Snapshots: Wicked Winter: The Sick of Winter Show

The Young Werewolves

Wicked Winter, The Talleyville Frame Shoppe and Gallery's annual late-winter art event featuring Dark, Weird, Eerie, Scary and Humorous works by area artists has rarely had a winter so deserving of a show dedicated to being sick of winter. Featuring live music from Philly's The Young Werewolves, the showcased artists include Joe Bellofatto, Robert Bickey, Adam Cruz, Ric Frane, Eric Hendrickson, Pat Higgins, Tina Marabito, Kristen Margiotta, Wendy M., Mark Rosenblatt, Ken Schuler and Matt Stankis. Artwork will remain on display through March 31.

Shop Local by Pat Higgins

In Loving Memory of Miss C. Ardinal by Wendy M.

New works by Tina Marabito and Kristen Margiotta

It Gets Cold When the Fire Goes Out by Ken Schuler

New works by Ric Frane

Junior (Nor the Second) by Mark Rosenblatt

Wrapped Up in 'Fur'

By Guest Blogger, Christine Facciolo
Christine holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music and continues to apply her voice to all genres of music. An arts lover since childhood, she currently works as a freelance writer.
 

While Fifty Shades of Grey reduces sadomasochism to handcuffs and spanking, David Ives’ Venus in Fur — although not above dog collars and riding crops — delves deeper into the complex relationship between dominance and submission in an erotically charged play that revels in ambiguity.

The first scene of Bootless Stageworks’ production of this Tony-nominated play finds Thomas (Sean Gallagher) — the director/playwright of an adaptation of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s scandalizing 1870 novella Venus in Furs — pacing around a dingy New York studio after a long day of auditions and complaining to his fiancée over the phone about the pathetic parade of ‘starlets.’ He wants nothing more than to go home when in storms the un-fashionably late Vanda (Kelly Warne), furiously shaking her umbrella and swearing about perverts on the subway. Vanda may share a name with Sacho-Masoch’s leading character, and she may have come at-the-ready in spike heels and black leather bustier, but at first glance she doesn’t seem any different from the other 35 ditzoids he’s seen that day.

That quickly changes when she cajoles Thomas into letting her audition for the part. That’s when things get interesting as the reading and role-playing turn into a tense, erotically-charged exchange. Soon, it becomes less and less clear who is directing and who is acting; who is choosing and who is supplicating. 

This is a play that depends heavily on its two actors, and director Rosanne DellAversano has done a superb job of casting. Obviously, Vanda is the meatier role, and Warne is wickedly masterful as she seamlessly transitions between the character’s various (at last count four) personae. In addition to the modern-day Vanda, the airheaded motor-mouth who dismisses Sacher-Masoch’s book as “porn” and the 19th Century Vanda, a haughty aristocrat with a Continental accent, there’s the seemingly intellectual Vanda who cites Greek mythology and offers cogent psychosexual insights. And she’s hilarious to boot. In the play’s comedic highlight, she lounges suggestively as a love goddess on the divan and, cooing an “I’ll be back” in a German accent that out-Schwarzeneggers even Schwarzenegger.  

Through it all, her motives remain tantalizingly mysterious. We never find out how she managed to get hold of a full script instead of just the select pages Thomas provided for the audition or how she was able to commit it to memory from what she claims was a “glance-through” while riding the subway. And how does she know so much about Thomas and his fiancée? Is she a desperate — and clever — actress, or some sort of operative? Or could she really be — as the periodic thunderclaps hint — a goddess? 

Gallagher’s turn as Thomas is far less theatrical, but he conveys the sinewy contours of a complex character with admirable subtlety that plays well off Warne.

This is a taut psychological play that forces us to reexamine our notions of power, gender and sex. Yet for all its sexual tension, for all its stated and implied social criticism, Venus in Fur is plain funny. Ives’ humor keeps it from degenerating into the tawdry and provides a welcome levity that balances the play’s darker themes.

Additional performances run March 15 at 8:00pm; March 16 at 3:00pm; March 20 at 7:30pm; March 21 at 8:00pm; and March 22 at 8:00pm at The Black Box at OperaDelaware Studios, 4 S. Poplar Street in Wilmington.

See www.bootless.org.

Album Review: Glim Dropper - Heartsick Phenomenon

By Guest Blogger, Don Tyler
Don is an aspiring writer living in Pike Creek with his two cats, Sam and Dave. He enjoys finding good coffee and even better live music.

There's been an incredible crop of talent popping up in the Wilmington region in the last couple of years, and one name that keeps coming up is Glim Dropper. This infectious trio from Philly is making a second home in Delaware after two successful performances at The WIlmo Rock Circus in 2012 & 2013, wowing audiences both years. And in September, they took their rightful place as winners of Delaware’s premier music competition, Musikarmageddon, after their second place showing in 2012. And now this…

Simply put, their new album, Heartsick Phenomenon, is an amazing record. The 10 songs on this album are simultaneously fresh and familiar. Driving and dreamy, melodramatic and melodic, it just hits you with hook after hook. Dan Kauffman’s vocals glide across the landscape in smooth arcs in a way that’s both inviting and introspective. Dan’s bass work on the album is surprisingly complex while complementing the arrangements without being overbearing. Live, he handles both of these roles with ease.

Ben Geise uses the guitar to drive the pieces and helps create their overall sound with a smart balance of effects. At times, overdriving riffs are juxtaposed against a wall of delay and reverb that helps draw you into the narrative. For audiophiles, it just creates another layer to the already engaging album. Ben was named WSTW’s Hometown Heroes Best Guitarist two years in a row, and it’s a deserving recognition.

All of this happens over the solid drumming of Rob Schnell. Rob’s drumming is intelligent and a perfect match for Dan and Ben. Finding the right moments to pop, while recognizing when to hold back and let the song do the work. His choices show that drumming is more than just speed or power, though he offers up plenty of both over the course of the album.

Rob kicks things off with the title track, a short welcome to the record that never relaxes in its enthusiasm. They then dive into Shanghai, which dives right into one of their strongest melodies from beat one. They take a dreamy breath that pulls you in during Night Doctor with one of Dan’s most enticing vocal performances, then take it up a notch with The Velvet Way To The Grave. Then comes the unexpected: A beautifully crafted acoustic piece called Hangman that is both haunting and optimistic. Second Sleep is a great complex tune. It ditches any sense of formula and dances around the beat in a way that keeps your guard up. They follow this up with two straightforward songs: the upbeat First World Problems and the mellow intensity of Better Life. Strangelove is for the rhythm addicts. A 12/8 gallop that uses the triplets to fool your brain into thinking it’s in 4/4, and using the intensity of that pulse during the verses to build the tension before resolving back to the 12/8. Brilliance. The album closes with the moody and reflective Another One, which gently lets you down off of this 41-minute ride.

If you haven’t seen Glim Dropper live, I highly suggest it, and when you do, buy this album and hand it to the person next you. Then buy one for yourself.

HIGHLIGHTS: Heartsick Phenomenon; Shanghai, Second Sleep, Strangelove.

See www.glimdropper.com.