JOAN MARCUS
C1 April 8–14, 2016
Theater Review
Old-Fashioned Musical Airy and Appealing The original play served as the basis for the films “The Shop Around The Corner” (1940), “In The Good Old Summertime” (1949), and “You’ve Got Mail” (1998).
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Steven (Gavin Creel) and Ilona (Jane Krakowski) in “She Loves Me.”
By Judd Hollander
EW YORK—An enjoyably oldfashioned musical is on display at Studio 54 in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of
“She Loves Me.” Based on a play by Miklos Laszlo, this marks the musical’s third time on Broadway.
Love changes those it touches.
In 1934 Budapest, Georg Nowack (Zachary Levi) is in his 15th year of service as a clerk at Maraczek’s Parfumerie. Also on staff are his good friend, the older and married Ladislav (Michael McGrath); Ilona (Jane Krakowski) and Steven (Gavin Creel), fellow clerks who are having an affair; and Arpad (Nicholas Barasch), a young delivery boy with higher aspirations. Overseeing them all is the firm but genial Mr. Maraczek (Byron Jennings). Mr. Maraczek takes a paternal interest in Georg, urging the younger man to get out and start enjoying life. Apparently Maraczek was quite the lady’s man in his bachelor days, and Jennings’s wistful number “Days Gone By” is one of the show’s musical highlights.
See She Loves Me on C5
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April 8–14, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts YUN BOUTIQUE
CHRISTINE LIN/YUN BOUTIQUE
Carnelian earrings.
Essence of China
Agate and Carnelian.
Agate & Carnelian Chinese By Christine Lin
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n ancient China, accessories were more than beautiful accents to complete an outfit. Instead, like many rituals of everyday life, they took on a heightened significance. Some stones acquired spiritual connotations that persist to this day. The rituals and symbolism behind the use and wear of these materials constituted a language in themselves, one that is very telling of the traditional Chinese way of thinking, of being. In some ways, Chinese jewelry traditions seem altogether upside-down as compared to those in the West. For example, take the diamond. What in the modern west holds a covetous position gets demoted to industrial use as a grinding sand to shape and polish other gemstones. The more I learn about the jewelry in ancient China, the more I realize that there’s more to
Picture and moss agates often appeared to display landscapes or flowers.
The Secret of By Emel Akan Epoch Times Staff Founded in 1895, Swarovski is the world’s leading manufacturer of cut crystal, having permeated the fashion world with everything from jewelry and couture to miniature sculptures and luxury home décor. The magic of Swarovski comes from its founder Daniel Swarovski’s mastery of crystal cutting. His vision was to use crystal to create “a diamond for everyone,” and in 1892, he patented an electric cutting machine that produced precision-cut crystal stones. This innovation and creativity formed the basis of Swarovski. Today, his family carries on the legacy of his craftsmanship and mastery. The continuous evolution of material and technique makes Swarovski the leader of cut-crystal creations. The Swarovski Group employs more than 30,000 people and posted sales of around 3.05 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in 2014. It has 2,560 stores in 170 countries. The company enjoyed a double-digit growth in sales in 2015 and celebrated its 120th anniversary. The secret to Swarovski’s success is that it has positioned itself in a high-end marketplace and yet its products are still very affordable. In addition to jewelry, Swarovski launched its timepieces for the first time in 2009. The brand is often quiet about its very successful watch line, which offers impressive designs. The Epoch Times spoke with Robert Buchbauer, chairman of Swarovski and a fifth-generation family member to lead the company. Buchbauer talked about the business, its stellar growth, and the new timepieces at Baselworld 2016, the largest fine watch and jewelry show in the world. Epoch Times: How did you launch your watch line? Robert Buchbauer: We launched it in 2009.
uncover. That’s why we’ve started this series, the Divine Land Gemstone Compendium. With each installment, we will use different gemstones as portals into the Chinese psyche, value system, way of life, and—where we can find historical samples—ways to appreciate the astounding craft and imagination of Chinese jewelers. Interestingly, the subjects of some of these “gemstones” are not strictly gems at all. The Chinese used a variety of materials for personal adornment that to the modern reader may seem utterly fantastical. Others, like lacquer and enamel, come from other quintessential Chinese decorative arts. It’ll be a journey of discovery, and we hope that you will join us for the coming installments of the Divine Land Gemstone Compendium. The first gem we’ll cover is agate, beloved throughout the ancient world for its many colors and incarnations.
Straight From the Horse’s Skull Agate/chalcedony is one of the most diverse families of gemstones in the world. Chalcedony comes in a rainbow of colors, from translucent, grey, blue, and green to purple, red, and yellow. Its sister, agate, is known for its myriad natural patterning. But in the minds of the Chinese, the term that encompasses all these stones chiefly refers to one of its relatives: the reddish-orange carnelian. The Chinese name for agate is “ma nao,” meaning horse brain. This unusual name comes from the Mongolians, who thought the stone’s bands of gradated color resembled the folds in a horse’s brain. Adding further mystique to the notion that agates have a connection to the brain, according to the research of Jewish occult author Isidore Kozminsky, agates whose concentric bands form to look like an eye are used by seers or prophets to aid in their for-
SWAROVSKI
A lot of brands are approaching licensed partners for their watch lines. What usually happens is that a licensed partner takes on the brand name. They develop a generic watch and they put the logo on top. For us, this was not good enough. We thought we have much more to add to the product than just a brand name, so we tried to use our expertise. And we’re coming from crystal, from jewelry, from the cutting. That is our expertise, and we wanted to bring that into the watch. We wanted to make it an integral part of it and merge it with the capabilities of the Swiss watchmakers. So the precision in crystal meets the precision in watchmaking, which was a big thing for us, as watchmaking requires more precision than the crystal cutting. So in the beginning, we had a lot of issues. But the result is a genuine Swarovski product, proprietary product, which easily can demonstrate its uniqueness in the market. And that’s what we harvest now. We had excellent results last year, more than excellent I would say. And we continue to grow at a very, very high rate.
