Rendering 7: "How Theater for Young People Could Save the World "

The article which was published on 19, March 2013 in "The Hunffington Post" by Lauren Gunderson called “How Theater for Young People Could Save the World” discusses the situation that, as everybody of us know, that March 20th is World Theater for Children and Young People Day. The article carries a lot of comment on the fact that it is very unlikely if some of us may be thinking that why do we need a day to celebrate actors being silly, wearing bright colors and singing obnoxiously at squirming kiddos and bored parents?

But there is also an answere to our question in the article. For instance, the reporter believes if you think that's what Theatre for Young People is, you're missing out on truly powerful, hilarious, bold, engaging, surprising theater that might just save the world.

Speaking of the mission of saving the world it is necessary to note that around the world artists create a new stripe of Theatre for Young People. It is very likely that the theater itself combines the elegance of dance, the innovation of devised theater, the freshness of new plays, the magnetism of puppetry and the inciting energy of new musicals.

The article is in favor of the question how could theater really matter in a world as fraught and disparity-scattered as ours? Analyzing the situation we are to say that sometimes on the one hand we don't understand each other, and we don't want to, but, on the other hand, theater invites us to empathize. The reporter remembers his friend whose idea is that theater is like a gym for empathy.

Giving appraisal of the situation it is important to point out that kids need this kind of practice even more than adults. In this connection it is worth while mentioning that this is going to be their planet and they've got more time to apply that empathy and make a difference.

In fact we may say that "Take A Child to the Theatre Today" is the campaign theme of The International Association of Theaters for Young Audiences for the next three years.

If you take a child to the theater, not only will they practice empathy, they might also laugh uproariously, or come home singing about science, or want to know more about history, or tell you what happened at school today, or spend all dinner discussing music, or learn how to handle conflict, or start becoming future patrons of the arts.

In conclusion the author suggests that on March 20th, take a child to the theater. Take them all the time. And don't "sit back, relax, and enjoy the show." Lean forward, engage and start changing the world for the better.

Pleasure Reading: “The Sea Lions” by James Fenimore Cooper. The summary #5, the last one (p.238-314 up to the end).

On the boat of “The Sea Lion” from Goln Gol Roosevelt Gardner has found no fire at all. The crew has lack of fire-woods. Each member of the team is sleeping under a lot of clothes, saving themselves from the cold weather. Having searched all sleeping bags Roosvelt Gardner comes to know that there are only five people from the whole crew who stay alive after the extremely cold winter. Among them is captain Daggett who has been animated by Roosvelt’s cook with the help of hot coffee.

Having talked, both captains decide to transfer all provision and procurement from sea lions into the ship from Oyster Pond and be ready to swan off from the north. It is not an easy way to come to the open ocean. On the one hand the ship has been damaged and though it is reconstructed by the sailors it can’t maneuver among the ice. But on the other hand the chink in the ice plain is really small that the ship hardly finds room.

Fortunately all our friends manage to come home where Roosvelt Gardner faces the death of the owner of the ship - the deacon Pratt. Gardner has told him that the amount of profit is about 20, 000 dollars that they have stopped in West India and find nothing in the trunk of purest. Having heard such bad for him news, Pratt goes out into another word where he will be so pounds-shillings-and-pence and avaricious for money as he used to be on the earth. According to his last will Mary may get married Roosvelt and they both have an access to his money. This news knocks other relatives of the father-of-church, who are also the same as their dead brother.  

Pleasure Reading: “The Sea Lions” by James Fenimore Cooper. The summary #4 (p.184-238)

There is a big volcano on the island. It is the active volcano. One day Captain Daggett has a walk and decides to claim the mountain. As a result he breaks his leg and takes a decision to stay for the winter in the north. Roosevelt is to stay with his friend as they both have tacit bargain to help each other during the journey. “The Sea Lion” from Goln Gol has been damaged by the ice and can’t take the sea.

