Westobou - That's a wrap.

There's a cliche that has become part of almost every Christmas story written since Charles Dickens put the sentiment on ol' Eb Scrooges. Live like it's Christmas throughout the year. It's a nice thought, although vacuuming those needles in July can be a bit of a drag. At any rate, I'd like to borrow that thought and apply it to the Westobou festival, now officially finished an in the books.

Let's support the arts like it is Westobou every day.

Set up to celebrate the fine arts in the Augusta area as well as attract tourism to town during a week not in April, Westobou, in its first year, needs to be gauged not by how well it accomplished those goals but rather by the foundation built for future festivals. While it is true that several Westobou events filled houses large (Bell Auditorium) and small (Le Chat Noir), audiences were, for the most part, local. There were also several events that didn't attract the numbers expected or deserved, the Saturday night Lyle Lovett/John Hiatt show being the highest profile example. But the analogy I've been preaching all week is that this first Westobou really isn't about finding instant success in all areas. It's more of a test drive, a way to get the word out for next year, to attract acts and to show Augusta what the festival can and should be. Sure, the Lovett/Hiatt show should have done better, but it was always going to be far more successful as an example than a concert. Westobou organizers can know cite the high-profile concert as an example of the kind of event the festival wants and needs.

It should be noted that even in its first year, Westobou and the participating organizations did managed to sell a lot of tickets for some significant performances. The Complexions contemporary ballet did very well, as did the Silk Road ensemble, Slow Dancing and Cirque de la Symphonie. I'm pretty sure the Opera's opening was stronger than it has been in several years, thanks to Sweeney Todd.

Over the course of ten days, I estimate I attended approximately 20 Westobou events. I felt like it wasn't nearly enough and that I probably could not have squeezed one more in. That's a nice dilemma to have. It's the sort of dilemma I'd like to have all the time. Which brings us back, full circle, to living like it's Westobou all year long. It's a challenge I'd like to offer to local arts organizations and audiences alike. You can't, after all, have one without the other.

Some of my favorite Westobou moments...

Number 9 at the opening ceremonies

The awe-inspiring crowd at Arts in the Heart

Finally seeing a Sweeney Todd in Augusta

The majestic performance by Complexions contemporary ballet

The long string of full houses, for a variety of events, at Le Chat Noir

The Morris Museum's Rauschenberg comes out of storage

Acquainting myself with the work of local artist Leonard Zimmerman (more on him at a later date)

Finding fans camped in front of Slow Dancing at 11:30 p.m.

The swell sounding orchestra during Cirque de la Symphonie

Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt trading not only tunes, but quips as well

I'm already looking forward to next year.

Westobou - Five stops and familiar faces

Last night was a five stop Westobou evening. I started at Le Chat Noir, just stopping in to check on ticket sales for the theater's Thursday performance. A sell out. Great news. My next stop was the Augusta Common, where contemporary Christian act 33 Miles performed. Again, a good crowd, perhaps better than the frankly mediocre band deserved. But hey, people seemed to be having a good time. That's certainly worth something.

After leaving the Common, I walked down to the Imperial Theatre for the Lewis Family/Lizzy Long show, the first in the the Morris Museum of Art's Southern Soul and Song series. This was a performance I was frankly worried about. There were a lot of things I felt could go wrong and keep patrons away. The Lewis Family is from Lincolnton and many fans see the act annually at its own bluegrass festival. It was a Thursday, not the weakest on nights for entertainment, but also not the strongest. It was occurring toward the end of Westobou, but before a couple of big events. I thought patrons beginning to suffer from performance burnout might stay away. I wasn't even sure that the rumored appearance by authentic American treasure Earl Scruggs, who did indeed show up, could save the day.  Fortunately, my cynicism seemed (mostly) unfounded. The house was not sold out, but my best guess estimate had approximately 600 of the Imperial's 800-and-change seats occupied.

After leaving the Imperial, I stopped by the Common again to check on Slow Dancing, which had attracted a small crowd (perhaps post-33 Miles folk?) before heading down to Sky City for the annual Billy S P.E.A.C.E. show. The low-key concert and art show might not have packed them in, but the crowd was reasonable and more than reasonably enthusiastic.

The one slightly disturbing common denominator I noticed last night, and each night preceding actually, was that I recognized so many faces. The crowds at every concert, exhibition, recital and performance have been, by-and-large, local.

I'm not sorry to see locals supporting Westobou. That was always an important part of the equation. What worries me is that quick scans of the audiences and parking lots -- which made me feel a little stalker creepy -- seemed to indicated that the vast majority of Westobou patrons are a decidedly Augusta-centric crowd.

Westobou was designed to be and touted as a regional arts festival, attracting dollars from outside the metro area. So far, that doesn't seem to have happened. Does that mean Westobou is faltering? Probably not. What it means is the organizers have built a foundation, proven that the concept is successful and, with a couple of tweak, can continue to grow. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor was Spoleto. My marathon last night proved that Augusta is willing to support the Westobou experiment and only time, a some some effort, will determine if it can expand beyond its local limitations. 

Westobou - By what measure success?

