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Arts PREVIEW M O N D AY, J A N U A R Y 2 2 , 2 0 1 8
2 | MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018
The Chronicle
spring arts preview
campus arts
Arts on campus find a new home as ‘The Ruby’ opens its doors By Sarah Derris Staff Writer
In October 2015, financier and Duke alumnus David M. Rubenstein, Trinity ‘70, endowed the University with $25 million to create a center for the arts on campus. Three years and $50 million later, the Rubenstein Arts Center stands in impressive opulence. The steel- and glass-constructed building aims to be the ultimate home for the arts at Duke. The center was designed by William Rawn Associates, a Boston-based architecture firm. At the intersection of Campus Drive and Anderson Street, “The Ruby” sits just across from the Nasher Museum of Art. Passing by the center on a weekday afternoon, one can view art in action through the paneled glass exterior — from dance rehearsals to the visual arts — which showcases the arts at the forefront of university life. The arts are often regarded as a monolith, and encasing them within a single glass box may reinforce that perception, but upon stepping inside The Ruby, one quickly notices the distinctions between the subcategories of art at Duke. Housing the Dance and Art of the Moving Image programs and Duke’s student-run radio station, WXDU, the Rubenstein Arts Center seeks to unite the arts and recognize them as a prominent aspect of the Duke experience. Scott Lindroth, vice provost for the arts, said the new facility will be a valuable center for artistic engagement. “The state of the arts at Duke is one of growing excitement and interest,” Lindroth wrote in an email. “The proliferation of student arts organizations signals more
participation, and faculty across campus are engaging artists and art-related themes into their courses. With the Ruby we have fabulous facilities that enable departments and student organizations to engage more seriously with the arts.” Specifically, the spaces within the Rubenstein Arts Center include a studio and film theater, visual arts studios complete with easels and supply carts, multiple soundproof dance studios, a “Makerspace” operated by Duke’s Innovation Co-Lab — boasting 15 3D printers — and the Ruby Lounge, the center’s own performance venue. Arts Communications Specialist Katy Clune is enthusiastic about what the new center means for Duke arts. “The arts are united for the first time; the AMI and Dance departments are now under one roof with necessary equipment and performance spaces in the new building,” she said. “The AMI classes have access to new equipment including 16mm film cameras within the Media Production Studio and there are many convertible spaces the Dance classes can now utilize.” Clune also mentioned that the Rubenstein Center will be hosting special guests and performances throughout the semester. Upcoming guests include painter and professor Nina Chanel Abney, whose work addresses social justice and social change through the medium of large-scale paintings and murals. Choreographer Antony Hamilton and sound artist Alisdair Macindoe will present an award-winning “dance spectacle” titled “MEETING” Feb. 1. “An exciting aspect of the new arts center is the Arts Residency program, in which individuals apply to design a project within
Alex Himwich | Special to The Chronicle The Rubenstein Arts Center, which has been nicknamed The Ruby, opened at the start of the second semester.
the building’s facilities, having access to the necessary space and equipment for up to three weeks,” Clune added. “The Arts residents will then present their work as an exhibit or performance to the public. It allows students and faculty to have greater public exposure.” The Rubenstein Arts Center will host a grand opening party Feb. 3. The celebration is free and open to the public as
an opportunity to introduce the center to the Duke and Durham community of both artists and enthusiasts alike. The event will feature performances by Small Town Records student musicians and various campus dance groups, student film screenings by the AMI program and treats from Monuts and Joe Van Gogh. See RUBY on Page 11
Opening Celebration SAT, FEB 3 1–4 PM
A catalyst for creativity & a new home for making art at Duke. NOW OPEN! artscenter.duke.edu follow @dukearts #theruby
Everyone is welcome! Drop in for dance, music, art shows, food & swag.
