MySpace.com | rss | sign in

Nova Arts Project

Last Updated: 12/8/2008

Send Message
Instant Message
Email to a Friend
Subscribe

Gender: Female
Status: Single
Age: 33
Sign: Pisces

City: HOUSTON
State: Texas
Country: US
Signup Date: 4/12/2006

Blog Archive

[Older Newer]

/ /

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

"The Gate of Heaven" opening weekend a WILD RIDE!
Category: Art and Photography

A message from Seán Patrick Judge, Managing Director of Nova Arts Project:

Wow. Where to start! First, we're so proud to say we were sold out for our first two shows, thanks to the incredible generosity and support from Donna Cole of Cole Chemical, the efforts of Leah Gross, Marilyn Hassid and Susan Farb Morris of the Jewish Community Center, and La Monica Yarbrough and Dena Marks from the Anti-Defamation League. All of them putting the word out, inviting guests and filling the seats with people who's lives have already been affected by the story this play recounts.

We had Japanese-American veterans of the 442nd Regiment, who liberated prisoners at Dachau. We had Survivors who experienced the very liberation and who's lives were saved by heroes like these tremendous men. We had BOTH playwrights, Lane Nishikawa and Victor Talmadge brought in, thanks to the ENORMOUS generosity of Donna Cole.

All of the above participated in two incredible "talk-backs" with the audience members, who were so clearly moved, we had to provide tissues in the lobby!

AND, we had two wonderfully catered events (again, thanks to Donna Cole!) with amazing food from Kubo's Japanese/Sushi restaurant, The French Corner and Randalls' Kosher Deli.

And to top things off…one of our fabulous lead actors, Jerome Vielman, performed the second show with his arm in a sling! We are so fortunate to report that both Jerome and playwright Lane Nishikawa, survived a car accident after the Opening Night reception that totaled Jerome's Volvo (the safest car around, apparently!) One of Houston's notoriously well-trained drivers ran a red light and hit Jerome's passenger side. Lane was a little bruised, but just fine, but poor Jerome had to go to the hospital to have his shoulder looked at.

Needless to say, some things had to change in our staging at the very last minute on Sunday morning! But we did it, and audiences were still incredibly moved by the powerful performances by Jerome, Bobby Haworth, Ashley Allison, Greg Hall and Izchel Hernandez.

But it's not over yet!! Tickets are STILL available for the remainder of the run! So please come see the show! Check out our site for tickets and information.

Finally, I would like to share a portion of an e-mail from one of our audience members to his friends that was shared with me. It only goes to show how powerful this show has already proven to be:

"Beside for Becky, Sam, Myself and Hanna,, you guys missed out on a great performance! It was a great story, great acting, and I'm very proud of Jerome. At first I must admit I am not a live acting, plays type of guy, and thought I would support Jerome and have to sit through some weird stuff I don't understand. But I sat for 2 hours thoroughly engaged in the pure emotion of friendship and it really made me appreciate my life. (I've been kinda depressed lately about how my life "sucked" etc, etc…complaining about what I don't have etc, etc.) but the play which is brilliant in script and acting really brings out the importance of life in a non-cheesy way.

I recommend everyone to go and watch it, bring your friends! Buy your tickets early, cause I think It should be a packed house. "

1:33 AM

0 Comments

(Add Comment) |

0 Kudos

Translate

Thursday, November 13, 2008

FREE READING AT MAIN STREET THEATRE!

BENEDICTUS
directed by John Johnston

The CTC will be hosting notable Israeli political playwright Motti Lerner on Thursday November 13. He has selected his topical play Benedictus to be read at Main Street Theater's Chelsea Market theater. Set 72 hours before an imminent attack on Iran by the United States, three politicians are mired in negotiations at an ancient monastary outside of Rome. A politically charged play, Benedictus highlights the struggle between both countries and personal relationships. There will be a post show discussion and reception following the reading.

When: Thursday November 13 @ 8pm
Where: Main Street Theater - Chelsea Market 4617 Montrose Blvd. Houston, TX 77006
Tickets: Free admission

10:23 AM

0 Comments

(Add Comment) |

0 Kudos

Translate

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Reviews for Nova’s War of the Roses: "Audacity, thy name is Nova Arts Project."

Two very different reviews for Nova's current production of Shakespeare's War of the Roses... The consensus: Ambitious, fearless, enterprising, innovative, and fun are the words Houston critics are using to describe Nova's latest escapade!

Read both and share your thoughts with us!

