|
|
Jordan Wright
November 26, 2011
Special to Indian Country Today Media Network
 Crow War Pony painting by Kennard Real Bird, Crow
Out of the earth
I sing for them,
A Horse nation
I sing for them,
out of the earth
I sing for them,
the animals
I sing for them.
Sung by Lone Man of the Teton Lakota – From the book “A Song for the Horse Nation”, edited by Emil Her Many Horses (Oglaa Lakota) and George P. Horse Capture (A’aninin).
As much poem and prayer as personal tribute, this song shows the respect and reverence American Indians have accorded the horse. For the past three centuries this noble beast has been indispensable to their existence during times of war and peace, altering the landscape of daily life for its caretakers.
The bond between the horse and Native peoples is the focus of the National Museum of the American Indian’s recently opened exhibition, “A Song for the Horse Nation” in Washington, DC. Originally shown on a smaller scale in New York City in 2009, the show has grown to include a sixteen-foot tall Lakota tipi adorned with horse and warrior hand-painted pictographs and fifty additional objects, along with life-size horse and dog statues displaying a Tsisistas/So’taeo’o (Cheyenne) travois ca. 1880, a type of sled made of wood, pigment and hide, commonly used for transporting goods and people.
Rifles belonging to Geronimo (Chiricahua Apache), Chief Joseph (Nez Perce) and Chief Rain-in-the-Face (Hunkpapa Lakota) are also highlights of this spectacular exhibition.
Winter Count on cloth by Long Soldier (Hunkpapa Lakota), ca. 1902. Fort Yates, North Dakota. Muslin cloth. With the advent of the domesticated horse came an unparalleled defense for the Plains warriors, who could ride great distances as well as provide an expeditious escape from the firepower of advancing troops. It served as a vehicle for transport of possessions and people and allowed tribes to roam more freely during hunting season affording them more leisure time to pursue art, spirituality and philosophy. Primitive pictographs of horses painted on muslin reflect daily life, showing the versatility of the horse for hunting and battle as well as horse raids and courtship.
Horses were bred not only for daily use – the hunting of bison was made considerably easier while mounted on horseback – but also for trade, proving to be an excellent commodity in exchange for food, eagle feathers and tobacco. We learn from the exhibit that in the 1800’s a single horse could be traded for 10 guns, 5 tipi poles or several pack animals.
Though the exhibition features objects predominantly from the 18th and 19th Centuries, two of the oldest objects on display are a Spanish Conquistador helmet from the late 1500’s-early 1600’s, on loan from the Autry National Center, and a Seneca comb from around 1600 made of antler with a carved figure of a horse from the George Gustav Heye collection.
Drawing from the museum’s extensive collection of horse trappings as well as artifacts, artwork and personal accounts, are a Menominee wood saddle carved in the shape of a horse ca. 1875; a Northern Cheyenne quilled horse mask; No Two Horns (Hankapapa Lakota) dance stick; a Lakota hide coat embroidered with horse motifs; and historic photographs from the museum’s archives. Along with elaborately beaded regalia and tribal objects, are also stunning works from contemporary artists.
 Glass horse mask, 2008, by Marcus Amerman (Choctaw, b. 1959), New Mexico. Multicolored glass. Glass horse mask, 2008, by Marcus Amerman (Choctaw, b. 1959), New Mexico. Multicolored glass.
Marcus Amerman’s (Choctaw) multicolored glass horse mask is a particularly dramatic piece that echoes the celebratory beaded masks still used in rodeos and mounted parades. The sculpture shares space with “Crow War Pony”, a spectacular photograph by Brady Willette of a war pony, painted in tribal symbols, by artist, rodeo bronco buster and horse whisperer, Kennard Real Bird (Crow) whose family’s ranch lies alongside The Little Big Horn River in Montana, and who is known for his annual reenactment of the Battle of Little Big Horn that draws visitors from around the world. The painted pony is named “Cool Whip”. Trained by Real Bird, the palomino was eventually sold to a family in Minnesota where he has garnered his own notoriety.
It is fitting that Emil Her Many Horses is the curator of this equine exhibit. A member of the Oglala Lakota nation of South Dakota, Her Many Horses is a specialist in Central Plains cultures. His paternal great-grandmother was called Many Horses Woman, meaning she owned many horses, a symbol of wealth and generosity.
“All horses used by Native Americans throughout North America and Canada originally descended from 25 Andalusian horses brought over by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 to Hispaniola [now the Dominican Republic] in the West Indies, eventually making their way through Mexico and Florida and into North America where Plains peoples adopted the horse,” he explains.
