Buzz Magazine

Pete Guither has once again made his mark on modern theatre, this time pushing the envelope of artistic creativity to new realms with the latest rendition of his own creation, The Living Canvas - Demons. As part of National Pastime Theatre’s Naked July Festival, Guither ingeniously showcases his ability to intertwine the beauty of the naked body with flowing motion, mesmerizing projections and a riveting storyline that invokes a wide range of emotions.

The story is about an autistic girl and her sister who so desperately wants to break through to her. As the story progresses, the audience, along with her sister, are taken into an autistic mind that at times is chaotic while at other moments becomes a calm, warm haven. Superbly conveyed with the use of spellbinding music played over eleven talented performers (demons) dressed only in complex projections, the theatre is transformed into a world like no other that is both visually compelling and highly sensual.

Back for it’s seventh run in Chicago since 2001, The Living Canvas changes its theme for each production barring its fundamental premise of body acceptance in which audience members are challenged by the cast at the end of each performance to strip down and join them on stage in order to get a taste of what it is like to be “Living Canvasses”. “What are bodily flaws to one might appear as beauty to another,” leading cast member, Emily Mark, explains during the invite while also touching on being comfortable in your own skin. In the particular performance I attended, over a dozen people from the crowd took to the stage to dance with the performers and perform instructed motions such as swimming. The show finally comes to an end with a fun Q&A session that offers the opportunity for cast members and director to field questions related to the production. This is certainly a show not to be missed and one that will have you coming back to see it again. Who knows - maybe you’ll even take part in enjoying a liberating experience on stage.

The Living Canvas – Demons is playing at the National Pastime Theatre (4139 N. Broadway) on Friday and Saturday evenings at 10pm through July 31^st. For more information please visit www.thelivingcanvas.com or call 773-327-7077.     

Let’s face it. The White Sox have a decent shot at making it to the World Series. Winning 25 of their last 30, their chances are getting better by the day despite the season-ending injury to Jake Peavy. Well, let’s just say Sox fans should be happy that the American League has won the last thirteen All Star games since that now determines home field advantage in the World Series rather than best overall record. But is that fair? And, do we really want to pin our post-season destiny on a possible at bat by a Kansas City Royal or Mariner? Absolutely not. The All Star game should not decide home field advantage and should be left as a fun exhibition game. What a marketing crock – “This time it counts”.

Here is my list of reasons that commissioner Bud Selig’s decision to let the All Star game decide anything more than bragging rights is one of the biggest farces in sports.

1.     Fans should not vote – All Star rosters should be comprised of players based on decisions by managers and coaches in order to field the best team and not the most popular.

2.     Each team should not be represented – There will be better players watching the All Star game on TV than a few of the players that were only selected for the sole purpose of representing a team.

3.     Player passion will not be optimum – A player from the Pirates, Royals, Indians, etc, might not have the same drive or enthusiasm during the game as one from a team that actually headed for the playoffs.

4.     Pitchers/position players only make appearances – To win a game at all costs, a manager needs to keep his best pitcher on the mound as long as he is effective and play the position players a full nine innings that give his team the best chance to win. Instead, rosters are rotated every few innings, starters are pitching relief and closers are not closing (and we all know how that often goes).

5.     It’s just not fair – With a season of 162 games, it really says something to walk away with the best record. Should home field advantage in the World Series be determined by an outcome developed by players that are mostly not even on one’s team? Of course not. What does an All Star roster that might include 1-3 players from a team to make it to the World Series have to do with granting or denying home field advantage? Nothing.   

If the National League pulls off an upset and breaks the AL streak, well, that’s just too bad for the White Sox should they make it to the Series – to lose home field advantage by no fault of their own. Case closed.     

When is the last time you saw full frontal nudity in the theater? Was it “Hair”, “Oh, Calcutta!” or maybe “The Blue Room”? Maybe you have never seen a play with nudity in it, well, here is your chance to experience the liberating effect of live theater specifically designed to give you the feeling that your body - despite its quirks or flaws - is OK just the way it is.

Laurence Bryan, my old friend and classmate from DePaul, is the Artistic Director of National Pastime Theater and he has assembled a really wonderful assortment of plays that each utilizes nudity in an artistically sound fashion. I have already seen two of the one act plays, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” deftly directed by another talented DePaul Alumna, Carolyne Anderson, and “The Living Canvas: Demons”.

I highly recommend buying the festival pass or daily pass to enjoy more than one show because they are all very different in their approach, some farcical, and some more sensual or dance oriented and taken in combination you really get the full effect of  a democracy of positive body image that the Naked July Festival is trying to convey.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a light, funny, very clever take on the original tale by Hans Christian Andersen with a satirical political twist thrown in for good measure.

