With last year’s hit shows, “Infinity Scarf” and “My Big Fat Greek Yogurt,” University of Michigan’s oldest comedic improv group, ComCo, is sure to leave you with a six-pack abs from laughter. Prepare yourself for obscenities, awkward moments, and salacious references to world leaders, public officials, and celebrities. Audience participation is welcome! So come with your brain full of ideas to shout out! Think of anything and everything that “can fit on this stage,” as ComCo would say. If you need a good laugh, make sure to “cut” a little time out of your Friday and stop by! (Ooof, puns. That’s why I’m not in ComCo.)
What: ComCo Improv Show: Edward Schlisselhands
When: Friday, November 7 at 8:00 pm
Where: Auditorium A, Angell Hall
How Much?: $2
To keep updated on all of ComCo’s shows, like their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/Comedy.Company
Have you ever been in a writing class, received your red-marked paper back with critiques and underlines and “more sexual tension” here and “suspend reader disbelief” there, and wondered, “Gee, does my teacher practice what he/she preaches in his/her own writing?” Here’s your chance to find out!
What: A literary reading by five local authors, hosted by local publication, Midwestern Gothic
Who: Contributors include U-M English lecturer Julie Babcock, Ann Arbor News crime reporter John Counts, local authors Robert James Russell and Jared Yates Sexton, and the RC’s Laura Thomas.
“Jugalbandi” : the most beautiful word you’ve never heard of. The term is used most commonly to describe the tradition in Carnatic and Hindustani styles of Classical music in which two musicians perform together. But, on Friday night, the talented students of Michigan Sahana took “jugalbandi” to the next level. They extended the metaphor to include dichotomies of music and dance, show and tell, performance and education, and Indian and American, to create a unique cultural experience.
In order to replicate the authentic experience of a true Classical Indian concert which last up to 4 hours, the performance followed a carefully chosen eight-piece repertoire that interweaved both music and dance pieces by Sahana members, and demonstrate a specific role of a true Classical Indian concert. First, a Varnam, a traditional raga, was performed in its ceremonial performance-initial position. Ragas are like the structured jazz of the Americas, in that they are the melodic framework for improvisation and composition. Sitting comfortably cross-legged on cubes, the four performers began the “alaap.”
This ‘alaap’ allows the musicians to warm-up their fingers, play with the notes and rhythms within the determined pitch, and introduces the central themes of the raga. I very much enjoyed this part, especially since I knew that it was so authentic to a real classical concert, but without structure or a full ensemble playing at the given time, I felt that the warm-up went on a bit too long, as it sometimes was longer than the raga itself!
The performers throughout the show took turns teaching the audience about their style of music, which was fantastic! They shared musical terms in the original Sanskrit, counted out tricky rhythms. It was almost like we had been invited to a guest lecture, taught to us by the students themselves! It was exciting to see them talk about something that they are so passsionate about. Also, I never realized how different Eastern music theory is from the Western theory that I’ve learned in my own violin lessons.
After an impressive second act of spinning and syncopated footwork by a dancing duo, the next act was a classical interpretive dance. Dressed in traditional saris, the three young women transformed into storytellers, regaling the audience with a spiritual story involving Ganesha and Nataraja, the Lord of Dancers. Thankfully, they told us the story before the dance. Each character had a specific action or pose associated with it (just like in one of those interactive stories you might have participated in as a child, where the king is identified by his crown and you clap your hands like a gallup when the horse is mentioned). There was so much to look at – so many details that the dancers had to control. Every eyebrow raise, eye dart, neck bob, finger undulation had a meaning, and added to the character development in the dance. They moved with a floating grace about the stage. I could imagine a story unfolding in front of me.
After an hour and a half (and a ten minute intermission), the second half kicked off with another alaap to another raga. The groups maintained variety to keep the audience interested. This time, two singers were accompanied by a tabla drum and a harmonium, a portable hand-pumped organ which sounds similar to an accordion. Give a listen here to The Best Harmonium Player on YouTube!
Followed by another storytelling dance, this time about the legend of Rama and Krishna. Almost balletic in feel, each dancer poured the emotion and devotion of the story out of every hand movement and neck oscillation.
The finale was by far worth waiting for in order to see so much color, so much energy and cultural pride on that stage. Both parts of Sahana, the music and dance portions, came together to accompany each other and create a complete picture of Classical India.
This unique educating type of performance got me thinking about what a musician needs from its audience. A performer really desires an audience full of people who either really understand the depth of the music and share the love and passion of the art form, and those who may have limited exposure, but come with support and a blooming curiosity. Michigan Sahana took a very bold move and used their concert as a tool to train their audience on how to enjoy the performance, and even went so far as to further the enjoyment factor by revealing the patterns and stories behind the music and dance pieces. How many times have you been to a Shakespeare play or a band concert, and wished that you had read the summary or knew the thematic layers that structured the Sousa Symphony?
By the end, I came away with a new understanding of Sanskrit, a better idea of various Indian instruments (other than the stereotypical tabla drum and flute), and a deep appreciation for the small details that the musicians and dancers pay attention to in order to convey their cultural stories. Also, I now realized that a true Classical Indian concert was a long event – up to 3 or 4 hours. I cheer Sahana’s authenticity, but I do believe that perhaps the concert could have been a bit shorter for this present day audience who is unaccustomed to long amounts of sitting. In the future, maybe they could include an optional “educational talk” before or after the show to discuss rhythms and Classical Indian terminology to those who are truly interested. Sometimes, after a long day, patrons just want to have a good listen, be entertained, and then, go on their merry way.
