2013 Arts in the City

Brooklyn College Campus aka Our Home

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Acting in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

This performance of  “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was the first time that I had come into contact with this play both as a visual performance and a written play.  I noticed that Hermia had the only authentic sounding British accent, which made her lines seem and feel Shakespearean.  Lysander, on the contrary, had a completely Americanized accent which made it difficult not to concentrate solely on his accent.  Oberon, the king of the fairies, fit the role he was cast in because he was a bulk and demanding actor, as a king should be.  The way Robin Goodfellow pranced around and performed stunts, by use of wires, was the greatest part of the performance.  Since Shakespeare’s play is tied together by Robin Goodfellow as an integral character in the play it made sense that the actor in this performance performed the most stunts out of all the other characters and that the play focused on her ability as an actress to perform those stunts.

Calligraphy Made Contemporary

In Armajani’s Calligraphy (1964), numerous poems in arabic were separated and placed on a canvas in a random order.  In this way, Armajani is trying to show his audience that even though calligraphy is an old form of writing that is not used often it can be something seen as modern as well.  Siah Armajani is an Iranian born sculptor and knowing this extra bit of information made his piece even more understandable because, like in his occupation, he took basic materials and created something greater that can be interpreted numerous ways by each individual.

Shakespeare Reading vs. Seeing

This was the first time that I saw Romeo and Juliet performed live.  The scene that I had chosen to examen prior to the performance was the balcony seen in Act 2, in which Romeo and Juliet profess their love to each other.  While reading the play, I pictured a balcony on which Juliet stood overlooking a forrest with Romeo kneeling under the balcony.  Since this scene is known as “the balcony scene”, it was odd that there was no actual balcony in the performance, as I had pictured. In addition to this, the unconventional interpretation of the play in this performance was very different from what I had imagined seeing the play live would be.  Although the lack of a balcony in the performance bothered me at first, the way in which the director planned out the scene did not detract whatsoever, in my eyes, from the feeling of a balcony seen.  During this scene, Romeo was at the far end of the “stage” kneeling towards Juliet, who was standing on a platform of chairs.  The chairs were designed to act as some sort of balcony for Juliet to stand on, as she performed her monologue.  The way Romeo kneeled on the opposite of Juliet created a feeling that he was lower in height to her, which created the atmosphere of a balcony seen.  In addition to the different appearance that I had pictured in my mind, the same passion was portrayed in the performance as I had imagined it, while reading.

Props in the Fall for Dance

I was surprised to see that the Fall For Dance Festival lacked the use of props and did not have much scenery.   In the first act, which was tap dancing, the removable wooden floor piece in the front and the platforms in the rear were props that were necessary for the dancers to perform.  The one prop that I did, in fact, notice during the duration of the four acts was the handkerchief in the second act.  The handkerchief was vital to that act because it relayed to the audience, without the use of words, the trickery and deceit that one man was under the impression that was taking place.  Since this was a dance performance, as opposed to a musical or play, I had the notion that the use of props would be less likely, which it happened to be.

CBGB-OMFUG

CBGB was a music club that was located at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in Manhattan.  The full name of the club was CBGB & OMFUG, which stands for Country Bluegrass Blues and Other Music for Uplifting Gormandizers.  Known by many as purely CB’s now, the club opened in December 1973 and became famous as the birthplace of the American punk rock movement.  CBGB’s was the hotspot for bands that were on tour in New York City.  During the 70’s and 80’s when the penchant for that type of music was rising, CBGB housed many musical groups to perform American punk music. Acts such as the Ramones, Misfits, the Patti Smith Group, Mink DeVille, The Dead Boys, The Dictators, The Fleshtones, The Cramps, Blondie, The Shirts, and Talking Heads played at the CBGB club.

Thirty-three years later on October 15, 2006 CBGB hosted its final concert, before it was forced to close due to rent payment issues.  Patti Smith, “the godmother of punk,” was the final act in one of New York’s most iconic music venues.  CBGB is iconic because it founded, in a way, the musical genre of American punk rock.  Patti Smith became a prominent element of the New York City punk rock movement partly because of the CBGB venue.

Art is Preserved

Still thinking about the order in which these pictures should be placed, I realized that they might need to be reversed.  Being a New Yorker, seeing graffiti art and/or vandalism is almost natural.  It was until now that I realized that the grass and plants scattered around the High Line is an art form in and of itself.  It is an art that is preserved as opposed to the side of the building, in the second picture, that has not been preserved to its original state.  People took it upon themselves to decorate or vandalize, to each his own, the side of the building.  Although what they created on the building is some kind of an art form, they did not preserve the condition of the building like the well taken care of plants throughout the High Line.