NUTS ABOUT SCHUMANN

posted by James Reel

    Every year, cellist Harry Clark and I mastermind the Arizona Cultural Forum, which will be occupying my attention this weekend. Read about it here (but note that it’s Harry’s photo next to my bio). Our topic this time is Robert Schumann, Creativity and Mental Illness. We’ll have mental health professionals talking about Schumann’s malady and treatment, and how he would be treated today, probably with greater success (he starved himself to death in an asylum). We’ll have musicians, including Tucson Symphony oboist Lindabeth Binkley, soprano Jennifer Nagy and pianist Sanda Schuldmann, performing Schumann’s music. We’ll have artist Chris Rush talking about insanity and visual artists (Chris—you’ve got to get me those images to scan!). We’ll have a reading of David Rabe’s play Good for Otto, about life at a mental health clinic, featuring yours truly and a group of real actors, including Bill Epstein, Julia Matias, Carlisle Ellis and an excellent young actress who’s new to me, Veronica Blanco. And speaking of actresses, Margot Kidder (Lois Lane from the Superman movies some 30 years ago) is coming to town to be featured in Harry’s Schumann-oriented theater-and-music piece A Rare Pattern. We’re holding forth Friday and Sunday at Academy Village and Saturday at St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church, with evening performances at Hotel Congress Friday and the Tucson Botanical Gardens on Saturday. Here’s the schedule. I hope to see you there.