Rendering №4 (Theater)



The article published on the website of the newspaper The Guardian on Wednesday 27 March 2013 is headlined Belarus Free Theatre to bring battle against death penalty to UK by Matt Trueman. It reports about a new play, which showed Belarus Free Theatre. It was their first performance in English – that challenges the use of capital punishment around the world at the Young Vic this summer.
Speaking on the situation, it’s interesting to note that Trash Cuisine, which will follow its London dates with a week-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe, will argue that state-sanctioned capital punishment breeds a wider culture of violence. It will blend verbatim testimony with music, dance and sections from Shakespeare's tragedies.
Reading this article it's necessary to emphasize that Belarus is the last European country to employ the death penalty, and was urged last year to abandon the policy by the EU and Human Rights Watch in the wake of two high-profile executions.
It is necessary to note that Trash Cuisine will also feature testimonials drawn from some of the other 94 countries worldwide where the death penalty remains in use, including Thailand and Malaysia.
It’s an open secret that Belarus Free Theatre is banned from performing in its home country and, in the past three months, its underground performances in Minsk have been subject to five police raids.
The author draws a conclusion that this performance will run in the Young Vic's Maria Studio between 30 May and 17 June, before opening in Edinburgh on 19 August.
As for me, it’s very interesting and unusual performance, and I respect such people, which don’t afraid express their disagreement
09:57 | Category: | 1 коммент.

Individual reading The Moon and Sixpence(6)

Summary

Chapter 53-58

Mrs. Johnson suggested that the narrator went to see Captain Brunot, an old Frenchman who used to play chess with Strickland. He recalled going to see Strickland at his secluded hut Strickland lived like a native in an area. Brunot asked Strickland about his life. He answered that Ata left him alone so he can paint, and that he will never leave Tahiti. Brunot was the first to see Strickland's works, which he painted in Tahiti and liked them enough to buy several. The men introduced him to Dr. Cutro who saw Strickland at the last moment of his life. He told Strickland of his terrible disease. He was not shocked at all. The doctor suggested that his wife  left him, and Strickland also want that his wife do this, but she did not want to leave him. After a while the doctor came back to him and saw that he almost did not see anything, and that one of his children was dead. Two years before he heard that Strickland died. He visited his home and saw the beautiful painted walls. However Ata then burned the house at the request of Strickland.  The author left Tahiti and then visiting Mrs. Strickland. He saw that the children have already grown up, and in her house there were the paintings of her husband.
 



09:40 | Category: | 1 коммент.

Rendering №3 ( Theater)

The article published on the website of the newspaper The Guardian on Sunday 24 March 2013 is headlined Choreographer Gillian Lynne says 'Reality TV is harming the theatre' by
Vanessa Thorpe . The article reports about the Gillian Lynne’s attitude to the TV and the reasons for this behavior.
Speaking on the situation, it’s interesting to note that Gillian Lynne, the doyenne of live dance as choreographer of Cats, The Phantom of The Opera and Aspects of Love, who is to receive an Olivier award for lifetime achievement next month. She told that she senses a growing threat to musical theatre from television.
Reading this article it's necessary to emphasize that Lynne is the most successful choreographer of several generations, despite the fact that she is 87 years old. The Olivier award will celebrate her contribution to theatre and a career she believes has been built ona commitment to her art and a dislike of shortcuts. In spite of a close working relationship with Lord Lloyd-Webber, who uses TV contests to pick out his new stage stars, Lynne fears the reliance on celebrities has undermined her craft.
It is necessary to say that Lynne danced the Black Queen in Checkmate, among other leading roles, at the Royal Opera House, where Dame Ninette de Valois picked her out as a rebel
The author draws a conclusion that unfortunately in recent years, Gillian Lynne has complained that the Royal Ballet has let its dancers forget the sensuality of dance, but in the West End, where she appeared on stage on the revue show The Roar of the Greasepaint Lynne blossomed.

