Scene4 Magazine | letters to the editor

After seeing Dr. Atomic my partner and I wondered if we had missed something. Perhaps, we thought, since we were not opera connoisseurs we lacked the refined cultural education one must have to enjoy an opera of avant garde complexity. To learn what we lacked I searched for reviews that may properly edify. What a refreshing relief to read Renate Stendhal’s review. Her biting, no holds barred style was all the education I needed. Stendhal cleverly demonstrates the breadth of her knowledge regarding not only opera but its application to our culture and how one may compare and contrast Dr. Atomic to other operas–the perfect remedy for those of us who see a show that we are supposed to appreciate but don’t. Stendhal helped me recognize that my perspective that Dr. Atomic was a soulless, cacophonous, pointless mess wasn’t the result of my lack of cultural education but perhaps a lack which Sellers and Adams may wish to examine. read the column

Randall Alifano

I read with interest Karren Alenier’s thoughts on the Sellers/Adams opera "Doctor Atomic" in The Steiny Road to Operadom. Because I have been working with Judith Oppenheimer, daughter of Frank Oppenheimer, on her memoirs, the impact of the bomb hasn’t exactly been relegated to the back closets of my mind. It is interesting how many ways there are to think about a subject. Reading hearing transcripts, and copies of FBI files, and re visiting the documentary "The Day After Trinity" got me to thinking about the atomic bomb and the political consequences of the military politics and our diminishing civil rights resulting from the debate over whether the military or the governing bodies should have control over the bombs. In trying to help Judy keep her memories in perspective I have spent a certain amount of time reviewing my memories of the time: recalling incidents like listening to those radio broadcasts of the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings that were carried on the loudspeakers in the halls of the hospital where I was a student nurse. We were such a naïve nation in those days that we were surprised at such vicious political behavior. The people who later built bomb shelters were naïve enough to think they could stay safe in their little holes in the ground. But somehow with all this re-emersion in the time of the development of the atom bomb, I had totally not made a time line that included all the excitement that was going on in the poetry world at the same time until I read Alenier’s poetic comments. That brings a whole other way of thinking about those times. I want to thank you for that. read the column

Jean Emerson

You begin with the Greeks and end with wry innocence. Is that the central comment? Or is it that little explosive introduction? This is indeed a “special issue”. Much to read and much to think about. My thanks to all of your provocative writers. Please stay the course. read the column

Brenda Thomas

How wonderful it is to sit on the other side of the world and be able to share Jeanne's refinement and beauty.. isn't it much more valuable than marketed fame?

Betul Tanbay

Lorena feijoo is simply the greatest ballerina around and her extreme decency as a person coupled with her superior cuban training is unmatched on the world stage...well, ok, her sister lorna feijoo is on the same level. I guess that is why they are the only dynasty in ballet history. This comes around only once in a lifetime! The review is wonderful, insightful, truthful, and most of all, honest!

Danny Burchik

I appreciated this fine piece with a review of 'Ballet Mori' which I did not see,and which I also did not see reviewed elsewhere. Ms. Honig has a wonderful feeling fo ballet criticism, especially since I agree with her view of the Bourne 'Swan Lake.' I look forward to reading her again soon, perhaps with a recap of the entire season which is soon to end. Brava!
Joseph Valicenti

Arthur Meiselman's "A Time to Love, A Time to Hate (revisited)" is a cry out of the wilderness. Americans, for the most part , are sitting on a cushion of TV ads and the hype of "experts" commenting about and evaluating for us what the power elite wants us to hear. Soft sell, hard sell, its all the same. As American revolutionary Tom Paine put it:: "There is but one agitator and his name is Injustice". That statement still holds true. We need another revolution today, an evolutionary one, where the pain of others over what the government does in our name is not longer taken for granted. What happens to others might very well happen to us. And that has happened to us. Violence produces violence, and no amount of happy consumerism will cover over that fact.
Ned Bobkoff

I think you have hit the nail right on the head! I for one believe that today’s generation have an affinity with technology that us older folks will never understand. I think theatre makers should embrace this; the concept of theatre is fine. The language and the context of the classics are still relevant. It is the transmission that needs to be explored. I firmly believe in filming live productions so that it lies somewhere between a live broad cast and a film and again I agree with pod casts. Further more I can see people downloading sketch shows and the like to their mobile phones! The chances are today’s generation would be more likely to go into an actual theatre if they are familiar with the material. The important thing is to uphold the moral of the play/show.
Jenny Rogers

