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I first encountered the work of Siona Benjamin when I was in my late 20s. For perhaps the first time in my life, I saw many of the complex layers and dimensions of my own identity expressed in artistic form. Siona Benjamin was raised in Mumbai as a member of the Bene Israel community, [...]
Dr. Falk Everybody loves dinosaurs. That’s just a fact. Dinosaurs are huge, awe-inspiring, amazing animals. They’ve been extinct for 66 million years. They inspire our imaginations and stimulate our curiosity. We always want to know more. I had (who am I kidding, I still have) a box of plastic dinosaurs when I was a [...]
Dr. Lucas The film success of Steel Magnolias in 1989 opened the door in short order for the likes of Fried Green Tomatoes, Thelma and Louise, Hope Floats, Where the Heart Is, and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. One wonders, what is it about Steel Magnolias that made it that kind of power [...]
Comic Twins and Surrealism: Old and New Dr. Morrison In the Marx Brothers’ film Duck Soup (1933), Harpo presents himself as a second Groucho in the famous mirror scene. Harpo’s attempt to impersonate Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho’s character) is met by Groucho’s series of increasingly challenging tests to prove that the reflection he sees [...]
In the most recent Batman film, Justice League, he is teamed up with demigods, cyborgs, and mutants to save the world. When asked what his super-power is, what entitles him to be special enough to play in this league, he responds simply “I’m rich.” It is played as a laugh line, but is the [...]
For centuries, Cinderella has offered audiences a dream-like escape from reality. Perhaps you enjoyed Walt Disney’s animated classic from 1950. I certainly did. With its catchy bibbity-bobbity-boo and adorable mice, Disney’s version draws heavily from French writer Charles Perrault’s story of Cendrillon in his collection, Tales of Mother Goose or Contes de ma mère [...]
Music, the universal language, is indeed a platform that allows for the transcendence of language via movement and sound. Places where multiple languages and cultures find contact with one another often become hotbeds for musical creation. Chicano artists (like Santana, Los Lobos and Lila Downs to name just a few), who have their origins [...]
By the time it had closed its run on Broadway in 2008, Rent had received a host of accolades. It had played for just over a dozen years—since April 1996. It had helped to rejuvenate the Broadway musical, with its piercing lyrics and beautifully arranged rock scores. It was one of the first musicals [...]
With PERSONAL REFLECTIONS OF WAR: IN WORDS AND MUSIC, The American String Quartet, war journalist and poet Tom Sleigh, and National Book Award winner and Marine Veteran Phil Klay offer Norton Center audiences a unique experience that is at once challenging, provocative, and deeply personal. These remarkable musicians and writers create an intense meditation [...]
In the central square of a seaside village south of Rome, a stone slab stands as a monument to i cadutti, that is, to the citizens of the town who were killed in WWII. The town is Terracina, my father’s hometown. Dozens of names are etched into the monument, including those of my widowed [...]
