by Allan Appel | April 22, 2008 7:52 AM

Where can you find dances about spirituality by Connecticut women on roller skates, a talk by Maus's Art Spiegelman on the subculture of comics, and the American premiere of Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney's translation of Sophocles' Antigone?

Continue reading "Back to the Future with Arts & Ideas, and the Big Read"

by Melinda Tuhus | April 21, 2008 4:16 AM

Seven New Haven teens were praised for their poise and chutzpah as they brought new life to a 1970s play about the struggles of black women.

Continue reading ""For Colored Girls"... A Chance to Shine"

by christopher grobe | April 4, 2008 9:04 AM

The stage, once veiled with layer upon layer of gossamer fabric, has been stripped down to its skeletal basics. The floorboards, once dusty and dry, are covered with rainwater; they show more clearly than ever the image of groomed, white, middle-class girlishness painted on them in candied colors. A young black girl kicks up water as she dances frantically -- a dance that was lovely 90 minutes ago, when the houselights had just dimmed, when we didn't yet know its source.

Continue reading "Morrison's Parable Comes to the Stage"

by christopher grobe | April 3, 2008 9:54 AM

In the languorous aftermath of a heavy meal -- lamps aglow against the darkening night, French windows open to evening breezes -- women lounge and discuss the divide between the sexes. One boasts that women "have always been picturesque protests against the mere existence of common sense." And after she has continued in this vein for a few minutes, her elderly hostess exclaims, with an awe-struck tone of approval, "How clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single word you say."

Continue reading "Genre-Bender Run Wilde"

by Allan Appel | March 17, 2008 4:56 PM

New Haven gave a celebratory send-off Monday to a community theater troupe bringing a homegrown hip-hop musical to Europe.

Continue reading ""Kingdom" Comes to Rotterdam"

by Melinda Tuhus | March 6, 2008 1:30 PM

Composer and singer Ted Hearne (pictured) led a performance of his “Katrina Ballads” that electrified his New Haven audience and powerfully reminded them that the tragedy in the Gulf Coast is far from over.

Continue reading "Katrina Ballads Pierce the Heart"

by Allan Appel | March 4, 2008 10:02 AM

Hill Regional Career High School seniors Malik Graves and Lorraine Gabriel, who know a lot of people their age who have enlisted in the armed forces for the bonus money, are exactly the audience artist Baptiste Ibar was hoping for to view his "Guided Men," Artspace's latest installation in The Lot, the unassuming public park tucked away just in from the corner at Chapel and Orange. Click here for the full story.

by Paul Bass | February 28, 2008 6:30 PM

Where did those radio waves come from?

Continue reading "Aliens Invade Local Stage"

by Allan Appel | February 26, 2008 9:13 AM

This stylish couple, Gerald and Sara Murphy, introduced corn-on-the cob, sliding doors, Ritz crackers, and everything else new, fresh, and American to the war-weary French Riviera in the 1920s. They were the prototypes for the heroes of the novel Tender is the Night, written by their heavy-drinking house guest Scott Fitzgerald. They created a life so full of taste, costume, and panache, that a day at the beach at Antibes (above) or a meal might be likened to performance art.

Continue reading "Gallery Explores America's First Performance Artists"

by christopher grobe | February 22, 2008 11:52 AM

A peculiar sight awaited the attendees of Wednesday's world premiere of Shipwrecked! at the Long Wharf Theater--and I don't mean on the stage, although spectacular oddities certainly abounded there, too. No, I mean in the audience: there were children -- several of them -- attending the theater. On American Idol Wednesday, no less!

Continue reading "A Million Little Pieces of Eight"