“Whenever an actor dies unexpectedly in the midst of a fruitful career, it’s impossible not to mourn the future possibilities that have been suddenly and cruelly foreclosed. Natasha Richardson, who died Wednesday after suffering a head injury in a skiing accident Monday, was only 45 and should have had more opportunities to show us the range of her talent, which was always surprising. One could say she made a career of overturning expectations about what she could and could not do.”
Tag: 03.19.09
The Primitive Portraitist
Morgan Monceaux, a troubled Vietnam vet, walked into a Long Island gallery one day in 1992, looked at the American primitive paintings on the wall, and said “I can do this.” Within a few weeks his portraits of 40 U.S. presidents were on that wall. It’s been a bumpy ride since, but he now has a one-man show in Baltimore and three paintings in the National Portrait Gallery.
Banned In Cairo But Boffo In Berlin
Radio Muezzin is a documentary-on-stage featuring four of the many clarion-voiced men who sing the Muslim call to prayer in Cairo’s mosques. The play had only one private performance in its subjects’ hometown – the topic is sensitive there just now – but the men and their work have found a warm welcome in Berlin, a city with its own issues around Islam.