Lynn Roylance
With Whom?
In a small city with a small but talented pool of thespians, it's easy to keep a close eye on actors whose work you particularly admire. Here at SFR, we've become increasingly enamored of Tallis Rose's onstage skills; and, when we saw that she would make her directorial debut at the Santa Fe Playhouse, we figured it could go one of two ways. Thankfully, it's gone the better of the two.
Talking With… is a collection of monologues by women, written by mysterious playwright Jane Martin in 1982. (Martin doesn't seem to exist, and is supposedly the pseudonym of—naturally—an old white dude. But that's just speculation.) That aside, Rose has directed a cast of 11 actresses of varying familiarity with the Santa Fe scene in a dynamic and engrossing production.
As much as we love The Vagina Monologues and as much as it has rightfully earned its place as a jewel in the crown of feminist theater, there's a certain exhaustion that comes with it, and with the concept of a collection of monologues by women; they've been done and done again. Talking With … could easily have been tired, but in Rose's hands, it elicits a bemused "huh" rather than a resigned bless-your-heart. She's styled the production as a circus, with a brilliant set from Technical Director Michael Blake Oldham, and the women become sideshow freaks who are finally here to be listened to rather than just gawked at.
The circus theme is not heavy-handed and sometimes disappears altogether (we maybe even would have liked it to be a little stronger), but the actresses hold their own without a unifying thread necessary. Sometimes hilarious (looking at you, Baby True, in "Audition"), sometimes spooky (Cassandra Rochelle Fetters shows what would happen if Faulkner wrote about baton-twirling), sometimes heartbreaking (basically all of them at one point or another), Talking With … is a dynamic evening of theater not to be missed.
Check out our full review. (Charlotte Jusinski)
7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday April 5-7;
2 pm Sunday April 8. Through April 15. $20-$25.
Santa Fe Playhouse,
142 E De Vargas St.,
988-4262
Dance, Dance Evolution
Lois Greenfield
For some, a legitimate emotional response to dance is not easy. But when the company is Parsons Dance and the performers are dedicated and phenomenal practitioners, it becomes accessible to all. Hailing from New York City and founded by theater legends David Parsons and Howell Binkley, Parsons Dance resides on the cutting edge of the art form, a strong reminder of the self-expression inherent to dance since time immemorial and the exciting new places it can still go when placed in the hands of the talented. Plus, dancers are always in great shape and usually good-looking. Double-score. (ADV)
7:30 pm Friday April 6. $29-$110.
Lensic Performing Arts Center,
211 W San Francisco St.,
988-1234.
Dimensionally Delicious
Courtesy Public Domain
We here at SFR are still baffled by the concept of 3-D printing, and that's already well before we learned they can do food, too. Say what? Yup. Food. At SITE Santa Fe this weekend, munch on 3-D printed pancakes while learning a thing or two about the new era of making and tools from MAKE Santa Fe and Extraordinary Structures' Zane Fischer. Hang around, too, for Santa Fe Institute fellow Artemy Kolchinsky, who lectures on how unusual thermodynamics characterize living systems. Woah. OK, so it's heady material, but the pancakes really seal the deal. (ADV)
Digest This! 3-D Printed Pancakes and Living Beings, Entropy, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics:
10:30 am Saturday April 7. $5-$10.
SITE Santa Fe,
1606 Paseo de Peralta,
989-1199.
Sweet
Courtesy Public Domain
With Luna taking over The Bridge at Santa Fe Brewing Co. on Monday, it's a good week for indie rock fans in Santa Fe. Take California quintet Hunny, for example. A well-balanced combination of late-'80s post-punk with new-wavey undercurrents awash with nouveau rock, Hunny crafts with enduring themes like heartache and self-realization. They've risen wildly since the 2015 debut single "Cry For Me," at the time a solo work from frontman Jason Yarger. But the band filled out and the sound did, too, while everyone everywhere realized how much they dig on sad music wrapped up in a catchy-as-hell package. (ADV)
Hunny with Made Violent and Fringe:
7 pm Tuesday April 10. $13-$16.
Meow Wolf,
1352 Rufina Circle,
395-6369.