The Chronicle
spring arts preview
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018 | 3
campus arts
Don DeLillo’s ‘The Body Artist’ takes the stage in sold-out weekend By Jake Parker Staff Writer
It is almost as if Don DeLillo’s “The Body Artist” was always meant to be adapted for the stage, as if some invisible force was, for years, guiding director-writer Jody McAuliffe, Rachel Jett — who plays Lauren Hartke, the body artist — and all their collaborators toward this project. Or at least that’s how it sounded to me when McAuliffe, professor of the practice of theater studies and professor of Slavic and Eurasian studies, told me about the origins of “The Body Artist.” According to the Duke Performances website, all three shows have already sold out, but those lucky enough to have secured tickets will get to see the product of McAuliffe and company’s work performed at Reynolds Industries Theater Jan. 25, 26 and 27. “The Body Artist” is the story of Lauren Hartke, who, in the wake of a loss, encounters a ghostly stranger in her remote, rented house out on the coast. The visitor is not ominous, per se, but he is confounding. He speaks in a mishmash of tenses and voices, which, in their whole, seem to mean quite a lot. Together, Lauren and the visitor grapple, in one way or another, with questions of “grief, time and love.” When McAuliffe first read “The Body Artist,” back when the novel was still in proof, she contacted DeLillo right away. “I read [‘The Body Artist’] when it first came out and wrote to Don immediately because I loved it,” McAuliffe said. “It reminded me of dreams I had had, and I just really connected to the novel on a very deep level, and told him that.” At the time, McAuliffe was still at work on her adaptation of “Mao II,” another of DeLillo’s novels. And while that production went up in April 2002, it would be more than a decade before the stage version of “The Body Artist” began to coalesce. Jett, who serves as artistic director of the National Theatre Institute, drove to Duke to see McAuliffe’s adaptation of “Mao II,” and wound up speaking
Spring
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with DeLillo — in attendance for the performance — about “The Body Artist” and Marina Abramovic. McAuliffe was teaching at The O’Neill in 2015. It was there that Jett and McAuliffe discovered the connection from years before. “So I’m at The O’Neill in 2015 and I mention [‘Mao II’], and she says, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe it; I was there,’” McAuliffe recalled. After McAuliffe reached out to DeLillo and received his permission for the adaptation, she and Jett — who is an expert in the movement system created by Andrei Droznin — began a series of Skype conversations in which they read “The Body Artist,” and two of DeLillo’s other novels, “Point Omega” and “Falling Man,” out loud to each other. From there, they did a workshop at Duke, did additional work
at the National Theatre Institute and the Collapsable Hole performance space in New York and then did a production at Abrons Art Center. All of this led up to the arrival of “The Body Artist” at Reynolds Industries Theater later this month. The production is full of Duke connections. Jim Findlay, who worked on the video and set design, is one of McAuliffe’s former students; he also loves the work of DeLillo. Tavish Miller, the actor who plays the visitor, the apparitionlike man in Lauren’s house, previously worked with McAuliffe on a production of Sibyl Kempson’s “Let Us Now Praise Susan Sontag,” also at Abrons. Kempson later came to Duke for a workshop with students. McAuliffe’s husband, Frank Lentricchia — novelist, literary critic and retired literature professor — plays Lauren’s husband Rey
in the first scene, in video form. DeLillo and McAuliffe became friends through Lentricchia, who is the preeminent critic of DeLillo’s novels. “There’s a lot of great history in the room of my former students and people I’ve met through interesting connections,” McAuliffe said. “I ended up at The O’Neill because of Preston Whiteway, who’s a Duke alum and who runs The O’Neill, and he said, ‘Oh, we’ve got to get you up here to teach, we need to get you in touch with Rachel Jett,’ and so without Preston none of this would have happened.” DeLillo came to rehearsal and saw the production. McAuliffe said he was pleased. “I can’t give you a direct quote, but basically he said he was very pleased, that he felt like he had seen the novel come to life on the stage,” she said.
Courtesy of Duke Performances Three nights of McAuliffe’s stage adaptation of DeLillo’s novella “The Body Artist” will be showing at the Reynolds Industries Theater later this month.
Arts PREVIEW WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2018
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1 Photo of the Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University by Alec Himwich for Duke Arts 2 Photo by Alec Himwich from November Dances 3 Duke University Wind Symphony alumnus DeShaun Gordon-King, appearing Saturday, February 24, 2018, 8:00pm at Baldwin Auditorium. Photo by Michael Owunna (Duke ’12) 4 Shinique Smith, No Key, No Question, 2013. Ink, acrylic, fabric and collage on canvas over panel, 60 x 60 x 2 inches (152.4 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm). Courtesy David Castillo Gallery. Solidary & Solitary: The Joyner/Giuffrida Collection exhibit on view at the Nasher Museum of Art through February 25, 2018. Photo by Jason Mandella. 5 Photo from Vinegar Tom by Megan Mendenhall
music.duke.edu
Classes h Concerts h Opportunities to Perform
The Chronicle
spring arts preview
4 | MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018
campus arts
In face of oppression, CADD conference encourages dance ‘through joy’ By Selena Qian Staff Writer
