Author Archives: davidleesimmons

Variety: Steve Zissis in “Togetherness” is one of the “Breakout TV Performances of 2015”

Posted on by under tv radio
Steve Zissis in HBO's "Togetherness" (HB)

Steve Zissis in HBO’s “Togetherness” (HB)

As the year-in kudos machine cranks up for 2015, it’s cool once again to see New Orleans native and Jesuit High graduate Steve Zissis to continue getting the recognition and success he’s due. Variety on Wednesday called Steve Zissis’ turn in HBO’s comedy-drama “Togetherness” as a struggling, overweight Hollywood actor one of the “Breakout TV Performances of 2015.”

Wrote co-authors Maureen Ryan and Brian Lowry:

Another indie-flavored half-hour show about moderately miserable people in a coastal city? You’d be forgiven if deflation was your reaction to the one-sentence description of “Togetherness,” but skipping this HBO show would have meant missing out on Zissis’ fantastic performance. His shaggy character was an everyman actor who was sure his time had passed, but the quiet passion and wily subversiveness he brought to the role were beyond impressive. In a cast full of capable actors with higher profiles, Zissis’ versatility, skill and warmth easily stood out.

A lot of the credit, naturally, goes to Zissis’ keen ability as an actor to mine the emotional and comedic possibilities of what some might dismiss as a stock comic foil. But then there’s the obvious reason: He’s a co-creator along with fellow New Orleanians (and Jesuit grads) Jay and Mark Duplass, who teamed with Mount Carmel grad Stephanie Langhoff, who runs Duplass Brothers Productions. Check out TV columnist Dave Walker’s coverage here. As Zissis told Walker:

I think an open story was part of the plan, but that was what was new about TV for them. In feature films, obviously you have to wrap everything up in a bow in an hour and a half, which is challenging. And I know that Jay and Mark loved being able to tell an open-ended story. I think in some ways it’s also allowing them to go deeper into character study than what you can maybe do in an hour and a half. I think these are probably the most complex characters they may have created so far. It may just be because, by the virtue that it is an open-ended story, you get to live with them longer. They’re loving it.

Zissis is in very talented company, including personal favorites Titus Burgess in “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and Krysten Ritter in “Marvel’s Jessica Jones” — both on Netflix. You can hear more of Zissis jib-jabbing with awesome co-star Amanda Peet below. Season 2 is currently underway.

How Michael Cerveris, Tony winner, played for his rock ’n’ roll lifestyle

Posted on by under theater
In “Tommy”
In “Fun Home.”
Accepting the Tony for “Fun Home”
As Ian Ware in TV’s “Fame.”
As “Hedwig”

New Orleanians finally got a chance to see Michael Cerveris live and in person after the Treme resident had won the Tony Award (and continues to perform in) the musical “Fun Home,” with an appearance at the Broadway @ NOCCA series on Monday (Dec. 14) night. It was a laid-back, casual affair with Cerveris swapping stories with Seth Rudetsky in between performing songs from his vast two-decade career (with Rudetsky accompanying on piano).

Some of the stories he relayed also were referenced in an interview I conducted for my advance feature that ran in the New Orleans Advocate, which didn’t do justice for a facet of Cerveris’ career that deserves fuller explanation: his rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. It’s a life that, professionally speaking, started awkwardly enough playing a British wannabe rocker in the last season (1987) of the TV show “Fame,” but six years later kicked into high gear when he scored the title role of “Tommy” (which earned him a Tony Award nomination in this, his Broadway debut.

This is the first of a few crazy, rocking moments in this Broadway star’s life, which include playing as a sideman on indie rocker Bob Mould’s U.S. tour (and the U.K. leg of the European tour) in 1998, his replacing friend John Cameron Mitchell in Mitchell’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” cranking out his own solo album, “Dog Eared,” in 2004, and his current side group Loose Cattle (based in New York). When I asked him how he saw these supposedly different lifestyles — the Broadway performer and the rock ‘n’ roller — Cerveris explained their common ground:

I think I’m just someone who is just trying to express himself. Someone might speak English to someone if they speak English because that’s how they understand it best. Or Spanish if the person listening is Spanish. In the same way, I guess I think of it as using the language of a particular style or genre to communicate in the way that will translate best to that particular audience, while the basic content remains unchanged. I think my job as actor and singer is to be a vessel for author and their intent. They create the genre they’re working in, and if it’s Pete Townshend, he’s telling it through rock and roll. John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, it’s though glam rock. Yet I kind of feel like I’m still saying the things I’m saying, it’s just translated through different things. I feel like my approach is kind of rock and roll even when I’m singing something more legit. I told Stephen Sondheim I think he is a rock-and-roll musical theater person. He looked at me like I had two heads when I said that. But I think that because of the fierceness in his music and the lack of … the disregard for the norm, maybe. Even in rock and roll, you’ve got Poison and Twisted Sister and Joy Division and the Sex Pistols and Pearl Jam and Creed, and they’re all considered rock and roll yet what they do is very different. The simple answer is, I feel like I’m doing the same thing with the same investment, whether singing Sondheim or Townshend. While I completely understand how it sounds and want it to sound authentic to the genre in which the writer is writing it, I don’t think of it as two different things. It’s telling a story and speaking truth on whatever pitches I’m given.