As for me, I understand to some degree her unrest. In fact, now TV has become much more popular than the theater and other cultural programs. So I think that her thoughts is not taken from scratch. But there will always be people for whom the theater, ballet and so on, will be much more attractive than TV.

19:30 | Category: | 1 коммент.

Individual reading The Moon and Sixpence(5)


Summary

Chapter 45-52

Captain Nichols described to narrator how he met Strickland. He first saw Strickland at a homeless shelter. Later, captain took him to a soup kitchen for breakfast. The two tramps got odd jobs when they can, often went hungry, but all the same spent together. Some time later they started staying at the home of Tough Bill, where an old sailor booked sailors jobs on ships coming through. Bill gave Strickland traveling papers so he could leave the country. Captain described the South Sea islands to Strickland, who decided that this was the route to the painting paradise he had been seeking. However, the next few voyages to come through were bound in the opposite direction, but one day fortune smiled on him and he left the Captain Nikolas. Then the narrator said that the facts of life beyond Strickland had only with the words of other people. One of them, a French Jew named Cohen, who happened to be a picture Strickland. He said that Strickland was working for a plantation overseer, which allowed him to draw in his spare time.

The storyteller met with Mrs. Johnson. She also knew Strickland. The women told the narrator that she invited Strickland to marry native woman named Ata. At first he refused, saying that he had a wife in England, but then agreed. They lived together near Papete and only occasionally frequented there for groceries. Here Strickland continued his work.


00:32 | Category: | 1 коммент.

Individual reading The Moon and Sixpence(4)



Summary

Chapter  33-45



One day Dirk came to the narrator and told that Blanche wanted to suicide. She tried to poison herself. They went to the hospital together.  But she didn’t want to see her husband or the storyteller. For the next two days, Dirk visited the hospital multiple times per day, but Blanche will never see him. He learned that she was going to die very soon. Blanche quietly died, leaving Dirk crushed. The narrator went with him to her funeral, and then Dirk wanted to go by his apartment. Later, he came to see his friend and told him that he found a picture in the apartment that Strickland left behind. It was a nude portrait of Blanche, and when Dirk first saw it, he destroyed it.  Few time later the narrator learned that Dirk wanted to go to the Holland and asked Strickland join to him. The storyteller was shocked, because he didn’t understand this action. Dirk went to Amsterdam alone. Then the narrator met Strickland and knew about Blanche’s past and how she lived with the painter. Strickland didn’t love her. He was ready to show his pictures to the man. Strickland told him where to stand and then set painting after painting on the easel.
The narrator was disappointed, because he had been expecting something really special. Instead, he finds Strickland's style clumsy and awkward, and he didn't like the paintings.  He did not even once consider buying one of the paintings. Then the storyteller thought about how he wrote a story about Strickland, that he can not fully display all aspects of his life and had only modest facts. There were many reflections on Strickland’s life. Many times later the narrator went to Tahiti, where Strickland spent his last years and where he wrote his most popular pictures.
10:00 | Category: | 1 коммент.

Rendering №2 ( Theater)


The article published on the website of the newspaper The Stranger on March 6, 2013 is headlined Paradise Costs by Brendan Kiley. The article carries some information about reWilding, which is a collection of dramatic fragments that was shown into a forest glen

Speaking of this performance, it is necessary to note that actors have interesting method to invite audience. Besides, speaking about plot this event, it is interesting to note that action take place in a remote woodland community somewhere in contemporary America. Its residents are people who have decided they want to ditch their jobs and their lives to forage their own food, sew their own clothes, and reinvent the conditions of their lives. It was also revealed that the world these characters have created for themselves, and the play traces the contours of its benefits and drawbacks. On the upside, people share and are left alone to live as they see fit. On the downside, a bearded, eccentric immigrant called Chicken Man might shoot out your car tires and etc. The price of freedom is unpredictability.

