Congratulate & Welcome Delaware's New Poets Laureate: The Twin Poets!

Photo courtesy of newsworks.org

This post compiled with info from delawareonline.com and WHYY's newsworks.org...
Delaware Arts Info is happy to celebrate spoken-word artists Al Mills and Nnamdi Chukwuocha --- known regionally as The Twin Poets --- as the First State's new Poets Laureate. As Delaware's 17th ambassadors of poetry, they are also the first to share the honorary title.

The 45-year-old identical twin brothers have been writing since they were children. Their prose have been featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and NPR’s Poetic License, and the pair has won numerous awards and toured nationally and internationally as part of their craft.

The duo were sworn in to their new appointments by Governor Jack Markell in a December 16 ceremony at the Delaware Art Museum. "You have got something to say that I think people need to hear," Markell said during the event. "People from all walks of life, who may not have ever come together otherwise, are going to hear this message." 

The two performed separate poems following the oath of office, with Mills reciting a new work entitled, The Beauty of the Journey. Mills and Chukwuocha hope not only to introduce children statewide to the art of prose but also to share their artistry through outreach to military bases, jails and prisons in Delaware. 

The Poet Laureate program is overseen by the Delaware Division of the Arts, which coordinates performances and associated programming for the the artists throughout the state.

Both men are social workers, and Chukwuocha is a Wilmington city councilman. Their father was community leader William “Hicks” Anderson, for whom the center on Madison Street is named.

See the Twin Poets perform on HBO's Def Comedy Jam.

Brandywine Baroque "Glitt'rs" in Latest Performance of Vivaldi & More

By Christine Facciolo

The program may have been titled “Winter’s Glitt’ring Sun” but it didn’t feel anything like winter on Sunday when Brandywine Baroque presented its second concert of the 2015-16 season.

The well-attended concert featured works by Italians Vivaldi, Tessarini, Leo and Facoli and a secular cantata by Englishman Thomas Arne.

The program was heavy on Vivaldi — no surprise there. Vivaldi’s fecundity never ceases to amaze. His reputation rests largely on a legacy of nearly 500 instrumental concerti. Yet this incredibly prolific composer was almost unheard of until the 1950s.

The concert opened with a performance of the Concerto for Strings in d minor, RV 128. This work was contained in one of 14 volumes discovered in 1926 sparking interest in the composer’s works.

All three movements are in the same key — unusual but not unprecedented for Vivaldi. It also adheres to the three movement fast-slow-fast order that he standardized. Double bassist Heather Miller Lardin reveled in the particularly active bass line of the Largo, while the entire ensemble engaged in a fugal finale bristling with energy and excitement.

Flutist Eileen Grycky soloed in two of Vivaldi’s flute concerti: the D major and the recently discovered d minor “il Gran Mogol” which received its Delaware premiere. Grycky’s delightful and highly musical formation of the flute solo lines on her mellow, woody instrument were a delight to the ears as was the full-blooded energetic orchestral accompaniment.

The strings had their say in a warm and sprightly reading of Vivaldi’s Concerto in G Major for Two Violins and Two Cellos, RV 575 — with Martin Davids and Kathleen Leidig, violins and John Mark Rozendaal and Donna Fournier, cellos.

Davids joined fellow violinists Leidig and Edmond Chan in a confident, well-balanced and precise rendering of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Three Violins in F Major, RV 551, creating ear-catching textures spiced by Vivaldian virtuosic runs and arpeggios.

The program also featured the works of other lesser-known Italian composers. Davids introduced the Concerto for Violin in A minor by his favorite composer, Carlo Tessarini, by saying he was luckier than Vivaldi because he didn’t wash out of the priesthood and wind up with an orphanage.

Jokes aside, this tricky and challenging music demands a performer with virtuoso credentials and Davids certainly has them, especially in the Allegros of this work.

Harpsichordist Joyce Chen’s elegant technique brought out the dimple counterpoint and right-hand embellishments in Marco Facoli’s Padoana prima dita Marucina & Salterello.