The magic of Swarovski comes from its founder Daniel Swarovski’s mastery of crystal cutting.
Swarovski’s first automatic watch for women, “Crystalline Hours.”
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF SWAROVSKI
Epoch Times: This is a fascinating story. You had the courage to launch the watch line in a difficult time. Mr. Buchbauer: We had to do that. We did it in 2009 when the watch industry was falling apart. This year again, everybody is looking at us and saying, “Wow! How can you manage?” We are one of the few brands telling a positive story at this fair. Epoch Times: What is the share of watches in overall business? Mr. Buchbauer: It is closer to 8 percent now. It is a big achievement for the watches, considering that the remainder of the business has also grown during all those years. Our overall business grew 15 percent last year,
Robert Buchbauer, Swarovski chairman and a fifth-generation family member to lead the company.
globally. And the watches grew 48 percent. We are very happy with the results. And the watch business is gaining share, which is exactly what we are aiming. Epoch Times: In which markets did you record a high growth last year? Mr. Buchbauer: Italy, France, the United States, and the U.K. We had growth, mostly a double digit, in every part of the world last year. Asia was a bit slow. We struggled in Hong Kong, and I think we are not the only one struggling there. However, we still managed to grow by a single digit in Hong Kong. And mainland China recorded a growth of 24 percent in watches and 8.9 percent in overall. Epoch Times: In Hong Kong and China, watches and the overall luxury industry are experiencing a slowdown. At the same time, we are seeing a huge migration from China to the United States, Australia, and Japan. Chinese prefer to buy jewelry goods outside of China. How do you respond to this trend? Mr. Buchbauer: It’s becoming really international. … We started designing for the Chinese market many years ago. We saw certain requirements for taste, size, design, and language, that you have to meet in order to be successful in the local Chinese market. But today, this local market has become a global market. So you don’t design for the Chinese market anymore, but you design for the Chinese consumer and try to make that offering available worldwide. We see a lot of shift in consumption. In some places, we see up to 70 percent Chinese buyers. There are a lot of Chinese consumers in North America and Europe. And what we also see is a new phenomenon of consumer gray market. Because some people buy more than they need and sell it via T-mall or Alibaba. So this is also a new situation for us. In addition, you have Chinese communities built up in other parts of the world. Vancouver and San Francisco are good examples. Although they are considered as local Americans, they still have their Chinese culture, right? So you have to have the right offering for those consumers. That’s a very exciting development, which gives you new challenges but also a lot of opportunities. Pamela Tsai contributed to this report.
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April 8–14, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
(Left) A carnelian archer’s ring. (Right) A bowl carved from white agate and carnelian, apparently from the same stone.
Gems at the Seat of the Soul tunetelling, because the patterns resemble the third eye. The third eye (also known as the celestial eye) is situated in the center of the human brain and known to modern medicine as the pineal body. Cultivators and mystics can see other time-spaces if their third eyes open. Thus in the ancient world, such agates are believed to enhance the wearer’s intuition and seeing powers. Agate has been known to the Chinese as “ma nao” since at least the second century. When the feared general Cao Cao, the hero in “The Romance of The Three Kingdoms,” received an agate wine container as a gift, he wrote a poem referring to the material as “horse brain.” A natural science compendium published in the Ming Dynasty states that agate/carnelian is neither stone nor jade, but a category of its own. It mentioned that agates of smaller sizes were used as personal items such as beads, belt hooks, or archer rings; and larger ones carved into containers or decorations, which were
often very ornate and made clever use of the natural color variations in the stone. Other types of agate such as picture and moss agates often appeared to display landscapes, flowers, or people if they were cut on the right plane. Those “pictures” that struck a poetic or literary chord were prized most of all. Journey From the West In the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.), China had already established diplomatic and trade relations with the Kushan dynasty in Afghanistan and northern India, as evidenced by agate and carnelian beads excavated from Western Han tombs that are identical to those found in India, Persia, and Afghanistan in the same period. These polished and etched beads must have traveled many miles overland along a network of trade routes, the same that brought Buddhism east from India. That the two arrived together is no coincidence; in Buddhism, agate is considered to be one of the
Agate/chalcedony is one of the most diverse families of gemstones in the world.
Seven Treasures, and is a popular material in prayer beads. The best carnelian continues to be sourced from India, where they are treated in the heat of the sun to enhance their translucent brown-orange hue. Sunlight is preferable to other heat because no other methods obtain better results. In China, more than half of its domestically sourced agate and carnelian comes from in Fuxin city in China’s northeast, just outside of Inner Mongolia. Carnelian was one of the most beloved gemstones in the ancient world, yet continues to have such allure even today. Christine Lin is partner and jewelry designer for Yun Boutique in New York, makers of jewelry inspired by Chinese culture. The Divine Land Gemstone Compendium explores the culture of ancient China one gemstone at a time.
Y U N B O U TI Q U E
In ancient China, accessories were more than beautiful accents to complete an outfit.
YUN BOUTIQUE
10
Greatest Poems Ever Written PA R T 6 O F 10
By John Milton (1608–1674) When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest he returning chide,
By Evan Mantyk
n this series we look at the ten greatest poems originally written in the English language, one by one. It is presented from least greatest (No. 10) to greatest greatest (No. 1), and each poem is followed by a brief analysis. PD-ART
John Milton.
