A Blue Door Arts Equity Never Opened in Vancouver.

Arts Equity has over it's time in Vancouver looked at scores of buildings suitable to house our performance space. This is a building we looked back in January of 2009. The photographs were taken by Cara Cottingham and Christine Eagon. This space was a storage for costumes; which had included in it, forty or fifty years of costumes from the old Portland Civic Theater. Jack Booch (Portland Civic Theater) toured the space and identified for us the lineage of this costume collection. As you will see from the photographs, the extent of the collection. We were told about this space by one of our former patrons with the caveat that the basement space had recently flooded and we might be interested in what was down there. In an effort to help us see more of the potential of the space and to demonstrate to a potential landlord our sweat equity, five of us hauled 5 tons of water soaked and moldy ruined costumes out of the basement one afternoon...for free! Click here to view the still images.

Back to the Farm

Here is an interview I gave to Adam Stewart of the Vancouver Voice

Until two years ago, Arts Equity, founded by theater veteran Llewellyn Rhoe, had been Vancouver’s alternative theater, putting on challenging and adult productions such as 21A, The God of Hell, and the musical Herringbone. Yet it seemed there wasn’t much of a market for art theater in Vancouver: low public interest forced the theater to close its doors (the Main Street Theater is now being used by the Magenta Theater Company.)

“When I decided to create a version of Arts Equity in Vancouver, it was more about wanting to do work ... that inspired me,” said Rhoe in an email. “That is the arc in my creative life. Along the way you forge a point of view through the art exchange you have with your patrons and detractors.”
“Vancouver is the first place I have yet to make a living as an artist.”

After losing the Main Street Theater, Arts Equity ran productions in Portland, though not to much success. Since then, it has done what it can for the Vancouver arts scene, including collaborate with pianist Thomas Rheingan for the “Live At the Fries” concert series.

“I’ve sat out these last two plus years to analyze what happened during our Main Street tenure and to apply it to going forward in the arts here in this area,” said Rhoe.

Earlier this year, Rhoe was appointed to the Clark County Arts Commission by the Vancouver City Council, though they have yet to assign him any according duties. Like almost any artist, Rhoe supports himself through “day jobs.” Since April, he has been working for the 2010 Census in Vancouver. “I am learning things about Vancouver that I didn’t hear when I worked the 2000 census,” he said. “With the concerns expressed by a lot of very angry individuals about how they view the government, an arts dialogue seems a long way from the public debate.”

For its most recent project, Arts Equity is taking on something a little more “family friendly” than they’ve been known for, though no less artistically valid: a children’s tale of morality that populates the stage with a bear, a dog, trolls, and a cow named Lilywhite.

Nisse’s Dream was written by Paul Safar and Nancy Woods and debuted at the Lord Leebrick Theater in Eugene in 2005. It’s a musical fable about courage and finding help along the road where one might least expect. Nisse, a young farmboy, has been elected by his family to recover Lillywhite, their dairy cow that has been stolen by a pack of greedy trolls. Along the way, Nisse is given a gift that allows him to speak to animals, and through his own good will, a dog and a bear become his companions.

“Part of Arts Equity has always [been] to entertain the ideas,” said Rhoe, “and Nisse’s Dream has a very old-world storyteller morality to the story line without hammering you from the pulpit when delivered through the music. It’s a great example of teaching and entertaining things, like loving the animals who serve us.”

Having spent summers of his upbringing on his grandparents’ farms, Rhoe understands parallels between Nisse’s story and his own. “Certainly part of me is still just a kid off the farm like Nisse,” he said. “Art is completely like farming: If you don’t plant you don’t reap. Make hay while the sun shines. There is always crop failure. What you reap today has nothing to do with what you did today. And even the lessons learned in crop failure help you learn what not to ever do again.