“A display map shows California horses going up North, and then the French and Dutch to the East Coast later. With the Pueblo Revolt horses came into Native hands, and then it would be the Navaho, the Arapaho, the Pueblos and the Commanche who have horses. Then they are traded up North, but the Commanche are known to also trade them up to the Shoshone.
I think what we tried to show was really the impact of horses and hunting, because with horses you were able to secure more game such as buffalo and if you could secure more game you had more resources. Since if you didn’t have horses you were hunting buffalo on foot. So the thing that happens is that tipis become bigger because you have more time to make a tipi.
In warfare, other communities who may have been an ally in the past, if they had this resource and you wanted it, it would cause conflict with people that were once allies. But horses also helped in preventing the onslaught of the cavalry and settlers. It kept them at bay.
 Possibly Chief Eagle of the Salish (at right), with an unidentified woman on horseback, ca. 1905, St. Ignatius, Montana, on the Flathead Reservation. Horses also would have an impact on how you traveled. It was either the woman or the dog that would have to carry the material while the men were guarding as they moved camp, because at any time they could be attacked by an enemy scouting party. So it was either the dog or the woman that would carry the material. But when the horses came it made for a swifter getaway. You could be out of there much quicker than to try to wrangle a dog.”
When asked what he hoped visitors would take away from this exhibition, he offers, “It really is the close association with horses that we still have today. For some the horse is very vibrant, still a part of their communities. For some of us it will always be a part of us through our stories, our culture, and our artwork even though we no longer own any horses. But they’re still rich in our culture, our memory and our knowledge.
“A Song for the Horse Nation” runs through January 7, 2013 at the National Museum for the American Indian in Washington, DC. For more information visit www.AmericanIndian.si.edu/exhibitions/horsenation.
Jordan Wright
December 11, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Brandon DeGroat (Ghost of Christmas Present) and Marcus Fisk (Scrooge) The Little Theatre of Alexandria celebrates the holiday season with a return of Charles Dickens’ heartwarming classic A Christmas Carol. An endearing portrait of mid-nineteenth century England, the age-old tale features Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly Victorian humbug, who travels with ghostly guides through Christmas past, present, and future to find the true meaning of the holidays. Replete with special effects, lavish Victorian costumes and the ever-precious Tiny Tim, this family-friendly seasonal reprise is drawn from the original text and perfectly adapted for the stage by Donna Ferragut. Under Robin Parker’s smooth direction this holiday special sparkles like freshly fallen snow.
A Christmas Carol runs through December 18th. For tickets and information call 703 683-0496 or visit www.TheLittleTheatre.com.
 Brandon DeGroat (Ghost of Christmas Present) and Marcus Fisk (Scrooge) |
 Full Cast |
Jordan Wright
November 28, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Dan (Brian Sutherland) and Jenna (Diane Sutherland) both admiring a Rothko painting at the Museum of Modern Art in "A Second Chance". At Virginia’s Signature Theatre through December 11, 2011. www.signature-theatre.org. Photo: Christopher Mueller. Not only is this delicious show a world premiere, but it also marks the auspicious debut of a new talent, Ted Shen, a businessman and arts patron that might better qualify for full retirement. That he is celebrating the opening of his first show as writer, composer and lyricist, is rather astounding, unless you notice that his bio reveals he is a Taiwanese financier educated at the posh
Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University and foundation president and board member for both Yale University and the Art Commission of the City of New York. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Shen’s foundation has also provided funding support for major productions by Stephen Sondheim, who happens to be Mr. Shen’s musical theatre hero. But whatever his curriculum vitae or his tony connections his breakthrough musical, A Second Chance, can more than stand on its own two legs.
Billed as a lyrical duet the musical is a modern love affair as much for its characters as its audience. Two top-drawer Broadway stars, Brian and Diane Sutherland, sing rather than speak their parts. Both have the most exquisitely controlled, pitch perfect voices that gently express the emotional dynamics of a budding relationship. Jenna, coming off a divorce, gives voice to her demons in “Damaged Goods”. She is broken and unsure of their new love, especially since Dan is a recent widower and photos of his late wife fill his apartment. Dan is still communicating telepathically with his dearly departed, seeking approval to pursue his new life and love of Jenna. In an effort to break with the past he sings, “Tell Me When.”
A simple stage set with clear plexiglass chairs and tables allow the audience to mesh with each scene change while following the
progression of the mid-life couple’s personal evolution. Projected black and white photos of New York’s Central Park, his brownstone and her therapist’s office, afford a simple sense of place. And that’s enough because it’s all about the music here – lush atmospheric songs by an astonishing songwriter whose elegant stylings borrow from the Sondheim tradition with shades of Judy
Collins and The Fantasticks. Top notch musicians capture the mood for a New York evening as familiar as a martini served straight up while basking at The Oak Room at The Plaza or listening to Bobby Short at the Café Carlyle.
