Tag Archives: arts

“bare” Is Back, In The Wake Of Its Composer’s Death

09 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by in LA Stage Times

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Originally published in The LA Stage Times

For Topher Rhys, producing the first Los Angeles revival of the rock musical bare since its premiere in 2000 at LA.’s Hudson Theatre has been a project nine years in the making.

He first heard a cast recording of the musical, which is set in a Catholic high school and explores the romance between roommates Jason and Peter, in 2004 when he was 16 years old. The story’s dark examination of religion intrigued him, and he has been “circling it” ever since.

“It’s interesting how this show has stuck with me for so long, to the point where we’re opening tonight,” Rhys says, sitting in the Hayworth Theatre just three hours before opening night on Friday. “And I succeeded in our goal of bringing the show back to LA.”

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TV Writer Elin Hampton Rings The Bells Of West 87th

06 Friday Sep 2013

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Originally published in The LA Stage Times

If you’ve owned a TV in the last 20 years, chances are you’re already a fan of writer Elin Hampton. She’s penned episodes of television series like Mad About You, Pinky and the Brain, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Dream On — not a bad portfolio for someone who admits that she “stumbled” upon her career in television after moving from the East Coast to Los Angeles to become an actress.

In fact, theater was her first love. And with her new play The Bells of West 87th, she says she’s returning back to her roots.

Theater is “like a sickness,” she says with a smile.

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The Vibrations In Ruhl’s “Next Room” Reach The Secret Rose

22 Thursday Aug 2013

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Originally published in The LA Stage Times

It’s a sunny Saturday morning in the San Fernando Valley, and actors Joanna Strapp and Michael Oosterom are discussing the finer points of Victorian-era sex.

“In the Victorian era, they were raised to never talk about sex until your wedding night, and then you better be making babies like crazy,” Oosterom explains. He and Strapp aren’t historians, but they’ve clearly done a lot of research on the subject. “It’s not just the brides — the grooms were like, ‘I don’t know what to do, no one told me what to do, all I know is that we’re supposed to do this’.”

Which makes it all the more surprising that these same 19th-century Victorians were the ones who invented a device now known as the vibrator. Back then, it was used to treat hysteria, a catch-all term used to describe a variety of female ailments; today, it’s the subject of playwright Sarah Ruhl’s2009 comedy In the Next Room (or the vibrator play).

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Eve Gets A Second Chance In Rubin’s “eve2”

09 Friday Aug 2013

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Originally published in the LA Stage Times

If you’re familiar with the biblical story of Adam and Eve, you know that Eve’s got a lot of blame resting on her shoulders. She did eat the apple from the Tree of Knowledge, after all, supposedly causing the fall of mankind and the beginning of pain and suffering.

But what if Eve realized that she got the raw end of the deal? What if she decided she wasn’t going to be blamed for man’s fall from grace and changed the end of her story — so eating from the Tree of Knowledge actually turned out to be a pretty good thing?

These are the questions posed by eve2, a feminist re-imagining of Genesis in which Adam and Eve are modern-day workers at New York City’s Bellevue Hospital morgue. After a blackout stops time and space, they realize that they have become the titular biblical figures, giving Eve a chance to transform her dreary ending. The surreal, dream-like play opens Saturday at L.A.’s Bootleg Theater.

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Jordan Matter ‘Dancers Among Us’ Photos Inspire A Marriage Proposal

07 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in The Huffington Post

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Originally published in The Huffington Post

One photography fan took a leap of faith when he proposed to his girlfriend last week, and he has a photo to prove it.

New Yorkers Peter and Betsy are huge fans of photographer Jordan Matter, whose photo series “Dancers Among Us” captures professional dancers striking poses in public places. Peter told HuffPost Weddings that he knew Betsy loved Matter’s work, so he decided to pop the question by having Matter take a “Dancers Among Us”-style photo of him holding a sign that said “Will you marry me?”

