Julian Zugazagoitia
New Director of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art announced today that Julián Zugazagoitia has been named the new Director/CEO of the Nelson-Atkins, the fifth director in the Museum’s 75-year history. Zugazagoitia, 46, an international scholar, museum director and consultant who has served for the past seven years as the Director/CEO of El Museo del Barrio in New York, was the unanimous choice of search committee members and will begin his position September 1, 2010.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Preview: Green Whales, Interview: Playwright Lia Romeo
Unicorn Theatre, March 5-28, 2010
A video preview of Unicorn Theatre's world premiere Green Whales by Lia Romeo. This twisted romantic comedy follows a woman with Turner's Syndrome in her unconventional search for love. Also, Unicorn Theatre's Producing Artistic Director talks with Playwright Lia Romeo about the developement that went into her play Green Whales making its world premiere March 5-28, 2010.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Film Review: Alice in Wonderland
Screenplay impacts director Tim Burton's version
Sure, Tim Burton directed this new loose adaptation of the Lewis Carroll novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, but you know exactly what to expect with him: Gothic art direction and loony characters.
What makes a Tim Burton movie something more than just a visual delight is its screenplay.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Dance Review: KC Ballet Winter Performance
Ballet Provides Bright Punctuation to Long Winter
The Winter Performance of The Kansas City Ballet opened with "Lowell Liebermann’s Piano Concerto #2." The piece, originally commissioned by the Steinway Foundation to commemorate the completion of the 500,000th Steinway piano, was all over the board – the keyboard. Running a gamut of temperament and theme, the piece flows seamlessly despite abrupt changes in tempo and mood. The unpredictability and complexity of the composition is precisely what attracted choreographer Robert Hill to the music.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Brightness, Warmth Enveloping
A review of Holly Swangstu's Springtime in Winter
By opening evening, the weather in the Kansas City area had been hovering between zero and freezing for days, but inside the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, Holly Swangstu’s Springtime in Winter glowed warmly. Three walls of the Esson Gallery there are covered with her vast composite canvases (the material stretched over wood frames is actually flannel colored with dye). Each 11-foot by 20-foot wall is fashioned from eight “quilt squares” of nine or so smaller stretchers fixed together. Four color zones represent earth and sky (narrow bands at top and bottom) and green land and blue sea (that move in from left and right, merging in the middle).
Swangstu will be giving a gallery talk on Sunday, February 28, 2010, 3 PM at the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art.
Originally published by Review, February 14, 2010.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
What We Do Is Secret
Studio of artist Jose Faus.
Maria Vasquez Boyd will be presenting a monthly series called What We Do Is Secret that explores artists in situ. This month, she captures artist Jose Faus, a painter/muralist, writer, and educator in Kansas City.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Film Review: The Crazies
Zombie Flick Redux
I’m sure you get as tired of hearing it as I get of writing it: Here is yet another horror remake.
At least this new version of The Crazies has one thing that the 1973 George Romero original was lacking—a real sense of community among the soon-to-be-afflicted. It may be achieved through mere glimpses and character stereotypes, but director Breck Eisner gives the inhabitants of small town Ogden Marsh, Iowa enough of a pulse to make their transformation into mindless, zombie-like killers just a little more tragic.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Film Review: Cop Out
Bruce Willis-Tracy Morgan Buddy Flick Falters
It makes sense that the man who directed such iconic films as Clerks and Dogma—which constantly reference movies from the 1980s—would be behind the lens on Cop Out, a throwback tribute to the buddy cop movies of the same era.
What doesn’t make sense is that Cop Out is completely devoid of the inspired and singularly personal vision that gave those films their charm in the first place.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Presenting: Mona Störling-Enna, Störling Dance Theater
Underground
Following Störling Dance Theater’s recent production of Underground at the Music Hall, Artistic Director Mona Störling-Enna sat down with PresentMagazine.com to discuss reactions to the show from critics and the public, as well as future plans for Underground.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Störling Dance Theater Reaches New Heights with Underground
Dance Review
To some, the reality of America’s past sin of slavery might seem too heavy a subject to convey through theatrical dance.
For the third year in a row, however, Störling Dance Theater has successfully covered the topic by focusing on the other side of this dark chapter in our nation’s history: the ability of a people to overcome such a reality and those who helped them along the way.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Widow, A Fashion Magazine by Peregrine Honig
Magazine explores connections between fashion and art
Peregrine Honig wears black slacks and a long-sleeved black top with a detailed print of silver stars. Her attire evokes the look of a recent widow, albeit one with a celestial design about her. The appearance seems apropos as she discusses Widow, a 168-page fashion magazine covering significant works in her artistic career and curated works from 18 local and international artists, musicians, and photographers and produced by Landfall Press.
On Thursday, February 25, 2010, 6-8 PM, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art at Johnson County Community College will host a reception celebrating the publication of Widow.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
The List Wall Project
Lisa Lala
"The path of lists is often obvious, but other times complex beyond tracing. If you keep putting it out there, and it works out in ways you never considered—Is it luck? Divine? Destiny? Perhaps it is simply the act of deciding what you want and pursuing it, or seeing it when it falls in your lap. Regardless, the fact remains: if you really want it, write it down."—Lisa Lala
Through February 2010, Blue Gallery is showing Lisa Lala’s The List Wall Project. The installation includes Lala’s solo show of oil paintings on glass and large canvasses inspired by lists, and a wall installation where the public can add their own to-do, goal, and life lists.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Setting the Stage
Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey
On Wednesday, February 24, 2010, at 7 PM there will be a free performance presented by the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey at The Gem Theater, 1615 East Street, Kansas City, Missouri.
Setting the Stage is a visual journey through African-American dance history that takes place during Black History Month. This multi-media story of African-American dance is interwoven into the broader tapestry of history, and gives insights into the legacy of modern dance in American history. Setting the Stage is performed by talented local and national artists demonstrating the different eras of dance against the backdrop of a large-screen narrated slide presentation illustrating the contributions of African-Americans to this art form.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Film Review: Shutter Island
Scorsese and DiCaprio Team Up Again
You know the kind of thriller that works only at surface value, skirts cliché at every turn, keeps stringing you along, and—in the end—hinges 100 percent on whether you buy the twist ending or not?
Shutter Island is not that kind of thriller.
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
Us and Now
For Pete
When the night is cold Momma Jewel stays up until day break knitting her owl children souls. When the souls are ready the Spirit Lady whispers them into the ears of those sleeping. Thus life begins for these little owl children, love and all. Sadly, every life is not guaranteed to be long, for there are forces working against you. But don’t fear death or the night, because the night time is for those lost souls to sleep with their eyes wide open. And life shall spring once again… —Rodolfo (Rudy) Marron, III
"Arts" is proudly sponsored by the Actor Training Studio.
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