“Nisse is on an adventure where his family’s destiny is at stake against antagonist trolls, who want everything and more,” said Rhoe. “That’s a theme most people come up against at various times in their lives. We’ve all been ‘milked’ by pickers of low hanging fruit, not just out right thieves. As a kid off the farm, I probably have a similar discomfort with pickers of low hanging fruit.”

Some of Rhoe’s first experiences in children’s theater include putting on shows as a child. His first run theater was when he was in the fourth grade, when he fashioned a stage in his neighbor’s garage, complete with trap door, to put on performances. “I also learned that lemonade brought in almost as much revenue and that I had to pay rent to my friend who’s dad owned the house the garage was hooked up to,” he said. “I guess her dad was the first agent type I dealt with.”

Rhoe’s college mentor who attended the prestigious Goodman School of Drama in Chicago, showed him the ropes in entertaining children. They performed for 15,000 elementary students over 10 performances.
“Working for kids is in many ways the most honest,” said Rhoe. “They cheer your good guys and they boo the bad guys.

“The kid’s audience is very sophisticated in many ways,” he said, “so you can’t play down to them, you need to open them up to the world of wonder.”

Rhoe said one of the things that drew him into directing Nisse’s Dream was its music. “[It] has a very sophisticated score that at the same time is extremely accessible to the young and the young at heart,” he said. “‘Take Care of Me’ has a jazzy swing standard quality that makes you think you’re in love, where ‘I Am Strength’ has this wonderful march quality to it.”

Rhoe said when he received a recording of the music of Nisse’s Dream from its creators, he sought and found the emotional moments of the show. “I obsessively listen to the score until I know it and it overtakes my conscious, sub- and unconscious minds,” he said. “I dream it: waking, sleeping, which in the end requires turning it over to my subconscious mind to work out the creation. It becomes stuck in me where the only exorcism is directing it.”

Initially slated to run in late July at the Sherman Auditorium in Vancouver, Rhoe said the production was pushed back to next year, in part to allow a possible collaboration with the Portland Festival Ballet, which has expressed interest in working with Cherry Blossom Musical Arts, Safar and Woods’s non-profit organization. Promotional tie-ins with Burgerville and the Dairy Farmers of Oregon are also in consideration.

Rhoe said he hopes to have the production ready for next spring. In the meantime, he is also penning a historical drama based on the life of Ulysses S. Grant. “It’s a four-hander with Mark Twain,” he said, “Grant at the age he was when he was here at Ft. Vancouver, Grant at the age when he wrote his memoir. Grant missed his wife and it’s here in Vancouver that he started to drink.”

But with Nisse’s Dream, it’s the children who look to benefit from Arts Equity’s ambitious project brought to Vancouver’s stage. That includes, of course, the child in all of us, as well as the children in performers and director.

“When you work at this collaborative level, you experience a very childlike feeling about creating,” said Rhoe. “It is a chance to be a kid again. A chance to be an old soul in a young body, for young bodies.”

For more information, visit http://www.artsequity.org/ and http://www.cblossom.org/. CDs or MP3 downloads of music from "Nisse's Dream" can be found at www.cdbaby.com.

"Herringbone" Costume Designer Our Favorite on "Project Runway"

I've been a fan of "Project Runway" from the beginning of the show and Arts Equity has been a huge fan of Seth Aaron Henderson (pictured at left) fashion designer since he had a small design studio on Main Street in Vancouver.

Those of you who saw Mr. Taylor Askman's legendary performance in Arts Equity's production of Tom Cone's "Herringbone, directed by Llewellyn J. Rhoe's saw Seth Aaron's amazing skills and edgy fashion sense at work up close. Seth Aaron designed, fitted and executed the "Herringbone" suit in a couple of days...and it remains in perfect shape after 44 performances and 10 months of grueling work by Mr. Askman.

