Broadway Flea Market and Auction Raises $403,929 for BC/EFA

I was so glad to learn that Sunday’s 23rd annual Broadway Flea Market and Grand Auction raised $403,929 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, in spite of the rain which forced us from Shubert Alley to inside at Roseland Ballroom.

I was at the Episcopal Actors’ Guild table with Tom Miller from 2 to 4 in the afternoon and had a blast. We were selling and giving away a variety of theatre memorabilia and were so busy I missed most of the bold face names. I was happy I got to see Mary-Mitchell Campbell at the ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty) tables. So glad she’ll be back on Broadway in the spring as musical director of The Addams Family musical.

"Changing venues from outdoors in Shubert Alley to indoors at Roseland over 24 hours was both necessary and extremely crazy, but ultimately a success, making a day that surely would have been canceled, truly unforgettable,” BC/EFA executive director Tom Viola said in a statement. “My hat is off to the intrepid BC/EFA staff and extraordinary volunteers, as well as to the entire theatrical community for their good will and extraordinary generosity of spirit. But next year, please: Let the Sunshine In!"

Since its founding in 1987, the flea market and auction have raised more than $8,161,752 for BC/EFA. For further information visit www.BCEFA.org.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the nation's largest industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization, which provides services for people with AIDS, HIV or HIV-related illnesses.

Patrice Djerejian

I met Patrice Djerejian, a gifted contralto who performs widely in the United States and Europe, at this year’s Broadway Blessing. She sang “I Sing for You,” one of her original songs, while Project Dance members performed. After the service she gave me two of her CDs, I Sing for You and Love Lost and Found, and thus she continues to bless my life.

The first features 13 love songs offered in a slow, reflective, intimate way that makes me feel I am still listening to her live. She’s included one of my all-time favorite songs, “The Way You Look Tonight,” a seldom recorded Broadway number, “Unusual Way” from Nine and other classics -- I like the blending of “Little Things Mean A Lot” with Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” as a backdrop -- as well as four original pieces for which she penned the lyrics and did the arrangements.

Much to my surprise, I liked Love Lost and Found even more. It’s enough to make an opera lover out of me. I play it over and over, appreciating Patrice’s rich offering of Handel’s arias and Italian solo cantatas along with the beauty of Sir Philip Ledger and the English Chamber Orchestra. This is a treasure.

For more information about this magnificent singer, visit www.patricedjerejian.com.

St. Vincent de Paul

Today is the feast day of St. Vincent de Paul, one of my heroes. Wanted to share with you two of my favorite quotes of his:

“You will find that Charity is a heavy burden to carry, heavier than the bowl of soup and the full basket. Keep your gentleness and your smile. It is not enough to give us soup and bread. This the rich can do. You are the servant of the poor, always smiling and good humored. They are your masters, terribly sensitive and exacting you will see. It is only for your love alone that the poor will forgive you the bread you give them.”

“If God is the center of your life, no words will be needed. Your mere presence will touch their hearts.”

Frederick Douglass Now

Anyone expecting a straightforward biographical narrative of a historical figure might be disappointed with this show. However, anyone in search of a provocative evening with a stellar performer should head to the Irish Arts Center to see Roger Guenveur Smith’s Frederick Douglass Now.

I was amazed at Smith’s seemingly effortless ability to switch tones and genres in a heartbeat, going from hip-hop, to impassioned oratory to humor, never losing focus during the 50-minute intermissionless performance. He is not only the actor, but is the playwright as well and it is clear he owns this work. As my friend Casey and I were leaving the opening night party Wednesday I told him I hope Smith receives a Drama Desk nomination for best solo performance. The next day I sent an e-mail message to a friend on the nominating committee to make sure he knew about this show and its worthiness.

On a bare stage with an American flag backdrop, Smith uses Douglass’ writings from the 19th century and meshes them with current references to illustrate how much and how little have changed in terms of race relations.

“I am a fugitive slave
“I live underneath the Hollywood freeway or the
“Brooklyn Bridge somewhere under the rainbow my
“coalition kept warm by blazing barrels of trash
“scraps from the cane fields and the fast food
“establishments. . . ,” he begins in rap cadence and continues for several minutes. He returns to this form again and again, but he also delivers the abolitionist’s speeches, breaking occasionally for humor -- I loved his stopping to take a cell phone call from Harriet Tubman.

The modern references don’t hide the core truth of Douglass as a fugitive slave turned statesman, whose quest for an America free of racism, sexism and economic deprivation is still all too relevant.

Smith's nationally acclaimed performance, most recently presented at the Kennedy Center, was originally commissioned by La Mama.  His interest in Douglass dates back to his studies at Occidental College and Yale University where he served as research assistant at the Frederick Douglass Papers.

In an Irish Echo op-ed column, reprinted in the program, Irish Arts Center executive director Aidan Connolly reflects on the importance of artists in shaping public opinion. “The 2008 election made history, but it did not change it,” he writes. “Still, it signified a seismic shift in our culture, and while the ground continues to move beneath us, we have an opportunity to reexamine our old assumptions, forge new connections, and create a new narrative, a new path. Artists can lead this effort, and some already are, in a way that also sheds light on the path to Irish America’s future.

