Oberon's Grove

NUTCRACKER 2008 #1

Friday November 28, 2008 - It's always fun to see the New York City Ballet's NUTCRACKER from the orchestra. It looks great, I must say, even though it's actually much easier to corps-watch from upstairs. I was so happy that Wei could find time out from his busy schedule to come with me. 

Maria Kowroski and Ashley Bouder were originally announced for Sugar Plum Fairy and Dewdrop tonight but a few days ago the casting switched to Sara Mearns and Sterling Hyltin. They were both on top form and along with Charles Askegard they assured the success of the evening. Faycal Karoui led a very brisk performance, sometimes a bit too brisk (Snow and the Mother Ginger number in particular seemed rather relentless). Violin soloist Kurt Nikkanen transformed the Act I interlude into the musical highlight of the evening with his affecting tone and phrasing.

Ask LaCour as Dr. Stahlbaum dominated the party by virtue of his height, and Dena Abergel is such an attractive Frau Stahlbaum. Of the children, the pint-sized Jeremy Wong was a very frisky and adorable Fritz. If I were going to a Christmas party, I'd want Likolani Brown to be my date (she stepped in unannounced) and it was good to see Jenelle Manzi and Courtney Muscroft back on stage. Robert LaFosse is a convincingly eccentric Drosselmeyer; Lauren King and Rachel Piskin very pretty as the dancing dolls, and Vincent Paradiso a neat and polished Soldier.

The Snow Scene is a complete Balanchinian treat and was danced superbly by a mixture of familiar faces and new ones; Rachel Piskin led off and then Lydia Wellington came wafting by in her first (of many, I feel sure) solo moments on the City Ballet stage.

Sara Mearns danced the Sugar Plum Fairy's variation with her creamy, dreamy style and she and Charles Askegard built the pas de deux from a rather low-key start to a bright climax; along the way were Sara's two gasp-producing leaps onto Chuck's shoulder and her long climactic balance. As a final flourish, Charles gave Sara a gentle toss in the air before sweeping her into the final dive. The audience loved it. [Photo above of Charles & Sara by Paul Kolnik].

Savannah Lowery and Amar Ramasar opened the Divertissement with a grand-scale Spanish; Daniel Ulbricht bounced high as Tea and Sean Suozzi was a lively Candy Cane with very clean hoop work. Tiler Peck's technical assurance and super smile made her a most enjoyable Marzipan and Christian Tworzyanski was a demure Mother Ginger.

Outstanding performances from Teresa Reichlen (headshot above) in Coffee and Sterling Hyltin as the Dewdrop. Tess is a slyly sexy Arabian, her long limbs and sinuous line mirroring the seductive quality of the music. In the finale her succession of sustained balances put a lustrous sheen on a remarkable performance.

Sterling's Dewdrop tonight was so elegant, so quicksilver in movement and so brilliant technically. She built each solo passage with a mixture of delicacy and strength, floating on the applause which liberally laced the Waltz and skimming into poised balances before each exit. I've always enjoyed her dancing but there was that little indefinable something extra tonight that made her truly riveting.

They might have renamed it Waltz of the Blondes for, aside from Sterling, Rachel Rutherford and Saskia Beskow were luscious.

Sitting among other people who are covering the performance in various capacities can sometimes produce annoyances. Many writers will jot a word or two in automatic writing as a reminder to themselves about a certain dancer or choreographic highlight. But the woman next to me this evening must have been seeking to emulate Proust in sheer word-output. She literally wrote throughout the performance. I wonder how much of it she actually watched?

Photos: Paul Kolnik.

Sara & Amar on B-S Q

Sara Mearns (in a Kyle Froman photo above) and Amar Ramasar perform and discuss the final movement of Balanchine's BRAHMS-SCHOENBERG QUARTET in Kristin Sloan's delightful new video.

What do atheists believe in?

The question was posed at a website I visit frequently.

I believe in myself, I (try to) respect other people and I value the planet I'm living on. I do not feel a need to know how life began or what happens after we die. Neither of these questions really matter in day-to-day living. I believe in common sense, in trying to judge people for who they are rather that "what" they are, in giving change to someone who asks for it on the subway, in trying to live life so that when it is near the end I will have few regrets.