After spending several years working off-Broadway, Cerveris went out to Los Angeles for “Fame,” playing Brit rocker Ian Ware — a role he earned, he notes, partly due to nailing in the audition a version of David Bowie’s “Young Americans.” After its cancellation, he wound up staying for several years — at a fertile time in the L.A. rock scene, while appearing in regional theater all along the Pacific Coast:

Because in Los Angeles, you are what you pretend to be, I went out there playing this British indie-rock guitar player on this TV show, so I was perceived as that. I hung out at the Scream Club and saw a bunch of bands. Jane’s Addiction, Guns ‘N Roses, all these guys were playing in the clubs. I was friends with all these musicians, but I had never taken myself seriously as a musician. I thought a musician was someone like my father, who was trained in classical music, musical theory, the craft. I was just a largely self taught guitar player. I still don’t really read music. But here I was with all these people. And while I was not the best guitar player, I realized I could play as well as that guy over there, and he’s got a four-record deal! So I figured I should stop letting my insecurities get in the way of playing music. L.A. was really kind of where I started becoming a songwriter. I was so lonely and out of synch with my environment. Eventually, five years later, I was in the middle of “Richard II” at the (Mark Taper Forum), starring Kelsey Grammer as Richard II. It was the same time as the L.A. riots after the Rodney King verdict. I had an audition one afternoon for this production of “Tommy” that someone wanted to do at the La Jolla Playhouse. I played that same David Bowie song and I guess it was lucky for me again. That’s what brought me to “Tommy” and brought me back to New York. During my time out west I did kind of fall off the map in some people’s minds. But that detour was how I wound up where I did. I read this Frank Rich review, wondering where Michael Cerveris had been. Well, I had been in New York for several years and no one seemed all that interested! He had even reviewed me in some off-Broadway things. It seemed like I had appeared out of nowhere. But I had been working for years downtown and in regional theater.

After earning a Tony Award nomination for Tommy, Cerveris signed on play the architect in the musical version of “Titanic,” an experience in which he went into great detail on Monday night, and, in our interview noted, he eventually left to go play rhythm guitar with former Husker Du frontman Bob Mould, “which is also not the usual career move,” he added with a chuckle. And so begins another rock ‘n’ roll odyssey.

While performing in “Tommy,” Cerveris went to go see Bob Mould perform at a club. Pete Townsend, with whom he’d become friends after “Tommy,” was in town and Cerveris convinced him to join him for the show. Once word got to the stage that the legendary Who guitarist was in the audience, Mould invited both of them backstage after the show. (“Bob is a huge Who fan, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone,” he said.) Slowly, Cerveris and Mould became friends, with Mould even sitting in with Cerveris’ band at the time at a show after Mould and his partner had moved to Brooklyn.

Upon completion of his “The Last Dog and Pony Show” album, Mould asked Cerveris if he’d be interested in play rhythm guitar for a European tour, which at first Cerveris took as an off-hand remark but Mould was serious. “‘My music’s not rocket science,’“ Cerveris recalls Mould telling him. “So that’s how that happened.”

Unfortunately, a dream gig soured fairly early on for Cerveris:

I woke up every day on that tour as the happiest guy to be on that stage. But it was a tough tour. He was disconnecting from his label. Had taken it on as an obligation to the label. He became increasingly frustrated. I became the place where a lot of that frustration got placed. He’d never played with a rhythm guitar player with him before. I think he really wanted to go out as a three-piece. I ended up not doing the last couple shows. I did the American and U.K. legs. Then there were two or three dates in Europe that I didn’t do. That was rough for me because all I want to do was make him happy with the way I played. He wasn’t super communicative about what he wanted, but I tried til my last show with him in London (captured on the live CD Bob Mould Band: LiveDog98) to figure it out. After the show, he and the other guys boarded the bus to Paris and I was left in England.

The upside was, he wound up becoming friends with the members of Teenage Fanclub (whose manager once worked with Mould), which led to the making of Cerveris’ solo album, “Dog Eared,’ and which featured appearances by Norman Blake (of Teenage Fanclub), Corin Tucker and Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney), Ken Stringfellow (Posies, R.E.M.), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Kevin March (Guided by Voices), Anders Parker (Varnaline), and Laura Cantrell. This was also around the time Cerveris found himself in the unique position of taking over full time for John Cameron Mitchell in the title role of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” In both the interview and onstage Monday, he recalled how the two of them had would run into each other in the 1990s:

We used to see each other at auditions and stuff because John was an actor. He would always be giving me flyers for this weird drag character he was doing, and I would hand him flyers for whatever band I was trying to get people to see that week. We were doing a workshop about a the band Queen that ultimately became “We Will Rock You.” But back then it was more a biographical musical about the band. John and I were playing the bass player and drummer. And we were basically the bad kids in the back of the class. We were like, “Seriously, you have to teach us to sing “Bohemian Rhapsody?” Like, if we don’t know how to sing “Bohemian Rhapsody” already, we really shouldn’t be here. John was getting ready to do “Hedwig” at the Jane Street Theater. And he kept telling me about it and would ask me, “Should I call it a post-glam punk rock musical or the post-punk glam rock musical?” And I was like, I don’t know whatever you’re talk about. But I knew John’s rock interest was sincere.

This was also at the same time “Rent” had become the hippest musical on Broadway, something Cerveris admits to resenting because critics were calling it the first musical to really “get” rock ‘n’ roll right when, just a few years earlier, he believed “Tommy” had already more honestly earned that title. After some avoidance, he says, he broke down and caught the production, partly because some friends were in the cast. It was OK, he recalls, but, “I couldn’t get away from the feeling that I’d enjoy the songs more if I was in a club and some bar band was playing this. They were working really hard to be rock-and-roll-y kind of singers.”

