Posts from — October 2008

           The American flag wasn’t the only thing with flying colors at the Barrow Street Theatre this September 25^th. Each actor performing in “In Conflict” successfully fulfilled the roles of various soldiers being interviewed after returning home from the war. Most of the actors even had to play several different roles of soldiers with completely opposite experiences.

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Combine charisma, wisdom, and wit, and what do you get? Author Francine Prose. Her name certainly suits her profession and her personality shows how well she can live up to the surname of Prose. At a recent by her at Baruch College, she surprised the audience by sharing one of her earlier short stories instead an excerpt from her newest novel. Through it, she describes her writing process and in it, she reveals her skillful use language. [Read more →]

About this slideshow: Pictures taken from http://www.waltzwithbashir.com. Song used is entitled “Mouja no Koushin” (”Parade of the Dead”) by the band Girugamesh (Gilgamesh). Translation of the main lyrics is as follows:

“The only way to do it was through animation,” director Ari Folman commented after the screening of his film Waltz With Bashir at the NY Film Festival. The preceding film was entirely in Hebrew and focused on the perils soldiers faced while serving in the first Lebanon War. It was also entirely animated—and by animated, I don’t mean lively. [Read more →]

About this illustration: http://graphics.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Globe_Graphic/2005/12/27/1135745279_1689.gif

With a traditionally American backdrop consisting of Uncle Sam and colored red, white, and blue, the cast of In Conflict makes its way to the stage. The audience is immediately placed in a military setting by the initial exercises practiced by the actors and then introduced to Ty Simmons, played by Tom Rader. It is from this point that the Temple University actors confront a major issue on the small stage of the Barrow Street Theatre. [Read more →]

Francine Prose, prolific author of more than 12 books and countless short stories, arrived at Baruch College yesterday evening for a reading of her newest novel, Goldengrove.

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The off Broadway play In Conflict is a production in conflict. Its shortcoming lies in the director’s (Douglas C. Wager) inability to transform Yvonne Latty’s text (In Conflict: Iraq War Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss, and the Fight to Stay Alive) into anything more than an embellished audio book.
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Bartlett Sher’s revival of the 1950’s Rogers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific” is more like a rebirth. The production illuminates the controversy that played such a big part in the original production. Unlike most revivals, “South Pacific” is not a foggy reenactment of an outdated show; it is brought to us in full color, with all the vivacity of the first showing.
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The Holocaust, not again!

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“Waltz with Bashir” is director Ari Folman’s autobiographical documentary about a soldier’s pilgrimage to remember his service in the first Lebanese war. Countless interviews with former comrades help to jog Folman’s memory; slowly bits and pieces of his experiences surface, finally culminating in the monumental realization that he played an active role in the 1982 massacre in Sabra and Shatila.

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You’ve heard the stories – young man goes off to war, comes back with nightmares and post traumatic stress syndrome. Some of these men are doomed to relive the worst of their experiences until the end of time. Others, in some ways, are lucky, and can push their memories, whether consciously or subconsciously, away to the hidden depths of their minds to be untouched for years, maybe even forever.

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