Sunday, September 2, 2007

Great theatre - for free!

The University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music has announced its 2007-2008 Studio Series, which are free productions theater and opera. CityBeat's A&E Blog picked up on this the other day, I'm just passing it along.

The theater in which these shows are performed is small and intimate and even though the performers are students these kids are some of the best. And this year they're doing TWO Sondheim shows!

12 Comments:

Wes said...

Nice blog. Anyone who uses the term "asshat" is OK in my book. (My buddy Covington Jim, who used to blog, often used the phrase "cargo-panted asshats.")

I lived in Cincinnati for eleven years and blogged for three of them. Brian Griffin was the best man at my wedding.

I'm moving back for at least a year to teach at CCM (that's why I'm posting on this post). I've added a link to your blog. When my wife and I successfully get back to the area, and if you feel like it, feel free to add a link back.

WF

Wes said...

I guess I should have included the link - http://walkinbrain.wesflinn.com

WF

Anonymous said...

WES IS COMING BACK!!!!!!!! WOO TO THE HOO!!!!! CINCY RULES; MASSACHUSETTS DROOLS!!!!!!!

5chw4r7z said...

Thanks for the heads up on that one. I set myself a reminder to call for Assasins. Saw it years ago at a comunity theater and it was really good. It will be cool to see what CCM does with it.
I'll save you a seat blurggurl, since I know you won't let me buy you a drink at the Cadillac ;-D

Wes said...

Assassins is a fine show - it's different than the rest of Sondheim's oeuvre, but it's quite a slice of Americana. I saw it at NKU just after I moved to Cincinnati (the first time!) in 1994, and the CD is one of the few original cast albums I own.

WF
(who may have been the only person in the history of the show to dance in the aisle while Hinckley was shooting at a cardboard cutout of Reagan's head - it's like Brad Hall on the old Saturday Night Live punching out the screen whenever James Watt appeared on it; this didn't seem to go over well amongst some members of the Northern Kentucky polite society, but I stand by it)

5chw4r7z said...

Well, Reagan was the greatest president ever but putting aside the thought process and any kind of analytical or logical thought and celebrating the fact a president was shot I guess makes you feel sophisticated and superior in some weird way.

Anonymous said...

Woah, Schwartz, we're talking about a MUSICAL, here. A cardboard cutout. A freaking PROP. No need to get so sensitive.

And Reagan was the greatest president ever? EVER? Seriously? If that's the bar, I think my cat could clear it.

Wes said...

That was just in that staging. I can't speak for the original.

But if you really believe that a second-rate actor who was a third-rate President was the "greatest ever" ("Other than that, what did you think of the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"), then I'm not sure I need to be lectured about "thought process" and logic by the likes of you. I really don't understand the fetishization of mediocrity and Reagan - I guess the Randroid appeal of endless tax cuts (I got mine, screw you!) makes some people lose coherency.

I wasn't celebrating, for the record. It just made me chuckle that NKU actually staged it like that, what with the almost cult-like attitude toward St. Ronnie of the Tax Cut. I certainly wish no ill on anyone*. I was also engaging in some hyperbole, as I was in a center seat and couldn't have made it to the aisle.

Having said all that, Reagan was still mediocre at best. The Cold War ended because of 50 years of engagement, not because the Gipper said "tear down this wall." And economically? Sherman, set the WABAC for the 1980s on any family farm. The cigar-chomping** frat boy*** asshats cleaned up, but the rest of us took it on the chin.

*Except, of course, for Dick Cheney, but he's arguably some human-demon hybrid.****

**I like the occasional stogie, but I'm not a Cigar Person. I like cigars, but I find Cigar People insufferable.

***Again, I'm a proud member of Phi Mu Alpha, but it's a music frat; it's not like we had keggers and panty raids. (Ask me about the time we turned all the music stands in the rehearsal room around! Hellions, we were!)

****If you, 5chw4r7z, who have known me for several years can't get hyperbole and snark by now, I pity you, really.*****

*****There we go with the snark again. Though I really believe that anyone who believes Reagan was the greatest president ever (Seriously? More than Truman? Either Roosevelt? WASHINGFREAKINGTON? Oy. I need a drink.) has some issues.

WF

Wes said...

Last thought for a while, then I gotta get back to packing:

(1) I was 21. Full of piss and vinegar, and an extra cheer escaped my lips when I saw the floating head of Ronald Reagan as a carnival target. I regret nothing, but obviously I'm more mature now. Why just today, I listened to John Bolton take questions and didn't drive off the road and throw things when no one asked him why he wasn't yet up on war crimes charges at the Hague along with Dick Cheney. So I've mellowed.

(2) Conservatives and liberals can agree - Assassins is a helluva show.

WF

Anonymous said...

Bush does make me long for Reagan. Even Nixon sometimes.

Wonder what the Bush opera will be? Bush in Iraq? It will have to be one of those REALLY long operas.

CincyBlurg said...

Well, I've had a helluva week. Been out of town on business and personal stuff, so I haven't been able to keep up with posts/comments. I love to see the comments flourishing in my absence. Warms the cockles (do gurls have cockles?) of my heart. Thanks for helping make my week!

And Wes, that is the most footnotes I've ever seen in one post. You are a freak. Glad to have you back in Cincinnati. I'm sure we'll meet some day.

Wes said...

BG, ask and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened to you.

Once my wife (the lovely and talented Jawa Girl) and I get settled in, I'm sure we'll be hosting and/or attending blogger-related soirées, so the chances of us bumping into each other are high*.

*though not as high as Michael Vick in an airport**.

**Insert dogfight joke here***.

***On second thought, don't. It's too tasteless even for me.

WF

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