Friday, January 9, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Harold Pinter...Some links to serve as a precursor to our production of Old Times
The World That Harold Pinter Unlocked by Ariel Dorfman, published in the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/26/AR2008122601359.html?wpisrc=newsletter
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/26/AR2008122601359.html?wpisrc=newsletter
Harold Pinter, Playwright of the Pause, Dies at 78 by Mel Gussow and Ben Brantley, published in The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/theater/26pinter.html?_r=1
An Appreciation of Harold Pinter by Charlie Rose
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9889
Harold Pinter: an Appreciation by Chris Jones, published in the Chicago Tribune
http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2008/12/harold-pinter-a.html#more
Friday, January 2, 2009
When Dockets Imitate Drama from The New York Times
When Dockets Imitate Drama
By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: December 26, 2008
“You must realize that money making is one thing, religion another, and family life a third,” Mr. Voysey matter-of-factly tells his son Edward, who is appalled to learn that his father has been operating a pyramid scheme for decades with his clients’ money.
Mr. Voysey — the affably corrupt character in Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 play “The Voysey Inheritance” — is one of Bernard L. Madoff’s literary predecessors, and his compartmentalized view of the world may suggest how Mr. Madoff, a philanthropist and a pillar of the financial world and Jewish life, enmeshed family and friends in what federal authorities are calling a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
The accusations against Mr. Madoff may seem so outlandish and outsize that only a literary imagination could have dreamed him up. And indeed, where businessmen, psychologists, theologians and prosecutors have so far come up short in explaining the tangle of human emotions and drives behind the Madoff enterprise, literature and drama have provided plenty of models.
“It’s almost verbatim the story of ‘The Voysey Inheritance,’ which was written 100 years earlier,” said Neil Pepe, the artistic director of the Atlantic Theater, which staged the play in 2006. “It’s about the nature of business, whether they’re bending the rules or following them.”
David Mamet, who adapted “Voysey” for The Atlantic, explained in a New York Times interview at the time why he was initially drawn to the play.
“What is capital?” he said. “How does society work? What is money? On the one hand you can say money is meaningless: it doesn’t really exist, and so everything is really all about trust. You can also say that means it’s all about crime.”
As Voysey puts it, his clients’ security lies not in pieces of paper but in “my financial ability.”
To the elder Voysey, Mr. Pepe noted, such practices “are an accepted form of behavior.” That is why he is so exasperated with Edward. “Oh ... why is it so hard for a man to see clearly beyond the letter of the law,” Mr. Voysey says, later adding, “We must take this world as we find it, my dear boy.”
That is clearly the world that Anthony Trollope is portraying in his 1875 novel, “The Way We Live Now” (another Mamet favorite). In his autobiography Trollope writes that this satiric novel was inspired by the corruption eating away at British society, a “dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places.”
His shady financier, Augustus Melmotte, is at the center of a huge scam, selling shares in a railroad that doesn’t exist. He is widely regarded as the financial sector’s presiding genius, “the very navel of the commercial enterprise of the world,” and his ruin, as Lord Alfred observes in the novel, “would be the bursting of half London.” Many of Melmotte’s attributes can be found in some of the real-life rogues who preyed on credulous British investors in that period.
Comparing Melmotte to Mr. Madoff, Catharine R. Stimpson, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at New York University, said: “There’s the same ‘do I have a deal for you’ and the same lust for money. He’s very smart, he has no compunction about swindling everybody, and he’s socially ambitious.”
“The difference between Melmotte and Madoff,” she added, “is that Melmotte comes out of nowhere.” In the book Melmotte simply appears, already wealthy, and no one knows his roots or where he is from. Nineteenth-century British society was quite anti-Semitic, and Ms. Stimpson points out that Trollope hints that Melmotte has Jewish origins.
“The bluebloods sneer at him,” she said, “but that doesn’t prevent them from wanting what he has.”
John Guare, author of “Six Degrees of Separation” and “The House of Blue Leaves,” also thought first of Melmotte when asked about Mr. Madoff’s literary parallels. Even as the scandal is breaking, Mr. Guare noted, Melmotte wins a seat in Parliament. (In the end he commits suicide.)
