SEPTEMBER 28, 2008
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SUNDAY NEWS
Entertainment
‘I’m a pretty good writer’ BY MICHAEL LONG
Sunday News Entertainment Editor mlong@lnpnews.com
Please see EDWARD ALBEE, page H8
Violinist Hagai Shaham will perform in Lancaster Symphony’s 2008-09 season opener.
Jo Dee Messina Country music sensation Jo Dee Messina will headline WIOV-FM’s daylong Fall Fest 2008 on Sunday, Oct. 5, at Overlook Community Campus, 2099 Fruitville Pike, in Manheim Township. Gates open at 8 a.m., and free tickets are available at Turkey Hill Minit Markets. Author of nine No. 1 Billboard singles, Messina has penned such hits as “My Give a Damn’s Busted,” “Who’s Crying Now” and “Lesson in Leavin’.” Joining Messina on the bill are Jeremy McComb, Adam Gregory, Heidi Newfield and former “American Idol” contestant Bucky Covington. For more information, visit www.wiov.com.
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More music of the masters Hnbe]dcn deZch l^i] 7ZZi]dkZc VcY BdoVgi BY JAMES BUESCHER
Sunday News Correspondent
ble picking a certain favorite. “Who’s my favorite composer? That’s like asking me to name my favorite food,” Gunzenhauser said in a recent telephone interview as he was leaving to conduct a concert in Los Angeles. “But if I had to pick, I would have to say Beethoven. I love the architecture of his music. No one could communicate like him. He had the gift of Please see SYMPHONY, page H3
THEATER REVIEW
‘Wonderful Town’ is just that BY MARTY CRISP
Old-fashioned charm drives Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre’s new production of “Wonderful Town,” the story of two small-town sisters trying to take a bite out of the Big Apple. The 1953 Tony Award winner for best musical, “Wonderful Town” was scored by Leonard Bernstein, who went on to pen a far grittier take on the canyons of New York four years later in “West Side Story.” The lyrics were written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, right after they finished what became their signature show, “Sing-
ing in the Rain.” So despite the lack of musical theater standards, this show mined a deep vein of talent. That has to be why it has such staying power. Based on “My Sister Eileen,” a 1940 play by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, “Wonderful Town” follows the Sherwood sisters, Eileen (Meghan Garstang, who also choreographed) and Ruth (Janette Bruce), fresh off the bus from Columbus, Ohio. Pretty Eileen wants to be an actress. Funny Ruth wants to be a writer. Both girls want to find love. The seven-piece orchestra, under the direction of Beth Burrier, plays Please see ‘WONDERFUL,’ page H5
BY JAMES BUESCHER
There’s a section within the Frightmare Asylum at the Field of Screams attraction in Mountville in which nothing much happens ... and it’s absolutely terrifying. It’s just a long hallway filled with discarded junk, the attic space of an insane person. And yet, as you creep through the darkness, you can’t help thinking that every step closer to the exit could just as easily be taking you closer to a big scare. Under different ownership, this cramped space might be overloaded with gimmicks: flesh-eating zombies,
Loveless Kartik Seshadri
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Field of Screams is a scream fledgling vampires and enough explosions and bangs to rival a war zone. But brothers Gene and Jim Schopf understand that the key to a successful haunted attraction is balance, and that far more frightening than the actual scare is the long, drawn-out anticipation of what might be lurking around the next corner, or the next corner, or the one after that. Which isn’t to say the 2008 version of Field of Screams skimps in any way on costumes, monsters, makeup, gore or special effects — far from it. In fact, this year’s shriekfest has plenty of new horrors to thrill and terrify, including Please see SCREAM, page H5
Pennsylvania College of Art & Design will unveil “fauxREAL: Paintings by Matthew Ivan Cherry” in its main gallery Friday, Oct. 3, with a 5 p.m. reception. The show features largerthan-life nudes and portraits including “Lead Guitar,” above, which is part of a six-painting series titled “Cover Band.” This is the first-ever local show for Cherry, who serves as the college’s academic dean. For more information, visit www.pcad.edu.
