CREA@SIENA

PYGMALION Opens at the Beaudoin Theatre

2010-04-24T14:10:00.000-04:00

I love G.B.Shaw, the language, the humor, the pace -- but he is very difficult for Americans, the language, the pace, the dialects. Siena's students faced these difficulties with aplumb, thanks to their work and the admirable directing of Paul Ricciardi. Anyone from Foy's faculty row knows how much vocal training went into those performances. I guess training is the key word here; this production is all about craft.

Audiences might not realize that our theatre program is not about providing entertainment for the college -- although it does that. It's about training our students in the crafts and skills of theatre. It's about education both of Creative Arts students and the college as a whole. Ricciardi's Pygmalion did just that.

The 2 hour + performance sped by, carried along by the sense of the students "getting it right," the beauty of the costumes and lighting, and the balletic scene changes. The lace scrim in the background, the awesome pink sheers gliding in the scene changes (particularly evocative in Mrs. Higgins hands), the staging with its "viewpoints" technique, all kept us in the delicious ambiguity of theatre. We believe the world of the actors, yet at the same time appreciate that it is all a fiction, a performance.

The first seconds of this production set the mood. We were immediately in rainy London, on the streets, with people rushing by (I was in the front row and felt immediacy of the action right at my knees). The silhouettes of scene changes turned functionality into shadow play, particularly evocative against the lace backdrop. The set articulated the actors' emotional positions and changes, arranged in planes that each functioned to place our imaginations in the right spot in the story: from the immediacy of that first scene at audience level with characters rushing left and right, to the main stage where the "sets" played left and right, to the central French doorway that became the frame for change. The back passage, again for left and right movement, visually and imaginatively supported the whole. It was a metaphor for change in the characters. It is there that we first see Higgins, still, silhouetted, observing. And while we watch him talk, talk, talk throughout the course of the play, we see that, while he can effect change in Eliza, he remains stubbornly fixed in his temper and temperament, the Dr. House of 1914. But then, do we want him to change?

The whole ensemble is to be commended for exploiting the entire space Shaw allows: from the staging that leaves no area or volume unattended (Leon Battista Alberti would have approved) to the costumes, including the very pertinent hats, that were based on historical research. Those women bobbies during the First World War were the equivalent of the Rosie the Riveters in the Second. They substituted for the men in the trenches. The suit of the newly rich Doolittle outfitted with mother-of-pearl buttons from the lapels to the cuffs was just what such fellows wore when they were dressed to the nines. "Pearlies" they were called. The ladies' costumes reminded me of those Oscar Kirchner Berlin Street Scene of 1913 (NY MOMA, below).

This is college theatre where attention to significant detail is all important for the education of collaborating students and for the college community itself. That the cast and crew could bring this all off as a unity, without getting tripped up on egos, gimmicks or scholarship, shows that we are indeed a maturing theatre program. Thanks to all involved.

Paul Ricciardi Wins Teaching Award

2010-03-10T16:22:00.004-05:00

Back cover of the most recent American Theatre Magazine. See Paula and Siena in the right column.

Paul Ricciardi, CREA's new Assistant Professor of Acting in our Theatre Program, is a recipient of a 2009 National Teaching Artist Grant for voice and speech.. This is from the

A Look from Tel-Aviv

2010-03-10T16:18:00.000-05:00

THE FAMILY THAT PLAYS TOGETHER . . .

2009-11-15T16:59:00.000-05:00

Even a wicked stepmother has a mother (Laurie Detenbeck) and a father (Ralph Blasting).

