A Far Country 1961 - Articles Page 6

Two years into its second half-century, La MaMa, under the artistic direction of Mia Yoo, continues the omnivorous work of its founder, the late Ellen Stewart. The institution's fall 2013 season is a mixture of established artists and forms La MaMa has long supported (Lee Breuer, Dario D'Ambrosi, puppetry) and celebrated artists and programs new to La MaMa (Irina Brook, Chiori Miyagawa and Alice Reagan, Pascal Rambert, Maureen Fleming, Dan Fishback and Max Steele, and many others). Show-by-show descriptions are below.

Helen Henry, daughter-in-law of the late Sir Albert Henry, Cook Islands' first prime minister after the country gained independence in 1965, publishes her remarkable life story, in My Kotuku of the South Seas. Helen's memoir depicts a simple life in a much simpler time. Helen's memoir is rich in her descriptions of friendship, harmony and love. She weaves a simple tapestry of the life of her family as they follow their dreams and aspirations.

Helen Henry, daughter-in-law of the late Sir Albert Henry, Cook Islands' first prime minister after the country gained independence in 1965, publishes her remarkable life story, in My Kotuku of the South Seas. Helen's memoir depicts a simple life in a much simpler time. Helen's memoir is rich in her descriptions of friendship, harmony and love. She weaves a simple tapestry of the life of her family as they follow their dreams and aspirations.

The Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts announced the details of its 2013-2014 Season on Monday night. The RHCPA follows up its highly successful third season, Captured Moments, with a lineup guaranteed to provide something for every taste. Shows range from solo performances to ensemble plays from October 2012-May 2013.

Syria's escalating civil war has raised concerns about the security of the country's arsenal of chemical weapons. The Pentagon reportedly has secret plans to secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons against terrorists, a jihadist coup, or civil war. It also has conducted war games to explore how it might try to secure North Korea's nuclear arsenal in case of a coup or collapse of the regime. Against this worrisome backdrop, international counterterrorism authority Brian Michael Jenkins, director of the Mineta Transportation Institute's Transportation Safety and Security Center, has released a new eBook, When Armies Divide.It is available for download at Amazon.com www.amazon.com/dp/B00BX5SD1O and the Apple iBookstore bit.ly/whenarmiesdivide.

Tony Award winning playwright Richard Greenberg's new play, Breakfast at Tiffany's opens at the Cort Theatre (138 W 48th Street) tonight, March 20, 2013. Directed by Sean Mathias, the stage adaption of Truman Capote's classic novella will star Emilia Clarke (HBO's 'Game of Thrones') in the iconic role of 'Holly Golightly,' Cory Michael Smith as 'Fred,' and George Wendt as 'Joe Bell.' Let's see what the critics had to say...

California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) joins the revolution in on-line education through its partnership with leading massive open online course (MOOC) platform Coursera. An acclaimed Los Angeles-area institution offering undergraduate and graduate programs in the visual and performing arts, CalArts now makes a selection of its world-class educators and curriculum available to students everywhere. As the first institute of the arts to partner with Coursera, CalArts will pioneer strategies for offering the highest quality arts education within the context of MOOCs.

Russia's profound and far-reaching impact on 20th-century culture will be explored at the 2013 annual Bard SummerScape festival, which once again offers an extraordinary summer of music, opera, theater, dance, film, and cabaret, keyed to the theme of the 24th annual Bard Music Festival, Stravinsky and His World. Presented in the striking Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts and other venues on Bard College's bucolic Hudson River campus, the seven-week festival opens on July 6 with the first of two performances of A Rite (2013) by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and SITI Company, and closes on August 18 with a party in Bard's beloved Spiegeltent, which returns for the full seven weeks. Complementing the Bard Music Festival's exploration of “Stravinsky and His World,” some of the great Russian-born composer's most captivating compatriots provide key SummerScape highlights. These include the first fully-staged American production of Sergey Taneyev's opera Oresteia; the world premiere of an original stage adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's seminal novel The Master and Margarita; and a film festival titled “Between Traditions: Stravinsky's Legacy and Russian Emigré Cinema.” Together, SummerScape's offerings will continue Bard's yearlong tenth-anniversary celebrations for the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center, which commence with a month of special performances in April.

The celebration of Universal Pictures' 100th anniversary, presented by NCM Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies, is now midway through a stunning series of classic American films.

NCM® Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) event series featuring four newly restored titles commemorating Universal Pictures' 100th anniversary begins with Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS today, Sept. 19.

NCM® Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) event series featuring four newly restored titles commemorating Universal Pictures' 100th anniversary begins with Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS on Wednesday, Sept. 19.

Yoshi's Jazz Club on Fillmore Street announced upcoming performances at the San Francisco venue.

