Arts, Indy Week

Finesse Mitchell got a taste of Saturday Night

Craig D. Lindsey — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

"I am one of the funniest, laugh-out-loud, make-you-cry, make-you-pee-a-little-bit stand-up comics out there, and I can't wait for everybody to know it." by Craig D. Lindsey For two years, Finesse Mitchell had a great time being a cast member on Saturday Night Live. The problem is he was on the show for three years.…

Morality Play

D.L. Anderson — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Scenes from Moral Monday by D.L. Anderson "I'm on my way to Freedom Land," "We shall not be moved" and "We'll walk hand in hand" were among the protest hymns that echoed through the halls of the Legislature Monday. While the Moral Monday protests harken back to civil rights struggles, they are significantly different.…

Two arms negotiators try to end the nightmare in Burning Coal's A Walk in the Woods

Byron Woods — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

In this psychological two-person drama, long-term stressors slowly take their toll after a new American nuclear arms negotiator takes a seat across from his Soviet counterpart. by Byron Woods Two men sit at a table, negotiating over the largest stockpile of weapons humanity has ever known. It has to be one of the most disastrous places for a dissociative disorder to occur.…

Three new art spaces testify to downtown Durham's increasing vitality

Emma D. Miller — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Supergraphic, the Shadowbox and SPECTRE Arts are multipurpose art galleries/studios and performance venues in renovated industrial spaces. by Emma D. Miller Durham development news comes hard and fast these days, but the developments usually concern capital-intensive projects like restaurants, hotels and condos. So perhaps it's coincidence, a confluence of the availability of space and interest and demand aligning just so, that Durham's substantial supply of industrial space has recently seen renovation and renewal.…

Remembering a time when DIY was not a lifestyle choice

Lisa Sorg — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Dangerous with a needle or stove, I read the new book by Chapel Hill author Emily Matchar, Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity, with the same fascination as if I were reading about the Lost Tribe of Borneo. by Lisa Sorg I'm such a rotten housekeeper that I had to get a job. Dangerous with a needle or stove, I read the new book by Chapel Hill author Emily Matchar, Homeward Bound: Why Women Are Embracing the New Domesticity, with the same fascination as if I were reading about the Lost Tribe of Borneo.…

An intergenerational discussion about rejecting the workplace for domestic life

Lisa Sorg — Wed, 15 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

A round-table conversation on leaving the traditional workplace for a home-centered life of child-rearing, gardening, cooking, sewing and other domestic tasks. by Lisa Sorg INDY Week invited several people to an intergenerational discussion about the "new domesticity"—leaving the traditional workplace for a home-centered life of child-rearing, gardening, cooking, sewing and other domestic tasks. Each participant has a different background.…

South of Paradise

D.L. Anderson — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

South of the Border is a feast for eyes bloodshot from hours of interstate driving. by D.L. Anderson "You never sausage a place." —Pedro…

A decade among gay friends in Manbites Dog's The Homosexuals

Byron Woods — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Manbites Dog's season closer fully qualifies as a work of both courage and conscience. by Byron Woods Editor's Note: Manbites Dog has extended the run by a week, through May 25. Playwright Philip Dawkins is flying in from Chicago in honor of the extension; he will participate in a post-show conversation with Manbites Artistic Director Jeff Storer on Friday, May 24.…

Carol Burnett will take your questions

Craig D. Lindsey — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

On Mother's Day, Burnett will be in town for an evening titled "Laughter & Reflection with Carol Burnett: A Conversation with Carol Where the Audience Asks the Questions." by Craig D. Lindsey This weekend, Carol Burnett will give Triangle fans the chance to do something they've probably wanted to do since they used to watch her on TV when they were younger: ask her a question. On Mother's Day, she'll be at the Durham Performing Arts Center for an evening titled "Laughter & Reflection with Carol Burnett: A Conversation with Carol Where the Audience Asks the Questions."…

Little Green Pig's audacious take on Anne Frank

Byron Woods — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

The Wooster Group's Diary of Anne Frank pays homage to the famous, transgressive downtown New York theater group that started in the 1970s. by Byron Woods The strangest things get into the Bible: Genealogy. Erotic verse.…

Daniel Wallace's masterful new novel, The Kings and Queens of Roam

David Klein — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

I promise it's not revealing too much to note that about two-thirds of the way through Roam, a goat commits suicide. by David Klein I promise it's not revealing too much to note that about two-thirds of the way through The Kings and Queens of Roam, the masterful new novel by Daniel Wallace, a goat commits suicide. The goat is not a major character, and its death is not a major plot point.…

Roadside seating

Jeremy M. Lange — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

by Jeremy M. Lange

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After a year of tragedy and setback, comedian Tig Notaro returns