In 2012, a group of 12 researchers and artists met at Duke to talk about dance. Two years later, they created the first Collegium for African Diaspora Dance Conference. Now, in 2018, CADD continues to bring together people interested in African diaspora dance — from young students to seasoned professionals — to take part in a third international gathering to celebrate dance. The conference will take place Feb. 16 to 18 and is free for Duke students, faculty and staff. Most of the events on the first day will be in the East Duke building, but the conference will primarily take place in the new Rubenstein Courtesy of Duke Dance Arts Center Feb. 17 and 18. Thomas F. DeFrantz, professor Dance Professor Thomas F. DeFrantz, pictured, is one of the founding members of CADD, which holds its annual conference next month. of dance and African American studies, said the collegium expects about 200 registrants and 100 presenters to attend. Student groups from other universities and local high schools will also be in attendance. The biannual conference takes on a different theme each year, which Shireen Dickson, producer and administrator of the conference, said is collectively decided by members of CADD. This year’s theme is “Dance Black Joy: Global Affirmations and Defiance” and seeks to respond to the conversations surrounding violence toward and marginalization of AfricanAmericans. Dickson said the conference intends to focus on opposing the oppression of African-Americans and how people can use dance “to overcome, to resist and to rebuild.” DeFrantz said the conference theme also intends to encourage people to dance “toward joy” while still being activists. “How can we be activists and feminists and anti-misogynists and supportive of trans and queer rights and values and supportive of the land and all of our relatives around the world and still dance through our joy?” DeFrantz said. “That’s the main question of the conference.” DeFrantz was one of the founding members of CADD, which is a project of his research group SLIPPAGE. CADD was created to answer what DeFrantz and other members saw as a need for a deep study of African diaspora dance, and the group’s main goal is to share information both within the dance scholar community and with the general public. The conference works to tell those stories, focusing equally on dance as on research and information sharing. This dual nature reflects DeFrantz’s interests in both dance and writing, passions he’s been trying to combine since childhood. He said his reading and writing helped him better understand his dance, and his dance helped him write as well. “They’re both very valuable,” DeFrantz said. “[The conference is] not mostly talking and some dancing, and it’s not mostly dancing and some talking — it’s both, they go together.” This year’s conference will include three keynote speakers: Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Melissa Blanco Borelli and Marianna Francisca Martins Monteiro. DeFrantz said Gottschild is the “most influential thinker and writer about African diaspora dance” who is still living today. Borelli won the American Society of Dance History Scholars De La Torre Bueno Prize for best book in Dance Studies in 2016 for her book, “She is Cuba: A Genealogy of the Mulata Body,” and Dickson said Borelli will present on that topic. Monteiro is a Brazilian filmmaker as well as a dance and theater scholar. The conference will also feature a performance by SLIPPAGE, who will perform a piece called CANE, which was originally created in 2013. According to SLIPPAGE’s website, the piece “explores memories of African American sharecropping held by a technologically-devised canefield.” The 2018 conference will differ from those of 2014 and 2016 in that it will also devote time to honoring the legacy of Chuck Davis, who was founder of DanceAfrica and the African American Dance Ensemble in Durham. He opened the past conferences but died last year, so CADD wants to honor his Get ready for basketball season with an exhibition of vibrant color photographs life and contribution to the study of African Dance. DeFrantz that capture the many different settings in which basketball is played around described Davis as a “father figure and leader” to everyone in dance studies. There will be a panel discussion as well as an the world. Join artist Bill Bamberger and Duke undergraduate students for a extended processional in tribute to him. talk about Courtside, which the students co-curated through a Curatorial Other panel topics include historically black colleges and universities and diversity in higher education, from both a Practicum class taught at the Nasher Museum. pedagogical and academic perspective. The conference will have a variety of paper presentations and dance workshops, including any type of dance, from J-Setting to salsa. Dickson said many participants look forward to the CADD conference, as it creates an atmosphere like a family reunion. “It’s definitely a space of rigorous academic and artistic investigation, but it’s also a space that’s welcoming,” Dickson Bill Bamberger, Charter School Playground, Harlem, New York (detail), 2007. Inkjet print on archival paper. said. “It’s a space that allows us to experiment, and it’s a space Courtesy of Bill Bamberger. © Bill Bamberger. that allows you to relax outside of some of the stringent demands of academia as it stands right now.”
Admission is always free for Duke students.
Courtside
Photographs by Bill Bamberger On view January 26 – May 13, 2018
Friday, January 26, 5:30 PM: Cash Bar 6 PM: Gallery talk
nasher.duke.edu/courtside
The Chronicle
spring arts preview
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018 | 5
campus arts
Senior’s photography exhibit represents ‘blackness’ in Durham By Ashley Kwon Staff Writer
On Jan. 15, senior Evan Nicole Bell opened her first solo photography exhibit: “black.” From a conversation with a client at a local barbershop to a usual day in Durham with a friend, stories of black Americans come to life through photographs in her exhibition, which is on display in the Bryan Center’s Louise Jones Brown Gallery. In the exhibit, Bell juxtaposes photographs of black Americans who she met in person with anecdotes or descriptions about them, which she said make the photos more interesting. The works are from her project in her Program II major, “Documenting Justice: The Role of Photographic Narratives in Activism,” which involves about 10 departments, including Public Policy, Documentary Studies and African American Studies. Originally interested in artistic photography and social justice volunteer work, Bell said her projects as a documentary photographer have given her chances to combine those two. She began this project in her sophomore year as a part of her color photography class under the guidance of her Program II advisor, Alex Harris. After watching the award-winning 2007 documentary “Welcome to Durham, USA,” which portrayed Durham as a crime-ridden city with predominantly black residents, Bell was eager to produce her own documentary as its antithesis. Filming black artists, doctors and middle and upper class families of the area, she used her camera as a tool to dispel such stereotypes about Durham and its inhabitants.
