Hands Applaud Lips Together Teeth Apart at WDL

By Guest Blogger, Hope R. Rose

Hope is a freelance photographer and photojournalist. She has been published in Next Level Magazine, Delawareblack.com, el Hoy and other regional publications.

I clutched my pearls at the beginning scenes of Wilmington Drama League’s performance of Lips Together, Teeth Apart (LTTA). The actors spewed uncomfortable words. The diverse audience did not know how to react at such horrific words. Most wanted to laugh but saw that we had neighbors that might not find the humor in it.

The play was directed by Rebecca May Flowers and assistant directed by Ivy Brock. LTTA was written by Terence McNally and takes place with two heterosexual couples spending Fourth of July weekend in a beach house on the very gay-friendly Fire Island. Main character Sally has inherited the beach house from her gay brother who recently passed away due to complications from AIDS.

As the play goes on, you laugh at the characters' close-mindedness. You realize that they live their lives as "what is right is who they are."  What’s wrong is people who are gay, other ethnicities, etc. They fail to acknowledge their own fragilities. They all live in isolation. All around them are people who are enjoying the festivities of the holiday weekend, and they are spending a miserable weekend together, isolated, because they are unable to find anything to celebrate about themselves.

The play continues at the Drama League until Sunday, March 29. Check out this introspective performance that examines the lack of diversity that some people live and their (resultant) isolated lives.

See www.wilmingtondramaleague.org.

DSO Delivers Body and Soul

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.

Great composers have a gift for looking backward as they push forward.

The Delaware Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Music Director David Amado, presented works by three such composers Friday, March 13, at the Laird Performing Arts Center at Tatnall School.

The program featured works by Johannes Brahms (Variations on a Theme by Haydn), Gerald Finzi (Clarinet Concerto) and Jean Sibelius (Symphony No. 2). Brahms knew his Baroque and Classical music well. His love of the old masters was instilled in him by his first important teacher, Eduard Marxsen. Brahms himself would go on to advise younger composers to obtain a thorough grounding in counterpoint. This work frequently refers back to earlier eras of music, using complex counterpoint in places, yet it remains firmly rooted in the late Romantic style.

Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto is everything that the Brahms isn't: Reserved and contemplative. Not surprising, since the composer was seriously traumatized by the deaths of three of his elder brothers in World War I. (He would leave London after the World War II to live in the country, devoting himself to composition, growing rare apples and editing the works of earlier little-known composers.) His work combines influences from the Baroque as well as English folk music tradition, yet like Brahms, his unique personal style shines through.

Sibelius’ Second Symphony is the first major step on a journey that would culminate in the Seventh Symphony which marked his true ambition: The fusing of form and content into an organic and natural unity.

The orchestra was fully engaged from the first note of the Brahms, infusing the graceful march-like theme — which actually is not by Haydn but apparently enough like him to have fooled both Brahms and Haydn scholar Karl Ferdinand Pohl — with a hymn-like solemnity that pervaded the entire work.

Eight compact and wonderfully diverse variations follow, expressing dark brooding mystery in some and joyful exuberance in others. The entrance of the strings in the first variation fast forwards the listener from the 18th Century to late Romanticism. The boisterous variation 6 has all the character of the hunt with horns coming to the fore. The finale is a stirring passacaglia itself a set of variations with the larger variations after which the theme returns triumphantly in full orchestral mode — replete with triangles and piccolos. If ever there was a transcendental moment in music, this is it.

The result was a transparency of sound which kept all the parts in balance and playing off each other nicely.

In the end, the work does have a direct link to Haydn: In the code of the finale, Brahms quotes directly from the second movement of Haydn’s Clock Symphony which he regarded as one of the greatest symphonic movements of the Classical period.

The Finzi Clarinet Concerto was the astute choice of DSO’s principal clarinetist Charles Salinger. His virtuosic playing did this imaginative but rarely performed work proud, being properly assertive in the opening movement and delightfully playful in the rondo-finale. Both soloist and strings were most impressive in their execution of the concerto’s beautiful second movement.

The highlight of the evening was a glorious rendering of the Sibelius Symphony No. 2. In accordance with the composer’s intentions, Amado kept themes restrained in the first three movements, including the touching elegy embedded in the third movement, beautifully introduced by principal oboist Jeffrey O’Donnell.

This restraint gave way to the rising power of the finale, sending the orchestra soaring with a pronounced sense of majesty and bringing the audience to its feet.

See delawaresymphony.org. 

Rock, Rap and a Guy in Sheep's Clothing. Just Another Night in Wilmo

By Guest Blogger, Ken Grant
Ken Grant has worked in Delaware media, politics and marketing for 25 years. He and his Lovely Bride enjoy Wilmington's arts and culture scene as much as they can.

We’re just over half way through Gable Music’s Singer Songwriter Showcase at World Café Live at the Queen when Rick Sabatini looks out at the audience and says, “You just watched a white guy in a sheep costume play a rap song with an acoustic guitar.”

Go ahead, re-read that statement.

Rick Sabatini was that performer, and he was one-sixth of the entertainment provided.

The format — gathering six quality performers to play two 15-minute sets each — has been used and perfected by Gable co-founders Gayle Dillman and Jeremy Hebbel over the past few years.

“The whole thing is a mix of meticulous planning with a good amount of serendipity,” said Hebbel, who has been reviewing applications from musicians from around the country trying to decide which performers to bring to the area for which venues. Hebbel says he and Dillman are now getting more than 50 serious applications a week.

As a prime example of serendipity — the fact that Rick Sabatini was booked at the last minute after another performer fell ill.s

All of the performers Friday traveled some distance to play for the Wilmington audience – Nelly’s Echo, Danny Whitecotton, Brian Dolzani, James Hearne and Stewart Lewis came from places like Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Texas.

Throughout the evening, we found ourselves entertained by a variety of musical styles, stories, observations and group dynamics as each musician seemed to be encouraged by the others.

What the audience gets from a Gable Singer Songwriter Showcase is a night of great entertainment from a mix of seasoned professionals and promising newer artists who all seem to be committed to providing a quality show for an appreciative audience.

The next Singer Songwriter Showcase is coming up on Friday, April 17. Do yourself a huge favor and get your tickets now. 

See queen.worldcafelive.com.