5. ‘On His Blindness’
Analysis of the Poem This poem deals with one’s limitations and shortcomings in life. Everyone has them, and Milton’s blindness is a perfect example of this. His eyesight gradually worsened, and he became totally blind at the age of 42. This happened after he served in an eminent position under Oliver Cromwell’s revolutionary Puritan government in England. To put it simply, Milton rose to the highest position an English writer might at the time, and then sank all the way down to a state of being unable to read or write on his own. How pathetic! The genius of this poem comes in the way that Milton transcends the misery he feels. First, he frames himself, not as an individual suffering or lonely, but as a failed servant to the Creator: God. While Milton is disabled, God here is enabled through imagery of a king commanding thousands. This celestial monarch, his ministers and troops, and his kingdom itself are invisible to human eyes anyway, so already Milton has subtly undone much of his failing by subverting the necessity for human vision. More straightforwardly, through the voice of Patience, Milton explains that ser ving the celestial monarch only requires bearing those hardships, which
“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?” I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies: “God doth not need Either man’s work or his own gifts: who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed And post o’er land and ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait.”
really aren’t that bad (he calls them “mild”), that life has burdened you with (like a “yoke” put on an ox). This grand mission from heaven may be as simple as standing and waiting, having patience, and understanding the order of the universe. Thus, this is a great poem because Milton has not only dispelled sadness over a major shortcoming in life but also shown how the shortcoming is itself imbued with an extraordinary and uplifting purpose. John Milton is an English poet of the late Renaissance period. He is most noted for his epic poem on the fall of Satan and Adam and Eve’s ejection from the Garden of Eden, “Paradise Lost,” which he composed after having gone blind. During his
time, he was known for his strong Puritan faith, opposition to the Church of England and the pope, and his support for personal freedoms. After the English Civil War and the ascension of the Puritan general and parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell over the Commonwealth of England, Milton was given a high position, making him essentially head propagandist. Full list of poems: ept.ms/GreatestPoems To contact the Society of Classical Poets, write to Submissions@ClassicalPoets.org Evan Mantyk is president of the Society of Classical Poets and a high school English teacher in upstate New York.
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April 8–14, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts ALL PHOTOS BY KEN HOWARD/METROPOLITAN OPERA
(Left) Sondra Radvanovsky as Elisabetta and Matthew Polenzani in the title role of Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux,” the third of his Tudor Queen trilogy the Met has staged this season.
Opera Review
Radvanovsky Takes the Throne in
‘Roberto Devereux’ By Barry Bassis
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EW YORK—Sondra Radvanovsky again triumphed in the last work of Donizetti’s Tudor Queen trilogy, “Roberto Devereux.” She had previously starred at the Metropolitan Opera in the first two of the operas, “Anna Bolena” and “Maria Stuarda.” This is the Met’s first staging of “Roberto Devereux.” In the first, she portrayed the ill-fated Anne Boleyn, one of the wives of Henry VIII. In “Maria Stuarda” she played Henry’s daughter from his first marriage. She was executed by order of her half-sister Elizabeth I (daughter of Henry and Boleyn), here called Elisabetta, who had been crowned the Queen of England. “Roberto Devereux” is also loosely based on English history. The title character is the Earl of Essex, and Elisabetta, no beauty to begin with, is now elderly and unsteady of gait. She is also desperately in love with Devereux, who is about 30 years her junior. Devereux happens to be in love with the queen’s confidante Sara, but Elisabetta, unaware of the relationship between him and Sara, ordered the young woman to marry the Duke of Nottingham. He, in turn, was a friend of Devereux’s. Devereux had been sent to Ireland to battle the rebels. He was unsuccessful and, in contravention of the queen’s orders, returned to England. Now, he is suspected of treason. The opera begins with Sara, upset because of her lingering feelings for Devereux. Elisabetta then appears and informs Sara that Nottingham had convinced her to see the alleged traitor. The queen is not averse to pardoning him from a charge of treason. Her only qualm is that she fears he is interested in another woman.
Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is extraordinary as Elisabetta.
‘Roberto Devereux’ Metropolitan Opera House 30 Lincoln Center Plaza Tickets 212-362-6000, or MetOpera.org Running Time 2 hours, 40 minutes Closes April 19
(Top right) A scene from Gaetano Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux.” (Bottom right) Elina Garanca as Sara, who is both Elisabetta’s confidante and, unbeknownst to her, also her rival.
When the queen meets Devereux, she recalls their earlier romance and reminds him of a ring she had once given him. She confronts him about her fear that he is two-timing her, but he denies the allegation. Nottingham shows up and assures his friend that he will try to defend him at the upcoming council meeting that has been scheduled to consider the charges. Nottingham is concerned about his wife because of her strange behavior; he found her crying while knitting a blue scarf. When Devereux is finally alone with Sara, he expresses his anger that she has married Nottingham during his absence. When she points out that he is still wearing the queen’s ring, he removes it. Sara gives him the blue scarf, not the smartest move under the circumstances. Despite Nottingham’s defense, the council finds Devereux guilty and imposes the death sentence. When he is arrested, the scarf is discovered and delivered to Elisabetta. When Devereux is brought in, Elisabetta confronts him about the scarf. Nottingham sees it and, realizing that his wife is unfaithful, becomes furious at his former friend. He doesn’t try to stop Elisabetta when she signs the warrant for Devereux’s execution. Devereux sends a letter to Sara, asking her to show the ring to Elisabetta and plead for clemency. Nottingham foils the plan when he discovers the letter. In the Tower of London, Devereux’s last thoughts are of Sara. Meanwhile, Elisabetta harbors the hope that Devereux will send her the ring as a sign of possible reconciliation. Sara finally delivers it, confessing that she is the queen’s rival. Elisabetta is ready to halt the execution but learns
that Devereux has already been put to death. Nottingham reveals that he postponed delivery of the ring because he wanted revenge. Elisabetta sends Nottingham and Sara to prison while she goes mad and relinquishes the throne. Radvanovsky is extraordinary as Elisabetta. Her acting is reminiscent of Bette Davis, who played the queen in two movies. The first, “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex,” roughly covered the same events as the opera and took similar liberties with history. Radvanovsky’s singing of this florid music was also superb, and she brought the house down with her mad scene. The rest of the cast is also superb. In a piece of luxury casting, the role of Sara is played by mezzo-soprano star Elina Garanca. The two male leads are the pair who were so memorable recently in “The Pearl Fishers”: Tenor Matthew Polenzani is Devereux, and baritone Mariusz Kwiecien is Nottingham. David McVicar, who directed “Anna Bolena” and “Maria Stuarda,” does the same here. With costumes by Moritz Junge, the production brings out the drama and leaves the showy effects to the singers and Donizetti’s bel canto music. Conductor Maurizio Benini and the Met orchestra served the music well and gracefully supported the singers. Radvanovsky’s performances in the Tudor Queen operas confirm her place on the top rung of the operatic world. This has also been a good year for Donizetti with five of his operas, and all fine productions, at the Met this season. Barry Bassis has been a music, theater, and travel writer for over a decade for various publications.