Receiving the Research in Practice Program Fellowship in the Documentary Arts, Bell continued her project throughout her junior and senior years. But she ended up expanding the range of her subjects to include black Americans of all social classes, not only from Durham but also from her hometown of Columbia, Maryland, to show a broader portrait of what it was like to be black. Bell recalled that most of her process to document the lives of black Americans included thinking of places that would best represent “blackness” and then reaching out to the associated people to form personal connections with them. “I would say 80 percent of documentary work takes place when I am not even holding a camera,” Bell said. “So much of it is seeking out sources, building relationships, having conversations and building trust with the people I am photographing.” Her efforts were rewarded when she was given rare opportunities to closely interact with her subjects. A band director at North Carolina Central University, which has a historically black student body, let her film the marching band on the field. She also got to enter the kitchen at Dame’s Chicken and Waffles, one of the few restaurants in Durham with all black staff members. But Bell did not intentionally initiate contact with all of her subjects — sometimes, she just happened to run into people who let her photograph them. She once visited a barbershop with her friend to document how black Americans style their “unique” hair. While talking to the barbershop owner, she also got to have a conversation with one of the patrons, who invited her to come to his
Special to The Chronicle “black.,” which opened Monday in the Louise Jones Brown Gallery, features photos of black Americans.
church to capture its people in her pictures. This progress that she went through to produce her works enabled her, as a black American and documentary photographer, to see diverse views on what it meant to belong to a racial group that is socially defined in a certain way. “I am going in [to interact with my subjects], already knowing a lot about black people, because I am black,” Bell said. “But I have so much to learn. [I was]
not only telling a story, but also letting the things [I learned] change my own perspective,” Bell said. Remembering the time when she visited N.C. Central, Bell said that having the opportunity to show her works at the exhibition was also meaningful. Historically-black colleges like N.C. Central, she said, “were founded because See BLACK on Page 11
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The Chronicle
spring arts preview
6 | MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018
FULL FRAME
arts.duke.edu
can’t miss
events
21st Annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival April 5-8 fullframefest.org
Each spring, Full Frame welcomes filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to Durham, North Carolina, for a four-day, morning to midnight documentary festival of more than 100 films, panel conversations, and southern hospitality. 2018 tickets go on sale Feb. 14, 2018.
PHOTO BY OLIVIA WILKES
MUSIC
Duke Jazz Ensemble with Tim Warfield, saxophone Friday, February 9 | 8:00pm Baldwin Auditorium
PHOTO BY ALEC HIMWICH
Tim Warfield, Jr., a native of York, Pennsylvania, began studying the saxophone at age nine. In 1990, he was chosen to be a member of Marlon Jordan’s Quintet, of which he remained a member for three years. He has performed with with such artists as Donald Byrd, Michelle Rosewoman, Christian McBride, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Smith, Nicholas Payton, The Newport Millennium All Stars, Joey DeFrancesco, Claudio Raggazzi, and Derrick Gardner and the Jazz Prophets, among others. He recently joined the Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, under the direction of Terell Stafford. “He is perhaps the most powerful tenor saxophonist of his generation.” —Peter Watrous, New York Times. The Duke Jazz Ensemble is directed by John Brown.
DANCE
ChoreoLab 2018
Friday, April 13 and Saturday, April 14 7:30 p.m. Reynolds Theater The Dance Program presents a mainstage production each semester to serve as both a choreography and performance opportunity for students enrolled in dance courses. Students will perform faculty-choreographed works they learn during their repertory courses. In addition, 15 minutes of the evening’s show are reserved for high caliber student choreography.
THEATER
DREAMING: Little Nemo in Slumberland revisited April 13-15 Sheafer Theater theaterstudies.duke.edu
PHOTO BY NICK GRAETZ
For this original work-in-progress, students will be learning to design, build, and/or perform a puppet show under the direction of faculty designer/puppeteer Torry Bend while collaborating with playwright Howard Craft on scene development. Inspired by 1905 comic strip Little Nemo, the process also grapples with the historical racism poisoning the gorgeous source material. No experience needed, join the class! (THEATRST 350) Registration info: theater@duke.edu.
SCREEN/SOCIETY
Alumni Filmmaker: Multi-Projector Program by Roger Beebe (PhD, ’00) + Q&A Wednesday, Feburary 21 7 p.m.-8:45 p.m. Griffith Film Theater, Bryan Center
Experimental filmmaker Beebe premieres new works alongside some of his best-known projector performances, from formalist investigations of the materials of film to essayistic explorations of popular culture, exploring “found” images/landscapes of late capitalism. Details: tinyurl.com/BeebeAtDuke2018.
The Chronicle
spring arts preview
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018 | 7
NASHER
Courtside: Photographs by Bill Bamberger
January 26-May 13 nasher.duke.edu
PHOTO BY PETER PAUL GEOFFRION
Get ready for basketball season with an exhibition of vibrant color photographs that capture the many different settings in which basketball is played around the world. The artist, Bill Bamberger, is a Durham resident and instructor at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From Maine to Florida and Rwanda to Mexico, the hoops indicate places both where basketball is played and where communities and relationships are built. They are objects that often shape and reflect these communities. As a part of many diverse landscapes, the hoops become integral elements of each location’s unique narrative. Duke undergraduate students curated the exhibition through a Curatorial Practicum class taught at the Nasher Museum by assistant curator Molly Boarati.