Yoshi's Jazz Club on Fillmore Street announced upcoming performances at the San Francisco venue.

Yoshi's Jazz Club on Fillmore Street announced upcoming performances at the San Francisco venue.

Tony Award winning triple threat Donna McKechnie will always be remembered as Cassie in A Chorus Line, and of course for her solo within it 'The Music and the Mirror'. This vet of Broadway, TV and film is currently teaching a musical comedy class at HB Studio in New York and in our chat offers some choice anecdotes from her career. She will appear in Original Cast 3, this year's S.T.A.G.E. (Southland Theatrical Artists Goodwill Event) benefit for APLA (Aids Project Los Angeles) Saturday April 28 at the Saban Theatre.

Gradually emerging as a work for the theater from casual beginnings in Houston in 1988, expanded for productions in Atlanta and Nashville (starring Mandy Barnett) in the mid-1990s, then to off-Broadway, to Chicago and beyond, "Always…Patsy Cline" was created to frame the immortal songs and voice of Patsy Cline in a theatrical context.

The potential prospect of the entertainment behemoth known as GLEE taking on perhaps the finest American musical ever written - WEST SIDE STORY - is enough to make any Broadway baby near-exultant, yet when the songs of the classic Bernstein/Sondheim score then are allowed to act as all-too-apt musical commentary on risque dramatic content in the highly controversial episode itself - all-too-appropriately named "The First Time" - a cataclysmic consequence can almost be counted on to inevitably arise. And, it did. Again. And again. And again - all night long. While it may have very well been Kurt, Rachel and Blaine's first roll in the hay, it would be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack to find much - if any - fault whatsoever with GLEE's button-pushing and excellently played tribute to Tony and Maria. Given what resulted from the doomed coupling of those Shakespeareans - Tony and Maria being more modern-day answers to Romeo and Juliet, of course - the ire of all the up-in-arms conservative helicopter parents in the country - and Capulets and Montagues, too, for that matter - could not even dare to try and contain the joy, excitement and sheer pleasure of what is undoubtedly one of GLEE's finest hours to date. There was a message or two to be learned, too. Yes, indeed, GLEE taking on WEST SIDE STORY went all the way - and then some. So, whether you are a Jet or Shark, you must be compelled to give it up for GLEE and its ode to WEST SIDE STORY.

When Jerry Herman was pegged by producer Gerard Oestreicher to write the score for a Broadway musical set in the fledgling State of Israel, he was a 28-year-old composer/lyricist mostly known for writing clever lyrics and snazzy tunes for Greenwich Village topical reviews like Nightcap and Parade.  But now, instead of writing for hip, downtown performers like Charles Nelson Reilly and Dody Goodman, he'd be penning a romantic score for opera stars Mimi Benzell and Robert Weede, with special comic relief material for Yiddish Theatre legend Molly Picon.

When we first meet Rita Lyons, she's sitting in a hospital room casually thumbing through a furniture catalogue, asking her husband, Ben, who lies in bed, dying of cancer, to help her come up with ideas for redecorating the living room after he's gone.

At age 79 the svelte Puerto Rican triple threat from Hollywood's bygone golden age continues to bring the house down. Currently starring in a new TV show (Happily Divorced) she is also simultaneously starring in her spectacular one-woman show Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup, which had its world premiere this week at the Berkeley Repertory Theater.

Signature Theatre Company (Founding Artistic Director James Houghton; Executive Director Erika Mallin), announced today seven productions for its inaugural 2012 season at Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street near 10th Avenue), the company's new Frank Gehry-designed permanent home opening in February 2012. Signature Center will allow the Company to expand its programming, introduce new initiatives, and build audiences. Featuring three intimate theatres, a studio theatre, rehearsal studio and a shared lobby with café and bookstore, Signature Center will be both a theatre community hub and a neighborhood destination.

At age 79 the svelte Puerto Rican triple threat from Hollywood's bygone golden age continues to bring the house down. Currently starring in a new TV show (Happily Divorced) she is also simultaneously starring in her spectacular one-woman show Rita Moreno: Life Without Makeup, which had its world premiere this week at the Berkeley Repertory Theater.

The development of Phil Spector's magnificent Wall Of Sound productions, 'Tomorrow's Sound Today,' is given its most expansive display ever on the new box set, Phil Spector Presents The Philles Album Collection.

The New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) has announced a full slate of musical productions, a developmental reading series and special events for their eighth annual festival. This year's Festival will begin September 26th and continue through October 16th.

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance today announced its full Harris Theater Presents 2011-2012 season, offering Chicago audiences a ground-breaking collection of innovative, culturally diverse programming by the world's finest musicians and dance companies, as well as Harris' signature collaborations with Chicago's leading dance and music institutions.