The next night, he saw “Hedwig.”

“I was just blown away,” he said. “ I thought, if I had the wit and skill to write something, this is what I would do.”

Over time, Mitchell admitted to getting tired doing what in many ways was a one-man show, and he turned to Cerveris to fill in for him:

I was simultaneously thrilled and nauseous. I had never done a one person show before. Really, though, you’re not alone. The band and Yitsak make it feel like an ensemble show, even though you have all the lines. But I said yes, because taking on what terrifies me has usually been my way of figuring out what to do. What we all learned to John’s great relief was that other people can do it. I just learned an enormous amount and felt really so at home in the part and in the production and in that weird space downtown. It was like going down to the Salvation Army and putting on some old used suit, and it was like it was tailor made for you. Maybe with a dress and heels, but the same idea.

To help prepare for the production, Cerveris and the band played a New Year’s Eve show (1998) at Radio City Music Hall opening for, of all people, Boy George and Culture Club — in drag and everything.

“We’re playing songs from the show and people seemed a little mystified,” he said. “I always thought that was the way to introduce the show to someone. Wanted to play gigs in London (West End) like we’re some new, undiscovered tranny band.”

For the past four years, Cerveris has played with Loose Cattle, an Americana band in which he shares lead vocals with old friend Kimberly Kaye — who has become the playwright on the musical adaptation of the Katrina book “Nine Lives” (which Cerveris has been helping Paul Sanchez and Kim develop). They just released two new songs, “Pony Girl” — a sort-of outtake from the “Fun Home” soundtrack — and a haunting, sultry version of “St. James Infirmary” with Kaye on lead vocals.

Cerveris isn’t sure when he’ll next be able to herd some iteration of Loose Cattle to New Orleans for a performance — some of the musicians are pretty firmly rooted in New York. But it would be great for local audiences to hear, at some point, live and in person, how Michael Cerveris lives his rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. Because that is one language we’re only now fully appreciating that he can speak, quite fluently.

 

 

 

 

Lucky Pierre’s, Bourbon Street nightclub for drag and burlesque, to close

Posted on by under nightlife
Yarinez Mercado
Dante the Magician
“Flim Flam Variety Hour”
Ruby Rage
“Blue Book Cabaret” when it was at Lucky Pierre’s
Bella Blue

Lucky Pierre’s, which over the past year tried to blend drag shows with a variety of burlesque-themed shows, will close, an employee at the club confirmed Thursday (Dec. 3) night.

“It’s really true. We found out last night,” said Yarinez Mercado, who performed under the drag name Yari Dumar. (She commented on a story I did on the transgender community’s response to the Caitlin Jenner news.)

The nightclub seemed to have a rocky time while trying to blend drag and burlesque shows during its brief time on the Bourbon Street strip. Hawkers outside the club constantly encouraged locals and tourists to come inside and witness a shows such as “The Real Drag Queens of New Orleans” in the main bar and “Drag Cabaret” in the patio bar inside a courtyard.

The burlesque programming was a little rockier. Popular burlesque performer Bella Blue established her “Blue Book Cabaret” show at the club for several months before one of the performers in her lineup, Ruby Rage, was forced out by management in February in which she said was because of her weight. Following a public-relations nightmare that played out on the club’s Facebook page (with messages defending the move being posted and pulled as commenters erupted in anger), Bella Blue ended her relationship with the club and eventually moved the show down the street to Bourbon Pub and Parade. On Thursday, Bella Blue expressed disappointment about the club’s closing.

“I’m very sorry to hear that Lucky Pierre’s is closing. It’s bittersweet. There are a lot of good people who continued to work there after The Blue Book was pulled and no one deserves to lose their income; no matter what the reasons,” Blue wrote. “I don’t know why it’s closing. It doesn’t matter at this point. It was fun while it lasted. We had some of our best shows there and made so many wonderful friends in the process. What happened earlier this year was truly one of the most difficult things I personally had experienced and it affected a lot of people. But now there are a lot of talented drag queens who need spots in shows. So, let’s support them and hire them as they figure out what’s next.”

Dante the Magician began presenting “The Flim Flam Variety Hour” as well as “Dante’s Dirty Tricks,” at the club earlier in 2015, entertaining customers with a mix of magic, human tricks and boylesque performances featuring, among others, Donny V.

I’ve reached out to management for comment and hope to hear back soon. Come back here for more details.

Sandra Bullock, adoption, race and the intersection of celebrity and parenthood

Posted on by under celebrity

The email arrived from one of my editors as the mother of all coincidences, which wondered how I might approach a story about actress Sandra Bullock adopting a second child in New Orleans.” “Do you have any thoughts?” the email concluded.

At this point, my editor was one of the few New Orleanians who had yet to see one of the myriad photos I’ve taken of Elijah, my son, who four and a half years ago turned my world upside down in a (partly) trans-racial adoption by me and my wife, Faith. All it took was a confirmation that, yes, I know where to start, and yes, I had some thoughts, along with a photo of Eli to convince her I could handle this assignment.

(Here’s the New Orleans Advocate story.)