Leonardo Leo’s concerti give little opportunity for virtuosic display; instead, the cello weaves its way in and out of the texture in a relaxed way. This performance by John Mark Rozendaal of the Concerto No. 3 in F minor is appropriately low-key, with the tricky problem of giving the instrument its proper prominence solved with admirable clarity.

Soprano Laura Heimes performed the only non-Italian work on the program: Thomas Arne’s Cantata V: “The Morning” from Six Cantatas. It is always a pleasure to hear Heimes’ bright warm voice in concert. But this work displayed her virtuosity, as these areas demand astonishing breath control, mastery of coloratura and apt decoration. The interaction between voice and instruments proved engaging and inventive.

See www.brandywinebaroque.org. 

Delaware Theater Company’s "Diner" Serves Delectable Entertainment

Ari Brand, Matthew James Thomas, Derek Klena, Ethan Slater,
and Noah Weisberg. Photo by Matt Urban, Mobius New Media.

This past weekend, Delaware Theater Company (DTC) opened yet another New York City-bound production, Diner, the musical. Based on Barry Levinson’s iconic 80’s film, the musical (for which he also wrote the book), has music and lyrics by multi-Grammy Award-winner, Sheryl Crow and is directed by three-time Tony Award-winner, Kathleen Marshall.

Set in Baltimore during 1959, Diner follows the lives of six 20-something men – Ari Brand (Eddie), Aaron C. Finley (Billy), Derek Klena (Boogie), Ethan Slater (Modell), Matthew James Thomas (Fenwick) and Noah Weisberg (Shrevie). The longtime friends contemplate love, marriage, sex, success, family life, the future, and other issues, while hanging at their favorite diner.

Eddie is experiencing cold feet with his upcoming nuptials to Elyse (Tess Soltau) on New Year’s Eve. The lovelorn Billy is trying to win the heart of career-minded Barbara (Brynn O’Malley). Boogie, the consummate ladies man, is increasing his debt by making ill-advised bets with back-alley bookies. Modell goes along with his friends’ antics, but is the first to flee when things go awry. Fenwick, a trust-fund baby, is a free spirit rebelling against his family, but running out of money. Shrevie, a music lover, is finding his marriage to Beth (Erika Henningsen) isn’t all bliss.

While the men meet at the diner, the ladies also meet to discuss their sides of the situations. Elyse is preparing for her wedding as well as for a football test her fiancé is administering to prove her love to him. If she passes the test, they will walk down the aisle by the end of the week; if not, wedding bells won't ring for this couple. Barbara is a headstrong businesswoman trying to make it in the male-dominant broadcasting field. Climbing the corporate ladder interests her more than settling down to raise a family with Billy. Finally, the housewife Beth is trying to keep her marriage from falling apart, while still having her own identity. Essentially, these ladies are pioneering what will become the feminist movement in the next decade.  

Sure, the story of the musical isn’t groundbreaking material, but the show is about entertaining the audience, and Ms. Marshall has assembled a group of actors who are ready to entertain! 

The charismatic ensemble cast is superb as they perform on DTC’s most ambitious set in its 37-year history. The production’s multifaceted set by Derek McLane moves and transforms to become the diner, a salon, a movie theater and the outside of a church, where one of the most compelling of Ms. Crow’s numbers is performed. Mr. Thomas’s erratic performance of I Got No Home is shocking, but heartfelt as he sings about his rebellious lifestyle and the treatment he receives from his family.

Ms. Crow has written a score full of exuberant, foot tapping 50’s style music (What Would You Bet? and Gotta Lotta Woman) sprinkled with sumptuous ballads (Tear Down This Home and I Can Have It All). Best known as a leading rock-n-roll artist, Ms. Crow proves she can seamlessly transfer her musical talents to the stage!      

Diner offers up a slice of life from a bygone era that is always fun to visit. A time when an app on a smartphone can’t be used to figure out the actor in a Hitchcock film, but instead friends have a lively discussion to unveil the correct thespian.  

Diner fans can enjoy an extended run through January 3, at Delaware Theater Company. Visit www.delawaretheatre.org or call 302.594.1100 for additional information and tickets.