The Arts in New York City

…we remember all the times we had together <3

Waking up to get to class at 9:15 AM used to seem like it would be an immense struggle for me, being the late waker that I am. Every Monday morning my mom wakes me up (yes, she still wakes me up) and I drag myself to class with absolute assurance that I would fall asleep due to the lack of rest I had the night before.  Monday–the most hated day of the week.  Yet, Honors 125 with all of you, has changed that for me.

For some reason, every time I walk into class, I am energized, even if I’m going to be there for a full three hours.  Most people would say that we’re all nuts for taking a three hour class, but I’m sure many of you can agree with me that those three hours seem to fly by.  It is in this class that I have made many close friends, not only because of what we do inside of class, but also because of what we do outside of class.

Macaulay Honors College has given us experiences that we will never forget.  For me, this has been a class of many “firsts.”  Although it hasn’t been my first play, it has been my first community-based theater experience.  I have also never been to the Brooklyn Museum.  I have never been to the Metropolitan Opera House.  I have never been to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for anything other than ballet.  I have never seen a dance piece, without dancing or music involved.  I have never read so many plays by writers other than Shakespeare and what I would call, the other “oldies.”

My perspective on art, especially in New York City, has changed drastically, and I am pretty sure that was the exact motivation and hope of the Macaulay board and Professor Healey.  We have taken away with us experiences that we will remember forever, with people who I also hope to remember forever.

Although all of the plays, shows, and exhibits we have seen this semester have each influenced my way of thinking, I never thought I would say this, but Ralph Lemmon’s “dance” has influenced my view on art the most.  I was hoping I would never have to blog again on Ralph Lemmon since we have all done it so many times, but we gotta give it up to the man: he made us question everything.

Sometimes going to see a play, musical, dance, etc, just because it is entertaining will leave us feeling happy for a few days, but Ralph Lemmon stayed in our mind for weeks.  Many of us were just trying to figure out what the hell we had seen, and once we figured that out, we wanted to know how that tied into any of the themes he talked about at the question and answer session a couple of weeks after the performance.  The ability to even meet with the artist who created the show was really awesome, even if I hated his piece.

What made this piece stay in my mind, even until this day, is the complete and total mind game that Ralph Lemmon played on the audience.  It was like nothing I had ever seen before, it stirred up emotions that I did not even know I could feel about any work of art, and it left me feeling uneasy.

Although this has, no doubt, been the least entertaining work of art that I have experienced thus far in class, it has definitely been the biggest eye opener.  We learned different ways and a wide variety of methods that we could use to analyze a work of art that is very unfamiliar to many of us.  Unlike the opera which we spoke about one time after we saw it, Ralph Lemmon’s name seems to pop up in every lecture that we have.

We’ve learned to not always look for the entertainment aspect in art, but to really dig deeper and try to analyze, understand, and take away something from the piece.  After watching Ralph Lemmon’s hour and a half of “dancing,” I know that not all forms of dancing can be done at a party or on Dancing with the Stars.  He didn’t want for us to sit there and be jolly little entertained elves.  He wanted us to hear about his life, to experience something we had never experienced before, to do something out of the box that we have confined ourselves in.

If there is one thing that I have learned this semester it is that we should always try to go outside of our comfort zone; art isn’t meant to always be understood, and we should appreciate art whether it leaves us happy, sad, or pissed off.

Twyla Tharp, an outstanding choreographer, said “art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”  We have the ability to run away, get ourselves immersed in art, and enter a completely different world.  This semester we have all entered a completely different world, and I cannot wait to experience even more of it.

It’s the end of the semester already, and boy has the time flown by.

This class has introduced me to a world beyond our own, to a world of film and culture and diversity.

The performances ranged from extremely interesting to extremely boring. Like the gradients we did in the hall, that’s how the performances went-they all have their position on the gradient scale.

The three performances from tech day were by far the most impacting and emotional. Although we were supposed to choose only one performance that impacted us the most, I really group these three together because of their length and presentation.

