Thursday, March 26, 2020 — 6
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
As you can probably tell from my byline, I’m
The Daily’s community culture columnist. As
I wrote in my application two years ago, my
column focuses on “the intersection between
history, culture and the performing arts.” I’ve
spent the past two years analyzing performances
I’ve attended in Ann Arbor and beyond. I’ve
written about everything from “Mean Girls” to
“Le Marteau sans Maître.”
But two weeks
ago, the performing
arts
industry
began to change.
It began with late
night shows taping
without audiences
and concerts being
live-streamed from
empty concert halls.
The
University
made plans to limit
concert attendance
while
continuing
some
School
of
Music, Theatre &
Dance events.
By the following
week, the entire
industry was shut
down.
Broadway
was dark, Coachella
was
postponed
from
April
to
October.
The
Metropolitan
Opera canceled the remainder of its season
and lost $60 million as a result. The University
canceled all concerts and events of any size
before locking the rehearsal and performance
facilities under the governor’s order.
As I sat in my childhood bedroom trying
to write this column — the University having
all but demanded that students leave campus
— I struggled to write another column about
recent performances and trends I noticed in the
performing arts. It felt as though entire concert
seasons, entire productions, had been canceled
in a period of two short weeks.
At the beginning of March, I was excited for
the premieres of three of my creative works. I
was also excited for countless performances by
and premieres from friends across the country
that I planned on attending. At this point, one
week from the end of March, every one of these
performances has been canceled or postponed
indefinitely.
I had plans to attend a summer music festival
and intern with a professional performing arts
organization. My internship has been canceled
outright; the status of my summer festival
remains uncertain. For those friends who are
about to graduate, jobs in the performing arts
industry are disappearing.
Trying to write a column about the
performing arts this week — trying to find
anything, in essence, to take issue with or
comment on — seemed disrespectful. The entire
industry seems to be in free fall, the bottom not
yet in sight. Any issues I might have with specific
works or performance practices felt trivial.
It’s not as though we haven’t seen performers
and performing arts organizations attempt
to respond to this
crisis.
Hundreds
of performing arts
organizations have
moved
much
of
their creative work
to the realm of
online
streaming.
Audiences
at
home can watch
performances
by
most
major
orchestras
and
operas
free
of
charge. And more
performers
have
taken
to
various
online services to
share their artistic
work that I could
possibly
try
to
recount
in
one
sentence.
Last
week,
I
was
touched
to
see Broadway star
Laura Benanti share a tweet from MUSKET
producer Alexandra Niforos about “The Wiz,”
MUSKET’s canceled production of the semester.
These rounds of cancelations have served as
a great equalizer, relegating artists from high
school to the professional world, at least for the
time being, to social media.
And though these social media posts may
be fun, the outlook for the entire community
remains bleak. The Metropolitan Opera faced
significant backlash recently after it sent
fundraising emails to soloists it had just laid
off. While the specifics of this case may seem
hypocritical — as of now, the organization’s
administrative staff continues to be paid while
musicians and performers are not — the end
result is the same: Everyone is struggling to stay
afloat. This epidemic has, in the space of two
weeks, dragged most of the performing arts
community underwater.
On Community Culture
in the age of Coronavirus
SAMMY SUSSMAN
Daily Community Culture Column
SADHANA RAMASESHADRI
“I got people for that shit.” Abbreviating
the phrase to PFTS, Kevin Gillepsie, one of the
contestants in the new season of “Top Chef: All
Stars,” says he has his own kitchen staff in his
restaurants who perform the menial kitchen
tasks that the contestants are now expected to
perform on the show. For the show’s contestants,
many of whom have their own restaurants, PFTS
is the overarching sentiment of the new season
— a competition filled with tasks resembling the
kitchen grunt’s stress-filled trip down memory
lane.
You, the viewer at home, might use PFTS
when you receive something that you personally
dislike but know of others who would appreciate
that item. The season premiere of “Top Chef:
All Stars” is one of these items: an anxiety-
inducing, tumultuous start that is occasionally
problematic.
Competition cooking shows typically attract
the enthusiastic, young
and cocky journeymen
and industry-hopefuls
of the culinary trade.
The current season of
“Top Chef” provides
a twist — allowing
competitors
(but
not the winners) of
previous seasons to
claim their own Top
Chef title alongside
a
cash
prize
of
$250,000. The talent
pool is particularly
strong: Many of the
competitors,
after
their initial losses on
the show throughout
the seasons have become celebrated chefs in
their own right. Some, such as Gregory Courdet
and Karen Akunowicz, have even earned the
coveted James Beard Award for Best New
Restaurant.
Yet much of the prestige and gravitas of these
accolades is immediately stripped away with the
season’s first Quickfire Challenge — a mise en
place race of coring artichoke hearts, supreming
oranges and deshelling almonds, a contest that
will ultimately determine the composition of
the three groups for the next round. As many
of the contestants rush through the contest, the
judges, in particular Tom Colicchio, critique the
overall messiness of many of the contestants’
final products. Much of the critique focuses on
several contestants’ rustiness toward preparing
the ingredients on hand — the contestants
who manage to create passable or even cleanly
prepared final products do not get much time in
the spotlight. Bravo’s editors instead choose to
linger on those who create sloppy deliverables
instead.
And then, as if on cue, comes the PFTS
comment. Yet in the context of the Quickfire
Challenge, you may find PFTS to be a flimsy,
catch-all fallback to any shortcoming that a
contestant may face throughout the remainder
of the season.
You’ll find there is little drama that unfurls
among the contestants — something the editors
at Bravo try to substitute with dizzying flurries of
jump cuts and close-up shots of the contestants’
hands prepping their dishes. Most of the drama is
a result of technical errors: Errors you might find
unacceptable in the confines of your own home
may become understandable in a restaurant or
competition setting. Not splashing liquid oil on
an open flame may seem like a no-brainer to
many, but it can be easy to be oblivious when
your fish fillets, meant to be served among the
greatest culinary heavyweights, are aggressively
sticking to the unseasoned beach grill.
If you are to be particularly discerning, you
may bristle at both
the show’s insidious
labeling and defining
of “Asian” cuisine. An
“Asian” aioli called so
only due to its usage
of citrus juice and fish
sauce, another “Asian”
aioli
spiked
with
miso, parmesan and
a hibiscus ponzu are
consumed by a judging
panel, all of whom
(aside
from
Padma
Lakshmi) are not of
Asian
descent.
For
many of these sauces
who are created by
contestants who, aside
from Lee Anne Wong and her miso aioli, are not
East Asians and then subsequently are critiqued
by a non-East Asian panel raises a subtle
question. Who are the creative voices and talents
who have the power and privilege to create,
showcase and define East Asian ingredients,
and who with power and privilege can judge
these dishes and ingredients? These are heavy
questions to consider, and not questions that a
show with levity and American-centric ideals
such as “Top Chef” can answer.
But ultimately, the “Top Chef” premiere
offers an exhilarating peak of a show in which
passionate culinary creatives continually hone
their craft by competing amongst each other
under the watchful eyes of Tom Colicchio,
Padma Lakshmi and Gail Simmons. This is the
show you would recommend to those who enjoy
watching the spectacles of action and conflict
flash upon their screens.
‘Top Chef’ is an exhilarating
flurry of food and action
BRENDON CHO
Daily Arts Writer
NBC UNIVERSAL TELEVISION DISTRIBUTION
DAILY COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
‘Top Chef’
Season 17 Premiere
Bravo
Thursdays 10 p.m. EST
There will be a
point in time when
physical proximity and
coexistence induce not
fear but beauty
TV REVIEW