Muse House

August 30, 2010 - 5:29pm
Reviews: Choosing shows at the New York International Fringe Festival is an artistic risk, as two fringe shows indicate.

The New York International Fringe Festival can only be described by one word: random.

Random in shows, random in jokes, and random in quality.

This means that when choosing shows, there’s always the chance that it will either be a questionable decision or it may be the best show that you’ve seen this season.

For me, the two shows I saw during the festival embodied this random occurrence concept.

August 25, 2010 - 8:52pm
It can be tough to choose from among 200 comedies, musicals and dramas at the budget-friendly festival.

What happens when you have 200 plays, five days in New York City to see them, and a student budget?

The answer: Choose whichever one seems promising and pray that it’s worth the inexpensive $15 ticket. And this was the conundrum I found myself in during the second week of the New York International Fringe Festival.

Fringe Theater is theater that is non-mainstream, the type that is off-Broadway and not meant for mass appeal. In other words, no Wicked or Jersey Boys.

March 9, 2010 - 10:27am
The Syracuse run of Lookingglass Alice alley-oops, flies and tumbles triumphantly into our hearts — all with just five people on stage.

Lookingglass Alice is writer-director David Catlin’s acrobatic re-imagining of Lewis Carroll’s beloved Alice’s Adventures in WonderlandThrough the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, now playing at Syracuse Stage. Based more on the latter story, Catlin charts Alice’s progression from pawn to queen (or metaphorically from child to woman) and in 90 minutes gives audiences a gasp-inducing, awe-inspiring visual and aural treat.

March 1, 2010 - 3:45pm
Syracuse Opera's multimedia concert of Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" featured excellent singing and a backdrop of studio videos which, at times, left much to be desired.

The Austrian-American composer Max Steiner once said that if Richard Wagner had lived in the 20th century, he would have written for film. Syracuse Opera’s multimedia concert of “The Flying Dutchman” would seem a natural extension of this idea. A montage of student videos were projected onto screens suspended above the orchestra.

February 26, 2010 - 8:54pm
A young, cutting-edge string ensemble arrrives in Syracuse tomorrow.

True to its name, the Miro Quartet is breaking new ground. Just as Joan Miro challenged bourgeois conventions of his time with elements of surrealism and Dada,  the Miro Quartet brings a vivacious presence to the internet an active website that the musicians update regularly with announcements and blogposts. The young  quartet was also the first ensemble in history to receive the Avery Fischer Career Grant.

February 24, 2010 - 11:50am
Why stories need to be told and where to find good ones.

There's an African proverb that goes, "It takes a whole village to raise a child" and for one night the Hendricks Chapel became that village.  

Last night, instead of coming home to a nice, warm meal, I squeezed myself in a pew on the balcony of Hendricks Chapel to see Muhammad Yunus talk.  In the course of two hours, he didn't say anything radically different from what I had read of his work, but nevertheless his words re-infected me--and the rest of the audience as well.  

 

February 2, 2010 - 2:08pm
I had the opportunity to see the musical "Wicked" from the pit orchestra and learned about more than the music, but also how hard life on the road can be.

Seeing Wicked from the skewed view of the pit orchestra was like losing one of my five senses. While some senses were hindered, others were enhanced, making the experience one of heightened awareness and appreciation.

January 24, 2010 - 6:58pm
Syracuse Friends of Chamber Music gathers outstanding musicians from the Central New York area for an evening of trios from throughout the centuries.

Three is a sacred number in traditions from Greek myth, to Buddhism, to Christianity. In Classical music, even as ideas have fermented and bubbled over into increasingly large-scale undertakings, the genre of the trio has provided composers with fresh inspiration.

January 15, 2010 - 11:30am
Tom Ford the Designer Trumps Tom Ford the Filmmaker

Designer Tom Ford has throughout the years fashioned a persona of calculated masculine elegance. Seen in fashion magazines and gossip columns always sporting groomed stubble, tailored suits and tanned skin, he embodies the refined upper class male.

December 12, 2009 - 6:05pm
People keep messing with Jane Austen's work. I'm annoyed by it.

I am a fervent Jane Austen fan. I love her eloquent prose, her portrayal of social conventions during Victorian England, and her penchant for subtle criticism. And I think people need to leave her work well-enough alone!

As you may or may not know, her work is in the public domain and is no longer covered by copyright. So, people can do what they will with it. And ohhhh have they.