People like Melmotte “are just missing a moral gene,” Mr. Guare said.
“The money is there for the taking,” he continued. “Asking why they do it is like asking, ‘Why does the scorpion bite me.’ ”
Mr. Guare says he is fascinated by the serene smile Mr. Madoff wears in some photographs. “How do you account for his beatific smile, like the Dalai Lama?” he asked. It’s “as if he’s coming in from Shangri La.”
That smile similarly intrigues Andrew Delbanco, the director of Columbia University’s American Studies program. Referring to photos taken after Mr. Madoff’s arraignment, Mr. Delbanco said the events “put me in mind of the arrogant Ambersons before they got what Booth Tarkington called their ‘comeuppance.’ ”
“But the thing about Bernard Madoff,” he added, “is that we have no idea what he was thinking.”
“I suspect he feels, as several pundits have suggested, that what he did was no different morally from what many big-time brokers and banks have been doing,” Mr. Delbanco wrote in an e-mail message. “But it would take Henry James to give us a deep portrait of such a character.”
Of course you can’t talk about 19th-century fiction and greed run amok without referring to Charles Dickens. “Even his name is sort of Dickensian,” said the author Thomas Mallon, who has set some of his novels in the late 1800s. “Made-Off. It sounds so perfect.”
“The great manipulators seem to come out of Victorian literature,” Mr. Mallon said, mentioning Merdle, the swindling banker from “Little Dorrit.”
As Dickens describes him: “Mr. Merdle was immensely rich; a man of prodigious enterprise; a Midas without the ears, who turned all he touched to gold. He was in everything good, from banking to building. He was in Parliament, of course. He was in the City, necessarily. He was Chairman of this, Trustee of that, President of the other.”
Think of it, Mr. Mallon observed: “Merdle, Melmotte and Madoff. It sounds like a phony literary hedge fund.”
The investigation centers on a Big Con, but the impact of Mr. Madoff’s suspected duplicity toward his family is a crucial element of the story. Though Mr. Madoff brought his brother, two sons, a nephew and a niece into the business, he insists that none of them knew about the sham, according to the criminal complaint. When the money ran out, it was Mr. Madoff’s sons, Mark and Andrew, who turned him in.
In “Voysey” the “inheritance” is in fact the embezzlement and fallout that one generation has left for the next to clean up. “It’s really about handing down the legacy of such behavior,” Mr. Pepe noted. “Inevitably the truth rears its head, and it catches up to you.”
Those themes are what made James Lapine, the playwright and director, think of Granville-Barker’s play, as well as of another, more modern drama now in revival on Broadway, “All My Sons.” In that 1947 play by Arthur Miller, Joe Keller lies about a manufacturing problem that caused the death of 21 pilots during World War II, saving himself from jail and his business from ruin. But his carefully structured artifice comes crashing down when his surviving son learns the truth.
“I think it’s about selfishness and what you do to your children when you make those selfish choices,” Mr. Lapine said.
Perhaps another way of making sense of the charges against Mr. Madoff, though, is by looking not at his actions but at the gullibility of the vast network of people seduced by returns that are too good to be true.
After hearing about the scandal, Ilan Averbuch, an Israeli artist whose work is currently on exhibit at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in Chelsea, took down a tattered storybook he has had since childhood, a collection of Jewish folktales about the mythical people of Chelm, a city populated by supposedly wise souls who are actually very foolish.
In one, the townspeople decide to illuminate their city on dark nights by capturing the full moon, which they see reflected in a large barrel of water. They seal the top so it cannot escape. Two weeks later, on a night when there is no moon, the town gathers to open the barrel. When the lid comes off, the moon is gone.
Imagine that, they cry. A thief has stolen it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/theater/27cohe.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1
By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: December 26, 2008
“You must realize that money making is one thing, religion another, and family life a third,” Mr. Voysey matter-of-factly tells his son Edward, who is appalled to learn that his father has been operating a pyramid scheme for decades with his clients’ money.
