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Noises Off runs from February 16-19 and it is a wonderful play to see if you are in the mood for a laugh. I saw the play on February 16 and it was held at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. The set of the play was incredible and it looked so realistic. The synopsis of the play was that it was basically a play within a play and their were three different performances and perspectives portrayed. The cast included 9 actors, 6 of which were playing actors. The other three actors played the director, stage manager, and assistance manager.

The first act of the play gave an insight into the dress rehearsal of Nothing On, the play that was being put on by Otstar Productions Ltd. It was a great time because everything went wrong with the play although it was implied that a very small amount of time remained for the show to be fixed. The director of the play was furious and had a climactic shouting match with one of the actors which was thoroughly entertaining. The cast of the play included an arrogant and inarticulate man, a silly and ditzy lady, another man and woman, a house-sitter with her head in the clouds, and an alcoholic. There was a short intermission after the first act was over.

The second act of the play showed the audience the backstage workings of Nothing On, which was arguably more funny even than the first act. This showed even more disfunction as the characters brawled backstage or forgot their cues, and chaos ensued. The set was amazing in that it could be turned 180 degrees and work as the backstage set. The second set was just as beautiful as the first and the lighting change helped contribute to the backstage atmosphere. This showed a real performance of Nothing On that was a wreck. Although if it had been a real play I feel it still would have been entertaining because disfunction can be hilarious.

The third act of Noises Off disintegrated the quickest of the three acts because it was the most disorderly performances of the fictional play, Nothing On. This act was shown in the perspective of the audience of Nothing On like in the first act, but it was an actual performance of the play. The cast did not even make it through the entire play this time since so much went wrong. In fact, the stage managers even had to step in as part of the cast to cover for those who missed their cues.

Sometimes it is nice to see things go wrong in a play because it makes the cast feel more human and this play connected chaos with humor in a non-chaotic way. It is interesting to think about how difficult it must have been to do the out of sync actions in sync. This play obviously took a lot of practice and choreography and it came together beautifully!

To purchase tickets or learn more about Noises Off, check out this website:

http://www.music.umich.edu/performances_events/productions/2011-12/noisesoff.htm

Disclaimer: This post may be a little bias; I have had a platonic infatuation with Sabine Meyer and her clarinet playing for as long as I can remember.

With that said, this past weekend, Sabine Meyer (German clarinetist), and her trio di clarone (comprised of her husband and her brother), filled Rackham Auditorium with the sounds of their clarinets.

The stage was filled with an aura of talent and elegance as Ms. Meyer opened the concert with Three Arias from the Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The performance captured the essence of the bel-canto– the idea of using a musical instrument as an extension of the voice. It was as if there was a soprano sitting on stage belting out some beautiful singing.

A lot of the trio pieces performed, including the Four Arias from Cossi fan Tutte, featured the basset horn, a rare instrument in the clarinet family. As a musician, it was great to be exposed to this “rarity” of sorts.

All the Clarinet Performance students in the audience– myself included– encountered a moment of mere shock and admiration when Sabine took on Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Unaccompanied Clarinet. Mind blowing. The already demanding piece at the tempo marked was kicked up a few notches. Simply breathtaking.

Between 1935 and 1936, Carl Orff took on the endeavor of composing a piece based on 24 poems found in the medieval collection, “Carmina Burana”. The piece, composed for full symphony orchestra and mixed choir, covers an array of topics including: “the fickleness of fortune, the ephemeral nature of life,  the joy of the return of spring, the pleasures and perils of drinking, gluttony, gambling, and lust.”

On February 21st, at 8pm, Hill Auditorium will ring with the music of the University Symphony Orchestra and the University Choirs as they join forces to present this seminal masterpiece– one of the most well known pieces of music of the 20th century. Under the direction of Kenneth Kiesler, director of University Orchestras, this will be a night of grand music you will not want to miss. The best part: it’s free!

What: USO and University Choirs performing Carmina Burana
When: Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Where: Hill Auditorium
How much: FREE!

Program in the Environment is holding a Valentine’s Day concert!

Love Each Other, Love Your Earth

Inspiring Environmental Change through Music and Literature

On Tuesday, February 14th, the Keene Auditorium in East Quad will be hosting a concert in honor of love for one another and love for the earth. Performers include Ann Arbor singer/songwriter Joe Reilly, as well as two creative U-M faculty. U-M Professor of Composition Evan Chambers pairs music with the poetry of Adjunct Faculty & Creative Writing Coordinator Keith Taylor. The concert is FREE and open to all. Included is a pre-concert reception at 7:30 pm in the Benzinger Library, also in East Quad, where there are bound to be Valentines Day treats…hmm chocolate. Not a bad place to bring a Valentines Day date! though not necessary to enjoy this special performance. Doors to the concert open at 8:15 pm. Come “experience together how arts can influence social and environmental change.” Enjoy!

