I'm a Junior in LSA majoring in Italian and minoring in Art History. I love writing for art[seen] because it gives me the opportunity to show all of these amazing shows that the University brings to Ann Arbor. We get some world class performers and I would be really bummed if I missed out on anything that I'll never have to opportunity to see again. What you need to know about me? I'm not a writer, an art expert, and I didn't grow up around this much culture. I am a busy student at UofM, so if you are judging me for something, it's okay because I won't have time to respond. I'll just keep seeing shows and you can be jealous!
Tonight is the first showing of the musical, “Bare,” a Basement Arts production. I know some of the people in it and it just so
Spelen op online gokkasten is enorm leuk online gokkasten.. Probeer het eens..
happens to work perfectly into this busy last two week schedule that we all have. The show is set at a Catholic boarding school and uses an exciting contemporary musical score to play out a plot of sexual and social exploration. The students are struggling with countless questions and tonight I, at least, will see if they receive answers.
The show is completely free and is showing Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7pm, and Friday at 11pm in studio 1 of Walgreen Drama Center on north campus. Doors open at 6:45pm.Please come support your fellow students and see what they have to offer us!
I hope to see you there!
Sending you love and light,
Danny Fob
(Coffee is on me if you can name the show that my sign off is from!)
Though I did write a preview about the Beijing Guitar Duo and had tickets and the full intention of going, I also attended Cabaret on Sunday. It was part of my very busy art weekend.
And I was not aware that Cabaret would go as long as it did. Cabaret was absolutely fantastic, but it went longer that i thought, so it overlapped the concert and I was unable to attend. I’m sorry to disappointing you. I too was disappointed to be unable to attend. I’m sure it was wonderful though!
Sending you love and light,
Danny Fob
(Coffee is on me if you can name the show that my sign off is from!)
Another event celebrating the birth of the Spectrum Center was the first ever reading of the play “8” by Dustin Lance Black. It was an interesting experience. I had never been to a live play reading before. It was sort of like watching a regular play, except the actors carried the scripts around on stage with them and didn’t deliver the lines quite as well as they would have, though they still did an amazing job. It was also really great because many of the actors were the same Broadway UofM alumni that had performed the night before at the Pink Carpet Gala.
The play was based on the transcripts of the trial in California fighting against Proposition 8. This amendment to the Constitution of California banned gay marriage and recognition of same-sex marriages. The trial was not broadcasted nationally,
If you want to get in your best shape ever, look at insanity
although the plaintiffs did fight for it to be. Because of this, the only record we have of the trial is the transcript, and from this document Dustin Lance Black wrote a creative interpretation. His play will be making a tour around the country at many universities. Hopefully it will help spread awareness of what is happening in California and in the rest of the country when it comes to the rights of TBLG people.
Attending this event was sort of like attending a court trial, as it was staged like one, except that it gave us the bullet points of what happened and also introduced the families that were fighting together against the proposition and the ad campaign used by the supporters of Prop 8. It was sort of funny watching this depiction of the trial, because I’ve always wondered how conservatives defend their “values” like banning same-sex marriage. I always wonder what kind of evidence and argument they can come up with. This is exactly what I thought it would be like. The defense could not provide evidence or even an argument. Its witnesses were absent from court because they were afraid to defend their own words on the witness stand. The one witness that did get cross-examined ended up supporting the plaintiff’s argument, completely crushing any chance the defense had.
The outcome of the case was that same-sex marriage would not affect the rate of different-sex marriage or the rate of procreation, which is the argument the defense was trying to use. The plaintiffs won, though it is being repealed and we are still fighting Prop 8 to this day. The best thing we can all do about it is to stay informed and educate others on what has happened. I believe that is what Dustin Lance Black is trying to do with his play and I hope it works.
For more info on Prop 8, please visit http://www.prop8trialtracker.com/ or search it online for other websites that you might prefer. Also, just a fun video that came out around the time of the trial;
The Spectrum Center’s Pink Carpet Gala event happened this past Friday at Hill Auditorium, and both I and my colleague Kayla Silverstein enjoyed it thoroughly.
