Italics are mine

Where "Last Days in Vietnam" meets "American Craft"

I was thrilled to discover in the June-July issue of American Craft (as I write this, the April/May issue is still online, but hopefully the new one will be available on the website soon) an article about Binh Pho, who was featured in my favorite documentary, Last Days in Vietnam (about the evacuation of the American embassy in Saigon in April 1975). Pho was one of the Vietnamese left behind by the last U.S. helicopter and spent a year in a re-education camp before making his way to America, on his 4th attempt, as one of the boat people. He has turned into a very successful American craftmaker both in wood and glass. (In addition, he has a day job working for Eaton Corporation.) His work ethics is second to none: on Saturdays he spends 14 hours in his studio practicing his art, in addition to several hours every weekday after dinner, and shorter hours on Sundays. Pho is such an inspiring figure both on historical grounds and on artistic grounds. In the words of the American Craft article: "Today Pho, a youthful 60, is known for his distinctive turned vessels, painted and pierced with imagery reflecting his Asian roots, his journey to the West and his love of nature." You can see more of his art on his Facebook page. 

Review of "Long Day's Journey into Night" on Broadway

I like to think I've seen great theater before (the performance of Philip Seymour Hoffmann in Death of a Salesman comes to mind) but absolutely nothing compares to the revival of Long Day's Journey into Night currently on Broadway at the Roundabout. I knew the cast and crew were stellar (Jonathan Kent directing, Jessica Lange as Mary Tyrone, Gabriel Byrne as her husband James Tyrone), the reviews have been excellent and the revival has gathered 7 Tony nominations, but that doesn't always paint an accurate picture of a show - I was underwhelmed by Ivo van Hove's take on Arthur Miller's View from the Bridge, for instance, and didn't Once win a Tony Award? But from the first few minutes at Long Day's Journey I sat just riveted in my seat. To say this production is spellbinding (all 3 hours 45 minutes of it including a 15-minute intermission) almost sounds like an understatement when you have sat in the American Airlines Theater transfixed by a cast of phenomenal actors.

What I will remember most of this production is how the actors react to each other's lines as if they were a real family, caught in the moment - they talk over each other, their body expression changes at the precise moment they hear something from another character, nothing is telegraphed, nothing sounds rehearsed, they embody their roles with such perfection you can't even tell they've learned lines. It is fascinating to watch. Having some training in theater, I am familiar with the Sanford Meisner/William Esper technique (William Esper teaches the Sanford Meisner technique, but his books about it are much more insightful than Meisner's) but it is the first time I see it in action with such fire.

Also, the play was particularly poignant because it gives the best description (that I'm aware of) of people who started life with high dreams and slowly went down. Both Mary and James share the same fate in a way but the stakes are much higher for Mary since she has become a morphine addict and it doesn't seem that the status quo will be tenable for her, while James could spend many more years as a cheapskate. The play will wring the heart of anyone who has seen friends, colleagues or relatives on a similar downward path, which is why I wanted to see it in the first place - it is a rare play that can have such relevance today, sixty years after its premiere. 

The production is far superior to the Hepburn movie of Long Day's Journey (where Hepburn massively overacts, a rare false note in the career of a very reliable actress) and gives you insights into human nature that will stay with you long after the performance is over - in addition to having you witness for yourself what top-caliber acting means. Go and see it while you can.

American Women, Part 2

(Follow-up on previous post).

