Arts & Style

Oral history becomes performance art

By: Connie George
Oral history becomes performance art

For many thousands of years, cultural storytelling traditions have united generations through the wisdom and oral histories passed down from elders. In the 21st century, a D.C. theater group is drawing on the same ritual in order to help teach older and younger people how to better understand and communicate with each other. The multigenerational, multiracial Double Nickels Theatre Company produces performances in a style called “reminiscence theatre.” The genre helps to connect ages and cultures through older adults’ tales of their pivotal life points.

Valerie Harper’s riff on real-life characters

By: Barbara Ruben

You know her as self-deprecating, big-hearted Rhoda Morgenstern. But Valerie Harper has also portrayed former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and author Pearl S. Buck on stage. Currently, she channels actress Tallulah Bankhead at Arena Stage, nailing her smoky contralto slur. In a phone interview, Harper lowers her voice an octave or so and intones, “Hello, dahling. Let me tell you something shweetie,” in an exaggerated take on the legendary actress’s voice.

Artist-owned gallery showcases local art

By: Anne Ball
Artist-owned gallery showcases local art

Columbia’s founder James A. Rouse was a daily visitor when the Artists’ Gallery first opened in the lobby of the American City Building on Wincopin Circle in the heart of town. That was 1994. The New Arts Alliance, a fledgling Howard County arts organization, negotiated a temporary lease with the building to hold monthly invitational exhibits showcasing the best work of area artists. One of the founding members, Bonita Glaser, 63, remembers Rouse walking through the lobby gallery. “The corporate offices were upstairs, and whenever he and his wife Patricia were in the building, they always paused at the gallery,” she recalled. “I believe it served as a retreat from their busy lives.”

Sites, sights and delights on tasting tour

By: Connie George
Sites, sights and delights on tasting tour

Food tastings at a variety of dining establishments mix with a guided walk highlighting local art, history and culture in a pleasing blend provided by a unique new business in the valley. Desert Tasty Tours launched last January to lead small groups of residents and visitors through two of the valley’s most popular destinations — El Paseo in Palm Desert and downtown Palm Springs. Each tour includes stops at six restaurants and specialty food shops, where guests can sample the fare of each, along with a narration of the unique features of both areas.

Local stages abound with holiday cheer

By: Michael Toscano
Local stages abound with holiday cheer

Feel like taking some time out from the holiday hustle and bustle for a few hours? There’s no better refuge than indulging yourself in the current offerings of Washington’s theater companies. You can immerse yourself in holiday spectacle and sentiment, maybe with kids in tow, or choose to experience something completely different.

BMA shines spotlight on dance in artwork

By: Carol Sorgen
BMA shines spotlight on dance in artwork

When it comes to dance as an art form, Baltimore gets short shrift. But a new exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) may make up for that, at least temporarily…or, then again, leave us yearning for more. “Matisse’s Dancers” is an intimate exhibition of more than 30 dance-themed prints, drawings and sculptures by French artist Henri Matisse. On view in two of the Cone Collection galleries now through Feb. 24, 2013, the exhibition (dedicated in memory of the artist’s grandson and BMA National Trustee Claude Duthuit) spans three decades of the artist’s career — from sculptures created in 1909-11 to delicate drawings of dancers sketched in 1949.

Retro-Rockets keep audiences dancing

By: Anne Ball
Retro-Rockets keep audiences dancing

“Sentimental Journey,” “Misty,” “Rock Around the Clock” — most of the couples on the dance floor were in their teens and 20s when these tunes were topping the weekly Hit Parade selections. The dancers are smiling, but they’re concentrating on their moves, too. Swinging arms high, hands clasped with their partners, they sway, twirl and dip. A few minutes later, they shake and shuffle to “The Electric Slide” and “Loco-Motion.”

An assemblage of varied artistic interests

By: Connie George
An assemblage of varied artistic interests

An 88-year-old working artist in Palm Springs with a long history of exhibitions and awards has found an ideal way to combine all of her creative interests into one art form — assemblage. Peggy Vermeer, who spent several decades painting in oils and acrylics while occasionally venturing into sculpture, batik, papermaking and print making, discovered four years ago that her fascination with the potential creative use of random, unrelated objects could be used as the springboard for a new artistic path.

Delightful Pygmalion much more than fair

By: Michael Toscano
Delightful Pygmalion much more than fair

Well, you certainly have your choice here, as Eliza Doolittle has come to town in two strikingly different vehicles. Arena Stage has the Lerner and Loewe musical classic My Fair Lady, based on the George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion. Meanwhile, Washington Stage Guild is presenting the source material itself, Shaw’s original 1913 play. Many theater lovers will see both, of course, as My Fair Lady has one of the greatest musical scores of all time, and Pygmalion is the finest work from one of the preeminent playwrights of the last one hundred years.

Making and living modern women’s history

By: Connie George
Making and living modern women’s history

For a young college graduate in the 1960s with admittedly no clear vision for her future, writer and editor Suzanne Braun Levine ended up on a career trajectory that has made her one of the most accomplished authorities on women and family issues. Her long list of professional achievements includes having been the first editor of Ms., the groundbreaking magazine that launched 40 years ago and was instrumental in promoting women’s rights, even helping to determine the definition of “rape.”