May 22, 2003

Arts Briefing

IGHLIGHTS

DYLAN TALKS TO SCORSESE Bob Dylan is to be interviewed by Martin Scorsese for a documentary that will examine the singer's early career and the cultural and political impact of his music. The BBC, which will finance the production in part, said yesterday that the film would have its premiere on its network and in the United States on the PBS station Channel 13 in New York. The documentary will span Mr. Dylan's career from the early 1960's as a singer of folk hits like `Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A-Changin' " through his emergence as a rock star.

GREECE: ACROPOLIS CONTROVERSY CONTINUES Greece remains committed to construction of a museum on the Acropolis in Athens despite reports that the country's highest administrative court will rule the project illegal, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. "As soon as the decision is published, all appropriate actions will be taken with a view to respect the law as well as the construction of the work," Evangelos Venizelos, the country's culture minister, said. Mr. Venizelos said the new glass museum, designed by Bernard Tschumi, was crucial to Greece's hopes for recovering the 2,500-year-old Elgin Marbles from the British Museum in time for the Olympic Games next year in Athens.

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.: GHOST STORY Deep in the woods, a warrior arrives at the home of a reclusive, mysterious woman. Is he a suitor? Or an assassin? Will she offer him love? Or imprisonment? And what about the elderly writer who visits a mysterious brothel where men nearing life's end may relive their youth? These questions are raised in the two acts of "The Sound of a Voice," a music theater piece inspired by Japanese ghost stories. With a text by David Henry Hwang, music by Philip Glass and direction by Robert Woodruff, this American Repertory Theater production will have its world premiere at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge.

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA.: RED GROOMS The cast of characters ranges from Sarah Bernhardt, Mae West and Gertrude Stein to Charlie Chaplin, Pablo Picasso and Elvis Presley. All under the same roof thanks to the art and humor of Red Grooms, they will be found at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach beginning on Saturday in what is described as the first exhibition devoted to the artist's portraiture. With 65 works, including paintings, prints, watercolors, drawings and multimedia constructions, this show spans the years from the mid-1950's to the present as it examines Mr. Grooms's updating of tradition. "The Human Comedy: Portraits by Red Grooms" continues through Aug. 24.

GOWANUS: THE ARTS CANAL Picture this: a 16-seat pontoon boat plying the fluids of the Gowanus Canal while audio interviews carry the words of nearby residents, business owners and environmentalists and live performance events take place aboard the boat, under bridges, between trees and on dead-end streets abutting the waterway. In a presentation by Red Dive called "Peripheral City: Rediscovering the Gowanus Canal," this is the prospect hourly from noon to 5 p.m. from Saturday through Monday and on May 31 and June 1. Passengers assemble at 400 Carroll Street in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

DANCE: ANNIVERSARY SHOW Who's that tap, tap, tapping in the Haft Auditorium of the Fashion Institute of Technology? If the time is 7 p.m. and the day is Sunday — National Tap Dance Day, the birthday of Bill (Bojangles) Robinson — then the tappers are people like Jimmy Slyde and Mable Lee, Reggio the Hoofer and young Gil Stroming. The occasion is the 15th anniversary of Tap Extravaganza, a celebration of tap-dancing that displays the art in its many styles. With Brenda Bufalino as the host and music by the Frank Owens Trio, the festivities at 227 West 27th Street will include the Flo-Bert Awards (named for the Broadway performers Florence Mills and Bert Williams) for lifetime achievement. This year's recipients are Ernest (Brownie) Brown of the team of Cook & Brown; Stanley Donen, the Academy Award-winning dancer, choreographer, producer and director; the Tony Award-winning director, choreographer, actor and dancer Tommy Tune; and the dancer, choreographer and teacher Dianne Walker.

FOOTNOTES

The soprano Renée Fleming, the flutist Julius Baker, the dancer and choreographer Alfredo Corvino, the jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr., the actress Marian Seldes and the trumpeter William Vacchiano are to receive honorary doctorates at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Alice Tully Hall at the 98th commencement ceremony of the Juilliard School. . . . The summer season at the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, N.J., will begin with a free concert by the Atlantic Wind Ensemble, with the Atlantic Festival Chorus, at 8 p.m. Saturday. . . . A score of stars and more than 100 performing arts organizations, artists, poets and filmmakers are to take part in the eighth annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts from tomorrow through Sunday in and around the Theater for the New City, at First Avenue at 10th Street. Saturday's schedule calls for a daylong, blocklong carnival. . . . The five-year contract of Franz Welser-Möst as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra has been extended for five years, through the 2011-12 season.