Arts, Artists and Music -- Blooming in Bloomington

The Spring Bloom Arts Festival will be blooming in Bloomington this Saturday, when the McLean County Arts Center brings more than a hundred artists in the categories of jewelry, painting, ceramics, sculpture, glass and more to the Bloomington Sale Barn at 2027 S. Main Street. Organizers expect attendance in the neighborhood of 1600 people.

This is a juried show of fine art and fine craft, with exhibitors from across the nation. Last year's Best of Show winner was graphic artist Paul Dominguez from Watertown, Wisconsin, and he is back on the list of expected artists this year, too. Painter Tracey Frugoli and sculptor Sandy James, who took first place in the Fine Arts and Fine Crafts categories, will also be back. Gayla Betts, who makes and sells jewelry here in Normal, has also won a spot to show her work this year. Other local artists include Brock Eddleman, Thomas Elston, Ron Frazier, Amanda Pierce Gahramani, Philip and Glenda Gangler, Sandra Holt, Joe Landon, John Madison, Michael James McNeil, Marcia Nagy, Susan Palmer, Gina Perillo and Angela Pierce.

Admission is $5 for adults, and children 12 and under are free. Members of the McLean County Arts Center pay only $3. If a customer is not a member of the Arts Center, they can join and have free entrance to this event. Good deal!

In addition to artists and their works, there will be information booths staffed by representatives from local arts organizations. This is a handy way to find out more about the theater, dance, music, and art spaces around you here in Bloomington-Normal. And I will be sitting at the Heartland Theatre table from noon to two, so feel free to stop by and say hello.

For more information on this event, you can check out the Spring Bloom page here.

Winners Announced in Heartland’s "New Plays from the Heartland" Competition

Heartland Theatre Company Managing Artistic Director Mike Dobbins has announced the winners of the 2011 New Plays from the Heartland competition. This year’s theme was "I thought it would be simple" and all plays were to include that line as dialogue somewhere in the play.

Each year, the New Plays from the Heartland competition is open to playwrights from the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

These are this year's three winning plays:

BUCK NAKED by Gloria Bond Clunie, Evanston, IL
After 66 years of playing by the rules, Lily is yearning to break free. As in, scandalizing the neighbor by watering her garden in the buff. Selling the house. Moving to a clothing-optional retirement community. She’s definitely having fun, but her daughters are concerned. Can they bring her back to earth? Should they even try?

THE DOCK by Stephen Peirick, St. Louis, MO
Weddings are one of those markers in life, making people think about life, romance and what it means to grow up. For Marty, the best man, and April, a bridesmaid, an escape to the dock outside this wedding is a chance to reminisce about their shared past, about first kisses and bad relationships, about who’s who and what’s what.

KEEPING THE WORDS by Terri Ryburn, Normal, IL
To Joyce, the teetering towers of books in her home are proof that she is “Keeper of the Words,” a book-lover who takes pleasure in each and every volume. She sings to them, cuddles them, treasures them. But when a bibliophile becomes a bibliomaniac, when collecting is really hoarding, there may be no words that can make things right.

Mike Dobbins, who leads the project, will stage the plays using local actors and minimal design elements like costumes, props and lights. This New Play Project is part of Heartland’s mission to develop new work and to maximize interaction with writers, critics, theater artists and general audience.

Staged readings will take place Friday, May 13 and Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 7:30 pm. The winning playwrights and finalists are also invited to a workshop and discussion on playwriting with final judge and visiting playwright Ben Viccellio on Thursday, May 12.

This project is funded by Paul and Sandra Harmon and the NPH Sponsors Circle:
Jay and Sue Edmondson
Myra and George Gordon
John and Pat Groves
Marc and Darlene Miller
Jim and Pam Raymond
Robert and Marilyn Sutherland

ATCA New Play Finalists Announced

The American Theatre Critics Association, also known as the ATCA, has announced six finalists for the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award. This award recognizes the playwrights behind the best new plays premiering in professional productions outside New York City.

The ATCA started its New Play Award in 1977 as a way to honor new plays produced at regional theaters outside New York City, where most awards are centered. And that's why no play is eligible if it has gone on to a New York production within the award year. Since 2000, the award has been generously funded by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust.

The six finalists below were selected from 27 eligible scripts submitted by ATCA members. They were evaluated by a committee of 13 theater critics, led by chairman William F. Hirschman of the South Florida Theater Review. The committee includes members from Washington, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Jersey, Virginia, New York and DC.