As it turns out, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New Orleans — the very kind of organization that could have handled Bullock’s first adoption, of an African-American infant boy, in 2009 — facilitated our adoption of Eli back in 2011. In fact, before reading any further, all you need to know about that can be found in Faith’s heartfelt and insightful essay report on the subject for her old publication, New Orleans magazine (“Faith Hope and Elijah,” May 2012) while we were still in Atlanta.

As for Sandra Bullock’s latest adoption — a foster-care adoption, of a 3 1/2-year-old named Laila, also from Louisiana — my article in the New Orleans Advocate suggests many reasons for joy as we enter into the holiday season. Catholic Charities’ Danna P. Cousins — a literally award-winning social worker who heads their adoption services — noted how Bullock’s second adoption (of an African-American girl) signals yet another example of how demystified trans-racial adoption has become over the past couple decades and not just adoption itself. Lori Arceneaux North of Volunteers of America New Orleans and others noted how a foster adoption can but shouldn’t be considered an entirely different experience, and that Bullock’s adoption of Laila can serve as a positive example for those thinking about taking the plunge.

One New Orleanian who I interviewed, Scharmaine Lawson Baker, said as much, and relayed how inspiring it was to see Sandra Bullock take this same step, and how she now felt connected to the actress.

It’s always a tricky thing to feel connected to celebrity, but in hindsight, it’s dawning on me how strangely connected we are to Bullock. Her adoption of her son came soon after the release of 2009’s “The Blind Side” and her Academy Award-winning portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy and her adoption of now-NFL offensive lineman Michael Oher, an African-American teenager at the time. (I should add her husband, Sean, is a New Orleans native and Isidore Newman School graduate.) It would have been unbelievably Hollywood to believe that Bullock was so inspired by the role that she decided to adopt her son, but in fact (as has been reported previously) she’d been planning the adoption before the role. But it was pretty cool to know that, at the time of her Oscar win, she knew the adoption was going to happen, and only vaguely hinted at it in her speech when she thanked “moms that take care of the babies and the children no matter where they come from.”

Faith and I were already thinking about adoption when we had our own encounter with Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy. It was early 2011, and an acquaintance of mine through my job (who worked for a major Atlanta foundation) knew of our situation, and he and his wife were considering adoption, and so they invited us to be guests at their table at a Families First event where the Tuohys were the guests of honor. It was there I was able to put together in my mind both Bullock’s performance and Leigh Anne Tuohy’s rather notorious persona. I could see both why Bullock could channel her inner strength (few Hollywood actresses have that ability) and why Tuohy might have been a problematic character for Bullock to portray. She’s obviously not just a devout Christian but also a staunch conservative, and made no bones about it. (Bullock, I believe, is a fairly conventional Hollywood liberal, though one who took her fair share of criticism by some on the left and in the African-American community for playing a character that might perpetuate Hollywood’s tired “Great White Father” trope but as a female. More on that later. Short version: I think Sandra Bullock defies easy labeling.)

But what in hindsight is undeniable is the fierce maternal instinct that both women possess, and while it had been awakened in Tuohy a long time ago, it took a little longer for Bullock. The same might be said for my wife, Faith, who fretted constantly about how, as a later-in-life mother, she’d be able to rise to the occasion with Eli and has spent the past four and a half years proving her fears unfounded. She is, above everything else, an amazing mother, even if she’ll never think so. She loves Eli, she works with Eli, she laughs with Eli, she educates Eli, she protects Eli, in ways some people might only dream of.

Though I’m a father, I can say with some confidence that that is what motherhood can do to some people. If I ever wondered if there’s such a think as the maternal gene kicking in, Faith’s mothering of Eli confirmed it. And so it was with a lot of joy I have watched from a very safe distance Sandra Bullock continue this same experience. Now, I don’t really know Sandra Bullock, and have no real clue as to whether she’s a great mother to her children. And I don’t know to what degree she, as a white woman of Hollywood privilege, will help her black children connect in some tangible way to their African-American roots. Naming her son after Louis Armstrong seemed a nod to both his New Orleans and African-American heritage, and both notions warm the heart of anyone who lives here. That she’s also become a huge supporter of Warren Easton Charter High School in New Orleans just adds to the love.

This is all to say that, celebrity or not, I admire Sandra Bullock, and feel a certain kinship to her. Not just as someone who loves New Orleans but as an outsider, but also as a white person adopting an African-American child who will be considered “the other” in more ways than other black kids. Eli is black, he’s adopted, he’ll probably be an only child, and he’ll be the son of a interracial couple. While I hope I’ve gained an appreciation of African-American life and culture as someone who spent years covering a historically black college as a sportswriter, and as someone who feels the embrace of my wife’s vast New Orleans family, and maybe as someone who at the very least has held a life-long curiosity about culture, I know that only adds up to so much, and that I’ll want to expose Eli to as much as I can about all of the worlds that should shape his life. I try to incorporate African-American culture into everything he experiences — in the books we read, the movies we watch, and the company we keep. It’s fairly safe to say that no matter what people do in a trans-racial adoption, there will be those who are skeptical about all things regarding assimilation. (Check out the reader comment in the Advocate piece, a gallery owner, who voices some cultural suspicions.)

And while I’m not the most religious person in the world, I, maybe like Sandra Bullock, can’t help but be awed by the Leigh Anne Tuohys of the world who dig deep into their spirituality and faith to extend their love and protection beyond their birth children. I know Faith does.

