DATELINE NEW YORK: Catching up with arts and entertainment (08/18/02)

DATELINE NEW YORK: Catching up with arts and entertainment

by Helen Smindak

While "Dateline New York" did not appear on schedule in recent months (this journalist needed a break), Ukrainians continued their activities in the arts/entertainment sphere, so there's much to tell you about. Though some of the events date back to the springtime, they're too exciting to keep to myself. Let's start with the television field, where several Ukrainian actors have been making news.

On the TV screen

Versatile character actor John Spencer, who plays Chief of Staff Leo McGarry on the NBC drama series "The West Wing," has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. It's the second Emmy nomination in two years for Mr. Spencer, well-known to TV audiences as the tough and quirky New York attorney Tommy Mullaney on the hit series "L.A. Law" (1990-1994).

Interviewed on the television show "ET" (Entertainment Tonight) shortly after the nominations were announced, Mr. Spencer stated: "The first reaction is joyous - because you know whatever is coming, (the nomination) is still there." Winners will be announced on September 22 at the 54th Prime Time Emmy Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, airing on NBC.

Mr. Spencer's nomination was one of 22 nominations received this year by "The West Wing." The sophisticated one-hour drama series, which gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the Oval Office as seen through the eyes of an eclectic group of staffers and the First Family, won the best drama award last November, defeating its main rival, the HBO hit "The Sopranos," for the second year in a row.

"The West Wing," with Mr. Spencer as President Josiah Bartlet's closest ally and confidant, debuted on NBC in September 1999. The show holds the record for most Emmys won by a series in a single season; other awards include a Peabody Award for Excellence in Television, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama Series and three Television Critics Association Awards.

Mr. Spencer, who began his career as an actor on "The Patty Duke Show," appeared in the highly rated NBC movie "The Tangled Web" and starred in Joseph Wambaugh's "A Jury of One." Numerous guest-starring appearances include NBC's "Law & Order" and "Miami Vice," as well as "Spenser: For Hire," "Early Edition" and "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman."

The actor has appeared in hit films with Kevin Spacey, Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Nicholas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris. His comedy credits include the films "Forget Paris" with Billy Crystal, "Green Card" with Gerard Depardieu and Andie McDowell, and "Albino Alligator" with Matt Dillon and Faye Dunaway.

In theater work, he has won an Obie Award for his performance in "A Still Life," a New York Drama League honor for his portrayal of Dan White in the Broadway production of "Execution of Justice" and a Drama Desk nomination for his role in "The Day Room." Other Broadway and Off-Broadway appearances include last summer's New York run of "Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine," in which he and David Schwimmer played long-estranged twin brothers and musicians who pursued radically divergent paths.

Interviewed at the time by this reporter following a "Glimmer, Glimmer and Shine" performance at City Center, Mr. Spencer heartily endorsed his part-Ukrainian ancestry, which he attributes to his mother. The only child of John and Mildred (Bincarowski) Speshock of Paterson, N.J., he changed his name to Spencer in his teens while attending the Professional Children"s School in New York.

At 82, Oscar-winning actor Jack Palance is still at it, whether it's raising cattle and ostriches on his California ranch, riding horses on his Pennsylvania farm, writing poetry and fiction, painting in oils, or exercising to keep physically fit. And, of course, acting - something he's been involved in for more than 50 years. Mr. Palance recently appeared in the two-part mystery drama "Living With the Dead," with Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. The spellbinding drama aired on CBS on April 28 and 30.

Nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting roles as a villain in "Sudden Fear" (1952) and "Shane" (1953), the actor had to wait until much later in his career to carry home an Oscar. He received an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role in the motion picture "City Slickers," starring Billy Crystal. He has also won an Emmy Award for Best Single Performance; that came in 1957 for his performance in a CBS Playhouse 90 presentation of "Requiem for a Heavyweight."

Mr. Palance is currently involved with the Hollywood Trident Foundation, formed in May of this year with the goal of employing education and the arts to encourage filmmakers to recognize the Ukrainian contribution to modern civilization worldwide and the film industry in particular. In this respect, the foundation has just reached an agreement with the UCLA Film School and Film Archives to hold an Alexander Dovzhenko Film Festival on October 3-8, including film showings, lectures and an opening reception.

With Canadian-born Alex Trebek at the helm, the popular ABC show "Jeopardy" celebrated episode 4,000 on May 15. TV's most serious IQ test, which began in 1964 with Art Fleming as host and debuted as a syndicated program in 1985, enjoyed a two-week stint at New York's famous Radio City Music Hall in May. Mr. Trebek, who's done guest appearances on "Cheers" and other popular TV series, has appeared in several films, including Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" and the newly revamped "Charlie's Angels" (2000). He has been hosting "Jeopardy" since 1984.

New Jersey native Vera Farmiga co-starred with Miranda Richardson and Kristin Kreuk in ABC's springtime TV movie "Snow White: The Fairest of Them All," a dramatic new interpretation of the classic tale of good vs. evil. Ms. Farmiga, whose film credits include the romantic drama "Autumn in New York" (with Richard Gere), "The Opportunists" (with Christopher Walken) and "Return to Paradise," co-starred opposite Robert De Niro and Edward Burns in the feature film "Fifteen Minutes." Most recently, she played undercover agent Alex Cross in the NBC series "UC: Undercover."