"Despite vanishing government support and faltering donations, America’s regional theaters have persevered and prevailed as this country’s preeminent crucible for vibrant and important new works," said Hirschman. "The recommended plays encompass a dizzyingly wide range of styles and themes, produced by a cadre of experienced and novice playwrights who are inarguable proof that theater remains a vital and relevant art form in the 21st century."

The top award ($25,000) and two finalist citations ($7,500 each), plus commemorative plaques, are presented each year at Actors Theatre of Louisville during the Humana Festival of New American Plays. This year's ceremony is scheduled for April 2. The Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award's total of $40,000 in prizes makes it the largest national new play award of its kind.

So here are the lucky finalists, as described by the ATCA press materials:

COMPULSION by Rinne Groff, is a painfully close-up look at the destructive nature of obsession. Loosely based on the life of Meyer Levin, the fictional tale tracks an American writer’s all-consuming crusade to have The Diary of Anne Frank printed in the United States and then to have his own theatrical script produced, a script he believes is being rejected because it focuses on Frank’s religion. The co-production premiered on February 4, 2010 at Yale Repertory Theatre and then September 16 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

DETROIT by Lisa D’Amour, bowed September 9 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. It depicts a classic suburban family who welcome a quirky couple who have moved into the long-empty house next door. During a series of backyard barbecues, the couples learn each other’s secrets in a serio-comic exposure of middle-class life.

THE GOOD COUNSELOR by Kathryn Grant, questions the definition of a good mother. It centers on an African-American lawyer defending a young white racist charged with murdering her three-week old baby. His own investigation forces him to re-examine his own mother’s choice to favor his development and to abandon his younger brother. The work premiered July 15 at Premiere Stages, based at Kean University in Union, New Jersey.

THE HISTORY OF INVULNERABILITY by David Bar Katz, uses the life of Jerry Siegel, the co-creator of Superman, to explore the roots of art and how it relates to the real world. It contends that the nebbishy Siegel evolved Superman as a fantasy to counteract his guilt and impotence over the horror of the Holocaust half a world away. It premiered April 3 at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.

NINE CIRCLES by Bill Cain, follows the harrowing descent into a very recognizable hell by a young American soldier accused of an atrocity in Iraq. His journey through the bureaucratic and social maze mirrors Dante’s vision of an arduous odyssey to find redemptive self-knowledge. The play premiered October 14 at Marin Theatre Company.

SPLINTERS by Emily Schwend, was first produced June 29 as part of the Cultural Development Corporation’s Source Festival in Washington, D.C. The drama portrays a teenager and her parents struggling in disparate dysfunctional ways to cope with the disappearance of a young daughter.

Since the inception of ATCA's New Play Award, honorees have included Lanford Wilson, Marsha Norman, August Wilson, Arthur Miller, Mac Wellman, Adrienne Kennedy, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Moises Kaufman and Craig Lucas. Last year’s honoree was Bill Cain for EQUIVOCATION. For a full list of 34 years of winners and runners-up, go to www.americantheatrecritics.org and click on Steinberg-ATCA under Awards.

The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust was created in 1986 by Harold Steinberg on behalf of himself and his late wife. Pursuing its primary mission to support the American theater, it has provided grants totaling millions of dollars for new productions of American plays and educational programs for those who may not ordinarily experience live theater.

ATCA was founded in 1974 and works to raise critical standards and public awareness of critics’ functions and responsibilities. The only national association of professional theater critics, with several hundred members working for newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and websites, ATCA is part of the International Association of Theatre Critics, a UNESCO-affiliated organization that sponsors seminars and congresses worldwide.

ATCA also presents the M. Elizabeth Osborn Award, honoring emerging playwrights, and the Francesca Primus Prize, funded by the Francesca Ronnie Primus Foundation, honoring outstanding contributions to the American theater by female artists who have not yet achieved national prominence. Annually it makes a recommendation for the Regional Theater Tony Award presented by the American Theatre Wing/Broadway League and votes on inductions into the Theater Hall of Fame.

For more information on ATCA, visit www.americantheatrecritics.org.

Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Tragedy 100 Years Later

As the governor of Wisconsin tries to break the back of unions in his state, we are also witnessing the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, one of the events that spurred on the modern union movement.

On March 25, 1911, a fire began in a pile of scraps under a work table on the eighth floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. There have been different theories as to what caused the fire -- a dropped cigarette or match, possibly a spark from an overheated sewing machine -- but fires in clothing factories were nothing new.

The eighth floor of this factory, located near New York City's Washington Square, was crowded with workers, mostly female, mostly immigrants, some of them only 15 or 16 years old, toiling in what were pretty awful conditions under the best of circumstances. And these were not the best of circumstances. There was no fire alarms or sprinklers. Flames made one stairwell impassable, while the doors on the other side were locked, supposedly to keep the workers from stealing anything. And when the fire trucks did arrive, their ladders and hoses were much too short to reach the eighth floor.