Friends Gather and Time Weighs Heavily Upon Them JOAN MARCUS
Theater Review
By Diana Barth NEW YORK—Don’t be frustrated if you don’t know what the title means. You’ll find out in good time. No, your science professor has not betrayed you. On a ranch in the Texas Hill Country, a group of friends gather to hold a funeral service for Sean, one of their number who has recently died. Although they haven’t seen him in years, well, friends remain friends somehow. A man named Adrian phones. Nina (Annie Parisse) takes the call and invites Adrian to join them. He’s one of the friends, after all. He’ll come a bit later. The group members, having scattered over the years, mostly to either coast—New York or California—haven’t seen each other too recently either. Here they generally spend time at the kitchen island, where food is being prepared. Besides Nina, there are Ula (Maria Striar) and Liz (April Matthis). A few more are expected. It’s pretty much small talk at first. Ula is annoyed with Nina for storing up jars and jars
‘Antlia Pneumatica’ Playwrights Horizons 416 West 42nd St. Tickets 212-279-4200, or TicketCentral.com Running Time 1 hour, 45 minutes (no intermission)
Adrian (Rob Campbell) and Nina (Annie Parisse) may renew their former relationship. of mustard, yet they’ve run out of eggs. They talk of the Blue Hole, the swimming hole on the property, about which Liz expresses fear of jumping into water where “you can’t see the bottom.” Nina’s two young children—Casey, age 7 and Wally, age 5—stay offstage but are sometimes heard over the loudspeaker making comments or singing. This includes their rendition of “Yellow Submarine,” which contains a line, enthusiastically projected, to the effect that they can do as they please.
Closes April 24
Len (Nat DeWolf) joins them. But it is the arrival of Adrian (Rob Campbell) that stirs the pot. There’s electricity in the air as he is Nina’s former boyfriend and later unexpectedly visits her in her cabin one night. She quickly shoos him away, but Ula is shocked when Nina reports the incident to her. Ambiguity suffuses the Nina/Adrian relationship. Will it rekindle? And where is Nina’s husband, Adam? Or are they even still together? Later, Sean’s ashes are delivered. Shockingly, Sean’s remains are enclosed in a small, unattractive white carton box, not in something of brass and attractive. But, Len explains, one has to order that in advance, and no one has done so. Did Sean leave a will? No, just a document stating what’s to be done with his remains and what property he owns. He was a writer, but apparently destroyed all his work. He never married and was childless. Len, drawn into this discussion, reluctantly admits that he too will die and must prepare a similar document. Later, the box of Sean’s ashes disappears from the kitchen island where it had been placed.
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April 8–14, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts ALL PHOTOS BY JOAN MARCUS
Theater Review
Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi star in “She Loves Me,” a delightful oldfashioned musical about love.
OldFashioned Musical Airy and Appealing She Loves Me continued from C1 In actuality, Georg is indeed involved in a romance—though he hasn’t yet met the woman in question. The two have been carrying on a rather lengthy correspondence by mail, which began through a newspaper personal ad. Now they’re finally getting ready to meet at a local cafe. The spot is noted for its romantic and discrete atmosphere, to hear the Headwaiter (Peter Bartlett) tell it. First, however, Georg must deal with Amalia Balash (Laura Benanti). The new employee is the bane of his existence. She was recently hired over Georg’s objections, and the two have butted heads ever since over everything from cold cream to music boxes. Also poisoning the work atmosphere is Mr. Maraczek’s sudden coldness toward Georg, who cannot understand this change of attitude. Eventually Georg heads for his longawaited rendezvous, only to learn the girl of his dreams is none other than Amalia. This fact is not really a spoiler as her identity is revealed early on. The show quickly becomes not so much a question of will they or won’t they, but when will they and how will they? Georg continues to conceal his identity from Amalia, while getting to know her all over again, this time finding positive qualities he never saw before. His change in attitude causes Amalia to see him in a new light as well. Yet there is still the question of how she’ll react when she learns the secret he’s keeping. Finding love in unexpected places is the central theme to “She Loves Me,” as is the fact that love changes those it touches. A good example is how Georg experiences a feeling of giddiness when he realizes Amalia is truly in love with him and he with her. His outbursts of joy wonderfully come to the surface during his showstopping delivery of the title tune. It’s not only Georg and Amalia who start to see things with new eyes when love enters the picture. Ilona learns this truth when she meets a new beau, while also learning the difference between Mr. Right and Mr. Right Now. However, just as love can add joy to one’s life, it can also take it away. This sad realization occurs to more than one person in the story. While “She Love Me” was never intended
In a tender, evocative scene, Adrian insists that Nina join him outdoors one night. Here the stars blaze vividly (courtesy of lighting designer Tyler Micoleau), unlike in cities where they are barely visible. A major galaxy is readily identified. But there is another, an important one, Adrian insists. It’s called Antlia Pneumatica, meaning “air pump,” so named by a French astronomer in the 1700s. Then Adrian goes a step further: He selects a small galaxy and names it “the Nina.” Perhaps this is the closest that Adrian can come to admitting his feelings for Nina. The disappearance of Sean’s ashes is never discussed further. Finally, there is the late arrival of Bama (Crystal Finn), another group member. She tells of a startling incident involving Adrian. It may or may not be true. The entire cast gathers onstage to sing a song. The play ends. In this play by Anne Washburn, there are elements of the film “The Big Chill.” Such comment is even made by Playwrights Horizons’s artistic director, Tim Sanford, in the program
The show quickly becomes not so much a question of will they or won’t they get together, but when will they and how will they?