VICE PROVOST FOR THE ARTS
RUBENSTEIN ARTS CENTER Grand Opening Party
Saturday, February 3 | 1–4 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center, 2020 Campus Drive Celebrate the grand opening of the Ruby! The entire arts center will come alive for this special occasion featuring music, Monuts, and swag. Stop in for performances by Small Town Records student bands, student dance groups, and algorithm-driven instruments by composer Scott Lindroth, Duke’s Vice Provost for the Arts. See Biscuit Kitchen, an interactive pop-op art installation by Raleigh artist Bill Thelen and What is Home?, a student art exhibition organized by duArts; make a screen print with Durham artist Bill Fick and DJs from WXDU; and check out 3D printing and laser cutting in the Ruby’s Co-Lab makerspace. Leading-edge Australian choreographer Antony Hamilton and sound artist and dancer Alisdair Macindoe will also offer a sneak peek of MEETING, the Duke Performances premiere in the Ruby. The first fifty people at the event will receive a limited-edition signed poster illustrated by Bill Thelen. More at artscenter.duke.edu.
MFA|EDA
2018 Thesis Exhibition
The Duke University Master of Fine Arts in Experimental and Documentary Arts will present its annual thesis exhibition this spring, featuring site-specific projects by twelve graduating students, including presentations of film and video, installation, sculpture, photography, interactive arts, performance, sound, and multimedia, over the course of four weeks across Duke’s campus and downtown Durham. The artists’ works will be on view at the Power Plant Gallery, Full Frame Theater, Rubenstein Arts Center, SPECTRE Arts, Fredric Jameson Gallery, The Carrack Modern Art, and Shadowbox Studio. MFA|EDA 2018 is made possible with support from the Center for Documentary Studies, the Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies; the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image and the Office of the Vice Provost for the Arts at Duke University.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DUKE PERFORMANCES
March 19-April 14 Duke and Durham Information at mfaeda.duke.edu
DUKE PERFORMANCES
MEETING
Antony Hamilton & Alisdair Macindoe February 1-3 | 8 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center | von der Heyden Studio Theater dukeperformances.duke.edu On a bare stage, 64 tiny robots – small rectangular machines holding sharpened pencils that they tap against the floor – encircle two dancers, clad simply in black and gray. Controlled by computer algorithm, the robots tap rhythmically on wooden, metallic, plastic or ceramic surfaces, creating a symphony of sound that suggests fractured hip-hop beats. Australian choreographer Antony Hamilton and dancer Alisdair Macindoe, who made and programmed the robots, respond to the music with movement in this rare American performance of MEETING, an award-winning production first unveiled at Australia’s Dance Massive Festival in 2015. Brought to you by Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, Center for Documentary Studies, Dance Program, Music Department, Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Studies, Nasher Museum of Art, Screen/Society and Theater Studies.
IMAGE FROM MISSING PERSONS BY RAN ZIN, A FILM IN THE 2017 THESIS EXHIBITION
The Chronicle
spring arts preview
8 | MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018
campus arts
Basketball hoops are focus of Nasher’s student curatorial showcase By Alexandra Bateman Staff Writer
It takes a certain amount of care and attention to capture the beauty in objects that are easily overlooked, and photography instructor Bill Bamberger has spent the last 13 years doing just that. His upcoming photog raphy exhibit ion “Cour tside” reveals the beaut y, histor y, and sig nificance hidden in, of all things, basketball hoops. “It’s the kind of thing where it’s hard to stop. We’re obsessive creatures,” Bill Bamberger said of artists like himself, whose work with the ordinar y reveals something more. “Courtside,” spawned from a desire to travel and to Bill Bamberger | Courtesy of The Nasher Photographer and instructor Bill Bamberger takes photos of basketball hoops and courts across the globe to explore a variety of cultures. embark on more a solitary photographic project, tells the stories of places and of the communities that design, use and thrive in those spaces. For Bamberger, whose previous work leans toward portraiture — and therefore inherently depends on a human relationship — the basketball landscapes of his “Courtside” project can tell us even more about a community. In an artist’s statement, Bamberger writes, “A photograph of [a] court taken without people is about a period of time, the layered history of a place. It is about the people who played on that court, the people who built that community, who have come and gone ... [These courts] make us think about all the life that led up to this moment, this expression, this place.” Bamberger’s basketball landscapes tell the story of our connections as human beings and reflect the Don DeLillo’s THE BODY ARTIST ways in which relationships are built. An American Adapted and directed by Jody McAuliffe sport, basketball is played by people in communities Reynolds Industries Theater all around the world. The images in this collection January 25-27 (SOLD OUT) come from over 40 states in the U.S. and almost a dozen different countries. Though used for the same purpose, DREAMING: Little Nemo In Slumberland Revisited a basketball court in Rwanda looks entirely different Faculty work-in-progress than a basketball court in Arizona — the colors, Directed and designed by Torry Bend architecture, landscape and materials of these spaces ALONZO SAXTON IN Written by Howard L. Craft are some of the most dissonant. But it is the differences JACQUES BREL IS ALIVE & WELL & LIVING IN PARIS, SPRING 2017 Sheafer Theater, Bryan Center in these images that interest Bamberger, and these April 13-15 Join the class! THEATRST 350 differences show us something about who we are as members of our own communities. Thirteen years and over 60 final images later, Bamberger is ready to exhibit his collection of basketball landscapes