I have been fortunate in going down the full route of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, Lee's Ferry through Lava Falls, twice in my life. My reading group has read the history and geology of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River.
This play was about Powell's exploratory, first trip down the Green River and the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. There were virtually no props other than 4 partial boat bows used to indicate the boats.
The play was historically accurate and it was funny! Really creative.
"The cast of this play recreates an 1869 expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers at the Wild Project in the East Village."
Richard Termine for The New York Times
"Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Men On Boats is the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane yet loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River. This thrilling and widely acclaimed new play by Jaclyn Backhaus returns this summer for a limited engagement at Playwrights Horizons."
“You will surely want to spend time with the hearty title characters of Men on Boats. …A rollicking history pageant…Backhaus’s lively script…brought to infectiously vivid life [by] Will Davis’s highly ingenious direction … The cast, the director and the design team…delightfully recreate the rhythms, rush and terror of life on the water…Rendered in a carefully exaggerated style that both teases and cozies up to the clichés of the archetypal hero adventurer.”
CRITIC’S PICK! – Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Review: ‘Men on Boats’ Blurs Genders in Recalling John Wesley Powell’s Expedition
If summer has you hankering for fitness-testing excursions through the dangerous outdoors, you will surely want to spend time with the hearty title characters of “Men on Boats,” who are churning up bright clouds of testosterone hovering over the Wild Project in the East Village.
The inhabitants of this rollicking history pageant by Jaclyn Backhaus, which opened on Monday night as the final offering of Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks festival of new plays, are fellows who are always up for shooting the rapids, the breeze and edible wildlife. They hail from the United States of the mid-19th century, when assertive, unquestioning masculinity was something that stood tall and unchallenged.
Oh, and just so you know, there isn’t a man in the 10-member cast of “Men on Boats,” at least not according to the strict anatomical definition. On the other hand, as we have plenty of reason to think these days, gender can be as much matter of perception as of chromosomes.
Long before Chastity Bono became a guy named Chaz and Bruce Jenner transformed into Caitlyn, stage performers were regularly changing their sexes, demonstrating the fluidness of the boundaries between male and female. Taboo-flouting drag shows have been a naughty staple of downtown New York theater for many a decade.
But “Men on Boats” is no antic drag show, though it definitely has its antic side. Nor is it a work of sexual politics, in any obvious sense. Ms. Backhaus’s lively script and Will Davis’s highly ingenious direction leave no room for nudging references to any gender gap between cast and characters.
Yet it’s hard to imagine this 90-minute account of a pioneering journey through virgin Western territory in 1869 being nearly as effective, or entertaining, with an ensemble of men. Based on the journals of John Wesley Powell, who led a geological expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers into the (then) great unknown called the Grand Canyon, “Men on Boats” makes canny use of the obvious distance between performers and their roles to help bridge the distance between then and now.
You see, imagining life in another, distant time always requires a leap of faith. The past has its own language, customs and sense of the human place in the world. Whenever screen and stage artists try to summon what life must have been like long ago, we’re too often conscious of jarring inconsistencies, of the anachronisms that are allowed to slip in.
“Men on Boats” starts from the realization that we can never recreate exactly how it was. This play’s perspective is that of a contemporary reader filtering accounts of another age through her own latter-day sensibility. (It’s not unlike what Lin-Manuel Miranda is doing in his splendid hip-hop musical, “Hamilton,” which opens on Broadway in August.)
That women — embodying 19th-century mores while speaking in a 21st-century vernacular — are portraying men here weaves this point of view into the very fabric of the performance. And I have the feeling that it may be easier for them than it would be for male actors to grasp the artificial constructs of masculinity from Powell’s time.
(For the record, not all the ensemble members identity as belonging to a single gender; so excuse any hedging use of pronouns.)
Not that you’ll be thinking in such meta-theatrical terms while you’re watching “Men on Boats,” once you’ve grown accustomed to its style. The tone is comic, but never cute or camp. And ultimately, you feel, the play respects its bold if fallible pioneers, in all their natural bravery and fearfulness.
