Shelly Isaacs.(Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Jan EngorenShelly Isaacs is a veteran advertising man who wrote the first TV commercial for Duracell batteries in the 1970s. But he’s much better-known these days as one of South Florida’s most accessible experts on foreign-language film.The founder of Café Cinematheque International, Isaacs is a Bronx native who … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: William Kentridge, on looking, drawing and knowing
William Kentridge.(Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Amy Broderick“Every so often, a painter has to destroy painting,” Willem DeKooning said of his fellow abstract expressionist, Jackson Pollock. “He busted our idea of a picture all to hell. Then there could be new paintings again.” In the same way, William Kentridge has revolutionized the practice of … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: Norton’s new chief aims her museum for the top
Norton Museum director Hope Alswang.(Illustration by Pat Crowley) By Gretel SarmientoA couple of weeks separate the Norton Museum from its new chief: Hope Alswang, a New York City native with a first name that sounds like a promise. This is who the museum's board of trustees chose as director and chief executive officer after conducting a national search that begun soon after … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: Doris Kearns Goodwin, on Lincoln and LBJ
Doris Kearns Goodwin. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Chauncey MabeDoris Kearns Goodwin is a historian with a great sense of timing.Already a Pulitzer Prize winner for No Ordinary Time, her 1995 dual biography of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Goodwin was basking in the fading glow of her 2005 Abraham Lincoln book, Team of Rivals, when she received a call from an upstart … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: Marie Hale, still dancing and teaching
Marie Hale. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Sharon McDanielBallet Florida canceled the remainder of its season in March 2009. Wrecked by severe cash flow problems and long-term debt, the company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in July.Yet for 23 years, Ballet Florida was the resident contemporary and classical ballet company of West Palm Beach. Its fine balance of … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: Lou Tyrrell sees great new future for Florida Stage
Lou Tyrrell. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)On Nov. 30, Florida Stage and the Kravis Center announced a partnership agreement in which the Manalapan theater company that specializes in developing new plays would move its operation to the Rinker Playhouse, a flexible “black box” performance space within the West Palm Beach complex, beginning in July 2010.In mid-December, Palm … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: James Judd moves ahead, moves on
James Judd. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Greg StepanichWhen James Judd takes the stage during the first week of December to lead the Boca Raton Symphonia and the Master Chorale of South Florida in three performances of George Frideric Handel’s oratorio Messiah in Boca, Miami and Fort Lauderdale, it will mark his first appearances with local musicians since 2001.The former … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: Playwright Seth Rozin explores faith, humor
Seth Rozin. (Illustration by Pat Crowley)By Hap ErsteinPlaywright Seth Rozin is the founder and producing artistic director of Philadelphia’s InterAct Theatre Company. But when it came to premiering his latest script, Two Jews Walk Into a War . . ., he thought that Florida Stage was a better fit.So continuing in Manalapan through Nov. 29 is the seriocomic tale of a Middle … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: Jon Robertson making a difference at Lynn
Jon Robertson.(Illustration by Pat Crowley) By Greg StepanichIt is perhaps not generally realized in the wider world of area classical music that Palm Beach County has a thriving music conservatory, that it is in the middle of building a $15 million concert hall that will be a major addition to the area’s art scene, and that its dean, Jon Robertson, used to run the school of … [Read more...]
ArtsPaper Interview: Maude Maggart, chanteuse
Maude Maggart.(Photo by Monique Carboni)Vocalist Maude Maggart may not be quite as well-known as her younger sister, pop singer/songwriter Fiona Apple, but that's because the two have always pursued music from different perspectives.They were born two years apart in New York City in the mid-1970s to Broadway performers Brandon Maggart and Dian McAfee, who'd met while in in the … [Read more...]