Scene4 Magazine | letters to the editor

You are a bit of an Eeyore with a touch of Heffalump thrown in. Very enjoyable essay. Looking forward to part 2.

Martin

read Michael Bettencourt's column

Is there anyone wittier, funnier, more in touch than Kathi? She makes nostalgia and cultural criticism like truffles and champagne. Here is a journalist who uses her sensuality to comment on society's lack of it...and her authenticity to point out that which is not genuine. America's Treasure is published in Scene4.

Grace Cavalieri

read Kathi Wolfe's column

Lovely article, thanks for sharing and the splendid print of the pictures. Thanks.

Michel Ginster

read Renate Stendhal's article

You dood it again Elliot. Nailed LA on the head. Are you the best? You is, you is.

Arnie Laban

see Elliot Feldman's latest comic

Renate Stendhal's is a wonderful article that reads like a belated eulogy for Pina Bausch, linking 50s, 70s and today. At a time that researchers fear that present day youth -- who so readily make use of New Media -- are losing the ability to have face to face interaction and lack IRL communication skills, Stendhal suggests that the awkward gender division of the 50s is not just bound to return, but is back where it was or as a greater schism. Ironically,perhaps because of projects such as teens dancing a Bausch piece, this seems a breach easier to mend than the lack of mutual respect, seen in depiction of teens in TV shows and movies. Thank goodness for choreographers who use dance to bring young people together on and backstage and as audience in the auditorium. In Seattle, WA., DANCE This! organized by STG allows for similar positive experiences for young people, alternatives to what might be considered a modern day wasteland. Many thanks to Renate Stendhal and Scene4 for bringing this notion to the foreground! Can't wait to see the documentary.

Judith van Praag

read Renate Stendhal's article

Can't wait to see the film. Excellent review. Teenage awkwardness and the idea of not wanting to act stupid in front of one's peers, wanting to belong and yet not be seen. Brings back images of when I was a teenager and us girls danced around our handbags and were afraid to raise our arms. Even today, I'm fascinated by the way people transfer from a sitting position to the dance floor - the awkwardness of it all.

Irene Hendrick

read Renate Stendhal's article

Kathi Wolfe is a cultural critic and poet extraordinaire. But most of all, she is sweet and funny and compassionate. I am so glad she speaks for our times. She humanizes poetry, and is as funny as Joan RIvers many many times.

Grace Cavalieri

read Kathi Wolfe's column

Thank you Ned for writing another interesting and enlightening article. Highly recommended.

James Dimelow

read Ned Bobkoff's article

A work of uplifting beauty! Kudos to Rosalie Jones for her spectacular vision and to Ned Bobkoff for transmitting the sensation to Scene4 readers.

Arthur Kanegis

read Ned Bobkoff's article

...and check the Archives for more of his articles!

You can't do better than have Ned Bobkoff review your plays! His comments bristle with theatrical accuracy. Many years ago Ned's enthusiasm and amazing creativity inspired me into a sucessful acting career in London. Since then I haven't had the pleasure of working with him again, but - believe me - I've read hundreds and hundreds of other reviews. No one compares with the acuity, passion and sheer humanity of Ned's reviews. He writes about the PLAY, the ACTORS and the combustible tension of the DRAMA itself. He highlights the theatrical event, rather than just dribbling out a brief description of the plot, unpleasant comments about the acting and a tiresome opinion. His words are vital, like the man himself. His love of theatre pervades every observation. Hats off. This is a tip-top review, and it makes me dearly regret that I missed seeing the production.

Bill Bailey

read Ned Bobkoff's review

Sharing the writer's thrill over the first Thai film to win at Cannes. It must be a welcome thrill for everbody back home after all the recent strife. Can't wait to see it.

Aaron Klein

read Janine Yasovant's article

Ned Bobkoff's deep humanity and theatrical intelligence illuminate the essential elements of this production. Although I have not seen the performance - and travel distance makes it impossible - I can almost taste it from Ned's passionate description and his inevitable kindness and understanding of theatrical performance art. Highly recommended!