Zachary Levi and Laura Benanti in the finale of “She Loves Me.”
‘She Loves Me’ Roundabout Theatre Company at Studio 54 254 W. 54th St. Tickets 212-719-1300, or RoundaboutTheatre.org Running Time 2 hours, 30 minutes (one intermission) Closes June 12
notes. I also sense tinges of Irish playwright Conor McPherson, with his frequent touches of unreality and ghost stories. Washburn mixes the real with the unreal; there are intangibles that can only be felt but not proven. There is memory—and how it sometimes plays tricks with us. And how truly objective are any of us? Director Ken Rus Schmoll has done particularly effective work here. His was the difficult task of creating interest in a situation where so little actor movement can be utilized. He appeared to have virtually choreographed the staging with every movement and gesture calculated precisely. There is fine ensemble work throughout; I particularly liked Rob Campbell’s somewhat mysterious Adrian. Young Skylar Dunn and Azhy Robertson do fine offstage readings as Nina’s children. A provocative, deliberately ambiguous play. Diana Barth writes for several publications, including New Millennium. She may be contacted at DiaBarth@juno.com
to be a very deep show, there are times when its lack of depth hurts the production. Specifically, this happens in the relationship between Georg and Amalia, which is seen in small snapshots. Their final scene together has a rushed air to it, which leaves the viewer feeling somewhat cheated. All of the actors do a superb job with the various roles. McGrath gets the best laugh lines as Ladislav, while dispensing his pearls of worldly wisdom. Barasch as Arpad comes across as someone desperately earnest yet not quite annoying as he pleads his case to start moving up the company ladder. Creel does a great turn in a number where he attempts to woo back Ilona. The acrobatic way he moves about the stage is a testament to Warren Carlyle’s excellent choreography. Krakowski is very good as the sometimes ditzy blonde with a heart she doesn’t want broken; and Bartlett is funny as the Headwaiter who tries to maintain a facade of decorum at his job, despite whatever else is going on at the time. As for Levi and Benanti, both are quite appealing in their performances and each comes off as extremely likable. They play off each other quite well.
Zachary Levi as Georg (L) and Michael McGrath as Ladislav in “She Loves Me.” Despite its drawbacks, “She Loves Me,” with its book by Joe Masteroff, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, has at its heart an old-fashioned charm that’s wonderfully appealing. Also in the cast are Alison Cimmet, Cameron Adams, Laura Shoop, Jenifer Foote, Gina Ferrall, Jim Walton, Michael Fatica, Justin Bowen, Benjamin Eakeley, and Andrew Kober. Judd Hollander is a member of the Drama Desk and reviewer for Stagebuzz.com
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April 8–14, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts
Film Review
A Solar Energy Shot of ClimateChange Hope By Mark Jackson | Epoch Times Staff
I
t’s high time we had some good news. We’ve seen documentaries showing 3-foot flames shooting off kitchen tap water (fracking), and 16 movies out there about global warming, all of them depressing. Ninety-nine percent of the world’s scientists say climate change is real. And if you really want to understand climate change, you have to watch the documentary “Earthlings,” which will horrify you no end. It’s about how we humans really need to slam the brakes on the global animal Auschwitz, and stop eating our furry friends. What else? There’s the recent “Hot Water,” an exposé about the health hazards of abandoned American uranium mines. Our nuclear chickens are coming home to roost. And Michael Moore, after taking an Obamaadministration-induced vacation, is back in the fray again with “Where to Invade Next?”
ALL PHOTOS BY 7TH EMPIRE MEDIA
The future of America’s energy, from “Catching the Sun.”
‘Catching the Sun’ Documentary Director Shalini Kantayya Running Time 1 hour, 15 minutes Release Date April 1 Unrated
Happy Joy “Catching the Sun,” which debuted at the Los Angeles Film Festival, is a wonderful documentary about clean energy and jobs. Five years in the making, the film is executive produced by Adrian Grenier of HBO’s “Entourage.” It’s the rare documentary these days that has zero gloom and doom involved.
Solar panels being installed in “Catching the Sun.”
Workers install solar panels in “Catching the Sun.”
Well okay maybe just a little bit. It begins with footage of the Chevron refinery blowing up in economically desperate Richmond, California. More than 15,000 people had to go to the hospital—a perfect prelude for the topic of solar energy: Chevron raised gas prices, pinching the poor, to pay for its putrid mess.
the first one to spread it wins. What the film doesn’t really talk about is that China is undercutting the competition by cutting costs and producing a subpar product.
The Way We Were President Jimmy Carter set the agenda for solar energy. In 1973 and ‘79 we had oil embargoes; OPEC raised oil prices on us. Carter put solar panels on the White House. You can’t embargo the sun. Jimmy Carter was the man. As stated in the film, President Ronald Reagan took them down his first day in office. He said it was not befitting of a superpower. But solar technology is all-American. It started with Bell Labs’ solar powering of satellites in 1954. No More Fossil! “Catching the Sun” follows up the Chevron refinery debacle by introducing us to Marin County’s civil rights activist, and New York Times best-selling author Van Jones. His nonprofit company, “Green for All,” was about finding the greenest solutions for the poorest of people. (“Training ordinary people to do extraordinary things.”) As Jones says, in the American ghetto, it’s always been hard to get on the ladder to success, but nowadays, there are even rungs missing off the get-out-of-the-ghetto ladder. His plan is to put green rungs on the ladder by forging a green economy—re-empowering America, and Americans, with green energy through green jobs. Energy power is social power. Fairer, cleaner, lower-cost power literally and figuratively puts the power in the hands of the people. One elderly lady with brand-new rooftop panels sees her energy bill go from $80 to $5. “I’m not having to pay nothin’!” she says, with understandable glee.