“What was the most foolish thing you’ve ever done for love?” read sticky notes that adorned the Arthur Miller Theatre ticket booth. Equally creative, humorous, and heartbreaking, answers included “Dressed as a gentleman and pretended to be a eunuch,” and “Fell in love with a girl who was pretending to be a man.” If this sounds like Shakespeare’s comedic drama “Twelfth Night” to you, then you’re correct!
“Twelfth Night,” a play appropriate for Halloween with its disguises and mistaken identities, actually refers to the festival that traditionally occurs at the end of the 12 days of Christmas. On this particular night, well-off citizens would become servants and enjoy the “low-class” revelry, such as cross-dressing, copious amounts of eating and drinking, and un-Christian merriment. Likewise, servants would act as masters for “just a little while.” Keeping this in mind, Shakespeare drops his audience plop down in a world where people don’t act as society says they should. Love can cause blindness, danger, and also, hilarious situations.
The play, performed this past weekend by the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, begins when Viola (Carol Gray) finds herself on the coast of Illyria, having survived a shipwreck that she believes has killed her twin brother, Sebastian (Richard Graham). She disguises herself as a man and calls herself Cesario in order to acquire work serving Illyria’s Duke Orsino (Greg Kovas). But, she soon falls in love with Orsino, who has ordered her to court Countess Olivia (Kaela Parnicky) on his behalf. Olivia, is in mourning and has refused to see any suitors for seven years, until Cesario comes and awakes Olivia’s lustful appetite.
With such a complex web of many love triangles, you could easily find yourself drifting in and out as if you were lost at sea, waiting for a perfectly timed slapstick fall or jibe by the drunken Sir Toby Belch (Jeff Miller) or adorkable Andrew Aguecheek (Chris Grimm) to reel you back in to the plot. But director Kat Walsh and set designer Nathan Doud made the play visually accessible with the set design, especially with the use of tableaus. As the curtain raised up for the first time, we saw three large frames from which the actors exited or entered the stage. It looked as if we were watching a “living museum.” Think of the Museum of Living History from Gilmore Girls.
Image via kateofdiamonds.tumblr.com
The tableaus allowed the primary characters of the upcoming scene to be artfully displayed, as if in a painting, while others first spoke of them. It worked really well, especially given the play’s theme that there is always more than meets the eye.
Walsh made use of her actors’ musical talents: both Carol Gray (Viola) and Richard Graham (Sebastian) play violin, so they began the play with a harmonious duet. It must be a twin thing! Also, Dory Mead (Feste) sang with such power and sweet emotion that gave me goosebumps. Her songs were so beautiful and indeed almost characters themselves, despite their sometimes depressing and morbid themes.
The actors gave outstanding performances that dialed up feelings of pathos and joy, love and embarrassment; feelings that all humans have experienced and could relate to, as seen at the posting wall outside of the theatre, where audience members could write their own answers to the original question of “What was the most foolish thing you’ve ever done for love?” Walsh and her Ann Arbor Civic Theatre team have achieved the timelessness of Shakespeare. I can’t wait to see if they will try another Shakespeare in the future. If you’re interested in upcoming A2CT performances, check out their website: www.a2ct.org.
Do you remember in the 2006 Amanda Bynes movie, “She’s the Man,” Channing Tatum went off on a glorious inspirational speech that went like this : “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.” He was actually directly quoting a line from Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” which the plot of “She’s the Man” was based on!
The original love triangle comedy will be performed by the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, a community group that has stolen local hearts with past productions, like Shrek and Les Miserables. I’m very much looking forward to see if the troupe modernizes the Shakespearean classic or keeps it in its traditional form.
How Much?: Free with a Passport to the Arts; $11 at the door.
If you like to read up on Shakespearean plays before you go (which can be very helpful sometimes), I recommend a quick summary skim on Sparknotes. Or, better yet, just grab some friends and host a pre-play screening of “She’s the Man”!
What would you do if you were a director of a play and six unknown figures show up on your stage, claiming to have been abandoned by their author, and beg to be characters (not actors) in your play? If you are already confused, then you are reading it correctly. Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello has written a “staged inception” where reality and fiction are constantly in battle, and seem almost interchangeable at times. The French theatre company Theatre de la Ville has taken Pirandello’s literary genius and has brought it to life with a full throttle of energy. The choreography between scene changes was fluid, almost balletic. The characters (played by the French actors) were expressive and experienced. They knew how to use their whole voice and body in every motion, every projection. For me, it almost didn’t matter how ridiculous the play in front of me was becoming – I was entranced by the beauty of the French and the collective imagination.
Although the play itself is quite innovative, experimental and sometimes difficult to follow, that was quite expected from simply reading the playbill synopsis, which was written as if it was a script itself. It was like we, the audience, had become characters cast in Pirandello’s piece to play the role of “AUDIENCE.” Yes…whoa…my exact thinking.
The only problem was the logistics of the subtitles. Because the play was performed solely in French, English subtitles were very necessary to even attempt to understand what Pirandello was trying to get across. But, unlike a movie, where your eyes can flutter peripherally from scene to text, the electronic marquis was so far above the stage that you couldn’t focus on both stage and screen at the same time. I always felt like I was missing either one or the other, and therefore, could not appreciate fully the humor and wit of the dialogue, nor the theatrical skills of the actors. Because this specific play is both visually and linguistically dependent, it would be beneficial for UMS to consider alternate placements for the subtitles in order to achieve maximum audience enjoyment and understanding. And UMS should not let language barriers or a little bit of absurdist literary theory stop them from trying again, because pushing the boundaries of the arts is what UMS does best. Just not pushing them too far that we can’t see the subtitles!