INTO THE WOODS ENTHUSIASTICALLY PERFORMED, ENTHUSIASTICALLY RECEIVED

2009-11-15T16:43:00.006-05:00

The Creative Arts Committee and Dean Ralph Blasting (aka Mr. Mysterious) put on a sugar feast to celebrate the opening of the 2009 Siena production of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. Not-so-candid photos of the party:

Director Tony Rivera and Stage Manager Laurie Detenbeck

The Not-So-Charming Prince and Red-eyed Riding Hood

Director Rivera and CREA champion, Camille Hoheb, Chair Creative Arts Committee

TREES GROWTH IN FOY LOBBY

2009-11-15T16:06:00.000-05:00

The production outgrew the space in the Beaudoin Theatre. Rehearsals moved well apace last week and so the construction of the proscenium trees moved out to the lobby. It was great to watch.

OCTOBER MEETING WITH STUDENTS: PORTFOLIO!

2009-10-21T15:23:00.000-04:00

CREA faculty met with CREA majors October 14. We wanted to greet our majors as a group, let them know what we have to offer, and also, what they need to do to prepare for the world they will enter when they graduate. Key innovation was the portfolio expectation of all Freshmen and Sophomores with suggestion that upper classmen seek guidance in preparing one for their next step. Students were advised to seek counsel with their advisors and CREA faculty for planning their 4-year programs. When asked what advice upper classmen could give the lower classmen: Plan your schedule well ahead of time so you fit all the courses you need into your 39 hours for the major. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN was the take-home message.

Katherine Levinson's Logo is Cover Artwork

2009-10-15T22:05:00.000-04:00

Creative Arts student, Katherine Levinson, developed of logo for the Siena Physics Firefly Project for the US space program last year. That logo will be on the cover of the Council of Undergraduate Research's monograph on transformative research where Professor Al Weatherwax and Joe Kojawski's article on their work with Siena students will be published.

Congratulations to Katey, and thanks to her faculty advisors.

Paul Ricciardi Joins CREA Faculty

2009-10-05T14:21:00.000-04:00

Paul Ricciardi came to us from UAlbany theatre program. Here he is in his old office, working away at his syllabus. We've moved to to FOY 304 where you will find him, when he's not on one of his many duties as the freshman faculty of the department.

Listening to the Audience Cheer

2009-10-03T22:07:00.001-04:00

I'm in my office, trying to grade papers and write tests, but am constantly pulled into the Beaudoin Theatre, just across the wall. The audience is laughing, clapping, even shouting their appreciation of the performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) directed by CREA/Philosophy senior Paul Mayer. The three-man cast is built of Computer Science majors, Matthew Kemmer in his first-ever theatrical performance and Steve Maggio in his third. Francis Stanton graduates this year. This cast captivated their audience, performing so naturally and enthusiastically that we cannot help but be proud. Alex Walkers Costumes and Props evoked the chaos the play introduces so gleefully. The precision of the performance was made possible by Assistant Director Will Frenzel, Stage Manager Jess Brennan, Assistant Stage Manager Brigitta Giulianelli.
The photos show the crowds of family and friends I caught in the lobby once I got my camera out. Will try to get better photos posted when good photography is available.

Cathy Coonradt's New Do

2009-09-16T09:06:00.001-04:00

Cathy Coonradt, who keeps the lobby sparkling, has a whole new look, a bob. She donated her tresses to the American Cancer Society to help victims who lost their hair during treatment. Way to go, Cathy.

CREAsaints: TheCreative Arts Committee 2009

2009-09-12T10:28:00.005-04:00

Just in case you're wondering who work selflessly on behalf of the Creative Arts Department, here are photos of a recent committee meeting at the St. Francis House.

At one end of the table sat Darrin Kibbey (mastermind of last spring's jazz concert at Cohoes Music Hall), Steve O'Connor (mystery-show producer); Tony Riviera (Cohoes Music Hall; directing our November production of In the Woods), Gordon Jevons, Jeanne Fitzgerald (organized the Trapp Family Concerts), and the infamous Ralph Blasting.

At the head of the table sat Robbie Booth, in blue, former chair, who generosly funded the Jazz Series a few years ago. Cam Hobeb in green is the current chair; she championed the collaboration with the Cohoes Music Hall; set up the Trashion Show in the Fall last summer. This year she's overseeing an in-house mystery performance, perhaps in January in Foy. All while running a tight ship.