I have no clue what Sandra Bullock’s plan is for her two adopted children, and recognize it never pays dividends to invest in celebrity culture. Faith’s devotion to Eli offers some clue, though. And maybe mine. All day long, as I reported this story, and gathered the interviews, I couldn’t help but share with the interviewees my own personal experience with adopting Eli. And then there’s living with him every day. I look at him, with those wide curious eyes, that unselfconscious cackle, that mischievous mentality, and that caring soul, and I think to myself, what a wonderful world. For me, for Faith, for Eli, and hopefully, for Sandra, Louie, and Laila.

 

Fly Movement Salon offers ground zero for New Orleans’ circus arts training

Posted on by under circus

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The future of New Orleans’ circus arts scene is hanging in the balance — or, maybe more accurately, about 20 feet in the air. Dallas Alexander, a petite 23-year-old with a gymnast’s physique, is grappling with a pair of crimson silk ropes hanging from the ceiling of Cafe Istanbul in the monthly Fly Movement Salon.

Working her way up, spinning lazily around, and working her way back down again, Alexander is literally trying to get the hang of this form of circus arts performance, the aerial silks. They’ve become a mainstay of both circus-themed performances around New Orleans as well as in more conventional burlesque shows such as Rick Delaup’s Bustout Burlesque and Trixie Minx’s Fleur de Tease. And it’s starting to catch on with this younger generation of performers.

Including Alexander, a Biloxi, Miss., native who’s spent the past three years dancing on Bourbon Street but has spent the past two years adding the silk ropes to her pole experience . This Tuesday night marks only her second time performing in front of a Fly Movement Salon audience, which gathers monthly to watch newcomers learn the ropes of the circus scene.

“It’s an extremely laid-back environment. The audience (members), even if you mess up, they don’t notice or they don’t care,” she said. “The fact that we’re participating or we’re trying, or starting somewhere, is a good thing to have.”

She said she only messed up once in this performance, “but apparently nobody noticed, so … .”

There was plenty variety on this evening, which doubled as a little fundraiser for fellow performer Clay Mazing and his work with both his own Emergency Circus and Clowns Without Borders in helping entertain Syrian and Afghan refugees in Europe. Coordinator Liza Rose and fellow producer LadyBEAST were even able to hail Clay Mazing in an iPad for a brief Skype chat with the audience at the end of the evening, from an airport in Europe.

Beforehand, the audience got to enjoy a song Sami Smog plucked on her ukulele, juggling by David Chervony, rope work by Penelope Little, Say Rah performing with a hula hoop, and then a closing duet on the ropes by Liza Rose, the seasoned veteran, and Sarah Stardust. It was all emceed by Alison Logan, the self-proclaimed “Original Classy Broad” and a recent transplant from Chicago who filled in the gaps between performances with silly jokes a few songs (including a hilariously dark turn on the Police’s “Every Breath You Take”). Chervony, perhaps playing to the notion of the evening as a workshop, pretended to keep dropping one red pin, followed by a smirk at the audience before flipping it back into his hands with one foot.

Scanning the stage, an older audience member smiled and observed with a thick Irish accent, “It’s the best reason to come out: watching a bunch of clowns pursuing their dreams.”

The show raised nearly $500, according to Rose.

Learn more about the Fly Movement Salon by visiting its Facebook page.

For “The Winter’s Tale,” The NOLA Project’s Top 5 site-specific shows, courtesy Richard A. Pomes

Posted on by under theater
Sean Glazebrook, Kristin Witterschein in The NOLA Project’s production of “The Winter’s Tale.” (Photo by John Barrois)

One of The NOLA Project’s many strengths is its ability to place several shows in a physical context with its site-specific productions. While the company stages perfectly fine shows in traditional venues (think the recent “Marie Antoinette” at NOCCA), there’s something to be said for a theater company being a little on the rootless side. While other theater companies might lament the lack of a permanent home, The NOLA Project plays it fast and loose — and sometimes fancy-pants, given the location of its next production.

“Our mission clearly states that we’re committed to ‘innovative performances.’ For us, as theatre professionals, we’re not here to simply mimic what’s come before us. Because that’s boring. We want to change the way people think about theater,” said company member and Marketing Director Richard A. Pomes. “It doesn’t have to be audience on one side and actors on a stage. To us, that traditional proscenium style of theatre has its place when the production calls for it. But we live in an age where people are constantly immersed in interactive entertainment. We’re in an age of iPads, video games, and theme parks where people expect a new level of attention grabbing excitement. On top of that, we’re in New Orleans where every weekend is a festival, a sporting event, Mardi Gras, concerts, and more.

“And despite what you think about these kind of outings, they aren’t spectator events,” he continued. “Theater in New Orleans doesn’t compete with other theatre. It competes with our audience saying ‘Hey, it’s Friday night. What do you want to do tonight? Basketball game? Kermit Ruffins? Movie?’ Etc. Both from a creative perspective and a marketing perspective, we have to constantly push the envelope to engage our audience in new, exciting ways. Something I hear often at our site-specific productions is: ‘I don’t go to a lot of plays. But this is great.'”

As it has done in the past, the company will stage one of William Shakespeare’s last written works, “The Winter’s Tale,” inside the New Orleans Museum of Art’s Great Hall. (Check out the Facebook event page.) On the eve of the show’s run (Dec. 1-20), I asked Pomes for the company’s top five locations over the years.