Mr. Voysey — the affably corrupt character in Harley Granville-Barker’s 1905 play “The Voysey Inheritance” — is one of Bernard L. Madoff’s literary predecessors, and his compartmentalized view of the world may suggest how Mr. Madoff, a philanthropist and a pillar of the financial world and Jewish life, enmeshed family and friends in what federal authorities are calling a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
The accusations against Mr. Madoff may seem so outlandish and outsize that only a literary imagination could have dreamed him up. And indeed, where businessmen, psychologists, theologians and prosecutors have so far come up short in explaining the tangle of human emotions and drives behind the Madoff enterprise, literature and drama have provided plenty of models.
“It’s almost verbatim the story of ‘The Voysey Inheritance,’ which was written 100 years earlier,” said Neil Pepe, the artistic director of the Atlantic Theater, which staged the play in 2006. “It’s about the nature of business, whether they’re bending the rules or following them.”
David Mamet, who adapted “Voysey” for The Atlantic, explained in a New York Times interview at the time why he was initially drawn to the play.
“What is capital?” he said. “How does society work? What is money? On the one hand you can say money is meaningless: it doesn’t really exist, and so everything is really all about trust. You can also say that means it’s all about crime.”
As Voysey puts it, his clients’ security lies not in pieces of paper but in “my financial ability.”
To the elder Voysey, Mr. Pepe noted, such practices “are an accepted form of behavior.” That is why he is so exasperated with Edward. “Oh ... why is it so hard for a man to see clearly beyond the letter of the law,” Mr. Voysey says, later adding, “We must take this world as we find it, my dear boy.”
That is clearly the world that Anthony Trollope is portraying in his 1875 novel, “The Way We Live Now” (another Mamet favorite). In his autobiography Trollope writes that this satiric novel was inspired by the corruption eating away at British society, a “dishonesty magnificent in its proportions, and climbing into high places.”
His shady financier, Augustus Melmotte, is at the center of a huge scam, selling shares in a railroad that doesn’t exist. He is widely regarded as the financial sector’s presiding genius, “the very navel of the commercial enterprise of the world,” and his ruin, as Lord Alfred observes in the novel, “would be the bursting of half London.” Many of Melmotte’s attributes can be found in some of the real-life rogues who preyed on credulous British investors in that period.
Comparing Melmotte to Mr. Madoff, Catharine R. Stimpson, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at New York University, said: “There’s the same ‘do I have a deal for you’ and the same lust for money. He’s very smart, he has no compunction about swindling everybody, and he’s socially ambitious.”
“The difference between Melmotte and Madoff,” she added, “is that Melmotte comes out of nowhere.” In the book Melmotte simply appears, already wealthy, and no one knows his roots or where he is from. Nineteenth-century British society was quite anti-Semitic, and Ms. Stimpson points out that Trollope hints that Melmotte has Jewish origins.
“The bluebloods sneer at him,” she said, “but that doesn’t prevent them from wanting what he has.”
John Guare, author of “Six Degrees of Separation” and “The House of Blue Leaves,” also thought first of Melmotte when asked about Mr. Madoff’s literary parallels. Even as the scandal is breaking, Mr. Guare noted, Melmotte wins a seat in Parliament. (In the end he commits suicide.)
People like Melmotte “are just missing a moral gene,” Mr. Guare said.
“The money is there for the taking,” he continued. “Asking why they do it is like asking, ‘Why does the scorpion bite me.’ ”
Mr. Guare says he is fascinated by the serene smile Mr. Madoff wears in some photographs. “How do you account for his beatific smile, like the Dalai Lama?” he asked. It’s “as if he’s coming in from Shangri La.”
That smile similarly intrigues Andrew Delbanco, the director of Columbia University’s American Studies program. Referring to photos taken after Mr. Madoff’s arraignment, Mr. Delbanco said the events “put me in mind of the arrogant Ambersons before they got what Booth Tarkington called their ‘comeuppance.’ ”
“But the thing about Bernard Madoff,” he added, “is that we have no idea what he was thinking.”
“I suspect he feels, as several pundits have suggested, that what he did was no different morally from what many big-time brokers and banks have been doing,” Mr. Delbanco wrote in an e-mail message. “But it would take Henry James to give us a deep portrait of such a character.”