Thanks to you all for your generous gifts of time and moral support.

Konye's "Migrations" recorded by Kiev Philharmonic

2009-09-10T11:09:00.003-04:00

Paul Konye, Ph.D., latest composition, “Migrations: A Global Portrait.” It has been released by Erm Media on the 14th volume of the album, Masterworks of the New Era.

Konye’s piece was recorded by Kiev Philharmonic and conducted by Maestro Robert Winston.

Audio clips from Konye’s composition can be found at http://www.classicsonline.com/catalogue/product.aspx?pid=842751

Changes in Foy "Pit"

2009-09-09T06:12:00.003-04:00

During remodellings this summer, we found out that the basement of Foy, where our Music studio, Theatre practice room and art studios have been implanted, used to be called "The Pit" when the basement was a Rathskeller. New nickname?

Foy 105, our Music Room, has undergone an "improvement" for the sake of acoustics: the removal of the moldy carpet and 6 layers of subflooring. Now the floor is the exposed cement block, with a few places of excess paste and tiles. I wrote "RAW" at the entrance door, so people will know that we are in the process... The floor will be finished when funds are available.

Our hero for this project is John Cozzy, lead maintenance man at Foy, who single-handedly got out all the dust and detritus left by the floor removal. Thank him if you're not breathing cement fumes! And thank him for his over 30 years of service to Siena.

A projection TV (discard from dorms) is now in place in Foy 107, The Actor's Studio, for the benefit especially of Acting for the Camera classes.

Professor Liz Blum spent a week cleaning up the Art and Design rooms. Thanks, Liz.

There are still things to be finished, but we have come quite a way in upgrading The Pit.

Eagle Rock September 11th Flight Crews Memorial

2009-09-09T06:08:00.001-04:00

The “Eagle Rock September 11th Flight Crews Memorial”, designed by sculptor architectural designer, and college art instructor, Patrick Morelli (who taught in CREA in 2009), will be dedicated in a public ceremony on Friday, September 11, 2009 at 8am, at Eagle Rock Reservation Essex County Park in West Orange, New Jersey, overlooking the former site of the Twin Towers.

ABC-TV will telecast an interview with the artist by correspondent, Kemberly Richardson, at 8:25 am the same day.

Images of the Flight Crews memorial and the adja cent 160-foot granite "Wall of Remembrance" bearing 2850 names and the eight bronze sculptures of the “Eagle Rock September 11th Memorial”, dedicated on October 20, 2002--which the new memorial will complement--can be viewed on the artist’s website portfolio, www.MorelliART.com

Beaudoin Theatre Season 2009-20

2009-07-30T11:16:00.002-04:00

October 1-3: Student Production directed by Paul Mayer

Nov 13-21: Into the Woods, Director Steve Fletcher, Music Ellen Rizzo, Sets Denise Massman, Costumes Karin Mason, Lights Lilly Fossner

March 10-14: Perfect Pie: Director Ralph Plasting, Sets Denise Massman, Costumes, Karin Mason, Lights Rob Thompson, Music Chas Marsh

April 22-May 1: Pygmallian: Director Paul Ricciardi, Lets Jason Cross, Dostume Denise Massman, Lights Lilly Fossner.

Videotaping is scheduled for a day prior to the opening of each production

RANSOM & NEW MEDIA

2009-06-09T11:47:00.004-04:00

Artists' statement from the program of the show:

NEW MEDIA ARTISTS MAINE (NMAM) is an association of new media artists. Each artist has chosen the mission of exploring the creative realm within their discipline/s to produce new media art, rejecting commercial influences and popular culture as an objective. The term new media art as described here refers to an art genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, Internet art, interactive art technologies, computer robotics, and art as biotechnology. New Media concerns are often derived from the telecommunications, mass media and digital modes of delivery the artworks involve, with practices ranging from conceptual to virtual art, performance to installation.