We wish Seth Aaron all the best, and all the luck required to pull off this competition on "Project Runway". He is our favorite! We will be watching with great anticipation. Even if Seth Aaron isn't the final winner, he is a big winner headed for bigger things. Unfortunately for Vancouver (according to his interview in The Columbian) he probably will move to a hipper market like Los Angeles or New York after his stint on the show is over.

Seth Aaron's fashion home page is below
Seth Aaron Henderson

Follow the "Project Runway" official blog here
http://bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com/

Here is Seth Aaron's "Project Runway" page
Seth Aaron Henderson

Thomas Rheingans "Fleurs et Chocolat" Live at the Fries February 13th

TICKET INFO:
brownpapertickets.com
1-800-838-3006
$12 Matinee performances,
$16 Evening performances,
Senior/Student discounts.

LOCATION: 2214 E 13th Street Fries Auditorium Vancouver, WA
* Admission includes dessert and beverage provided by Trader Joes

ARTISTRY IN RHYTHM The 6th season of "Live at the Fries"
featuring pianist Thomas Rheingans produced by Llewellyn J. Rhoe

Sweet and lowdown in Vancouver

One night in October, after a lengthy set of various jazz, show and choral favorites, renowned pianist Tom Rheingans banged out a flaming rendition of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.” His hands were reflected in the black wood of the baby grand, like there were four hands playing. It sounded like it. Afterwards, the wowed audience exploded in a standing ovation. The sixth season of Live At the Fries was underway.

Live At the Fries is a performance series that showcases Rheingans and featured guests. This season is the first under production and promotion guidance of the Arts Equity theater company.

The Fries Auditorium, on the Washington State School for the Blind campus, was built around 1915 and is fashioned after something like a dance hall. It’s bright, classy, moderate-sized and distinctly old-fashioned ambiance is perfect for a piano performance that harkened back to the early part of the 20th Century.

“Acoustically, it’s the best venue in Vancouver,” Llewellyn Rhoe, founder of Arts Equity, said of the Fries.

Rhoe said he met Rheingans when they found they, as artists and promoters in Vancouver, had something in common. “We introduced ourselves and said we needed to sit down and talk because nobody else was crazy enough to buy a full page in the Vancouver Vanguard,” he said.

Afterwards, Rhoe frequently used Rheingan’s music to underscore Arts Equity’s productions. “We had a fairly regular decompression session, ‘What did I think of the performance’ over the years,” Rhoe said. He said future collaborations with Rheingans are in the works. In the meantime, he’s handling much of the less celebrated handy work for Live At the Fries.
“I’m a producer,” said Rhoe. “My direct involvement in it is making sure that the performer just has to perform. It’s a good working relationship,” he said. “They’re rare.”

“It’s certainly a relief,” Rheingan said about Rhoe’s contributions to Live At the Fries, “because I can focus a little bit more on my playing.”

Rheingan said he hopes their collaboration will expose their arts to each others’ audiences. Arts Equity’s theater activity is on temporary hiatus while they work on locating a new performance venue. “It’s a good time to concentrate on writing,” said Rhoe.
Each performance of Live At the Fries is a collection of songs related to a certain theme. The first performance, titled “Sweet and Lowdown,” focused primarily on the works of George Gershwin, though not exclusively. “I always mix a few things in,” Rheingan said. “It’s a theme that you play off of, but then ... there’ll be some other things.”

Under an outline of the New York skyline, which was projected on the red curtain backdrop, Rheingans opened the set playfully with Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” on solo piano. It’s a song that’s usually the show’s closer, he said.

He wasn’t alone for the entire show. During the first half, he brought out Asia Smith, a young singer whom he has worked with since 2007. Also appearing in the second half of the show, Jones added an old-fashioned lounge essence to the performance, cooing sultrily in Gershwin’s “Summertime” and belting out hope and inspiration in John Kander’s “Maybe This Time.”

