GJ Willis' Art Notes

permanentcoll, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

Today, I saw Permanent Collection at Center Stage. The play was written by Thomas Gibbons and directed by David Schweizer.

The play was about an African American businessman, Sterling North, who becomes the new director of The Morris Foundation. He soon discovers that the world famous art collection includes several historical African sculptures that have been hidden away in storage. To rectify this he proposes that the sculptures be added for display in the gallery. He is then vehemently opposed by the foundations long time education director, Paul Barrow. The reason for the education director’s opposition is that it would be going against the wishes of the eccentric late director of the foundation, Alfred Morris. The late Mr. Morris stipulated in his will that pieces can neither be added to or taken away from the gallery’s, Permanent Collection....

CAST

Terry Alexander......Sterling North

Quincy Tyler Bernstine.....Kanika Weaver

Elain R. Graham......Ella Franklin

Thomas M. Hammond......Paul Barrow

John Ramsey.......Alfred Morris

Christina Rouner......Gillian Crane

One thing I noticed immediately when I went into the theatre was that it was sparsely populated. I’m not sure what the cause of this could have been. The only thing I knew was that seeing the theatre practically bare made me wonder if the play had gotten several bad reviews.

I didn’t care too much about all the empty seats that surrounded me because the subject matter intrigued me. I was curious to see how a play about art and race would come across.

For starters the set was sparsely decorated. The background consisted of various paintings. During the beginning of the play there were blank canvases hanging up. I was practically salivating wondering if I could get a free blank canvas after the show’s run was through. The only thing I can imagine that taxed Scenic Director Andrew Lieberman would have been coming up with all those paintings.

The play also seemed to have taken forever to start. It began with the ghost of Alfred Morris played by veteran actor John Ramsey looking around the set silently appraising all the blank canvases that were up. To me this seemed to have taken up a good half hour of the play. In reality I think it was 10 minutes into the play before any dialogue was uttered. This was an absolutely pointless way to start off a play!! You kept wondering when the play was going to start.

Eventually, the play starts off with veteran actor and longtime Center Stage alumnus, Terry Alexander, explaining how he, a rich black man, got pulled over by the police on his way to his first day at work for the Morris Foundation. Alexander was absolutely riveting in that scene. You couldn’t take your eyes off him. OK, it was a monologue so you had no choice... Nevertheless, that scene and his performance in it were Tony award winning material. It felt so genuine and from the heart. Sadly, after that scene the play deteriorated into nothing but empty speeches.

I felt as though the playwright, Thomas Gibbons, was afraid to be decisive and take a stance. I’m not sure if that was entirely because of race or ineptitude. Gibbons by the way is a white playwright who seems to specialize in writing plays about racial issues.

The characters in the play were not really characters but symbols. When watching a play I don’t care too much about watching symbols. You ended up not really caring because symbols have no emotional center. There just well,......symbols.

As far as acting goes my favourite was John Ramsey as the late Alfred Morris. I liked him because he seemed to provide relief from all all the symbolistic characters and speeches.

I was delighted to see Thomas M. Hammond back as Paul Barrows, the Educational Director who wanted to keep things just as they were. Hammond was previously in Center Stage’s production of The Rainmaker. He was very good in his new role I wasn’t quiet sure if his character was a closet racist or just a guy who wanted to keep the gallery as is.

As far as the Center Stage newbie actors go, Elain R. Graham, as Ella Franklin the former assistant to the late Mr. Morris was great. I wish that she had more to do on stage. Her character had lots of potential but ended up doing nothing until the end of the play. I imagine that between the time her character was first introduced in the first half of the show then disappeared to show up again at the end of the play Ms. Graham might have had time enough to have knitted several scarves with matching mittens for all the cast members. Oh, well it must be great to get paid a lot of money to do nothing....