If I was compelled to answer the question: what happens to us after we die?...I would say: nothing. It's comforting to think we will see our loved ones again in some after-life but that seems an illusion. I do not believe in life-after-death but I do believe that we can be kept 'alive' as long as people whose lives we were involved in remember us.

Sometimes I feel I have lived before because of the strong emotional responses I have when reading about people, places and things from the past. If reincarnation is real, I will be happy to live again.

I was raised in a very religious family and many of the ideas instilled in me at have an early age stuck with me. But I came to realize that while much of what religion teaches us (Methodist, in my case) is very good and meaningful, one needn't believe in some unseen deity to lead (or try to lead) a decent life. That said, I have done things I'm not proud of but - that's life: it's a learning experience.

There are many days when I feel what I would call 'spiritual' and think maybe there IS some omnipotent being watching over us but then I realize it's simply the beauty of nature or some feeling of an intangible link with other people that I'm experiencing, not 'god'.

I am often moved by the music and works of art which the world's religions have inspired. Verdi's REQUIEM for example makes me feel compellingly attuned to the mystery of death. I sometimes find the simple faith of others to be extremely moving. However I do not feel one needs to be religious to appreciate such things.

The worst thing about the 'classic' religions: they divide people. People have killed, tortured and imprisoned one another throughout written history simply because of differing beliefs in something that is basically unreal. That is truly tragic.

I feel that the real key to peace on Earth isn't in having everyone joined in the same belief-system but in the simple connections we can make with other people across religious, racial, sexual, generational and language barriers. Rather than fighting, maiming or taunting others who don't share our beliefs, let's have a beer together or play soccer, or take dance class together or learn one another's favorite song. We will find that our differences fade as we explore the common ground of humanity.

Opening Night @ New York City Ballet

Tuesday November 25, 2008 - Here is Kyle Froman's gorgeously sexy photograph of his fellow dancers to celebrate the opening of the Company's Winter season. [Click on the photo to enlarge].

The break between June and November really seemed to stretch out this year, especially when we were being teased by stories of the Company's Danish and Parisian successes. 

The rarest and most-anticipated work came first: Peter Martins' pageant-like CHICHESTER PSALMS. The Paul Kolnik photo is from the 2004 premiere when Carla Korbes and Amar Ramasar danced the leads; later Dena Abergel and Henry Seth took over. [Click to enlarge and examine the photo above and you will find dancers who are now Principals as well as some lovely folks who have since left the Company]. How I wish CHICHESTER was re-entering the repertoire instead of just being done as a gala item. It is not only visually unique but also it is set to one of the few Bernstein scores I actually like.

Tonight Sara Mearns and Jared Angle (above in a Paul Kolnik photo) assumed the leading roles and they were excellent. I spent much of the time watching the corps and if you look at the names from the Playbill (below) you will understand why. [Click on the panel below to enlarge it and make it easier to read].

Having Faye Arthurs and Pauline Golbin onstage at the same time and both looking divine posed a problem which could only be solved by using the opera glasses as if watching a tennis match: back and forth and back and forth. Other girls caught my eye as well, and the men looked sexy in the unusual costumes. The New York City Opera Chorus sounded very well and the boy soprano, who had no problem sustaining the long phrase endings, has a wonderful name: Jonathan Makepeace.

Above, another Paul Kolnik CHICHESTER photo.

Peter Martins then stepped before the curtain to pay tribute to David Koch, for whom the State Theatre has now been renamed following his generous gift of $100 million.

Darci Kistler and Albert Evans danced the adagio from the BARBER VIOLIN CONCERTO. This doesn't work well out of context because there is sort of a subtext that only signifies if the ballet is given complete. Kurt Nikkanen played with his customary beauty of tone.

Neither do the two duets from IVES, SONGS really fare well as gala items, despite being sung very well by baritone John Hancock with Cameron Grant at the piano. Rachel Rutherford and Philip Neal looked fine together and danced gracefully despite a moment of unsteady partnering. Wendy Whelan and Charles Askegard brought real drama to their mysterious duet, dancing superbly.

Janie Taylor and Daniel Ulbricht in The Unanswered Question from IVESIANA provided the evening's most thrilling moments. As the barefooted Janie, her magnificent hair down, was manipulated by four men who never allow her to touch the ground, Daniel - shirtless and wearing tights which delineated his spectacular musculature - sought to reach her. The duet ends as she is borne away, aloft, while he struggles after her in vain pursuit. Kudos to the four porteurs: Henry Seth, Max van der Steere, Christian Tworzyanski and Justin Peck. Janie and Daniel roused the typically reticent gala audience to sustained applause and cheers. This duet was especially moving tonight as I was seated immediately in front of Allegra Kent*.