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Training Up We get to see solar-panel installation training, hear from a few of the students, their dreams and aspirations, and see proud graduates, parents, and budding relationships. Hope reigns supreme. One nice touch comes while learning about solar modules: One student powers up a little manual wind-up music box using solar energy. What does it play? Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” of course. As the film notes, the 1960s’ hippies started the solar power movement. To the tune of hippie Beatle George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun.” China Next up we meet exuberant, happy-all-thetime Chinese solar entrepreneur Wally Jiang, who started a company with 15 people and now employs 15,000. His company grows 50 percent every year. He wants to build a solar city in Texas. “I love Texas!” He wants to give 500 million Africans energy. He says energy is like love—many people need it. Especially free energy. China has a fear-motivated stake in solar energy. It has to take care of the needs of its millions of people before fossil fuel runs out and there’s rioting in the streets. China, to date, has more manufacturing capacity than anyone. Which means there’s now a China vs. America race to spread solar—
Mr. Jones Goes to Washington President Obama proclaims we will harness the sun. Mr. Obama moves Mr. Van Jones to the White House, to become the energy czar. There’s talk of tidal waves of innovation, retrofitting every building in the United States, and achieving zero carbon emissions. Germany is already running on 75 percent renewable energy. Germany is solar power’s biggest market; they adapted fast, immediately created laws, got rid of their atomic energy dependency. As Van Jones explains, we can be at 80 percent renewable by the year 2030, easy. How? Give polluters some reasons to stop polluting. Which is what cap-and-trade was all about— “You can’t pollute for free!” No more tax breaks for polluters. Cap-andtrade legislation passed the House, but the oil magnate Koch brothers surreptitiously started what looked like a grassroots organization to stop cap-and-trade. The billionaire Kochs hate solar; it’s the antithesis of everything they stand for.
The billionaire Kochs hate solar; it’s the antithesis of everything they stand for. And of course the utility companies see solar as a life-and-death threat. Which all culminated in a massive movement to take Van Jones down. He resigned. But renewable energy issues cut across traditional political lines. As the film’s next focus, pro-solar Debbie Dooley of the “Green Tea Party” says, “I’m a right-wing conservative, but I’ve never been called a communist before!” And in the End There’s very little time left. As mentioned, 99 percent of the world’s scientists say climate change is real. As was mentioned in the Q&A after the film’s screening at New York City’s Ford Foundation—solar energy is actually not a political problem. It’s a narrative problem. The story has to make sense to people. Right now, just about everyone still thinks we’ll always need fossil fuel to some degree. People are not yet aware that the cost of solar energy has dropped 80 percent and no longer needs subsidies. It is, hands down, the cheapest energy. The solar industry employs more people than coal now; it’s ramping up very quickly. That’s the story that needs to get out there. Solar Is Hot and Cool Solar panels are getting chic and aesthetic; they’re going to be a given in all future architectural planning. Even though solar is less than 1 percent now, it’ll eventually be everywhere, producing millions of jobs. That’s the vision of award-winning filmmaker and activist Shalini Kantayya’s “Catching the Sun.” Make sure to catch it yourself. It’s a significant stress-buster for our troubled times.
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April 8–14, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts AMY SUSSMAN/GETTY IMAGES FOR TFF
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL April 13–24 | Various locations The 2016 Tribeca Film Festival includes conversations this year with successful filmmakers, artists, and executives including J.J. Abrams, Andrea Arnold, Anthony Bourdain, Francis Ford Coppola, Katie Couric, Alfonso Cuarón, Jodie Foster, Ricky Gervais, Catherine Hardwicke, Donna Karan, Baz Luhrmann, Patti Smith, Joss Whedon, Olivia Wilde, Samantha Bee, and more. $10–$40 for individual tickets.
THINGS TO DO COMMUNITY EVENTS NEW IN MANHATTAN Neighborhood Concert: Ying Fang Ken Noda April 16 at 5 p.m. St. Michael’s Church 225 W. 99th St. A member of the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ying Fang has performed under the direction of distinguished conductors such as James Levine and William Christie. Fang is joined by pianist Ken Noda, who has appeared with the world’s great orchestras and is also an acclaimed chamber musician and vocal accompanist. Free. SaintMichaelsChurch.org 11th Annual OPERA NEWS Awards April 10 at 6 p.m. Grand Ballroom of the Plaza Hotel, 768 Fifth Ave. The black-tie gala will honor five of the world’s most renowned opera stars for their distinguished achievements in the field of opera. Honorees Joseph Calleja, Anna Netrebko, Elina Garanca, Waltraud Meier, and José van Dam will enjoy a night full of celebrations alongside legends such as Plácido Domingo, Frederica von Stade, Ailyn Pérez, and a musical performance by Paulo Szot. $850. OperaNews.com/awards
NEW ELSEWHERE The Orchid Show: Orchidelirium Through April 17 New York Botanical Garden, Enid A. Haupt Observatory, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx
The 14th annual Orchid Show transports visitors on a journey through orchid collecting history, each moment playing out against a stunning backdrop of thousands of orchids. Discover the far-flung adventures of orchid hunters swept up in 19th-century “orchidelirium,” when explorers risked life and limb to secure these captivating flowers from jungles around the world. $20. NYBG.org Branching Communities Together: 4th Annual Sustainable Living Empowerment Conference April 23 Saint Peter’s University, 2641 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Jersey City, N.J. This intimate, communitydriven conference is meant to move people in a way to want to be the change that they would like to see in the world. It is also an opportunity for organizers and grassroots organizations to come together under one roof, share ideas, and move their respective mission(s) forward. Free, registration required. SASGLocal.com
VISUAL ARTS NEW IN MANHATTAN Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World April 18–July 17 Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Tisch Galleries, Second Floor The conquests of Alexander the Great transformed the ancient world, making trade and cultural exchange possible across great distances. Alexander’s retinue of court artists and extensive
artistic patronage provided a model for his successors, the Hellenistic kings, who came to rule over much of his empire. $12–$25 suggested. METMuseum.org The Photography Show, 36th Edition April 14–17 Park Avenue Armory Eighty-six of the world’s leading fine art photography galleries will present a wide range of museum-quality work, including contemporary, modern, and 19th-century photographs as well as photobased art, video, and new media. $30. Aipad.com