Of course you can’t talk about 19th-century fiction and greed run amok without referring to Charles Dickens. “Even his name is sort of Dickensian,” said the author Thomas Mallon, who has set some of his novels in the late 1800s. “Made-Off. It sounds so perfect.”
“The great manipulators seem to come out of Victorian literature,” Mr. Mallon said, mentioning Merdle, the swindling banker from “Little Dorrit.”
As Dickens describes him: “Mr. Merdle was immensely rich; a man of prodigious enterprise; a Midas without the ears, who turned all he touched to gold. He was in everything good, from banking to building. He was in Parliament, of course. He was in the City, necessarily. He was Chairman of this, Trustee of that, President of the other.”
Think of it, Mr. Mallon observed: “Merdle, Melmotte and Madoff. It sounds like a phony literary hedge fund.”
The investigation centers on a Big Con, but the impact of Mr. Madoff’s suspected duplicity toward his family is a crucial element of the story. Though Mr. Madoff brought his brother, two sons, a nephew and a niece into the business, he insists that none of them knew about the sham, according to the criminal complaint. When the money ran out, it was Mr. Madoff’s sons, Mark and Andrew, who turned him in.
In “Voysey” the “inheritance” is in fact the embezzlement and fallout that one generation has left for the next to clean up. “It’s really about handing down the legacy of such behavior,” Mr. Pepe noted. “Inevitably the truth rears its head, and it catches up to you.”
Those themes are what made James Lapine, the playwright and director, think of Granville-Barker’s play, as well as of another, more modern drama now in revival on Broadway, “All My Sons.” In that 1947 play by Arthur Miller, Joe Keller lies about a manufacturing problem that caused the death of 21 pilots during World War II, saving himself from jail and his business from ruin. But his carefully structured artifice comes crashing down when his surviving son learns the truth.
“I think it’s about selfishness and what you do to your children when you make those selfish choices,” Mr. Lapine said.
Perhaps another way of making sense of the charges against Mr. Madoff, though, is by looking not at his actions but at the gullibility of the vast network of people seduced by returns that are too good to be true.
After hearing about the scandal, Ilan Averbuch, an Israeli artist whose work is currently on exhibit at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in Chelsea, took down a tattered storybook he has had since childhood, a collection of Jewish folktales about the mythical people of Chelm, a city populated by supposedly wise souls who are actually very foolish.
In one, the townspeople decide to illuminate their city on dark nights by capturing the full moon, which they see reflected in a large barrel of water. They seal the top so it cannot escape. Two weeks later, on a night when there is no moon, the town gathers to open the barrel. When the lid comes off, the moon is gone.
Imagine that, they cry. A thief has stolen it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/theater/27cohe.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1
Chris Jones gives Remy Bumppo and The Voysey Inheritance an Honorable Mention!
Originally posted: December 20, 2008
The BEST THEATER of 2008 ...
A Chicagoan finally won the Pulitzer Prize in drama. American Girl Place closed its basement theater. The producers of “Jersey Boys” belatedly decided that Chicago wasn’t just another stop on the road. The death of Paul Sills left Chicago improv an orphan. The unpredicted box office success of Lynn Nottage’s “Ruined” (left) and the Elevator Repair Service’s “Gatz” proved once again that many Chicagoans like their theater to have some heft, but no one seemed to care about a sidesplitting but poorly marketed “Forbidden Broadway.” A young Obama took an acting class at the Lookingglass Theatre, and Chicago hired a clutch of new artistic directors with international reputations. A growing recession kicked a lot of theater companies in the teeth.
You might say 2008 was an up-and-down year, and this indefatigable theater city even came up with a December show—Second City’s “America: All Better!”—that perfectly captured the heights and dips of the roller coaster.
