A Season Of Scrooges Nationwide (And One SQuja’ in Cincinnati)

THE NEW YORK TIMES

USA---Like peppermint lattes and mall Santas, the arrival of Ebenezer Scrooge is a sure sign that Christmas is around the corner. For many theaters, mounting a version of “A Christmas Carol,” Charles Dickens’s Victorian morality tale, is more than just a holiday tradition. It can also be a box office gold mine that helps underwrite the rest of the season. Just how ubiquitous is “A Christmas Carol” and its variations? Here is a sampling of many — but by no means all — of this year’s Scrooges, from the comfortably traditional to the brazenly unorthodox. [link]

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A&O Meetup in Indianapolis: "Amahl", on Friday, Dec. 13, 2013

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Gregory Disney-Britton

INDIANA---Meetup with the Disney-Britton's at "Amahl and the Night Visitors," at the Indianapolis Opera this Friday, December 13. Back by popular demand! In this warm and compassionate story, Gian Carlo Menotti has captured the essential spirit of Christmas.

• Composer: Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007)
• Opera: "Amahl and the Night Visitors"
• Audience: An opera to recapture your childhood.
• Address: Basile Opera Center, 4011 N. Pennsylvania Street, Indianapolis (map)
• When: Friday, December 13, 2013, 8:00 p.m.
• Tickets: (800)745-3000 or http://www.indy
• Cost: $25-$50

The story tells of the night the Three Kings, following the star of Bethlehem, stop for shelter at the home of Amahl, a poor, crippled shepherd boy who lives with his widowed mother. Inspired by the Wise Men's tale of a kingdom "built on love alone," Amahl offers his own simple gift to the Christ Child. And then a miracle happens. . . .

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Giving Tuesday: Little Drummer Boy's Gift to a Baby (Music Video)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB



"I have no gift to bring" said the Little Drummer Boy, as shared by the a cappella group Pentatonix. Vocal sensations and winners of season 3 of NBC's The Sing-Off, Pentatonix are combining eclectic genres to take instrument-free music far beyond anyone's wildest expectations. The holidays and the giving season are here, so get ready for a musical gift that is sure to bring on the cheer and smiles.

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Inherit the Wind: The Ongoing Clash Between Art & Religion

LEFT LION
By Ashley Carter

Michigan production of Inherit the Wind in 2010. Courtesy Michigan Live

MINNESOTA---Inherit the Wind is adapted from the play of the same name. It portrays the events of the 1925 Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial in which a teacher stood trial for violating a state law with his introduction of Evolution to his class’s syllabus. Barely two months ago, in St. Paul, Minnesota, The New Ulm Actors Community Theatre cancelled their production of Inherit the Wind following strong lobbying from local evangelicals. Chief amongst this religious objection to the arts is the Catholic Church’s obsession with boycotting anything they find offensive, no matter how tedious the link is to their faith.  The Golden Compass, Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code and The Passion of the Christ have all fallen foul of their organised boycotts, with even Roger Ebert claiming that their efforts impacted box office results. What remains most discouraging, however, is the lack of vocal condemnation of these attacks. [link]

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Biblical Paraody Featuring "Adam & Steve" Turns Into Bible-Belt Land Mine

OKLAHOMA GAZETTE
By Mark Beutler

OKLAHOMA---What started out to be a small, largely unnoticed production by OKC Theater Company has turned into a First Amendment fight, as well as a battle against Oklahoma City’s gay and lesbian community, claim supporters of the production of The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told. Fans of the arts — and of the biblical parody — say a conservative Christian group is targeting the play and threatening to have the producers and actors arrested on opening night. Recently, a number of local pastors sent a letter to Governor Mary Fallin, Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, media outlets and members of the state legislature, demanding the play be shuttered. [links]

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Faith and art battle in ‘My Name Is Asher Lev’ in Coral Gables, FL

MIAMI HERALD
By Christian Dolen

Etai BenShlomo plays a young artist, Avi Hoffman his mentor and Laura Turnbull
an art dealer in Aaron Posner's 'My Name Is Asher Lev' at GableStage. George Schiavone

