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(09/13/06 4:00am)
It can be hard for an actor to prepare for playing a character like Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, the real-life transvestite antiques collector who lived through Germany's Nazi and Communist governments.
But Mahlsdorf is just one of 35 characters John Feltch will play in PlayMakers Repertory Company's upcoming one-man show, "I Am My Own Wife."
The show, Feltch said, is "about that character but it's also about a bunch of other people involved in that person's life and the playwright himself and how he reflects on this person."
"This person may have betrayed other people in order to survive, so it's very complicated," Feltch said.
In "I Am My Own Wife," other characters include American soldiers, communist spies and a gay Texas-raised playwright named Doug Wright - the play's author.
The play focuses on Wright interviewing and gathering information about Mahlsdorf, and in doing so, learning about history, integrity and courage, Feltch said.
So how does an actor prepare for 35 characters at once?
"You have to get a picture of who each of these characters is, what they may look like, what they may sound like, and give them in a way a very quick sketch in your own mind," Feltch said. "Then you flesh it in as you rehearse it, so it's not easy but it's also a lot of fun."
Feltch got the role last spring and had a mere 17 rehearsals before taking the show to Asheville's Stoneleaf Theatre Festival in June, where it was chosen as the festival's Top Pick.
But Feltch did not perform the show again until two and a half weeks ago.
"I learned it all so fast, kind of like cramming for an exam," he said. "A lot of it went out of my head - I had to relearn."
Spending two hours alone on stage, in front of a crowd of people - in a dress no less - might scare some actors. But Feltch said he wants big audiences.
"I hope that people come to see it because I think it's a really cool event, a really interesting story and really fun for me to do."
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(08/30/06 4:00am)
There's a new show on the Sci Fi network, and a University alumna helps write it.
Johanna Stokes, an English and communications double major who graduated in 1997, writes for "Eureka."
The a show follows a U.S. Marshal named Jack Carter who discovers a small secret town in the Pacific Northwest that was created as a safe haven for the smartest minds in America.
And while Eureka is home to great scientific advancement and invention, the town also turns into a epicenter of great destruction.
Carter becomes sheriff and is charged with keeping the townspeoples' futuristic inventions from destroying each other and - sometimes - the world.
Working on the "Eureka" writing staff "beats any job I've ever had," Stokes said, commenting on the freedom the show allows her.
As a writer Stokes said she won't get reprimanded for "not wearing the right uniform," one requirement of some jobs she's held.
At "Eureka," Stokes said she found a place where she could, as she put it, sit around in her pajamas all day if she wanted.
"Here's a place where I get in at 7:30 in the morning and not leave until 7:30 at night," she said. "And I was sad that I had to go home, and I couldn't wait to get back in the next day."
Though Stokes said working on "Eureka" has been the greatest experience of her life, the job has not been without incident.
Originally hired for a 10-week contract in November 2005, Stokes said production fell behind schedule, and her contract expired before she had written an episode, though she had an idea for one.
But her contract was not renewed, which she said was devastating.
"I came home, and I cried for a week, and then I said, 'You know what, I'm just going to go write it anyway,'" she said.
Stokes wrote and submitted a script, and producers Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia accepted it and called her back to work.
Afterward, she said, they allowed her to write another episode and help write the season finale.
The episode Stokes wrote after her contract expired, "Right as Raynes," airs Sept. 5.
Stokes said the story revolves around a man who returns to town after being away for a long time.
When things in town turn awry Sheriff Carter discovers, as Stokes put it, "that everything isn't as it seems" in Eureka.
Despite the success of "Eureka" - its pilot was the most-watched episode of a Sci Fi original series to date with more than four million viewers - a second season is not confirmed.
But Stokes still is thinking about the future.
"We've talked about second season stuff, so I'm pretty confident that if we come back for a second season I will be included in the staffing."
"Eureka" airs at 9 p.m. Tuesdays on Sci Fi.
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(08/22/06 4:00am)
The Ackland Art Museum is on the verge of big changes.
With an upcoming season of exhibits and events, a plan for the expansion of the museum to more than twice its size and, soon, a new director, the Ackland will be transformed into a very different place.
But how far off that transformation is, no one can say.
"There's not a timetable on that," said Amanda Hughes, Ackland's director of special projects, referring to the expansion, which will create additional galleries, new studio space, a sculpture courtyard and a museum store.
"We don't know who the new director will be or when he or she will begin," said Carolyn Wood, interim director of the Ackland.
One of the new director's first obligations will be to oversee fundraising efforts for the expansion, a $25 million project to be funded entirely through private donations.
But the director search might be coming to an end. A list of three candidates was submitted to the Office of the Provost, and one offer has been extended.