The brief, very animated and tricky duet from CALCIUM LIGHT NIGHT was brilliantly danced by the delightful duo of Sterling Hyltin and Sean Suozzi. They have just the right energy and edge for this piece and they looked great together. Perfect timing and a nice sense of irony.  

Maria Kowroski and Sebastien Marcovici in an excerpt from JAZZ: SIX SYNCOPATED MOVEMENTS opened the second half. They danced it so well - and Maria's legs were so glamourously displayed - that they almost made up for the faceless score and the unimginative choreography. Sebastien is looking great and they are a really attractive partnership; we should see them together more frequently.

Several Principal dancers and Soloists appeared in A FOOL FOR YOU in which the girls wear awful, spangly 'dance recital' dresses and high heels. Ashley Bouder in her bangs now looks like a Russian ballerina but although she was joined by a stellar group of dancers - Yvonne Borree, Megan Fairchild, Abi Stafford, Tiler Peck, Jon Stafford, Amar Ramasar, Gonzalo Garcia, Tyler Angle and Ask LaCour - there simply wasn't enough of a choreographic challenge for them. But FOOL FOR YOU did provide the evening's single most remarkable dance opportunity - a solo which Andrew Veyette seized upon and turned into a personal triumph. Classical technique, gymnastics and break-dancing are wittily combined and Andrew is a master of all three. As with his solo in OLTREMARE, Andrew does things which seem humanly impossible.

The other thrilling moment in FOOL FOR YOU occurred when Gonzalo Garcia's shirt came unbuttoned.

Savannah Lowery and Robert Fairchild in BLOSSOM GOT KISSED were a pair of innocent nerds who have wandered into a hot jazz club. They dance a nice adagio, but what makes the piece palatable is a series of six duets strung together as a sort of suite. The partnering in these duets is complex and fast-moving and the City Ballet dancers nailed the sequence; they all deserve mention: Faye Arthurs, Amanda Hankes, Kathryn Morgan, Georgina Pazcoguin, Brittany Pollack, Stephanie Zungre; Adrian Danchig-Waring, Vincent Paradiso, Justin Peck, Henry Seth, Christian Tworzyanski and Giovanni Villalobos.

Jenifer Ringer's return to the stage was a perfect 'dessert' for the banquet of dance. She appeared in her classic 'The Man I Love' from Balanchine's WHO CARES? and was partnered by Nilas Martins. Jeni (above) looks terrific and reminds us of what we've been missing during her maternity leave. Sadly, the soprano Lauren Flanigan was in parlous vocal estate, her singing stayed resolutely flat of pitch most of the time. As a finale, the Company danced I've Got Rhythm in which Rebecca Krohn and Teresa Reichlen made all-too-brief appearances.

The evening flew by; it was good to see all the fans again during intermission. Kristin Sloan stopped to say hello, and I was introduced to Andrew Veyette and to Sterling Hyltin as they headed for the gala dinner. Maria Kowroski appeared in an indescribably elegant black gown with a trace of a bustle and train; Yvonne Boreee looked equally chic.

The Gala did have one distracting element, however: during the quieter musical passages the voice of the stage manager was clearly audible from backstage. This has annoyed me at past performances but was especially irritating today.

* A note from the Balanchine Foundation website about THE UNANSWERED QUESTION: 

"In The Unanswered Question section, Denby described a beautiful young girl in white who "appears aloft, carried by a team of four men, and a shadowy fifth [who] precedes the cluster, turning, crawling, reaching toward her. Carefully, as in a ritual or a circus act, the girl is lowered and lifted, revolved in fantastic and horrifying fashions. In all the shapes her body takes, she is never any less beautiful or less placid. At moments her hair brushes the questioner's face. There is no awareness of his question or of his humiliation ... This scene, with its casual ghastly incident when the girl falls backward headfirst into space, is the central one of the ballet. As if to heighten the mystery, the spectral white figure never touches the ground."

Kent, on whom the female role was choreographed, explained it this way in her 1997 autobiography, Once a Dancer . . .: "The woman in this ballet ultimately represents the unattainable. She attracts and eludes the man who tries to grasp her. The mystery is never solved, the question never answered."