In defining what constitutes a good performance, Martin Challis proposes that almost all of us who teach would agree upon the words "believable, moving, engaging and convincing." The question that is not as often asked is "why?" So many of the conflicting acting techniques that are taught today throughout the world have their basis in the notion of the actor preparing through the long process of theater rehearsal. Unfortunately, that time-honored means of discovery is rarely utilized in the making of films and television --the major means of employment for so many actors these days. It seems to me that what we all need to work on is a newer more practical method of training adapted to the needs of today's young actors. How useful then is the entire notion of Emotional Preparation, however it is taught from the Method to Meisner, to someone on a movie set or location?
Norman B. Schwartz

Tim Page is an outstanding music critic partly because he knows contemporary musical literature and is always fair-minded in his reviews. He also writes beautifully. It was a sad day for me when he left the NY Times as I so enjoyed reading his views. He also was on WNYC here.
read the column

Shela Xoregos

As a librarian (theatre is an avocation for me), I am constantly aware of the issues that occur when copyright becomes the topic of conversation. I don't think one can simply dismiss it, however. It does protect David Mamet from having his work sanitized--imagine American Buffalo with a lot of "goshdarnits" and "fooeys"! Or contemporary novels rewritten to suit a younger or more sensitive audience. Would we allow that? The purported rights of the descendants can get out of hand, but the original author has some control over that. The bigger question is just how far can we deconstruct a work before it challenges the credibility and artistic merit of the original work? At which point do you remove the author or call it an adaptation by Joe Blow? And what impact does that have on the reputation of the original author? read the column

Christine Godin

Beautifully written. This article certainly made me wish I had been there, and also makes my plans for a trip to ZA at some stage seem a little more urgent. read the column

Melissa Wardell

I just got an e-mail from The Ohio State University asking me to be patient while they decide the winners of its stage play competition in which I had submitted my own play. I thought I might stand a chance until I read that they had received "over 450"submissions. For the past couple of years, as I sent out more plays to scores of theatre companies around the country, the rejections flowed in, usually cautioning me not to see it as a reflection on the play so much as the result of their difficulty in making a decision among the hundreds of "good" plays they received. As with book authors, I soon realized the country is awash with aspiring playwrights and that with all that competition, andt hen the arbitrariness of judges, I stood little chance of having my work accepted. Furthermore, plays are not to be read, but to be performed so that judging a script is no easy matter. Think of all the bad plays and movies you've seen.

Such a time we live in when intimacy has been redefined as something you share not only with your closest of closest lover or friends, or as we use to say, “intimates” but with your neighbors, your colleagues, maybe even a roomful of vicarious thrill seekers. Forget the fact that most of us have zippo interest in watching other folks moan and grunt and thrust and scream with carnal delight since, well, we really don’t care that they humphumphump—since it really isn’t a unique adult experience and, sorry, not terribly entertaining on an artistic or sporting level.
Nevertheless, sex is not something to be ashamed of; using the words vagina, testicles, or penis or showing a nipple or bare buttocks is not obscene. In the context of the commentary by Arthur Meiselman, however, nekkidness by itself is not a form of cultural expression. Too often, uninspired artists seeking to pull the seams of propriety opt for the easy taboos. Show a little bit o’ tit and ass, ooh sorry—“bosom and bottom” and watch the Midwestern matrons swoon. What is more fun than dismissing the values of suburban types who go to church and join the Kiwanis, sell Girl Scout cookies, and maybe, God-help-us-all, watch Bill O’Reilly! Selling sex serves little artistic or politically empowering purpose.

I have been reading Scene4 for the past few years, guiltily I must add because it is so accessible, so rewarding, so unusual, and free! There is no other publication in the morass of the internet that provides the reading experience that you provide: the presentation, the writing, the surprising points of view are remarkable. Is this solicited hype? No. Though I'm in the media business I don't know anyone at the magazine even though I feel I know some of the writers almost intimately as they publish their commentaries every month. I thought, therefore, I would finally say hello and thank you. How you continuously offer this good work as an apparently non-commercial publication is a wonder, and a testament to the intelligent evolution of well-designed writing (pun intended!)..