Craig D. Lindsey — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Tig Notaro probably has the biggest balls of any comic working today. by Craig D. Lindsey Tig Notaro probably has the biggest balls of any comic working today. It all started last year when she was diagnosed with cancer in both of her breasts.…

The bleakly hilarious Cripple of Inishmaan at Deep Dish Theater

Byron Woods — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Martin McDonagh's Irish tale provides laughs aplenty to go with the sudden, inescapable twists. by Byron Woods Stereotypes, as we know, are so politically incorrect. Far be it from me, then, to suggest that the villagers on the remote Irish isle of Inishmaan all seem to be running a quart low on the milk of human kindness.…

Nostalgic laughs with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Theatre Raleigh

Byron Woods — Wed, 01 May 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Spelling Bee delineates the stories of six overstressed, neurotic kids who are coping with the downsides of modern families and schools. by Byron Woods Though most of us graduate from high school, how many ever really leave it? Case in point: the weird rise over the past couple of years of spelling bees at bars like Kings, The Pinhook and Motorco, in which nerdy grownups test their poise by standing alone behind a mic on stage as the host demands they correctly spell the word "callipygian."…

A new dance adaptation of a Harlem Renaissance classic

Byron Woods — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Like Jean Toomer's book that inspired it, CANE is a hybrid, a mix of choreography, videography and experimental set design and sound. by Byron Woods As a child, when I helped my uncles prime the tobacco in their fields, I did not realize I was dancing. Now I know there was choreography to our repeated gestures across the fields.…

Ackland's annual MFA show finds a coherent theme this year

Chris Vitiello — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

In Sincerely Yours, eight UNC MFA candidates examine themes such as consumerism, memory and social value through a lens of conceptualism. by Chris Vitiello Sincerity is a high-wire act but the payoff is big. An artist not only has to have something to say, he or she needs to know how to say it clearly.…

Opening week for the Durham Bulls

Jeremy M. Lange — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

by Jeremy M. Lange

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War crimes onstage in Raleigh at Burning Coal Theatre's Ruined

Byron Woods — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Ruined depicts—graphically, at points—the human price of waging war on women's bodies. Having seen it, how can we ever look away? by Byron Woods The truth is undisputed and unconscionable: In conflicts spanning the globe, mass rape has been and is being used as a tool of war. A tribunal found that rape camps were constructed as an "instrument of terror" during the Bosnian conflict in the early 1990s.…

A broad take on Being Earnest at Raleigh Little Theatre

Zack Smith — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

It is not easy to upstage the words of Oscar Wilde, though Vicki Olson's costumes for this production come close. by Zack Smith It is not easy to upstage the words of Oscar Wilde, though Vicki Olson's costumes for Raleigh Little Theatre's production of Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest come close. From start to finish, the sartorial choices for the play's pretentious characters are every bit as outrageous as they are, from canary yellow and pink lemonade-colored dresses to the multilayered monstrosities worn by Rebecca Johnston as the formidable Lady Bracknell.…

Chris Tucker is alive and doing very well

Craig D. Lindsey — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Tucker says the $12 million he owed in back taxes "connected me back with my audience. Because they can relate to that, because they got their own problems." by Craig D. Lindsey Chris Tucker is no stranger to people wondering what the hell has happened to him. Way, way back in the '90s, before celebrity death hoaxes could easily be started with just one tweet, a rumor circulated that Tucker was dead.…

An off-point Misanthrope at NCCU

Emma D. Miller — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

If the French playwright Molière were alive today, he'd probably be writing for The Onion. by Emma D. Miller If the French playwright Molière were alive today, he'd probably be writing snarky commentary about two-faced politicians or skewering the Kardashians (and our obsession with them) through satirical pieces for The Onion. This was a man who found 17th-century political and social hypocrisy contemptible, and felt the best way to illuminate society's flaws was through comedy and satire.…

The eco-philosophy of Taj Forer in Stone by Stone at Flanders Gallery

Amy White — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Stone by Stone establishes the subtle dynamic between human and natural forces. by Amy White "I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness, as contrasted with a Freedom and Culture merely civil, — to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of Nature, rather than a member of society." —Henry David Thoreau ["Walking"]…

To the one that got away

Jeremy M. Lange — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

by Jeremy M. Lange

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PlayMakers Rep closes its season with Cabaret

Byron Woods — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:00:00 -0400

Director Joseph Haj has assembled a major vehicle out of a truly imposing number of moving parts. by Byron Woods If it were the only version of Cabaret I'd seen in the last 10 years, I would have been thoroughly entertained by the flashy, affair that's closing the season at PlayMakers Repertory Company. Director Joseph Haj has assembled a major vehicle out of a truly imposing number of moving parts.…