Category Archives: People
It didn’t cost a million dollars
Nigel Redden, director of Spoleto Festival USA, didn’t seem pleased to learn that the biggest buzz of the festival so far has been for Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, a show whose run ended Tuesday.
During a party last night after the opening of The Burial at Thebes, I told Redden that to [...]
Hanging out with 1927
Since Saturday’s opening of 1927’s Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, I’ve had occasion to socialize with the London-based theater troupe — animator Paul Barritt, director Suzanne Andrade, actor Esme Appleton, and musician Lillian Henley. I’ve learned since then that they are not too far removed from their on-stage characters, just more gregarious [...]
As serious as a heart attack
Phillip Hyman was hospitalized two days ago after suffering from a heart attack. He’s fine now, he said, recovering at MUSC’s intensive care unit after surgery to implant stents to relieve what had been 100 percent blockage. Since Monday, he’s been under observation, but he should be well enough to leave Thursday, he said.
Hyman is [...]
Gerry Hemingway likes Greek tragedy
At least we think so. We found him taking pictures outside the Cistern of the stage on which the Nottingham Playhouse will present The Burial at Thebes. What we’re certain of is Hemingway’s love and devotion to new music. This festival season, much of that new music is by his old friend Anthony Davis.
Gerry Hemingway [...]
Tim Page covers Spoleto for the Post and Courier
For the intellectuals out there, this is exciting news. Tim Page, the award-winning critic for The Washington Post, is coming to Charleston to cover Spoleto for the Post and Courier.
I’ve regularly read Page’s work and consider him to be a model critic — even-toned, level-headed, hugely informed, and inexorably opinionated. That, and he’s a hell [...]
Serendipity
I ran into Monkey director Chen Shi-Zheng yesterday as I was walking by the Sottile Theatre. He was smoking a cigar on the steps of the backstage exit. He was taking a break between segments of a rehearsal that focused on the music and getting the sound just right. I asked him how things are [...]
Boston Ballet in the news
While the Boston Ballet was gearing up for its performance at Spoleto, news broke out that the company would be forced to “downsize” its corps by nine dancers. Some wondered if that would have any bearing on BB’s Spoleto performance. Jill Bahr, of the Charleston Ballet Theatre, took the time to tell me not [...]
Wigging out on post-Spoleto wraps
Spoleto 2007 is an historical artifact at this point, but that hasn’t stopped commentators and critics from picking through the bones and offering up big picture post facto overviews. At The State, arts reporter Jeffrey Day’s wrap landed last Wednesday — the same day as my own postmortem hit the streets — but I just [...]
Spoleto Festival Orchestra: let’s talk about sax
On Saturday, sandwiched between my postcast conversation with P&C critic Joshua Rosenblum and a noontime encounter with Charleston Ballet Theatre’s final Brown Bag & Ballet performance, I ran into one of the Spoleto Festival Orchestra’s 113 amazing young musicians. Eliot Gattegno is a first-year saxophonist with the SFO who was hanging out at Kudu Coffee [...]
Getting forensic on Spoleto 2007
The 31st Spoleto Festival USA is officially in the past tense. It’s now time to get forensic on the thing. But that’s less easy than it sounds. Part of the difficulty in summing up the festival after the fact lies in its nature; as Mayor Riley noted during the mid-festival tribute to founder Gian Carlo [...]