But I’ll remember 2008 for its great performances—Lois Smith in “The Trip to Bountiful,” Hollis Resnik in “Grey Gardens,” E. Faye Butler in “Caroline, or Change,” Francis Guinan in “The Seafarer,” (left) Levi Kreis in “Million Dollar Quartet,” Nigel Patterson in “Journey’s End,” Kathryn Hunter in Peter Brook’s “Fragments,” Peter Burns in “Four Places,” Helen Sadler in “A Taste of Honey,” Justin Berkobien in “Buddy,” Raymond Fox in “The Voysey Inheritance,’ Richard Todd Adams in the Marriott Theatre’s “Les Miserables.”
I’ll recall the success of its directors—Jim Corti, David Cromer, Charles Newell, Harris Yulin. I’ll bow to the playwrights who came up with memorable new works here—Marisa Wegrzyn, Lydia R. Diamond, Bill Jepsen, Nottage.
And I will be forever grateful for the chance to spend time at the Goodman Theatre reliving the 92-year-old imagination of Horton Foote, an American genius who was underrated for years and to whom Chicago gave the respect he long has deserved.
And even though I must confess that the very best show I saw all year was in New York—“South Pacific” at the Lincoln Center—I’ll marvel, once again, at the guts of Chicago theater, which stared out at a volatile world and reflected its dreams and its nightmares, right back in our upturned faces.
Top 10 ...
1. “The Trip to Bountiful,” Goodman Theatre (left). Harris Yulin’s exquisitely nuanced direction of this profound Horton Foote play was matched by Lois Smith’s heartbreaking central performance.
2. “Our Town,” the Hypocrites (left). The actor-director David Cromer turned what we thought would be an ordinary little basement production of the high school favorite into a rivetingly revisionist and devastatingly unsentimental indictment of small-town denial. It’s headed to New York in 2009.
3. “Picnic,” Writers’ Theatre Chicago. With the help of a perfectly cast ensemble, Cromer (again) revealed the restless energy and raw fear behind those seemingly idyllic summers of the 1950s.
4. “Caroline, or Change,” Court Theatre. E. Faye Butler gave the performance of a lifetime in Charles Newell’s revelatory new production of Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori’s American musical about parenting, dislocation and race.
5. “Ruined,” Goodman Theatre. Thanks to an exuberant production from the director Kate Whoriskey, Lynn Nottage’s new play opened its audience’s eyes to the sexual violence against women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo yet also caught the resilience of the African human spirit. New York awaits in 2009.
6. “Four Places,” Victory Gardens (left). Joel Drake Johnson’s drama about adult children trying to take care of a struggling elderly mother couldn’t have been simpler. And for anyone dealing with elderly parents, it couldn’t have rung more true. Sandy Shinner’s production featured superb Chicago acting.
7. “Sweet Charity,” Drury Lane Oakbrook. The best show Oakbrook has seen in years, this Cy Coleman classic was reimagined with thrilling color, energy and verve by the director Jim Corti and the Fosse-oriented choreographer, Mitzi Hamilton.
8. “Gatz,” Elevator Repair Service at the Museum of Contemporary Art. This brilliantly audacious theatrical treatment of “The Great Gatsby” played as a profound celebration and exploration of America’s complicated relationship with its literary classics. Nearly seven hours merely melted away.
9. “The Seafarer” Steppenwolf Theatre. Led by Francis Guinan in what is probably the best male performance of the year in Chicago, a Steppenwolf ensemble stares into Conor McPherson’s bottles of booze and finds a Devil of its own making.
10. “Journey’s End,” Griffin Theatre. Jonathan Berry’s powerful, richly acted production of the classic English drama of World War I revealed anew the isolation of war and its simultaneous ability to spark the most selfless sacrifices.
Honorable mentions (alphabetically): “America: All Better!” (Second City), “Don’t Dress for Dinner” (British American Stage Company), “Grey Gardens” (Northlight Theatre), “If All The World Were Paper” (Chicago Children’s Theatre), “Jacques Brel’s Lonesome Losers of the Night" (Theo Ubique), “Les Miserables” (Marriott Theatre), “Million Dollar Quartet” (Deegee Theatricals, John Cossette Productions and Northern Lights), “A Taste of Honey” (Shattered Globe Theatre), “Tomorrow Morning” (Hilary A. Williams LLC), “The Voysey Inheritance” (Remy Bumppo Theatre Company).