ENDING IN MANHATTAN Wordplay: Matthias Buchinger’s Drawings from the Collection of Ricky Jay Through April 11 Metropolitan Museum of Art This installation of drawings, prints, and related ephemera by the German artist and performer Matthias Buchinger (1674–1739) explores for the first time the oeuvre of the so-called “Little Man of Nuremberg.” $12–$25 suggested. METMuseum.org Taisho Era Screens and Contemporary Lacquers Through April 15 Erik Thomsen Gallery, 23 E. 67th St. A pair of circa 1700 sixpanel screens, Stations along the Tokaido Road. An early example of the subject, the screens show a series of sites along the road between Kyoto, long the Imperial capital of Japan, and Edo, present day Tokyo. ErikThomsen.com
NEW ELSEWHERE RESIDENTS Exhibition April 15–June 3 46-06 11th St., Long Island City, Queens This group show presents nine emerging artists, all recent graduates of Grand Central Atelier, in a showcase of new paintings, drawings, and sculpture. Opening reception April 15, 6–9 p.m. Free. EleventhStreetArts.com
ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Northern Dynasties, Early Chinese Buddhist Sculpture Through April 23 Throckmorton Fine Art, 145 E. 57th St., Third Floor An exhibit of 30early Chinese Buddhist sculptures with a focus on works from China’s Northern Dynasties, including Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, and Northern Qi, dating from 386 to 577 A.D. ThrockMorton-NYC.com
PERFORMING ARTS NEW IN MANHATTAN Elektra April 14–May 7 30 Lincoln Center Plaza The genius director Patrice Chéreau (“From the House of the Dead”) didn’t live to see his great Elektra production, previously presented in Aix and Milan, make it to the stage of the Met. But his overpowering vision lives on with soprano Nina Stemme—unmatched today in the heroic female roles of Strauss and Wagner—who portrays Elektra’s primal quest for vengeance for the murder
Filmmaker J.J. Abrams at a previous Tribeca Film Festival panel.
of her father, Agamemnon. From $32. MetOpera.org
ONGOING IN MANHATTAN Jewels April 19 at 7:30 p.m. David H. Koch Theater One of the most brilliant works in the Balanchine repertoire, Jewels manifests the multifaceted elegance of three coveted stones. $30–170. NYCBallet.com Madama Butterfly Through April 12 Metropolitan Opera Anthony Minghella’s breathtaking production has thrilled audiences ever since its premiere in 2006. Kristine Opolais reprises her acclaimed portrayal of the title role, opposite Roberto Alagna as Pinkerton, the naval officer who breaks Butterfly’s heart. Hei-Kyung Hong, Roberto De Biasio, and Gwyn Hughes Jones star in a second set of performances. Karel Mark Chichon conducts. From $25. MetOpera.org
NEW ELSEWHERE Les Fêtes Vénitiennes April 14 & 16 at 7:30 p.m.; April 17 at 2 p.m. BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave. Les Arts Florissants returns to BAM with a well-known but seldom seen opéra-ballet will have a ravishingly beautiful presentation. $35. BAM.org
MUSIC NEW IN MANHATTAN Dover Quartet April 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall Music by Beethoven and Berg, and Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, a work written shortly after his “New World” Symphony. $58. CarnegieHall.org The Annual Isaac Stern Memorial Concert April 9 at 7 p.m. Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall Brahms’s three piano quartets are among the genre’s finest works. “The Piano Quartet No. 1” has an extroverted melodicism, especially in its wistful Intermezzo, and a raucous finale inspired by gypsy music. “The Second Quartet” features an expressive Adagio and an exuberant closing Allegro. “The Third” was written during a troubled time in Brahms’s life and consequently reflects his sorrows. $16–$95. CarnegieHall.org Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax April 15 at 8 p.m. Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall The five sonatas that Beethoven wrote for cello and piano are the earliest works of significance that pair the two instruments and offer insights into the development of his musical language. Limited availability, 212-247-7800. CarnegieHall.org
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April 8–14, 2016 TheEpochTimes.com/EpochArts ALL PHOTOS BY SAMIRA BOUAOU/EPOCH TIMES
Artist Samuel Hung Evokes Playfulness
SEE HIS PAINTINGS at Eleventh Street Arts gallery, April 15–June 3.
A glimpse into the atelier art movement
By Milene Fernandez | Epoch Times Staff
N
EW YORK—In the realm of play, what is not real becomes real, what is not serious becomes important. The objects that Samuel Hung chooses to paint may seem trivial, but he is elevating them to a higher status—as if dubbing them ambassadors of happiness. One would have to be terribly bitter not to smile at the site of a yellow duck, that iconic childhood bath toy; or Kewpie, the mascot for Japan’s first mayonnaise; or a Tonka truck. “I find unimportant things interesting, like these toys. They can be easily overlooked, but they are important to somebody—they are important to kids,” Hung said at Grand Central Atelier where he works as an artist in residence. Even before the birth of his 2-year-old son, Hung started painting toys and company mascots that have seeped into our daily lives. He contributes to their cultural currency, using the high technical skills of 19th century French Academy painters. He can paint objects with such accuracy that they look more real than the real thing. Those are the rules of the game he chooses to play by: to always paint realistically, but without the use of photographs; and despite the struggle of trying to get it right, to always put his heart into it. His paintings then invite the viewer to play a game of visual perception. He riffs on the American or Dutch trompe l’oeil tradition, but full of pop culture wit. He touched up a drawing, a study for his next painting, of a Kewpie doll holding in its hand a piece of corn candy. The doll stands towering over two little rubber ducks, a Japanese Daruma head, and three more pieces of corn candy. While painting, Hung placed his eye level, and consequently that of the viewer’s, slightly below that of the doll, which gives it a kind of cute mischievous sense of superiority. “There’s an internal dialogue that I have about my paintings, but I would rather not say what it is because I feel that would limit the experience for the viewer,” he said. He did a drawing to study the form of the Kewpie doll and a preparatory painting as a color study to develop the feeling that he wants to evoke. He was still deciding on the size he wants to make the final painting. There’s something more to these household objects just being cute or playful. “It’s intriguing,’’ he said. “Why did something that is kind of meaningless become this iconic thing?” he asked rhetorically. Some of these iconic figures travel across borders and are assimilated into different cultures, sometimes attaining international status more easily than humans. Kewpie, for example, was inspired by cupid and conceived for a comic strip in 1909 by an American illustrator, Rose O’Neil. Three years later, it was produced as bisque dolls in Germany. In 1925 a Japanese food company started to produce mayonnaise and adopted Kewpie as its mascot and name. Later in the 1950s the first plastic versions were man-
ufactured. Today the originals, signed by O’Neil, cost thousands of dollars.