The story stays close to “The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons,” Powell’s published record of the historic journey he organized for the United States government. We follow Powell (a crisp Kelly McAndrew), a stately one-armed army major, and his expedition crew as they wend their way through perilous waters to create the first official map of the region.
Along the way, they bond, scrap, joke, reminisce and argue about directions, rather like any group traveling together. The stakes, though, are mortal. Several of the team come close to death when boats capsize. Food rations and surveyor’s instruments are lost to the river. The play begins with 10 men in four boats. By the end, that ratio is six to three.
Continue reading the main story
How this occurs is brought to infectiously vivid life. You could even call “Men on Boats” an action play in the sense that the 1994 Meryl Streep vehicle, “The River Wild,” was an action movie (well, sort of). The men, after all, spend most of their waking hours on the coursing rivers.
And the cast, the director and the design team — which includes Arnulfo Maldonado (sets), Ásta Bennie Hostetter (costumes), Solomon Weisbard (lighting) and Jane Shaw (whose sound design makes room for sweeping cinematic epic music) — delightfully recreate the rhythms, rush and terror of life on the water. This is achieved with four portable prows (standing in for full-bodied boats), some rope and wittily synchronized body movements.
And then there are the men themselves, rendered in a carefully exaggerated style that both teases and cozies up to the clichés of the archetypal hero adventurer. They include the officious Dunn (Kristen Sieh), who not so secretly feels he should be the team leader; Sumner (a marvelously forthright Donnetta Lavinia Grays), a Civil War veteran who dreams of finding a tree to climb and sleep in for days; and Old Shady (Jess Barbagallo, hilarious in a Walter Brennan-esque performance), Powell’s slightly simple-minded brother.
The cast is rounded out by Becca Blackwell, Hannah Cabell, Danielle Davenport, Danaya Esperanza, Birgit Huppuch and Layla Khoshnoudi, and they’re all good company. And while the stage they inhabit is as small as most studio apartments, they are improbably able to make us believe they are indeed roaming wide-open spaces where it’s all too easy for a man, of any persuasion, to get lost forever.
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
PERFORMANCE
92nd Street Y
Summertime, Swing Time
Bill Charlap - piano
Harry Allen - tenor sax
Jon-Erik Kellso - trumpet
Gary Smulyan - baritone sax
Chuck Wilson - alto sax
Joe Cohn - guitar
Todd Coolman - bass
Dennis Mackrel - drums
After 4 years in NYC we are finally going to a performance at the 92nd Street Y. It's a well known venue and producer of fine events.
"Kick off Jazz in July at a party bursting with swing-era hits, from “Moonglow” to “Four Brothers.” With four ace horns led by Harry Allen on tenor sax, plus a jumpin’ rhythm section, this is a band you have to hear. Get ready to move your feet!"
A great, new-to-us, venue with a full scope of offerings.
The musicians ae all local and are wonderful! So much talent.
Monday, July 18, 2016
LECTURE
One Day University
Hamilton vs. Jefferson: The Rivalry That Shaped America
"Hamilton is experiencing a well-deserved revival. Often forced to take a back seat to other Founding Fathers, his vision of America as an economic powerhouse with a dynamic and aggressive government as its engine has found many followers. Hamilton helped get the Constitution ratified, helped found the Federalist Party, and served as the first Secretary of the Treasury. An orphan born in the West Indies, he was like a son to George Washington and perhaps should have been like a brother to Thomas Jefferson."
"But Jefferson fought bitterly against the Federalists and his election as president ushered in the "revolution of 1800." Ironically, it would be Hamilton who helped assure Jefferson's triumph over Aaron Burr. Jefferson articulated a different vision from Hamilton's, promoting an agrarian democracy built upon geographic expansion—an "empire of liberty," he called it. In 1793, he would resign as Secretary of State to protest Hamilton's policies. In retirement, Jefferson would reflect on the differences between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans and express fear for the future of the new nation."