Monday, December 22, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Remy Bumppo's thinkTank "American Ethnic"
This spring, Remy Bumppo's thinkTank returns for its third year. thinkTank features dramatic works with a focus on provoking timely conversation about a social, political or economic issue in which Chicago citizens have a stake.
We are pleased to announce the cast and topic of American Ethnic - the third annual production of thinkTank. This year's presentation features three nationally recognized spoken word artists - Idris Goodwin, Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, and Usman Ally - who will collaborate on an original work combining hip-hop, spoken word and theater aesthetics to examine the mass media's role in perpetuating cultural norms surrounding race and gender. This world premiere production will be directed by Nick Sandys.
We are pleased to announce the cast and topic of American Ethnic - the third annual production of thinkTank. This year's presentation features three nationally recognized spoken word artists - Idris Goodwin, Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, and Usman Ally - who will collaborate on an original work combining hip-hop, spoken word and theater aesthetics to examine the mass media's role in perpetuating cultural norms surrounding race and gender. This world premiere production will be directed by Nick Sandys.
Tickets go on sale in January. http://www.remybumppo.org/
Click here for videos, podcasts, and more.
Idris Goodwin is an award winning hip hop playwright, break beat poet, recording artist and teacher committed to making work that incites, inspires, and engages. The National Endowment for the Arts awarded Idris a Playwright-in-Residence grant to explore hip-hop aesthetics in theater. Idris' break beat poetry was featured on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam" as well as the Spoken Word Revolution Redux Anthology. Idris frequently teaches and lectures at institutions across the country on themes of art and activism.
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based, Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who has given over 275 performances worldwide in notable venues like the Nuyorican Poets Café, House of Blues, Apollo Theater in Harlem, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and three seasons on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam." Current projects include her recently released CD "Infinity Breaks" and her solo show "The Grieving Room."
Usman Ally A Pakistani national who was born and raised in Southern and Eastern Africa for 18 years, Usman made his Chicago theatre debut in Tranquility Woods at Steppenwolf Theater Company. His one man show Public Enemy was featured in Remy Bumppo's thinkTank last season. He has appeared in productions at Victory Gardens Theater, Lookingglass Theatre, and A Red Orchid Theatre. He is founder of One Nation, the first Hip Hop Theatre troupe at University of Florida.
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based, Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who has given over 275 performances worldwide in notable venues like the Nuyorican Poets Café, House of Blues, Apollo Theater in Harlem, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and three seasons on HBO's "Def Poetry Jam." Current projects include her recently released CD "Infinity Breaks" and her solo show "The Grieving Room."
Usman Ally A Pakistani national who was born and raised in Southern and Eastern Africa for 18 years, Usman made his Chicago theatre debut in Tranquility Woods at Steppenwolf Theater Company. His one man show Public Enemy was featured in Remy Bumppo's thinkTank last season. He has appeared in productions at Victory Gardens Theater, Lookingglass Theatre, and A Red Orchid Theatre. He is founder of One Nation, the first Hip Hop Theatre troupe at University of Florida.
Spoken Word: "Black White Whatever" Kelly Tsai (Def Poetry)
From Kelly Tsai's website http://www.yellowgurl.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNU_Abkqryc
In a dynamic collaboration between spoken word artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, director Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, and producer Alli Maxwell, Moving Earth Productions has produced a spoken word video version of Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai’s “Black, White, Whatever… a witty spoken word poetry call to arms for politicians everywhere to stand up for underrepresented communities, like the Asian Pacific Islander American community and all those who fight to have their voices and lives heard OUT LOUD! For more information on “Black, White, Whatever”’s online viral distribution campaign, click here.
“Black, White, Whatever” Artist Statement:
The real genesis for “Black, White, Whatever” came to me one day while listening to Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child gushing on the radio about how Destiny’s Child loves ALL people, “black, white, whatever you are!”
Although it was probably the millionth time that I’d heard that phrase, it was the last time I could stomach its flippant, simultaneous embrace and dismissal of the complexities of American diversity today. I filed away my annoyance and hoped for a more fully formed poem to come to me eventually.