"We are awaiting acceptance of that offer," said Carol Tresolini, associate provost for academic initiatives.
Tresolini could not say who the candidate is, but it is one of three who came to campus to interview: David Brenneman, chief curator of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta; Emily Kass, a consultant at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Fla.; and Eric Lee, director of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma.
"We're just waiting until they work it out," Hughes said.
But what is worked out is the Ackland's new season.
In the fall, three exhibitions will be presented: "Persuasion, Passion and Participation: The Psychology of Politics;" "Witnesses to an Age in Transformation: Three 18th Century Paintings;" and "Depth of Field: Expanding Perspectives in 20th Century and Contemporary Photography."
January 2007 will see the opening of "Fashioning the Divine," a gallery of South Asian sculpture.
In the spring, a show of works by graduate students receiving masters in fine arts will open.
The museum also has introduced some new events. Lunch with One - a monthly, free lecture by an expert discussing one work of art - began in June.
Lunch with One, which Hughes said has been successful, was created so University staff, faculty and students could eat lunch while still attending a lecture at the Ackland.
"Art After Dark" will continue this year, with the museum remaining open until 9 p.m. as part of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Art Walk on the second Friday of each month.
The expansion - whenever it happens - is bound to offer something new to all.
The space, Hughes said, will allow the Ackland to better "entertain diverse audiences, from public school kids, to University students, all the way to people who live here in Chapel Hill."
Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(08/19/06 4:00am)
July 20 - In the coming season at the Deep Dish Theater, challenge is not just a theme in the shows the company will be producing.
"Every year, we have more people involved, and responsibility gets spread a little more broadly, but there are an awful lot of cracks for things to fall through. And there aren't very many of us to pick them up." said Paul Frellick, Deep Dish's artistic director, founder and, commonly, director of a show.
But of course, each show is about challenge, too.
(07/20/06 4:00am)
In the coming season at the Deep Dish Theater, challenge is not just a theme in the shows the company will be producing.
"Every year, we have more people involved, and responsibility gets spread a little more broadly, but there are an awful lot of cracks for things to fall through. And there aren't very many of us to pick them up." said Paul Frellick, Deep Dish's artistic director, founder and, commonly, director of a show.
But of course, each show is about challenge, too.
(07/13/06 4:00am)
MUSICREVIEW
The Scourge of the Sea
Make Me Armored
3.5 stars
So here's another white guy with a guitar. He strums and sings quietly with his band.
It should go well with doing homework or reading, but that's not the case.
If relegated to the background, the record gets lost and suddenly you're at the end, with no memory of what you heard.
A quiet, guitar-based album that doesn't work as background music? How is this possible?
Frankly, it's a bit hard to understand. It should work, but it just doesn't in practice.
(06/22/06 4:00am)
MUSICREVIEW
Elevator Action
Society, Secret
2.5 stars
Elevator Action came to rock.
And they do, at first.
Starting tracks "Surely You Know" and "Nuvo" start rocking, stay hot and leave you wanting more. "Nuvo" in particular hits with its chords-as-riff guitar playing, insistent beat and unexpected dynamics.
You'll wish you could scream like vocalist Eric Gilstrap can.
But then the Charlotte band forgets why they came.
After the first three songs, the band tries out several rock subgenres, primarily sounding like pale versions of other bands.
(06/15/06 4:00am)
MUSICREVIEW
Boy Eats Drum Machine
Pleasure
2.5 Stars
This album goes backward.
Usually, an LP begins with the best material and less impressive work goes at the end, saved for when the primary impact of the record is done with.
Well, Pleasure saves the good stuff for the end. It's a daring choice, but unfortunately it's one that creates a focus on the lackluster material that begins the record.
Early on, singer and primary instrumentalist Ben Rickard's melodies are sometimes awkward and even travel out of key, such as on "I'm An Angel Telling Lies."
(05/25/06 4:00am)
MOVIEREVIEW
"The Da Vinci Code"
2 Stars
Dan Brown's ubiquitous book has car chases, murders and escape sequences - all the trappings of a star-studded action movie.
And, of course, it became one. Too bad it doesn't work on the screen.
Standard action movie events are everywhere - this movie, unlike its plot, is strictly by-the-numbers.
(05/18/06 4:00am)
MUSICREVIEW
Hotel Lights
Goodnightgoodmorning
2 Stars
The new EP from Chapel Hill's Hotel Lights, Goodnightgoodmorning, gets by OK but is bogged down by writing and arrangement issues.
The band has a consistent sound: - quiet vocals over strummed guitar, front-mixed reverberating keyboard or piano accompaniment, drums and bass.
Wilco's quieter work comes to mind.
All of the songs here are passable. Nothing grates or fails outright.