#Alexandra Theatre

[willstafford]

Back in Black

THE WOMAN IN BLACK The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, Tuesday 6th February, 2024 Arthur Kipps is an old man with a story to tell.  He employs a young actor to give him tips and training so he feels able to tell his loved ones the story that has haunted him for thirty years.  The Actor (Mark Hawkins) in the light of Kipps’s lack of presentation skills, proposes a reworking of the material, a…

[suzie81blog]

Press Review: Peter Pan Goes Wrong at The Alexandra Theatre

Directed by Adam Meggio and written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, the members of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society are back on stage, battling technical hitches, flying mishaps and cast disputes as they attempt to present J.M Barrie’s much-loved tale of Peter Pan. But will they ever make it to Neverland?  Peter Pan Goes Wrong, part of the ever growing Mischief Theatre…

[theoutcastrogue]

Venice in the art of Alexandra Exter (1882-1949)

Carnival in Venice (oil on canvas) 1930s

Carnival Procession (oil on canvas)

Masked Figures by the Banks of a Venetian Canal (oil on canvas)

Venetian Masks (oil on panel)

Pulcinella (gouache on paper) late 1920s-30s

Venice (oil and sand on canvas) 1925

Venice, 1915

"Aleksandra Aleksandrovna Ekster, also known as Alexandra Exter, was a Russian and French painter and designer. As a young woman, her studio in Kiev attracted all the city's creative luminaries, and she became a figure of the Paris salons, mixing with Picasso, Braque and others. She is identified with the Russian/Ukrainian avant-garde, as a Cubo-futurist, Constructivist, and influencer of the Art Deco movement. She was the teacher of several School of Paris artists such as Abraham Mintchine, Isaac Frenkel Frenel and the film directors Grigori Kozintsev, Sergei Yutkevich among others." [x]

"Exter painted views of Florence, Genoa and Rome, but ‘most insistent and frequent were images of Venice. The city emerged in various forms: via the outlines of its buildings, in the ‘witchcraft of water’. In glimmering echoes of Renaissance painting, in costumes and masks and its carnivals’.

"Exter’s characteristic use of the bridge as a stage platform, seen most clearly in Carnival in Venice, is a legacy of her time as Tairov’s chief designer [Alexander Tairrov, director of Moscow's Kamerny Theatre]; the director believed in breaking up the flatness of the stage floor which the artist achieved for him by introducing arches, steps and mirrors. Even in her easel work, the emphasis is at all times on theatricality. Bridges are used as proscenium arches, the architecture creates a stage-like space in which to arrange her cast."

"For all her modernity, references to Venetian art of the past abound in these paintings. The masked figures are influenced by the Venetian artist Pietro Longhi, to whom Exter dedicated a series of works around this time. The incredible blues used in both Carnival Procession and Masked Figures by the Banks of a Venetian Canal are a direct reference to Titian, who was famed for his use of ultramarine, the pigment most associated with Venice’s history as the principal trading port with the East." [x]

"Exter had long since abandoned the Cubist syntax by 1925 but her sense of colour remained together with a strong conviction, shared with Léger, that a work of art should elicit a feeling of mathematical order. In its graceful interaction of fragmented planes and oscillation between emerging and receding elements, Venice (1925) echoes the more precise qualities that also appear in Léger's work at this time, both artists occupied with the continuous modulation of surfaces and the 'melody of construction' that Le Corbusier was still advocating in the 1930s. But while Exter subscribed to Léger's theory that 'a painting in its beauty must be equal to a beautiful industrial production', she never fully embraced the aesthetics of the machine and rejecting the common opposition between ancient and modern, her work often retains a classical edge - for example in these trefoil windows, arches and vaults. Human figures, which had been nearly absent from her Cubo-futurist paintings, also return in other works from this period."

"She was undoubtedly aware of the concept of 'defamiliarisation', a term first coined by the influential literary critic Viktor Shklovsky in 1917:

'The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms difficult to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged.'