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BY KRISTY BULLER
ATTRACTION REVIEW
Sunday News Correspondent
Big flesh
Associated Press
It’s easy to hem and haw when asked to pick a favorite of anything: author, band, movie — you name it. Sometimes age and experience distills the choices down to select a few, but Lancaster Symphony maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser, who’s spent decades wielding a baton, still has trou-
Sunday News Correspondent
Fall Fest ’08
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When Kartik Seshadri was a child, he enjoyed flying kites, playing cricket and spinning tops. But his most conspicuous pastime was a little less routine. At an age when most kids struggle to perfect the alphabet, Seshadri was mastering the sitar. A hobby of his father, the plucked-string instrument quickly became Seshadri’s own musical forte. Initially he dabbled, mimicking the sounds he heard his father produce. By age 6, he was playing full-length solo recitals throughout his native India and was reputed to be one of the world’s premier sitarists. “The earliest memory, I would say, is just being very
fascinated by the music itself,” Seshadri said in a recent telephone interview. “I’d go to sleep and lay in bed listening when my father took lessons. I was drawn to it at an early age.” Forty-five years later, he’s never stopped playing. As an internationally acclaimed sitar virtuoso, composer and educator, Seshadri introduces the sounds of Indian classical music to audiences across the globe. He will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 5, at Franklin & Marshall College’s Barshinger Center for Musical Arts. Based in San Diego, Seshadri teaches at the University of California and leads one of the largest programs of Indian classical music in the country.
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Country music star Patty Loveless will perform at 3 p.m. today at American Music Theatre, 2425 Lincoln Highway East. During her 20-plus years on the country scene, Loveless has recorded five No. 1 hits including “Blame It on Your Heart” and “Lonely Too Long.” She’s currently touring in support of her new album, “Sleepless Nights.” Joining Loveless at AMT is breakneck country rock guitarman Junior Brown. For ticket information, visit www.amtshows.com or call 800-648-4102.
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HERE AND THERE
Albee, an understated master, will venture to Lancaster to accept Creativity Award from Pennsylvania Academy of Music
Edward Albee talks about New York as if it were an old, unfaithful friend. The city that provided the backdrop for his greatest successes as a writer seems inhospitable to him now. Tribeca, where Albee moved 30 years ago, is worse than trendy, he says, “nothing but doormen and baby carriages,” and Brooklyn is the only place artists can afford to live, or certain areas of the Bronx “if you can get to the store between the bullets flying.” Today, he spends much of his time at his home in the seaside community of Montauk on Long Island, where he oversees an artists colony during the summer months. He enjoys taking his charges their mail and snooping around their work. It was there that he took a few minutes to discuss by phone the merits of his own work and his upcoming trip to Lancaster. The Pennsylvania Academy of Music will honor Albee with its inaugural Creativity Award at a ceremony Wednesday, Oct. 15. A younger Albee was once quoted as saying, “The thing that makes a creative person is to be creative, and that is all there is to it.” This direct, uncomplicated attitude remains with Albee even as he heads into his 80s. In conversation, he’s gracious but leaves the distinct impression that he doesn’t suffer fools. He speaks thoughtfully and succinctly about writing and the world of artistic expression and tends to quote his friends and contemporaries. He has a hard time thinking of himself as creative — or as anything else, for that matter. “I don’t think about myself in the third person very much. No I don’t. I think that’s very dangerous to do.
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SEPTEMBER 28, 2008
SUNDAY NEWS, LANCASTER, PA.