The weather goes down. There are heavy snow showers, strong frost and icy rains which then transform into the ice all what has been toped by the water. Fortunately the crews of both ships have storages of tree lengths for warming in winter. But it goes out quickly. The ships are in distance between each other, but they have communication every week.

Captain Daggett hasn’t already sent any news for a long time. The weather drifts the road between both ships. Captain Gardner wants to note how his friend is. The reason of their separation is that Daggett hasn’t wanted to burn his ship to get warmed. And he with his crew has left Roosevelt to their own ship.

On the way to Daggett’s “The Sea Lion” Roosevelt and his helpers find frostbitten bodies of people from “The Sea Lions” from Goln Gol. Roosevelt hears the voice which has been shouting for help. It is the bosun of Daggett. He reports them that the cold wraps the ship. Gardner assists to his friend who has taken him out of his troubles many times.

Rendering 6: The article: "You can’t capture majesty without terror" by Charles Moore from "The Telegraph"

The article which was published by Charles Moore in “The Telegraph” 17, March 2013 called “You can’t capture majesty without terror” reports at length that our Queen, as Robert Hardman’s engaging documentary on her Jubilee year refers to her, is a stickler for detail: last night’s film showed her patrolling the tables before a state banquet, and deciding, politely but firmly, that the fruit had been placed too close to the edge of the table.

The article discusses that she does not try to intimidate, and she is kind, but she is always, rightly, possessed by the dignity of her office, so there is a “noli me tangere” about her: you feel tense before meeting her, and very foolish if (when!) you say the wrong thing. Speaking of the situation it is necessary to note that this new play tries to depict the weekly sessions between monarch and prime minister. Peter Morgan can certainly be funny, and his picture of the Queen is humane and sympathetic. But he fails to observe the two key facts stated above, and so the play never becomes credible.

Pedantry, it is interesting to emphasize, is a part of the nature of a constitutional monarchy. The Queen goes to huge efforts to get everything just right: so should the playwright. Giving appraisal of the events it is necessary to point out that the comic potential of the subject is chiefly to do with the fact that the Queen’s prime ministers are frightened of her. Even if they resent her permanent status, because it might seem to diminish their own importance, they know that they cannot be seen to disrespect her, and she knows that they know this. Besides, the respect – accompanied by a certain awe which grows as the Queen ages – is genuine.

There is a lot of comment that this slackness means that the characters of the prime ministers are usually wrong. Churchill is shown as slightly pompous, telling the Queen to do what her father did. In fact, the old man was almost flirtatiously charmed by the Queen’s youth and beauty. Gordon Brown is depicted acknowledging past mistakes. There can be no greater improbability.

It is very unlikely that the greatest problem is with the Queen herself. It is an open secret that Helen Mirren depicts her, at different stages of life, with verve and versatility (though she gives her too many demonstrative and impatient gestures). But the real difficulty is that Morgan puts speeches into her mouth which express her feelings and beliefs. Even if these are her real thoughts (who knows?), it is quite unlike her to state them so directly, emotionally and at such length. The reality of the Queen is that she says a lot by saying very little. That is a hard thing for a play to deal with, I admit, but so it is.

Above all, the real Queen avoids self-pity. Her speech of outrage at the loss of the Royal Yacht, Britannia, which John Major implausibly springs upon her, probably reflects the real anguish she felt about this, but this is just the sort of speech she doesn’t make. She is out of character, so our sympathy dips.

The article concludes by saying that the author suggests that he learns more about the effect, role and character of Elizabeth II by watching the reactions of Welsh farmers, Norfolk schoolchildren and multi-ethnic Olympians to her on Our Queen than from The Audience. They all detected the vast separation from themselves, combined with the common humanity. This paradox never fails to move.

