Michael Bay delivers with 'Pain & Gain'
Pitchfork: 4/5
Use the fields below to perform an advanced search of statepress.com - Arizona State Press's archives. This will return articles, images, and multimedia relevant to your query.
31 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
Pitchfork: 4/5
Binary Theatre Company’s final play of the season brings the classic horror story “The Haunting of Hill House” to Tempe.
Since the Wii U started the “next-gen” console race back in November, there have been fears and speculations in investing in these new consoles. Since then, the Wii U has suffered from poor sale numbers. Gamers are waiting to see what the PS4 and the next Xbox will have to offer. But, if Sony and Microsoft want to have a successful launch, unlike the Wii U, they have to learn from Nintendo’s mistakes.
Pitchforks: 1/5
Binary Theatre Company's most recent play, “Mercy Rule” by junior film student Beth May, is a dark pleasure that should not be missed. The play is about Claire Talley, who has moved back in with her fiancé after being released from a psych ward. Ben Waller, her fiancé, is a charming and committed neurosurgeon. As the two try to rekindle their relationship, Claire stumbles upon a box filled with the keepsakes of Ben’s dead patients. This leads her to believe that Ben is actually the cause of his patients’ death. This suspicion starts to ruin their relationship as Claire’s sanity goes downhill, fast. “Mercy Rule” is a play that cuts deep as it expresses themes of depression, death and the fragile state of relationships. Sickness seems omnipresent in this production with the main character having a metal illness and another character with cancer. There are serious themes that make the story quite effective. “Mercy Rule” follows the same lines as classic feminist literature, with an oppressive male figure and a woman being kept from the outside world, unable to be free. The key to this production is that the man doesn’t seem to be oppressive. He appears to be “Mr. Perfect,” which hides how maliciously he manipulates her. Her medication is another force in her life that appears to be helping her, but actually keeps her from having a clear vision to what is happening around her. When she decides to stop taking her medication, she begins fighting back against the oppressive forces around her. When Claire is brought back into the normal world, life begins running in a circle. There is a repeated normalcy with the lights turning on, the alarm clock and the phone messages, which all happen in a cycle. The play is full of these small details that help create an engaging experience. This is all due to the director’s clear vision and impeccable execution of the material. The director, senior theater student Bethanne Abramovich, understood how to communicate Claire’s slow descent into the insanity with the help of clever lighting and sound design. All the actors elevate the story with their brilliant performances. Sophomore theater student Lauren McKay plays Claire. McKay’s portrayal captures the isolation and the internal suffering the character is going through. Freshman theater student Jeremiah James plays Ben. He portrays the character as domineering yet suave, which makes it more difficult to figure out if his character did in fact murder his patients. Freshman theater student Chelsea McCasland plays Vivian. Vivian is one of Dr. Waller’s cancer patients, but she has more relevance to the story than when she first appears. Without giving anything away, McCasland’s performance is one that needs to be seen. Tickets can be purchased on Binary Theatre’s website. Reach the reporter at tverti@asu.edu
Pitchforks 4/5
Binary Theatre Company's most recent production, “The Pornographer,” is not about porn in the traditional sense or even about sex, but about how an artist’s work is misconstrued as being vile filth. The play is a fictionalized account of the real life of Austrian artist Egon Schiele, who was charged and put on trial for kidnapping and raping a young girl and exhibiting erotic art in public. Graduate theater student Adriano Cabral plays the role of Schiele. He drives the play and not only sustained the momentum throughout it, but elevates it as it progresses. The play is an hour and a half long, and Cabral doesn’t leave the stage once. Graduate theatre student Meg Sullivan plays Wally, the only girl that truly cared for Schiele. Sullivan’s portrayal presents Wally as strong willed. She perfectly balances empathy and disgust for Schiele and his work. Both Cabral and Sullivan play perfectly off each other. Freshman theater student Sydnee Peralta is Tatjana, the young girl that Schiele is accused of raping. Peralta’s shy naivety and child-like demeanor is pitch perfect. Freshman computer science and theater student Chad Palmer plays Gustav Klimt, Vienna's