It is necessary to say that this action was directed by Caitlin Sullivan.  Besides, some scenes are like shards thrown on the ground, creating more of a mood than a story. The strategy is entirely effective, and more satisfying than many traditional plays. But some characters change.

In resolute terms the author of the article expresses that the performance with 14 performers, an indoor set, and lots of dim, nighttime scenes has created a creepy, immersive experience, the show isn't perfect. However, it's a successful experiment.

As for me, I think that it’s interesting method to show some play. I believe it’s unique in some kind and I would like to see this performance. But I don’t think that it would have a success in our country.

08:28 | Category: | 1 коммент.

Individual reading The Moon and Sixpence(3)

Summary

Chapter  23-32



The narrator often met Stricklend at the cafe and played with him. He didn't understand why the artist why he does not like Dirk. Then Christmas arrived, and Dirk decided that he wanted to invite all his friends over to celebrate. He had not seen Strickland in several weeks, after a quarrel, and he asked the storyteller to go with him to invite Strickland. They did not find him in any of the usual places, but they heared that he was very sick. Unfortunately, no one knows where Strickland lived. They finally found him in a filthy little attic room. Strickland was  seriously ill, and they worried that he will die. After giving Strickland some food and medicine, the man and Dirk went back to Dirk's apartment. Dirk wanted to carry his friend to his home, but Blanche was against. However, after persuasion, she still agreed. The man began to take care of Strickland, leaving his job. This was very annoying his wife, as the artist was ungrateful for it. Dirk once came to the storyteller and said that his wife left him. He was very shocked. As soon as Strickland was better, he would leave his house, but Blanche told her husband that she would go with him. Dirk loved his wife so much that he offered her and Strickland remain in their home, while he would have gone. The narrator imagined that Blanche feeled both attracted and repelled by Strickland's sensuous, animal nature. The storyteller was certain that Strickland did not in love with Blanche, because he did not seem capable of love. Dirk was in such despair that he walked down the street, trying to waylay his wife. For a long time, the narrator did not see Strickland, and he was disgusted with him. Later he met him again, and the artist, as if nothing had happened called him to play chess.  The storyteller didn't understand such behaviour.

 

19:30 | Category: | 2 коммент.

Rendering №1 ( Theater)
The article Rehearsals for the Revolution was published by LARRY ROHTER in the New York Times on March 6, 2013. It reports about play “Neva” by he Chilean playwright Guillermo Calderón which may be set in Russia.
Speaking on the situation, it’s interesting to note that the idea of this play he found when he was a graduate student in film at the City University of New York. He found Janet Malcolm’s “Reading Chekhov,” which stimulated an interest in Russian culture and politics that led him to “A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution. This play opened Monday at the Public Theater in its English-language debut.
Reading this article it's necessary to emphasize that issues in the paly also derive from Mr. Calderón’s personal experience. He was born in the Chilean capital, Santiago, in 1971, at the height of Salvador Allende’s left-wing Popular Unity government, and came of age under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Mr. Calderón did not set out to be either a playwright or a director. He was initially an actor in television and theater and he still teaches the craft to university students in Santiago. But he decided that he “wanted something different” and wrote “Neva"
Giving appraisal of the play, it’s necessary to point out that after winning prizes in Chile in 2007 the original Spanish-language version of “Neva” has been staged in places like Colombia, France, Los Angeles and even the Chekhov Festival in Moscow, winning enthusiastic reviews and earning Mr. Calderón commissions and residencies to work on other plays.
It’s an open secret that since “Neva” he has had five more plays staged, among them “Diciembre,” a meditation on war set in the Andes in the near future, that was part of the Public’s Under the Radar Festival in 2011. There’s a comment from Mark Russell,artistic director and producer of Under the Radar, that Guillermo’s play has a very particular and special voice, and he has upped the ante quite a bit in the plays that follow.
The author draws a conclusion that Mr. Calderón has had mixed feelings about the global success of “Neva,” and worry about its future.
So to my mind this play is very interesting and if I would have a chance I will go to see it.
10:00 | Category: | 1 коммент.

