Arts & Entertainment
Worth a Look Pop-up gallery: otherworldly forms
Foothill stages ancient Greek satire
Local pop-up art gallery Pace Menlo Park recently opened the doors to its latest exhibition, “Tara Donovan: Untitled,” located in the former Tesla dealership at 300 El Camino Real in Menlo Park. The collection, which includes Donovan’s pieces from 2000 to present, showcases a number of the artist’s large-scale creations made from mass-produced materials. “For artwork, it’s the perfect place,” said Elizabeth Sullivan, director of Pace Menlo Park, of the old dealership. As the exhibit is part of a pop-up gallery, it will be dismantled as quickly as it was erected — at the end of June, staff will cart its pieces back to New York and the building will embrace an as”Untitled (Mylar),” a yet unknown fate. Until then, Silicon 2011 sculpture of Mylar Valley can appreciate the and hot glue by Tara airy building in a new Donovan. way — as a backdrop for Donovan’s striking single-material structures, all fabricated from repetitive applications of commonplace objects like clear plastic buttons, toothpicks and metal straight pins. “It’s very organic and really works with the light so beautifully,” Sullivan said of Donovan’s work. Sullivan added that she’ll often roll up the gallery’s garage doors just so the pieces can play with the sunlight. Donovan’s pieces often recall organic forms and can be likened to coral reefs, delicate stalagmites or billowy cloud cover. Donovan also plays with perception and scale, creating towering works of shimmering Mylar and full-wall installations that span hundreds of square feet. Visitors are also welcome to peek around the gallery’s curtained wall to see works from other Pace artists, like two of Paul Graham’s photographs of Penn Station. “Tara Donovan: Untitled” will show at 300 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, from May 22 to June 30. The gallery is open to visitors, free of charge, Monday through Saturday from 1 to 9 p.m. —Lena Pressesky
Foothill College’s Theater Arts program is preparing to debut its performance of Aristophanes’ Ancient Greek comedy “The Assembly-Women,” a play that director and Department Chair Tom Gough appreciates for both its humor and relevance. “Issues may have changed, but behaviors are 2,400 years From left: Nikita Sethi, old,” said Gough, Nicolae Muntean, Suzie referring to the Poulson and Kimberly Johnson play, which de- perform in “The AssemblyWomen,” by Aristophanes. buts May 23. The production follows Athens’ concerned female citizens and the drastic measures they take to right their government’s wrongs. Unsatisfied with the allmale citizen assembly that continually thrusts their society into war, the play’s heroines cross-dress as their husbands to take down the irrational laws put in place by their male counterparts. The result? “A whirlpool of satire,” Gough said, adding that the play “flatters and denigrates both genders.” For theatergoers looking for a laugh, bawdy jokes counter the play’s insightful and thought-provoking elements. Gough admitted that part of the reason he liked the play was that it appealed to his juvenile side — that which appreciates cross-dressing as a never-fail comedy staple. Comedy aside, Gough remarked on the play’s reflexive qualities that illuminate the similarities between our ancestors and ourselves. The show’s ensemble — all Foothill College students, most of whom are full-time — includes local players from East Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Los Altos and Portola Valley, among others. The play is scheduled to run from May 23 through June 8. Thursday shows begin at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday shows start at 8 p.m., and Sunday matinees are at 2 p.m. Tickets are $18 for general admission, and $14 for students and seniors. (There is no show May 25.) For information or to purchase tickets, call 650-949-7360, or visit foothill.edu/theatre/tickets. Please note: This play contains adult language, coarse language and sexual situations. —Lena Pressesky
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art, confronts the human condition and has the power to move audiences. All it takes is one strong performance. “If we can get people to the opera, they will come back,” he says. Even if those people are boys on the edge of adolescence. At 11 years old, Aidan Bannon might not seem like someone who would enjoy the opera. And yet, the Palo Alto boy’s eyes light up when talking about his role in “The Magic Flute.” Aidan is a member of the San Francisco-based Ragazzi Boys Chorus. While many of his peers spend their after-school hours playing sports, engaging in clubs or in front of a PlayStation 4, Aidan practices hitting harmonies.
“I wouldn’t really call singing a tough sport,” Aidan says, before changing his mind. “Actually, it’s probably harder than sports. There’s so much more that you can mess up on.” Aidan is one of six Ragazzi Boys who were invited to be a part of the West Bay Opera production. From its very first production, “The Magic Flute” has always called for a small chorus of boys to play the characters known as the Three Spirits, who sing the treble lines in the opera. As such, Stefanie Wilen, the mother of another Ragazzi boy, Jesse, notes that singing in this production is a “once in a lifetime opportunity.” The vast majority of males can only hit notes on the treble cleft prior to adolescence. And con-
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sidering their age and experience level, Wilen notes that her son and his peers are “at the top of their game as trebles” right now. Moscovich is certainly pleased to be able fill the role of the Three Spirits with the Ragazzi Boys — and not only because it is what the original opera calls for. He hopes that having the boys in the performance will help to perpetuate the operatic tradition he loves so much. “If you come into the theater with your kids, and ... they see other kids on stage, they can automatically imagine themselves on stage,” Moscovich says. “It demystifies opera for children, because it shows that other kids are not just able to be on stage, but also can sing very well and can be in it with the grown ups.” N
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