Quincy Tyler Bernstine who played Kanika Weaver, Sterling North’s assistant, who be-friend’s controversial Educational Director, Paul Barrows was very unique. I liked the fact that she chose to characterize Kanika as a black suburbanite as opposed to a girl from the hood. This I felt in a way made the character feel a little more offbeat and somewhat ditzy. Of all the characters on stage hers was the one with the most interesting wardrobe.

Christine Rouner was very good as the some what manipulative and conniving reporter, Gillian Crane.

Personally, I think the playwright really blew it by not developing the relationship between Kanika and Paul to a romantic one. As the play stands now Kanika and Paul are just platonic friends. I feel that if he had upped their relationship a notch it would have given the play more of a direct emotional center. You’d have something more to invest in than symbols. You would wonder whose side Kanika would be more on, her white possibly racist boyfriend or her black possibly racist boss.

As it is now everything is platonic, boring, and preachy. This play had so much potential to be good but it wasted it in speeches and symbols. To paraphrase the immortal words of Gertrude Stein, “.......there’s no there, there.”

Today I got on the #2 bus. The Friday driver was a young bearded man. He had a long oval shaped face. The elbows to his maroon MTA uniform sweater were threadbare. I could see from how he was driving that he had a habit of resting his elbows on the turning wheel at each stop. I suppose he must be single. If he were married I’m sure his wife might have told him to put on another sweater. Then again maybe he was in a hurry this morning and grabbed the wrong sweater.

CONCERN OF THE DAY: The Office
I’m still surprised to find that NBC will be airing their version of the popular BBC comedy, The Office. From everything I hear about the Americanized version it’s atrocious. I don’t understand why they won't just air the original UK version of the show. Do US networks really have such a low opinion of Americans ability to understand British accents? The only potential problem I see would be with British slang. Even I do not know all the nuances of it.

All in all I think I’ll probably tape it’s premier next Thursday just so that I can ridicule the absurdity of it’s existence...

Other concern of the day: where is Josh Speigel? I hope that the Out To Lunch newsman with the unique voice hasn’t been fired or anything. Sure, I hated his guts when he first started but the litte bugger has managed to grow on me. I hope he's back on air on Monday. The show isnt' the same with out him.

WHAT I’M WEARING:
In honor of the upcoming first day of spring on Sunday I have on a three quarter lenghth pastel lavender pull over along with stone washed jeans and brown lace up shoes. I feel kind of Easter egg-ish with all this pastel. In hindsight I now realize that I should have put on my blue suede shoes. It would have made everything I have on be in the same colour family.

This morning I left out the door and everything and didn’t realize it until I got to the bus stop and looked at my watch. It turns out that I left out for work a whole hour early! Geez! I of course went back home and continued editing my blog. Yeah, I really did.....

On with the rundown...the morning bus was about five minutes early. I got on the #2 bus. It was being driven by the big man. He was talking to a woman throughout the ride. She was wearing a black leather coat, dark olive slacks, and her hair was slicked back.

The light rail train itself was a little more crowded than usual. It’s usually like a ghost town in the morning with 3 to 4 passengers on a car. Todays, car had 8 people on it, including myself.

The light rail shuttle bus was on time. However, when the bus got to North Avenue there was a large throng of people waiting. The crowd was so large that I found myself mouthing the words, “Sweet Mother of God!”

When the crowd finally got on the bus there were people standing all the way towards the back of the bus. I have never seen anything like this before on a morning shuttle bus.

I think that the MTA should seriously think of using one of those long buses that they use for the #2 line. If not for every shuttle bus then at least for the 5:50 shuttle bus driven by the man with the gray beard.

Celebrity Justice:The Robert Blake Verdict
I guess this goes to prove that if you’re a celebrity accused of a crime in America, you will get off no matter how guilty you look.

I suppose this verdict bodes well for Michael Jackson. I’m making a prediction right here and now. Michael Jackson will not be convicted of child molestation, after all he’s a celebrity....

