When Men Dance Together: Trey McIntyre at Jacob's Pillow August 4-8

Jonathan Powell and Jonathan Dummar duet. Photos by Jonas Lundqvist
Gay Berkshires is always on the prowl for artistic events that appeal to the LGBTQ community and its friends. It appears that the first half of August is going to be the perfect time for LGBT folks to plan their stay in the Berkshires.

Not only are there two incredible dance events of interest to the gay community at Jacob's Pillow, but the highlight of the Berkshire Theatre Festival 2010 season is likely to be their fresh version of Samuel Beckett's Endgame (July 6-24), featuring Randy Harrison as "Nag."

Randy Harrison last summer between rehearsals. Larry Murray photo.
Randy played Justin in the groundbreaking Queer as Folk series (now being rerun on the Logo Channel). In his sixth season at BTF, he continues to prove that he is far more than just another pretty face, but an actor of depth and substance who can hold his own on any stage.

When I wrote up the Jacob's Pillow schedule earlier this year I focused on the highly amusing and talented Trockaderos who will perform August 11-15.

Strong women dancers too. Alison Roper can hold her own with the boys.
Now I would like to bring the Trey McIntryre Project to your attention, playing at the Ted Shawn Theatre from August 4-8. It will be an uplifting experience in more ways than one.

Hymn from Trey McIntyre Project on Vimeo.

In the video above you get a real sense of the company and its work. Hymn was commissioned by DRA for the 2007 Fire Island Gala. The dance was created by Trey McIntyre, with music by CocoRosie and simple costumes by Liz Prince. The gorgeous dancers are Marc Petrocci and Jonathan Powell.

One of the challenging things about filming dance is that - for the moment at least - it is strictly two dimensional. On stage the dancers come towards you, getting closer before they move away. The diagonal line delivers the feeling of both arrival and departure.

On film these effects are difficult to replicate. The flatness of film and video renders the dancers getting larger and smaller or moving side to side. A very different vocabulary than what is possible on stage. This presents a true creative challenge to filmmakers who must suggest the third dimension depth through special camera setups, lenses and lighting. This particular film does the job extremely well. It was filmed in the studios at White Oak Plantation.

In the end, you must see dance in person. It's the only way to fully enjoy it. Sitting close up you can even feel the air move as the dancers execute their combinations.

Company founder, Trey McIntyre.
While Hymn is not currently scheduled for the Pillow, Trey McIntyre has equally entrancing works planned. We think that now is a good time to line up your seats, and before the season begins, you do have access to some of the best seats in the house, which go quickly as the summer approaches.

For all their daring, this company is sometimes called the "Bad boys of dance."

Tickets: Jacob’s Pillow Member single ticketing began Wednesday, March 10. Single ticket ordering for all others opens via phone, fax, mail, and online on Wednesday, April 7. Box Office phone ordering begins March 1, Monday-Friday, 10am - 5pm, with additional hours during the Festival. Box Office: 413.243.0745 (phone) or 413.243.0749 (fax). For complete ticket policies, visit jacobspillow.org.

Rising Talent: Jack Cutmore-Scott - "The Next Matt Damon"

Jack Cutmore-Scott in the dressing room.
It remains to be seen if he lives up to the expectations that have been placed on him. And they are many, what with his debut this week as the lead character in Entertaining Mr. Sloane in Boston. But Jack Cutmore-Scott, the young (22) Harvard Senior and already accomplished actor is likely to fulfill them. He has the charisma, the accent, the talent, and yes, the looks.

Jack Cutmore-Scott opens this week in Entertaining Mr. Sloane at the Boston Center for the Arts. Susanne Nitter photo.
I was pleased to be able to do a profile of Jack for Arts America and get the ball rolling. Now the Boston Globe's Joel Brown has followed up with this great compliment:

“He’s probably the most talented undergraduate I’ve seen come through since Matt Damon,’’ says director Eric C. Engel.

Jack may be straight, but he is not intimidated to play the bisexual Mr. Sloane, nor to don a dress in the service of the Hasty Pudding Club. "It's not that different from the British panto I was brought up with, and just as much fun." I mention this because should you entertain any thoughts of chasing Mr. Sloane, you will have a lot of competition - his female fans outnumber the male ones by a wide margin.

Where's Jack? Welcoming a Hasty Pudding winner.
The Hasty Pudding boys like to watch.
Entertaining Mr. Sloane is of course written by the infamous (and out gay playwright) Joe Orton, whose life was explored in the testily titled Prick Up Your Ears. And Orton is a genius with both convoluted plots and hilarious farce which explode in equal portions of gasps and laughter from an audience.