Houston Press Review Nova Arts Project's Ambitious War of the Roses Actually Works/

Nova Arts Project's ambitious War of the Roses actually works

Elizabethan Cabaret

By D.L. Groover

Published on July 10, 2008

Audacity, thy name is Nova Arts Project.

Sean Patrick Judge (center, with Brittny Bush and Elissa Levitt) is chilling as Richard III.

Where:Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex, 2201 Preston, 713-623-4033.

Details:Through July 19. $10-$15.

For its epic cycle of Shakespearean history plays War of the Roses, this feisty young theater company might also be called daring or innovative — certainly, downright fun. Nova has taken the eight most famous Shakespeare histories, given them to eight different director/adapters and bade them stage each of these problematic plays in 25 minutes or less. The same 11 actors appear throughout, and the same stark settings apply across the boards.

Group A (Thursdays and Saturdays) includes Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V. Group B (Fridays and Saturdays) includes Henry VI Part 1, Henry VI Part 2, Henry VI Part 3 and Richard III. That's a library full of English history to plow through. Any one of these complex dramas is complicated enough, with murderous fathers, sons, uncles, brothers, wives and cousins all conspiring for top dog. That the enterprise works at all is some sort of theatrical miracle.

Think of Nova's cycle as Elizabethan cabaret. The eight directors have conjured a little bit of everything and something for everyone. Yes, it's uneven, and a pair of editing shears should be employed, but the evening holds together. That, of course, has a lot to do with Shakespeare. No matter how you slice and dice him, the Bard remains supreme. Just to hear snippets is pleasure enough. How often have you seen any part of Henry VI?

The opener, Richard II, directed by Jennifer Decker and written by John Harvey, sets the template but is the bleakest. Dispirited and haunted, Richard II (Ryan Kelly) slumps on his black throne contemplating his cousin Bolingbroke's fateful return from exile, which predestines the king's doom. In the background, a series of photographs ironically mocks the worn-out king, while The Other Richard (Eddie Chevez) prophetically smashes vases containing the dynastic red rose (the House of Lancaster) and white rose (the House of York) with a croquet mallet. Kelly's look and attitude is the perfect picture of absolute power corrupted from within.

"A Little More Mascara" from La Cage Aux Folles ushers in Henry IV Part 1. Director Sara Patterson spins her tale with cheeky grunge as the "Bolingbroke Beauties" put on a show. Swishy Henry (Jon Harvey) wears a tiny tiara, pearl earrings and a Mummer's peacock headpiece as he rails against the opposition and his unprincely, wayward son Hal (Eddie Chevez), who's enthralled by the drunken wastrel Falstaff (Justin Dunsford, so lusty and lewd he must have stepped right off the Globe stage). Hal pulls up his spandex bodice as Hotspur (Bobby Haworth), Northumberland (Sean Patrick Judge) and Worcester (Miranda Herbert) prance around backstage, waiting for their chance to strike. As in Carrie, a bucket of slo-mo blood douses the fairy king, but the rebellious villains are dutifully dispatched.

Director Antonio Aguires III captures his vision of Henry IV Part 2 on film in what can only be described as soft gay porn. What this boy-beds-boy tale has to do with any part of Henry IV is beyond me, unless it's Aguires's weird take on Hal (Bobby Haworth) and Falstaff's (Michael Dunsworth) friendship and whoring. Not even Shakespeare suggested such a sexual pairing, but the bedsheets rumple artistically, lines of coke disappear up noses and there are lots of time-lapse shots of flowers opening. As flames lick across the screen, the movie bleeds into live action with some uncomfortably explicit, fiery violence, which might suggest the rebel leaders are treacherously executed by Prince John. Who knows? You can't tell the players without a program, so this is anyone's call.

Henry VI Part 3, directed by Philip Hayes, is anchored by Sean Patrick Judge's knockout comic performance as Margaret, the great she-wolf of France. It's the most consistent piece in the cycle and plain laugh-out-loud funny. In beret and greasy limp wig, a Gauloises hanging damply from his mouth, Judge vamps it up gloriously. When Margaret has York in her power, she taunts him and waves her cigarette like Cruella de Vil: "I'll kill you with secondhand smoke." Then there's the Lady Grey blowup doll and Henry (Brittny Bush) in exile inside a cardboard box, serenaded by a herd of sock-puppet sheep. It's so delightfully silly — Shakespeare would applaud.