The works presented here are as varied as the artists themselves. They are not always easily understood. They can challenge, provoke, confuse, outrage and even entertain. Just how they affect the viewer may not be immediately apparent. Much as we may not know the impact on our body of a recently digested meal, so a new media work’s effect may go unnoticed for some time. New media art, as all art, is mysterious. Ultimately it can only be experienced.. . .

The programs we offer consist of a selection of new media art and the presence of the artists who produced that work. This combination of the work being presented by the creator is integral to each program. The artists will speak about their method of employing their chosen medium (film, video, computer, other). This might involve using live action, stop motion, stills, animation, puppetry, found footage, electronic feeds, multi-screen, or a combination of techniques or other systems, which they have devised to produce their art. They will speak about the challenges and difficulties of being new media artists. Granted the mystery of art remains but our presentations hope to bring the viewer closer to the artists and their art.

AMANDA RANSOM

Faculty Siena College

Recipient Fulbright Fellowship,

Simon Foundation Award For Innovation In The Arts

Showcase Nanjing Museum, China

showed

MYSTERY BIRDS (2008), 12 minutes

Birds appear representing the unknowable forces that rule our lives.

VIDEO HAIKU (2006), 6 minutes

A video version of this traditional form of poetry, using seconds of footage to replace syllables of words.

PTC & BEATLEMANIA

2009-06-08T21:30:00.003-04:00

The Beatles won't be in Liverpool at the end of June but Pat Trutty-Coohill will be. She's organized a panel of European and American scholars to discuss philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka's theories of God. The meeting is at the Liverpool Hope University where they offer a Master's Degree in Beatles' studies.

TRASHION FASHIONS SHOWN BY MISS NY MODELS

2009-06-08T21:16:00.002-04:00

The Trashion Fashions students designed for the Spring Green Show will be shown in the Center Court Colonie Center Mall for the Miss NY Meet and Greet on Saturday June 27 at 11 a.m.

Thanks to Cam Hoheb, Chair of the Creative Arts Committee that fund raises for us, who made the contact; as a RISD graduate in fashion design, she recognized the quality of the work. Linda Dockal, Dirctor of Marketing at Colonie Center made the arrangements.

Congratulations, students of Denise Massman and Karen Mason!

RANSOM EXPERIMENTAL FILMS SHOWN WITH THREE GREATS

2009-06-08T20:40:00.003-04:00

Four outstanding American experimental filmmakers were shown in Railroad Square Cinema, Nancy Andrews, Abbot Meader, Amanda Donta-Ransom, and Walter Ungerer (who showed his films at Siena two years ago, thanks to Amanda). http://www.newenglandfilm.com/node/24004.

Here are a couple of Amanda's videos from youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-B_cjLiiZlI & www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUnbB1qsDms.

DENISE DOES MONTANA SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARKS

2009-06-08T20:04:00.002-04:00

Denise Massman is spending half the summer designing costumes for a production of Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona directed by Will Dickerson for the Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. Hope she sends us some pix.

PEACE THROUGH ART: WHAT MAHMOOD DOES

2009-04-09T13:22:00.006-04:00

We are so proud of Mahmood’s efforts and success at peacemaking through art. This is the true Franciscan tradition.
Mahmood discussed Benedictus at three venues in Washington at the end of March. To think that he started Benedictus here at Siena and how it’s toured the country and finished its American tour in a Jewish theatre in Washington with the Iranian Ambassador in attendance, just at the time when we are making initiatives toward peace. At the beginning of April he screened his film on the Iranian Diaspora (he did it here, too) at Berkeley.
We’re going to miss him when he’s in Tel Aviv on sabbatical!

NO DOUBT

2009-03-14T22:21:00.014-04:00

Not one of my 60 students in art history had seen the film Doubt. Neither had I, for I was tired of the discussion of priestly pederasty, nasty nuns, etc. Needless to say, I was disappointed last year when the students chose to stage it, and so when I saw the Siena production I was pleasantly surprised and pleased that they could do so much with it. Just shows that art can trump text.