Though some reporters and TV hosts still insist on referring to Ukraine as "the Ukraine" or make erroneous statements about the country, many references to Ukraine and Ukrainians seem to be more benevolent than malicious. Take the June 27 rerun of "Friends," for instance, when Ross (David Schwimmer) tells his friend Joey (Matt LeBlanc): "There's a Ukrainian film at the Anjelika (Theater) that's supposed to be very powerful." Or the scene in "Seinfeld" where Kramer and Newman are playing the board game "Risk" during a subway ride; when Kramer claims Ukraine as his prize and Newman contests that claim, a nearby male passenger identifies himself as a native of Ukraine and declares they cannot fight over "my country."

The world of art

Woodcut prints by master woodcut artist Jacques Hnizdovsky (1915-1985) appear in a newly published book "The Girl in Glass, Love Poems" by the distinguished artist William Jay Smith, a friend of the late artist and professor emeritus of English at Hollins College. Mr. Hnizdovsky's enchanting, finely etched woodcut prints of delicate plants and flowers, exotic birds and nude figures appear throughout the slim volume, providing a striking visual accompaniment. The book was published by Books & Co., Turtle Point Press, in New York.

Mr. Hnizdovsky's work, widely celebrated through prizes, fellowships, exhibitions, publications and acquisitions by many great museums, is currently represented by Lepore Fine Arts in Newburyport, Mass. At a May 30 reception held in honor of Mr. Hnizdovsky during a monthlong exhibit of the artist's work at the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport, Mr. Smith read excerpts from the book of love poems (he is the author of more than 50 books of poetry, children's verse, literary criticism and memoirs, and the editor of several influential anthologies).

Stephanie Hnizdovsky, the artist's widow, and daughter, Mira, who have relocated from New York City to Massachusetts, say they believe that "The Girl in Glass" has been chosen by internationally famed designer Donna Karan as the "Book of the Season" for her boutiques.

Pace-MacGill Gallery on East 57th Street in New York recently held a monthlong exhibit of grisly photos showing homeless people in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The first major gallery show in the U.S. for photographer Boris Mikhailov, the exhibit was drawn from two bodies of work: "Case History" (1999) and "Salt Lake" (1986). A Pace-MacGill press release describes the large-scale photographs of "Case History" as a document of the day-to-day activities and relationships of the homeless in Mikhailov's home town of Kharkiv (refered to as Kharkov in the press release), revealing bruises, illnesses, squalor and substance abuse. Mr. Mikhailov's series "Salt Lake" documents crowds socializing and sunning themselves in a southern Ukrainian lake into which untreated factory waste empties. Vicki Goldberg, whose review of the exhibit appeared in The New York Times, wrote that the raw images were "almost intensely painful." Ms. Goldberg reported that Mr. Mikhailov has written that the homeless are either totally ignored or randomly kicked or shoved into the street. Claiming there are no photographs of the 1930s Famine in Ukraine, when millions died, and no photographs of Soviet losses in World War II, the photographer felt he could not let another era go undocumented.

Operatic roles galore

During the Metropolitan Opera's first production of Prokofiev's "War and Peace," probably the biggest thing put on by the Met in terms of cast numbers, Ukrainian baritone Vassily Gerello tackled the role of Napoleon Bonaparte and came through successfully in all 10 performances. A co-production with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theater of St. Petersburg, the opera brought out 52 soloists - headed by Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Anna Netrebko - to sing the parts of 68 characters.

Mr. Gerello, a native of Ukraine's Chernivtsi district, not only sang well but had no horse-riding mishaps on the strongly bolstered floor built by the Met to hold a cast of hundreds. Back in 1993, during a Mariinsky Theater production in St. Petersburg, the baritone was thrown to the stage when Napoleon's horse took a fatal stumble. Though he recently appeared as Napoleon with the Bastille Opera of Paris, he was rather reluctant to take on the role again, according to the Met's general manager, Joseph Volpe.

The Ukrainian baritone, who made his Met debut in 1997 as Alfio in "Cavalleria Rusticana" and returned to sing Tomsky in "The Queen of Spades," also appeared during the past season as Rodrigo in "Don Carlo." A member of St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theater since 1990, Mr. Gerello has upcoming engagements with the Welsh National Opera ("Rigoletto"), the Bavarian State Opera (Yeletsky in "The Queen of Spades"), Dallas Opera and Covent Garden (Tomsky), Bastille Opera ("Simon Boccanegra" and "Il Barbiere de Siviglia"), and Berlin's Deutsche Opera ("Luisa Miller"). In addition to an international and successful concert and recital career, he has recorded Tchaikovsky's "Moscow Cantata" with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Because the name Netrebko is so typically Ukrainian, Svoboda music critic Teodor Teren-Yuskiw theorizes that Ms. Netrebko - a beautiful woman with a marvelous voice - may be of Ukrainian stock. Her performance in "War and Peace" marked her debut at the Met; we shall have to watch for her next appearance here and try to pin down her ethnic heritage.

Bass-baritone Paul Plishka, who completed his 35th season with the Met this past spring, returns in the fall to perform Gretch in "Fedora" and Lodovico in "Otello" on the opening night of the 2002-2003 season. He is also scheduled to appear as Benoir/Alcindoro in "La Boheme," the Mayor in "Jenufa" and Mathieu in "Andrea Chenier." Although it's been rumored that the coming season will be his final one at the Metropolitan Opera, the Met press office could not verify that information.

Next week: News about films, ballet dancers, drama and people in the news.

Helen Smindak's e-mail address is HaliaSmindak@aol.com.

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