Lo and behold, as the presidential campaigns for the 2008 election began, I found myself rapt and rabid in front of the television screen and the radio speaker hoping, praying, begging that somebody, anybody would even mention the word, “Asian,” in ANY of their speeches.
I found myself making touchdown victory-like dances at the rare mention of “Asian” or just muttering, “Damn,” on the more likely occasion of its omission. My standards for politicans were sinking to new lows: “Just SAY Asian pleeeeease!”
In the midst of all the media spin, mud-slinging, and rare dialogue on real policy issues, I wondered shouldn’t we expect and want more from our candidates? Our candidates need to not only acknowledge us, but also take on the charge to advocate for the rights and freedoms of every single one of us.
Alli Maxwell (Producer) and Jazzmen Lee-Johnson (Director) passionately took on the task of translating this crowd-pleaser to video capitalizing on Jazz’s background in animation and the able talents of still photographers Sona Z, Matt Weiss, and Michelle Woo.
“Black, White, Whatever” was shot over two days in Brooklyn at the DUMBO Arts Center and the Brooklyn Navy Yards to provide a stripped-down authenticity as a backdrop for our beautifully unique and dynamic crew of over 20 extras representing the fluidity and complexity of this generation with clarity and impact.
“Black, White, Whatever”
Artist Bios:
KELLY ZEN-YIE TSAI (Spoken Word Poet, Producer “Black, White, Whatever”) is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who has featured at over 300 performances worldwide including 3 seasons of “HBO Def Poetry.” She constantly strives push the boundaries of spoken word poetry and innovate it for the stage, page, and screen. “Black, White, Whatever” is her third spoken word video and the first produced by her production company, Moving Earth Productions. Her previous spoken word videos include “By-Standing: The Beginning of An American Lifetime” (Dir. Karen Lin) which won special recognition at the Media That Matters & VIBE UrbanWorld Film Festivals. Her second spoken word video “Weapons of Mass Creation” (Dir. Kamilah Forbes) was commissioned by San Francisco not-for-profit Youth Noise’s nationwide Youth Summit Tour. For more info, www.yellowgurl.com or www.youtube.com/kztsai.
ALLI MAXWELL (Producer, “Black, White, Whatever”) is a director/producer working in theater and film. Of her most recent theater works, she has directed multiple productions as a director and company member of At Play Productions, an NYC based theater company & the resident company of The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway. At Play and its 40 emerging actors, directors, writers and producers came together through a project created by Kevin Spacey and The 24 Hour Play. Her current film projects include production coordinator for “The Black List,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has since been bought by and currently airs on HBO. She is also in various stages of production as Producer on projects with spoken word artist Kelly Tsai, people’s poet Kahlil Almustafa and music videos for The Lost Crusaders.
JAZZMEN JOY-LEE JOHNSON (Director, “Black, White, Whatever”) is a film & video artist, animator, multi-medium designer, dancer, musician and activist from Baltimore currently residing in Johannesburg, South Africa. A graduate from Rhode Island School of Design, her work as a director, editor and producer has been recognized in a range of outlets including her award winning work in the ’05 Hip-Hop Odyssey International Film Festival & as a Thomas Watson Fellowship winner. Her work has taken her to Benin, Mail, South Africa, India and Brasil.
Additional Credits:
Camera Operator: Mike TynerMake-up & Hair: Myrian ToumaStylist: Michelle WooPhotographers: Matt Weiss, Sona Z, Michelle WooSound: Darren Golda, Harlo HolmesSong: Taiyo Na (www.taiyona.com)Clothing & Jewelry: Artist’s & Stylist’s Own, MADE Jewelry www.madejewelry.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNU_Abkqryc
In a dynamic collaboration between spoken word artist Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai, director Jazzmen Lee-Johnson, and producer Alli Maxwell, Moving Earth Productions has produced a spoken word video version of Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai’s “Black, White, Whatever… a witty spoken word poetry call to arms for politicians everywhere to stand up for underrepresented communities, like the Asian Pacific Islander American community and all those who fight to have their voices and lives heard OUT LOUD! For more information on “Black, White, Whatever”’s online viral distribution campaign, click here.