Although Richard III is played for laughs with its "R" bling jewelry and Saturday Night Fever poses, Judge as Shakespeare's first complex villain is most serious indeed. Oh, Richard can boogie down with his fine Chicas (Elissa Levitt and Brittny Bush) and woo a distraught Anne (Miranda Herbert) until she's putty in his hot hands, but he leaves a long line of corpses. He gels his hair, kohls his eyes and reddens his lips, but don't be fooled by the vanity — he'll stab you with his eyebrow pencil. Abetted by director Amy Hopper, Judge gives a full-bodied performance — it's chilling, precise and cuts to the bone.

Houston Chronicle Review: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/5877826.html

Eight Shakespeare plays in one day, really

By EVERETT EVANS
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

.. --> rbox goes here -->.. --> rbox ends here -->

You'll never believe what I did on Saturday.

Eight (count 'em!) Shakespeare history plays, all in one day:

Richard II; Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2; Henry V; Henry VI, Parts 1, 2 and 3; and Richard III.

No, I wasn't visiting the Royal Shakespeare Company. Even the RSC would be hard-pressed to fit eight plays into a single day.

Yet the feat is being achieved by Nova Arts Project, one of Houston's youngest and most enterprising alternative troupes, with its current War of the Roses Cycle.

Perhaps one should say ....achieved in a fashion.''

In truth, Nova Arts is not presenting full-length versions but a half-hour digest of each play, with eight directors given free rein to devise whatever take on the material he or she desires.

Nova Arts directors Clinton and Amy Hopper figured that, since the plays tell the ongoing story of the struggle for the English crown in the 15th century, why not combine them in a single project? Because doing the eight in their entirety would prove too unwieldy, the project offers abridged versions arranged in two programs.

Group A (the first four plays) and Group B (the remaining ones) can be seen on successive evenings or in a matinee/evening marathon on Saturdays.

Nova Arts did something similar with its 2006 Oedipus3, combining abridged versions of Sophocles' three Oedipus tragedies, as a single program - with interesting and sometimes potent results.

Yet in this case, while giving credit for the ambitious nature of the project, it must be reported that the company's reach has far exceeded its grasp.

Allowing each director to do his own thing may be great for the group's creative freedom, but it doesn't serve Shakespeare or the audience's need for a coherent, dramatically effective take on this far-flung material. With no continuity between the sections, the plays remain uninvolving.

Even those who arrive with a knowledge of the plays (all but Henry V and Richard III being among the Bard's least familiar works) will have a tough time figuring out what's happening in some stretches.

A couple of the plays are treated in straightforward fashion, extensively trimmed but true to the originals. Others are mangled in such extreme styles as to become unrecognizable; they might be exercises in an ....Interpreting Shakespeare'' workshop. Still others are turned into outright travesties in a ....Look, we're being cute with Shakespeare!'' approach that comes off amateurish, precious and self-indulgent - the kind of thing best appreciated by friends and associates of the participants.

Director Jennifer Decker's take on Richard II reveals the scruffy, actors' workshop approach: four players in street clothes (but wearing crowns), with an everyday delivery of the lines. Sardonically captioned slides back the action.

Director Sara Patterson gives the first of the wacky treatments to Henry IV, Part 1 - as a drag show, with the guys in dresses and wigs and everyone camping it up to the max. At least that explains why the opening music is A Little More Mascara from the Jerry Herman musical La Cage Aux Folles. (First Hello, Dolly! tunes in Wall-E and now a La Cage number in a Shakespearean cycle - do I hear a trend?)

Antonio Aguries III offers Henry IV, Part 2 as a short film, replete with a nicely done (if clichéd) title sequence set against time-lapse photography of flowers blooming. Most of the film's action shows characters club-hopping, drugging and hooking up. It's certainly a free interpretation, capped by the one live-action sequence, a dialogue-free orgy of torture and executions.

In the closing play of Group A, Rob Kimbro's capsule Henry V, we get a faithful rendition. The staging is simple, and the five black-clad actors speak the lines capably. Miranda Herbert (as the Chorus) and Sean Patrick Judge (title role) do the best work of the cycle here.

Group B lapses back into goofiness with Melissa Davis' take on Henry VI, Part 1. The battles are enacted as a football game, with an onstage scoreboard heralding ....The Blokes'' vs. ....Ze French'' and Elissa Levitt playing Joan of Arc as an American Gladiator contestant.

Rob Shimko's staging of Henry VI, Part 2 tries to reinstate a relatively straightforward and sincere approach. But the impact remains haphazard, most often achieved by having actors yell key lines.