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New Zealand Jewelry Company Designs Personalized Wedding Bands

07 Friday Jun 2013

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Originally published in The Huffington Post

Even though couples wear their wedding rings every day of their married life, wedding bands can be plain and, if you buy them from a large retailer, not personal to the couple. That’s where Ashley Hilton and Laurel Williams come in.

Hilton and Williams are the husband-and-wife team behind Ashley Hilton Jewelry, a New Zealand design company that creates personalized wedding and engagement rings (Husband Hilton creates the jewelry and wife Williams handles the financial side of the business). Working with photos (or occasionally just a few words) as inspiration, Hilton etches simple, elegant designs into handmade rings that tell a couple’s story.

HuffPost Weddings spoke with Hilton and Williams about their design process and what it means for couples to have personalized rings.

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Circus Performer Uses Giant Balloon To ‘Pop’ The Question

07 Friday Jun 2013

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Originally published in The Huffington Post

Most men get ready to propose to their girlfriends by putting on a nice outfit and making sure the ring is tucked into their pocket. Vancouver circus performer Nigel Wakita got ready by by stuffing himself inside a giant balloon!

Wakita is the director of recreational education and a performer at the Vancouver Circus School, and his girlfriend, Fiona Walsh, also works at the school as a performer and office administrator. He told HuffPost Weddings that, since he knew she wanted a big, public proposal, he decided to organize a show at the school and pop the question during his balloon act, in which he puts himself inside a giant balloon.

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Poets spit sick rhymes and lines

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in The California Aggie

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Originally published in The California Aggie

It’s Tuesday night, and the Memorial Union’s Griffin Lounge has been transformed. The chairs are facing a small stage outfitted with three microphones and bright lights. Crowds of students and locals sporting horn-rimmed glasses and sweatshirts rush to find seats as a DJ spins ’90s hip hop music. A voice rises above the din.

“I was baptized in the spit left on floors of abandoned stages/See my holy books rhyme/And five times a day, I lick the ink off their pages/Inject the black ammunition deep into my veins and/Now my tongue is stained with poetic cadence,” recites SickSpits member Mannie Rizvi, hands gesturing to the beat. “Rhymes tight because I’m Abel but they’re sinful like I’m Cain and/I’m bleeding rivers of lyrical drops/Leaving your heavens looking like wastelands.”

As she reaches the breathless finish, the crowd chants back, “Spit sick, po-ET!”

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UC Davis Ph.D. candidate Elizabeth Galindo designs costumes for stage and screen

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

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Originally published in The California Aggie

Leafing through a giant portfolio filled with photos of her many designs, couture fashion designer and historical film costume researcher Elizabeth Galindo can remember exactly how she designed, sewed, and accessorized every one of her signature gowns. After more than 20 years in the business, that’s a lot of dresses.

“This is all hand burnt velvet and it has 24-carat gold thread running through it,” Galindo says, pausing at a photo of Sophia Loren wearing an intricately patterned gold dress. “The beads are all glass beads from the island of Murano. The fabric alone took me six weeks, and then this was draped on her. That took about five fittings before we could start sewing.”

These days, Galindo has been a fixture on the UC Davis campus as she studies for her Ph.D. and, most recently, designed the costumes for the upcoming Theater and Dance Department production ofGallathea.

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The ins and outs of getting inked

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in The California Aggie

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Originally published in The California Aggie

If there’s one thing you learn when talking to a tattoo artist, it’s that people want some very unique drawings on their bodies. Very, very unique.

“I did one of Wolverine riding My Little Pony,” said Urban Body Body Piercing and Tattoo artist Chris Yoakum as he carefully inked a horse and horseshoe on a young woman’s shoulder. “That seems random but it’s much less interesting if you know the story – the guy got it to commemorate his kids.”

Judging by the steady stream of customers that filled the colorful Davis shop last Saturday, it would seem that lots of people have a story they want to commemorate. Tattooing is more popular than ever, with kids as young as 18 and adults as old as 70 choosing to get inked. And that isn’t likely to change anytime soon, said Sacred Tiger Tattoo owner George Hernandez.

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