Film Review №2

Finding Neverland



Director:  Marc Forster
Genres: Biography | Drama | Family 
Lead actors:   Johnny Depp
Kate Winslet
Radha Mitchell
Julie Christie
Dustin Hoffman
Release Year: September 4, 2004 (VFF)
October 29, 2004
Country: United States
Run Time: 106 minutes
 
Plot:
The story focuses on Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, his platonic relationship with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, and his close friendship with her sons, who inspire the classic play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Never Grew Up.
Following the dismal reception of his latest play, Little Mary, Barrie meets the widowed Sylvia and her four young sons in Kensington Gardens, and a strong friendship develops between them. He proves to be a great playmate and surrogate father figure for the boys, and their imaginative antics give him ideas which he incorporates into a play about boys who do not want to grow up, especially one named after troubled young Peter Llewelyn Davies. His wife Mary, who eventually divorces him, and Sylvia's mother Emma du Maurier, object to the amount of time Barrie spends with the Llewelyn Davies family. Emma also seeks to control her daughter and grandsons, especially as Sylvia becomes increasingly weak from an unidentified illness.
Producer Charles Frohman skeptically agrees to mount Peter Pan despite his belief it holds no appeal for upper-class theatergoers. Barrie peppers the opening night audience with children from a nearby orphanage, and the adults present react to their infectious delight with an appreciation of their own. The play proves to be a huge success.
Because Sylvia is too ill to attend the production, Barrie arranges to have an abridged production of it performed in her home. She dies shortly afterward, and Barrie finds that her will is to have him and her mother to look after the boys; an arrangement agreeable to both.
 
Main characters:
Johnny Depp as J. M. Barrie
    Kate Winslet as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies
    Dustin Hoffman as Charles Frohman
    Julie Christie as Mrs. Emma du Maurier
    Radha Mitchell as Mary Ansell Barrie
    Freddie Highmore as Peter Llewelyn Davies
    Nick Roud as George Llewelyn Davies
    Joe Prospero as Jack Llewelyn Davies
    Luke Spill as Michael Llewelyn Davies
    Ian Hart as Arthur Conan Doyle
    Oliver Fox as Gilbert Cannan
    Mackenzie Crook as Mr. Jaspers
 
Direction:
Director Marc Forster, best known for directing Halle Berry in her Oscar winning role in Monster’s Ball, comes alive in this flick. His enchanting way of putting this film together even had me, thinking happy happy thoughts. I think that his view of this story was very plesant. I like it!
 
Writing:
Screenwriter David Magee spins the web of this tale so fluidly that you’ll think he has been writing scripts for years. You’d be wrong, this is his first. I like such story as Peter Pen that's why it was very interesting for me to know how this book was written.
 
Costume design: So I believe that the costume design was great. I was involved in this era largely due well-chosen costume
 
Background music: Music did not seem to me a particularly impressive. Maybe it was because it is so blended and approach to the atmosphere, which I had not noticed it.  I do not know good or bad for this film.
 
I will not deny that like playing of Johnny Depp and this was one of the main reasons why I chose this film. and I was not mistaken. maybe I'm too biased, but I think that he played in the film brilliantly. The rest of the cast does very good jobs as well. Hoffman does well in his supporting role, but not as good as Winslet. Kate Winslet’s best work this year may have been in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but her portrayal of “Sylvia”, the penniless widowed mother of four boys, is something worth noting. All the boys do fine jobs, but of course Freddie Highmore stands out. Apparently Depp too saw something in Highmore. So much so that he convinced Tim Burton to hire him for the title role in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
 
To my mind this film is Oscar bait in every sense of the term, only not in a bad way. All the awards junk aside, Finding Neverland is a really good movie. It is heart warming, easy to get lost within it, and without a doubt will make you make you regret “growing up”. If you don’t leave the theatre with some kind of smile on your face, then seek help.