1. Dian Fossey (1932-1985) Primatologist and leading authority on mountain gorillas.
2. Bella Abzug (1920-1998) U.S. Representative, feminist, women's rights and human rights activist.
3. Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989) Artist and art critic for Art News. Active in abstract expressionism, whose center was in downtown Manhattan near Tenth Street, but also representational paintings, including a commission to paint Kennedy's portrait. Wife of Willem de Kooning, whom she met in 1937 and who was her mentor. (They separated in 1957 but reconciled in 1975.)
4. Marian Anderson (1897-1993) Contralto. African-American singer of exceptional talent and unique programming combining classical repertory with spirituals, became a celebrity when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let her sing in Constitution Hall in DC in 1939, sang instead to an integrated crowd of 75,000 on the steps of Lincoln Memorial. Made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1955: the first African American to sing at the Met. 
5. Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1909-1985) Artist and archaeologist. Revolutionized the studies of Maya hieroglyphs. 
6. Ray Eames (1912-1988). Designer, artist and filmmaker. Wife of designer Charles Eames, with whom she had a very successful professional collaboration in industrial design. 
7. Rebecca Lancefield (1895-1981) Microbiologist known for her work on streptococci, which provided the basis for previously unavailable treatment. She gave her name to the Lancefield classification system of streptococcal bacteria.
8. Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) World-renowned and pioneering jazz vocalist who won thirteen Grammys. 
9. Dorothy Chandler (1901-1997) Cultural leader and newspaper executive. Wife of Norman Chandler, publisher of the Lost Angeles Times. Created the Times Women of the Year awards, helped save the landmark Hollywood Bowl from financial collapse, instrumental in creating the Los Angeles Music Center. 
10. Pamela Harriman (1920-1997) Socialite married to the son of Winston Churchill, then Hollywood agent Leland Hayward and then Averell Harriman, fund-raiser who worked to revitalize the Democratic Party during the Reagan years and appointed by President Clinton as the first female ambassador to France in 1993.
11. Dominique de Menil (1908-1997). Art collector, philanthropist and human rights advocate. Built one of the greatest private art collections in the United States with her husband. Originally from France, she settled in Houston with her husband during World War II (Houston because her husband worked for Schlumberger). The Menil foundation is maybe best known for the Rothko Chapel, dedicated in 1971. 
12. Louise Dahl-Wolfe (1895-1989) Photographer first for interior decorators, then of Tennesseans in the Smoky Mountains, and then became staff photographer for Harper's Bazaar in 1936, a position she held for 22 years. Bridged the world of high and low art. 
13. Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979) Art collector and patron who moved to Paris in 1920 and spent the next 21 years away from the U.S., opened an art gallery focused on modern art (Guggenheim Jeune) in London in 1938, escaped Europe for NYC in 1941 where she opened Art of This Century, championing abstract expressionists. Left for Venice in 1947 where she established a museum to her collection.
14. Katherine Porter (1890-1980) Writer. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1931, which allowed her to go to Berlin and Paris where she lived until 1936. Best known for her striking beauty in the 1930s (according to her biographical note in this encyclopedia), she published her first volume of short shorties at age 40 and only gained popular following with the publication of her one novel in 1962 but is now best known for her short stories and novellas.
15. Katherine White (1892-1977) Fiction and poetry editor for the New Yorker for 32 years. Married to Ernest Angell and then E.B. White, whom she met at the New Yorker where she was a trusted colleague of the magazine's founder, Harold Ross. She is recognized for playing a critical role in shaping the magazine.

 

American Women, Part 1

Back in April I decided to read one short biography (from my Notable American Women encyclopedia) of a famous American woman a day for inspiration. I have a curious idea of giving myself challenges, what can I say...

Here is the list of the first fifteen women I read about:

1. Martha Hill (1900-1995) Dancer and dance educator. Established the dance program at Bennington and founded the dance division at Juilliard.
2. Eva Le Gallienne (1899-1991) Actress and theater director. Starred in Broadway theater and founded the Civic Repertory Theatre, which laid the groundwork for off-Broadway and regional theater after World War II. 
3. Marjorie Phillips (1894-1985) Artist and museum director. Married to museum founder Duncan Phillips, who gave his name to the Phillips Collection in D.C. Became director herself after Duncan's death in 1966, retired in 1972.
4. Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) Photographer known for her black-and-white photographs of New York City in the 1930s. 
5. Jane Kenyon (1947-1995) Poet known both for her own work and her translations of Anna Akhmatova's poetry. For several reasons she reminds me of my godmother...
6. Lila Bell Acheson Wallace (1888-1984). Reader's Digest co-founder and philanthropist who fervently supported the arts and gave millions of dollars to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Juilliars School and other institutions. 
7. Betty Parsons (1900-1982). Art dealer and artist. She started her own gallery in 1946 and took on the artists that Peggy Guggenheim represented when the latter decided to leave for Europe permanently, including Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. 
8. Lynn Fontanne (1887-1983) Actress largely responsible for the Theatre Guild's golden age in the 1920s and 1930s alongside her husband, Alfred Lunt. 
9. Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) Journalist who reported on the Spanish civil war and World War II, novelist, short-story writer, and Ernest Hemingway's second wife. 
10. Hanya Holm (1893-1992) Choreographer and dance educator. Was appointed as one of the founding faculty of Bennington by Martha Hill. One of four pioneering American modern dance artists. 
11. Janet Flanner (1892-1978) New Yorker staff writer and journalist, well-known for her reporting from Paris in the 1920s.
12. Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986) Artist who painted enlarged flowers and New Mexico landscapes, married to Alfred Stieflitz until 1946, moved permanently to New Mexico in 1949 (I miss Santa Fe...)
13. Joan Crawford (1905-1977) Oscar-winning actress with a hardscrabble childhood known for her portrayal of characters transcending their beginnings and femmes fatales. Title role in Mildred Pierce (1945).
14. Anni Albers (1899-1994). Textile designer and fiber artist associated with the Bauhaus school in Weimar, fled Germany in 1933 with her husband, played a key role in Black Mountain College in North Carolina where her husband was invited to teach before moving to Yale in 1950.
15. Irene Sharaff (1910-1993). Broadway and Hollywood costume designer. In the same way that Jerome Robbins has had a hand in most ballets in movies and musicals of a certain time period that have withstood the test of time, Sharaff is responsible for the costumes of many well-known shows (especially movies in early Technicolor) such as West Side Story and The King and I.