Saturday February 11th was the 11th Annual U-M Dance on Camera Film Festival, held at the UMMA Stern Auditorium. The festival featured 7 short dance films created between 2010-11, each incredibly unique in both form and content. Dance Film is an art form I have become very interested in recently, and I was delighted to attend an event centered around dance films. It was a great opportunity for me to gain more exposure to the up-and-coming art form, and I was greatly inspired by the films presented. I would love to embark upon my own dance film project sometime soon!

Dance films are basically short films, most with a narrative, that substitute dialog for dance movement. In some films there are some spoken words, however much of what is communicated is still done through movement. Even the movement of the camera itself, and the movement of the scenes through various editing choices made in the film’s production, also add to the idea of communication through movement. It is a fusion of short film and dance, and it is a unique and challenging project for either dancer/choreographer or film maker to attempt.

My favorite piece presented at the festival on Saturday was called “Labyrinth Within,” a film about 30 minutes long portraying a married couple, a man at his work calling his wife who is at home and does not answer the phone, and a mysterious lover who the wife is portrayed to have had an affair with. The husband goes mad with jealousy and storms into their house with a knife in hand, searching for his wife and her lover, during which time the house takes on a character of its own. The series of pas de deux between the woman and her husband and she and her lover were incredibly beautiful and technically impressive. The push and pull, and intertwining of bodies between the lovers was so intricate and fluid. The dancers in the film are all New York City Ballet principal dancers–it was especially interesting to see stars of American Ballet dancing in a very modern piece on film.

I also really liked “Two Seconds After Laughter,” a short film that tells the story of an Indonesian woman who fell in love with an American man and moved to the US, giving up her big family surrounded by laughter, only to discover that she is unable to have children, leading her to experience a lonely life in America. She finally returns to Indonesia, where she picks up Indonesian traditional dance again, performing for the film, which is set against the beautiful background of the landscape in her homeland. She finds that she no longer feels at home there either, as when she is with her family, in between laughter there is nothing to say. The film was somewhat sporadic, jumping between her telling us her life story in Indonesian with English subtitles, English spoken words, and the use of gesture and breath to break up the “chapters” or sections of the piece.

The other pieces included “Black Train is Coming,” an interesting juxtaposition of hip hop dance against old fashioned, dilapidated backgrounds set to a historical song reminiscent of slave spirituals. “Spring Cleaning,” was a very different short piece that consisted of the “dancing” of the screen itself, using the stop-motion film technique, with little to no dancing of the individual in the film. Each of the pieces presented were very different, but together they gave a pretty complete picture of the possibilities of dance on film.

On February 11 at 7PM, I saw a performance that truly moved me. Roman Micevic’s Senior Directing Thesis of the play Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad was inspiring, heartbreaking, and beautifully done. I was not sure what the play would be like as I had not heard a synopsis or review by anyone but as soon as I walked into the theatre, I knew the play would be breathtaking. As the audience filed in and took their seats (which there were not enough of because of the large crowd), masked figures moved about slowly and intricately. The figures interacted subtly with each other and it was clear that the actors were very in sync.

There were four acts in Scorched: Nawal’s Fire, Childhood on Fire, Jannaane’s Fire, and Sarwane’s Fire. Each act put emphasis on certain characters and had a different emotional effect on the audience. The acts were all connected well and flowed smoothly into the next so that the audience could only guess when the next act was beginning.

“Nawal’s Fire” was a story of the beginnings of a family and a love story that was sad, but realistic. The play was clearly inspired by events that actually happen still today, which made the presentation that much more emotional for everyone involved. The first act was focused on the mother of the family that the play was about and her effects on the family. This act also introduced us to all of the main characters: Nawal and her children, Jannaane and Sarwane, as well as the notary of Nawal’s will who was a very silly character that added much comedic relief.

“Childhood on Fire” displayed Nawal’s journey through a war-torn country in the Middle East and it displayed the loss of innocence that many Middle Eastern children experience because of the violence of the wars. It also showed Nawal’s children’s lives and how they were in turn affected by Nawal’s childhood troubles. A main theme was the never-ending cycle of family tension.

“Jannaane’s Fire” was about Nawal’s daughter’s discover of Nawal’s past and hardships. This act revealed many shocking stories of Nawal’s past and explained the strain that Nawal had in raising her children. This act also brought out the tension between Jannaane and her brother Sarwane.

“Sarwane’s Fire” was the final act and it showed Sarwane’s realizations of his mother’s past and what his sister had discovered. The realizations changed Sarwane and resolved conflicts in the family that had existed for unexplained reasons.

The resolution of the play was horrific, but brilliant and overall the play was sad but realistic. Hopefully people that saw the play will see its message because Scorched revealed real world problems that have existed for a long time and are still around today. It would be great if everyone could see this amazing performance.