Theater review: 'The Dinosaur Within' at Boston Court

John Walch’s evocative, overstuffed “The Dinosaur Within,” now at the Boston Court, has plenty to say about overcoming loss, but can let ideas bury its emotions.

Gorgeously directed by Michael Michetti, this ambitious drama weaves three mysteries, ingeniously linking celebrity handprints in Hollywood with the sacred tracks of a dinosaur in Australia. Middle-aged Maria (Shauna Bloom) struggles to find an identity apart from her long-lost father and movie-star mother, Honey (Mimi Cozzens in the present, Emily Kosloski in flashbacks); Aussie Eli (Nic Few) abandons Aboriginal tradition (embodied by his father, played by VJ Kesh) to make it big in L.A.; newspaper editor Jerry (Chuck McCollum) can’t recover from the sudden disappearance of his son, Tommy (Ari Skye), 10 years ago.

Any one of these stories merits its own play, and Walch struggles to service all of his characters, their pasts, and the considerable exposition required to get this epic up and running. Michetti and his impeccable design team give Walch’s fever dream elegant shape; Francois-Pierre Couture’s desert landscape set, a twilight outback of the mind, allows the players to move smoothly between past, present, and imagination. Cozzens and Kesh are masterful, and McCollum breaks your heart as a man trying to do the impossible. Despite the big ideas, it’s the details that land: Jerry rebuilding his son’s bike; a time-traveling cigarette lighter; and finally, Tommy holding a wishbone: “What do I have to break,” he wonders, “to make my wish come true?”

--Charlotte Stoudt

“The Dinosaur Within,” Boston Court Performing Arts Center, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends Nov. 6. $27-$32. Contact: (626) 683-6883 or www.bostoncourt.com. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

Photo: Emily Kosloski and Nic Few in “The Dinosaur Within.” Credit: Ed Krieger

 

Fire and water at Pasadena's AxS Festival

The AxS Festival has been blazing a trail through the institutes of Pasadena for the last week but there’s still more to see, right up till its conclusion on Oct. 16.

Taking the theme of fire and water for this year’s investigation into how art intersects with science and vice versa, the festival, put on by the Pasadena Arts Council, offers several showcases for visual art inspired by outer space, dance that reflects on the desert, sound art curated by multimedia artist Steve Roden, and conversations about toxic water and wildfires.

It’s the right festival for a city studded with such premiere science institutions as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, as well as artistic gems that include the Dance Conservatory of Pasadena, the Art Center College of Design and the Armory Center.

Terry LeMoncheck, the executive director of the Pasadena Arts Council, said the festival took two years to plan and cost around $300,000, which the council secured in funding from various charitable foundations, including the NEA and the James Irvine Foundation. That money allowed it to commission several new pieces of work, an important goal of the festival.

“When you put an artist and a scientist together,” LeMoncheck said, “it’s about being in the moment and looking to the future. Artists and scientists have ideas and inquisitive minds all the time. Commissioning new work allows for that fertile territory where new ideas can happen, the kind that can transform lives or the world.”

For Roden’s "Ignite/Flow" showcase, taking place Friday night in the Wind Tunnel Gallery at the Art Center, the artist and arts council member was excited by the opportunity to simply let three of his favorite artists (composer Mark So, multimedia performance artists Yann Novak and Robert Crouch, and visual/sound artist Carole Kim) interpret the festival’s theme in three radically different ways.

Monster Mash: 'American Idiot' could be headed for movie screens; King Tut statue recovered in Egypt

Rock musical: Universal is in talks to acquire the screen rights to the Green Day stage musical "American Idiot." (Hollywood Reporter)

Recovered: A missing statue of King Tutankhamun has been returned to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. (Bloomberg)

Sour note: The Philadelphia Orchestra might be days away from declaring bankruptcy. (ABC 6 and Philadelphia Inquirer)

Future home: The space shuttle Endeavour will go on permanent display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. (Los Angeles Times)

Building out: The Queens Museum in New York has broken ground on a $65-million expansion. (NY1)

Financial relief: The Milwaukee Public Museum has received a boost in the form of forgiveness of $10.8 million in debt. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Sold: A 19th century painting of St. Petersburg that Mikhail Baryshnikov purchased decades ago has sold at auction for $746,500 to benefit the dancer's New York arts center. (Associated Press)

Speaking out: An artist in San Rafael, Calif., is upset because her nude painting was pulled from a Marin Civic Center art exhibition because it offended a county employee. (Marin Independent Journal, via San Jose Mercury News)

Coming soon: Venues have been announced for the June screenings of the Broadway revival of "The Importance of Being Earnest." (Los Angeles Times)

Also in the L.A. Times: Playwright Edward Albee has won the MacDowell Medal for lifetime achievement.