It all started with the Indian Wants the Bronx-our very first performance. And what an experience it was. It was a really great play. The actors were all amazing, and they were all very enthusiastic about their parts in the play. As I watched the play, there were so many questions floating around in my head, and I couldn’t answer a single one. Where was the man’s son? Where were they that no one was around? Would it have mattered if anyone was around? Why were they mistreating that poor Indian man? The play showed the negative effects of boredom and peer pressure. When given plenty of time and nothing to do, humans tend to become destructive, to themselves, their surrounding, and in this case to another human being. The barbary of Murph and Joey shows the destruction and corruption of the human mind when reduced to boredom. It also shows the negative way in which Murph pressured Joey into mistreating the Indian and the way that Joey grew accustomed to the maltreatment and continued it on his own. This play, as well as the other two that day showed the cruel savagery of the human race.

The second play that day was What Strong Fences Make, and what strong fences don’t make is sense. Just kidding. Kind of. At the beginning of the play, I didn’t really understand it, but that seemed to be the theme of the three plays. To question the plot, the characters, and everything. There was a sense of the unknown in each play, and a sense of curiosity that filled the viewers as we watched. After each play everything started to make more sense. In this specific play, the two men had been childhood friends, and now Itzhak was a suicide bomber, ready to kill his old friend, Uri, in order to avenge the death of his children. That was so powerful and emotional, that it really intrigued me. Although the sound in the theater wasn’t the best quality, and I original disliked the play very much, looking back on it, it was definitely one of the most appealing to watch.

Beirut Rocks, like the others, wasn’t a very long play, and there wasn’t much to it, but the message behind it was powerful. This performance impacted me the most because of the harsh realities it presented. There were many ethnic and racial issues and prejudices presented. During wartime, it is common for people to begin developing extremely ethnocentric views and to demean other cultural groups. The Jewish group was put down by the Muslim girl, Nasa, who threatened to burn down Benji’s house. Nasa was then accused of concealing a bomb under her clothing and was violated in clear view of men, which was very sacrilegious to her and went against all her values.

I group these three plays together because of their relation to each other and the common themes they share. The three performances highlight the way people crack under pressure and begin to act differently than they would normally act. In all three plays, the characters are presented with conflicts, and because they are unsure how to solve them, they resort to methods that, to a sane person outside the situation, would deem crazy.

Now, although I wouldn’t say we really saw any BAD performances, but I believe that the least successful performance was definitely Ralph Lemon’s. The piece was at first, very confusing and not a single person could make sense of it. Unless every viewer got to meet Ralph Lemon and hear his ideas and reasons after watching the performance, then the performance was a complete and utter failure.

The performance was full of strange movements, useless words, and confusing ideas. What was the point, really? After talking to Ralph Lemon, we found out that there was no point-it was all an experiment. Well, I guess he got his results…they probably weren’t the ones he wanted though, because everyone hated it after seeing it.

However, at this point, I really want to say that this piece also comments on the same theme as the three Israel Horowitz plays: the human mind and how it works. Ralph Lemon’s piece tries to show the audience a new way of thinking, an alternative, different way to look at something. But we don’t know what that something is. There are just too many downsides to his “experiment” to have made viewing his piece really enjoyable.

One more day of class left—how should we feel about that?

Is it really an occasion worth celebrating? The very seminar that brought friends together, and allowed us the opportunity to chill at free performances, is about to end. Should I really feel happy that the one class where I was allowed to watch films, speak my mind, and actually broaden my horizons is over? We were privileged enough to see Off Broadway performances and an opera for free, while touring parts of the city previously unknown to [some of] us. We were lucky to have an open teacher who allowed open, intellectual discussion that was both engaging and a learning experience. We are fortunate that our final is fun and will certainly provide comic relief at the end of the year. So how do you expect me to sit in the house all day and be happy, when the only fun seminar [of the four] is over?

I am exaggerating, and I will thoroughly enjoy my winter break in case you think I have no life, but still, I have a point. The Arts in NYC is the most entertaining of our required seminars, so why should we be happy that it’s over, when we still have to take three more, minus the freebies and Dunkin Donuts? There should not be much debate over this, and I’m afraid it’s not possible to do anything about it. All we can do is look back at the times we’ve shared together.

That brings me to this blog—I’ve just reread some of my old blog posts. You know, the ones on Little Foxes, Ralph Lemon, Israel Horovitz, and so on. I don’t need to talk to you guys about it, seeing as you should have seen the performances too. But what I will do is talk about the performance that was most memorable to me.

Contes D’Hoffman was perhaps one of the best operas I have ever seen, seeing as I have never seen an opera before. It may very well be the only time I watch an opera in my young adult life, and I am happy that I was given the chance to do so.