FLORIDA---The best playwrights -- Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, Tony Kushner and Nilo Cruz are just a few from a long list -- create richly specific worlds laced with more broadly resonant themes. One needn’t be of those worlds to be transported by their stories and connect deeply with the issues the playwrights are exploring. In adapting Chaim Potok’s 1972 novel My Name Is Asher Lev for the stage, Aaron Posner tries to conjure that magic mixture of specificity and universality. The play examines the lifelong emotional tug-of-war between Asher and his father, and between religious beliefs and artistic principles that run counter to those beliefs. [link]

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Mark Burnett, Roma Downey Take 'The Bible' Music on the Road

BREIBART TV
By Chris Talbott

TENNESSEE---Mark Burnett and Roma Downey's "The Bible" franchise continues to grow in unexpected ways. Up next? A 16-city music tour featuring some of today's most popular Christian acts. The tour begins next March following the nationwide theatrical release of "The Bible" companion film "Son of God," and will feature music inspired by and visual components from the movie and miniseries. "I think that music just has such a wonderful ability to connect and open your heart and the images from our film certainly are going to touch your heart," Downey said. "So I think it's just going to be a really beautiful, heartfelt experience all around for people to attend." Attend they will, if previous reaction to "The Bible" continues to hold true. [link]

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A Spiritual Journey on Broadway About Living Life in Full Bloom

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

NEW YORK---Spend an evening with 5-time Tony® winner Susan Stroman, Tony nominees Kate Baldwin and Bobby Steggert, book writer John August, Tony nominee Andrew Lippa and Academy Award®-winning producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen at the 92nd Street Y this Sunday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m. You'll be treated to an intimate performance by the cast and hear fascinating stories from the team in a conversation moderated by Tony winner Debra Monk. [Play]

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My Obsession With Religious Opera? Credit The New York Times

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

"The Indian Queen," at Teatro Real in Madrid, was also produced
by the National Opera in London and the Opera of Perm in Russia.

It was only a few years ago that I became interested in Opera, and the credit for that is the coverage in The New York Times. Case in point, the recent reviews by Raphael Minder and Anthony Tommasini on religious operas. Minder makes note of how the artistic director, Mr. Sellars chose Purcell’s religious music "to offset the fact that “the subject of Spain’s Conquista is usually treated only in a very materialistic way"; and when Tommasini describes the Noah's story of the Ark, he wrote: "When the storm turns terrifying, the orchestra bursts into gnashing chords, darting riffs and harmonic chaos. Then, calmly, the inhabitants of the ark start to sing the hymn “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” and I felt as if I were there. Thanks to The New York Times, I became a regular at the MET, where I now feel the wonder of Opera as the perfect blend of art, music, theatre, and religion.

Spain’s Conquest of America as Opera
By Raphael Minder, THE NEW YORK TIMES

MADRID — Peter Sellars, the American theater director who has regularly transported classical opera to the modern world, is used to ruffling feathers with his unorthodox stagings. The opening night here of his latest production of “The Indian Queen,” based on the unfinished opera by the English baroque composer Henry Purcell and first performed in 1695, was no exception. While the night ended with an ovation, some spectators booed at points and several left half-way. Mr. Sellars said that the subject matter of “The Indian Queen,” which is about Spain’s American conquest and handling of indigenous people, was always going to make it difficult to win over the more conservative members of Madrid’s opera audience. “Our job as artists is not to seek the easy way but to challenge society and open up some wounds, so that they can be cleaned rather than allow them to fester,” Mr. Sellars said in an interview the day after the production opened at the Teatro Real, Madrid’s opera house. [link]

On the Ark, Two by Two, Creatures (and Performers) Great and Small
By Anthony Tommasini, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Noye’s Fludde Samuel Wong, lower left, conducting a cast assembled by Lighthouse International and Park Avenue Christian Church, at Park Avenue United Methodist Church.

NEW YORK---Benjamin Britten loved composing pieces for children, not just for children to enjoy but also to perform. There is no better example that “Noye’s Fludde” (“Noah’s Flood”), a 60-minute opera based on a 15th-century mystery play, written for amateurs, especially children, with professionals mixed in. This telling of the biblical story was first performed in 1958 at Orford Church in Suffolk, England. It was presented as part of Britten’s Aldeburgh Festival with artists from the English Opera Group along with a large local cast, including a children’s choir. It was an inspired idea for Lighthouse International, an multifaceted organization serving people with vision loss, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School by joining with Arts at the Park, an affiliate of Park Avenue Christian Church, for an enchanting production of “Noye’s Fludde” on Friday night. [link]

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The Right Way to Say ‘Godot’ is Yiddish

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Dave Itzkoff

Patrick Stewart as Vladimir and Ian McKellen as Estragon
in “Waiting for Godot,” which opens on Nov. 24 at the Cort Theater.