Little Gem Saloon — “The newest NOLA Project venue on this list is the Ramp Room, upstairs at Little Gem Saloon on Poydras. If you’ve never been to Little Gem, check it out. It’s a snazzy little restaurant and bar that features great live music acts. The Ramp Room is where we performed our second show this season, ‘Clown Bar.’ (Read the review here.) One of the most distinct productions in our company’s history, ‘Clown Bar’ required a unique venue. The script tells a film noir inspired story about the seedy underbelly of the organized clown crime world, orchestrated by clown crime boss and bar owner, Bobo, and the show’s playwright, Adam Szymkowicz, suggests (nay, demands) that the show takes place in a real bar. Actors in full clown regalia performed the script not only on a small stage built for a jazz quartet, but also throughout the rest of the bar, weaving between cocktail tables and muscling people out of the way at the bar to order a drink. Although for me, the best part was using audience members for cover during shootouts.”

The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art — The NOLA Project’s relationship with the New Orleans Museum of Art goes way back. One of our earliest performances was a 2006 production of ‘The Misanthrope’ in NOMA’s lecture hall/auditorium that most people don’t know exists. Several years later I, was chatting with their then-marketing gal, Grace Wilson, who mentioned she was thinking about doing a concert series in the Sculpture Garden. I blurted out, ‘What about Shakespeare?’ (As if those two things were somehow interchangeable.) Suddenly we’re performing ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ for standing-room-only crowds. They were standing-room-only because director (and NOLA Project founding artistic director) Andrew Larimer designed the production as an immersive experience in which the audience would get up and move from location to location for different scenes. If you know ‘Midsummer,’ you know that as the story progresses our heroes go deeper and deeper into a forest, get lost, and then reemerge for a double wedding celebration (sorry, 400-year-old spoiler alert). And so our audience quite literally followed the heroes deeper into the garden to find out what happened next, stumbling across characters hidden in the scenery along the way. Since ‘Midsummer,’ we’ve performed more Shakespeare in the garden as well as original takes on ‘Robin Hood’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland.’ But that production of ‘Midsummer’ will always be our favorite. There’s something about performing Shakespeare under the stars that’s really magical.” Continue reading →

Krampus Gras 2015 once again offers a holiday party on the dark side, Saturday (Dec. 5)

Posted on by under nightlife

Elizabeth Zibilich can’t help herself. While most folks understandably have been held in the sway of St. Nicholas and the whole “He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake” side of Christmas, the devilish costume designer and spooky ghost tour guide long has been favored the darker impulses of the alter-ego Krampus.

This is the horned little fella who’s a little tougher on naughty children during the holiday season than St. Nick — we’re talking scary-tough. And so, in the tradition of Mardi Gras and Halloween, Zibilich will return her Krampus Gras party for the third year and at third location: Saturday (Dec. 5) at 10 p.m. at the Voodoo Lounge on Rampart Street.

(Related: French Quarter ghost tours mix centuries-old stories with sensational crimes of today)

“Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against the cheer that the Christmas Season brings along with the glee children get out of Santa,” Zibilich said. “I loved it as a child myself. Krampus, however, is a lesson or a warning about being good. Good little boys and girls aren’t taken away by the Krampus. They are left oranges in their shoes by St. Nicholas, according to the lore. Kids now have the elf on the shelf which “is always watching you” and in my opinion is almost more terrifying than Krampus.

“Though as adults we all have a naughty kid side to us, and this party is a way to break loose from their everyday nice kid side.”

In previous years the party’s included live music, but this year, as Zibilich has had to focus on recovering from an accident suffered earlier in 2015, is slightly scaled back. Instead of a band there will be DJ Andy Average spinning punk, lounge and rhythm and blues music. Also, the party will feature a fun little tune-up: Around 8 p.m. a fire engine ride on the Gator 1 Premier Party Fire Engine, with as many as 25 people taking a two-hour ride through the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and Bywater. (That ride, however, already has sold out.) Also: Holly’s Tamales food truck is expected to park and provide the food.

“We will make a few stops, but keep your eyes peeled for Krampus and naughty children,” Zibilich, before adding, “We also have a spanking area planned for naughty boys and girls and a few odd surprises thrown in.”

It’s also a great opportunity for a costume party; guests are encouraged to dress up either as Krampus or as a naughty child — which, as with all things downtown, can get a little weird.

“As a costume designer I am ecstatic to see what people come up with,” Zibilich said. “Some people don’t come in either Krampus or a naughty-child costume, but they’ll be there in their festive Christmas garb, which can get incredibly creative as well.”

This year’s Krampus Gras is particularly well times: The movie “Krampus” opens nationally on Friday (Dec. 4). The movie is directed by Michael Dougherty and stars Adam Scott, Toni Collette and David Koechner.

Admission is $10 general, $5 with a costume. Proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood. Check out the Facebook event page for more details.

LUNA Fete: What to expect the second time around (Nov. 29-Dec. 5)

Posted on by under art, festivals

As I noted in my New Orleans Advocate piece that appears in Sunday’s edition, LUNE Fete has ambitions that go beyond giving people a visual thrill when it sets up around the city Nov. 29-Dec. 5. In this, the event’s second go-round, organizers from the Arts Council of New Orleans hope to repeat some of that downtown dazzle but also hopes to expand beyond Lafayette Square.

Jen Lewin’s “The Pool” will move the eye candy from the facade of Gallier Hall to the grounds of Lafayette Square, where visitors can get all interactive with the series of glowing, colorful circles sensitive to the touch.

