http://www.thedailypage.com/arts Arts content from ISTHMUS | The Daily Page webmaster@isthmus.com (Webmaster) Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:57:24 CST Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28304 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28304 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 <i>Stitch 'N Bitch</i> by <i>BUST</i> magazine founder Debbie Stoller -- needlework techniques are being adopted by fine artists looking to confront contemporary issues. Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28305 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28305 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. Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:23:51 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28184 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28184 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, <i>Eat, Pray, Love</i>, exploded onto the New York Times bestseller list in 2006 and subsequently catapulted Gilbert into literary rock star fame. Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28165 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28165 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. Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28369 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28369 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. Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28310 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28310 Jay Leno returns to <i>The Tonight Show</i> after the failed experiment of his primetime talk show, displacing successor Conan O'Brien. NBC has been savagely attacked for this series of moves, but I really can't see why. Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28370 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28370 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. Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28314 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28314 If <i>Dante's Inferno</i> had used its little nudity for actual naughtiness on the level of an HBO show, it would have earned an "A" (for adult) rating from the politically pressured Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28267 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28267 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 <i>All in the Family</i>. But Zoe Heller's The Believers reminded me of what she said. Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28173 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28173 Inside the front cover of <i>My Garden</i>, 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. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:47:23 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28407 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28407 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. Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:38:59 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28395 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28395 It turns out that I feel quite protective of the <i>Schoolhouse Rock!</i> songs, which is probably why I was disappointed with several of the numbers in Laboratory Theatre's production of <i>Schoolhouse Rock Live!</i> Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28393 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28393 I avoided Kathryn Stockett's <i>The Help</i> 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. Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:07:51 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28392 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28392 I came away from Li Chiao-Ping Dance's opening of <i>eVOLUTION</i>, 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. Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:30:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28008 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28008 Though it's mainly a dark comedy, there's plenty in Nicky Silver's <i>Fat Men in Skirts</i>, 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.) Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:43:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27949 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=27949 In a week filled with much sadness because of the crisis in Haiti, Broom Street Theater's <i>Cattywompus</i> was a welcome escape into fun. Written by Broom Street regulars Justin Lawfer and Christina Beller, who also directs, <i>Cattywompus</i> gives the cast the opportunity to showcase their diversity and depth as actors. Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28357 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28357 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 <i>Help Wanted: A Comedy About the Search for Security, True Love or at Least a Decent Part-Time Job</i>. It indeed includes tap dancing. Sat, 20 Feb 2010 11:15:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28266 http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=28266 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 <i>Planet Dance.</i> 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. Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28051 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=28051 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. Fri, 22 Jan 2010 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27982 http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=27982 Nicole Gruter's art is not necessarily something you see at a gallery or a club. It's something you encounter -- or join -- during a random walk down a Madison street.