Is the Westobou Festival a success? It's the question on a lot of lips. It's also a question difficult, if not impossible, to definitively answer. How can the success of such a sprawling, loose-limbed event be measured? Is it measured conceptually? Economically? With an informal head count? Perhaps a combination of all three?

I'm still not sure. Still, I took it upon myself to hit a couple Westobou events on the day I felt would be most difficult to sell -- Tuesday. Tuesday, in Augusta, is historically not a night to be out and about. Tuesday events are usually sparsely attended, with target audiences choosing to spend the evening at home. So I set out armed with a notebook and a theory. I decided that if events could attract patrons on Tuesday, it would bode well for Westobou as a whole.

Westobou seems to be doing just fine.

My first stop was the Authors Club of Augusta reading at Le Chat Noir. This was the second evening the club had taken up residence at the Chat, so I thought interested parties might have already taken in the event, leaving the small theatre a bit bare. My mistake. The Authors Club, it seems, sold out not one but two nights, one of them a dreaded Tuesday.

Next, I took a quick trot to the Imperial Theatre where the Complexions contemporary ballet performance, one of the marquee Westobou event, was scheduled. I had significant doubts about this one. Dance can be a hard sell in Augusta and I was unsure how many people were familiar with Complexions and the depth and breadth of the company's work. My fears were unfounded. The Imperial had sold more than half its 800 seats before the doors opened and tickets were selling briskly up until showtime. I would estimate that about 550 seats were sold. Now a full house would have been nice, and given the jaw-dropping performance the dancers provided, deserved. Still, it was a Tuesday and I think, all things considered, the Complexions show could be considered a success.

Before heading out into the wilds of Columbia County, I made one last stop. At 10:30 p.m. I pulled off Broad Street and wandered onto the darkened Augusta Common. Despite the late hour, several people had gathered to spend some mesmerizing time with the Slow Dancing instillation. It's true that some were the expected Complexions patrons, but there were also groups attracted by the slo-mo dancers alone. Once again, that was 10:30 p.m., on a Tuesday.

Incredible.

So is Westobou a success? It's still early days and I would be remiss to make sweeping pronouncements while the festival is ongoing. But I am encouraged -- encouraged and elated.

A few more words on the Complexions performance. So far, this has been the most affecting, most inspiring performance I have seen at Westobou. Dance of the very highest calibre, it's the sort of show that were there any justice, there would be audience in the aisles and disappointed dance fans being turned away at the door. It was, quite simply, a true triumph. The final piece of the evening, an epic scene-setting composition called Routines was particularly inspiring. It was both beautiful and terrible. Beautiful because it was so enthralling, terrible because I knew the pleasures it offered couldn't continue forever.

True Westobou.

Westobou - Will the big wheel continue to roll?

This is the moment I've been worried about since the Westobou festival was announced. The early days of the festival were always going to take care of themselves. Not only would enthusiasm be high, but the incorporation of the Arts in the Heart of Augusta festival meant there was a proven event to attract patrons for the first few days. But now, Arts in the Heart is finished, the tents pulled down and packed away for another year. That means from here on out, Westobou needs to travel under its own steam.

There are still some significant acts playing during the week, acts that should garner good crowds and an enthusiastic response. The Complexions dance company is an excellent example, as is the Augusta Symphony's Cirque de la Symphonie performance. However, it's the smaller performances, the organ festival and art exhibitions, that give Westobou real body, and without the figurative billboard that is Arts in the Heart, I'm afraid they might not get the attention they deserve.

That being said, even with the draw of Arts in the Heart, Westobou so far has exceeded my expectations. What's to see that trend won't continue?

A small criticism for an event I stopped by today. The Morris Museum of Art 'unveiled' the Robert Rauschenberg piece August Allegory (Anagram) after having it in storgae for several years. That was great, except for one thing. Nothing was unveiled. I know that many have seen this piece during previous periods of exhibition, but given that this was promoted as a Westobou event, perhaps a small measure of pomp and circumstance was in order. Sure, a nice talk and reception are good, but there's nothing quite like a tada moment.

Westobou - Cuts like a knife

Lord give me legs.

Today I spent most of the afternoon at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta festival and then this evening at the opera. I'll have more on Arts in the Heart at a later date, although I will recommend the fish rubbings to fans of fine art...or fish...or rubbing I guess.

The big deal for me today was the Augusta Opera's production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I've long been a fan of this particular show and was interested in seeing the local company's operatic take on the material, prepared with Westobou in mind.

I'd say they got it about 85 percent right.

What worked was the all-important sense of theatricality required for the piece and truely imaginative staging that combined traditional Sweeney elements with new ideas necessitated by the Imperial Theatre's somewhat limited space. The orchestra was outstanding and the tone and timbre of cast's voices was nearly always spot on.

But there were a couple of issues. The centerpiece of the Sweeney Todd set is a large cube that serves as both the pie and barber shops central to the story. It is, evidently, a pretty unwieldy piece of hardware. There were more than a few awkward transitions because learning to spin the cube clearly was going to take more time than cast and crew were allowed.