Bill Bailey

read Ned Bobkoff's article

As you predicted and as reported:
"Alicia Alonso accepted the sold-out audience's adoring ovation at the Metropolitan Opera House from a central box seat before Thursday night's American Ballet Theatre performance. But one sensed that this legendary ballerina, being saluted by the company with an evening to celebrate her 90th birthday, would find her way to center stage, and she did, culminating the boisterous, rousing event."

And what an event that was.

Louis Laird

read Andrea Kapsaski's article

How brilliant is this writer. I think the New Yorker is going to steal her away from Scene4 and put her in a penthouse if we are not very effing vigilant. I swear, she is the best commentator alive!

Grace Cavalieri

read Kathi Wolfe's column

I felt enlightened, progressive, and modern. Thank you for a very good interview.

Janine Yasovant

read Griselda Steiner's article

I agree wholeheartedly with Nathan Thomas and his lament in "Thinking Outside the Box." But I am willing to go one step further and say I despise the Black Box. Not for it's origins or intentions, but for what it is now. There are rare, and I mean, rare exceptions, but in general, and especially in Los Angeles, the people who run and/or rent Black Boxes have no right to call them theaters and the productions they do in them theatre. Besides the lack of color and design, there is no thought to fixing all the small flaws such as dangling cords, crappy sound systems, faded paint, worn-out bathrooms or lobby carpeting. Too often actors are in the lobby talking to their friends right before the show starts. And the front of house staff is dressed in their worst just-rolled-out-of-bed duds and their best coat of apathy. There is no suspension of disbelief created for the patrons once they step through the front doors. And this is reflected in the fairly lame and not very daring productions themselves. I place much of the blame for this laid-back, amateur approach firmly at the worn-out, sad floors of the tiny black box. There is definitely crap being done in grander spaces, but more often than not, they require the people who use them to rise to the occasion. And at least they know how hide the loose cables.

Lia Beachy

read Nathan Thomas' column

Les Marcott's article on the manipulation of phrases in everyday vernacular hit a nerve. I cringe when I hear or see the words "pre-owned," knowing it is simply a high-falutin way of saying "used" for those refurbished vehicles grinning brightly from car lots. At the cosmetics counter in the larger department stores, there are often white-coated sales associates ("epidermal consultants?") who will wield pamphlets and products with the assurance of a lab assistant. The professional position of "Life Coach" is cropping up (do they use whistles while training clients for more productive lives?) and it is another neat way of encapsulating complex concepts in a compact, promising moniker. We are not too far off from Roseanne Barr's exotic notion of "Domestic Goddess" for "Housewife," but don't tell that to the television executives at ABC.

Mindy Kronenberg

read Les Marcott's column

A remarkable occasion, this the 90th year of the great ballerina. I first saw her many years ago in New York. She was astonishing whether one knew she was nearly blind or not. She represents all that is great about dance and what perseveres in the greatness of Cuban culture. Thank you for the remembrance.

Louis Laird

read Andrea Kapsaski's article

SURELY one of the most important voices writing today. Humor and Intelligence. What a perfect marriage.

Grace Cavalieri

read Kathi Wolfe's column

From a comment posted to Karren Alenier's blog at Scene4...

I've been rereading a number of The Dresser's postings and I'm ashamed I haven't written before not only to thank you but to say how marvelous it is what you've been doing over this time. I have no reason to flatter -- you've brought such a fine critical intelligence and in a writing style that keeps one (me) moving from one sentence to another. Ann and I haven't gone to all that much in D.C. this year, so The Dressing has been a vicarious way of doing that. A bit of hyperbole maybe but not all that much. We did get to the Joe Louis opera -- I've seen numbers of Leon Major's productions, all of which have been strikingly distinctive. The voicies espeically of Carmon Balthrop and Adrienne Webster, as you say, were compelling -- Webster had terrific dramatic presence. I loved the staging -- the modern Greek chorus, the movement with chairs, the masks, the lighting, Kirby Malone and his partner's projections. The structure of the storytelling might have been more adventurous -- I felt my attention flag at times, which could easily have been me and not the libretto. I only read the Washington Post review later on, not wanting to be prejudiced, and the criticism had some validity, though in truth I was caught up in the production. I'm not a great fan of so-called biopics and so when I say it might have been more adventurous, something different than the linear storytelling. Then your observations about the Terra Cotta warriors, the differences between seeing them in Xian and at the National Geographic -- first rate. When I first read your post on Split This Rock, your comment about Holly Bass didn't register with me -- I didn't know her work and so it passed over. But on Friday night, a bunch of us were at the Enoch Pratt for a reading for Kim's Full Moon -- Holly read and did her "In This District," which I loved.