Allegra Kent joined the New York City Ballet as an apprentice in 1952 and became a principal dancer in 1957. Her first leading role was the girl in white in The Unanswered Question, which Balanchine created on her in 1954. Later Kent originated major roles in such celebrated Balanchine ballets as Divertimento #15, Bugaku, Stars and Stripes, and The Seven Deadly Sins, as well as in Jerome Robbins's Dances at a Gathering. Kent's autobiography, Once a Dancer . . ., is now available in paperback. In 1999 she participated in the Interpreters Archive by teaching her roles in La Sonnambula and Bugaku to Janie Taylor, then a corps de ballet member of the New York City Ballet."

NYC Ballet Opens Tonight

Tuesday November 25, 2008 - After the endless wait, New York City Ballet are back at Lincoln Center tonight. [Above: Kyle Froman's photo of Ellen Ostrom and the NYCB girls in rehearsal]. Aside from seeing the dancers again, I'm curious as to what the renovations to the interior of the State Theatre will look like.

The opening night programme, apart from CHICHESTER PSALMS, doesn't thrill me....but the chance to see the Company again (including several dancers taking on new roles) makes attendance mandatory.

And we need to be there to welcome back Jenifer Ringer (Kyle's photo, above) who is scheduled to dance in the gala-closing excerpt from WHO CARES?  Singers John Hancock and Lauren Flanigan are listed on the bill as well.

Then after the NUTCRACKER season - if my credit card doesn't explode I will go 5 or 6 times - the real treats begin: the three new ballets, and several really exciting revivals.

It will be fun to see COPPELIA again with its ideal-for-dancing score. Ballets that I have been really craving to reconnect with - CHACONNE, the Balanchine SWAN LAKE, LA VALSE, VIENNA WALTZES, MONUMENTUM/MOVEMENTS, Tchaikovsky SUITE #3, CONCERTO BAROCCO, FOUR TEMPS - are all circled multiple times on my calendar.

How great to get a chance to see LA STRAVAGANZA, CHIAROSCURO, GLASS PIECES, HALLELUJAH JUNCTION, SLICE TO SHARP, MERCURIAL MANOEUVRES and DAVIDSBUNDLERTANZE again. I'm in such a good mood that I will even give STABAT MATER another whirl (superb score, if nothing else). And I hope I can get to every performance of OLTREMARE.

Today will drag by and then of course the performance will be over in a flash. Hoping to see all of you there.

In case you hadn't noticed, I'M OLD FASHIONED has replaced LES NOCES on the All-Robbins programme.

Kyle Froman's New Website

Visit the new website of Kyle Froman, New York City Ballet corpsman, author and photographer extraordinaire.

LIEBESLIEDER Without The Dancing

Sunday November 23, 2008 - At Carnegie Hall's Weill Auditorium, with James Levine and Daniel Barenboim at the keyboards, four of today's most prominent young voices were heard in a performance of the Brahms LIEBESLIEDER WALTZES (both books) which had long been sold out.

The evening opened with Levine and Barenboim playing Schubert's "Grand Duo" Opus 140. I must say that there seemed to be a number of wrong notes being struck which dampened my enthusiasm. After a while I found my attention wandering and wishing for the piece to end.   

After the intermission, things took a radical turn for the better. Balanchine fans know LIEBESLIEDER because of the Master's masterpiece. I've also seen a Mark Morris setting of Book II at Jacob's Pillow several years ago. Today was actually the first time I've heard the cycles performed in a pure concert setting.

Rather than having the pianists share a keyboard, two pianos were used. When the singing started everything seemed too loud and overpowering but matters were quickly set right. The celebrated pianists were at their best, perhaps inspired by the excellence of the vocal quartet.

This was a youthful LIEBESLIEDER with the four singers reveling in the beauty and individuality of their timbres and blending ideally in duets. Lisette Oropesa's sweet, ultra-feminine tone was brimming with romantic ardour throughout the long cycles; her duets with Sasha Cooke created a spine-tingling harmonic resonance and thoughts of the Rose Presentation scene and final duet from ROSENKAVALIER kept creeping into my head. Sasha's vivid rendering of her solo was a high-point in terms of dramatic urgency but even more notable was her ability to keep the mezzo line always nicely forward in ensembles. It is the mezzo's subtly modulated harmonies that make for much of the magic in the songs; Sasha's warm, burnished colouring in her lower range gave everything a lovely glow. Both girls wore black gowns, Lisette in 40s-glamour style while Sasha's more tailored, contemporary look set off her striking complexion, eyes and hair to perfection.

