Ossie and the Guerrilla

Ossie and Harriet's it aint! So if your looking for paintings to display over a nice living room sofa, or your still stuck in the 1950's somewhere like much of VanWa' s art patrons you will want to try another gallery.

A few of the paintings are as rough as the sawn cedar that frames the work. However this is just what VanWa needs in the ongoing evolution of our art community. VanWa needs a place where young artists can come together to fail and succeed just as it does in this opening exhibit of local artists work.

Let's be clear, the artists who are currently showing at Tryckpress Galleri and Guerrilla Gallery probably won't quit their day jobs anytime soon. But their hearts and minds are definitely in the right place. They are on the path and they believe that there is a market for the work that they are producing. Most of the work hanging in this show is in the two hundred dollar range. Much of it is worth the asking price. Some may not be, but that is hardly the point here. Everyone has their own esthetic influenced by how they value art, but all of us can understand the mechanics of patronage. Encouragement almost always is an essential component in the success of an artist long before the artistic breakout moment manifests.

Without bona-fide encouragement in the form of an Arts Commission these young artists have forged ahead to support themselves. A worthy tack, essential to surviving in VanWa: "If there is no wind in your sails...blow!"

Tryckpress Galleri (Ossie Bladine) and Guerrilla Gallery (Olin Unterwegner) have taken over nearly all the top floor of a Billy Dean (Dean Irwin, notable local arts supporter) property at 1001 Main street in downtown VanWa above the Rosemary Cafe. On a personal walk and squawk with Ossie, Olin and Mike (an investor/window washer extraordinare) I was reminded just how important it is for young artists to put themselves out there. Ossie and Olin, together with fellow artists Drew Taylor, Russ Mason and Lucas Adams "puke it out on white gallery walls", then have the “cajones” to invite facebook friends to check it out. It’s an act of social networking and gutsy guerrilla tactics. If you are just too old to appreciate this defiance, you will view this as an act of suicide. But to the youthful soul it is “the headlong rush into the bliss of making your mark in the world.” It is absolutely painful, and absolutely essential for young artists who are caught up in this need to create. The principles in this artistic venture have staked themselves with six months worth of cash in a bold move to bring their new galleries into existence. Let’s hope they make it, VanWa needs it! I for one will be curious to see how they blend it all together.

They’re in the infant stages of gathering like minds with like ambitions “who they get on with." It is part of a needed younger movement in the local arts scene that has been to long controlled by old proponents of what the arts should be like here in VanWa. This group like the new collective of artists in Uptown isn't sitting around waiting for an Arts Commission or a Center for the Arts. Their time is now and to postpone it is the real suicide!

The opening night reception is tonight Friday April 16th at 8pm

You can find them on the web at
http://www.guerrilla-media.com/

and through the gallery listings on the Vancouver Voice http://www.vanvoice.com/ search the gallery-listings

Llewellyn J. Rhoe
Founder, Arts Equity

In memory of Jack Booch

For those of you who don't know Jack!...this will fill in a very important link in the chain of artistry that is part of our theatrical history at Arts Equity. For those of you who did know Jack you have some indication of just who we lost when Jack passed, and how important he was to the work that we did at Arts Equity.


I sit to ponder my memories of Jack Booch because he was my most senior mentorial link in my four plus decade long career. I wonder if there will ever be another with his wit and wisdom? Jack could cut to the literary chase before most even knew it was a race. He never minced words especially amongst friends. A trait and a talent that will be hard to replace.



For those of us lucky enough reach senior status in the theatre, we know all to painfully how difficult it is to forge links with an older mentors in ourcollaborative chain. At the same time, we are often overwhelmed with neophytes clammering for a "chink in the chain"... youth who want to "glean the nuggets" of what we know and the how to's of moving ahead in their quest for a misconceived piece of celebrity.



