FEBRUARY 2005

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Mat Bevel • Bravo!

Kinetic Art and Surrealistic Pop Science Theater Inspire the Whole Family

by Bob Peizer

Inspiration is religion down at the Mat Bevel Institute (530 N. Stone Avenue). This “fortress for the arts” is home to an eccentric cast of characters including General Lee Speaking, Major Stroke, Walter Ego and Johnny Junk, among others. It also houses the astounding collection of found-object kinetic sculptures (The Museum of Moving Objects) of Ned Schaper (a.k.a. Mat Bevel) that has made the Institute a destination for fans from all around the world.

His upcoming show “Horsey in the Round” runs Friday through Sunday, February 25-27 and will feature local artists as well as his inimitable performance art. Schaper, described by some as “a man who’s had too much to think,” was selected Artist-in-Residence by the Tucson Arts District Partnership and was also a recipient of the prestigious Arizona Arts Award.

The one-man shows (collectively called Surrealistic Pop Science Theatre) feature poems, songs and various peculiar statements made by the cast of characters, each of which is associated with a kinetic art piece that Schaper wears, operates or otherwise inflicts on himself. The kinetic sculptures have evocative names like the “Painful Moment Simulator” and the “Ironic Lung,” and it sometimes take years to complete a single piece’s fragile mechanisms using found objects.


Each show is set to original music recorded by the Mat Bevel Orchestra (locals Ned Schaper on bass, Jane Kaiser on piano and Jim Marshall on sax), and occasionally showcases other musicians as well. The mood created by the dozens of dramatically-lit kinetic sculptures, the subtly haunting background music together with Schaper’s philosophical and whimsical poetry provides an experience that is both inspirational and unforgettable.

The unifying theme is Mat Bevel’s slightly touched but always touching pronouncements about the human condition, set amidst the “gizmotronic fanfare of spunk, funk and kinetic junk” that is the Bevel Institute’s hallmark. All of the shows are pieces of a larger whole that is headed to the Internet via BevelVision, Schaper’s master plan to webcast all of the events at the Institute through his website www.matbevel.com. “The audience, the sculptures, the visiting artists – everything we do here is part of the art. The whole building is a found-object piece of art that is evolving with everything else on the planet,” says Schaper, adding “We really want to involve our local community in creating and webcasting BevelVision to the rest of the world.”

“Kinetic art for the whole family” is the Institute’s credo. And within the humor prevalent throughout his work, Schaper takes it very seriously. “The Institute was designed so that multimedia art (music, poetry, sculpture) could be presented and enjoyed at any level,” he says. “Nowadays most art separates us by being used as a criterion for exclusion from certain groups. For example, say I like Picasso and you don’t: then you don’t belong to my group. But experiencing art at the Institute is specifically meant to be inclusive. A 5-year-old will enjoy certain aspects of it, an 18-year-old other aspects and 30-, 40- or 80-somethings will respectively enjoy different parts of a performance. The whole point is that they will have experienced an unusual, inspirational and modern ritual together, and will be able to talk about it together.”

“…we believe artistry is a form of ministry, where art serves to inspire people with a sense of hope and motivation. In the presence of magic, which art is, people can witness the awe of creation that defines ritual and provides the oneness we depend upon for spiritual wholeness. The inspiration of art provides a heightened state of bonding that spans the range of ages….” – excerpt from the Mission of the Mat Bevel Institute

Bravo!

by Gene Armstrong

Finally time has arrived for the 14th annual New Play Festival presented by the Old Pueblo Playwrights. Mention was made in the space last month of OPP’s latest gathering, but details had not yet been finalized. We can now report with confidence that the festival is scheduled for Feb. 3, 4 and 5 in the Cabaret Theatre at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.

The New Play Festival has become an important tradition in Tucson letters and its boisterous theater community, providing a priceless showcase for offbeat, short or experimental plays and works by playwrights with little previous experience.

Each of these plays has been read and critiqued at least twice during OPP’s regular Monday night meetings. Presented as staged readings, they will be performed with scripts in hand and are decidedly minimal in terms of blocking, props, sets and lighting.

OPP offers a year-round slate of critiques, workshops and seminars, nurturing the voices of countless writers over the years. And many of the plays in the New Play Festival go on to greater glory afterward.

For instance, Adrienne Perry’s “White Garden” – presented by Cubrienne Productions in association with Green Thursday Theatre Project – enjoyed a January run in the Cabaret Theatre and has been nominated for the Lambda Award, says OPP secretary J.D. Autrey.

The festival this year will include one-act and full-length plays, avant-garde and realism, comedy and drama. “We’re making them laugh this year and we’ve making them cry,” Autrey says.

The readings offer audiences rare opportunities to see plays in various stages of progress and to provide feedback during the feedback sessions after each performance. OPP actually cares what its viewers think. “The audience gets to tell us what they see and don’t see in the plays during the ‘Talk Back’ sessions,” Autrey says.

Here’s the schedule for the festival:

  • Thursday, Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m. Three one-act plays: OPP president Gavin Kayner’s “Interior Monologues”; Frances Feld’s “The Wall”; and “Share the Pretzels” by Gary James. Autrey says these are the first produced stage works by Feld and James.
  • Friday, Feb. 4, at 7:30 p.m. “Grace Notes,” Kayner’s full-length drama about life and death. “When you choose death with dignity, more than just yourself dies,” he says in a press release.
  • Saturday, Feb. 5, at 3 p.m. “Tea For Three,” by Richard Chaney. An excerpt from this comedy, set in New Orleans, was seen recently at the Wilde Playhouse.

  • Saturday, Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m. Cassie Gonzales’ avant-garde short play “30 Pages” calls to mind the Beat Generation. It will accompany Leslie Powell’s full-length play “The Way Life Should Be.”

Tickets to each showing are $5 each. Or you can pay $15 to attend all of the festival’s events. Call 297-3317 to reserve tickets.

Later in the month, Arizona Theatre Company tackles Thomas Gibbons’ “Permanent Collection,” a thorny drama about art, power and race relations. Directed by ATC’s associate artistic director, Samantha K. Wyer, this challenging piece explores the cultural and philosophical clashes that erupt when an outspoken art aficionado dies and leaves his extensive collection of Impressionist paintings to a predominantly African-American college.

ATC will present “Permanent Collection” work starting Feb. 26 and running through March 19 in the main auditorium at the Temple of Music and Art. Tickets range in price from $26 to $44, and they can be had by calling 622-2823.

The most exciting dance event this month is the return to Tucson of the remarkable modern troupe Pilobolus Dance Theatre, which appears at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 15 in the University of Arizona’s Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd.

The company, known for regularly redefining what we perceive as modern dance, will present the new work “Megawatt.” Choreographer Jonathan Wolken has described it in publicity information as “an electrifying experience with ultra-dynamic moves. Suffice to say that it will be fueled by music of alternative rock acts such as Primus, Radiohead and Squarepusher.

Tickets to “Megawatt” range from $18 to $36, with discounts available for students, children, faculty and staff. Call 621-3341 for more information.

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