Since she already gave it such a raving review of the event, I would like to just provide my own personal experiences with the show, because it really was all that Kayla said it was, and more.
The speeches were incredible. Absolutely inspiring. Especially as a gay identified student here on campus that has spent a lot of time in the Spectrum Center and learned so much from the volunteers and employees that work so hard there. I am proud to have been able to celebrate so many milestones in my past three years here with the Spectrum Center. Their programming took me to the National Equality March in 2009, MBLGTACC 2010 in Madison, Wisconsin, gave me the opportunity to participate on an executive level with the planning of MBLGTACC 2011 here at the UofM, and has helped me become the proud Gay man I am today. This event meant so means so much to the community because it was the first ever office on a college campus to deal with LGBT issues, and as the co-founder and first publicly out gay person in Michigan, the speech of Jim Toy was the most hard hitting for me. This man is a legend in the LGBT activism world, and it is an honor to have met him on numerous occasions.
Chris
The speeches of Chris Armstrong and his father also brought me and most of the people around me to tears. It wasn’t so long ago that Chris was being targeted and slandered, and his family is so moved that our campus stood up and supported Chris in such a huge way. I’ve known Chris ever since my freshman year. He is a fantastic individual and it makes me proud to have been there with him, standing on the diag and at Gayz Craze with him. Andrew Shirvell approached me one time during his time here on campus, and him knowing my name and face before he met me was a little terrifying, so I can only imagine how Chris felt. UofM has proven once again exactly what the Michigan Difference is and that we will stand by our own.
Anyway, to the performers, since that what I’m really supposed to write about. Gavin Creel is amazing. I have to admit, I knew nothing about any of the performers before Friday (I’m more of what I like to call an “Old Gay” in that I listen to people like Patti Lupone, Bette Midler, Bernadette Peters, Dick Van Dyke). I absolutely loved Gavin Creel though. This man, I believe, was THE performer of the night. He sang Something’s Coming from West Side Story and I swear I couldn’t stop gripping the arm of the person next to me. He was amazing.
Everyone that performed was amazing. I think Kayla pretty much sums up how I feel about the other performers, and about how the crowd felt in her review, so I won’t make you read it all again. I really just wanted to report how amazing it felt to be in such a large crowd of LGBTQA people with highly supportive performers and University of Michigan faculty members. The love available in this community is really like nothing else you can ever experience. Plus, we throw the BEST parties!
Stay tuned for more about the Spectrum Birthday Weekend! (And of course by stay tuned I mean read my other review!)
Sending you love and light,
These two women are incredibly talented and mix their very skilled technique with a passionate musicality, at least so says the UMS website. I can’t wait to find out for myself. This event takes place this weekend, Sunday, November 21 at 4pm at Rackham Auditorium.
Sending you love and light,
Danny Fob
(Coffee is on me if you can name the show that my sign off is from!)
From the Academy Award Winning Screenwriter of Milk, Dustin Lance Black, comes a new and modern representation of the struggles that the LGBT community is facing today. Mr. Black depicted the hardships that Harvey Milk was facing in the 70’s in a film that made a big splash in 2008. Milk, starring Sean Penn, told the story of the San Francisco politician and of his assassination in 1978. Black’s new play, “8” brings to light the struggle that Proposition 8 has produced in California recently. Prop 8, or the California Marriage Protection Act, is a constitutional amendment in California stating that, “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” This one amendment nullified all same-sex marriages that had already been allowed in California and prevented any future ones from happening. In the past few years, the LGBTQ and Ally Community have been working strenuously to get it repealed, and this play tells us the story of the act’s regrettable life. Please Join the UofM Spectrum Center for their 40th Anniversary this weekend and attend this free event. It takes place at 7:30pm at Stamps Auditorium in the Walgreen Center on North Campus. Yes, I know, it’s north campus, but it is sooo worth it!
Academy Award Winning "Milk"
For more info about events happening for the anniversary, please see my post on the Gala event of visit the Spectrum Center Website.
Sending you love and light,
Danny Fob
(Coffee is on me if you can name the show that my sign off is from!)