Matthew Plenk's clear, poignant sound captures all the romance of the music; it's a highly individual and really appealing voice, youthful and dynamically pliant. His solo passages and duets with Shenyang brought tears to my eyes, as did the earlier blending of Lisette and Sasha. Shenyang followed up his recent Juilliard success with another perfect performance here; he has a tremendous gift for communicating and he has the instrument to do it with. Effortless vocalism, rising into the baritone range to harmonize with Matthew and then giving the lower notes that extra plush-velvet touch to polish things off.

Among the audience: Susan Graham, Rene Pape and Seiji Ozawa. With ticket prices close to $100 each, the presence of Levine and Barenboim guaranteed a sell-out. But in the end it was the four singers who made the performance so special.

The quartet of singers after the performance: Shenyang, Sasha, Lisette & Matthew. Bravi tutti!!

BAD BOYS = Take 4

Watch a video of Bennyroyce Royon's TAKE 4 performed last Summer at Jacob's Pillow by Rasta Thomas and the Bad Boys of Dance. Read about the competition for Ballet Nouveau Colorado that Benny is involved in. After watching on YouTube, rate the video (five stars, svp!) and leave comments. [Photo: The Winger].

Now, how do we get to see this here in New York City? Joyce SoHo? Fall for Dance? Other ideas?

“..Royon’s world premiere quartet “Take 4″ was dynamite. It featured edgier music (by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Herbert), and a provocative setup, beginning and ending in stark squares of light. The four dancers came alive as if someone had just wound them up, and they exploded into movement that pushed at the edges — jazzy, hip-hop-flavored isolations, corkscrew turns, capoeira-influenced floorwork, and an unapologetic in-your-face bravado.” - Karen Campbell, The Boston Globe, July 31, 2007.

New Chamber Ballet

Saturday November 22, 2008 - Tonya and I attended Miro Magloire's New Chamber Ballet who were performing four works at Studio 4, New York City Center. Photo from SILENT SHADOWS/photo by Kristin Lodoen Linden.

Miro spoke briefly before each piece and refreshingly, rather than talking about his choreography, he told us about the composers and his reasons for being attracted to the works he set. As a musician who choreographs, Miro's perspective in terms of choosing music is somewhat different from other choreographers so that he could use something like Giacinto Scelsi's Xnoybis -  which would not at first hearing seem to be conducive to dance - and convince us that it works perfectly.

The opening work, DREAMS in fact is danced to near-silence. Three women - Emily SoRelle Adams, Elizabeth Brown and Emery LeCrone - provide the 'score' by whispering, speaking quietly and later clicking their tongues. Miro's dances are all on pointe, all rooted in classical technique. His style is fluid and gestural, intimate and elegant.  

What set this evening apart from other dance performances in smaller venues was the presence of the musicians: Erik Carlson (violin) and Victoria Tzotzkova (piano) performed with scrupulous musical detail and full-bodied tone. In Karlheinz Stockhausen's Sonatine for the solo ballet of the same title, Erik and Victoria gave the music a other-worldly glow which was mirrored in the beautifully expressed dancing of Madeline Deavenport.

In SILENT SHADOWS Miro presents a vision of the after-world which is haunting in its simplicity and dreamlike serenity. In a way, the work is a counter-poise to Balanchine's CHACONNE with the three dancers (Mlles. Adams, Deavenport & LeCrone) as dark-clad spirits united in reverie in some imagined Elysian Field. Erik Carlson's sustained playing of the drone-like Scelsi music, which pulsates shimmeringly between semi-tones, showed his masterful control. Creating an illusion of death-like slumber, the girls danced the third movement with eyes closed. While I did wish at the end for lighting which would have underlined the final images, I felt this evocation of life-after-death to be both moving and calming.