“Black, White, Whatever” Artist Statement:
The real genesis for “Black, White, Whatever” came to me one day while listening to Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child gushing on the radio about how Destiny’s Child loves ALL people, “black, white, whatever you are!”
Although it was probably the millionth time that I’d heard that phrase, it was the last time I could stomach its flippant, simultaneous embrace and dismissal of the complexities of American diversity today. I filed away my annoyance and hoped for a more fully formed poem to come to me eventually.
Lo and behold, as the presidential campaigns for the 2008 election began, I found myself rapt and rabid in front of the television screen and the radio speaker hoping, praying, begging that somebody, anybody would even mention the word, “Asian,” in ANY of their speeches.
I found myself making touchdown victory-like dances at the rare mention of “Asian” or just muttering, “Damn,” on the more likely occasion of its omission. My standards for politicans were sinking to new lows: “Just SAY Asian pleeeeease!”
In the midst of all the media spin, mud-slinging, and rare dialogue on real policy issues, I wondered shouldn’t we expect and want more from our candidates? Our candidates need to not only acknowledge us, but also take on the charge to advocate for the rights and freedoms of every single one of us.
Alli Maxwell (Producer) and Jazzmen Lee-Johnson (Director) passionately took on the task of translating this crowd-pleaser to video capitalizing on Jazz’s background in animation and the able talents of still photographers Sona Z, Matt Weiss, and Michelle Woo.
“Black, White, Whatever” was shot over two days in Brooklyn at the DUMBO Arts Center and the Brooklyn Navy Yards to provide a stripped-down authenticity as a backdrop for our beautifully unique and dynamic crew of over 20 extras representing the fluidity and complexity of this generation with clarity and impact.
“Black, White, Whatever”
Artist Bios:
KELLY ZEN-YIE TSAI (Spoken Word Poet, Producer “Black, White, Whatever”) is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who has featured at over 300 performances worldwide including 3 seasons of “HBO Def Poetry.” She constantly strives push the boundaries of spoken word poetry and innovate it for the stage, page, and screen. “Black, White, Whatever” is her third spoken word video and the first produced by her production company, Moving Earth Productions. Her previous spoken word videos include “By-Standing: The Beginning of An American Lifetime” (Dir. Karen Lin) which won special recognition at the Media That Matters & VIBE UrbanWorld Film Festivals. Her second spoken word video “Weapons of Mass Creation” (Dir. Kamilah Forbes) was commissioned by San Francisco not-for-profit Youth Noise’s nationwide Youth Summit Tour. For more info, www.yellowgurl.com or www.youtube.com/kztsai.
ALLI MAXWELL (Producer, “Black, White, Whatever”) is a director/producer working in theater and film. Of her most recent theater works, she has directed multiple productions as a director and company member of At Play Productions, an NYC based theater company & the resident company of The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway. At Play and its 40 emerging actors, directors, writers and producers came together through a project created by Kevin Spacey and The 24 Hour Play. Her current film projects include production coordinator for “The Black List,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has since been bought by and currently airs on HBO. She is also in various stages of production as Producer on projects with spoken word artist Kelly Tsai, people’s poet Kahlil Almustafa and music videos for The Lost Crusaders.
JAZZMEN JOY-LEE JOHNSON (Director, “Black, White, Whatever”) is a film & video artist, animator, multi-medium designer, dancer, musician and activist from Baltimore currently residing in Johannesburg, South Africa. A graduate from Rhode Island School of Design, her work as a director, editor and producer has been recognized in a range of outlets including her award winning work in the ’05 Hip-Hop Odyssey International Film Festival & as a Thomas Watson Fellowship winner. Her work has taken her to Benin, Mail, South Africa, India and Brasil.
Additional Credits:
Camera Operator: Mike TynerMake-up & Hair: Myrian ToumaStylist: Michelle WooPhotographers: Matt Weiss, Sona Z, Michelle WooSound: Darren Golda, Harlo HolmesSong: Taiyo Na (www.taiyona.com)Clothing & Jewelry: Artist’s & Stylist’s Own, MADE Jewelry www.madejewelry.com
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