Let's face it, if Scott Peterson were a celebrity prior to killing his wife and unborn child he wouldn’t have gotten the death penalty. He would be walking around scott free. (The preceding pun may or may not have been intentional....)

WHAT I’M WEARING:
Continuing on with my green theme I have on a two toned green and purple sweater. I’m wearing it with stone washed jeans and my brown leather lace up shoes.

arcadefire, originally uploaded by willisgirl.

I’m still loving the Arcade Fire cd!

Today, I got on the #2 bus. It was being driven by the heavy set man. The light rail shuttle bus did not arrive at it’s usual 5:50. Fearing being late I got on the Express Shuttle Bus. Taking the Express Bus means I will have to walk quiet a ways to work. I don’t mind it much because it will be good exercise.

CONCERN OF THE DAY:
I’m worried that Doctor Who will not be seen in the US. It appears that the Sci-Fi network turned down the rights to air the new series.

Right now as far as Doctor Who is concerned the only three things I know for sure is that it will make it’s debut in the UK on March 26th, the first episode is called, Rose, and the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Company) will be running Rose 10 days after the Brits.

I know that I can always download it somewhere. The problem with this I don’t know where to find it or how to do it...

WHAT I’M WEARING:
I’m continuing on with my theme week of green. This time I have on yet another green sweater. This one is kelly green. The sweater has a lace like design at the bottom. Underneath the sweater I have on a green plaid shirt with khaki pants and brown lace up shoes.

This morning I took the #2 bus. It was being driven by a heavy set man with a beard.

There was a very fat man in front of me as I was getting on the bus. The driver told me to move behind the yellow line. I could not do this because the fat man was in front of me. From the way he was situated it looked like he was about to get off the bus. I wasn’t about to block his way. I felt very nervous about disobeying the driver. My nervousness didn’t last very long because at the next stop the big man got off the bus and I moved back. I even managed to find a seat!

WHAT I’M WEARING:
This week in honor of St. Patrick’s Day I thought it would be fun to wear all my green sweaters and sweatshirts. I can do this because I own a lot of green clothing. I could realistically wear green for the next month.

Today, I have on a sage green v-neck sweatshirt with a t-shirt peeking out underneath. I also have on black slacks and brown leather lace up shoes.

I got on the #2 bus this morning it was driven by a chubby man with a mustache. The light rail train was on time. However, the train smelled like pee. This is a change from the vinegar smell of a couple of weeks ago. Also I saw the man that looks like Andy Rooney. I haven’t seen him since last week when the shuttle bus was late and he followed me onto the Express bus.

On the ride home I saw the cute guy of undeterminable racial/ethnic origin. He was of course wearing black along with really dark sunglasses. When I saw him I wanted to take a picture of him but I think that would be a creepy border line stalker thing to do...

GOOD NEWS!
Today, my real life cousin announced that he will be running for the US Senate seat soon to be vacated by Paul Sarbanes. Go Kweisi!

WHAT I’M WEARING:
Today, I have on an olive green v-neck chenille sweater, black slacks, brown lace up shoes and the shirt that is amongst the oldest I own. It’s a white cotton oxford shirt. It has a dark blue diamond design on it. I’ve owned it ever since my freshman year of college. It's a classic design. Nothing about it shouts early 90's.

My personal King Arthur movie film fest sponsored to you by the fine folks at Netflix is almost over. I have one more King Arthur movie to go then I’m through. My next big cycle of movies are the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan.

Monty Python and the Search For the Holy Grail
Believe it or not I’ve never seen this movie before. I’ve heard of it of course but never saw it. Same goes for Monty Python’s Flying Circus tv show. I’ve seen bits of it but never sat through it in it’s entirety.

As far as the movie goes it was most excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout. I loved all the silly situations that was going on throughout the film.

I’d definitely put this in the top three best King Arthur movies of all time. The other ones being Excalibur and believe it or not recent entry Mists of Avalon.