ANDREW SPAFFORD, in a co-curated exhibition at the Nasher Museum of Art. ALEX FELIX IN VINEGAR TOM, FALL 2017 For this exhibition, “Courtside” will include 26 images, co-curated with the help of four Curatorial Practicum class students. According to Bamberger, co-curated exhibitions are a fairly unusual endeavor. “They were involved in every aspect — selecting, sequencing, laying out the exhibition, writing the introduction and caption text,” he said. “They had a lot of latitude to do this. They were remarkable in the way that they approached [co-curating this exhibition].” Given that Bamberger’s basketball landscapes included a healthy mix of national and international; digital, film and medium format; warm and cool colors; Flannery O’Connor’s and large and small sizes, the student curators had GOOD COUNTRY PEOPLE no easy task in helping assemble the work into a Adapted by Valerie Muensterman cohesive exhibit. Directed by Ashley Ericson The Nasher exhibition is the first time Bamberger’s Brody Theater, Branson Building “Courtside” work has been shown as a complete body. February 8-11 Slated for next spring, Bamberger will present a larger installation of his “Courtside” project at the National PLAYHOUSE SHORTS Building Museum in Washington, D.C. Ten-Minute Play Fest “Exhibition has become a great excuse to wrap up a Original student work project,” Bamberger said, adding that he did not know Location TBA whether he would continue his basketball landscape work. April 6 The National Building Museum exhibition “might be a BLUE nice time to say, ‘this is it.’” Staged Reading In the meantime, Bamberger said he plans to Original script by Samantha Meyers continue to photograph domestically and abroad. In Brody Theater, Branson Building particular, he is excited to return to Rwanda w ith his March 22-24 second cohort of DukeEngage students. Bamberger began his Rwanda portraiture project in 2014 in BLANCHARD: STING OF GLORY an effort to document the lives of the now-grow n Staged Reading orphans whose parents were killed in the Rwandan Original script by Wesley Caretto genocide. Since the start of that project, Bamberger Brody Theater, Branson Building has shifted focus to explore the ways in which the March 29-30 resilient Rwandese live their daily lives in the face of 109 Page | Campus Box 90680 | Durham, NC 27708-0680 contemporar y issues including access to healthcare theaterstudies.duke.edu | (919) 660-3343 and water. “Courtside” opens to the public on Friday, Jan. 26 at 5:30 GET SOCIAL WITH @DUKETHEATER: FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER p.m. at the Nasher Museum of Art. Bill Bamberger and the student co-curators of Bamberger’s exhibition will speak at the opening.
FACULTY WORK
DEPARTMENT OF
THEATER STUDIES
CONNECT CREATE
SENIOR DISTINCTION
DUKE PLAYERS
COLLABORATE
The Chronicle
spring arts preview
MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018 | 9
campus arts
Duke University String School celebrates over 50 years of music education By Keyin Lu Staff Writer
As you walk up the steps toward the entrance of the Mary Duke Biddle Music Building, you pass a black, metal sculpture with geometric shapes stacked precariously on top of each other. Through the glass doors, you take the stairs down to the lower level and you are met with the sound of running water from a small, pebble-filled fountain. You catch the muffled music of violins and pianos as you walk down a long corridor. Finally, you arrive at the end of the hallway and enter office nine. Every student taking lessons at the Duke University String School (DUSS) makes this same trip every Saturday. They come to Duke’s East Campus to take private or group classes in violin, viola, cello and bass. Aside from classes, the String School also offers chamber music, music theory and opportunities to participate in ensembles such as cello choirs and the Youth Symphony. DUSS is unique in that it is the only string music education program in North Carolina that offers a comprehensive curriculum with everything from private lessons to master classes. Some parents, such as Carlos Bardales, drive their kids over an hour to Duke for classes. Having grown up in Honduras with a brother who played the cello, Bardales always wanted to the play the bass. But in music school, his teachers handed him a cello instead, saying his hands were too small. Bardales moved to the states to continue studying cello, but didn’t expect his son’s desire to learn violin would land him a job as a cello teacher at DUSS. He now teaches
and is also the Conductor of the Cello Choir at the school. “It’s really exciting just being part of someone’s life and see that person flourish and loving what they do,” Bardales said. After founding DUSS in 1967 with Arlene DiCecco, Dorothy Kitchen directed and developed the school for over 48 years. Just this year, DUSS celebrated its 50th anniversar y under the new director Erica Shirts. The school began five decades ago with only 32 students and now it has over 250. Duke University contributes the inkind donation of space to the nonprofit organization. The school has access to an office in the Biddle Music Building as well as to the Nelson Music Room and Baldwin Auditorium for concerts and recitals. Remaining operation costs come from tuitions. The school also offers financial aid to around 20 students who otherwise cannot afford to attend. Bardales says that those who receive aid are very grateful because sometimes that is the only chance they have to study music. He says they often excel. “A school like this gives opportunity in the community for kids to come to get private lessons,” violin teacher Nonoko Okada said. Although she has only been with the school for two years, Okada said she loves being involved and getting to enrich kids’ lives with music education. “I think the best part is when my students realize how fun it is to play the violin and also realize that they got better and play well, just to see how happy they become,” Okada said. Shirts shares similar sentiments and says
Courtesy of Duke University String School DUSS is one of North Carolina’s only string music education programs with a comprehensive curriculum.
