http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/home.aspxThis week's buzz on Indy lifestyle and culture.en-usCopyright 2013, IndianapolisMonthly-NAFri, 24 May 2013 05:14:16 GMTFri, 05 Apr 2013 15:37:27 GMT1http://emmisinteractive.comBelow are thoughts from Sarah Green, curator of the Ai Weiwei: According to What? exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, open as of April 5. Below Green's quotes are descriptions for all of the art pieces photographed on the scene at the IMA's April 4 media preview. For more on the artist, see this month's Culture Counter preview. On why the IMA pursued this exhibit: "His work is something I’ve been following since 2003-04, when the Chinese contemporary art became worldly renowned. The IMA is an apt location because we’re an encyclopedic museum. We have art from many different periods and cultures, and we have an amazing Asian collection and a really strong contemporary program." As to Ai's subject matter in his art: "His work also depicts activism and desire to awknowledge and memorialize the individual, his manifest in China." About Ai's progress as an artist: "He started with ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10526995mschrader@indianapolismonthly.com (Michael Schrader)http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10526995Fri, 05 Apr 2013 15:37:27 GMTAs heralded stage actress Diane Kondrat prepares to bid farewell to Indianapolis and to the theater that has felt like home for 25 years—downtown's Phoenix Theatre—she ruminates about the work she has done here, fills us in on what's next, and explains why theater is such a vital part of the arts. It's all in this IM exclusive (part one of our talk with her appears here). SHANA NGO: How long have you been planning to leave Indy? DK: Oh, about two years now. SN: While you’ve been here, how long have you been doing stage work? DK: Twenty-five years. SN: So what kept you here so long, and why the move now? DK: [laughs] Well, [my husband] Tony Ardizzone has a job teaching literature and fiction writing at Indiana University in Bloomington. He got the job 26 years ago, and we moved to where we could pay the rent—that’s ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10522845sngo@indianapolismonthly.emmis.com (Shana Ngo)http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10522845Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:02:41 GMTPhoenix Theatre vet and Bloomington resident Diane Kondrat will bid farewell to the Indy theater scene after her role in The Lyons is complete. She recently spoke with IM about why she chose this part as her last before making her next move. Shana Ngo: So this is your final role in Indy. Diane Kondrat: I’m really glad that [Phoenix producing director] Bryan Fonseca picked it for me. There aren’t as many roles for women as men in the theater, and there aren’t as many roles for older women as there are for younger women. So I was glad he was able to find something that went along with the Phoenix’s choice to do contemporary work and had a good part for me. I’m also really glad to do an accent, that was the very first accent I ever learned in my life, when I was a little girl in ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10521228sngo@indianapolismonthly.emmis.com (Shana Ngo)http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10521228Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:22:29 GMTPhoenix Theatre’s newest play, The Lyons, is a hilarious show, and Diane Kondrat shines in her final role in Indy. Nestled in a quiet nook of Mass Ave, the Phoenix creates an unexpected and intimate atmosphere for theatergoers. If you haven’t had the chance to see a show in this eclectic enclave, now is the time to venture out, as one of its veteran thespians, Bloomington resident Diane Kondrat, performs her last role in Indy as Rita in The Lyons. It’s a wildly hysterical performance considering the heavy topic at hand (more on that below), and Rita Lyons and her husband Ben Lyons (played by the brilliant Charles Goad) had the audience in stitches with nearly every other line. This original play is relatively new, having premiered on Broadway in April 2012. The adaptation is scaled down to accommodate a smaller space, but the entertainment value remains. For the majority ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10521987sngo@indianapolismonthly.emmis.com (Shana Ngo)http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10521987Tue, 26 Mar 2013 22:22:00 GMTIt's Madness, I tell you—Madness! Butler men's basketball coach Brad Stevens normally patrols the sideline of the court by his bench with a rather calm, collected air about him. But that stoic countenance came off on Saturday night late in his Bulldogs' game against Marquette in the NCAA tournament. Butler ultimately lost the contest 74-72 on a final-second shot, that soon after a goaltending call went against Indy's NCAA-darling team. Stevens' passionate reaction is now making the rounds online, as it's been applied to various disastrous situations in the history of the world and film culture. If you've ever wondered how Stevens might react to, say, the Hindenburg airship explosion or Mufasa's demise in The Lion King, now's your chance, courtesy of lostlettermen.com. Elsewhere on the web, The New York Times put it thusly about the Bulldogs' storybook encounters at "the big dance": "Butler can be lethal late in games, ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10522080jpscott@indymonthly.emmis.com (Jonathan Scott)http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10522080Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:44:33 GMTEditor’s Note: Our correspondent, Alex Farris, is a research writer with the Center for Hip & Knee Surgery in Mooresville. As part of Operation Walk, he recently traveled to Guatemala with a surgeon from the clinic, Dr. Merrill Ritter, and agreed to update IM with a series of dispatches. Read the first, second, and third here at Circle Citizen. The fourth and final installment follows. DAY SIX On this last day, I am sure of three things. The first is that I've gotten better at my translating job. Words that came to me so slowly during triage that first day ("No esta ... No esta ... eh ... No es una buena idea ...") now flow easily. It helps that I’ve told so many patients they need to take these iron supplements and stool softeners, or that they need to bend their knee this way ten times in a ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10520825http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10520825Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:55:18 GMTEditor’s Note: Our correspondent, Alex Farris, is a research writer with the Center for Hip & Knee Surgery in Mooresville. As part of Operation Walk, he recently traveled to Guatemala with a surgeon from the clinic, Dr. Merrill Ritter, and agreed to update IM with a series of dispatches. Read the first here. The second installment follows. DAY TWO I woke up at 4:50 this morning to have breakfast at our surprisingly ritzy hotel, the Vista Real in Guatemala City—five floors of luxury rooms, fountains, stone paths, trees, and pool. Overhead was a sky full of stars I never get to see in non-tropics Indiana. We got on the bus at 6 a.m. in order to arrive at the hospital in Amatitlan by 7 and start setting up the OR, waiting rooms, and logistics. I wasn't sure what to do (nothing new), so I stood by the door to the ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10517546http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10517546Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:26:45 GMTEditor’s Note: Our correspondent, Alex Farris, is a research writer with the Center for Hip & Knee Surgery in Mooresville. As part of Operation Walk, he recently traveled to Guatemala with a surgeon from the clinic, Dr. Merrill Ritter, and agreed to update IM with a series of dispatches. Read the first and second here at Circle Citizen. The third installment follows. DAY THREE One of my friends from high school is Guatemalan. Even though I've known this friend for eight years, I had no idea what kinds of horrors lay in Guatemala's past before I traveled to the country. Since I got here, though, I have learned exactly how large history looms. And in a small way, an important member of our group has become a part of it. Some background: In 1954, Guatemala’s democratically elected president, Jacobo Arbenz Guzman, was overthrown in a coup led by armed rebels ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10519018http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10519018Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:26:08 GMTA Little Night Music is a musical four decades young built around the Desiree Armfeldt character. That's good, as Indiana Repertory Theatre's production of the show is itself built around the star wattage of Sylvia McNair, two-time Grammy Award winner, Indiana University masters grad, and current Jacobs School of Music teacher. Normally a nomad betwixt lovers, Desiree has just that—a desire, subtly stoked, spoken, and sung—to settle down (finally). A native Ohioan, McNair has sung in most every house of note nationwide and globally, adopted the Hoosier State as home, and, per various interviews, relishes this time in her life. I said this is a young musical because A Little Night Music's transparent theme of comically bad people in alternately rosy and fatalistic relationships at all levels of society is timeless. You might suppose that, based on tune titles such as "Every Day a Little Death" and "The Sun Won't ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10501687jpscott@indymonthly.emmis.com (Jonathan Scott)http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10501687Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:06:38 GMTHere, director Tim Ocel speaks to IM about the parallels to draw and complexities to consider among race, war, and religion in Indiana Repertory Theatre’s newest play, The Whipping Man. Ocel’s adaptation of Matthew Lopez’s Civil War–era play deals with these hot-button issues head-on, but, as Ocel explains, it’s important to take an active role in breaking down barriers by having controversial conversations. The Whipping Man, opening tonight, is sure to have audiences talking, but before that, we spoke with its director: SHANA NGO: What can you tie-in to present day issues in The Whipping Man? TIM OCEL: History relates to us in how it speaks to us now. That’s how history is relevant. I think that the thing that the characters are figuring out in the play is, “Who are we, now? What are we, now?” I think we have that type of question right now in terms of ...http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10514947sngo@indianapolismonthly.emmis.com (Shana Ngo)http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/circlecitizen/blogentry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10514947Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:06:07 GMT