Louis Masur / Rutgers University Louis Masur is a Distinguished Professor of American Studies and History at Rutgers University. He received outstanding teaching awards from Trinity College and the City College of New York, and won the Clive Prize for Excellence in Teaching from Harvard University. He is the author of many books including "Lincoln's Last Speech," which was inspired by a talk he presented at One Day University. His essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Dallas Morning News, and Chicago Tribune. He is an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society and serves on the Historians' Council of the Gettysburg Foundation.
Saturday, July 16, 2016
LINCOLN CENTER
David Geffen Hall
Goran Bregović - Wedding and Funeral Orchestra
We ran into a Balkan Buzz Saw! The crowd, adults and all, became frenzied. And they did it in Geffen Hall where we hear the New York Philharmonic. It was very ethnic and emotional for the adults there.
“Bregović is both the catalyst and ringmaster for a musical spectacle unlike anything else on North American stages. ”
—San Francisco Chronicle
For two nights only, David Geffen Hall will reverberate with the ecstatic energy of an Eastern European brass band, accented with soulful invocations and new world rhythms. Bregović, the most famous rock star of the former Yugoslavia, gained international renown for his colorful scores to the award-winning movies of Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica.
Performing as a group since 1998, the Wedding and Funeral Orchestra creates a party atmosphere wherever it goes, bringing together Gypsy brass players, Bulgarian vocalists, and conservatory-trained string players. While the music has a serious side—Bregović has said that it arises from “a terrible frontier” where Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Muslims, and Gypsies have coexisted fitfully for centuries—an infectious joy trumps any underlying sorrow.
About Goran Bregovic ́
Making his New York debut at Lincoln Center Festival in 2006, Goran Bregović returned to the festival two years later for two more sold-out concerts. Through his songs and performances, the music of the Balkans has reached a wider audience, and he has become well-known for his collaborations with other performers as well as for being an eloquent spokesman for the Gypsy culture of Eastern Europe. His Wedding and Funeral Orchestra—which, for nearly two decades, has roamed every continent on an unending tour totaling some 1,500 shows to date—performs concerts which mix Gypsy musicians on wind instruments with percussion, Bulgarian polyphonies, and a choir of male voices.
Born in Sarajevo, Bregović studied violin at a music conservatory, but quit at age 16 to form the rock group White Button (Bijelo Dugme), which toured for 15 years and became a household name throughout the Balkans until its final recording in 1989.
Saturday, July 2, 2016
TOUR
Municipal Art Society of New York
The Bowery
The MAS Tours have proven to be exceptionally good. The speakers are informed, the groups are small, and the information is really interesting.
Our tour of the Bowery was no exception. Rather than show pictures and try to remember all we heard, please, visit the Wikipedia site. It's worth it.
AS a teaser I'm including several videos of a young boy placing in a subway station for the F Train at Delancey Street.
Monday, June 20, 2016
CAR TRIP
We had multiple goals for this car trip. Among them were: get out of NYC in the summer for cooler air, aim for coastal Maine, expand the trip upward and homeward to visit some interesting places we'd never visited.
We didn't take many pictures but I'll give you our itinerary to give you an idea of our route.
Newport, RI, - 2
Sandwich/Nantucket, MA - 2
Bath, ME - 1
Bar Harbor, ME - 3
Franconia, NH - 1
Burlington, VT - 1
Woodstock, VT/Poughkeepsie, NY - 1
We posted 1,800 miles and saw lots of pretty forests, craggy mountains, blue skies, and beautiful oceans and harbors.
Friday, June 17, 2016
PERFORMANCE
Alvin Ailey Theater
Sara Knight School of Ballet
One of our joys in living in New York City has been our association with a young ballerina from San Antonio, Texas who has studied here and has been a resident in our building. Tonight is her graduating performance before she moves to Chicago where she will begin her life as a professional ballerina. Her dream is coming true.