Enchantingly sophisticated and emotionally aware.
Through December 11th at Signature Theatre – 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA in the Shirlington neighborhood. For tickets and information call 703 820-9771 or visit www.signature-theatre.org.
Jordan Wright
November 28, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Natalie Berk as Juliet and Alex Mills as Romeo - Photo Credit: Graeme B. Shaw Deck the halls with lots of show tunes for MetroStage’s A Broadway Christmas Carol. This delicious dose of Christmas spoof playing through December 18th highlights holiday irreverence with a hilarious and campy send up of Charles Dicken’s classic tale featuring 31 well-known Broadway show tunes, 23 wig changes, 20 separate costume changes and 4 sprightly cast members.
At MetroStage – 1201 North Royal Street, Alexandria, VA. For tickets and information call 1 800 494-8497 or visit www.metrostage.org.
Jordan Wright
November 28, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Natalie Berk as Juliet and Alex Mills as Romeo - Photo Credit: Graeme B. Shaw When Artistic Director Paata Tsikurishvili asked in his intro, “How many of you have been to a Synetic production before?” and half the audience’s hands shot up, even he was as surprised as the rest of us converts to this exciting brand of physical theatre. My seat neighbors, a mother and daughter who were Paraguayan, asked me if the play was silent. I could hardly wait to see their reactions after the show. (In a small world moment they were just as amazed to see a fellow countryman in the production.)
A giant swaying pendulum is the symbol Synetic Theater presents to describe the inconvenient passage of time in its recent remount of their celebrated and multiple Helen Hayes-awarded production of Romeo and Juliet. Time, as shown by the inner workings of a clock with its individual gears heaving forth and trapping the players in its relentless grip, becomes a metaphor for life. It is a powerful and intriguing image – a ‘time monster’ that gobbles up both the innocent and the guilty – and it is repeated throughout as the characters spin in and out among the moving parts.
As the last in Synetic’s “Speak No More” trilogy of silent Shakespeare plays, it is a clear departure from the more grisly Othello and Macbeth that preceded it. So it is refreshing when in place of the clash of swords the only sound the audience hears echoing off the back seats are kisses. There are kisses of endearment from the Nanny to Juliet, Juliet’s father Lord Capulet to her, and Friar Laurence who plants a paternal kiss on Romeo’s pate. And yes, you can hear each one. But the kisses and lovemaking between Romeo and Juliet are the most unforgettably electrifying exchanges.
In a radical interpretation of Shakespeare’s classic tale, Synetic explores the physicality and raw emotionality of Romeo and Juliet’s love. At their first meeting they mirror each other’s emotions, swaying together as they fluidly synch their movements.
With flashing spotlights alternating from all sides of the stage, we witness the lovers arriving in their bedchamber after their wedding vows. The scene progresses to a single-beamed and scrim-silhouetted vignette of a languorous and erotic danse d’amour. Director Paata Tsikurishvili opts to play up the lovers’ passions, drawing the audience in with the use of sensuality and playfulness. Yet ever present are the insinuating gears, twisting and turning, screeching and clacking, marking time for the fated lovers.
When Ryan Sellers makes his entrance as the villainous Tybalt, using arrogance and swagger, he transforms the masked ball scene in the second act from one of merriment and celebration to one of impending danger and we see the tension between the families arise as Lord Capulet steps in to put an end to his fight with Romeo.
The street scene in which the Nurse (played by the enchantingly feisty Irina Tsikurishvili) goes to deliver a message to Romeo and meets up with Mercutio is also fraught with raw sexuality. Phillip Fletcher (Mercutio) comes off as a delicious scoundrel in a lengthy battle between the sexes. But she gives as good as she gets and his abuse is trumped in a complex fight scene between the two with the Nurse coming out on top with a wink and a nod to women power.
The gorgeous Fredericksburg, VA actor Alex Mills brings a sexy vitality to the role of Romeo in perfect counterbalance to the exquisite Natalie Berk as Juliet, who embodies the quintessence of innocence with her delicate lithesome grace. To support the dancers with powerful background music Sound Designer Irakli Kavsadze interweaves mesmerizing electronica and waltzes along with Gregorian chants to transition scenes from violence to passion.
If you’ve never seen Synetic Theater’s productions, and apparently there are a few who haven’t, don’t miss this one.