best-known artist at the time. Palmer takes the role as half-mentor and half-friend, playing both with the greatest of ease. Rambod Derakshani, the only non-student actor, plays the Judge. The Judge is the polar opposite of Schiele. As Schiele is for radical expressionism and freedom with his exotic arts, the Judge represents censorship and a conservative morality. Derakshani took the character and made it his own, making the Judge wonderfully cold, harsh and self-righteous. Even though the play has few actors, each actor stood out on his or her own and each took a share of the limelight. Kirt Shineman, the writer and director of “The Pornographer” is a graduate theater student. He is also a communications professor at Glendale Community College. His vision between what he wrote to how it is performed is seamless and organic. Every play is practically a sum of many small choices. Each choice Shineman made was brilliant. For example, easels circulate around the stage. Not only are they used in the story, but they also represent censorship, a major motif of the play. Schiele viewed his art as reflections of real life with all its imperfections. The center stage symbolizes how life truly is, while the easels obstruct the audience’s vision. Just like how the Judge constructed Schiele’s work from the public eye, the easels are blocking the audience’s view of reality. Choices like this are why “The Pornographer” is so compelling. “The Pornographer” is about asking the hard questions. Who should determine what people can see? Who has the right to tell anyone different? Is there a limit to what an artist can create? And if so, where can the line be drawn? Underneath Egon Schiele’s story is an art history lesson. Censorship in Schiele’s day is still relevant to how art is censored today in America. Schiele’s story is tragic and enduring, but the core of the play is asking the audience what can be considered art. This is why “The Pornographer” should not be missed.Tickets can be purchased on Binary Theatre's website. Reach the reporter at tverti@asu.edu
Comedy Central’s new show “Nathan For You” is irresponsible entertainment. Comedy Central has broadcast crude and unbecoming shows in the past, but nothing like this. “Nathan For You” stars Nathan Fielder as he goes around helping struggling small businesses. What makes him qualified for this job? His credentials are that he “graduated from one of Canada’s top business schools with really good grades.” That’s it.
For student artists, recording demo tapes and CDs comes at a high cost, but one student is looking to change that.
At the Mesa Arts Center, Class 6 Theatre presented Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” with a comical addition of puppets. While a classic play with puppets might seem like a silly concept, Class 6 Theatre executed it seamlessly and made it organic.
At ASU’s Polytechnic Campus, PAB’s Devilpalooza hosted the 2013 Battle of the Bands competition. The only rule was that one member from each band had to be a current ASU student. The four local bands competed for the prize of a paid show at the Tempe campus on March 20, 2013, co-sponsored by the Phoenix New Times.
Jan. 31 through Feb. 3, the ASU student-run Binary Theatre Company is hosting the experimental and immersive performance called “SparrowSong.” "SparrowSong" is a hybrid between art and theater that blooms into an interactive experience for young audiences.
Pitchforks: 1/5
Limiting it only to a top five list is going to be hard, but that won’t stop this reporter from trying!
Actor Dave Franco and director Jonathan Levine visited the Tempe campus Wednesday to talk about their roles in the upcoming film, "Warm Bodies," a romantic comedy featuring the undead. In a room crowded with students, English professor Kevin Sandler encouraged questions from the audience for the two on the making of the movie. The event was hosted by the Film and Media Studies program of the department of English.
Pitchforks: 5/5
With “The Hobbit” coming out this Friday, fans of the Lord of the Rings series are eagerly waiting to return to Middle Earth. However, like with everything great in life, there is a catch. Critics who have attended early screenings of the film are complaining about the frame rate and its overly clear format.
Release: Nov. 30
Movie: “Rise of the Guardians"
Everyone knows that Walt Disney Co. purchased Lucasfilm and is anticipating the production of the new Star Wars film, “Star Wars: Episode VII.” Now the question is: Who will be directing the first Star Wars since 2005? Even though it hasn’t been officially announced, the shortlist of directors has been narrowed down to two.
This website uses cookies to make your experience better and easier. By using this website you consent to our use of cookies. For more information, please see our Cookie Policy.