My basic goal is to cover the Arts in and around our community as it is tough to compete for space in local traditional news outlets. I invite anyone who reads this to submit information pertaining to any area arts events that you wish to see on the Monmouth News page.
The Arts Took A Big Hit In Monmouth Last Week
Almost 100 people attended the Remembrance gathering for Mike DiFuccia. His memorial fund will go a long way toward making the Buchanan Center's classroom a more pleasant and desirable place. (Oct 7, 2007 | post #1)
Answer to your question, Mark. A massive heart attack. See my story under The Arts Took a big hit in Monmouth or stirringthepudding .blogspot.com (Sep 30, 2007 | post #2)
Check out some pictures of the parade in the puddles at http://www.flickr. com/photos/8391866 4@N00/?saved=1 (Sep 6, 2007 | post #1)
Voycezk Scores Big for the Monmouth College Theatre
Despite the proclamations in the program and the protestations of the cast, George Buchner’s dramaturgy and Janeve West’s directing skills trumped Bertolt Brecht’s alienation theories last night at the opening of the Monmouth College Theatre’s production of Voycezk. Right from West’s opening image of the toiling characters pushing a heavy and barely yielding world, with no assistance from a deus ex machina, was there ever any doubt that the audience was going to be on the side of the downtrodden masses. No amount of direct address, placard like scene announcements, inserted songs, or open to view lighting effects were going to deter us from hating the swilling and pontificating minions of the academic/scientifi c, business, and political worlds and attaching ourselves to good soldier Voyczek and his Marie. Though written in the 1830’s and then literally lost for some fifty years, the play now seems ripped from the daily headlines. Voyczek begins hearing strange voices and acting unusually. Science can only offer him a curative diet of peas while the rest of society offers up liberal doses of alcohol, phony religious fervor, and chicanery to dull the senses. There is no solace anywhere and Voycezk begins to crumble under the onslaught. With his beloved Marie more and more attracted to another soldier, his aberrations move more and more toward violent pathology. And like so many others in both real life and fiction, he snaps and takes his revenge-- not on the real foes, but on his fellow sufferers. Whether in Bagdad, Oklahoma City, or Virginia, it is the innocent who seem to pay when little Mr. Everyman cracks. The show is visually resplendent with a fine set by Greg Malek and appropriately moody lighting by Doug Rankin. The student acting ensemble gives their hearts to multiple roles and it is hard to single out anyone other than to say that they are playing together beautifully. Doing double duty as lead actor, senior Greg Malek caught the downward spiral of a soul heading for hell impressively and Stephanie Haas as Marie shared the single most impressive scene with Malek as the murder was replayed time and time again under the canopy of a filmy and amorphous puppet. It brought to my mind the conclusion of the film of Ambrose Bierce’s Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge when the heroine runs time after time toward her love just before the hangman’s rope tightens. See this show! It has fine acting, just perfect music, magnificent stage pictures, appropriate costumes, and super lighting. It plays again on Friday, April 20 at 7:30 PM and Saturday, April 21st at 2:00 PM at the Wells Theatre on the Monmouth College Campus. Call Monmouth College for more information. (Apr 19, 2007 | post #1)
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