Merrill Leffler

read Karren Alenier's blog

Great sports as great theatre--one of the greatest was Bobby Thomson's "shot heard round the world" in baseball, his playoff winning homerun in 1951 against the Brooklyn Dodgers. As dramatic as they come. There are lots of others in lots of other sports. As he said, it's all entertainment and the art is in the playing.

Bernie Hoffman

read Martin Challis' column

Audacious to call great sports great theatre? Not in the least. It has everything: entertainment, players, and the art of the playing. Along with theatrical performances, some of the most "dramatic" experiences I've ever had have come from a sporting event. And I too would like to be in an audience that cheers and whoops and leaves me achingly moved the way it once was in our, ahem, "polite" English-style theatre and the way it still is in many other parts of the world. I'll see you there.

Murray Gissin

read Martin Challis' column

...and see his other commentary in the Scene4 Archives

As a long-time subscriber to this magazine and a former resident of Thailand, it's been a joy to see the coverage you give to this marvelous and unique culture. The arts have been a river flowing through Thai history and defining the unique Thai lifestyle and view of life. I only wish you could expand your coverage to include much more of what Thai arts create and offer. That said, I can only commend with great praise the work of Ms Yasovant to bring Thai arts to your readers. Kop kun kap and thank you.

Stuart Medlin

read Janine Yasovant's current article - in English and Thai

...and check the archives for more of her articles

Thank you for your comment! It's much appreciated. I fully agree with you that there is no answer but I would add that this is because there are a zillion answers to a question as large and complex as this one!

Renate Stendhal

read Renate Stendhal's article

Ditto, ditto and ditto, Les. The Great Ball of Fire is my hero. Tiger's got a bad neck because of all his bending down. Jerry stands up straight as his finger. You nailed it, man. Thanks.

Til Unger

read Les Marcott's column

Thank you so much for this look at new opera. Isn't wonderful how far-ranging opera is going. The Steiny Road to Operadom is now a super-highway. Thanks Karren Alenier for taking us with you on the journey.

Nuntaporn Amadsri

read Karren Alenier's column

Very interesting article, loved the recipes!

Ellen Milton

read Janine Yasovant's article

I have not seen the exhibition but Renate Stendhal's story about it is very revealing and the pictures are mind-boggling and at the same time exasperating. I am not sure that this an answer to the problem of the legacy of the Nazis and that horrendous book. I don't know what the answer is. The book exists and in the spirit of "never again" it is very important that it is never forgotten, yet it is more than a ghost as we see today in the world around us. How do you smell and taste poison without drinking it? Maybe with comedy. But even Mel Brooks and others couldn't hide the awful taste. How to forget without remembering! Praise to Linda Ellia and Renate Stendhal and Scene4.

Aaron Wildau

read Renate Stendhal's article

I love Jerry Lee and all the others you put up as mavericks and rebels and such. Thanks for making this powerhouse story.

Wideye Bill

read Les Marcott's column

Michael, I suggest you look at other dying forms for guidance on how to make a living as a playwright. Opera has been dead for over 50 years, so creaters of "new music theater" have been experimenting with new business models - one's that have nothing to do with the traditional roles of composer/librettist submitting work to artistic director/opera company in the hopes of workshop/production. Granted, theater has a longer tradition of devotion to contemporary work, but so many works are, like new music theater, being developed in collectives, now, and I am amazed that you, this late in the game, would still seek that brass ring of "legitimate theater" validation. So, the point is not so much to self-produce, as to collaborate with others, to form a company in which the hat of "playwright" is not so explicitly defined. If you give up that dream and that ego, you may get more chances to play in the theatre, and see your plays become reality.

Barry Drogin

read Michael Bettencourt's column