Textile artists show some edge at a Watrous Gallery show New cloth Jennifer A. Smith on Friday 02/26/2010, (4) Likes Embroidery and cutting-edge contemporary art may seem like strange bedfellows. Unless you do some form of needlework yourself, embroidery probably sounds old-fashioned, corny or kitschy. But just as knitting has undergone a popular revival in recent years -- spawning books for alt-crafters like Stitch 'N Bitch by BUST magazine founder Debbie Stoller -- needlework techniques are being adopted by fine artists looking to confront contemporary issues. >MoreForward Theater production is a fundraising success The kindness of donors Jay Rath on Friday 02/26/2010 The figures are in, and Forward Theater Company's first full-blown production was not only a critical success, it made a lot of money, too. Kind of. Ticket sales covered only a little more than half the cost of Forward's first big production, revealing how ambitious the company's business model is. >More
Elizabeth Gilbert charms Overture Center audience Author describes her new faith in marriage Sally Franson on Friday 02/12/2010 10:23 am An eager and estrogen-dominated audience filled Overture Hall last night for an intimate evening with Elizabeth Gilbert, celebrity author and patron saint of divorcees. Gilbert's memoir of her travels, Eat, Pray, Love, exploded onto the New York Times bestseller list in 2006 and subsequently catapulted Gilbert into literary rock star fame. >MoreJudging from Overture's books, the arts center is doing okay By the numbers Jay Rath on Friday 02/12/2010 During the first quarter of Overture Center's current fiscal year, ticket sales fell short by 48% of what was budgeted. Is the Overture Center for the Arts dying? Short answer: Nope. Long answer: Read on. >More
The Pacific recycles World War II clichés Dean Robbins on Friday 03/12/2010 Producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg collaborated on Band of Brothers, a miniseries about U.S. soldiers fighting in Europe during World War II. They follow up with The Pacific, another miniseries following the action in the Pacific theater. >MoreThe Oscars won't suck You heard it here first Dean Robbins on Friday 03/05/2010, (2) Likes I say this every year, but I really think the Academy Awards will be better than usual. The producers are reportedly studying film of past disasters to weed out the deadliest elements (why has no one ever thought of this before?), and hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are sure to be an improvement over last year's Hugh Jackman. >More
Wait your turn in Final Fantasy XIII PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Rated Teen) Doug Elfman on Friday 03/12/2010 Final Fantasy XIII is another title from the game series GameSpot magazine reviewers correctly identified as Star Wars-esque, Japanese, anime, role-playing fantasy. This epic game claims to have an action-type system called Active Time Battle. But to me, it looks a lot like traditional Dungeons and Dragons-ish role-playing. >MoreAliens vs. Predator is gory and cool but flawed PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (Rated Mature) Doug Elfman on Friday 03/05/2010 I'm lucky that I've never been one of those people who say or think violent thoughts. I never say anything like, "I could just kill such-and-such." I mean, I can hate a person. I'm just don't get all rage-y about it. >More
A Book A Week: The Believers by Zoe Heller Becky Holmes on Saturday 02/20/2010 6:00 pm My mother used to remark on our odd habit of watching TV shows about people we wouldn't want to live next door to. Reality TV hadn't been invented when she said this; I think she was talking about All in the Family. But Zoe Heller's The Believers reminded me of what she said. >MoreChocolate rabbits, plaid sunflowers: My Garden by Kevin Henkes Anyting can happen in latest charmer Jennifer A. Smith on Friday 02/12/2010 Inside the front cover of My Garden, the new picture book by local author Kevin Henkes, the Library of Congress dryly catalogs it as "Gardens -- Fiction." That's an understatement. The wide-eyed, straw-hatted little girl in the book imagines a garden in which jellybean bushes flourish and flowers reappear immediately after being picked. >More
A Book A Week: Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh Becky Holmes on Friday 03/12/2010 6:00 pm Pennsylvania coal mining country isn't a glamorous setting for a novel. In Jennifer Haigh's Baker Towers, the eponymous Baker towers are two huge piles of coal mining waste that dominate the town of Bakerton. >MoreGreat Performance Fund moves on from Madison Rep Forward Theater, Milwaukee Rep can apply for theater grants Jay Rath on Tuesday 03/09/2010 10:47 am Qualifications for applying to Overture's Great Performance Fund have loosened up considerably. Beginning this fall, grant money once set aside exclusively for Madison Repertory Theatre will be available to any professional theater company in Wisconsin. The change was announced March 4. >MoreLaboratory Theatre's Schoolhouse Rock Live!: Wonderful material, uneven execution Katie Reiser on Sunday 03/07/2010 10:38 am, (1) Like It turns