The icons will be something that I will keep exploring for a while ... hopefully I can keep the playful quality. Samuel Hung
Samuel Hung’s drawing and color study, in preparation for his painting of Kewpie.
A Cultural Rift Hung plans to paint a baby boy doll, Tatung Baobao. It wears an American football jersey and holds an American football, but it’s the mascot for a Taiwanese rice cooker. “Everyone in Taiwan knows what that is. They grew up with home cooked meals made with this rice cooker,” Hung said while showing a small toy model of the rice cooker. A shelf full of stuff from different shops and flea markets stood in the corner of Hung’s studio space. “I think the reason I collect these things is because they are familiar and comforting to me. They are also a piece of culture that I want to connect with for myself,” he said. Hung was born in Taiwan. His family moved to the United States when he was 4 years old, first to Monterey Park and later to Arcadia, about 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles. He enjoyed drawing and painting as a child and his parents hired a tutor to teach him art once a week. He yearned to draw as good as the illustrator, N.C. Wyeth. His father was a nuclear engineer, who was invited by his American boss to work in the United States. But shortly after the family immigrated, his father’s boss had to retire after suffering from a heart attack. Hung’s father was left without work in his field. Like many hardworking immigrants, Hung’s parents suddenly had to start from scratch. Hung still speaks Mandarin and Taiwanese and mixes in a few random English words when he speaks with his family. After finishing his bachelor of fine arts (BFA) in illustration, he went back to Taiwan to live with his older brother for a year to reconnect with his roots, but realized he was ambivalent. “There was something I could never get. I guess there was no way I was going to be Taiwanese. Deep down, I knew I wasn’t going to fit in,” he said. Finding an Artistic Community Taipei gave Hung a taste of urban life that was livelier than his suburban California upbringing, and it inspired him to move to New York City, where at first, just riding the subway felt like an adventure. He did various random jobs including an art-related job for a company that copied and mass-produced artwork to decorate big corporations, and places like hotels, banks, and cruise ships. “It ended up sucking the life out of me,” Hung said. “That year was a really unhappy dark period because I was doing something that was meaningless in my life just to make money,” he added. He quit that job. Feeling gross about that experience, he completely gave up drawing and painting and started working full time as a trainer at an Equinox Fitness Club to make ends meet. Still, fate would have it that Hung would discover the place where he could learn the skills to excel as the kind of fine art painter that he had yearned to be when he was a child. One of Hung’s personal fitness clients eventually saw some of his artwork and encouraged
him to meet a friend, Jacob Collins—the artist and founder of Grand Central Atelier. Hung then looked up Collins’s work. “I was blown away and instantly he became my hero,” Hung said. “Collins showed me people doing cast drawings, cast paintings, and figure paintings and I was just really blown away that people today were doing this type of work at that level, and it wasn’t just one person, it was 30 or 40 people,” Hung said recalling his first visit to the atelier, which continues to train artists in the orderly tradition of the old masters. That was exactly what he wanted to do, and so he started with its summer intensive doing one cast drawing for a whole month and after that he started the core program. Although Hung’s BFA studies in illustration at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, were good, he said, “Before, I could never make something as real as I wanted to make it. I was just copying, like ‘monkey see, monkey do,’ but now at Grand Central I am actually doing something more. The artists here are digging deeper,” Hung said. While all of the students at the atelier learn the same techniques, once they finish the core program they start developing their own distinct visions. For Hung the transition after his studies progressed naturally, especially in terms of subject matter. “I was always interested in playful iconic objects. Gummy bears were the first paintings I did when I was in college back in 2003. That was the direction I wanted to take.” At Grand Central he felt an affinity with artist and teacher, Tony Curanaj. “He was a big influence on my work, both in terms of subject matter and technique. I didn’t use to work as tight or at the pace I work now,” he said. His first gummy bear painting only took a day to finish, now a study drawing can take him longer than a week, and it’s incomparably more evocative. About a year ago Hung became an artist in residence at Grand Central Atelier because the building of the studio space he had been renting in Tribeca was renovated into condominiums. “That’s New York City,” Hung said, and then added, “It was a blessing in disguise.” He’s very thankful to be at the atelier where artists and students, who share similar challenges, encourage and inspire each other to become genuinely amazing artists. Thinking about what his paintings might look like 10 or more years from now, Hung said, “I think the icons will be something that I will keep exploring for a while. It just depends what resonates with me at the time. I’m sure it will change, but hopefully I can keep the playful quality.” Samuel Hung’s work has shown at the Gallery Henoch, and his current work will be included in a group show at Eleventh Street Arts in Long Island City, opening on April 15. “This Is New York” is a feature series that delves into the lives of inspiring individuals in New York City. See all our TINYs here: epochtim.es/TINY or follow @milenefernandez on Twitter.
Artist Samuel Hung at his studio space in Grand Central Atelier in Long Island City, Queens, on March 16.