Brooklyn Bridge at RoCo

The crowd on opening night - is that
Wendell Castle?

I’d never been to an opening night of an exhibit at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo), so didn’t know what to expect. It coincided with “First Friday” and good weather, so there were quite a few people at the gallery admiring the pieces by five New York-based emerging artists, and taking the opportunity to ascend to a visit the open studios upstairs.

One of Derek Lerner's
pen and ink drawings

The exhibit is an eclectic mix of paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Derek Lerner’s ballpoint pen drawings were fascinating, and you could only imagine the amount of time, effort, and patience that went into creating these abstract works. For example, a drawing that looked like a small lightning flash of white on a solid blue background from afar was, on closer inspection, various shades of blue pen ink with just a sliver of white background remaining.

Norm Paris' The Fumble

I’ll admit that I didn’t ‘get’ most of what I was looking at, but luckily, Blue Cease, Executive Director and Curator, was on hand to share his excitement and knowledge about the artists and the particular pieces in the gallery. Of course I could have just read the posted descriptions, but what fun is that? The two largest sculptures, by Norm Paris, played with the concept of negative space. The sculptures are meant to represent shipping crates for non-existent sculptures of bygone athletes. It was easy to see the outline of a person in The Fumble, which was inspired by a 1988 game between the Bronco’s and the Browns, and I bet I wasn’t the only one who wished it were an interactive exhibit you could crawl into and ‘be’ the sculpture!

Liz Jaff's intricate folded-paper Plomb

Speaking of interactive, RoCo will be the venue for Poolastic, on Friday September 18, from 2-10pm, as part of Rochester’s Fringe Festival. I’m not sure I’ll want to jump into the bin of 10,000 plastic bottles myself, but it’ll be fun watching others do it, and perhaps it will provide a jolt to people about how bad these bottles are for our environment.

Brooklyn Bridge runs through November 15. Admission is only $2.

Brockport Championship Cat Show

Even if you aren’t a “dog person” you’re probably aware of dog shows – maybe you’ve watched highlights from the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on the news, or you’ve seen the hysterical movie Best in Show. But did you know that there are cat shows, too? I certainly didn’t, until my friend Parker got an adorable Egyptian Mau, Saladin, and started to show him. But I guess it makes sense – dog shows aren’t about dogs doing tricks or following any particular commands, they’re about breed standards. So why not have the same thing for cats?

a couple of cats with lots of ribbons

When Parker, her daughter Emory, and prize-winning Saladin came to visit to compete in the National Siamese Cat Club Annual CFA* Allbreed Championship Cat Show this weekend in Brockport, I was intrigued. I had to go! Saladin didn’t win any additional prizes on the first day, and unfortunately his cage was still undecorated when I visited the second morning. Apparently, this show had attracted a lot of the top nationally ranked cats, although not a lot of Saladin’s particular breed. Yeah, I was confused.

Saladin with (right to left)
Parker, Emory, and the breeder

I’d never heard of an Egyptian Mau, the only naturally domesticated spotted cat, but I’m pretty sure we had a Steiff stuffed animal modeled on one as a kid, because it’s exactly what I picture when I picture a cat. Saladin is very handsome, and very well behaved, and has even been trained, like a dog, to respond to ‘give me your paw.’ He was the only one of his breed in his category (premiership – cats that have been fixed, as opposed to championship – those that haven’t, and still other categories for kittens and mixed breed household pets).

a judge making awards and
explaining her reasoning

coffee filter 'bib'

Cat shows are good advertisement for the breeders, and a great place for cat lovers to socialize. Most of the owners in the room were women ‘of a certain age’ and many were fixated with maintaining their cats’ grooming for their next appearance in the ‘ring’ (which wasn’t a ring at all, but a platform on a table with a scratching post). Some of the long-haired cats wore coffee-filter collars (that looked like inverted dog cones of shame) to keep their hair from matting while eating. There seemed to be a lot of downtime, since the actual time in the ring was only a few minutes, and then there was a lot of waiting – to be called to another ring, or to be called back as a finalist. Saladin and my friends would be at the show all day and only compete in only five or six rings!

a very intent judge evaluating Saladin

Saladin after a round of judging

Parker tried to explain to me the various judging criteria, things like body and head symmetry, eye color, and body proportion. I could see from the judges’ expressions when they felt the cats for deformities, and waved feathers at their faces to assess their eyes, how seriously they take their jobs.  It was certainly amusing, if not exciting. And it definitely isn’t a spectator thing, unless you’re there to check out a breed or breeder (and there were kittens for sale). Sadly, Saladin returned with only one ribbon to show for his owners’ efforts. On the flip side, I’m pretty sure he didn’t know the difference!

