Woah… did that really just happen? #SCiSoaA #5318008
Author: Manjekar Budhai
Matisse Makes Me Marvel …
This final assignment, The Art of Choosing, truly was a final assignment. I believe it was a great way to tie together all the experiences of the course. Our previous expeditions throughout the city required us to look at pieces of art through an acquiescent and creative eye. This skill, which evolved as we exposed ourselves to the various art forms New York City has to offer, was finally put to test as we attended exhibitions and performances of our own selection. Having attended the performances Disgraced and Tail! Spin!, and Henri Matisse’s The Cut-Outs, I could not help but notice the increase in my creative perception and cultural acceptance.
Out of the three, The Cut-Outs is what truly latched on to my creative heart. I may have been biased, with modern art being a love of mine and the MOMA being one of my favorite museums. Nevertheless, I still found myself deep in thought and revelation when exploring this exhibition. As we first walked in, we stumbled upon his earlier, and relatively smaller pieces. Their abstract portrayal of both everyday and iconic scenes truly grasped my attention. I found myself playing a game, guessing the subject of the composition before reading the title, which usually provided the answer. When we moved on to his stain glass projects, I was able to catch a glimpse into Matisse’s mind. The exhibition noted that he had an assistant actually help create these pieces of art, as he was restricted by a sickness. I feel this somehow both limited and expanded his artistic influence. Whereas it is not entirely “his” art, it does stem from only his mind. Though he was not physically creating the piece, his artistic influence seemed unhindered, if not greater. He was able to enforce full mental expression. Finally, when we arrived at his Nudes, I truly understood the extent of his artistic skill. In one of the explanations of the pieces, it stated that Matisse would manipulate paper as if it were clay. He would shape and reshape, organize then reorganize, until he arrived at a singular, satisfactory form. I initially believed his work to be easily imitated, but once recognizing the planning and skill that went behind it, my mind changed otherwise.
Completing this final project caused me to reflect on my growth and evolution as an appreciator of the arts. As we traveled the city, enduring the cold, yet beautiful nights, I could not but help but remember our first excursion to Le Nozze di Fiagaro. I somehow identified why that night felt so different than recent ones. While the exquisiteness, serenity, and culture of the arts have remained intact (as they have for many years), my mind has matured. I am now able to artistically dissect various pieces, straying away from logic and focusing on something deeper, leading to an internal praise or disparagement.
Why Don’t You Look Dapper!
The most memorable part of the course had to be seeing everyone dressed incredibly dapper for our first excursion, Le Nozze di Figaro.It was an incredible experience: meeting by the elegant water fountain, under the daze of twilight hours, everybody dressed in their formal attire. It was our first night experiencing the arts, and I felt that dressing outside of our comfort zone somehow placed us in a different state of mind. For most of us, it was our first opera (or even major artistic experience) ever. We did not truly know what to expect. Yet, we were somehow able to open up ourselves to the grand culture of art. We dressed classy, we thought classy, we were classy.
Who Said Politics Was No Fun?
For the wildcard part of the “The Art of Choosing,” Samantha, Jillian and I decided to attend a performance of Tail! Spin!. Tail! Spin!, created by Mario Correa, is a satire of recent US political sex scandals. Correa created the script using only the words the politicians had used surrounding the course of their scandal. This led to the shows intriguing tagline: “A new comedy texted, Tweeted, told by your elected leaders.” Tail! Spin! was performed at the Lynn Redgrave Theater at Culture Project
, and consisted of an ensemble of five hilarious actors: Arnie Burton as Representative Mark Foley, Sean Dugan as Senator Larry Craig, Tom Galantich as Governor Mark Sanford, Nate Smith as the infamous NY Representative Anthony Weiner, and Saturday Night Live star Rachel Dratch as the women who were “victims” of the scandals (and also as Barbara Walters during a rather interesting interview).
Tail! Spin! holds true to the off broadway culture. It was performed in a small theater for a relatively small audience. Its has an obscene focus: the topic of sex scandals, which is something that occasionally appears headlined in the media. It attracted a specific demographic (mostly older, senior adults), as noticed by the audience that night. Nonetheless, our little trio of 18 year olds thoroughly enjoyed the show. It was performed on a mostly empty stage, except for several chairs and a podium that appeared every now and then. The actors, stage lighting, and sound effects did an adept job at creating various settings and scenarios: be it a court room, TV interview, press interview, or even a bathroom.
The show was informative as it was entertaining. The three of us walked in mostly knowing only about Weiner and his Twitter catastrophe. Yet by the end of the night, each of us were able to intelligently crack a joke on Mark Sanford’s exploits in Argentina, or on Larry Craig’s “lewd conduct” that took place within a men’s bathroom stall.
There were no complaints about the show that evening (except for maybe getting back row seats when I was pretty sure I purchased front row seats). Because the cast consisted of such a small ensemble, each actor had to realize multiple characters. Arguably, they did so seamlessly. An a
ctor would switch from a politician, to an interviewer, to a child talking to a 40 year old man on Facebook with sheer ease. Most outstanding had to be Rachel Dratch, who would switch from a seductive and enticing woman to a loving and considerate wife at the snap of a finger (see her in action). Overall, the show itself flowed nicely with four separate incidents presented in a single, unifying manner.
Tail! Spin! does a great job at presenting the obscure theme of political sex scandals in an intriguingly humorous and surprising way. At the end of the show, the three of us could not help but find ourselves in a slight amazement. A general sense of shock came over us as we thought “Did they really say that?” Are our elected politicians, voted to represent us in our government, capable of such raunchy acts? We could not help but chuckle (and shake our heads in shame) at the lengths they went to cover themselves, the ludicrous excuses, and random bouts of memory loss.
Tail! Spin! is a smart and funny show. It really is a great way to spend your night! We recommend that you do go and see it!
-Manjekar, Samantha, Jillian
