Dr. Amy Darnell

A master of the minimal, Irving Penn has passed away.  His photographs of the celebrity and artistic elite are legendary.  His gifts to us, immeasurable.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/arts/design/08penn.html

As we approach the annual Family Day weekend at Columbia, be sure to consult the schedule so that you don’t miss any of the fun with friends, family, and alumni of the College.

http://spotlight.ccis.edu/2009/08/calling-all-alumni.html

I just finished watching a fascinating episode of Bill Moyers’ Journal with Cornel West, Serene Young, and Gary Dorrien. I was intrigued, fascinated, energized, and fortified by their discussion on this moment in America’s future in faith.

A wealth of resources, including video of the show, are available from PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07032009/profile.html

I was first introduced to Pina Bausch’s work in graduate school, with video from her Café Muller. Bausch died suddenly this week after just being diagnosed with cancer. The dance world has lost a treasure, certainly. But so too, has the entire aesthetic realm.

The BBC story about her death:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8128380.stm

Video of her works Café Muller (the piece that first had me entranced with her work) and Le Sacre du Printemps:

Truly, they were icons.

When I saw the film version of Dreamgirls I had chills as Jennifer Hudson sang “And I am Telling You.” I can’t even imagine what it was like to have seen the original run with Jennifer Holliday in that role. When I found this gem, I had just a taste. Officially chill-inducing!

One of the most pleasureable parts of teaching Performance is the ability to study and enjoy the multi-disciplinary artists that fuse art and theater.  Robert Delford Brown was one such artist.  The world of art is a tiny bit more muted with his loss.  The New York Times obituary pays terrific tribute and includes some of his most wonderful works in the gallery.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/arts/design/05brown.html

I was a huge fan of Horton Foote’s. The Trip to Bountiful is one of my favorite plays, and favorite film adaptations.  Geraldine Page was a lush and luminous Carrie Watts.  With each passing year, I identify more and more with the final scenes of her alone in her lonely, deteriorating Bountiful.  I am so sad to learn of his passing.

(CNN) — Horton Foote, the Pulitzer Prize- and Academy Award-winning screenwriter of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” has died, according to officials at the Hartford Stage theater, where he was working on a production of several of his plays.

Horton Foote won Oscars for his “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Tender Mercies” screenplays.

He was 92.

Foote was born in Wharton, Texas, and, at age 16 moved to California to study acting. He would later move to New York, where he would transition to writing for the stage, television and movies, according to the Internet Movie Database.

He won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay in 1962 for his reworking of Harper Lee’s classic novel “To Kill A Mockingbird,” and another for best original screenplay in 1983 for “Tender Mercies,” which starred Robert Duvall as a down-and-out country singer.

He also was nominated for 1985’s “The Trip to Bountiful.”

In 1995, his play “The Man From Atlanta” was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

My parents were born and raised in northeastern Kentucky; I am a proud graduate of Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky; and I’ve taught and lived in southeast Ohio. Friday night Diane Sawyer, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, aired a report on the hidden part of America that is Appalachia, in particular, the deep center of Eastern Kentucky. If you were unable to see the report on television, please do yourself a favor and watch it here. I knew those stories too well and my heart continues to break for ‘my people.’

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6877502

I hope you enjoy this bit of early John Cage performance.