that the best part of her job is “seeing kids light up” when they perform. As director of DUSS, she wants to make sure that there is a high quality of playing from day one. She says that a lot of parents think their fiveyear-olds can’t sound good on the violin from the start, but she wants DUSS to teach students so they sound good regardless of their level. She also wants to build a closer
relationship with the nonprofit Kidznotes, whose mission is music for social change and offers students in K-12 classrooms a chance to participate in group classes. Kidznotes funnels kids who need extra attention into DUSS, where they can get more individual instruction. In addition, DUSS will partner next year with the Ciompi Quartet to offer a See DUSS on Page 11
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Fact and fiction blend in the apocalypse of ‘The Way Things Can Happen’ By Christy Kuesel Recess Culture Editor
For its latest installation, the Power Plant Gallery, located on the American Tobacco Campus, consists of a darkened brick room. Although the darkened windows are a practicality for viewing the installation, titled “The Way Things Can Happen,” the setup creates a sense of entering an underground bomb shelter, a fitting home for an exhibit about the dangers of nuclear war. Erin Johnson’s “The Way Things Can Happen,” on display at the Power Plant Gallery until March 3, features extras from the popular 1983 television film “The Day After.” The film depicts a nuclear attack on Kansas and was shot on location in Lawrence, Kan., with a cast of 5,000 extras from the area. Over 100 million people watched the film live when it first premiered, and it is one of the highestrated television films in history. Artist Erin Johnson visited Lawrence last summer to film a retelling of “The Day After” in a documentary style. Actors stand in front of normal backgrounds — a supermarket, a basketball court, a field — and discuss the outcome of the nuclear strike in matter-offact tones. “I was really interested in the idea that a large group of people from this one community had played out this nightmare, the country’s worst fear,” Johnson said. She added that the original film “The Day After” had a large impact not only on its viewers, but on the people who were featured in it. Using the extras from the film added a personal and immediate sense to her project. In using real people from the film
and from Lawrence, Johnson creates a form of pseudo-reality, where the actors do have a connection to nuclear war without having actually experienced it themselves. “They were extras in the film. They were lying on the floor in the gym, or they were a part of the crowd in the field. So in some ways they really did live this experience,” said Caitlin Kelly, director of the Power Plant Gallery. Johnson added that although “The Day After” itself was fictional, it did have real world implications in contributing to the
national discussion around nuclear power during the Cold War. “I’m interested in seeing what happens when the blurring of fact and fiction take place and what kind of possibilities that blurring might bring about,” Johnson said. “The Way Things Can Happen” can be enjoyed without previously seeing “The Day After.” Even the nuclear strike itself is only alluded to, as the installation deals primarily with the personal effects of a nuclear disaster instead of the actual event. This strategy allows the viewer to imagine
Special to The Chronicle Erin Johnson’s “The Way Things Can Happen” imagines life in the U.S. after a devastating nuclear attack.
what must have happened to create this post-apocalyptic world. “I think you can be bothered by this work all on its own,” Kelly said. The exhibit opens at an appropriate time, as President Donald Trump traded threats of nuclear war with Kim Jong-Un over Twitter earlier this month. The fear of nuclear strike is more popular in the news now than it has been in years, which is what piqued Kelly’s interest in featuring this exhibit. “The Way Things Can Happen” makes these currents events much more intimate. “It takes that larger rhetoric that’s happening outside, whether it’s on Twitter or on the news, and it makes it more personal,” Kelly said. “And hopefully we can pay attention to it.” A particularly chilling feature of the exhibit is the inclusion of pamphlets and videos from the 1960s dealing with the topic of radiation and nuclear disaster. The pamphlets, reprinted with permission from the Duke Medical Archives, discuss how to build a nuclear shelter, how to survive atomic war and a psychological study of how humans react in a simulated bomb shelter. “The Way Things Can Happen” is accompanied by a number of events, such as the Nuclear War Film Series. The Power Plant Gallery is showing “Buzz One Four,” a documentary by Matt McCormick, Feb. 8. A panel discussion on creative responses to the threat of nuclear war will be held Feb. 15, and Johnson herself will talk about “The Way Things Can Happen” at a public talk Feb. 16. The Power Plant Gallery was founded in See POWER PLANT on Page 11
Spring Jazz at Duke! Friday, Feb 9 8 p.m. Baldwin Auditorium Duke Jazz Ensemble with Tim Warfield, saxophone Sunday, Feb. 11 3 p.m. Baldwin Auditorium
Valentine’s Weekend Jazz Concert
Friday, Apr. 13 8 p.m. Baldwin Auditorium
Duke Jazz Ensemble with Bobby Broom, guitar
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MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018 | 11
RUBY FROM PAGE 2 “We decided to host a grand opening party with the purpose of introducing and familiarizing students, faculty and the community with the facility and the opportunities available to them,” Clune said. “The event celebrates both the arts and the artists, as the Rubenstein Arts Center becomes a cornerstone of the Duke’s Arts community.” Attendees can view the art installation “Biscuit Kitchen” by Raleigh artist Bill Thelen and the student art exhibition, “What is Home,” screen print with Durham artist Bill Fick and meet WXDU DJs. The event marks the unification of many of the arts Departments at Duke, as university and community members come together in celebration of artistic expression and creation. “The Nasher and Duke Performances are both at the top of their game, attracting large audiences from the campus as well as the community, and their partnerships with academic programs to host artists in residence has become an essential dimension of arts education at Duke,” Lindroth wrote. “The Ruby can help move the arts from the margins of student life to play a central role in undergraduate and graduate education.”