Ralph Blasting's direction led the student actors to present the story in a well timed and articulate way, with strong performances all around. Mahmood Karimi-Hakak's set was properly unsettling, its this sharp raked triangular areas setting up separate platforms that embodied the disunity of the central trio. Rob Thomson's lighting was masterful.
ptc

And from Professor Cindy Bates of
SUNY Empire State College:

The actors did a wonderful job throughout the performance. I especially loved the final scene between Fr. Flynn and Sr. Aloysius. The intensity of the scene was excellently played out and yet, it was also delicately balanced by the wavering line of whether or not Fr. Flynn was really guilty or not. The innocence of Sr. James was nicely balanced with her passionate heart throughout the production. And the actress playing Mrs. Muller brought to life the difficulty of her and her son's situations while also portraying a deep motherly love.

The set, lighting, and costume designs were all wonderful as well. I found the use of the platforms with their odd angles and somewhat severe rakes to be a great choice that helped symbolize the heart of the play. The stained glass windows set the atmosphere while also adding a delicate beauty to the set. I also found it provocative how they resonated symbolically with the heart of the play's discussion about the delicacy of truth and the shattering of a reputation like the shattering of glass.

_______________________________________

Scott Waldman at timesunion.com notes that "it's the location of the stage that makes a play intriguing." He quote Ralph Blasting's take on the theme of the play "as an exploration of how people struggle to make the right decision when the stakes are high and there is a limited amount of information."

ALL IN THE FAMILY

2009-03-08T15:50:00.004-04:00

Sunday is music time for the Konye family - John-Kyle, Paul, and Mark - who assemble in Professor Paul's office to serenade our chambers. The shifting focus just indicates their activity, not my poor photography she said, pleading artistic license.

MAKING GLASS BEADS IN NEW CREA COURSE: ART & CHEM

2009-03-08T15:15:00.007-04:00

Students from CREA's Art & Chemistry learned to make glass beads under the tutelage the dynamic duo, chemistry professors Kevin and Marina Kittredge. The trick is to keep the glass in the flame, and to keep it moving all the time.

Some students got perfectly round beads, but all of them made interesting patterns.

Art history posters at Siena's Academic Celebration

2008-05-11T10:10:00.010-04:00

MARIA SEGALA ('08) presents a poster on her independent study for a Robert Rauschenberg exhibition, upcoming during Senior Week and throughout the summer, in Foy Hall. Rauschenberg's prints have recently been a celebrated at the National Gallery in Washington. Segala's exhibition features five prints from the Chow Series of the 1970s. Her poster included a burlap panel to evoke the Purina Animal Chow bags from which Rauschenberg generated the series.

KATHERINE LEVINSON ('09) and KATHRYN HAMILTON ('08, not pictured) presented the work of the students of the Siena Class in Modern Art, Spring 2008. The students built the First Siena Sculpture Exhibition in March (booklet exhibited) and are currently preparing an exhibition of Women's Art from Siena Collections for June and July 2008 in the Yates Gallery of the Standish Library.

First Siena Sculpture Show

2008-03-27T17:18:00.008-04:00

Jenna Buckley (’08,)
Kathryn Hamilton (’08)
Kristen Hans (’08)
Laura Lachell (’10)
Katherine Levinson (’08)
Megan Walsh (’08)

Students in MODERN ART have constructed the First Siena Sculpture Show in Foy Lobby, open throughout March.

top left: drawing students working from exhibition

top right: MEGAN WALSH consults with Phyllis Chapman during installation

bottom: unpacking and examining the works

The sculpture is part of the Siena Art Collection, which got a major boost in 2007, with the accession of over 500 works from the Fine Arts Museum of Long Island. This donation was suggested by Siena student Heather Pirinea, and engineered by her father, Joseph Pirinea. We are thankful for their contribution to the academic life of Siena College. The exhibition would not have been possible without the direction of Siena Art Curator, Phyllis Chapman, and the able cooperation of the Events and Housekeeping Crews.

