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The Arts Blog ~ News and notes on Orange County's world of arts, from Tim Mangan (classical music), Laura Bleiberg (dance), Paul Hodgins (theater) and Richard Chang (visual art).

Themes get dark at this year’s Pacific Playwrights Festival

May 3rd, 2009, 7:46 pm by Paul Hodgins

garden

A few thoughts after catching some of the plays offered at this year’s Pacific Playwrights Festival.

American playwrights are finally tackling the history-changing events of the last eight years, not nibbling around the edges or misfiring in wild directions as they’ve done in seasons past. And it’s about time.

Theater has always been a better cultural barometer than film.

Movies take agonizing years to develop and are “improved” endlessly during their messy path from conception to birth. With theater, there’s far less at stake financially (although developing a play is no small investment for your average nonprofit regional theater) and fewer intervening egos and interests between creation and execution. We get to see what’s on the playwright’s mind, often very soon after he or she has put fingers to keyboard.

Play readings offer an even more accurate snapshot of the current mood. They’re hot off the playwright’s computer; actors don’t even have time to learn their lines before presenting them to the public.

If you subscribe to the notion of play scripts as instant zeitgeist meters, then the plays presented at this year’s Pacific Playwrights Festival suggest that we’re in for a period of dark reflection over the political era that just ended.

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Alex Ross on Esa-Pekka Salonen’s final concerts

May 3rd, 2009, 1:01 am by Timothy Mangan, music critic

Adieu. The New Yorker, May 4, 2009.

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A plea to SCR, OCPAC: get cozier, guys!

May 2nd, 2009, 8:39 pm by Paul Hodgins

The Orange County Performing Arts Center and South Coast Repertory are two of the brightest baubles in O.C.’s crown: high-profile cultural institutions that share the same property, billionaire benefactors and even some board members. Both market to the same arts-loving audience to fill seats for their plays and musicals.

So how, I ask, does this happen?

SCR is hosting its 12th annual Pacific Playwrights Festival, which draws artistic directors from regional theaters all over the country in search of hot new properties.

Not 300 feet away, at the Center’s Samueli Theater, is an eagerly anticipated workshop production of a new musical, “The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown,” produced by Kait Kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk, one of the more talented young musical-theater teams around. The bare-bones staging features some impressive Broadway performers.

At the PPF lunch today, I mentioned to an artistic director from a large theater in the northwest that a new Kerrigan-Lowdermilk  musical was being staged four times this weekend, right next door. “Really?” he said. “I love their work! Where is this Samueli Theater exactly?” I told him he could pick up his water bottle and practically hit the front door from SCR’s patio, where we sat. There wasn’t a shred of information about “Samantha Brown” on SCR property or in the PPF programs.

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Historic AP photos of conductors, composers

May 2nd, 2009, 1:01 am by Timothy Mangan, music critic

beecham bernstein celibidache furtwangler stokowski strauss

click on thumbnails for larger views. captions are after the jump.

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California Orchestras: May 2009 Concert Listings

May 1st, 2009, 1:14 pm by Timothy Mangan, music critic

aca

The Association of California Symphony Orchestras provides a monthly list of performances by California orchestras. The information below represents concerts presented by current member organizations and is subject to change. At the end, you’ll find info on how to get your own orchestra listed.

In May, California Orchestras have 11 World Premieres and 1 California Premiere.

Friday, May 1 at 8 p.m.
Stockton Symphony
Pops & Picnic Concert (picnic at 6 p.m.)
Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium, 240 N. Union, Stockton
(209) 951-0196
www.stocktonsymphony.org

Friday, May 1 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, May 3 at 2:30 p.m.
Susanville Symphony
Ben Wade, conductor
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Orff: Carmina Burana
Susanville Assembly of God Church, 473-465 Richmond Rd., Susanville
(530) 310-9211
www.susanvillesymphony.com
 
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April highlights on Classical Life

May 1st, 2009, 10:41 am by Timothy Mangan, music critic

img_7749b

It was a pretty good month here on Classical Life. Thanks for your readership.

The following posts were the most popular, when counted by individual hits:

Achim Freyer’s ‘Die Walkure,’ with Domingo, revealed.

More photos from Salonen’s farewell.

O.C. teens wins 3rd place in National Trumpet Competition.

California Orchestras: April 2009 concert listings.

The item with the most reader comments is A reluctant goodbye: Salonen says so long.

Relive the thrill. Click again. Stay thirsty, my friends.

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Slide show: This week in the arts in O.C. and beyond

May 1st, 2009, 1:01 am by Timothy Mangan, music critic

SLIDE SHOW (click here): Our arts writers take a look at the week of April 24-30 on the local arts scene. The Orange County Register, May 1, 2009.

previously: this week in the arts in o.c. (april 16-23)

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