Engineer's Daughter

too much light makes the baby go blind

Ongoing - Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind at SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts.  Once upon a time (in 1988, to be precise) a scrappy Chicago theater group decided they would write 30 very-short plays and try to perform them all in the space of an hour.  They called the resulting show Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind and devised a few rules: it would always involve the audience (which yells out the next number to be performed off the play "menu" and therefore determines a new order to the show each night), it would always be changing (brand new plays cycle in each week), it would always be honest.  The Neo-Futurists, as the group dubbed themselves, have been wowing crowds with Too Much Light ever since, and in 2014 some Bay Area theater peeps were inspired to found the SF Neo-Futurists and start writing and performing their own version of the show.

I first saw a performance two years ago and was blown away by how original and hilarious and yes honest Too Much Light was, and after checking in again recently (in the SF Neos' 140th week) I am pleased to report absolutely none of that has changed.  To give just a random sampling of the plays on my particular night, one moment two characters acted out a scene from The Little Mermaid in the style of David Mamet, and the next ensemble member Willie Caldwell narrated his "Guide to Safe and Efficient San Francisco Transversal" (hint: headphones are key), before Jessie Alsop performed "A retelling of the time I found a dead guy floating next to my boat, in the style of Courtney Barnett" on her guitar, and then the whole cast had me in tears with "Two and a half minutes of silence for Terence Crutcher."  The pieces vary wildly in tone, and that's the brilliance of it.  Thanks to the utter commitment by the cast members (who somehow make it all look easy) Too Much Light manages to not merely hang together but to transcend the sum of its parts.  The SF Neo-Futurists give me experimental theater just the way I want it: sharp as hell and teetering on the edge of total chaos.

See also:

• SF Neo-Futurists

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agenda 09.28.16

Audrie & Daisy
Amy M. Ho at Chandra Cerrito
Hella Vegan Eats
Seven Minutes to Closing at Crooked City Cider
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars
Lucky Dragons at SFMOMA
Christoph Roßner at Romer Young
Of Many Minds at Euqinom
Fiamma Montezemolo at Kadist
Holding the Edge at The Marsh
KALX
Naomi Rincón Gallardo at SFMOMA
Difficult People

poodle-faker

Transfer station, Los Angeles.  August 1, 2008.

after pop life

Jennie Ottinger

Sofía Córdova

Veronica De Jesus

Through October 1 - After Pop Life at Minnesota Street Project.  The act of public, collective mourning can be a powerful experience, and nearing the tail end of a year where the sense of loss has been heavy indeed Glen Helfand has curated a wonderfully diverse group show that pays tribute to the Purple One himself.  Many of the artworks were created specifically for the exhibition, and they all speak to how Prince meant so many different things to so many different people, as Helfand describes:

“The passion for Prince, not to mention his highly defined visual aesthetic—and all that purple—make him such a compelling, inspiring figure.  His presence brings up so many issues, big topics like sexuality, race, and belief, but his work also offers such unfettered pleasure.  Prince brings so many people together.  I was so struck to find out just the incredible range of artists who were so deeply affected by his passing.”

So many other people have said it so much better than I ever can but: what an incredible legacy.  If you go to see the show don't miss Jenifer Wofford's incredible karaoke chapel next door to the main exhibition ("When Doves Cry" is totally in my range, why had I not realized that before?), and there's also an epic closing party this Saturday evening featuring a fashion performance by artist collaborative Bonanza and a special live set by Xuxa Santamaria.

See also:

• Minnesota Street Project

matokie mix 09.25.16

mix

august: osage county

Through October 9 - August: Osage County at Marin Theatre Company.  The dysfunctional family dynamics that Tracy Letts captures in his darkly hilarious 3-act play are so eternally relevant that I forget it only premiered in 2007.  This is American playwriting at its finest, well worthy of the Pulitzer and the multiple Tony Awards it would win, and MTC's superb production (with performances by an incredible ensemble, and *that set*) knocks it clear out of the park.  The main action of the play takes place after a brief introduction by Beverly Weston — aging father to three daughters, husband to pill-popping wife Violet, certified alcoholic.  He exits, and the women take over the stage, each a satisfyingly-drawn character with her own set of familial issues and secrets that emerge in clandestine conversations and screaming brawls directed to perfection by Jason Minadakis.  Sherman Fracher is a standout as matriarch Violet, as is Arwen Anderson as her oldest daughter Barbara.  It can all be excruciating to watch, certainly, but Letts gives an energy and complexity to the trainwreck that makes it impossible to look away.  August: Osage County is an instant classic, a play that we will be returning to again and again for decades to come.

See also:

• Marin Theatre Company

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agenda 09.21.16

SFMOMA
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars
Hella Vegan Eats
Cybele Lyle at Et al. etc.
After Pop Life at Minnesota Street Project
Cala (or Plaj)
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind at SAFEhouse Arts
Desire Trails at Headlands
Caught at Shotgun
KALX

verboten

Berkeley.  July 11, 2007.

intro (writing's on the wall)

Masami Kubo

Nicki Green

Sofía Córdova

Through October 21 - Intro (Writing's on the Wall) at Slide Space 123.  Every time I visit the Mills campus, whether for art or music, I want to write an ode to the gorgeous architecture, the trees, the history of experimentation that hangs almost palpably in the air.  I adore their art museum too because they're always showing something fabulous (I intend a separate post at some point about their current Patti Smith exhibition which: wow), and now the Art Department has upped the ante by opening Slide Space 123 just across the courtyard.  The inaugural group show at the intimate gallery, expertly curated by Et al.'s Jackie Im, does not shy away from Slide Space 123's mission statement to "pose new problems" as it presents work by a variety of artists who address their own race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation but resist being defined by any single label or identity.  

Im quotes Adrian Piper's 2003 Letter to the Editor: "Please don't call me a black artist...Please don't call me a woman artist...I have earned the right be called an artist...I have earned the right to call myself anything I like."  Many of the images on display similarly ask the viewer to abandon reductive assumptions, as in Laylah Ali's drawings of tribal figures of her own invention or in Zanele Muholi's clever subversion of how a black South African might be photographed by an outsider.  A small quilt and ceramic piece by Nicki Green practically vibrate with the codes and symbols she has embedded on their surfaces, her own references to queer and Jewish histories that have not always been visible.  Sofía Córdova and Lauren Halsey both play with stereotypes, how we might judge a person or even an entire neighborhood based on nothing more than outside signifiers or a few words on a business sign.  Meanwhile Masami Kubo's very moving video uses the frame of an educational film to share something of the experience of being raised by a Japanese father and a white mother in the Unification Church.  All of the artists in the exhibition illustrate how intersectionality is not just a trendy catch-phrase but is instead crucial to understanding how we got to this crazy place in history right now, and how we can move forward.

See also:

• Slide Space 123
• Laylah Ali
• Sofía Córdova
• Nicki Green
• Lauren Halsey
• Masami Kubo
• Zanele Muholi

show 369

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