Jack would have none of celebrity. Maybe it was his birth in Birmingham, Alabama or his intellectual prowess honed as a student at Reed College that gave him his edge and his take on the art world. Jack Booch's career included directing many of the theatre's great plays and great talents. A personal friend of Edward Albee and perhaps the director of the definitive version of "A Delicate Balance" certainly qualified him as a celebrity. As the Executive Producer for The Theatre Guild Inc. in Manhattan, Jack sheparded many a work from the theatrical canon to life on the boards. As a marketing director at the Kennedy Center I came to know of Jack as The Executive Director of The Theatre Guild in the mid 1980's.



I have many memories of Jack, three that stand out above the rest. Soon after an article appeared in our local weekly paper, The Vancouver Voice, Jack invited me and my producing partner Helene M. Rasanen to lunch. Jack loved good food and he loved to laugh. A laugh that was boisterous, poignant and politically incorrect while being "dead on". Over pasta and wine we shared a love of the great playwrights and a distain for the mediocre in performance. Jack was never above telling someone: "Don't quit your day job" and always he meant it when he said it.

I asked Jack once what he thought of a particular performance and his reply spoke volumes..."The only thing I remember" he said, "was at the intermission break they told us it was time to tinkle and have a cookie." You had to know Jack.




But the third and final memory was by far the best and the most revealing. Over Jacks seventy-two year life span, he was notorious for staging his own birthday parties. An annual event he had been doing from a very early age...I am told since about eight. But as his 72 anniversary rolled around he bowed to the requests of his long time friends to let them honor him. We met at Rosemary Cafe on Main Street in Vanvouver, Washington on a Sunday afternoon in late October 2009. Jack had been battling kidney cancer for several months and despite his condition, his wit and humor were firmly intact. About forty of us took turns relating our connection to Jack and shared the gift of how we came to love him. The testiments spanned his entire lifetime including his oldest and drearest friend from childhood. What could have been a sad and sober afternoon reached a climax often emulated in the theatre but seldom reached. The great examples of comedy are built around a trio of moments. Stck that holds our focus and builds in waves to that moment when it erupts into extended waves of laughter. Here was Jack sitting with a party hat on his head. A cross between a dunce's hat and Merlin's magic...He was at ease with both in this instance. Someone had given him a prayer shawl perhaps to comfort him in this final performance and Jack would have none of it. He raised the shawl to place it over his hat and it wouldn't go, he raised it twice to see if it was playing to the house and then with a twinkle in his eye he broke the fourth wall and looked directly at me as he went for it the third time he brought down the house.

Jack Booch was as errascable as they come. He pulled no punches, and the thought of tempering his politically incorrect utterances was something he never considered. It was refreshing to hear the truth uttered from a sage of the thatre. Early in his life Jack Booch was the director of The Portland Civic Theatre from 1966-1969.

A graduate of Reed College Jack Booch was born in Birmingham, Alabama on November 14, 1936 and passed away in Portland, Oregon on February 11, 2010

Missing and Remembering Jack
Llewellyn J. Rhoe

"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

Rheingans and Rhoe present Christmas Sojourn Live at the Fries

Rheingans and Rhoe are pleased to support the Council for the Homeless with The Christmas Sojourn Performances. Our support goes to help with the Community Voice Mail program, a groundbreaking technology for those without phones in Clark County.

The "Live at the Fries" concerts are staged in the beautifully renovated Fries Auditorium. (Location: 2214 E. 13th St Vancouver, WA) The excellent acoustics, architectural details, restored finishes and intimate setting of the Fries provide excellent acoustics in this intimate music venue.

Thomas Rheingans, Artistic Director and featured artist, is an award winning concert pianist who has performed throughout the United States in solo and ensemble settings. He has lived and performed in the Portland/Vancouver area

since 1994. Thomas is one of the Northwest's most versatile pianists. He can perform jazz, classical, and popular music with astonishing dexterity! He is an accomplished composer who has written music for plays, musical theater, film, and commercials. He has released seven albums through Rivergoose Records.

Read the Vancouver Voice review of the first concert Sweet and Lowdown.

ARTISTRY IN RHYTHM PERFORMANCE INFO:

"Christmas Sojourn" December 5th 2009 2 pm and 8 pm

TICKET INFO:

$12 Matinee performances,

$16 Evening performances,

$20 Council for the Homeless Benefit Ticket for both performances

Senior/Student discounts.