Wackiness again prevails with Philip Hayes' take on Henry VI, Part 3. Conflicts are represented by characters throwing stuffed animals or decapitating them. Many figures adopt Li'l Abner-type dialect, while others seem to have wandered in from South Park. Typical bit: A just-slain character, being dragged offstage by his heels, turns to the audience to wave ....bye-bye.''

Amy Hopper's direction of Richard III seems set to close the cycle on a serious note, as Judge darkly launches into the famous ....winter of our discontent'' speech. Then he begins putting on eyeliner, as if preparing to play the master of ceremonies in Cabaret. You know things have veered off course when Judge is reduced to playing Richard by striking Saturday Night Fever poses and Bobby Haworth's Henry VII delivers his big speech in the voice of a Southern-fried televangelist.

Somewhere in this historical hodgepodge are embedded a few effective moments. But be forewarned. It takes heaps of patience to reach them.

everett.evans@chron.com

.. --> end bodycopy -->

1:01 PM

0 Comments

(Add Comment) |

0 Kudos

Translate

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Volunteers Needed!
Current mood:

happy
Category: Parties and Nightlife

Have you ever wanted to help Nova, but you never knew how? Well now's your chance!

We can use more: stagehands (helping move the set,) Sound Board Operator, Light Board Operator, Greeters, Ticket Sales Rep., Concessions Rep.
, and House Managers!

In addition to getting to see the shows for free ... if you volunteer on a Saturday, you will also get free dinner!

If you're interested, just send us a message or email us at info@novaartsproject.com

Thanks in Advance!

Currently listening:
Seventh Tree
By Goldfrapp
Release date: 2008-02-26

1:54 AM

0 Comments

(Add Comment) |

0 Kudos

Translate

Friday, April 11, 2008

Houston Chronicle review of ’Love Loves a Pornographer’
Current mood:

excited

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/arts/theater/5692573.html

April 11, 2008, 5:16AM
REVIEW
Ingenious wordplay drives Pornographer

By EVERETT EVANS

Sometimes you can pinpoint the exact moment when a play irrevocably pulls you into its corner.

With Jeff Goode's Love Loves a Pornographer, getting a nifty Houston premiere courtesy of Nova Arts Project, it's this inspired bit of verbal lunacy:

"Your latest creation elicits illicit elations."

Goode's playful homage to drawing room comedy has already rhapsodized about "savage enravagements" and tossed off wry epigrams such as "A man should take pride in his livelihood, however shameful." Not to mention the priggish antagonist who, described as "rakish," defends himself with this choice retort: "In my entire life, I have never been rakish with so much as a leaf-strewn lawn."

Yet for me, it was that "illicit elations" line that put the play over the top. Despite a few lulls here and there and a sense of winding down near the close, Pornographer can be recommended for the sheer merriment of its ingenious wordplay and the fun this cast generates delivering it. It's the heightened language that's supposed to sound like stage talk, not everyday talk.

Premiered in December by Los Angeles' Circle X Theatre Company, Pornographer starts out as a tribute to, or spoof of, Victorian drawing room comedy as epitomized by Oscar Wilde. Yet midway, it acquires a more modernist bent — as if a play by John Guare or Christopher Durang or Paul Rudnick had wandered in and mingled with the earlier model.

Famed novelist Lord Cyril Loveworthy and his wife, Lady Lillian, entertain the Rev. Miles Monger, who also happens to be the Times of London's lead literary critic, and his wife, Millicent. Lord Loveworthy, whose writing is respected but not sufficiently lucrative, tries to blackmail Rev. Monger into a favorable review of his next book. Lord Loveworthy needs the boost so that he can finance the wedding of his daughter, Emily.

Emily arrives with the man she plans to marry — not "an earl" as her parents had misunderstood, but Earl, a scruffy bookseller Emily met in Flagstaff, Arizona. While the other characters are steadfastly British and Victorian in speech and attire, Earl is thoroughly contemporary and American. Before long, other anachronisms creep into the scene. One character leafs through an issue of Vanity Fair. Another sips not from a teacup but a can of soft drink.

The thunderbolt is the revelation that Earl's bookstore specializes in erotica. "Earl is a pornographer" Emily announces, the punchline just before intermission (at which the butler faints dead away.) The second half is (as the butler announces) "a series of shocking revelations." All pertain to which of the other characters are secret readers of the star author whose work Earl sells, or have secretly written those books, or even secretly inspired the whole series through real-life experiences recounted in a diary.