Trapped inside, workers tried to jump out the windows, off the roof and into the elevator shaft to escape being burned alive. As word of the fire spread, people gathered outside, watching in horror as these young girls jumped to their death. In the end, 146 women and men perished in one of the worst industrial accidents in U.S. history. The owners of the factory were subsequently tried and acquitted, but the American public got a good, hard look at the results of runaway capitalism, at what exactly should be allowed when it comes to workplace safety and child labor, and just how we ought to be treating those tired, poor, huddled masses we invite to our shores. It's easy to pretend that the have-nots don't exist or don't affect you and yours, until they are literally dropping from the sky.

So, as the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire dawns, PBS and HBO are both offering documentaries. PBS's American Experience take on the tragedy offered the employees' own words, taken from court transcripts and interviews to newspapers in the wake of the tragedy, and also looked at the union movement and how that informed the fire. "Triangle Fire" was broadcast a week or so ago in most places, but they are also streaming the program on their website here and offering the DVD for sale here. The cover of the DVD is pictured above.

"Triangle: Remembering the Fire," HBO's documentary, has a different focus, using interviews with descendants of the people who were there. Futon Critic notes that Sheila Nevins, president of HBO Documentary Films and the film's executive producer, is the great-niece of Celia Gitlin, a 17-year-old Russian immigrant who perished in the fire. "Triangle: Remembering the Fire" starts March 21st on HBO.

Both the PBS and HBO websites linked above have lots of other useful information and links to set the scene and learn more about the Triangle Shirtwaist fire.

I love history, but this particular moment is a tough one to take in. The pictures are difficult to look at, the names and ages of the dead are horrifying to read, and the idea of young lives lost so needlessly is impossible to digest. But we need to remember. Because God forbid we should be doomed to repeat it.

Almost Time for the 35th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays

More new play festivals keep popping up, but the Humana Festival at Actors Theater of Louisville is the granddaddy of them all, created in 1976 by former Actors Theatre producing director Jon Jory. Jory himself is widely believed to be the playwright behind the "Jane Martin" pseudonym. "Jane Martin" is the author of "Keely and Du," a Pulitzer Prize nominee, as well as "Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage," "Anton in Show Business" and "Talking With..."

Three Humana plays have won Pulitzer prizes: D. L. Coburn's "The Gin Game," Beth Henley's "Crimes of the Heart," and most recently, Donald Margulies' "Dinner With Friends. "Omnium-Gatherum," by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros and Theresa Rebeck, and "Becky Shaw" by Gina Gionfriddo were finalists, along with "Kelly and Du."

Other plays of note, like John Pielmeier's "Agnes of God," William Mastrosimone's "Extremities," John Patrick Shanley's "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea" and Richard Kalinoski's "Beast on the Moon," first found their footing at the Humana Festival.

And the list of playwrights included over the years is like a Who's Who of American Theatre. There's Marsha Norman, Lanford Wilson, Shirley Lauro, Lee Blessing, Kevin Kling, Jeffrey Sweet, Horton Foote, Richard Dresser, Arthur Kopit, Steven Dietz, David Henry Hwang, Suzan-Lori Parks, José Rivera, Lynn Nottage, Regina Taylor, Tina Landau, Romulus Linney, Tony Kushner, Craig Lucas, Neena Beber, Jeffrey Hatcher, Naomi Iizuka, Tina Howe, Stephen Belber, Charles L. Mee, Naomi Wallace, Sarah Ruhl, Kia Corthron, Rinne Groff and Adam Bock.

So what's on the schedule for this year's Humana Festival?

A DEVIL AT NOON by Anne Washburn. "Chet writes science fiction. His book is going well but his life has jumped the outline in this engrossing exploration of the addiction, power and danger of dwelling in the imagination." See a sneak peek here and an interview with the playwright here.

ELEMENO PEA by Molly Smith Metzler. "Worlds collide and sisters square off in this keenly-observed comedy about ambition, regret, and the choices that shape who we become." Click here for brief remarks from playwright Molly Smith Metzler.

EDITH CAN SHOOT THINGS AND HIT THEM by A. Rey Pamatmat. "Three kids are all but abandoned on a remote farm in Middle America—until Edith shoots something she really shouldn’t shoot, and the outside world comes barging in."

THE EDGE OF OUR BODIES by Adam Rapp. "Intimate and searingly honest, this play captures a young woman at the threshold of vulnerability and experience, achingly articulate about all she can’t know or control."