If you plan to be in Boston between now and April 3, I urge you to find your way to the Publick Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre, and be among the first to see this promising new talent at work. Tickets are priced at $33-$37.50. You can call for reservations at 617-933-8600, or go online to order them at www.bostontheatrescene.com

Jack's roots as a comic actor sometimes go to his head. Candid photos from Mr. Scott and his friends.
While in Boston you should also consider seeing The Adding Machine, a new musical from the Speakeasy Stage, and of course, The Donkey Show - a disco version of A Midsummer's Night Dream at American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge. And to top off these treats, Ryan Landry's Phantom of the Oprah is the ultimate spoof with Varla Jean Merman playing at The Machine.

Great art comes to life in this captivating music video

What starts off looking like a sacrilegious spoof ends up being four minutes of music and creativity uncensored. What fun.

What is it? The entertaining and cheeky music video for “70 Million”, hit song by Franco-American band, Hold Your Horses!, offers a wink at art history as band members playfully reconstruct famous paintings in an off the wall lyrical interpretation all their own. Produced by L'Ogre.

Clip de 70 Million, chanson du groupe franco-americain Hold Your Horses ! produit par L'Ogre, mettant en scène les membres du groupe dans un voyage à travers l'histoire de l'art.

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

Did you catch all the tableaux vivants?

1. The Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci)
2. The Birth of Venus ( Sandro Botticelli)
3. The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp (Rembrandt)
4a .Portait of Henry VIII (Holbein) and
4b. Girl with a Pearl Earring (Johannes Vermeer)
5. The Raft of the Medusa (Theodore Gericault)
6. The Death of Marat (David)
7. The Creation of Adam (Michelangelo)
8. The Son of Man (René Magritte)
9. Composition with Black, Red, Yellow and Blue (Piet Mondrian)
10.Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait
11.? Portrait of Dora Maar Seated (Pablo Picasso)???
12. The Scream (Edvard Munch)
13. Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear (Vincent van Gogh)
14. Marilyn Monroe (Warhol)
15. Gabrielle d'Estrées (right) with his sister, Princess de Villiers (School of Fontainbleaux)
16. Santa Trinita Madonna (Cimabue)
17. The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (Caravaggio)
18. Olympia (Eduard Manet)- but without shoes
19. Liberty Leading the People (Delacroix)
20. Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden (Otto Dix)
21. mix : ''The Kiss''and "Virgin'' (Klimt)
22. La Mariee/The Bride (Marc Chagall)
23. Las Meninas (Velasquez)
24. Sunflowers (Van Gogh)

Gender Outlaws, Wannabes and Perplexities

An LGBTQ eye on the week ahead.
If the world was really as simple as the fundamentalist Bible thumpers claim it should be most of us would not be annoyed by them. But god makes more than just straight people of two sexes. He uses an infinitely variable palette of possibilities, not just male and female.

In the coming days, several of these will be discussed at the Queer Summit at Williams College, showcased at a national sculpture exhibit curated by Pittsfield's Leslie Ferrin and the focus of exploration at the Mass. College of Liberal Arts who welcomes "gender outlaw" performer Kate Bornstein to the Berkshires.


NEW ENGLAND SMALL COLLEGE QUEER SUMMIT
As surely as night follows day, informal pizza will follow the more serious working sessions.
More than a hundred students from colleges throughout the region are expected to converge on Williamstown tomorrow to participate in a "Queer Summit" organized by Justin Adkins, Williams College, and a group of hard working volunteers.

The purpose is to enable LGBTQ students to network and to discuss the successes and challenges of being LGBTQ identified at small colleges in New England.

It starts off at 10 am with two sessions: How do you do what you do in your student group? What are the goals and are they being met? How do we face criticism and grow as an organization? A breakout session for LGBTQ directors and staff advisers
looks at supporting and advising students without taking over.

After lunch, the gathering will explore the different ways of constructing identities and how best to incorporate them into activism and community building.

Beginning at 2:30We the summit will look at policies affecting LGBTQ students and how to make institutional changes. What are the methods that have worked and what are the ones that haven? At 3 there will be an opportunity for smaller focused discussion, including LGBTQ within athletics, QPOC, and queer students abroad.

Following the work sessions, the students will gather for a Pizza Dinner and Meet and Greet featuring DJs Nordia & Krystal. We wish the participants a positive and productive day!