*Cat Fanciers’ Association, of course! (not to be confused with Chartered or Certified Financial Analysts…)

Geva Theatre Center Summer Academy Showcase

Let me start by saying I’m not a fan of watching or reading Shakespeare plays. Yes, I studied my fair share in high school, and I’ve seen enough plays (and movies) to have an appreciation for them. But to me they're a bit like vegetables - I know they're good for you, but a little goes a long way... So I was ambivalent about attending Geva’s Summer Academy 2015 Showcase: Welcome to the Renaissance.

Not surprisingly, there were more young people in the audience than I’d seen at the theater in a long time – mostly friends and family of the cast (many had bouquets of flowers for post-show presentation). I chatted with two women behind me – mother and grandmother of a 14-year old in the academy for his first year. I asked how he had liked the program, and they said that despite being a quiet kid, he had thoroughly enjoyed the experience, had blossomed, and wanted to be an actor when he grows up.

Skip Greer, Director of Education, introduced the afternoon and explained that the five-week training program for 30 students focused first on process and then on performance. Wait, just five weeks to learn all those difficult lines, songs, and dances? I was impressed. Even though some of the kids were difficult to understand at times when they were speaking too quickly to enunciate clearly. Even though Shakespeare can sometimes sound like a foreign language and you really have to remain alert because if you miss a few words, your brain can’t easily fill in the blanks. Because most of the actors did an amazing job at conveying not just the text, but interpreting it – imparting emotion and subtleties in their body language and facial expressions.

Some of the casting was very creative (especially the 3 women playing Juliet), and some at first confusing (several men’s parts were played by women, perhaps because there were simply more girls than boys in the academy?). There were several of songs to break up the dialogues, and two of them featured simple but very effective Jerome Robbins-like choreography.

Very few of these students will likely realize their dreams of becoming professional actors, but this training will definitely serve them well in whatever future careers they pursue, since learning to be comfortable in your body and comfortable in front of an audience, to communicate and express yourself, are all skills that will come in handy in most professions.   And while Geva does charge tuition for the program, scholarships are available; the entire back side of the one-page program was devoted, in a very tiny font, to thanking all of the organizations and individuals whose support contributed to this and other educational programs at Geva. For more information on auditioning for Summer Academy 2016, or regarding Geva in general, visit their website: www.gevatheatre.org.

Geva Theater and Apartment Tour

mural on the side of the Geva apartment building

Last winter, Geva Theater held an open house for its new actor apartments, but I reluctantly stayed home, along with most of the guests who rsvped, since a blizzard was raging. They had just completed renovation on 11 apartments in the Merkel Donohue building, 150 steps from the theater (to replace the existing apartments out in Gates). Since then, I have heard positive feedback from the actors, not just on the proximity, but on the little touches that make their roughly two-month stay away from home more comfortable, like blackout curtains on the windows, so they can sleep late after performance nights. So I was excited by a recent invitation to see them before the next cast appears, and to get a ‘hard hat’ tour of this summer’s theater renovations as well.

Each loft apartment is roughly 560 square feet, and although they have slightly different layouts, they all have the same furniture, to adhere to Actors’ Equity rules (yes, their contracts even specify apartment details!). We were all impressed with how bright and airy the compact apartments felt, and someone commented that they are nicer than some of the actors’ apartments in New York City. In addition to living space, Geva also provides the actors with passes to Harro East, and local organizations like Hart’s and the Little Theatre provide discounts to the actors, as well.

The Rehearsal Hall

New dressing room

Back at the theatre, we toured the top floor of the building, which has been renovated as part of the recent capital campaign. As we emerged from the staircase, you could hear a chorus of “Oh, wow!”s at the transformation. They’ve opened up the library, rehearsal space, and kitchen, so it feels completely different. And the rehearsal hall has new flooring with a creative design that will allow easier measurement for staging. Finally, we descended to the basement, where the Green Room and dressing rooms are. The old spaces were dingy and depressing, but the new rooms are spacious and inviting. There is no question that all of these new actor spaces will help Geva continue to attract top quality talent. There is even a website the actors use to rate the accommodations of regional theaters, so word will definitely spread.

Peggy, fellow Trustee

Next summer, the theater will undergo additional renovations – this time, to the public spaces, to enhance the audience experience. Among other things, a new donor lounge will be created above the entrance, and a grand staircase will be installed to allow audience members to access it as well as the balcony. The elevator will also be connected to the balcony, and the extra egress will relieve some of the bottleneck that currently exists after each performance. The building is approaching its 150th birthday in a few years, but by the time it does, it will look and function as if it were built in this century.