Rendering 5: The article from "The Telegraph" called "Bruce Norris: 'I think we are doomed’"

The article called “Bruce Norris: 'I think we are doomed’” which was published by Jasper Rees on 7 March 2013 in “The Telegraph” reports at length that uncompromising American playwright Bruce Norris has the super-rich in his sights as his latest work prepares to open at London’s Royal Court.

The article carries a lot of comments that they’re changing the guard at the Royal Court Theatre. Speaking of the situation it is important to note that for his final act after six years in charge, Dominic Cooke has returned to the American playwright whose work he introduced to these shores upon becoming artistic director. It is an open secret that a new play by Bruce Norris can mean only one thing - theatre-goers should start quaking in their Louboutins as he prepares to give them another bloody nose.

Norris’s specialty is pointing a finger at his well-heeled, self-satisfied audience. There is a general feeling to believe that he likes to disrupt is what he likes to do, he has just liked to disrupt situations, he doesn’t like when people seem to think they know the answers or their mind is made up about something.

It is very likely that his play “The Pain and the Itch” won the Olivier and Tony Awards for best new play, and then in 2011 the Pulitzer Prize.

The article discusses the situation that for Cooke’s swansong — and Norris’s first Court commission — the playwright has chosen to alight on the era’s defining theme: money. It’s very unlikely that the Low Road diverges from his claustrophobia-inducing single-set domestic dramas with 20 scenes, 60 characters, a historical sweep and transatlantic reach.

The author is sure that you can’t write an interesting play about what happened in the past five years, because it’s so mundane. He believes that you have to write about human beings rather than about how computers work. He guesses he is writing about why people think the way they do, feel the way they do, about money and status. And why it is important that you want your child to grow up and not just succeed, but exceed others. That kind of structural need to ensure the status of future generations is almost a species problem and one that really can’t be addressed until we evolve.

In this connection it is worth while mentioning that his theory is that we’ve never really left the cave and that the amoral law of the free market is the law that we obeyed when we had hair all over the majority of our bodies and hunted and gathered. He thinks we are kind of doomed, and our responsibility is to have just been perpetually vigilant to our worst tendencies.

There is every likelihood that Norris looks like one of those springy bantamweights who lands jabs and cuts rather than haymakers. His sharp, alert features are framed by a geekier brand of spectacles, and his mordant drawl suggests perpetual bafflement. Born in 1960, he grew up in Houston, the middle in a brood of three.

It would not be wrong to assume that his plays began to be performed in earnest in the early 2000s. Purple Heart (2002) is currently enjoying its UK premiere at the Gate Theatre in Notting Hill. Though set during Vietnam, it gives voice to his dismay at the US invasion of Afghanistan, “a despairing moment because whatever last atom of optimism I had about my own generation was kind of crushed at that moment”. 

The reporter gives no details as to his personal opinion, but I think that it is great that we have lots of talented, young men of art. Unions should help them, protect their ideas and give opportunity.

Pleasure Reading: “The Sea Lions” by James Fenimore Cooper. The summary #3 (p.117-184)

Roosvel Gardner owes Captain Daggett as he has helped him and his hand with the ship. That’s why both captains continue their way side by side. It is difficult both for Daggett and Gardner to take this or that point of view. They are the captains and it is out of the question to obey anyone.

After they have repaired the ship of Roosvel and sold all whales’ skin, fat and meat they go to the north. “The Sea Lion” from Oyster Pond chooses his own way, different from “The Sea Lion” from Goln Gol. Captain Gardner wants to find the bay to drop anchor, but it is not an easy job: stream is very high and the ship is nearly destroyed, but the old sailor manages to keep “The Sea Lion” from Oyster Pond alive.  In its turn, “the Sea Lion” from Goln Gol decides on not to repeat mistakes of another ship. All in all both “lions” meet each other on the entering of the Antarctic Ocean.

Sailing in this ocean is really dangerous. The day hours are really short, that’s why the ships have to swim on darkness. There are lots of big ice floes and the captains are to navigate their ships. Finally they manage to find the earth. The islands which have been marked by Pratt are real and full of sea lions.