Louis Laird

Hello misinformed. It is apparent that you do not understand Native ways in the West. Maybe you do things in the East differently. Give the guy a break, at least he tried to produce something that would give people a different perspective. read the review

Darcy Calliou

I enjoy your magazine immensely and I follow many of your writers every month, especially Mr. Michael Bettencourt. This column is another one of his penetrating and very well-written articles. He is as good an article-writer as I see anywhere including here in London. But I must strongly disagree with him, this time, when he admonishes playwrights to forego character descriptions in their plays. A good drama can be a good piece of literature and a good drama can be as good a reading experience as a good book of fiction. I know that William Shakespeare did not include "character descriptions" in his plays but no one knows for sure if he did and, after all, he wrote his plays for his own actors and he managed them. George Bernard Shaw never shied away from detailed character descriptions which is why his plays remain the wonderful reading experience that they are and are of great assistance to actors who take on his plays. I was born in Asia and educated there and in America and in Europe. I am an avid theatre-goer and I even have some experience working in the theatre myself. I think that European playwrights tend to be writers first and "scripters" second and American playwrights tend to be "scripters" first and maybe writers second. read the column

Anee S. Waterson

I was reading your article on Gertrude Stein, and lo!, you made a discovery for me. I've never been able to remember when or where I directed Kupferman's IN A GARDEN. My god: 1949! I was 19 years old!! I didn't touch Stein again until 1961[?] when Carmines (Al) & I did WHAT HAPPENED. After that I couldn't stop. We went on and on...in circles... . So again, thanks for solving my history problem.
Larry Kornfeld
read Karren Alenier's article

It is sad that he is no longer with us, though as an old writer friend of mine once said—as long as someone remembers you, you live on. And with Robert Altman, the memory is rich and deep and lingering. As an artist, it is not difficult to place him: he was unique unto himself. As a filmmaker, it's not as easy to categorize him. He worked inside and outside the Hollywood system which sometimes damaged his work and sometimes elevated it. None of today's mover-shaker Hollywood moviemakers have the distinct creative signature that Altman had. What was that? Simply—a film by Robert Altman.

Michael Richards lost more than his temper last week.
If you haven’t heard, Richards, aka “Kramer” on the 90’s series, Seinfeld, was doing his stand-up act at a L.A. comedy club when several hecklers began taunting him.
The hecklers, by the way, are black. Michael Richards, by the way, is white. Anyhoo, Richards jumped the shark. Which is to say, stalking the stage like a caged lion, he launched into a tirade, screaming epithets; not just epithets, but alluding to lynchings while screeching the culturally unacceptable “n-word” over and over again. You could almost see the blood dripping from his teeth.
Was he “doing a Lenny Bruce” or an “Andy Kaufman” referencing the two late comedians noted for their shocking and irreverent styles? Or did Michael Richards just flip out and reveal his racist soul?
Doesn’t matter—apologies on Letterman with Seinfeld in tow and phone calls to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton aside. He broke the rule.
The rule, described by Ojibwe writer Drew Hayden Taylor as the “Ladder of Status,” which he discussed recently in an interview. “In essence, I break it down into the world of geometry. Humor works from the bottom up; racism works from the top down. We can make jokes about people higher up on the ladder than we are, whereas people higher in the culture, white people, cannot. That’s racism.”

This is such a sharp-edged article that I must say it set me back for a while. I thoroughly enjoy Arthur Meiselman's writing; he writes with verve and clarity and I presume that he writes the way he speaks which is the mark of a good writer. I think I agree with everything he writes here, yet, although, I admire some of de Sade's writing I don't know if I can embrace the image of my beloved Cinderella in the clutches of the not so beloved Marquis. But the challenge that is presented and the questions that are asked are thoroughly thought provoking and thoroughly disturbing which is always a good effect.
Thank you for being so candid and mesmerising. read the column

Anee S. Waterson

They did it with Pride and Prejudice, and now they’re doing it with The Other Boleyn Girl, a true Hollywood makeover. I’ve seen the BBC versions of both P&P and The Other Boleyn Girl several times and I must say I really like them, the British way of portraying time pieces I really appreciate, because unlike most of the Hollywood time pieces, they are not sugar coated.
The history of Britain appeals to many, it speaks to the imagination of all, kings, queens, knights, dukes etc etc. It started with the Normans, then came the Plantagenets, the Tudors, the Stuarts, the Hanoverians, and last but not least the House of Windsor. The story I want to talk about is The Other Boleyn Girl since it’s the latest Hollywood “discovery” and due to appear in cinema sometime next year.