-- David Ng

Photo: Tré Cool, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt of the band Green Day. Credit: Phil Mucci / Berkeley Repertory Theatre

Theater review: 'Silent Sky' at South Coast Repertory

Is the sky sexless? A female astronomer bumps up against the celestial ceiling in “Silent Sky,” Lauren Gunderson’s period dramedy now at South Coast Repertory. The result — like its protagonist — is equal parts polished, curious and frustrating.

Working as an assistant at the Harvard College Observatory in the 1910s, Henrietta Leavitt made a revolutionary discovery that helped prove the universe was larger than the Milky Way. Leavitt has been largely ignored by historians until George Johnson’s recent biography, a major source for Gunderson’s play. 

Mixing droll domestic drama and scientific detection, Gunderson presents Henrietta (Monette Magrath) as a headstrong pastor’s daughter who leaves her beloved sister, Margaret (Erin Cottrell), to work as a human computer counting stars for male scientists at Cambridge. Henrietta chafes at being part of a “harem” but befriends two wisecracking co-workers, Annie and Williamina (Colette Kilroy and Amelia White, both excellent). Soon she finds herself equally drawn to the mysteries of luminous cepheids and shy supervisor Peter (Nick Toren).

John Iacovelli’s gorgeously minimalist, midnight blue set features an upstage screen that arcs open as if revealing the night sky from an observatory. Enhanced by York Kennedy’s evocative lighting and John Crawford’s projection design, the stage resembles a telescope turned on the stars.

An installation of 'Energy' at Art Center College of Design

  
The Dettifoss waterfall in northeastern Iceland, the largest waterfall in Europe, is accessible only by traveling a rough road with no facilities and a view hindered by the fall's powerful spray.

Los Angeles-based artist Rebeca Méndez made this dangerous trek twice to capture the water's mighty display of energy. Her resulting video art installation, "At Any Given Moment, Fall 1," is one striking example of natural and man-made energy sources on display in "Energy" at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Although "beautiful" and "mesmerizing" are words not often used to describe energy, this exhibition reveals the beauty within various energy sources while exploring the contentious nexus of science and art.

"The intersection of art and science really resonates at a place like Art Center," said Stephen Nowlin, director of the school's Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery. "The ancient duality of intuition versus reason and emotion versus intellect is a constant theme analyzed in human endeavor."

The show is anchored by Méndez's two video installations. In "At Any Given Moment Fall 1," a field of lava rocks is set in the foreground against a 17-by-22-foot video projection of the Dettifoss falls, which showcases the powerful force of the rushing water.

Monster Mash: Autry president to retire; Einstein's theory of relativity goes public; LuPone's ballet debut

--Bidding farewell: John L. Gray, president of the Autry National Center of the American West, will announce his retirement today. (Los Angeles Times)

--Scientific treasure: The original 46-page manuscript of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity will go on public display for the first time in Jerusalem. (Jerusalem Post)

-Money woes: Photographer Annie Leibovitz reportedly is turning to a private equity firm for loans to help address her financial troubles. (Financial Times)

--Song and dance: Patti LuPone will make her debut -- in a singing role -- with the New York City Ballet in Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's "The Seven Deadly Sins" in the spring 2011 season. (New York Times)

--Bound for Texas: The late writer David Foster Wallace's papers have been acquired by the University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center, which also possesses the archives of authors Norman Mailer and Don DeLillo. (Austin American Statesman)

--Box-office bounce: Less than two months after it opened, the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's “A View From the Bridge,” starring Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson, has recouped its initial investment, the show's producers say. (New York Times)

--Box-office blues: In New Jersey, the American Repertory Ballet cancels the rest of its season while the 12 Miles West Theatre Company suspends operations. (Star Ledger)

--Old faithful: The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History--the most popular museum in the country--is preparing to celebrate its centennial. (Washington Post)

--Master builder: Architect Bruce Graham, who designed Chicago's Willis Tower (originally known as the Sears Tower) and the John Hancock Center, has died at 84 in Hobe Sound, Fla. (Chicago Tribune)

Also in the L.A. Times: Columnist Patrick Goldstein on the layoffs of Variety's chief theater and film critics; Josef Woodard reviews the Los Angeles Master Chorale's performance of Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

--Karen Wada

Photo: Albert Einstein in 1938. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

 

Natural History Museum to open 'Age of Mammals' exhibition in newly restored 1913 Building

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County will open its newly restored 1913 Building in July with “Age of Mammals” -- an exhibition that’s been 65 million years in the making.   “This is the first permanent museum exhibit to trace the history of evolution -- from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the rise of humans -- within the context of epochal changes in the Earth’s geology and climate,” says  John Harris, the Natural History Museum’s head of vertebrate studies and chief curator of the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.