NOTORIOUS 'GENDER OUTLAW' KATE BORNSTEIN TO PERFORM AT MCLA
Kate Bornstein's book is a good read.
Issues of sexual preference, gender identity and self identification will be explored through a performance by author and “gender outlaw” Kate Bornstein on Thursday, March 11, at 7 p.m. in the MCLA Church Street Center. A former heterosexual male who now is a lesbian woman, Bornstein is an author, playwright, performance artist and gender theorist who incorporates cultural criticism, dramatic writing and autobiography to make her point that gender is a cultural rather than a natural phenomenon.

Using slam poetry, Bornstein performs several monologues from the plays and other performance art she has written and performed over the years. Audiences might see her cranky eighth grade teacher, a drag queen who is dying of AIDS or her mother talking about the day she discovered her son was undergoing a sex change.

The event is sponsored by the Mass College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and theMCLA Women's Center (413-662-5497.)

“This year, it’s a very special celebration because it is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day on March 8,” said Susan Birns, professor of sociology, anthropology and social work at MCLA and the director of the College’s Susan B. Anthony Women’s Center. “Kate will perform what she calls ‘Postmodern Gender 101’ with a comic twist. She performs and speaks this piece in the unique style she calls ‘edutainment.’”

Sponsored jointly by MCLA and Williams College, Bornstein will perform “On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us.” The Women’s History Month event is free and open to all.


THE HERMAPHRODITES: LIVING IN TWO WORLDS
Seen here: Tip Toland's Tender Flood (Detail). 2010. Ceramic.
Tonight in Philadelphia the Wexler Gallery opens The Hermaphrodites: Living In Two Worlds. There is an online portfolio you can view. This unusual and provocative exhibit is curated by Leslie Ferrin from Pittsfield's Ferrin Gallery. We can only hope that many elements of this breathtaking exhibition might return to her gallery in the Berkshires following this showing. She has shown some of these artists previously, but this grouping is especially strong.

Chris Antemann, "Wardrobe." Ceramic. 18 x 12 x 8 in.
Ferrin's group show of figural ceramic sculpture embodies the literal definition of hermaphrodites as encompassing both genders. Such art is sometimes found in early societies but is rarely seen in contemporary art. The Hermaphrodites: Living In Two Worlds coincides with the 44th annual National Council for Education on the Ceramic Arts Conference (NCECA) in Philadelphia (March 31-April 3, 2010).

The Pain and the Ecstasy of Lee Alexander McQueen 1969-2010

Lee Alexander McQueen was the "hooligan of fashion."
Outrageous and unconventional barely describe the life and work of Lee Alexander McQueen, an English fashion designer whose approach to couture was more theatrical than practical. Still, for sheer creativity and brilliance, he is unlikely to be surpassed. He died on April 11 of asphyxiation by hanging. It took place nine days after the death of his mother, and the day before her funeral. One can only speculate as to the state of his mind.

Hats, gothic and eccentric.
McQueen was quoted by Vogue in 2002 as having been born gay with nothing to hide. " I went straight from my mother's womb onto the gay parade," he quipped.

During his early career, before he received his degree from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, he worked on traditional Savile Row. McQueen developed a reputation for impeccable tailoring and drew clients like Mikhail Gorbachev and Prince Charles. But he was already breaking the mold. McQueen once bragged that he had sewn the words "I am a cunt" into the lining of a jacket destined for Price Charles. It wasn't long before he was dubbed the hooligan of British fashion.

McQueen's designs were never dull.
That didn't stop Björk and later other celebrity patrons, including Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz, Sarah Jessica Parker and Rihanna, from wearing Alexander McQueen clothing to events. Lady Gaga has often incorporated Alexander McQueen pieces in her music videos.


In the video above, you can see some of the incredible feats of this designer. In it his 2007 showcase featured models sporting intense blue, green, and teal eyes with strong black liner extended Egyptian-style. McQueen handpicked the makeup based on the Elizabeth Taylor movie, Cleopatra.

McQueen was known for his lavish, unconventional, runway shows, such as a recreation of a shipwreck for his spring 2003 collection, spring 2005's human chess game and his fall 2006 show, "Widows of Culloden", which featured a life-sized hologram of supermodel Kate Moss dressed in yards of rippling fabric.

His "bumsters" established a new low in jeans that someone like Marky Mark could appreciate, and came close to revealing a new backside cleavage.

Alexander McQueen designed shoes that any drag queen could fall in love with.
From 1996 to 2001 he designed for Givenchy, toning down his usual Over the Top approach. Still in 1998 he had models in white cotton dresses being spray painted by robotic auto refinishers and double amputee model Aimee Mullins striding down the catwalk on intricately carved wooden legs.

He will most certainly be missed.