These Things were Offered to Me as Blessings

2008-02-16T09:39:00.007-05:00

Friday night (February 15) the Union College Department of Music presented Branches of Words a program of dance and music set to the poetry of Hafez. Siena's Mahmood Karimi-Hakak collaborated with Ellen Sinopoli in directing the program. He voiced Hafez's Persian poetry as the dancers embodied it. The effect was extraordinary. The sound echoed the movement -- not only in grace but also in physicality -- for the Farsi was as highly textured, solid and physically three-dimensional as the dancers' efforts.

The program was well-paced, varying from poetry-dance to poetry-music to pure and exhilarating percussion of Zorki Nelson. Deeply moving was "I show Myself as I Am" with single dancer Sarah Pingel and Zoe B. Zak's classical accordion that drew out every form, every tension, every pulse. Reprised from last year's program two years ago was Munir Beken's Pottery Shards, this time laid into Hafez "Those who Stood up for Tolerance"; a new title "Into Dark Moods" gave it an even greater impact.

The fine Union College Music Hall allowed all the music, all the movement, all the poetry to move cleanly about the space and into our imaginations. I can't help but feel very jealous that we at Siena cannot offer our audiences the same opportunity to realize, with Hafez, that "These Things were Offered . . . as Blessings."

REVIEWS:
http://blogs.timesunion.com/reviews/?p=351
http://www.union.edu/N/DS/edition_display.php?e=1467&s=7657

CREA's Brian Massman at Cap Rep

2008-01-27T17:22:00.000-05:00

Brian Massman, fondly known as Mass Man, appears in the Cap Rep's production of David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, performances from Jan 18-Feb 10. He plays the French ambassador to China. See http://www.capitalrep.org/season/butterfly/html for tickets and information. Mass Man teaches a number of courses in CREA: Intro to Theatre, Voice and Movement, Acting for the Camera, as well as Art and Society.

Siena theatre students will see and discuss the play with the cast on February 6 and 9th.

Another Siena Premiere Make Good

2008-01-27T14:54:00.000-05:00

Best Possible World, by Tee O'Neill has been selected to be the Australian entrant in the 7th hotINK International Play Festival in New York CIty. It will be read at NYU (School fo TISCH) by members of the Atlantic Theatre Company at the Shop Theatre at 721 Broadway, New York, NY on Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 4:00 pm.

For more information go to hotink.org or call for reservations at 212-998-1860.

Tee O'Neill was the winner of the International Playwrights Competition. Best Possible World premiered at Siena College Spring Semester 2007. Tee spent several months developing the play with director Gary Maciag and a cast and crew of Siena students and staff.

Australian expatriates Bride and Orla run a former hostel in Ireland, which houses asylum seekers from all around the war torn world. In a city where tensions run high and citizenship can be bought, sold, or snatched away, the two young women try desperately to keep their residents safe. When Bride's lover is murdered in the street, she must decide how to create a new life, even at the cost of sacrificing her own identity forever.

YATES GALLERY spring 2008 semester

2008-01-07T12:40:00.000-05:00

FEBRUARY 13-MARCH 26

KEN RAGSDALE

How Did I Get Here?

paintings, drawings and mixed media

APRIL 9- MAY 21

EMMA COPLEY

Nitty-Gritty

painting and drawings

SIENA COLLEGE STANDISH LIBRARY

call Liz Blum for information

BENEDICTUS LA reviews & interviews

2007-12-14T10:15:00.000-05:00

LA City Beat's Critic's Choice.

http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=6580&IssueNum=235

AND for the buzz in Iran:

http://www.irandokht.com/TV/TVmore.php?PID=58

On Denise Massman's CREA proseminar

2007-12-06T23:02:00.000-05:00

I just had the most moving experience of my 27 years at Siena. I attended the final session of Denise's CREA111 class and talked with the students about their work. It was incredible. They are so creative, intelligent and open, humorous and serious at the same time. They brought themselves in every way to the process of the class. They interacted with each other, drew inspiration from each other, took risks expressing themselves, experimented with media...I felt like this tremendous sense of hope while I was there and now afterwards. They are the future-our future-I am privileged that I was there to see it.