NEW YORK---Maybe Godot never appears because everyone is mispronouncing his name. More than 60 years after the debut of “Waiting for Godot,” Beckett’s absurdist drama about two vagabonds anticipating a mysterious savior, there is much disagreement among directors, actors, critics and scholars on how the name of that elusive title figure should be spoken. “GOD-oh,” with the accent on the first syllable, is how “it should be pronounced,” said Sean Mathias, the British director of the latest a Broadway revival of “Waiting for Godot,” opening later this month at the Cort Theater. Shane Baker, who translated “Waiting for Godot” into Yiddish, said that actors in this version of the play said “god-OH” because “that’s how it’s known in America.” [link]

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Another Detroit Milestone: Symphony Balances Budget With Record $18.9M in Fundraising

DETROIT FREE PRESS
By Mark Stryker

PHILANTHROPY---A 43% jump in fund-raising at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led to a record $18.9 million in contributions to the annual fund in 2013, all but guaranteeing a balanced budget for the first time since 2007. The DSO will announce key fund-raising and ticket-sale metrics on Tuesday for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31. The results include $6.3 million in ticket sales — nearly $1 million more than in 2012. In addition, individual donors in 2013 topped 10,000 for the first time in a decade. The DSO had projected it would break even on a budget of $26.5 million for the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, and the results mark an important building block as the institution rebuilds after the six-month musicians strike in 2010-11. [link]

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Theatre Review: "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller in Indianapolis

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

INDIANA---Watching Indiana Theatre Company's production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, is to eavesdrop on a community infected with intense social paranoia. Miller's award-winning tragedy about the Puritan witch trials was a response to 1950s McCarthyism, but today it can just as easily be seen as a response to religious, corporate, and/or political extremism. While the actors, costumes, and direction effectively tell this tale, it is the lighting and scenic design that will keep audiences talking all season. The "plain style" barn-like set framed with eerily shifting shafts of light is the perfect house of terror. The production overall is a moving lesson about how far we will go not only to create terror, but to use it to firmly establish our own sense of order.

Indiana Repertory Theatre: "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller (Sept. 17-Oct. 13), Indiana Repertory Theatre Building, 140 W Washington Street; (317) 635-5252 or irtlive.com.

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$25,000 Arts Grant to Arts & Faith Organization in Saint Louis

SAINT LOUIS-TIMES DISPATCH
By Tim Townsend

MISSOURI---Sometimes crisis can birth noble efforts. And a new St. Louis arts organization is proof. Opera Theatre St. Louis’s “The Death of Klinghoffer,” about the murder in 1985 of a Jewish American tourist by members of the Palestine Liberation Front on a Mediterranean cruise ship, was a year away from production. Knowing the kind of ugly debates John Adams’s opera had provoked since it was first staged in 1991, Timothy O’Leary, general director of Opera Theatre, set up the lunch at Duff’s. Now, another product of that lunch conversation is taking shape in the form of Arts & Faith St. Louis. The organization will team up with regional arts institutions to present exhibits and performances on the convergence of faith and arts. The Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis has approved at the committee level a $25,000 grant for the new organization. [link]

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New York City Opera Must Raise $20 Million or Cancel its Season

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Michael Cooper

David Salsbery Fry as Moses in New York City Opera’s production of "Moses in Egypt," at City Center.

NEW YORK---New York City Opera, which was founded 70 years ago to bring opera to the masses, will be forced to cancel most of its current season and all of its next season if it fails to raise $20 million by year’s end, company officials say. “The company’s been living on the edge and hand-to-mouth for a number of years, and we’ve gotten through our own share of financial troubles,” George Steel, the company’s general manager and artistic director, said in a telephone interview last week. “We’ve had balanced budgets for the last two years and we’ve been doing, I think, incredible work onstage. But we can’t forge ahead without a significant infusion of capital.” The company’s $20 million fund-raising goal is nearly twice the $11.5 million it reported raising last year. [link]

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