To the unabashed lyricism of Dvorak's Four Romantic Pieces, the evening drew to a close with the lush playing of Erik and Victoria for the premiere of Miro's ROMANTIC PIECES. Emily SoRelle Adams and Elizabeth Brown moved thru the pointe-lingering ebb and flow of steps with fluent grace; and Emery LeCrone - sister of NYC Ballet's Megan - was a thorough delight in both the sustained balances and the flowing lines her solo demanded. She also happens to be a distinctive beauty (photo, above) with a captivating smile.

The performance was well-attended and both the dancers and musicians were warmly applauded. For its meshing of live music and movement, the evening was really enjoyable. I'll look forward to Miro's future performances.

Cedar Lake Rehearsal

Friday November 21, 2008 - Cedar Lake Withdrawal is similar to New York City Ballet Withdrawal. Same symptoms. Luckily whenever a fix is needed, Cedar Lake comes thru. Today I went down to one of my favorite dance venues, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet's fantastic home on West 26th Street to watch - along with Evan, Avi and Tonya - a rehearsal of two works being prepared for their Winter season.

Choreographer Didy Veldman (photo, above) is creating Frame of View on the Cedar Lake dancers. Speaking to us briefly beforehand, Didy described her piece as a reflection on human nature in terms of how our public and private selves differ - how we behave in social situations as opposed to what we might do behind closed doors. Witty, ironic, full of movement and laced with of snippets of conversation, we recognize ourselves and our friends at every turn of events.

Free-standing doors describe the playing area. The dancers come and go; they hang from the door frames and the doors in fact become participants in the movement. Intense personal crises give way to party scenes and chance meetings as the doors open and close. Ana-Maria Lucaciu self-propels her table and chair across the diagonal as she suffers the after-effects of some romantic breakdown. Jason Kittelberger and Marina Mascarell have a violent domestic dispute - in slow motion - as Jubal Battisti quietly showers them with confetti: ah, the joys of married life. Ironically, they duke it out to the ultra-romantic strains of the Barcarolle from Offenbach's TALES OF HOFFMANN. Later, Jubal and Soojin Choi have their own interlude with Soojin hiding under Jubal's loose shirt.  

Didy spoke of how specifically this work is being created on the individual characteristics of the Cedar Lake dancers and so we are able to focus on people who have intrigued us in past works, like Acacia Schachte (above). In a City full of fascinating dance personalities, Acacia always stands out. 

Above, Oscar Ramos, Golan Yosef, Christopher Adams and Acacia. Oscar, Christopher and Matthew Rich each make their mark in the ensemble which calls for athleticism...and door-climbing. And there is a hilarious segment where the four girls dancing in unison each call out to Jason Kittelberger to save them from falling. He ends up with his hands full. Eclectic musical elements - Nina Simone, Bartok, Kronos Quartet, an Offenbach galop - add to the quirky delights of Frame of View which is as yet unfinished; a Dean Martin song is being worked up as the finale. This will be a piece to see multiple times because there's a lot to take in.

True to his word: Caleb promised to have a video of Didy's rehearsal ready for us today. And here it is.

Luca Veggetti's new work is Memory/Measure. Luca's imaginative staging of the Xenakis ORESTEIA at the Miller Theatre earlier this Autumn made me eager to see what he would come up with working with the Cedar Lake dancers. (Photo: Jon Bond and Acacia Schachte from the alternate cast).

Memory/Measure is a quartet which has a dream-like and oddly ancient feel despite being very contemporary its musical setting: industrial, clanging sounds alternate with spoken recitations; later a metallic violin is heard. Ana-Maria Lucaciu on pointe (long balances in grand plie in second) really shines in this work, as does Nickemil Concepcion - a big, strong guy who dances with a darkly lyrical spirit. Soojin Choi has already become an indispensable dancer with her delicacy and sense of mystery; and the piece gives us an opportunity to see the technical polish and clarity of Jubal Battisti's excellent dancing. Soojin's signature motif here, a stylized slow-motion sprinting effect, is later employed to striking effect by Jubal as he skirts the perimeter. It looks simple but calls for great control and concentration.

Over at The Winger, Bennyroyce Royon has interviewed Cedar Lake dancer Harumi Terayama. Harumi and her colleague Kristen Weiser gave a tremendous joint performance of Angelin Proljocaj's L'ANNONCIATION this past Spring.

Cedar Lake have become one of my favorite addictions. Now there's a six-week wait for the actual performances, though somehow I feel I'll be seeing them in some context before January 8th.

Rehearsal photos: Paul B Goode.