Tag Archives: Finland

Pulitzers Play in Little Rock: Lunt and Fontanne in THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT

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ThereShallBeOn the eve of the US entry into World War II, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne returned to Little Rock in the national tour of Robert E. Sherwood’s Pulitzer Prize winning There Shall Be No Night.  It played at Robinson Memorial Auditorium on Monday, November 24, 1941.

Set in Finland in the time leading up to and during the start of the Russian invasion, it looked at the impact of impending war on a family.  Between the time it premiered in March 1940 and the tour in 1941, so many European countries experienced the horrors of war as countries were overtaken and troops were either killed or pressed into service by the enemy.  A program note in the playbill outlined much of this and noted how the script had not been updated to reflect the changes in world events.  (When Robinson opened in February 1940, the Russian invasion of Finland was a top international story.)

Joining Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne were many members of the original Broadway cast including Sydney Greenstreet, Thomas Gomez, Elisabeth Fraser, and Maurice Colbourne.  Also from the original cast was a young actor who played the Lunts’ son, Montgomery Clift.

The play was directed by Mr. Lunt.  The sets were by first time Broadway designer Richard Whorf.  He would go on to have an illustrious career as a theatrical designer.  He had been an actor on Broadway and was a member of the unofficial Lunt-Fontanne repertory company of actors.  The costumes were by Valentina, who often designed costumes for Miss Fontanne.

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the first Pulitzer Prize for Drama being given. To pay tribute to 100 years of the Pulitzer for Drama, each day this month a different Little Rock production of a Pulitzer Prize winning play will be highlighted.  Many of these titles have been produced numerous times.  This look will veer from high school to national tours in an attempt to give a glimpse into Little Rock’s breadth and depth of theatrical history.

Arkansas Heritage Month – Sibelius’ FINLANDIA rings out at Robinson Auditorium

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finlandia_kansi_300This fall, when the newly renovated Robinson Center Music Hall reopens, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will play the first notes in the new space.

The first notes in the original space were Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia.  The piece was commissioned in 1899 as part of a three day arts festival to celebrate the Finnish press.  At the time, Tsarist Russia was cracking down on the press in Finland, so this festival was planned as a way to show solidarity. The selection was one of seven composed to be played against tableaus of scenes of Finnish history.  The pieces were played in a new music hall.

Given the political nature of the music, subsequent performances of it were often given fake names to avoid Russian censorship in the ensuing years.

Because of the fact it had been played at the opening of a new facility, Finlandia was chosen to be played at the opening of the Joseph Taylor Robinson Memorial Auditorium in February 1940.  It would be played by the Arkansas State Symphony Orchestra (a forerunner, though not directly connected, to the current Arkansas Symphony Orchestra).

In the weeks leading up to the opening of Robinson, the Russians invaded Finland sparking the “Winter War.” Against overwhelming odds the Finnish people fought back though the Russians had far more soldiers and military weaponry.  However, by February 1, the Russians started breaking through lines on several fronts, and it became apparent that they would likely best the Finns.

With Finland dominating the front pages of newspapers, the performance of Finlandia took on additional significance for the audience at Robinson’s first performance on February 16, 1940. Press accounts indicate that the selection was very warmly received by the audience.

Though not noticed at the time, there was another reason that Finlandia was an apt selection to open the building.  The location of Robinson Auditorium had been chosen by Arkansas Gazette editor J.N. Heiskell. It was no one else’s first choice as the site for the building. As other options fell away, Heiskell kept trumpeting the northeast corner of Markham and Broadway.  So it was appropriate that the first piece of music be a selection that celebrated newspapers and the people who published them.

New Dean of UofA Fay Jones School of Architecture to speak tonight

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PeterMacKeithAs part of the monthly Architecture & Design Network architecture lecture, Peter MacKeith will discuss Aalto’s Identities tonight.

Dean MacKeith, an internationally recognized design educator, assumed the deanship of the Fay Jones School of Architecture on July 1, 2014. Before joining the Fayetteville school, McKeith was a professor and associate dean at Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Saint Louis. Prior to his tenure there, he directed the Master of Architecture program at Helsinki University of Technology, now Aalto University.

He will offer an informed perspective on the life and work of Finland’s foremost Twentieth Century architect/designer, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976), an international icon in his own right. Iterations of the furniture, textiles and glassware he designed continue to have a significant presence in American homes and numerous public spaces.

The program will take place tonight at 6pm in the lecture hall of the Arkansas Arts Center. A reception will precede at 5:30.

MacKeith began his tenure at Washington University in 1999 as a faculty member and assistant dean of the School of Architecture. In 2001, he became the associate dean of architecture, and was later named the associate dean of the Sam Fox School in 2006. He also serves as adjunct associate curator of architecture and design at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Before joining the Sam Fox School faculty and administration, MacKeith was the director of the Master of Architecture – International Program at the Helsinki University of Technology (now Aalto University) in Finland. He previously held faculty appointments in architecture at the University of Virginia, the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, and Yale University.

MacKeith received a bachelor’s degree in English and international relations from the University of Virginia and a master of architecture from Yale University. His architectural teaching has been recognized nationally with two Creative Achievement Awards in architectural education from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (2007-2008, 2013-2014).

MacKeith has worked in architecture and design practices in both the United States and Finland, notably with the renowned Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa. He has written, lectured and published extensively in the United States, Finland, and other Nordic countries on modern and contemporary Finnish and Nordic architecture. His particular emphasis is on the work of Alvar Aalto. In 2012, MacKeith was the curator and designer of “Light Houses: On the Nordic Common Ground,” the exhibition of contemporary Nordic architecture at the Nordic Pavilion at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale.

MacKeith is the author and editor of Archipelago, Essays on Architecture(2006), the editor of Encounters: Architectural Essays, volumes 1 and 2 – two selections of essays by Pallasmaa (2005, 2012) – and the author of The Dissolving Corporation: Contemporary Architecture and Corporate Identity in Finland (2005) and The Finland Pavilions: Finland at the Universal Expositions 1900-1992 (1993). He is the outgoing editor of The SOM Journal, a professional review of history and criticism, having overseen numbers 8 (“On Teamwork and Collaboration”) and 9 (“On Leadership and Authorship”). He is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Finland (1990) and research grants from The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts and the Brookings Institution, among others.

In February 2014, MacKeith was recognized by the President of Finland for his contributions to the culture and architecture of Finland with the insignia of Knight, First Class, of the Order of the Lion of Finland.

 

For additional information contact ardenetwork@ icloud.com. Check out ADN on Facebook. Supporters of the Architecture and Design Network (ADN) include the Arkansas Arts Center, the Fay Jones School of Architecture, the Central Arkansas Section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and friends in the community.