BLACK FROM PAGE 5
Chris Hildreth | Special to The Chronicle Two students play violin in the Rubenstein Arts Center’s von der Heyden Studio Theater. The new center will celebrate a Grand Opening Feb. 3.
Alumni Filmmaker Homecoming Series
present
black people were not allowed to go to schools like Duke. ... So to think now that we have made such a progress to the point where I am attending this university, and am able to put on an exhibit that highlights [the strength and beauty of black culture], is important to me.” Although she began her project a few years ago, before many current political discussions surrounding race, Bell emphasized that she wanted the visitors of her exhibit to derive their own meanings from it. “It is important to humanize people who are different from you or similar to you,” Bell said. “If you are a viewer walking into my exhibit, whether you are black, white, Asian, or Latino, you are going to leave having learned something.” “Black.” will be on display from Jan. 15 to Feb. 5. An opening reception for the exhibition is planned on Jan. 24 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Louise Jones Brown Gallery.
DUSS
Q&A to follow w/ filmmaker Roger Beebe (PhD ‘00)!
FROM PAGE 9 program dedicated to advanced chamber music study. “There’s always been a great community aspect to the string school,” Shirts said. “The kids grow up together and the families carpool to lessons.” Bardales said that everyone plays their part to keep improving the school. The teachers consistently meet to discuss ways they can better the curriculum. “This is a family because that’s the way we do it,” Bardales said. The orchestras play music ranging from bluegrass to popular to classical. Although many students in the orchestras take lessons through DUSS, half take lessons with private professional musicians in the area. Anyone is eligible to participate at the orchestra level even if they don’t take classes with DUSS faculty. Upcoming events include a Faculty Recital of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. in the Nelson Music Room. There will also be a Violin and Cello Choir Concert March 3 at the Nelson Music Room and an Orchestra Concert March 4 at 6:30 p.m. in Baldwin Auditorium.
POWER PLANT FROM PAGE 10 September 2013 through Duke University. It was a joint initiative between the Center for Documentary Studies and the M.F.A. in Experimental and Documentary Arts. The gallery showcases documentary work, although it does show more experimental work as well. It also hosts the Duke M.F.A. thesis shows and panel discussions, tending to focus on the idea of art and activism. Johnson’s exhibit is being shown there for the first time. In the Power Plant Gallery, it is possible to believe that Erin Johnson’s film is real and that you are seeing it in a post-apocalyptic world. It is almost a relief to step outside into the Durham sunshine and realize that nuclear disaster is, for now, only a faint possibility.
“Beebe’s films are both erudite and punk, lo-fi yet high-brow shorts that wrestle with a disfigured, contemporary American landscape.”
tinyurl.com/BeebeAtDuke2018
-- Wyatt Williams, Creative Loafing (Atlanta)
For the first time since 2011, filmmaker/curator/professor Roger Beebe returns to Duke (where he received his PhD in 2000) as part of a 4-month, 3000-mile roadshow of his multiple-projector performances. The program features several premieres of new works alongside some of his best- WEDNESDAY known projector performances (including the six-projector show-stopping Last Light of a Dying Star) and recent award-winning work in single-channel HD video. These S works take on a range of strategies from formalist investigations of the materials of T film to essayistic explorations of popular culture and a range of topics from the forbidden pleasures of men crying (Historia Calamitatum) and the secret logic of the book of Genesis (Beginnings) to Las Vegas suicides (Money Changes Everything) and the real spaces of the virtual economy (Amazonia). Beebe’s work explores the world of found images and the "found" landscapes of late capitalism. He has screened his films around the globe at such unlikely venues as the CBS Jumbotron in Times Square and McMurdo Station in Antarctica as well as more likely ones including Sundance and the Museum of Modern Art, with solo shows at Free Screening! Anthology Film Archives and many other venues. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Art at Ohio State University.
FEB 21 7 PM
GRIFFITH FILM THEATER
Sponsored by the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), and the Master of Fine Arts in Experimental & Documentary Arts (MFA|EDA) .
http://ami.duke.edu/screensociety |
@DukeAMI |
movingimageDuke
12 | MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018
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SPRING SEASON IN DURHAM, AT DUKE, ESSENTIAL & EXTRAORDINARY.
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