for you all to read before May 25th (when I move out of my dorm). That being said, seeing Macbeth yet again has made me realize that it has been the only Shakespeare production I’ve ever seen, and THREE TIMES at that!

I thought that since I’ve already written about the basic plot of “The Scottish Play,” and because it’s easy enough to google “Synopsis of Macbeth,” I’d focus more on this specific National Theatre of Scotland’s production featuring the talent of Alan Cumming. Read more »

The following is a formal analysis paper I wrote for my Introduction to Western Art II course at Queens College. The assignment was to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and pick a work of art to describe visually using terms we learned in class. The art piece I decided to focus on was the Chitarrino (titled Mandora on the Met Museum website), a 15^th century stringed instrument that was made in Italy, perhaps specifically in Milan. This instrument is made from boxwood and rosewood and is located in Gallery 684 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Read more »

Happy Passover, Easter, and vacation to all! It has not been much of a break for me, though, as I have been working really hard on various aspects of my blog, particularly my theatre vault page. One thing I have not done, however, is posted in a while! This break has found me at home rather than on campus, and because of this, I haven’t been exposed to as many events as usual – not to mention I doubt there was anything happening in Queens this past week anyhow! But, yesterday I was fortunate enough to venture into the city with my mother to see a lovely play called The Trip to Bountiful, starring Cicely Tyson, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Vanessa Williams. Read more »

My last mention of the Queens College Orchestra was back during my first semester here. It was then led by Maestro Maurice Peress, but because of his sabbatical, is now being led by various guest conductors. The repertoire from tonight’s concert, conducted by JoAnn Falletta is also being performed tomorrow, conducted by Tong Chen and Alex Yu.

June 2011 … Edward Smaldone

Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra … Ned Rorem
Preamble and Amble
Love Letter
Recurring Dream
Perpetual Motion
Medley and Prayer

Scheherazade … Rimsky-Korsakoff
The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship.
The Kalendar Prince.
The Young Prince and The Young Princess.
Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship breaks against a cliff.

Read more »

Vanya, and Sonia, and Masha, and Spike… OH MY! I must say that even though I very much enjoyed the show, and very much understood the plot, I will never remember the title! Because of its repetitive listing, I think I’ll recap the story a bit differently this time, and summarize each character rather than the scenes and the acts.

Read more »

The following blog post is about my experience at the Becoming Global: The Renaissance and the World conference. Organized by Clare Carroll (my Renaissance Comparative Literature professor, as well as my Arts in NYC Professor), James Saslow (the Art History advisor and professor at Queens College), and Quiñones Keber, the conference was meant to enlighten those who attended about what was happening in other areas of the globe during the time of the European Renaissance. How did the Europeans, affected by their own rebirth of culture, interact with the different communities that shared the globe with them? In the class taught by Professor Carroll, we are studying just this. Read more »

I am not sure how many people in the United States know about the significance of the date “March 11.” I know I wasn’t aware of its association for quite some time – until this year to be exact. On March 11, 2004, 191 innocent civilians were killed in the train bombings in Madrid. There is never any rational reason for terrorism, but there may have been a desire to foil the upcoming general elections in Spain. Though the terrible act of violence succeeded in switching the political parties in Spain, what we must take from the events is not the politics – but the people. Read more »

After a full day of volunteering – handing out stickers and making arts and crafts – at the Museum of Natural History for WNET’s PBS show Sid the Science Kid, I went with my parents to a concert at The Church of St. Ignatius of Antioch in the Upper West Side. The concert was titled “La Flor de España,” featuring the choral group Polyhymnia, a group that sings early choral music. There was also an organist, Sarah Davies, who played several “interesting” pieces. Not only were the composers featured in this concert of Spanish origin – like me – but they were from one of my favorite musical time periods – 13th to 16th century! Read more »

How I Learned to Drive was a spectacular tragedy. The story is Lil Bit’s (Casey Drane) life narrative, told from the point of view of her 35 year old self. In a series of flashbacks, she tells of her history with her Uncle Peck (Chris James). Though from the title their relationship might seem as innocent as a lamb, Uncle Peck wasn’t only a driving instructor for Lil Bit. From the young age of 11, when Lil Bit and her World War II veteran uncle were alone together, he would sexually molest her. This secret, though it seems very unlikely that it was well hidden as Lil Bit’s aunt (Nikki Daddiego) knew about it, lasted for seven years until she went off to college and abruptly ended it on her 18th birthday. Uncle Peck proposed to his niece, promising to divorce her aunt. When she refused, he resorted to drinking – a practice he had forgone as long as Lil Bit was with him – and eventually drank himself to death. Read more »

And here’s the second opera I went to this past weekend: L’Incoronazione di Poppea! Before starting with a summary, describing the set, or raving about the music and talent, I want to give the photography credit to Sean Moonsammy – a student at the Aaron Copland School of Music as well as one of the leads (Ottone) in the Thursday and Saturday performances of the opera. Read more »

The last time you heard me talk about Turn of the Screw was last semester when describing one of my theatre design projects. You probably thought that would be the last you’d hear of Benjamin Britten’s opera… but you thought WRONG! New York City Opera, recently moved from Koch Theatre in Lincoln Center to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, put on four performances of this 1954 magnum opus. I was extremely excited to finally see the opera I had spent so much time working on and listening to in my dorm room. On stage, my imaginations would finally come to life right in front of my eyes! Read more »

I must apologize for my lack of content this semester so far. It is surprising how something that comes so naturally can turn out to be so difficult once a break is taken. I do best when I go to an event and come right back home to blog about it. When I lack time and resources to do so, I end up procrastinating – my least favorite thing to do in the whole entire world! This is what has happened to me recently. As my avid readers know, my last post was about a convention I attended in Philadelphia. Having stayed up late every single night, I had no time to write daily about my experiences as I had wanted to. For this reason, it isn’t until now that I have come to write about the Mask and Wig Club’s Beautopia: A Face Odyssey. Read more »

To understand the following blog post about my Jewish weekend at the University of Pennsylvania, there are some basic things I must first define:

• KOACH
  Within Judaism, there are many different denominations. These separations go from Re-Constructionist Judaism to ultra-Orthodox. KOACH is the college outreach program of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. In a way, it is an extension of Camp Ramah and USY programs designed for elementary through high school aged students. Problems with funding and organization make it hard to truly define what KOACH is as compared to Ramah and USY both of which are known and well established. As of now, KOACH has only eight college-campus interns throughout the U.S. (I am one of them), and KOACH hosts one yearly convention…
• KALLAH
  It came to my attention that kallah is not specifically related to KOACH in general, but is a term that has been used since the Babylonian captivity (thank you Wikipedia!). Though traditionally referring to a convention of teachers, the word kallah is thought to be derived from the Aramaic word meaning “totality.” My interpretation of this translation means that a kallah is a convention bringing an entirety of a community, of people, together for some higher purpose. In the case of KOACH Kallah, we were all brought together to strengthen the present and future foundations of Conservative Judaism. Read more »