12 minute read
MUSIC
D O WN T O WN I TH A C A
SERIES 2022 FREE TO THE PUBLIC
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The Hollies/CSN Legend Comes To Hammondsport
By Bryan VanCampen
Graham Nash refuses to sit still. He has a new album out now, “Graham Nash: Live”, featuring some great songs, pedal steel and harmonics and a pointed arrangement of Nash’s “Chicago/ We Can Change e World” with Trump added into the mix, and he’s also just completed an untitled studio album. Nash will be bringing a stripped-down version of his show to Point of the Blu Vineyards in Hammondsport for a 3PM concert on July 31.
Nash spoke to the Ithaca Times about, among other topics, changing the world, the Everly Brothers and memories of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”.
IT: I just nished listening to “Graham Nash: Live”.
GN: Ah.
IT: anks for reminding me that we can change the world. Seriously.
GN: Yes we can. When I was making this record, I realized how many of my songs are quite relevant even today. I mean, “Immigration Man“, and “Chicago” and “We Can Change e World” and “Military Madness”. It’s so sad that we have not learned from history.
IT: Americans seem to need to hear that message a lot. [laughs] I know this isn’t your rst rodeo, but what was the process of picking the songs and the performances?
GN: For the show? Well, there’s two things going on: the show, obviously, and the live album that’s out right now. And I’ve just nished work on a new studio record, which I’m very excited about. So there’s three things we’re talking about.
IT: Let’s talk about the show in Hammondsport.
GN: Yes, Hammondsport. What an interesting name. Why not? I mean, it’s coming up soon. I’ll be doing some songs from “Graham Nash: Live” because some of those songs, I’ve never even played live before. But the show will just be me and Shayne Fontayne (Joe Cocker, Ian Hunter) on guitar and Todd Caldwell on keyboards. [It’s] a stripped-down show, very intimate and personal. IT: I love It when you get country.
GN: Yeah, I don’t know where that comes from in me. I’m from the north of England, I have no idea. [laughs] Who wouldn’t love e Everly Brothers? I just did a wonderful thing for one of the last releases that Don Everly was working on, and I sang “So Sad” with Christopher Stills, who is Stephen’s son. We did a wonderful version of it.
IT: Boy, that’s surreal, when you’ve moved on to the next generation.
GN: I know. [laughs]
IT: ere’s these new venues, like wineries and cideries that are producing big shows and attracting acts like yours. Have you ever been to Point of the Blu Wineries before?
GN: No, and I’m lookin’ forward to seein’ it. I mean, I’ve played a lot of places in my life, but I really like new places. I’m liking these more intimate shows. ey’re more personal, they’re more intimate, and I can see my audience’s faces, and I really love that. I mean, when you’re singing “Guinevere” with one microphone and one acoustic guitar and two voices for half a million people at Woodstock, y’know, that’s a lot of people. I like playing for smaller places. ere’s more contact with the audience.
IT: When it’s that many people at Woodstock, is there a disconnect?
GN: No, ‘cause we try and always reach the last row. I mean, that’s what we’re always conscious of doing when we have people of that kind of volume.
IT: I had the pleasure of interviewing Judy Collins earlier this year. Can you remember anything about when Stephen Stills played “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” for the rst time?
GN: Absolutely. I have some photographs in my new book that I put out
Graham Nash plans a stripped down, very intimate show in Hammondsport. (Photo: Provided)
continued from page 11
In other roles, Trevor Lindley Cra does a nice turn as stony Andrey and also his father, the dyspeptic old Prince Bolkonsky. Among the dancers, Daniel Mejil stands out for his expressive presence and form. And head guitarist Chris Blisset, as Balaga, the lord of all revels, is the life force personi ed; I haven’t seen bouncing joy like this onstage since “Fiddler.”
As it turns out, Natasha and Pierre were both looking for love in all the wrong places; refer to Tolstoy for the rest of their story. Meanwhile, the Hangar’s production o ers much light-hearted diversion.
Under the dramatically shedding sycamores of Upper Treman Park, Ithaca Shakespeare Company’s large wooden platform invites audiences on all four sides. But staging in the round (or in this case, the square) is challenging; in “Antony and Cleopatra,” directed by Stephen Ponton, I only saw the queen’s back as she died, and two gures blocked Mark Antony’s death, as well as other key moments. Another disadvantage was only being able to hear about two-thirds of the speeches distinctly (and even from the front row, o en straining to hear that much). E ective miking is admittedly di cult and expensive, and choosing to present plays in the round complicates the matter. In the company’s previous venues in other local parks over the years, conventional proscenium staging allowed actors to be seen and heard far more successfully.