21:30 | Category: | 1 коммент.

Film review №1

Vincent & Theo(1990)
 


 Director:  Robert Altman
Genres: Biography, Drama
Movie Type: biographical drama
Themes: relationship between people, Life in the Arts
Lead actors:  Tim Roth, Paul Rhys, Adrian Brine
Release Year: 27 April 1990
Country: Netherlands, Britain
Run Time: 138 minutes
Rated: PG-13
 
Plot:
The relationship between the obsessive, brilliant painter Vincent Van Gogh and his more practical brother Theo is at the center of this story. Now universally acknowledged as masterpieces, Vincent Van Gogh's works were ignored in his lifetime, despite his brother Theo, a struggling gallery owner. When he fails to make a profit from his brother's work, Theo finds himself torn between art and commerce, a conflict deepened by Vincent's increasing emotional neediness. Soon, the situation worsens, and both brothers are forced to struggle with depression and madness.
 
Main characters:
Tim Roth- Vincent Van Gogh
Paul Rhys- Theodore 'Theo' Van Gogh
Adrian - Uncle Cent
Jean-François Perrier- Léon Boussod
Yves Dangerfield- René Valadon (as Vincent Vallier)
Hans Kesting-Andries Bonger
Peter Tuinman    -Anton Mauve
Marie Louise Stheins- Jet Mauve
Oda Spelbos- Ida
Jip Wijngaarden- Sien Hoornik
Anne Canovas- Marie
Sarah Bentham    - Marie Hoornik
Jean-Denis Monory- Emile Bernard
 
Direction:
Unfortunately I rarely interested in those who are the director of different movies. That's why I first hear the name of the Robert Altman, who is the director of this film. But I believe that he has directed Vincent and Theo with just the right mix of drama, visual richness, and psychological nuance. Anyone who cares about the myth of tortured genius, the bond between brothers, or the uneasy relationship between art and commerce will find this film filled with manifold insights and delights. Actually I’ve never seen other movies, directed by the same person, that’s why I can’t compare them.
 
Writing:
It is difficult for me to say something about Julian Mitchell's screenplay, because I didn't know about relationship between Van Gogh and his brother in a real life. However, to my mind Julian Mitchell brilliantly orchestrates crucial developments in the brothers' lives in tandem. for example in such moments when we saw Vincent's difficulties with Paul Gauguin mirror Theo's lengthy courtship and marital problems with Jo Bonger. The brothers are so dependent on each other and so obsessed with investing all their energies in art that little else matters.
Editing: The film was editing by Françoise Coispeau and Geraldine Peroni.
Speaking about it I would like to say that the movie have interesting way of editing. As it was  1990 year, the cinematography didn't have any computer effects or special effects. I think that in some moments it gives us more reality. However, I like the film editing and didn't sure that some changes can make it better.
 
Costume design: From my point of view the clothing choices fit the style of the movie. Actually for me acting is affected more than the costumes themselves. However, their choice makes us dive into the life of the artist, to understand more about his relationship with society.
Set design: The setting of the film influences me. The atmosphere in the film is excellent, perfectly recreates the spirit of impressionist Paris and Montmartre in particular, fiery and hot South of France, with its searing and maddening Mistral. And of course the nature-these wheat fields and sunflowers in the sun!
 
Background music: I believe that the Gabriel Yared's soundracks is excellent and very suitable to the movie. It's very nice and romantic, dramatic in some places, to help us set up in the desired fashion. I liked it.

As for me, I like this movie. It is a lovely atmospheric film, significantly supplementing my understanding of the biography of Vincent Van Gogh, the environment in which it was formed as a great artist, the character of the people around them and their role in his life.
I personally think that this film, in contrast to the movies on this genre, do not insult the memory of the person considered dirty boots clumsy interpretation, on the contrary. I believe that it is wonderful, vivid, tragic, but this solar film - rusty as hair and Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

At the end the movie is great. I recommend it to  lovers leisurely movie leaves room for imagination and reflection, researchers psychology of genius, and of course, fans of Post-Impressionism, and in particular, Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.
12:00 | Category: | 2 коммент.