More significant were the musical problems. Many of the songs in Sweeney Todd require quick and crisp delivery of long, complicated strings of lyric. In those sections, the sound was often muddy, making those lyrics (which are an essential storytelling device) difficult, if not impossible to decipher. It is impossible to place absolute blame. It could be that the broader tones of the opera-trained stars weren't the best fit for those segments. It could be that the sometimes difficult sound in the Imperial claimed yet another victim. I'm not comfortable saying it was one, the other or a combination of both. I only know it didn't quite work.

My last little gripe might make me seem a bit bloodthirsty. I am not usually a gore hound. However, when I see Sweeney Todd I expect to see some blood fly. That never happened.

What I loved about the Augusta Opera production of Sweeney Todd was what it represents. For years, I thought of this piece as a terrible risk for the company that might attempt to stage it. It's musically and thematically difficult material. But the Augusta Opera not only stepped up to the challenge, but also managed to come pretty close to a full house doing it. I see this as a clear illustration of a sea change that Augusta audiences have undergone.  No longer is safe necessarily safe. The audience respects and embraces a little artistic risk, a little danger. It's the reason Le Chat Noir has done so well and it is the reason Sweeney Todd wowed 'em a Westobou.

Westobou - The joint is hopping

For most of Friday night, I was sequestered in a not so quiet corner of the Arts in the Heart midway. As chief cook and bottle washer at the Augusta Chronicle Singer-Songwriter contest, it was my job to keep six acts moving smoothly on and off the stage. When it became evident the musicians were capable of doing that without my direct intervention, I looked busy and spent too long introducing acts to a swelling crowd.

As a result, I missed seeing Augusta come alive.

I pulled out of my parking spot, cruised across Reynolds to Broad Street and discovered that while I wiled away a few hours with rock bands, folk singers and the like, Augusta had embraced the spirit of Westobou in the fullest possible sense. People were cruising the sidewalks, camping out in front of Slow Dancing, milling in front of the Imperial during a Sweeney Todd intermission and flocking to the Art 45 project outside the Metro Spirit.

I would like to say seeing all that activity made me happy, but that's not strictly true. I would like to say that I was encouraged bby what I saw, but that's not completely accurate either. What I felt was pride. Pride in the people of Augusta who clearly, at least for one evening, have embraced the Westobou spirit. Proud of the Porter Fleming Foundation and Westobou for organizing and executing such a slendid shindig. I am, I guess, proud of just about everyone.

Now I understand that Arts in the Heart is a proven quantity and that there's a real possibilty that Westobou on Wednesday evening might not look anything like downtown tonight. That's fine. But for a brief moment, when all the local planets aligned, Augusta came out and offered support. Mayor Deke Copenhaver asked last night if you Westobou. Augusta answered yes. That's good news.

The great debate

In my small corner of the Augusta Chronicle newsroom, a debate has ignited that I fear has no easy solution.

Should my blog of all things Westobou be called the Westoblog or the Blogobou. I was actually leaning toward Westoblogobou, but that might be a bit awkward.

At any rate, I'll be hitting the keys throughout the festival, offering commentary, comments, insight and observations about the festival and its miriad events.

So let us begin.

Yesterday began with my being the bearer of bad news. Wycliffe Gordon has cancelled his highly anticipated funk show Wednesday. Westobou managing director Kathi Dimmock remained fairly philosophical about the withdrawl however.

"We have more than 200 performances," she told me. "It was bound to happen with one."

Things started looking up after that. The always fine Number 9 played a Beatles set full of tunes from Revolver (my favorite Beatles record) and Slow Dancing, officially cranked up for the first time, proved just as spectacular and mezmerizing as promised. I sat there gazing for a full 15 minutes before I realized I had been sitting slack-jawed for 15 minutes with a deadline looming.

My one disappointment, one I'm sure will replay time and time again over the course of Westobou, was over an event missed. I really wanted to check out the Silk Road ensemble show at Augusta State, but my inability to be in two places at the same time precluded that.

Tonight I would recommend (warning-shameless plug ahead) the Augusta Chronicle Singer-Songwriter contest at Arts In the Heart of Augusta or perhaps the Augusta Opera production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I'm planning on checking out the second Sweeney performance tomorrow.

On an somewhat unrelated note, Augusta mayor Deke Copenhaver is trying to get his new festival-centric catchphrase -- "Do You Westobou?" -- to catch on. He has my support. It's certainly better than "Do You Westoblogobou?"

A short note from Jessye Norman

Today in the the Augusta Chronicle, a story ran concerning the new digs donated to the Jessye Norman School of the Arts.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/091008/met_472680.shtml

Late last evening, we received a quote from Ms. Norman concerning the school and new building. Unfortunately, the quote came too late for inclusion in the story. Still, I felt it was important for the community to hear what the opera legend had to say and was particularly taken with her thoughts. Here's what she had to say:

"When I saw the building, I thought, what joy it would have given my parents to witness this moment!  I said, 'wow'!My mother's favorite students were her 'juniors', as middle school students used to be called, and my father was president of the PTA at C. T. Walker Elementary School even when the youngest of my siblings, George, was in college. Their dedication to education was paramount in their civic lives.

I was struck by the solid construction of the building and hoping very quietly that it might one day house our dream, JNSA"