An instance of this device is discernable in the present tight formation of the oars, seen from above. Like Braque and Picasso, Exter incorporates sand into certain areas of pigment to enhance the differentiation of surfaces, a technique also used to 'increase the length of perception'. The occasional lack of overlap between the boundaries of the textured surfaces and colour planes strengthens the paradoxical combination of tangible presence and elusive abstraction that makes Venice such a powerful work."

"Venetian subjects occur in Exter's work as early as 1915. A gigantic panneau of the city was one of the final works she produced in the Soviet Union and exhibited in the 1924 Venice Biennale." [x]

"The specific theme of the Commedia dell’Arte first appeared in Exter’s work in 1926 when the Danish film director Urban Gad approached her to design the sets and marionettes for a film which was to tell the story of Pulcinella and Colombina, transposing them from the Venice of Carlo Goldoni to contemporary New York. Pulcinella most likely relates to the artist’s subsequent experimentations on the theme of the Commedia dell’Arte. Pulcinella, who came to be known as Punch in England, is one of the classical characters of the Neapolitan puppetry. Typically depicted wearing a pointed hat and a mask, Pulcinella is an opportunist who always sides with the winner in any situation and fears no consequences." [x]

[snowrassa]

Camelot at Shakespeare Theatre Company, 2018

[broadwaydivastournament]

BROADWAY DIVAS SUPERLATIVES: Happy Pride Month

Broadway is chock full of queer men, and we love and respect them here at the Broadway Divas Tournament, but let's give it up for the oft-overlooked queer women of the stage. Here are just a small handful of the queer ladies to delight us on Broadway.

More Polls

No video clips for this one, but I *strongly* advise you all to seek out Lea DeLaria's jazzy swing version of "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" because if that isn't gay rights, what is?

[helluvatimes]

Playing The Hypocrite

The Alexandra Palace Theatre drawing patrons in London. Photo credit: Sarah Chua.

Interestingly, the word “hypocrite” was apparently derived from theatre, the ancient Greek theatre to be specific. Its Greek word referred to something like a “stage actor” and eventually came to “represent a character who was pretending or acting falsely.” (source)

[fuzzysparrow]

In the Eye of the Storm

The exhibition In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s, at the Royal Academy of Arts showcases various artistic styles and cultural influences in Ukraine during the early 20th century. It tells the stories of modernist artists revitalising Ukraine’s culture and asserting its autonomy. The historical backdrop of Ukraine, which had been subject to the rule of various empires, led…

[domhnallgleesonhaven]

👍🏻 Always

Source VK.c/ om

[cometomecosette]

In honor of Barricade Day, here’s a very rare Les Mis treasure. A highlights reel of a production from the musical’s early glory days: the 1991 Toronto production at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.

The cast features Michael Burgess as Jean Valjean, Gordon McLaren as Javert, Susan Gilmour as Fantine, Graeme Campbell as Thénardier, Janelle Hutchinson as Mme. Thénardier, Vance Avery as Marius, Ian Simpson as Enjolras, Cara Hunter as Éponine, Cara Chisholm as Cosette, and an unknown Young Cosette and Gavroche.

The snippets of each musical number are too short for me to write a detailed review, but this cast definitely seems to have been an outstanding one! 

This video is a very lucky find.

[terrorpenned]

swapping out actors is very par for the course for a daytime soap but there's something very ... meaningful about it in this show, where everyone exactly resembles an ancestor, and those resemblances are significant to their identity and place in the world, while keeping a face unchanged through the centuries announces you as a harbinger of doom. we have known from the moment barnabas arrives that he is the ancestor in the portrait. we know that cassandra is angelique, because her similarly enduring face reveals her intentions. ancient loves are found and lost again through resemblances. victoria's identity is made and unmade in it over and over again.