“Percy Shelley called poets ‘the unacknowledged legislators of the world’ and ‘the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present.’ Like an activist who runs for office not to win, but to advance a cause not yet popular, artists can pave the way for a future we know is right and good, but from which history and habit sometimes holds us back.”

Frederick Douglass Now is running in rotation with The Cambria, which I saw and loved in the spring during its sold-out, one-week only engagement. They are presented by the Irish Arts Center in association with the Classical Theatre of Harlem and run through Sunday, Oct. 25.

The Irish Arts Center is at 553 W. 51st St., between 10th and 11th Avenues. Tickets can be purchased by calling SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or at www.smarttix.com. For more information, visit www.irishartscenter.org 

Ute Lemper

Ute Lemper’s dynamic new CD, Between Yesterday and Tomorrow, is a departure for the German-born singer, who is internationally known for her interpretations of Berlin cabaret songs, works of Kurt Weill and French chanson. This recording is unique among her 17 or so albums because she composed all of the songs as “a poetic journey through the world and through my life.”

With her dramatic voice ranging from husky to lilting, she performs 11 songs that are part story and part stream of consciousness, evoking faces, events, visions and personal philosophy.

“I turned around my own axis and life, cities and years passed by . . . like a movie,” she says in press notes. “Close ups on to people’s faces, places of poetry or doom and close ups into my own heart.”

Some songs are simple and personal, dealing with love and motherhood, others, such as “Ghosts of Berlin,” are more cinematic, dealing with her memories of a divided city during the Cold War. Those images “are so concretely frozen in my mind that it was already a poem only to be written down into music and words.”

Still others are even darker. “Nevada” is about nuclear bombs exploding in the desert in the 1950s and 60s and “September Mourn” about a day that started joyfully and excitedly getting her three children ready for their first day back at school and ended in unbelievable death and destruction. “The abuse in our souls and our minds was deep . . . the song still shivers and resonates in our subconscious,” she writes.

Her versatility and range can really be heard on “Nomad,” inspired by a journey she took through the Middle East. Using a 12th century Arabic poem about the highest purpose of religion, faith and love, the song includes the Arabic prolog and Hebrew epilog. Lemper calls it “a poem for humanity and tolerance.”

Lemper is backed by vibrant musical accompaniment -- Vana Gierig on piano, Mark Lambert on guitar, Todd Turkisher on drums and percussion, Don Falzone and Mo Pleasure on bass. They do much to help evoke the mood of the songs, whether breezy, exotic, sultry or wistful.

The complete song list is:

1. The Greatest Ride
2. Stranger Friend
3. Blood and Feathers
4. Luna
5. Ghosts of Berlin
6. La Memoire et laMer
7. Wings of Desire
8. Nomad
9. Here Is Love
10. Nevada
11. September Mourn

A poem for autumn

O world, I cannot hold thee
close enough!

Thy winds,
thy wide grey skies!

Thy mists that roll and rise!

Thy woods, this autumn day,
that ache and sag

And all but cry with colour!
That gaunt crag

To crush! To lift the lean of
that black bluff!

World, World, I cannot get
thee close enough!

Long have I known a glory
in it all,

But never knew I this;

Here such a passion is

As stretcheth me apart.
Lord, I do fear

Thou’st made the world too
beautiful this year.

My soul is all but out of me,
let fall

No burning leaf; prithee,
let no bird call.


Edna St. Vincent Millay

All Creation Sings: Praying the Psalms with St. Elizabeth Seton

The Psalms are among my favorite writings in all of the printed word. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is among my favorites of all saints. How nice then that Sisters of Charity Regina Bechtle and Margaret Egan have put them together in this lovely 64-page volume.

All Creation Sings: Praying the Psalms with St. Elizabeth Seton will be a welcome addition for anyone’s individual devotions, as well as for retreat house libraries. The glorious color photos -- of oceans and flowers, skylines and shorelines, butterflies and other charming creatures -- on every page are meditations in themselves. This book would make a beautiful gift.

I love its simplicity. Just one short verse on each page, followed by one of the gorgeous photos and a quote from Mother Seton. They are comforting, uplifting, prayer and joyful, just like the Psalms. One example: “May our God respond to you in your darkest times. May you always feel his supportive, loving presence coming from the highest heavens.” Ps. 20: 1-2. Then a photo of the ocean at sunrise and, from Mother Seton, “Keep in mind that not the least thing can happen to you without the will of God with regard to you.” At the end of the volume are several pages for personal reflection.

Mother Seton was a convert to Roman Catholicism from the Episcopal tradition. She founded the American Sisters of Charity, which was the first sisterhood native to the United States. A wife, mother, widow, sole parent, educator, social minister and spiritual leader, she was the first person born in the United States to become a canonized saint, on Sept. 14, 1975. She was born on Aug. 28, 1774 in New York City and died Jan. 4, 1821 in Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she founded her order and started what would become the Catholic elementary school system in America.

As an associate member of the Sisters of Charity of New York I am one of her spiritual daughters. Associates don’t take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience as vowed sisters do, but we strive to live the charism of the order, which is charity, in our daily lives.

All Creation Sings is $10, plus $3 for handling. Checks should be made payable to the Sisters of Charity, New York and sent to Seton Book Order, Sisters of Charity Center, 6301 Riverdale Ave., Bronx, NY 10471-1093. For more information, contact Sr. Regina at rbechtle@scny.org.