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Company One's 11th season will feature two world premieres and three New England premieres, plus the return of "The Superheroine Monologues" as a second stage production. No ticket info yet from the company, currently getting good reviews with "After The Quake." Read on for details.
Nicholas Baume (right), chief curator of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, is leaving to become director and chief curator of the Public Art Fund, which presents temporary public art installations in NYC. And we here in Boston got to learn about it from the New York Times - Yay! No doubt the success he's had at the ICA with Shepard Fairey, Tara Donovan and Anish Kapoor helped him get the gig. You can read the press release here. A search for his replacement is already underway, says Geoff, who notes other curatorial vacancies around town. ... In other reading, Greg Cook takes a turn analyzing the Rose Museum overseers' suit against Brandeis. I forgot to offer this link the other day, but the documents are here, if you want to take a look for yourself.
A new chapter in the ongoing "Idol"-ization of American culture? Or an interesting attempt to open the doors of Symphony Hall a little wider via the Intertubes? I'm too busy thinking about the damn Red Sox to have an opinion, but here's the facts: The Boston Pops and Ben Folds (right) are holding an online talent search via SonicBids.com to find an opening act for Folds' appearance with the Pops at Symphony Hall on Oct. 2. The winner will get a half-hour set plus $1,000 expenses. No restrictions on genre, but no full drum kits are allowed, and bring your own piano. Submit your audio files and artist information here by Aug. 24 to enter. And try not to be pitchy.
My column in the Globe today is about the new Small Theatre Alliance of Boston - better known as S.T.A.B. - and how it has taken over running the edgy FeverFest. But really, as a devout Red Sox fan, I'm just so, so happy to have a story in the edition with this front page. It's great, isn't it? Say it ain't so, Papi.
Normally, the Rock and Blues Concert Cruise series is where you go to see old favorites like Entrain and Ellis Paul and have fun with shows like the upcoming double bill of Enter the Haggis and Hot Day at the Zoo. But this Friday night there's something a little different, a singer-songwriter from the area named Will Dailey who might just be going somewhere. He's got a quirky voice, friends like Kay Hanley and Roger McGuinn play on his songs. He's definitely on the upswing, too, with a number on "CSI: NY" (below) and a three-star review in Rolling Stone. Of course, that's three out of five, RS also slags him for moments of "cheesy Hootie soul," and he's good-looking enough in the currently popular stubbled, rumpled mode to be downright annoying. But it's hard to hate a guy when one of his best songs is "Allston." Tix are $25 and 21+. Gypsy Tail Wind opens. Details and tix here.
CultureGrrl may have spotted the key item in the 142 pages of exhibits attached to the lawsuit filed by three Rose Art Museum overseers to stop the closing of the museum and the sale of the art. She found a signed document between museum lead donor Edward Rose and the president of Brandeis in 1968, Abram L. Sachar, in which both sides appear to agree that proceeds from any art sales will be used only for acquisition of more art. If it holds up - shazam!
Early warning of the next big conversation starter on the north bank of the Charles: Though she won't enter the national consciousness like Henry Louis Gates, people along many smoots of Mass. Ave. are likely to be talking about Gioia De Cari in September. That's when she opens her one-woman show,"Truth Values: One Girl's Romp Through M.I.T.'s Male Math Maze"at Cambridge’s Central Square Theater. In the show, presented Sept. 10-20 by the Underground Railway company, De Cari "shares her experiences in the exotic boys club of higher mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While making the most of the comic absurdity of being pawed by nerds, being asked to serve cookies at a seminar, and retaliating with fashion experiments, Truth Values is also a serious exploration of the world of elite mathematics and the role of women in science."
No surprise that former Harvard President Larry Summers is invoked in the press release; De Cari, who describes herself as a "recovering mathematician," says his famous comments on women in science spurred her to write it. And speaking of fun, selected performances will be followed by conversations with artists and scientists from MIT and Harvard.The piece has already been produced in a couple of festivals in 2008, and is headed to the Fringe in NYC in August. Miriam Eusebio directs.
Tix are $35 with assorted student discounts available. Buy at (866) 811-4111, www.centralsquaretheater.org or the box office. For box office hours, group discounts, and more info call (617) 576-9278 x213.
I can't predict the outcome of the lawsuit filed by three Rose Art Museum overseers to stop Brandeis University's closing of the Rose Art Museum and block the potential liquidation of some or all of its collection of modern and contemporary art. As reported by Greg Cook last night and the Globe today, three overseers have sued to block any sale of the art and to keep the museum open (although its curator and most of its staff have already been sent packing.) One of the three is Jonathan Lee, whose mother donated 500 works to the museum, so you can see why he'd take this to heart; another is Meryl Rose, for whose generous family the museum is named. A last-ditch and perhaps fanciful option in their lawsuit is for Brandeis to turn the collection over to a newly created foundation which would find it an appropriate home.
Brandeis, meanwhile, continues its hardball corporate approach, sending outside counsel Thomas Reilly, a former Massachusetts AG, into the fray with a statement sneering that the lawsuit is "frivolous" and that overseers are "oblivious" to the university's educational mission and its budgetary needs. But people whose families have given millions of dollars of art to an institution where they should be shared by all can hardly be described as "oblivious" to the educational needs of Brandeis students - they simply have a different view of those needs. There's nothing frivolous about their attempt to save this legacy.
Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz and his administration have come across as tone deaf, arrogant and not particularly believable throughout this process. Winning seems to be everything now, and if that means insulting the families who gave millions to create the museum and its collection, so be it. (Oblivious??) The Reinharz team comes off like Monty Burns, and they've done everything but set loose the hounds, although, come to think of it, there was that outside PR firm they hired in the spring - and Reilly.
In the statement, Reilly says, “We look forward to aggressively defending our position in court.” I know it's only legal saber rattling, but, um, really? You look forward to it?
What a sad spectacle. But only the Brandeis community can change it.
Greg Cook reports three Rose overseers have filed a lawsuit to stop the closing/repurposing of the Rose and any sales from its collection. Much more tomorrow.
On Aug. 20 the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem is hosting "an evening of fine ales and fine art" to complement the summer exhibition The Golden Age of Dutch Seascapes. (I haven't been yet, but Art Throb liked it.) Following a curatorial tour of the exhibit, there'll be a discussion of Dutch beer history and culture with Peter G. Rose, author of "Matters of Taste: Food and Drink and Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life." Afterward, sample six of the finest Dutch and Flemish beers paired with an array of Dutch foods. (Why do I think herring will be involved?) Sounds lovely, but the most interesting aspect is a clause in the press release that is a first to me:
*NOTE: As Dutch and Flemish beers have a high alcohol content, we encourage participants to bring a designated driver. Designated drivers will be admitted free and will be treated to soft drinks, food, and may participate in the exhibition tour and panel discussion.
Seems like a forward-thinking plan to me. Instead of limiting everyone to a thimble-full, drink hearty and let Aunt Betty drive home. Tix are $50 for museum members, $60 for non-. Make your reservations by Aug. 14 at www.pem.org/events or 978-745-9500 x3011.
Image: The Darsena delle Galere and Castello Nuovo at Naples, 1703, Caspar van Wittel, 755 x 1410mm, Oil on panel, © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK.
