Category Archives: The Back Channel
Some things are unacceptable
The performance tonight of The Rite of Spring by a troupe of West African dancers was plagued by lighting and other technical issues. At first, the visual, documentary-style accompaniment wouldn’t work. Two dancers took their positions, the house lights went up, and a technician walk on stage while the dancers were still there. Later, the [...]
Reclaiming the past, owning the present
A terrible notion struck me Thursday during a performance by the Carolina Chocolate Drops — that a someone somewhere might look at them and not see a trio of superb musicians reviving a rich yet nearly forgotten slice of musical Americana, but see through race-tinted glasses a trio of country Negroes.
It was made even more [...]
For the time being
I saw PURE Theatre’s Cloud Tectonics last night and realized for the first time that it’s a play about time. Rather, it’s about the mystery of time: that unseen force in the universe, that elusive fourth dimension.
Sharon Graci plays Celestina del Sol, a pregnant women who has somehow stepped out of time’s continuum. Clocks stop [...]
How polite should an audience be?
I was going to write something snarky about Tim Page, but I won’t. The Spoleto overview critic for the Post and Courier was in the audience tonight at a recital by avant-garde percussionist Gerry Hemingway. The concert started a little after 6 o’clock. Page was out of there by 6:17 p.m.
Perhaps he had another appointment. [...]
Go see The Great War
I saw it last night and it’s an astounding piece of puppet theater. I’m sorry I haven’t written about it. I promise to later. For now, though, please consider my heartfelt endorsement. It’s a fresh and new way of looking at reality and experiencing something as unreal and hard to understand as World War I.
Here [...]
Laurie Anderson’s political art
Laurie Anderson performs again tonight at 9 p.m. It’s the last of three Charleston shows for the pioneering performance artist. Last night, her husband Lou Reed showed up for a tune. Perhaps he’ll do it again tonight. At any rate, we saw the show, called Homeland, on Wednesday and like a couple of other performances [...]
Is Wadsworth stepping down?
In today’s P&C, Charles Wadsworth, founder of Spoleto’s chamber music series and series director for more than 30 years, hints at it. The piece is about the appointment of Geoff Nuttall, violinist of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, as associate artistic director, the first time Wadsworth has needed an assistant.
“In recent years, it has been [...]
The Post and Courier’s missed opportunity
Philip Murphy of Mount Pleasant found fault with Tim Page’s review of Monkey: Journey to the West. The overview critic for The Post and Courier wrote that he had little taste for the circus or for theatrical fare like that offered by Chinese opera director Chen Shi-Zheng, Britpop songwriter Damon Albarn, and Gorillaz illustrator Jamie [...]
Shadow puppets gone very wrong
I got a call from a City Paper staffer Wednesday night about Wayang Modern, the shadow puppet theater performance led by Geoffrey Cormier. It took place at the New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church on Elizabeth Street.
There were many parents, children, and elderly people in attendance, who, it’s safe to say, were expecting to see a [...]
Quote of the week
That has to go to Charlie Sanders, who was wrapping up a performance by the Buffoons Wednesday night at Theatre 99, when someone from the audience leaped on stage to give him a little love.
“I just got mouth-raped by a racist,” he said. “I never thought I’d say that.”
