As classical acting training programs know, if you learn to speak the lines of Shakespeare, you can then perform the words of contemporary playwrights. Alas, it does not work in reverse, as Outré Theatre Company, a relatively new troupe that has had success with modern scripts and edgy musicals, learns with its clumsy attempt at mounting Will S.’s Much Ado About Nothing. For … [Read more...]
Inner child fills two exhibits at Boca Museum
Long yellow shoelaces make for a wonderful sun, there is a vice versa to shoes are made from animals and while I don’t know about the white elephant, the black bear in the room is not always ignored. I learned all of the above during a recent trip to the Boca Raton Museum of Art to check out two ongoing exhibits that are proving to be very popular. More than 90 highly … [Read more...]
A critic remembers the day the world changed
Fittingly, when the Saudi terrorists were flying planes into the World Trade Center 10 years ago, I was at the movies. Yes, even at 8:46 a.m., the time the North Tower was hit, I was sitting in a theater with a pad in my hand, for I was at the Toronto International Film Festival that fateful day. I was watching a press screening of Mira Nair’s festive Monsoon Wedding, which … [Read more...]
Eminent critic Farber lives again in new collection of film essays
For many, the biggest surprise from this year’s Oscar telecast was not Hugh Jackman’s better-than-average hosting job or the upset victory of Departures for Best Foreign Language Film. It was the inclusion of critic Manny Farber in the montage of recently deceased cinematic luminaries. For me, watching Farber’s outsider name fade in, and seconds later fade out, on the onstage … [Read more...]