[ballet-symphonie]

I'm rooting for Maria Khoreva's comeback. The only thing that scares me is with the comeback + the 2023 class graduation coming, there'll be a lot of competition. Safe to say Iliushkina, Khoreva and Nagahisa is a matter of a short time to be principals. Khiteeva unfortunately I'm kinda losing hope. But I'm scared for Shakirova most definitely. Among the favorites of the audience, she's the most underrated one by the management, which is sad, because she's the best of them.

Based on Khoreva's recent post, she's going to be back on stage very very soon after about 8 months off. I'm not too worried for her honestly, she has been consistently prioritized by management and even though the 2023 class is strong, I don't think even Koshkareva can match Khoreva's off-stage support.

If Khiteeva isnt promoted to soloist by the end of the season, I honestly think she should jump ship and head somewhere else because I think she's going to get buried. Now I'd love to see her in Munich or Berlin but that might be too complicated nowadays, but I think she'd get more chances even if she went to MK or Stasik. She's too unique to sit in the corps.

I am fairly confident in Iliushkina's eventual promotion, her beautiful lyricism is helped by the fact that she has an excellent set partner in Korneyev and he's around her age. This is a huge advantage that a lot of her 'competition' lacks. I was never sold on Nagahisa going all the way up but the "sudden" massive uptick in her popularity since returning back to Russia is making me reconsider.

Shakirova is a tricky case because I think it's all about the timing. While Khoreva was been injured and Shakirova has really blossomed, most notably with that Bayadere debut. Additionally, Iliushkina is a completely different dancer stylistically, there's room for both of them at the top easily. MT doesn't promote principals often and there's a lot of people wondering how much longer some of the older ballerinas are going to continue their careers. Kondaurova is 40 and has recently recovered from Achilles surgery, Novikova is 39 and became a mother for the 3rd time and Tereshkina is 39 and also battling injuries. I think it benefits Shakirova if a spot 'opens up' sooner rather than later because there's less time for some of the young ones to catch up.

Side note: I understand why Vishneva is on the roster, but it certainly feels factitious with the amount of actual dancing she's doing nowadays.

[willstafford]

Contemplating the Naval

AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN Alexandra Theatre,  Birmingham, Monday 26thFebruary 2024 Due to a lack of creativity among musical theatre producers, they think all they have to do is pick an old film that everybody likes, bung some pop songs in it and hey presto!  Box office gold. If only. The Richard Gere-Debra Winger film from the 1980s is given the jukebox musical treatment, and people of a…

[suzie81blog]

HERE & NOW - The Steps Musical

FINALLY, we have the musical that all Steps fans (myself included) have been waiting for.  HERE & NOW is the hilarious and heart-warming brand new musical based on the songs of British pop band Steps, and I was lucky enough to bag an invite to the press launch at The Alexandra Theatre. Welcome to seaside superstore Better Best Bargains, where it’s Friday night, the vibe is right, and everyone’s…

[casasupernovas]

found this photo on twitter and:

[snowrassa]

Camelot at Shakespeare Theatre Company, 2018

Set design by Walt Spangler

[balletomaneblog]

Knews on Khiteeva's debut, please! :)) I honestly think she's the first one on the management's list to be promoted to first soloist. Lukina is the obvious choice due to her time in the company and big repertoire, but let's not forget that both Nagahisa and Iliushkina went up before her, so it wouldn't be the first time. I wish they both (Khiteeva and Lukina) were promoted, but the Mariinsky is very much promoting Sasha right now, so I would bet on her.

Yes, I could see that possibly happening relatively soon. Especially now that she also has an upcoming Kitri debut.

I loved what I saw from Khiteyeva's debut of Aspicia, I was so astonished at the growth in her presence and maturity on stage. I think this was definitely a big moment for her.

But of course I also think Lukina is very deserving of the promotion considering that she's now been in the company for close to eight years and has many more roles in her rep. It's tough when you're routing for so many different dancers for so few spots. Hopefully, they both get promoted within the next couple years.