And then there’s Los Angeles-based artist Miwa Matreyek‘s presentation of two of her projected animation performances, “Myth and Infrastructure” and “This World Made Itself,” at the CAC. (Check out her TED Talk here.) As she told me in the Advocate piece:

Magic and transformation are what I’d like audiences to experience. Because what I do falls between two distinct mediums, I often perform at film and theater festivals, and at science museums and planetariums. So to perform for a wider audience that’s not specific to a film festival or dance event or a science event will be pretty exciting for me. It’s not that different from a magic-lantern or shadow-puppet show.”

But then there’s the really ambitious effort over at the recently opened Ashé Power House Theater, whose facade will place hose to another projection that’s a project completely by international Portuguese arts collective OCUBO and New Orleans’ own Terrance Osborne along with private school St. Martin’s and Ashé’s Kuumba Institute.

Outgoing ACNO head Kim Cook sees projection mapping as a way to also connect the dots when it comes to lighting and public safety and hopes LUNA Fete can start a dialogue about making the city a safer place to navigate on foot at night.

I’m not sure how that all will play out, but I do know that last year’s LUNA Fete did a masterful job of tapping into a familiar vibe by bringing crowds to an area (Lafayette Square) revered as a favored Mardi Gras parade viewing spot, at a time in between Thanksgiving and Christmas when the shopping season is just kicking into high gear. Cook also hopes this event will not only bringing together older New Orleanians with one of its hippest recent migrants (the tech sector) while building this into something huge by the time the New Orleans centennial rolls around in 2018. Again, not sure how that will happen, but it sure is fun to watch New Orleanians come together to be dazzled.

Let’s just hope no one brings their own brand of fireworks to the show. We’ve had enough of that already.

Parkway Bakery’s Thanksgiving Po-Boy: Believe the hype, and get in line

Posted on by under dining

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By 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday (Nov. 25) — the day before Thanksgiving — the line outside Parkway Bakery essentially covered the length of its front facing Hagan Avenue, so about 15 people or so. By the time it opened, the number seemed to be about 100 people deep and stretched back up the block. Just about everyone, apparently, was queueing up for the vaunted Thanksgiving Po-Boy served each Wednesday through the rest of the year.

Getting in line for something like this felt problematic on a few levels. I follow a trend or two, I’ll confess, but this one, compounded by the notion of having to wait in line (and on the day before I was about to get stuffed anyway) felt like the dining equivalent of waiting needlessly for the next iteration of the iPhone.

Charles and Elizabeth Christy didn’t mind; the couple had gotten in line moments before I did, and were each to see what all the fuss was about. (Check out Brett Anderson’s coverage here.) “We heard they’re really good, and we’re from New Orleans and we’re crazy about food,” Elizabeth said. “So we’ll do anything, you know?” And it wasn’t like there would be much mystery, either. “We love all the po-boys here,” Charles said, and he didn’t seem fazed by the fact they were going to get up tomorrow and jump right back into the turkey feasting on the more proper day: “Because this will be a completely different experience from what we’ll eat tomorrow.”

Let’s cut to the chase: The Thanksgiving Po-Boy lives up to its hype in ways some iPhone versions never will. It is as promised: a perfectly layered mix of white and dark roasted turkey meat, fluffy cornbread dressing, and a dash of gravy and cranberry sauce to add some needed zing to the proceedings.

The po-boy is reminiscent of the roast-beef po-boy in that evokes that same tender dark-meat moistness, even though (I’m pretty sure) there were few small cuts of white meat thrown in for good measure. And it should be noted that, despite the dash of gravy and the moist dressing, the po-boy carries pretty well on a 20-minute car ride and didn’t become a gooey mess like the roast-beef po-boy sometimes can become. It’s not pristine, by any measure, but it holds up.

Much has been made of the point that, due to high demand, the po-boys run out quickly, so, if you are going to do this, queueing up with the rest of us pathetic sheep around 10:30 a.m. might not be as silly as it sounds. And for something that creates a block-long line, perhaps due to the pre-preparation going on, the wait is surprisingly brief; the procession runs almost as quickly as that at a funeral visitation (without the mourning).

I should’ve added sooner that the main reason I did this was to answer a favor called in by my wife, Faith, but at this point it would seem pointless. Yes, this is a run that should’ve been made at least a week ago so as not to compete too much with tomorrow’s festivities, but, we knew that if we didn’t do it today, we would never been in the mood after tomorrow — not to this degree, at least. (For moderation’s sake, though, we opted for the regular, 6-inch version, as opposed to the foot-long.)

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for a nap. Some Thanksgiving traditions apply identically, whichever day they’re applied.

Bella Blue’s top 5 lessons learned from BurlyCon 2015

Posted on by under burlesque
New Orleans burlesque producer and performer Bella Blue discusses PR and marketing at BurlyCon 2015. (Photo by MC Newman)

New Orleans burlesque producer and performer Bella Blue discusses PR and marketing at BurlyCon 2015. (Photo by MC Newman)

UPDATE: I failed to mention, you can catch Bella Blue at tonight’s “November Rain” show at the AllWays Lounge, featuring performances by Nikki LeVillain, Charlotte Treuse, Miss Monarch M, Nona Narcisse, and of course Bella Blue.