Gardner supposes that it takes them 3 or 4 weeks to fill the ships with harvesting. Both crews have their own methods of hunting. Roosvel Garner orders not to annoy animals as it is possible though Daggett’s men in blue are like barbarians. One day animals leave their usual place of inhabitation. By the way ice comes close to the coast and pulls the ship from Goln Gol in its “ice hands”. Roosvel pays his debt and liberates his friend from chains.

Rendering 4:“Persian Calligraphy Opens a Door to Modern Art” in NYT

The article which was published October 17, 2012 at “NewYorkTime” titled “Persian Calligraphy Opens a Door to Modern Art” reports at length that like many children of her generation growing up in Iran, Pouran Jinchi, 53, learned the ancient art of Persian calligraphy in school. When she moved to the United States, she did not leave that education behind.

The article carries a lot of comment on that her parents sent her to George Washington University, in Washington, to train as an engineer, but she chose to become an artist instead. Her drawings and paintings were abstract works based on script forms that, to an American eye, most closely resemble cursive jottings or musical notes.

The article discuses that her teachers were quite surprised with her style, and they couldn’t make any comments because they didn’t know enough about it even to make comments. It’s necessary to note that her teacher Rudolf Baranik, an artist of the midcentury New York School who was her instructor at the Art Students League of New York, has described her work as “Islam invaded the Abstract Expressionists. That’s why she has had little success selling her paintings: only friends used to buy her works and those have been really nice friends trying to be supportive.

Analyzing the situation it is important to point out that the situation changed in 2007 when Ms. Jinchi was picked up by the Third Line Gallery in Dubai. It is an open secret that she also exhibited that year at Art Dubai, an international art fair that drew worldwide attention to the growing gallery scene in the United Arab Emirates.

Giving appraisal of the situation it’s necessary to emphasize those collectors and curators from the region quickly took an interest in Ms. Jinchi’s particular mixture of Eastern and Western influences. For instance in 2008, the Third Line presented her first solo show. It’s very likely that her work has been selling steadily to private collectors and international institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington and, in March this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Laila Binbrek, the director of the Third Line, is sure that Ms. Jinchi creates work that is very modern and still has the essence of history behind it. Sometimes her work becomes so abstracted that you no longer see it as calligraphy.

There is every likelihood that western museums are now showing substantial interest in contemporary work by Iranian artists, Ms. Nasser-Khadivi added, pointing to institutions like the Met, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Tate Modern, in London.

The article draws a conclusion that the fact of having a couple of wars in the Middle East, and having more exposure to Islamic culture, made Westerners more interested in the art forms. I think it’s sad that it takes a war to become interested in other peoples’ culture, but that’s often the case. It is the opinion of the author of the article – Nina Siegal.

The review of the film "Frida"

Basic facts about the movie:

“Frida” is the title of the film

Julie Taymor is the director

Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina and Antonio Banderas are lead actors

Genre is drama

Frida’s life was changed after a terrible accident that left her in tremendous pain. Her father brought her a canvas and paints in order to keep Frida from depression. She begins to paint surrealistic style paintings. She shows her paintings to the muralist Diego Rivera in order to get his opinion. They begin a dysfunctional relationship. Frida marries Deigo on the condition that he remains loyal to her. Diegoâ previous wife warns Frida of his infidelity also. Frida and Diego travel to New York because Deigo is commissioned to paint a mural for Rockefeller. However, Diego does not want to compromise his communistic vision so his mural is destroyed. Meanwhile, Frida has a miscarriage and her mother dies. Frida sister has an affair with Diego soon after their return to Mexico. Frida goes into a state of depression and cuts her hair. Later, Diego and Frida repair their relationship in order to conceal Leon Trotsky in their home. Frida then has an affair with Trotsky which forces his leave. Frida goes alone to Paris and finds that it has not met her expectations. Upon her return, Diego wants a divorce. The murder of Leon Trotsky causes a frenzy of which Diego Rivera is blamed for, yet Frida is imprisoned since he was not found. Diego returns and asks to marry her again. Frida health deteriorates and her leg is amputated. Her doctor orders her to remain in bed thus she could not be at her own exhibition.   However, she cleverly demands she be transported in her bed to the exhibition. In the end, she requests Diego to cremate her body because it has caused her only pain.