out that I feel quite protective of the Schoolhouse Rock! songs, which is probably why I was disappointed with several of the numbers in Laboratory Theatre's production of Schoolhouse Rock Live! >MoreA Book A Week: The Help by Kathryn Stockett Becky Holmes on Saturday 03/06/2010 6:00 pm, (2) Likes I avoided Kathryn Stockett's The Help for a while. I was afraid it was going to be exploitative, opportunistic, manipulative, a cheap bid for attention. In some ways it is those things, but not in the ways I expected. >MoreLi Chiao-Ping Dance concert features four new works, and gym socks Katie Reiser on Saturday 03/06/2010 10:07 am I came away from Li Chiao-Ping Dance's opening of eVOLUTION, Friday night at Overture Center's Promenade Hall, liking Li's sensibility as a dance maker and appreciating her qualities as a dancer. But my favorite piece of the night wasn't her choreography, and she didn't perform in it. That was the smart and funny "Press," from choreographer Lionel Popkin, which opened the program. >MoreA Book A Week: Restless by William Boyd Becky Holmes on Monday 03/01/2010 6:00 pm Don't you love a good spy thriller? I do, except not the Cold War-era ones. I also love William Boyd. I read Brazzaville Beach years ago but hadn't gotten around to anything else by him until now. >MoreUniversity Theatre's all-Kabuki production is a rare treat for Madison audiences Jennifer A. Smith on Saturday 02/27/2010 10:56 am, (1) Like Up until now, even if you went to live theater nearly every weekend in Madison, you would have had little chance to see locally produced Kabuki. Enter University Theatre's David Furumoto, who directs the company's current double bill: the short comedy The Zen Substitute and Narukami: The Thunder God. >MoreWords fly in Wisconsin Union Theater at 2010 Wisconsin Teen Poetry Slam finals Josh Wimmer on Saturday 02/27/2010 9:57 am It was verse versus verse Friday night at the Wisconsin Teen Poetry Grand Slam Finals, but the 21 high school students who got up and spat spoken word were all treated like winners. The artists, Madison and Milwaukee students, performed original compositions in an attempt to be among the six who will represent the state at an international festival in Los Angeles this summer. >More
Mercury Players Theatre's Fat Men in Skirts goes for shock over insight Jennifer A. Smith on Saturday 01/23/2010 10:30 am, (1) Like Though it's mainly a dark comedy, there's plenty in Nicky Silver's Fat Men in Skirts, presented by Mercury Players Theatre at the Bartell Theatre, to try to jolt audiences: mother-son incest, cannibalism, murder, a dim-witted porn star. (Everything, it seems, except actual fat men in skirts.) >MoreFamily dysfunction is funny in Broom Street Theater's Cattywompus Amelia Cook on Saturday 01/16/2010 10:43 am, (1) Like In a week filled with much sadness because of the crisis in Haiti, Broom Street Theater's Cattywompus was a welcome escape into fun. Written by Broom Street regulars Justin Lawfer and Christina Beller, who also directs, Cattywompus gives the cast the opportunity to showcase their diversity and depth as actors. >More
After 25 years, TAPIT/new works dances on Shoe business Jay Rath on Thursday 03/04/2010 TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater turns 25 years old this season. It calls itself "Madison's oldest professional theater company." Certainly it's a rare troupe, producing works that often include tap dance. TAPIT celebrates its anniversary March 5 with the premiere of Help Wanted: A Comedy About the Search for Security, True Love or at Least a Decent Part-Time Job. It indeed includes tap dancing. >MoreKanopy Dance Company's successful Planet Dance highlights global styles Katie Reiser on Saturday 02/20/2010 11:15 am When, after almost three hours, I emerged from Overture Center's Promenade Hall, I felt that Kanopy Dance Company could have done with fewer pieces in Planet Dance. But Friday night's opening performance successfully celebrated dance from around the world -- and made me want to sign up for classes in classical Spanish and Indian dance. >More
Printmaker Warrington Colescott berates wittily at Grace Chosy Gallery Acerbic visions Jennifer A. Smith on Friday 02/19/2010 Warrington Colescott, the acclaimed artist who taught at the UW from 1949 to 1986, once called himself a "research printmaker and mad-dog attack artist." That description sums things up pretty well. Colescott is known for his prodigious, inventive approach to printmaking technique, but also his sharp satirical wit. >MoreMMoCA's Apple Pie looks at America, from earnest to bleak Slices of life Jennifer A. Smith on Friday 01/29/2010, (1) Like There's something I love about a Paul Shambroom photo in the collection of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The 1999 image captures a city council meeting in tiny Dassel, Minn. (population 1,134). Four middle-aged women, including the mayor, sit in a modest meeting room surrounded by maps and flags. Though they're casually dressed -- and each has a can of Coke at the ready -- there's a seriousness to the proceedings. >More
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