And this is Shakespeare, a er all –– we can eke out the story, but nally, we’ve come for the language. In “Antony and Cleopatra,” Pompey and his attendants were entirely inaudible. at said, two key characters were not only distinct but marvelously acted: NYC-based Andrew Ryan Perry as Antony and Will DeVary as ambitious Octavian, the new Caesar. Both men inhabited their roles thoroughly, in every gesture and expression; the struggle between these two historical titans truly came alive. eir conviction was so powerful that they carried the action through uneven minor performances.
Louise Montgomery’s Lepidus had presence, and Lloyd Harris proved a worthy follower to Antony. But Holly Adams’s Cleopatra felt misconceived: Yes, Shakespeare’s Egyptian queen progresses from ighty to majestic, but that doesn’t warrant playing her as a mugging spoiled teenager. Here she’s seldom fascinating and regal enough to captivate Anthony, and though far more convincing in the nal scenes, her voice drops then too low to be completely heard.
Cleopatra’s stature demanded a long gown, but otherwise Elizabeth Kitney’s plain white linen costumes served adequately, with Antony’s leather armor particularly impressive. roughout, vivid battles alternate with lovers’ intimacies, reinforcing, as the Bard intended, how the personal life a ects the public.
Chris Nickerson’s direction of “Two Gentlemen of Verona” o ers a more evenly acted show, opening each act with pleasing Renaissance music and song. Staging is well paced and creative, all lively action thoroughly visible. But speaking in four directions takes its toll here as well: For nearly every actor, when their back is to you, the voice disappears. (Imagine reading this page with a quarter of the words randomly blacked out. Frustrating.)
In this early work, Shakespeare introduces themes and tropes that will reappear in later plays –– gender disguises, friendship and betrayal, exile and forgiveness, the excesses of young love. Two friends end up at odds: Valentine (Jack Hopkins) counts on Proteus (Dexter Conlin) to support his love for the Duke’s daughter Sylvia (Joan Raube-Wilson). But Proteus, who’s already wooed Julia (Carolyn Best), is so smitten with his friend’s beloved that he pursues her himself, most ruthlessly.
As the lovers, these four young actors are attractive, engaging, and dynamic, well-matched to lo this comedy. Dave Dietrich ably plays the Duke and Bob Arco the foolish fop urio, who thinks he has a chance with Sylvia. But Sylvia (she whom all the swains commend, if you recall) proves to be most upright (and a protofeminist at that).
More humor is provided by two servants, the witty Speed (Jorin Clougherty) and the literal Lance (Mike Chen), but alas, their projection is too o en low. Only Lance’s hound, Crab, ever patient, steals the show with his silence.
• “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812” by Dave Malloy (composer/lyricist), directed by Shirley Serotsky. At the Hangar eatre, Ithaca. rough July 31. Tickets at hangartheatre.org/ or 607-273-2787. • “Antony and Cleopatra” and “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” by William Shakespeare, directed by Stephen Ponton and Chris Nickerson. Ithaca Shakespeare Company, Upper Treman Park, Ithaca. In repertory July 27-31. Tickets at ithacashakespeare.org/.
Andrew Ryan Perry and Holly Adams as the tragic lovers Antony and Cleopatra. (Photo: Stephen Ponton) Lucetta (Miranda Bianchi) and Julia (Carolyn Best) in Two Gentlemen of Verona. (Photo: Stephen Ponton)
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JULY 21–31
MUSIC
continued from page 12
a month ago. ere’s three portraits of Stephen when we’re actually listening to the rst playback of what we did with the song. Yeah, I remember the rst time ever Stephen played it for me, I thought it was from Mars! I had no idea that, you know, someone could take four individual pieces of music that are in di erent keys and di erent rhythms, and puttin’ ‘em together into one song. And it was an amazing thing for him to get to the end of that song the very rst time he played it for me. It was an amazing feeling.
IT: And the average music listener hears that song on the radio and has no idea how complex it is. ey just love the song.
GN: Yeah, just the song. But you know what, the truth is, when we got to the end of it, and I took those pictures of Stephen listening to our rst playback, I said, “What do ya think?” He said, “Well, I’m not sure we got it.” I said, “Really?” He said, “Yeah, let’s do it all again.” And we re-recorded all seven and a half minutes of it. And we got to the end of the second take and I said, “Okay, how do you feel about it now, Stephen?” And he said, “Well, maybe we did get it the rst time. at’s the better take.”
And that’s the one we used.
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