Thank you, Denise.

Greg Zoltowski

Siena Chamber Orchestra Concert

2007-12-03T19:05:00.000-05:00

On Thurs. Nov. 29th, the Siena Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Paul Konye, with the legendary Max Lifchitz at the piano, dedicated its performance of Oklahoma and Beethoven's Piano Concerto #1 to Fr. Kevin Mullen--Siena's 10th President.

View a video clip of that concert at www.siena.edu/konye

Benedictus on Youtube

2007-11-28T14:07:00.000-05:00

See Benedictus discussed on Youtube! Just click the blue text.

A note from Mahmood from LA:

Well dear ones,
We are working hard getting the show ready for the opening on Nov. 29th.
Meanwhile I have been busy promoting the play as well as speaking of/ about its development process at Siena at few TV program each 45 minutes to 1:5 hours and two hour long radio talk shows. Tomorrow I am the keynote speaker at a gathering of Iranian/American businessmen to speak about arts/theatre education and importance of liberal arts ed. in the growth of the younger generation. I will speak about Siena. I have (I think) already convinced two young women who promised to at least "look at" our school next year when they are ready to choose a college.
Will let you know how it went once I return on Friday right after the opening.
Love to you all,

mkh

Thursday's Concert features Max Lifchitz

2007-11-28T00:42:00.000-05:00

Thursday evening's 7 p.m. concert in the Beaudoin Theatre in Foy Hall features Max Lifchitz, graduate of the Juilliard School and Harvard University, winner of the International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of Twentieth Century Music (Holland, 1976) after which he was called a "composer of brilliant imagination and a stunning, ultra-sensitive pianist." Lifchitz taught a UAlbany, Columbia University and the Manhattan School of Music. For his recordings (for which he received Grammy nominations) open this Amazon.com link.

Maestro Lifchitz will play Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. I accompanied by the Siena Chamber Orchestra conducted by Siena 's own Paul Konye.

2007-11-20T21:36:00.000-05:00

Thanks for those photos. I'm looking forward to having some color tones on the walls to set things off better if we can too instead of that insistent ghetto high-school WHITE.

I was just in the Dia: Beacon museum and it's very different but also inspiring. The height of Industrial Hip with the original messed up Nabisco factory floors which are so beautiful now they looked as good as most of the art work and better than some of it (sorry Blinky).

Benedictus goes Hollywood!

2007-11-19T14:01:00.000-05:00

Following its successful professional premier, Benedictus is now traveling to Los Angeles to join eleven other theatre productions from around the world at LATC's World Theatre Festival. Please look at the following links for more info, and wish us a "break a leg!"

http://www.goldenthread.org/

Thoughts on our space

2007-11-18T20:47:00.001-05:00

I took some photos of the Denver Museum remodeling because it might be inspirational for us. I hope I can get the photos to stick this time. Pix are out of focus, shaky hands and low light.

Anyway, notice how the galleries are user friendly and that one of them is even a living room/library. Warm and engaging. The colors are great.

ptc

p.s. the compose section is not WYSIWYG so don't besurprised when all your designing goes to naught. This is my last try for good design.

Thanks to Munir Beken

2007-11-18T16:32:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Munir Beken -- or rather to the UCLA Music who runs a blog -- for inspiring us to start this blog for Creative Arts at Siena.

For the article that got us moving, see http://www.music.ucla.edu/blog/. You'll have to scroll down past their many entries (their faculty post things, hint, hint) to get to Munir's story of how one of his latest works was inspired by his pranks as a child.

