After another summer of superheroes, sequels and special effects, Hollywood got serious and released enough films of quality for adults to fill a 10-best list. You have to wonder how the industry can churn out so many exceptional movies in November and December, and so much junk in the first 10 months of the year. To land on the list, a film has to open in South Florida during … [Read more...]
Looking back: 2014’s best in theater
On balance, 2014 was not a bad year at the theater in South Florida, with a couple of blockbuster touring shows, two startling takes on classic musicals at the Maltz Jupiter and a few worthy productions from many of the area’s other resident companies. Here is my undeniably subjective list of the 10 shows I enjoyed the most during the year. Fiddler on the Roof (Maltz … [Read more...]
‘Back of the Throat’: Inside a post-Patriot Act nightmare, at Outré
As at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, the unanswerable question is: Does violent interrogation extract valuable information from terrorists or does it turn prisoners into terrorists? The issue is explored in Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat, the dramatic case of an Arab-American writer wannabe named Khaled, whose apartment is forceably entered by a pair of thugs who claim to … [Read more...]
Drew Tucker: Arts Garage’s master of music and education
Drew Tucker may wear more different hats than anyone else involved in the Palm Beach County arts scene. The Boynton Beach resident, who turns 33 on Aug. 21, is director of education and outreach for both his own Tucker Academy for the Arts and the Delray Beach-based Arts Garage. He's also a drummer and percussionist, on everything from mallet instruments like the vibraphone, … [Read more...]
Conrad Tao: Bringing back the composer-performer
It’s easy to forget, when talking to him about his String Quartet No. 2, his global career, the new-music festival he’s organizing this summer in Brooklyn or his incisive thoughts on contemporary concert culture, that Conrad Tao is only 18 years old. But then again, he’s been a musician for virtually all of his short life. He was just 18 months old when his parents discovered … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 19-21
Art: As the summer winds down (though not heat-wise) and students return to the classroom, the Norton Museum offers a little exhibit put together by its five summer interns. Drawing from the museum’s own collections, the interns – who include college and high schools students – chose 16 European prints from the 16th to the 19th centuries, including works by Mary Cassatt and … [Read more...]