It was a Grand Night for Singing at FLO!

After hearing a presentation a few months ago by Gerald Floriano, Artistic Director, about Finger Lakes Opera (FLO), a number of friends and I decided to make the journey to Geneseo for their performance of A Grand Night for Singing, a musical revue of Rodgers and Hammerstein songs (we weren’t quite ready to take the opera plunge).

Floriano explained that FLO was in its third year of performances at SUNY Geneseo; the first, in 2013, was simply a concert of various opera selections, and last year’s production of Bizet’s Carmen was completely sold out. This year, in addition to staging Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore in the Wadsworth Auditorium, they were presenting this revue, in a smaller space on the campus. Eager to support the arts, and to hear some classics from the American Songbook, 13 of us made it a girls’ night out, with dinner beforehand at the Big Tree Inn.

 

Doty Hall was the perfect space for this intimate show, and was nearly sold out. Five extremely gifted singers, accompanied by five equally talented musicians, filled the space with music. It was refreshing to hear unamplified voices, and to have the opportunity to appreciate the vocal training required to project and enunciate. From the chilling opening medley, I was transported. The evening offered songs from the familiar (Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I dominated, although Walter Bobbie, who wrote the book for the original Broadway show, threw us a few bones from Cinderella and Sound of Music) to the less recognizable (including selections from Allegro, Flower Drum Song, and Me and Juliet).

The choreography was just enough to keep the songs moving, and the theatre was small enough that every seat provided a great view of the stage and the performers’ facial expressions. There was almost no dialog to interrupt the music, so when the evening ended, two hours and 30+ numbers later, we wished it were a concert with encores, instead of a scripted show. I drove home with snippets of “Impossible” and “Something Wonderful” running through my head. Wouldn’t it be great if they did Putting it Together or Marry Me a Little next year?

Geva Summer Curtain Call

Maggie Brooks & Skip Greer

When I joined the Board of Trustees of Geva and was asked to choose a committee, I jumped on the Education / Summer Curtain Call Committee. Charlie and I are very interested in education in Rochester, and I've been on fundraising committees in the past, so it felt like a no-brainer (plus, it fit with my schedule...). And although I'm much better at purchasing fundraiser silent auction items than soliciting them, I steeled my courage to ask a few contacts for donations (and mostly received them!). And I did manage to persuade the committee to add the ability to purchase a table; even though it's not a sit-down dinner, I thought it would be nice to have a reserved place to perch while dining from the buffet, and to gather with friends. And since this year Geva was adding mobile bidding, I wouldn't feel the need to hover over the silent auction items I was protecting...

Pamela Reed Sanchez 2nd from right,
Tom Parrish on the left

Summer Curtain Call (SCC) is Geva's annual fundraiser, to raise “the resources needed to sustain Geva's 28 educational programs, which annually serve over 40,000 Rochesterians young and old.... Over 7,000 students and teachers attended subsidized Student Matinees this season...including 1,600 Rochester City School District students who participated through (their) free Passport Program.” Geva also provides Discovery Guides and in-classroom workshops, and they pioneered the Stage Door Project, which partners with a local high school to help them produce a parallel production (this past year, it was Little Shop of Horrors).

with Sandy Frankel

SCC is quite an event. There are the usual silent and live auctions and raffles, but the thing that distinguishes it from other fundraisers is the skit. Mark Cuddy, Artistic Director, creates a performance based on the final show, and populates it with notable Rochesterians. So this year, Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike became Lovely & Sandy & Maggie & Ward...& More! Warren, Frankel, Brooks, and Stare shared the stage with about 25 other cast members, including artist Wendell Castle, and my friends Pamela Reed Sanchez (director of the Seneca Park Zoo Society) and Bernie Todd Smith.

Bernie Todd Smith 2nd from left

Maggie Brooks absolutely stole the show. Mark wrote her the best lines, and much of the plot revolved around her imminent retirement as Monroe County Executive. And of course she can act - after all, she's a politician - but she can also sing! Everyone was funny, and my only wish was that Skip's nightshirt had been a few inches longer (probably his, too!). Lovely and Ward were also very funny. The opening performance by the alumni from last year's Summer Academy left most of us wanting more. 

Wendell Castle, Lovely Warren, and Ward Stare

The event was sold out, and even though I bid on multiple items, I somehow managed to purchase only one (but it should be blog-worthy...). By the end of the night, over $185,000 had been raised, as the auctioneer said, "for the kids!"