Was every Victorian a secret hedonist? As one character observes, "You make this licentiousness sound almost medicinal."

An exercise in theatrical style, Pornographer marks a change of pace for the young Nova Arts group. Director Rob Kimbro generally keeps things crisp, brisk and light of touch. Apart from a few hesitant moments (and remember, many of these lines are a mouthful), this team gives the play a capable rendition.

Sean Patrick Judge makes Lord Loveworthy sly, condescending and morally slippery. Given many of the script's most potentially tongue-tangling lines, he handles them with authority. Timothy Evers makes an amusing foil as the stuffy, stodgy Miles Monger — prim, prudish and sourly disapproving.s

Jenni Rebecca Stephenson brings haughty confidence to Lady Loveworthy. Melissa N. Davis' Millicent Monger is particularly appealing, indefatigably cheery with an unabashedly saucy streak.

Bobby Haworth's laid-back Earl Kant seems to have wandered in from another play, continent and century, which is exactly the point. Katrina Ellsworth shows daughter Emily's increasing iconclasm and rebelliousness.

As the butler, Wayne Barnhill, formerly of Infernal Bridegroom, has a droll way of being unflappably obliging to his "betters" yet at the same time mocking them.

You might say that while Love Loves a Pornographer is not quite Wilde, it's certainly very Goode.

1:43 PM

0 Comments

(Add Comment) |

0 Kudos

Translate

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

’Love Loves a Pornographer’ opens THURSDAY!

Nova Arts Project’s Love Loves a Pornographer opens THIS THURSDAY!

Winner of L.A. Drama Critics Circle award for Writing! Regional premiere! New work by author of ’The Eight: Reindeer Monologues’!

Runs Thursday-Saturdays, April 10th-26th (8PM)

@ Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex

Map & Directions

Puchase Tickets!

’Love Loves a Pornographer’ is a comedy of Wildean wit and preposterousness. Lord Loveworthy has a problem. His only daughter is soon to be married. And the only way to pay for her wedding is to blackmail the literary critic who’s seducing his wife. But how does a Victorian pornographer commit extortion, without inordinate discord, at tea?

Cast:
Fennimore: Wayne Barnhill
Miles Monger: Timothy Evers
Millicent Monger: Melissa Davis
Lady Lillian Loveworthy: Jenni Rebecca Stephenson
(Amy Hopper as Lady Lillian on 4-25)
Lord Cyril Loveworthy: Sean Patrick Judge
Emily Loveworthy: Katrina Ellsworth
Earl Kant: Bobby Hayworth

Director: Rob Kimbro

Phone: 713.623.4033 / Email: info@novaartsproject.com

www.novaartsproject.com

Playwright’s website

* Beat the crowds and come THIS weekend! Buy your tickets online or make your reservations now!

** While this play contains some saucy material, it is suitable for most audiences.

4:23 AM

0 Comments

(Add Comment) |

0 Kudos

Translate

Thursday, April 03, 2008

’Love Loves a Pornographer’ opens in one week!
Category: Art and Photography

Nova Arts Project’s Love Loves a Pornographer opens in one week!

Winner of L.A. Drama Critics Circle award for Writing! Regional premiere!

Runs Thursday-Saturdays, April 10th-26th (8PM)

@ Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex

Map & Directions

Puchase Tickets!

Phone: 713.623.4033 / Email: info@novaartsproject.com

www.novaartsproject.com

4:32 AM

0 Comments

(Add Comment) |

0 Kudos

Translate

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Love Love a Pornographer Preview/Porn-OH! Party THIS Sunday!!!!

Just a flirtatious reminder that the ’Love Loves a Pornographer’ Preview/Porn-OH! Party is THIS Sunday, March 16th @ Boheme (Fairview and Taft) from 6-9PM!

This party not only launches Nova’s next production ’Love Loves a Pornographer’ (running April 10-26th), but serves as a FUNDRAISER! A portion of the evening’s bar sales will benefit the intrepid gang at Nova!

Free admission, treats, and entertainment to accompany your wine! Attire: LINGERIE, though not required, is unopposed!

Highlights include:
-Sweets care of CANDYLICIOUS!
-Nibbles courtesy of ZIGGY’S HEALTHY GRILL!
-Burlesque routines a la GIE GIE! (And this girl can shake her tailfeathers!)
-Dramatic readings of Victorian erotica
-The script TONGUED-twister drinking game
AND last but not least,
-A Scandalous surprise for raffle from EROTIC CABARET!!!!