BOB by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb. "This is a story. A story of a dream. A dream of greatness. The greatness of Bob."

MAPLE AND VINE by Jordan Harrison. "When Katha and Ryu join a community of 1950s reenactors, they are surprised by what their new neighbors — and they themselves — are willing to sacrifice for happiness." See an interview with the playwright here.

THE END by Dan Dietz, Jennifer Haley, Allison Moore, A. Rey Pamatmat and Marco Ramirez. "From forewarning to four horsemen, five wildly imaginative playwrights join forces with our twenty-two acting apprentices to explore the enduring promise of apocalypse — and what lies on the other side."

This year's ten-minute plays are "Chicago, Sudan," written and performed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, "Hygiene," by Gregory Hischak, and "Mr. Smitten," by Laura Eason.

There's no way of knowing which of these will capture the creative imaginations of producers or directors. But it's a pretty sure bet that something will.

If you'd like to trek down for a weekend in Louisville, you have several different options for tickets, including a New Play Getaway and two Industry Professional Weekends. For that information, click here. You can also browse around at the Actors Theatre website for more on the plays, the history of the Humana Festival, and check out their youtube channel for more interviews as Festival time nears. (Note: Registration for Industry Weekends packages has been extended to March 11.)

Where else will you see ten plays in three days, with the work of some of the best playwrights, directors, designers and actors working today? Nowhere, that's where!

Bits & Pieces

#1.
New Route Theatre has announced another show in its One Shot Deal Series. On March 9 at 7 pm at the Eaton Gallery, New Route will present "I Too Sing America: The Poets of the Harlem Renaissance," focusing on the poetry of Harlem Renaissance writers such as Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson. "I Too Sing America" is co-directed by Don Shandrow and Phil Shaw and features performers Jennifer Rusk and Gregory Hicks, with a gospel ensemble under the direction of Georgia Brook.

Doors will open at 6:30 pm and admission is whatever you choose to donate.

#2.
The McLean County Museum of History continues its Lunch and Learn program on March 10 with "A perspective on the life of Irish Immigrants in 19th century Bloomington," presented by April Schultz, PhD, Associate Professor of History and Director of Women's Studies at IWU.

As always, this Lunch and Learn event is free and open to the public in the Governor Fifer Courtroom at the McLean County Museum of History. According to the museum, you are invited to "Relax and learn as this unique new collaboration brings you more interesting topics of discussion each second Thursday of the month from 12:10 to 12:40 pm at the McLean County Museum of History."

Remember to pack a lunch!

#3.
Illinois Voices Theatre is extending auditions for "The Affray; Lincoln's Last Murder Case," a collaboration between Jared Brown, former chair of the Department of Theatre at Illinois Wesleyan, and Robert Bray, R. Forest Colwell Professor of American Literature at IWU who has written extensively on Lincoln. Judy Brown, Artistic Director and founder of Illinois Voices Theatre, announced that the production needs several 20 to 30-year-old men for this original play scheduled for production mid-July, with rehearsals to begin mid-June.

This audition session will be held Tuesday, March 8th, between 6:30 and 8:45 pm, in the McLean County Museum of History in their second floor courtroom. Judy notes that this IS a paying gig. Contact Judy Brown by email -- j.judybrown@frontier.com -- if you have questions or need more information.

#4.
New York's Roundabout Theatre Company has announced that its current Broadway production of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," starring Brian Bedford as Lady Bracknell, will be filmed live, in high definition, and then screened in June at movie theaters across the country.

No word yet on whether we will get this cool filmed version of the Broadway show here in Bloomington-Normal or anywhere near, but I have my fingers crossed. And while I'm talking about cinematic versions of live performances, I would like to exhort anybody reading this to bring Britain's "National Theatre Live" shows somewhere within 100 miles of me. "King Lear" with Derek Jacobi, "Frankenstein" with Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch switching roles between the monster and the scientist... This is amazingly good stuff, and we don't get it. So I'm begging here! Bring the National Theatre Live productions to Illinois!

Marchapalooza!

Although we're probably all happy to turn the corner on February and what has been a brutal winter in Illinois, it still seems strange it's already time to preview what's happening in March. Lions, lambs, shamrocks, basketball, Shakespeare... March always offers a lot to choose from, so I hope you have room for some theater, music or movies on your schedule, too.

Please note that I am putting handy links throughout under the titles of the shows if you need more information or are interested in buying tickets, or you may also visit the links under "Stages and Screens" at left for most of these events.