Rendering 4 ( Arts)
The article, published on the website of the newspaper The New York Times on  February 28, 2013 is  headlined A Ghanaian Artist Goes Big ‘Gravity and Grace,’ by El Anatsui, at Brooklyn Museum, by By KAREN ROSENBERG
The article reports that now at the Brooklyn Museum we can see the work of famous El Anatsui. Speaking of this situation it is necessary to note that his works are high-profile like his mural at the High Line and of the wall-spanning. These are formidable works, but with the artist’s signature material such as a porous, reflective, quicksilver cloth. So, it is necessary to point out that this event was organized by Ellen Rudolph for the Akron Art Museum and installed in Brooklyn by Kevin Dumouchelle. Analyzing this situation it is necessary to emphasize,  that these ecxibition have different works such as floor sculptures which made from the lids of tins of evaporated milk, wired together into a glittery fabric.
Giving appraisal of the situation it’s necessary to point out that Mr. Anatsui’s installation process is even more flexible, which is crucial to his art’s unassuming grandeur. Also curators may ruffle the surfaces of the wall hangings as they please, smoothing old wrinkles or developing new ones.
The author draws a conclusion that Mr. Anatsui keeps working large, though, because he is not your typical trophy maker
As for me, I don't know this person and didn't see his works earlier. that' s why I don't evaluate his work with the correct point of view, because I believe that the work is really like when you see it in reality.
19:30 | Category: | 1 коммент.

Individual reading The Moon and Sixpence(2)

Summary

Chapter 12-22


The narrator wanted to know the reason why Stricklend left his wife. He learned that he feels no guilty for his actions, he did not feel pity to wife or children. He left the family to become an artist. The narrator was in shock. Then the storyteller and Strickland went to a restaurant for dinner, and the author awkwardly tried to think what to say next. He did not know how to deal with Strickland's indifference.  He asked Strickland what his fellow art students and art teachers thought of his painting. Strickland wryly admited that others make fun of him, and did not think he had any talent. Strickland also did not seem to care about any of the glamor of Paris, nor the beautiful women there. A young whore tried to take him home with her from the restaurant, saying that she will not even charge him. Strickland told the girl to get lost. When the narrator returned to London, he went to a Stricklend's wife. He said that her husband didn't return, because he wanted to be an artist. The women and her brother thought that he was crazy. And Mrs Stricklend didn't forgive him for this and decided to divorce with him. MacAndrew assumed the care of the children, so that Mrs. Strickland had only contain himself. She moved out of her apartment and sold furniture. Based in Westminster Mrs. Strickland began life anew. It was so hard, that could be no doubt about the success of its business. Five years later the storyteller wanted to visit Paris again. He learn that Mrs Strickland has succeeded in his endeavor and now held office in the Chancery Lane. Having just moved to Paris, the narrator payed a visit to thestudio of Dirk Stroeve. Dirk is delighted to see his old friend, and happily introduced his wife, Blanche. It was obvious that Dirk was head over heels in love with his wife.  Dirk showed the author his recent work, and the man saw that Dirk was still painting the same sentimental Italian scenes as always.The storyteller asked Dirk if he knows Charles Strickland. Dirk was surprised to hear that he knew the man, and said that Strickland was certainly an artistic genius. The next day they went to the cafe and met Strickland.  The author recognized that he did not advance in the art and and lived doing odd jobs. Naturally, he was always hungry,  but he always found money for brushes and easels . Then they separated.  The narrator liked to visit Dirk, but the man liked to talk about  Strickland very often, what did not like his wife. Because the artist forever humiliated Dirk and his work, that his wife seemed very improper.
20:52 | Category: | 1 коммент.