Rheingans was also joined by Heritage High School Women’s and Men’s Ensemble, under the direction of Joel Karn. The men and women’s choirs performed together and separately, as well as for one number sung a cappella. The women’s ensemble, which won first place at the State Solo/Ensemble Competition three years in a row, performed a rousing rendition of Moses Hogan’s gospel number, “Music Down In My Soul.”

Rheingans said past shows have incorporated different kinds of guests, from Irish musicians to belly dancers, to accentuate the eclectic nature of his sets.

“My hope is to add something to the offerings of Vancouver,” he said. He said part of the nature of the series is to expose audiences to his guests and to The Fries, perpetuating interest in Vancouver’s culture.

“There needs to be more,” he said, “and I’m trying, hopefully, to fill a need.”

Newcomers may find that watching even a single performer can make for thorough entertainment. Listening to the performance of a piano player is impressive enough, but seeing one in person adds a dimension of respect for the craft. Seeing his hands fly across a staggering performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” is as humbling, both for those who never play piano and, especially, for those who took a year of it in college and still can’t play “Chopsticks.”

Add in some high-end, complimentary refreshments provided by Trader Joe’s, and it’s a fine evening out for anyone. This season of Live At the Fries will run until May with the next set, “The Christmas Sojourn” on December 5. For more information visit www.liveatthefries.com.

Adam Stewart is a cultural go-getter and Arts & Culture writer for The Voice.

Hey Couve Do Something Patriotic...Support The Arts.

HEY COUVE!

HELP US RAISE AWARENESS

AND SUPPORT THE ARTS

To get your own hi res copy of this image

send an email to 

heycouve@dosomethingpatriotic.com

Help us get this image out and here is the reason. 

This Thursday the 16th of April there will be a Forum entitled: "What is art and who decides it is?" The forum begins at 7:30 pm in the Clark Public Utilities Auditorium located at 1200 Fort Vancouver Way.  You can read an editorial in the Vancouver Voice for their perspective.  

Panelists include Vancouver/Clark Parks and Recreation Director, Peter Mayer, Evergreen School Superintendent, John Deeder and Vancouver Arts and Academics Principal, James O’Banion. Betty Sue Morris will facilitate the forum. Sponsors include SWCA and Clark County Commissioner Marc Boldt.

With the exception of James O'Banion, it's difficult to find anything on Google that even mentions their past work supporting the arts!  Several of us have been asking ourselves what needs to be corrected with this picture?

Why are there no artists, no gallery owners, no working artists on this panel?  We heard that they specifically didn't want any artists on this forum.  Why is the panel filled with administrators and politicians?  

Maybe the forum's title should be: "How can WE decide what is art?"

Please panel organizers, please do not confuse this one sided discussion with broad based arts advocacy.  You can't really expect to have a forum on: "What is art and who decides it is?" when you leave the artists totally out of the equation.  No artists, equals no meaningful discussion for this panel.

It is extremely patronizing to be shunned to the side in this way.  We are not children allowed to sit in on your adult activity, only if we are seen and not heard.   We suggest a change in your tack if you ever want to get that arts ship to sail upwind in the Couve!   In case you haven't noticed several artists and arts organizations have been sailing upwind for a long time without any help from panels and forums. 

In the end it is not about building a hundred million dollar arts center, it is about advocating for all the arts already an organic part of our community.  After twenty years of civic leaders and politicians attempting to get a building built, there's been not one performance given, not one painting hung, not one note played, not an event scheduled for this as yet, non existent arts center!  It seems a little out of balance and disingenuous to us to support anything other than what is organically taking place.

So we hope the panelists, supporters, and sponsors of this panel come prepared to show us their artistic vitae credentials (that's like:  show me the money) and evidence of their overwhelming past, present, and future support for the arts community in total... not just the schools, school districts and organizations they represent.

SO BRING A COPY OF THIS IMAGE AND
SHOW UP THURSDAY NIGHT...
LET'S STAGE A LITTLE ART EVENT IN SUPPORT

Thanks. 

Free Speech Patriot