Through December 23rd at Synetic Theater, 1800 South Bell Street, Arlington, VA in Crystal City – For tickets and information call 1 800 494-8497 or visit www.synetictheater.org.
Jordan Wright
November 7, 2011
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Robin Zerbe (Irma) & Doug Sanford (Mengele) - Photo credit to Doug Olmsted “Evil can be most appealing, even when it comes packaged so attractively,” declares the sage defense attorney (David Adler) to the young prosecutor, referring to the captivating Irma Grese, known as the “Blonde Angel of Auschwitz”.
It is important to place a good deal of weight onto this observation as Irma, comrade and lover to the notoriously barbaric Dr. Josef Mengele, is revealed to be a very complex villainess indeed. Drawn from the life and courtroom testimony of the notoriously sadistic Nazi guard, the drama becomes a psychological study on the fallibility of appearances and perceptions.
Using archival footage of Adolf Hitler greeting his fanatical countrymen from inside a convertible Mercedes, German recruitment posters from the 30’s and 40’s, and video of Nazi-saluting Hitler-Jugend, the Aryan youth movement trained in anti-Semitism, Director Bruce Folmer creates a haunting backdrop to open this chilling play. Coupled with visual compiled by Folmer, there is stunning audio. A German folk song plays cheerfully against the screech of a train grinding to a halt, evoking the horror about to befall its innocent Jewish passengers. Ninety-six people in a railroad car meant to hold eight horses, was standard operating procedure in this unthinkable transport.
Standing at attention before a large crimson and black Nazi flag, Irma, a paragon of SS fervor and shining example of The Third Reich, is revealed to the audience. Jack-booted and outfitted with Luger pistol and horsewhip – her beauty lies in stark contrast to the evil she represents. She is twenty years old. She will be assigned to Ravensbruck Concentration Camp before being transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp where she had an affair with Mengele. Later she was sent to Bergen-Belsen where she was ultimately captured by the British Army at twenty-two and sent to prison for her crimes.
 Robin Zerbe (Irma) & Luba Hansen (Olga) - Photo credit to Doug Olmsted Barely out of her teens, Irma oversaw 30,000 women. Her duty to The Reich was selecting victims condemned to the gas chambers known euphemistically as “bakeries”. At her trial in Luneberg, Germany in 1945, she is accused of war crimes so brutal and sadistic, as to terrify the Devil himself. Abandoned by her parents, her younger sister Helene, who dutifully visits her in prison, testifies to her cowardliness in the schoolyard and her former innocence.
The script, when it is in the courtroom, adheres faithfully to actual testimony at trial. But it is in the exploration of the complexities of evil and its shifting effect on the characters that this play becomes the gripping drama that it is.
Robin Zerbe reflects the twisted psyche of the amoral Irma convincingly. She chills us to the bone when she declares, “At Ravensbruck they had great teachers! There were two types, those that killed and those that were to be killed!” Zerbe fashions a beguiling Salome, as unapologetic as a kitten and as deadly as an adder, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Juxtaposing Irma is the pure-hearted Helene played by the porcelain-skinned Deanna Gowland who presents us with a delicate dirndl-clad Heidi more acceptable to our Teutonic memory. Gowland shows she is up to the task, with a subtle portrayal that reflects a promising future treading the boards.
The “nightmare” aspect in the titling arrives in the final act when the young prosecutor (Casey Jones) dreams of Irma. Jones does a good job of depicting a man in conflict, alternately displaying disgust and bewilderment. Charmed by her beauty, repelled by her acts, he is tormented by her influence on him. Also notable is Doug Sanford, who gives a performance rich with swagger as the chillingly manipulative monster, Josef Mengele.
 Robin Zerbe (Irma), Casey Jones (Prosecutor) & David Adler (Defense Attorney) - Photo credit to Doug Olmsted Additional credit should go to Carol Strachan as British accent coach and Robin Zerbe, whose many years living in Germany allowed her to nail not only the accent, which she taught to her other cast members, but the gesticulations and inflections that were spot on.
With Angel: A Nightmare in Two Acts Port City Playhouse continues its well-earned reputation for successfully tackling serious and difficult topics by delving into highly-charged racial, social and political material. They consistently prove their merit while serving as a beacon to community theatre.
At The Lab Studio Theatre at Convergence, 1819 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. Performances continue on these dates – November 11, 12, 15, 18 and 19 at 8:00 pm and November 12 and 19 at 2 pm. For tickets and information call 703 838-2880 or email PortCityInfo.com for reservations or visit www.portcityplayhouse.com.
|