First up, we have two hold-overs from February, with David Auburn's PROOF continuing through March 6 at Heartland Theatre and THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC, by Howard Teichmann and George S. Kaufman playing through the 12th at Community Players.

The Parkland College production of the delightful fractured fairytale musical ONCE UPON A MATTRESS also continues through the 6th.

This Thursday, on the 3rd, Chicago playwright, actor and screenwriter David Barr III (shown at left) will be coming to Heartland Community College to discuss his life and work. This event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 2 pm in Community Commons Building 1407. Barr is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, which means you can read more about him at their site. And there's a lot to read! He truly is a man of many talents and I'm sure this meet-and-greet session will be fascinating.

The University of Illinois Department of Theatre opens their "Bacchanal" version of Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM on the 6th, with 7:30 pm performances Thursday through Saturday, and concluding with a 3 pm matinee performance on the 13th. Lisa Gaye Dixon directs this "riotous, drunken festivity," which sets Shakespeare's play in the Caribbean at Carnival time. The production promises "Soca music, sequins and sweat" as well as "strong adult content including full nudity." Definitely a different take on "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and definitely provocative.

Back in Normal, IWU continues its season with Ionesco's absurdist take on modern life called THE BALD SOPRANO in the E. Melba Kirkpatrick Laboratory Theatre. THE BALD SOPRANO is directed by Nancy Loitz and plays March 8-10 at 8 pm.

The Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts celebrates St. Patrick's Day a week early with a performance presented "club-style" in the BCPA ballroom by an Irish rock band called the YOUNG DUBLINERS on March 10 at 7:30 pm. The Young Dubliners have a "repertoire that spans freewheeling party raveups to traditional Irish pub tunes" and promise a lively show, complete with green beer.

For a completely different take on March, Urbana's Station Theater offers Harold Pinter's BETRAYAL, directed by Celebration Company Artistic Director Rick Orr, with performances from March 10 to 26. BETRAYAL is a backwards play, showing how infidelity and secrets break up a marriage and a friendship, from scenes well past the breakup all the way back to the first splinter of discord. Should be a good one.

I confess, I've never heard of a FUNNY RAISER, but the Challenger Learning Center at Heartland Community College is putting one on March 11t at 6 pm, just in case you'd like to find out how one raises the funny. It's a comedy fundraiser to benefit the Learning Center at Heartland Community College, with stand-up performances by amateur comedians and local celebs like Todd Wineburner, who'll try to earn your votes with their comedy stylings. Food, drink and silent auctions items will be available. Tickets are $40 and you can purchase them by visiting the link under the words FUNNY RAISER in the first line or calling 309-268-8158.

Back at the BCPA, "This American Life" host Ira Glass brings RADIO STORIES AND OTHER STORIES to Bloomington on March 12th at 7:30 pm. Glass will not only tell his "thought-provoking, heart-tugging and hilarious tales" to local audiences, but also host a special reception sponsored by WGLT and Specs Around Town that seems to feature an eyeglasses design competition. Or maybe art involving spectacles? For all the details on the contest and the reception, click here.

The Normal Theater screens some gems nearer the end of the month, with a mini-Hitchcock fest that suits my taste perfectly. First is STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, the 1951 suspense classic, with Farley Granger and Robert Walker as the men who meet by chance and decide to swap murders, playing March 24 and 25 at 7:30 pm, and then NORTH BY NORTHWEST on the 26th and 27th. NORTH BY NORTHWEST is the one where Cary Grant is mistaken for a spy and ends up hiding out in Abraham Lincoln's nostril on Mount Rushmore. It's also famous for the scene where Grant is dive-bombed by a crop dusting plane and one where he and Eva Marie Saint share a tiny train compartment as the train goes through a tunnel. I love this movie!

ISU doesn't start its March events till very late this month, with Shakespeare's sneaky cheaters comedy TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA in Westhoff Theatre March 30 through April 3 and Tom Stoppard's ROCK 'N' ROLL, about the transformative power of Western music in Czechoslovakia in the 60s, 70s and 80s, in the CPA from March 31 to April 9. For ticket information, click here or call 309-438-2535.

And at the very end of the month, the Normal Theater scores a major coup with THE KING'S SPEECH, the newly minted Oscar winner for Best Picture, Best Director (Tom Hooper) and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler). Colin Firth also took Oscar honors for his performance as Great Britain's King George VI, who overcame a speech impediment to be able to lead his people during World War II. Other nominations honored Helena Bonham Carter as his queen and Geoffrey Rush as the king's unconventional speech therapist, as well as the film's art direction, costume design, editing, sound, score and cinematography.