“The Living Canvas: Demons”, is the seventh show by this company, directed by founder Pete Guither and, by using projected light over nude dancer and actors bodies, beautifully portrays the journey into the mind of an autistic girl and her sister’s attempt to understand that world. It was tremendously moving and exciting to watch. The performance of the lead dancer Emily Mark, who portrays Lily the autistic, was worth noting as she was not only an accomplished dancer but also an accomplished actor in expressing without words a very precise and deeply moving sense of what it must be like to be trapped in a body and mind afflicted with Autism. Also, I think it is a tremendously courageous task to undertake a role like this involving nudity from beginning to end. The neat thing about “Living Canvas” shows is that at the end they allow the audience to strip down and join them onstage under the lights and a lot of people actually went for it and joined in. That in itself was a beautiful, free love kind of thing to see happen in a theater setting in the year 2010, not 1968!

I’ll be honest, I was skeptical. I have always felt that nudity in the theater is something to be avoided at all costs to avoid damaging the delicate psyche of a good actor. However, when it is undertaken in the way that Naked July Festival has with a real eye for liberal thought and artistic merit, it is a tremendously exciting and liberating experience rarely encountered in traditional theater going.

I especially enjoy returning to the atmospheric and historic National Pastime Theater (4139 N. Broadway), which was an actual speakeasy for almost twenty years and fills it’s lobby with wonderful local artwork for sale in the theme of the shows currently running.

I highly recommend attending the Naked July Festival: Art Stripped Down, and I look forward to seeing the last two pieces, “Eros” and “The Tumultuous Tale of the Tragically Transparent Tunic” next weekend. See you there!

Call 773.327.7077 for performance times or check in at www.np2.com.

Los Angeles, CA - (MONDAY, July 12, 2010) -- Metalheads rejoice:  North America's biggest thrash tour in 20 years is announced, as 1991's original American "Clash of the Titans" lineup - Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax - will tour together once again on Leg Two of the American Carnage Tour.  This trek kicks off September 24 at Verizon Wireless Theatre in Dallas, TX and will play 20 dates, including New York's Nassau Coliseum, concluding at Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles on October 21.



On Leg Two of American Carnage, Megadeth will continue to roar through its landmark 1990 album Rust in Peace from front to back, while Slayer will rip the roof off by performing its much-lauded Seasons in the Abyss album, which was also released in 1990. Anthrax recently welcomed back singer Joey Belladonna, who defined the band during their heyday, and now permanently back in the band, will be front-and-center.



A special presale will launch this Wednesday, July 14, and fans should log onto to www.slayer.net - www.megadeth.com - or www.anthrax.com - to obtain the special code needed for the presale, and then go to www.ticketmaster.com (http://knoxvilletickets.com/ for the Knoxville date) to purchase tickets.  The public on sale date will begin July 23 in most markets. In the spirit of beating the recession, there will be special pre-sale discounts on all tickets in most markets (see below for more details), and, if that's not enough, a limited amount of $10 tickets will be available in many cities - log onto any of the bands' websites or onto Ticketmaster's site for those details.



But wait, there's even more.  For Leg Two of the American Carnage tour, Megadeth has teamed up with iloveallaccess.com to provide fans with VIP experiences including priority venue access, meet and greets, parties, exclusive gifts and more.  Logging onto www.megadeth.com will provide those details.  Plus, fans who purchase their tickets online at either www.slayer.net or www.ticketmaster.com - will receive a free download of the live audio track "War Ensemble," set to be included on Slayer's forthcoming, as yet unannounced, "Live Intrusion" DVD release.



Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax will kick off the second leg of the American Carnage tour on the heels of the historical "Big Four" Sonisphere Festival concerts they played with Metallica in seven European cities this summer.  The dates marked the first time that these four bands - acknowledged as the most influential bands the thrash metal genre - had shared a concert bill.



The original "Clash of the Titans" tour united the three forces of thrash metal for the entire summer of 1991, with then-little known Alice in Chains serving as the opener. This tour, which falls under the "American Carnage" banner, isn't rewriting history; it's writing a whole new chapter of headbanging history that is sure to delight fans new and old.



Megadeth and Slayer return to North America late this month to co-headline the east coast Canadian Carnage tour, and then starting August 11, the first leg of the American Carnage tour (dates below) with Testament as Special Guest. The tour was originally scheduled for a winter 2010 run, but was postponed when Slayer bassist/vocalist Tom Araya was forced to undergo neck surgery.  But as is the case for anything good in life, this tour was well worth the wait.