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by Mark Lord qboro contributor
Bill Logan’s love affair with the works of Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw goes back to his days as a college student at the University of Houston in the late 1970s. But throughout the intervening years, he had never had the opportunity to work on a production of one of Shaw’s most popular plays, “Candida” — until now. Logan directed the play for The Gingerbread Players of Saint Luke’s Church in Forest Hills. It opened last weekend and two performances remain — on Nov. 18 and 19. Logan, who lives in Forest Hills, got his feet wet as a Shavian actor early in his theatrical career, appearing in a production of “Getting Married.” Four decades later he came full circle when he directed the play for the Gingerbread troupe. Among the other Shavian plays with which he has been involved either as actor or director are “The Philanderer” and “You Never Can Tell.” So delighted is he by Shaw’s writing that he claims, “One of my most pleasant discoveries was on a business trip to Boston where I found a six-volume set of the complete works of Shaw for $35.” He appreciates that Shaw’s plays have “a serious yet humorous way of approaching
Lauren Snyder as Candida and Joey Mignone as Eugene Marchbanks, left, and David Ezra Stein as James Morell and Andrew Dinan as Mr. Burgess in the Gingerbread PlayPHOTOS BY LOUISE FOISY ers’ rendition of “Candida.” Just two performances remain. topics that are still relevant.” “Candida,” which was written in 1894, is a case in point. The themes, among them the examination of a woman’s place in marriage and the meaning of marriage itself, are “pertinent to today,” Logan said. “Shaw’s portrayal of independent women must have startled audiences back then,”
Logan said. The play’s three central characters are James Morell, a well-known English reverend and moralist (played by David Ezra Stein); his devoted wife, Candida (Lauren Snyder); and a passionate young poet, Eugene Marchbanks (Joey Mignone), who tries to win Candida’s affections.
Snyder says her character “is surprisingly a lot like me. She is good-natured and likes taking care of people — a bit more than I do.” She first became acquainted with the role when she took a workshop at HB Studio, one of the original acting studios in New York City, under famed actor and teacher Austin Pendleton. “He had a wealth of knowledge about Shaw,” she said. “I worked on my character in class.” Now, she says, “I notice things differently” about her. Rounding out the cast are Farah Diaz-Tello, Andrew Dinan and Mike Miller. Not only does “Candida” question Victorian notions of love and marriage, but, as is typical in many of Shaw’s works, it also touches upon political issues of the day, though, according to Logan, they’re not central in this play. Following open auditions, rehearsals for the production began in late August. Logan has found the experience to be “great. The cast is very dedicated. They work very hard. They’ve learned how to play Shaw; they get the humor and all his points across.” Remaining performances take place at Saint Luke’s Church, at 85 Greenway South, on Nov. 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 19 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $15. For more information, visit gingerbreadplayers.org or call (718) Q 268-7772.
Page 33 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, November 16, 2023
Shaw’s ‘Candida’ probes the power of love
At Socrates Park, art that wastes not, wants not
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Rivlin’s practice employs site-specificity, not strictly in terms of her works’ physical location, but their composition of locally sourced materials. Her work interrogates the phenomenology of objects in space and how they affect human functioning. “There’s something about what’s being used in the area that you’re in that I think says something about what’s around the exhibition site,” she said. “And wherever that exhibition site, there’s always opportunity for those objects to kind of get used.” Rivlin believes bathtubs’ universal sitespecificity speaks to the global economy that elevates the local to a global scale with standardized sizes and shapes. Though she does not prescribe a way for viewers to experience the work, “Untitled (12 Tubs)” is steeped in the ground, allowing viewers to walk through it and hear how the wheel of cavities distorts sound. She said the exhibition retains a cohesive element about objecthood while also displaying different usages of scavenged material and outlooks on what sculpture is supposed to do in space. In “Desire Lines,” Stefania Urist shapes steel wire fences woven with phragmites
The work “Imagined Fungal Emergence” at Socrates Sculpture Park is meant to be inhabited rather than simply viewed, the artist says. At right, how it appears from below. On the cover: The pieces “Untitled (12 Tubs),” top left, “Deconstructed” and PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE G. MEDITZ “Dwell within the Light” are also on view at the park. into the shape of New York’s waterway map to reflect on migration and humandefined borders. Maryam Turkey invites viewer interaction with “Deconstructed,” inspired by her fascination with mud sculptures as a child in Baghdad. Ashley Harris and Ndivhuho Rasengani’s
“Dwell within the Light” depicts the park’s history, from part of the ancestral land of the Lenape, Carnarsie and Matinecock peoples to a landfill to a community art space. The Socrates Annual exhibition kicked off on Oct. 1 and will be open until Q March 24.
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continued from page 31 work centers Freelander’s values of feminism and sustainability. Bat-Ami Rivlin’s “Untitled (12 Tubs)” also incorporates reused materials, specifically 12 bathtubs, from various sources in New York and places them in a wheel formation. “There’s something interesting about gathering all these objects and then putting the body in all of these kind of impossible spaces in the air,” she said.