The mechanics of the movie:

If we are going to speak about the direction of the film we are to say that the director chooses a very good way to portray the events in the story and gives confirmatory explanations to them. From my point of view the way which presents the movie to the audience is very useful to understand the main idea. I think the movie includes things which are really necessary. I haven’t seen other movies directed by the same person, that’s why I can’t compare them and determine which I like the most.

If we discuss the writing of the film we dare say that the plot is inventive and unpredictable at the same time. And characters' words also seem credible to me.

Speaking about the editing we can say that the movie flows smoothly from scene to scene. The use of lighting and other ambient effects is correct. The computer-generated graphics look realistic and fit in with the rest of the film.

Costume design or the clothing choices fit the style of the movie at 100%. They contribute to the overall tone, rather than digressing from it.

Set design is one of the main parts of any film. Our example is not the exception of the rule. The setting of the film influences its other elements greatly. The location of the film is well-chosen.

Background music works with the scenes. It is neither over nor under-used. Yes it is suspenseful, amusing and irritating at the same time. A soundtrack can make or break a movie, especially if the songs have a particular message or meaning to them but it’s the other story, not concerning our film.

In conclusion I would like to say that the movie was intriguing and exciting. I recommend you to watch it. I hope it will help me in future to finish my topic which is called “An Art”.

Rendering 3: New Kinds of Art: "Where Bronze Transforms Into Fine Art"

The article which was published September 6, 2012 in the New York Time by Nicole Gates Anderson reports at length that the brick-walled workshop is dark and quiet and small group of men work intently, dressed in silver spaceman jackets and long leather aprons that cover their blue jeans.

The article discusses the situation with a chain and pulley; two men hoist up a stone crucible and tip molten bronze, glowing an orange the color of a burnt sky, into a plaster mold. As a result, later, they will hammer apart the shell and release the sculpture within. It begins with a wax or clay model and ends with a work of art. The article carries a lot of comment that the foundry has been in the sculpture business for 80 years.

Speaking about the history of the foundry we are to say that Bob Spring, whose father, John, started the foundry in 1932, said the business depended on close relationships with a few prominent and prolific artists. His father had the Cubist Jacques Lipchitz as a marquee customer. They attracted such talent by making the impossible possible. It is necessary to note that the Modern Art Foundry still employs an ancient technique known as solid investment casting for its large-scale work. By the way “It makes a huge difference,” said the sculptor Bill Sullivan: “The Old-World technique is known for its ability to take the patina — the bronze absorbs the patina process like a sponge.”

Analyzing the situation it important to emphasize that both types of casting produce an exact bronze replica of an original model created by the artist. Through a series of molds and duplicate forms, the workers create a wax copy. That wax form is then coated by hand with a plaster mixture. The mold is placed in a kiln, the wax melts away and the molten bronze can be poured inside.

It’s an open secret that the foundry rents out a corner of the workshop for classes led by Victor Velastegui and sponsored by two nonprofit arts organizations. It is also very likely that he assisted a high school student preparing a rubber mold.

There is every reason to believe that Braxston Coleman, student said: “The first time I came here, I didn’t know what I was doing”. But two months later, he had made three sculptures. He showed off a bronze relief of an abstract scene that he had just completed. It is hard to predict the course of events in future, but there is some evidence of the improvement of the situation that this craft will survive.

The reporters gives no his personal opinion, but from my point of view the foundry is a new piece of art which should be developed. Who knows may be one day it will be a dominant one in the culture.