I loved the fact that they included the score in the post!

ptc

Beethoven Piano Concerto #1

2007-11-16T16:07:00.000-05:00

On Thursday Nov. 29th Paul Konye will lead the Siena Chamber Orchestra in Beethoven's Piano Concerto #1 with Grammy-nominated Max Lifchitz as soloist. The concert will take place at 7:00 pm in Foy Theatre at Siena College.

So calm around here

2007-11-16T15:23:00.000-05:00

It's Friday afternoon, the last weekend of the II Shepherds, and it is so calm around here. Except for Paul Konye in the office next door fretting over his upcoming concert.

You CREA people, sign up for the CREA@SIENA BLOG.

pat

Steve Tyson curates exhibition at NY State Museum

2007-11-14T15:00:00.000-05:00

Expression in Blue: A Feeling, A Place, A Color, A Sound opens at at the New York State Museum on Saturday, Nov. 17, featuring the work of 22 artists of the African Diaspora. Works in various media are included: photography, sculpture, textile collage, and painting. The show will close on March 16, 2008. We hope that Steve, an adjunct with CREA, will fill us in with some personal remarks!

CREA's Steve Fletcher directs SYLVIA in Latham

2007-11-14T14:34:00.000-05:00

Latham's Curtain Call Theater is producing A. R. Gurney's SYLVIA directed by Steve Fletcher, adjunct professor in CREA. The Daily Gazette's Carol King tells us tht he "keeps the comedy flowing but never overlooks Gurney's genius for tender moments."

Plays through November 17 at Curtain Call Theatre, 210 Old Loudon Road, Lathan, 877-7529. Tickets: $20.

Review, Ralph Blasting's Second Shepherd's Play

2007-11-13T10:56:00.000-05:00

ART IS BRIEF. YOU JUST HAVE TO BE THERE.

Ralph Blasting’s production of the Second Shepherd’s Play opened Friday in Siena’s Beaudoin Theatre. Considered “the finest single achievement of the English cycle drama” this mystery play for the Wakefield cycle is the “high water mark of medieval drama“ (Winthrop.edu). A combination of poetry, song, and fine student acting, this performance demonstrates within one piece the interdisciplinary goals of Siena’s Creative Arts Department.

Blasting’s direction brings our students’ talents to light. They move through and use the space between one another with confidence, addressing the audience on either side of the stage with grace and charm. Their approach to the difficult Medieval English text is assured and compelling. Even when dealing with the poor acoustics of our theatre (formerly a gym), we follow them and become a part of the action. The cast acts as an ensemble, reinforcing one another and playing us for a laugh.

Denise Massman’s set is an amplification of a medieval pageant wagon with “houses” at the end of an axis, the central space in which most of the action takes place. One end of the axis holds a shed-house that serves a double duty in the play [won’t let the cat out of the bag]. On the proscenium stage end is a three-dimensional reconstruction of a miniature by the finest of fifteenth-century illuminators, Simone Marmion—also used for the Brian Massman poster and playbill. At the other end of the axis Denise Massman’s costumes transform the singers into wondrous angels and our young actresses into grubby shepherds. Even the shepherd’s shoes, drafted and built by Karin Mason, evoke the period.

Echoes of medieval modal music inform the songs that spring from the actors naturally at intervals that enervate the dialogue rather than interrupt it. Muriel Maharidge wrote the music and Dennis Coker the lyrics specifically for the Siena performance.

In another incarnation I would have preferred to see the shepherds inhabit the Marmion illumination so that it could be brought to life. As it is now the potency of that space is only captured in the “epiphany” in the last section of the play. By having it first be an earthly domain of the shepherds, its later metamorphosis would be wondrously dramatic—and in keeping with the myth (sacred story) and mystery of Christ’s incarnation.

P. Trutty-Coohill
Art Historian
Creative Arts Department