Edward Albee: Music academy award Sitar: F&M concert Continued from H1
“I know I’m creative. ... Yeah, I know I’m a pretty good writer. I’m aware of that. The nicest thing that Arthur Miller ever said about my work is that it’s ‘useful.’ Useful.� Critics have been far more effusive in their praise of Albee’s work since he broke onto the literary scene in 1958 with his now-classic play “The Zoo Story.� Indeed, the music academy’s Creativity Award will have to fight for space among his multiple Pulitzers and Tonys. Albee’s plays stand shoulderto-shoulder with the dramatic works of existential pillars like Samuel Beckett and Albert Camus, and he is considered by many to be the greatest living playwright. He writes almost exclusively about relationships, fol-
lowing their often rapid decay into the baser human elements. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton illustrate this famously in the 1966 film adaptation of Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?� A man who shies away from commerce-driven art, Albee has never written for television or movies, though a few of his works have made it to the screen anyway. Regarding those efforts, he’s ambivalent. “As Beckett said, ‘It’s better than a kick in the teeth.’ � What fascinates Albee is the writing itself. “I can be quite objective about it,� he said. “I write — Was it Frank O’Hara who said it? — ‘in memory of my feelings.’ And so I don’t go into any kind of hysterical whatever while I’m writing. I’m very objective and very clinical about it
all, but I know the emotions that my characters are having and have had. But I never put myself in the play. I put some of my ideas in some of my characters, but I don’t write about me.� Really? “I write about more interesting people.� These days, that includes Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca. Albee has been working on a play about his life that he hopes to finish in the near future. Other projects include “Me, Myself & I,� an identity-challenging play about twin boys and the mother who cannot tell them apart, which enjoyed a brief run earlier this year at Princeton’s McCarter Theater. Albee said he’s improved his craft a little since he first rose to prominence a half century ago — his technique is a little
more under control — and he still writes about pertinent subjects. He’s currently prepping “Me, Myself & I� for a Broadway run. “With any luck, we’ll be bringing it to New York, to Broadway, either this spring or next fall. This spring seems a little unlikely because there’s so much [junk] coming into the Broadway theaters, and they’ve got to get all that on before they put the good stuff on.� Yours is still the “good stuff�? “Well, I think I write pretty well.�
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He has performed extensively in India and abroad. “My performance routine in India is ongoing,� said Seshadri, who returns home to play during India’s music season, November through February. “I’ve never missed a single year because that’s where I’m tested as a musician.� He’s also played some of America’s most prestigious venues, including New York’s Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. “Playing for a familiar audience [as in India], you have to prove yourself,� Seshadri said. “On the other hand, when you The Creativity Award ceremony at Pennsylvania Acadplay for an audience that’s unemy of Music, 42 N. Prince St., familiar with Indian music, you in downtown Lancaster, begins come away feeling so warmly with a 7 p.m. cocktail reception. received. You feel the energy Tickets cost $50 and must be and excitement, and that’s what reserved by Oct. 1. Call 399-9733. inspires me.� Indian classical music became part of the American consciousness during the 1960s. In that decade, sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, under whom Seshadri studied, gave a sitar lesson to guitarist George Harrison, who then began blending Eastern melodies with the Beatles explosive pop to create an entirely new and unexpected sound. Unlike the Western system of written notation, Indian tradition is taught orally to the student by his guru. Today, Seshadri is viewed as one of Shankar’s foremost disciples. Since the ’60s, Seshadri said,
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the sitar has served as a method of dialogue between cultures. “I feel music is an extraordinarily powerful medium to address human brotherhood and sanctity for life,� he said. Up to 90 percent of a sitar performance is improvised. The raga, or melodic form, is the heart of Indian music and serves as the basis for an artist’s improvisation. Each melody is also characterized by sentiments, which allow the music to express varying elements of human emotion. “You can pick the same melody, but the way you are feeling on each day is so different,� Seshadri said. Although he’s a purist when it comes to playing the sitar, Seshadri indulges his experimental side with nontraditional projects, including a recent collaboration with minimalist composer Philip Glass. In addition to recitals, Seshadri has released several albums. The most recent, “In Concert,� features a live recording with noted tabla player Anindo Chatterjee. “This has been my life,� Seshadri said. “A 45-year journey, a wonderful one that has allowed me to reach out to different people.� For more information on Kartik Seshadri and his music, visit www.kartikseshadri.com. For tickets to his F&M performance, visit http://tdf.fandm. edu/boxoffice.
‘Runway’ stalled by court ruling
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The reality fashion show “Project Runway� will not be able to strut its stuff on the Lifetime TV channel, a judge ruled Friday. A preliminary injunction was ordered by New York Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Lowe in a lawsuit filed by NBC Universal against the Weinstein Co., which produces the hit reality series hosted by supermodel Heidi Klum. NBC Universal had aired the series on its Bravo channel. It sued Weinstein after the production company made a reported $150 million deal with
Lifetime for the show. The temporary injunction bars Weinstein from taking “Project Runway� or any spinoff to Lifetime and contended that evidence showed that Weinstein violated NBC’s “right of first refusal� for the show. Weinstein Co. said in a statement that it intended to appeal the decision, which was applauded by NBC Universal. Lifetime said it was disappointed with the ruling and that it will “pursue all measures� to uphold its agreement with Weinstein for the show’s sixth season.!
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