By Dale King Students in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Florida Atlantic University have picked up where their predecessors left off nearly two seasons ago when a COVID pandemic forced FAU to curtail public performances and required young actors to hone their talents behind the scenes. Last weekend, a new troupe of budding thespians – 10 of them pursuing master’s … [Read more...]
To be Black, and a dancer: Two stories from the artistic front
Clarence Brooks still remembers the day that he first saw the posters that had a photo of him dancing. “Someone (or several people) … had plastered the N-word all over the posters,” he said. Brooks, who was only in his second year of studying dance, had felt so honored to have been selected to perform a solo at an important fundraiser to be held at the Civic Center in … [Read more...]
FAU teacher enjoys second career as country songbird
By Janis Fontaine Rhea Francani isn’t a tough-talking Texan or a boot-scooting Okie but she loves country music like one. Born in Buffalo, N.Y., the youngest of three sisters in a close-knit Italian family that put on “full-blown concerts” in the living room of their modest home, Francani, 28, now of Boca Raton, just released the first single from her soon-to-be released … [Read more...]
FAU cast dispatches ‘Urinetown’ smartly
By Dale King Student actors at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton have clearly taken the satirical comedy Urinetown to heart. Their performance is a laugh-laden riot. Coincidentally, the show doesn’t sink to the level of toilet humor – well, not often — as it could so easily do. Director Lee Soroko seems to gleefully turn ownership of the stage over to the young … [Read more...]
Season Preview 2019-20: O’Keeffe, Rembrandt shows highlights of PB County’s season
By Sandra Schulman Women in the arts is the season’s theme in Palm Beach County. The stylish life of Georgia O’Keeffe gets the museum treatment at the Norton, and women’s undergarments are the focus of the Flagler Museum’s new Season of Style exhibit. Meanwhile, tattoo art bares all in Tequesta and FAU shows off political embroidery. The Norton Museum of Art A … [Read more...]
Standout performances lift FAU’s ‘Next to Normal’
By Dale King Leave it to students in the master of fine arts program at Florida Atlantic University to wrap up their first season — one that featured some shockingly emotional, nerve-twisting, heart-wrenching productions — with a shockingly emotional, mentally twisted finale. The show, Next to Normal, is a frank portrayal of a family in psychological crisis. The tale of … [Read more...]
Student theater: Compelling ‘Mill Fire’ at FAU
By Dale King Mill Fire is a horrific, haunting and deeply emotional play, a story of Birmingham, Ala., a steel town on the skids circa 1977; a massive, deadly fire and explosion in an apparently malfunctioning steel mill furnace that kills five workers; and the chaos the disaster inflicts on a community whose populace is already at the edge of upheaval. The script, by … [Read more...]
At FAU, a ‘Frankenstein’ of the mind as well as body
By Dale King Student actors at Florida Atlantic University have brought the Frankenstein story to life in a frightening retelling of the novel written exactly 200 years ago by Mary Shelley, wife of English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and daughter of pioneering feminist thinker Mary Wollstonecraft. This show differs markedly from versions popularized since the … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: June 9-10
Film: I have rarely recommended a horror film, but Ari Aster’s directing debut, Hereditary, is so creepy good, with a stunning central performance by Toni Collette, that it exceeds the genre. She plays a woman disturbed by the recent death of her mother, whose genes have apparently infected the family and set in motion a series of tragedies. When her stoner son reluctantly … [Read more...]
#MeToo and the young actress: Three FAU thespians view the road ahead
By Janis Fontaine The #MeToo movement that exploded onto the cultural scene in 2017 with allegations of sexual misconduct against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein – who was indicted this week on rape charges in New York – has upended the careers of major figures in entertainment, media and government, among other professions. Palm Beach ArtsPaper sat down in April with … [Read more...]