EDITOR’S NOTE: New Orleans burlesque producer and performer Bella Blue is, if nothing else, a body in motion. She runs the New Orleans School of Burlesque, she produces tons of local shows (“Whiskey & Rhinestones,” “The Dirty Dime Peepshow,” “Blue Book Cabaret” and more), and she literally travels the world promoting and performing. So I thought it would be instructive to ask her to come up with her own “Top 5” list of things she learned from her most recent sojourn: BurlyCon, held Nov. 12-15 in Seattle and one of the largest gatherings in the nation. Here’s what she came away with:

It is late on Tuesday evening and I am just getting my bearings following not just a red-eye flight but an annual convention that takes place in Seattle (well, Sea-Tac) called BurlyCon. What is it? It’s exactly what it sounds like: a four-day convention dedicated to all things burlesque.

It is said that the first-ever burlesque festival took place on a goat farm in the desert in Helendale, Calif. Known then as Miss Exotic World (today know as Burlesque Hall of Fame), the festival was started by the late, great Dixie Evans. She has become the official/unofficial mother in the preservation of burlesque history. You could call her on the phone and she would personally give you a tour of her museum.

(Related: How New Orleans’ thriving burlesque scene prepares for its next act)

Nowadays, for every state you have at least one burlesque festival. For every country across the world, even more. However, BurlyCon is the only festival of its kind (that I know of). These four days are focused on nothing else but education and community. It started in 2008 with just about 60 attendees, and it is estimated that there were at least 600 in attendance this year. (The final numbers aren’t in yet.)

With the growing interest in burlesque as an art form, a hobby and a career; I believe that a convention of this kind is necessary. Burlesque is one of the only types of performance that you don’t actually have to acquire any formal training prior to performing in front of a live, human audience. With the growing amount of shows and performers, that means that there are a lot of people taking the stage who have no idea what they are doing.

I know. We all started somewhere. I’d be lying if I said I knew exactly what I was doing when I started — but, I didn’t know about BurlyCon then. And if I had, you bet your G-string that I would have figured out how to get there! But now there’s burlesque classes and schools all over the country. There is no reason to take a stage with zero information or training.

This year at BurlyCon, the majority of my classes were filled with students who had been performing for three years or less or had never even taken the stage yet. I had the honor of being asked to teach four classes and moderate one panel discussion. I could choose anything I wanted to teach and choose whichever topic I wanted for the panel discussion, although they were very interested in teaching and talking about issues that were learned from the situation with Lucky Pierre’s in March of 2015. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just Google it).

My partner and I arrived in Seattle last Thursday and hit the ground running. Between teaching classes, taking classes, catching up with friends, making new friends, our exhausted bodies landed back in New Orleans at 8 a.m. on Monday morning. I feel refreshed, inspired and excited to bring this back to the New Orleans scene. When approached by David Lee Simmons to write a piece on BurlyCon, he asked for a list. This really excited me because I do love a good list!

So, without further adieu, here are the top 5 things I learned from BurlyCon 2015…

  1. The bodies of burlesque are widely diverse — This year I saw so many beautiful people representing burlesque from their state. I assume that perhaps to an outsider, they would assume that this con would be mostly female-bodied people. This year — more than I’ve seen in my four years of going — I saw all types of people, from non-gender-conforming to trans people to cis males and females. There were people there who came because they clearly felt a sense of acceptance within this community. Some were not even performers but just supporters and admirers of burlesque. They were welcomed just as much as the people who take to the stages night after night, weekend after weekend.
  2. Our industry is full of knowledge seekers — They are open to listen and discuss the issues that are important to each other, not just themselves. From the pressures of the social beauty standards and how they affect burlesque to incorporating tango moves into your choreography. (This is actually how diverse the classes are at BurlyCon.) It makes me excited to think that people are going back to their cities and bringing new classes to their communities as well as taking more classes themselves. Conventions like this really spark a lot of inspiration.
  3. Here’s where the hard truths come out — With an industry that is so spread out and so many shows happening across the country (and the world), that also means that the quality suffers. I have yet to find the balance or the answers in how a community can exist with such a wide spectrum of involvement from the people in it. How do you balance the “Burlesque is for everyone!” mentality with the “I do this for a living and take it very seriously!” mentality? I honestly don’t know. This year, I saw fewer veterans of burlesque than I had seen in previous years. I saw way more faces that I had never seen before, and, after watching some of the acts brought to the nightly peer reviews, I wasn’t really sure how I felt about the future of the industry based on the performances I had seen.
  4. Spending time listening to a burlesque legend is never time wasted — If at any point, you are at a convention where a burlesque legend is there, I advise you to seek them out and have a chat with them. They love answering your questions and talking about what it was like “back then.” They are full of information and give full meaning to the phrase “No fucks to give.” They are unapologetically honest and straight up.
  5. As serious as I personally take burlesque as my career, I do have to remember that at the end of the day, it’s not that serious — While we were in Seattle, the attacks on Paris (and other areas of the world) took place. While we were safe in our hotel and had the privilege of attending this convention, there was so much going on outside our bubble. I felt really conflicted about enjoying my time there and I know a lot of other people in attendance were feeling the same struggle. But, at the same time, it was a reminder that getting worked up over “good burlesque” vs. “bad burlesque” and proper technique of showgirl poses maybe really aren’t that important all the time. What is important is that this art form is alive and well. Right now. For me, it made me grateful for the chance to live another day to take the stage and entertain the world in it’s time if need.