“We believe this new way of telling our story is not only exciting and illuminating but provides a powerful message for people today about climate change and human impact on our environment.”

 “Age of Mammals” will fill one wing of the 1913 Building with a mix of ancient fossils, modern specimens and interactive multimedia. Visitors can learn how violent movements of the great land masses radically affected global temperatures and weather patterns and how these changes created new environments -- and opportunities -- that allowed a diverse array of mammals to develop.

They also can get a close look at the La Brea horse, Simi Valley mastodon, saber-toothed cat and the ancient horned brontothere (“thunder beast”). Suspended overhead will be aquatic mammals, including a sea lion and a sperm whale.

New mummies exhibition to debut at California Science Center in L.A.

"Mummies of the World," a new traveling exhibition featuring more than 150 preserved objects, will kick off its U.S. tour in Los Angeles at the California Science Center. The show is schedule to open July 1.

Organizers of the show said the collection includes ancient mummies and artifacts from Asia, Oceania, South America and Europe -- as well as ancient Egypt. In addition, the exhibition features both accidental mummies -- those that were preserved via natural events such as ice -- and those that were intentionally preserved.

The display will include a gallery devoted to Egyptian antiquity containing specimens that date as far back as 6,500 BC. The show will also contain the Capuchin monk mummies, which are on loan from the Museum of The Catacombs of Palermo, Italy.

The exhibition is scheduled to travel to science centers and museums throughout the U.S. for a three-year tour.

"Mummies of the World" is co-organized by American Exhibitions, a company that produces blockbuster-type traveling shows for museums and science centers.

One of the company's past shows experienced some controversy. "Our Body: The Universe Within" featured human remains that had undergone a "plastination" process that preserved them for exhibition purposes.

Senate GOP leader investigating California Science Center's cancellation of anti-Darwin film

The case of the canceled anti-Darwin film is evolving in a potentially unpleasant way for the California Science Center.

It's already facing a lawsuit for alleged fraud and 1st Amendment violations from the American Freedom Alliance, an L.A. think tank that wanted to screen "Darwin's Dilemma: The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record," which promotes intelligent design as an alternative to Darwinian theory as an explanation for how life developed on Earth. Now, the state-owned museum in Exposition Park is getting heat from Sacramento.

Dennis Hollingsworth (R-Murrieta), the GOP's leader in the state Senate, last week sent Joel Strom, the chairman of the science center's board of directors, a letter saying he aims to investigate the "disturbing situation." Hollingsworth said he's concerned that the science center may have violated laws prohibiting government agencies from banning groups from using public spaces because of their point of view.

Attached was a long list of information he wants handed over pertaining to the decision to cancel the Oct. 25 screening, "including e-mail communications from CSC staff, employees and board members which discuss the event and the topic of intelligent design."

The case may prove awkward for Strom, a Beverly Hills dentist who was appointed to the science center's board by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

-- Mike Boehm

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Photos: Spencer Tracy, left, and Fredric March as lawyers resembling Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan in the film "Inherit the Wind," echoing the 1925 "Scopes monkey trial" that debated Darwin's theory of evolution; Dennis Hollingsworth. Credits: Associated Press (film still); Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press (Hollingsworth).

Laserium show hopes to rock on despite dashed comeback attempt in Hollywood

After nearly 40 years, Ivan Dryer says he hasn’t soured on bouncing brilliant light beams to a big rock beat, even though his most recent Laserium venture didn’t exactly shine on like the crazy diamond in the Pink Floyd song that has formed a backdrop to many a laser-rock display.

Dryer, the founder and chief executive of Laser Images, Inc., the company that put on laser shows at Griffith Observatory from 1973 to 2002, says a combination of bad luck and business miscalculations forced him to turn off the lights just five months into a comeback bid that began last summer at the Vine Theatre in Hollywood.

But he said today that he’s still in the hunt for a new venue, possibly a different theater in Hollywood, or maybe by working out a deal with the Fleet Science Center in San Diego. The science center has the ideal domed-theater configuration that was lost when the Griffith Observatory underwent renovations from 2002 to 2006, then reopened with a science-only mandate for its planetarium.

It was a bad omen  — and bad for business — that Laserium’s Hollywood reincarnation began the same day, June 25, that the world learned of Michael Jackson’s death.