LOCATION: 2214 E 13th Street Fries Auditorium Vancouver, WA

* Admission includes dessert and beverage provided by Trader Joes

* The grand piano is by Classic Piano of Portland

TICKETS AVAILABLE at:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/7674

by phone 1.800.838.3006 or at the door

ARTISTRY IN RHYTHM The 6th season of "Live at the Fries"

featuring pianist Thomas Rheingans produced by Llewellyn J. Rhoe

The Christmas Sojourn December 5th 2009

* Artistic Programs subject to change by the performers, but here's what we plan.

Nutcracker Suite

Small World Variation in the style of 7 famous composer

Valley of the Bells

Ukrainian Bells

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Christmas Time is Here

Linus and Lucy

December Rain

BENEFIT INFO:

Our support goes to help with the Community Voice Mail program, agroundbreaking technology for those without phones in Clark County. It provides 24-hour access to telephone messages from potential landlords and employers, case managers, and family. "Community Voice Mail is an effective tool to find jobs and housing! " echos Ken Burris the Vancouver Voice Mail Coordinator.

You can help. With the purchase of a each $20 ticket, we will donate $10 to sustaining this important program. You can donate even if you can't make either the matinee or the evening performance with this caveat: the whole $20 from this special ticket will go the sustain the voicemail program. Vancouver's CVM program served 842 clients in 2008!

Tickets Available at

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/7674

by phone 1.800.838.3006 or at the door

http://www.liveatthefries.com

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

Arts Equity awarded 2nd Kinsman Grant

We are pleased to announce that the Board of The Kinsman Foundation has awarded a 2008 grant to Arts Equity Onstage for our productions of Tom Cone's  "True Mummy" and Kevin Kling's "21A."

We are deeply grateful to The Kinsman Foundation for their support of our artistic endeavors. 

August 29thOur 500th Performancea Benefit Celebration for Arts EquitySave This Date!

Arts Equity is going to celebrate a milestone in the history of our theatre:  Our 500th Performance on August 29th.   On June 17th 2005 (that is the same day as the new Hilton Hotel ) we opened Arts Equity in a renovated space we dubbed "The Main Street Theatre."  When we opened "The Main Street Theatre" we were part of the redevelopment of the downtown core in historic Vancouver. 

Now three years, two months and twelve days later we are going to post our 500th performance on Friday August 29th in the Arena at Theatre! Theater located at 3430 SE Belmont in Portland.  Although we are not currently occupying "The Main Street Theatre" we remain a Vancouver based theatre company searching for another venue in Southwest Washington. 

We want you to be part of the evening's celebration as Thomas Rheingans and Shoehorn join our production of "21A" starring Joey LeBard for an evening of music and theatre.   Thomas Rheingans piano series in Vancouver at the Fries is a must event that begins in the fall and you can check out Shoehorn on youtube. 

Tickets are $25 and available online now!  Join us for libation and an evening of fun all to benefit Arts Equity and help us continue with this our fourth season. 

You will be able to purchase CD's of both Thomas and Shoehorn at the benefit or you can do so anytime on their CDBaby websites.  Thomas Rheingans and Shoehorn on CDBaby.

This benefit is to help replace the box office receipts  that were stolen during the first weekend of our run at Theatre, Theater.

Rasanen and Rhoe

They Don't Call It Show Art Baby! Do Something Patriotic, Support the Arts

During my tenure at the Kennedy Center, I had the privilege of working as part of the producing team during the Washington run of Lily Tomlin's The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe directed by Jane Wagner.  Ms Tomlin was a very hands on person in every detail of her production whether it was selecting the media buys for bus placards, or the gifting of comp tickets.  Her show sold out six months straight and not until the final week did she give out any comps to her show, and only as a way of saying thank you for the work you put in to help make her show a success.  As she put a pair of comps in my hand she gave me one of the single most important pieces of advice I have every received..."They don't call it show art baby!"

So what we are asking you to do is this:  Do Something Patriotic, Support the arts.  Arts Equity needs your support no matter what level you choose.  Thanks!