Everything about this opera was memorable. The musicality, actors, setting, and especially costumes all remain vivid and fresh in my mind. I still remember the kinky robot, the fat lady who sings, and the dominatrix, all of whom break poor Hoffman’s heart. I remember the descending stage props, the falling paper, the twisting dragon, the floating violin, and the masses of forest trees all coming down the stage with invisible strings. I remember the seemingly gigantic stage, which is a spectacle of its own, and the French language, which at the time, didn’t seem so hard to understand. Most of all, I remember the atmosphere of the MET. The tension during certain scenes and the jolliness of others. I loved Contes D’Hoffman for everything that made it unique and because of this experience, I now feel just a tad bit inclined to spend money to enjoy an opera.

On the flipside, I wish I could forget the Ralph Lemon Dance. I could go on and on about how every other performance we watched was entertaining and allowed something to be taken away from it, but the Ralph Lemon piece neither was enjoyable or educational. If anything I learned how cruel Ralph Lemon could be, both to his audience and his actors. Putting hard feelings aside, the Ralph Lemon Dance was the least successful of all the things I’ve seen. I may remember it, quite clearly actually, but it’s the only performance we’ve been to where I felt dissatisfied and wished that I didn’t show up. I remember bright colors, sweaty dancers, crying, and subtle sexual references. I really don’t want to be rude, but the only thing I wanted to know about the piece was why BAM chose to host it. If it were not for blog prompts, I wouldn’t have delved too deep into why…? Why…? And again, why…?

I’m getting kind of attached to these blogs. It’s distanced enough from a diary [which I find silly], and it’s as close as I’ll be to having what I really think “out there.” Though I don’t have much control over several things in my life, like going to school, staying out late, or even my bladder, these blogs are something that I can control, and that I can personalize. I’m really going to miss Healey’s class, and I really am going to miss our classroom atmosphere.

🙁

This semester has been wonderful and I really feel like I’ve learned a lot from the various performances and exhibits I viewed. When I first entered the class I wasn’t really expecting to love the Arts in New York City seminar because I never really had an interest on the subject matter. However as the semester has gone by, I feel a lot more appreciative of the role art plays in our lives. Whether an artist is a social critic, curator of culture, or a political voice, all these roles affect our lives tremendously.

The artwork that that affected me most was Ruined. Ruined was a play that made me look at the lives of so many women around the world differently. I knew that there was some sort of genocide going on in Africa but I never really got to know the details. The news barely covers this topic and it’s barely shown in the media so how is the common person supposed to know about it? It’s pretty sad but unfortunately true. Many of us don’t have the time to research about the numerous issues of the world and all the information we gain is from the square little box sitting in our living rooms. However, Lynn Nottage does an excellent job in bringing this subject into light through the use of art. Many people (including me) wouldn’t have known about the horrors of the African Congo if it weren’t for this play.

From the name of the play, “Ruined”, I knew it was going to be a tough story to digest, but as I read this play, I couldn’t put it down. It was an interesting and engaging story of young women that were practically forced to live as prostitutes. The story was of course distressing, but what made it worse was that it was real. All the disturbing stories of torture and rape, they were real. I still don’t get it. How can humans be so brutal towards one another? We all breathe, live, and have the same needs. We should think of each other as brothers and sisters rather than targets and items. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain that these women have to go through on a daily basis. I feel like Ruined really inspired me to go out and research about the issues of the Congo as I’m sure many other people were. The story might’ve been staged on a play but the tears of the women that live there are most definitely real.

The performance that least affected me was the piece by Ralph Lemon. I mean after discussing it in class and with Lemon, I did appreciate it more, kind of. However, I still can’t forget the feeling I had as I left the show. I felt like it was the worst thing that I had ever watched; it was practically torture at the time. People were walking out and if I had a choice, I probably would’ve as well. I understand Lemon was trying to create something new and groundbreaking but you can’t create pieces of work that your audiences wont understand. It has to have some sort of structure or story. I felt like it was all over the place and just not worth it. Sorry Lemon, this was just not for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Arts in New York City Seminar. I feel like I have learned so much from the different places I visited, the books I’ve read, and the films I’ve watched. I have definitely enjoyed this wonderful Macaulay experience 🙂