Chapel Street Players present Beauty Queen of Leenane

Beauty Queen of Leenane is a neat and tight play by Martin McDonaugh, a child of Irish parents born in London where his family had emigrated just as the families of his Leenane must do in the 1989 setting. The characters he presents are also quite finely drawn.

Maureen, played with great energy by Kerry Kristine McElrone, is forty and feels as if life has passed her by. She is the youngest of three and the only maiden sister who, of course, got stuck with the harridan mother, Mag. Mary Catherine Kelley’s Mag was comic and tragic, following the intricate web that so many of us have in our relationships. She is sometimes funny and attractive and sometimes so aggravating that I was tempted to say, “Stop it” from the audience. The two actresses adroitly tossed off their alternating sweet and sours until it was hard to tell who was good, honest and true and who was a conniver.

Enter neighbor Ray Dooley, the kind of guy who is always friendly but ever-so-slightly annoying, who comes over and you immediately wish him gone. Patrick Cataract gives him a certain innocence and gentle appeal and you wonder why he seemed to be a fly on the wall to our lonely but attractive Maureen.

Maureen sets her sites on Ray’s older brother Pato, a warm and congenial guy played by David C. Hastings. Pato was not sure if Maureen’s pursuit of him was because she loves him or because she wanted to aggravate her mother. His letter to Maureen is a wonderful palette of his emotions and doubts and he delivered it in a monologue that deserved a standing ovation. (Unfortunately, our audience was terribly quiet on Friday, but it didn’t hurt the play’s quality).

The drama unfolds with revelations from everyone – with each of the characters unfolding those details they had so carefully kept under their hats during the first half of the play. Credit to McDonaugh for such a great script and for the actors and director Sean Kelly for making sure they didn’t reveal too much too soon. The next performances are November 12, 17, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. at the Chapel Street Players on Chapel Street in Newark.

See www.chapelstreetplayers.org

A Fresh Look at Howard Pyle at DAM

The Buccaneer Was a
Picturesque Fellow, 1905

Though it may be hard to believe for those of us who've grown up visiting the Delaware Art Museum, Howard Pyle isn't a Rembrandt-level superstar outside of the Delaware Valley. Pyle may no longer be a household name to the rest of the world, but his impact on modern culture extends far beyond the walls of 2301 Kentmere Parkway.

Take pirates, for example -- few images are as iconic in this century as the Pirates of the Carribean-style swashbucklers. The image we have of the pirates of legend doesn't come from actual-time paintings or photographs; real pirates simply weren't captured that way. It was Pyle who created the image (which directly influenced the style of Disney's Captain Jack Sparrow), using research from old books mixed with his own vision based on the text he was illustrating.

This method of taking existing material and turning it into something decidedly his own is at the heart of Howard Pyle: American Masters Rediscovered, the new special exhibition celebrating both the upcoming 100th Anniversary of the Delaware Art Museum and the centenary of Pyle's death.

Away they rode with clashing hoofs
and ringing armor, 1888

If you've spent a lot of time at the Art Museum, you're probably intimately familiar with the paintings in the Pyle collection (I have a "Flying Dutchman" magnet on my refrigerator -- doesn't everyone?). If you think you've seen it all, you may be right -- but you haven't seen it like this. Rediscovered shows Pyle's work in a new way, interspersed with pieces by his contemporaries such as Thomas Eakins, Jean-Leon Gérôme and Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, from whom he took inspiration to create his varying illustrative styles that captured the Middle Ages, Fairy Tales and Fantasy, and historical America. The guest pieces are displayed on gold panels to to set them apart from Pyle's work. Don't skip the descriptions next each painting, especially if you think you know everything about the work -- you don't.

 Howard Pyle: American Masters Rediscovered runs from November 12 to March 4, 2012. Also be sure to tour the newly-redesigned illustration galleries -- with much of the Pyle collection relocated for the retrospective, rarely-seen pieces from the museum's collection are on display.

Pick of the November Art Loop

By Owen Napier, Jr.

Owen Napier, Jr.  is not your ordinary photographer and printmaker.  A bookbinder by trade, Napier practices the Japanese art of three dimensional decoupage called papier tole. This gives his photographs a startling layered and textured effect.  Napier was gracious to all the visitors who came to the Christina Cultural Art Center for the November Art Loop,  going out of his way to greet them and explain how he puts the intricate layers together to make his work.  One photograph was on display as a one dimensional work just above its companion papier tole image- showing the viewer the startling difference in texture and realism. (MD)

By Brian Marshall

Robots have invaded Poppycock Tattoo at 8th and Orange... again! Found object artist Brian Marshall's whimsy-cool Adopt-a-Robots surrounded the floor, from tiny shampoo bottle 'bots to large metal cowboys and knights, and everything in between. If you haven't come across Adopt-a-Robots before, they must be seen to be believed. Ordinary household (and sometimes industrial) objects are bound together to create artificial humanoids with amazing personality. In addition to the sculptures, the gallery featured a selection of robot-themed paintings, drawings and photomanipulations by Tina Marabito, Pat Higgins, Baron Von Reign, Dave Mele, Eric Hendrickson and 3EYES, plus tunes spun by DJ Zip. (HQ)