A Rare Pattern

A Rare Pattern
Tucson: Sunday , March 28, 2010 @ 3p.m. – Scottsdale: Friday, March 26, 2010 @ 8p.m.

a brief description
“I walk down the garden paths,
And all the daffodils
Are blowing, and the bright blue squills.
I walk down the patterned garden paths
In my stiff, brocaded gown.
With my powdered hair and jewelled fan,
I too am a rare
Pattern. As I wander down
The garden paths.”
Amy Lowell, from her poem “Patterns”

Psychologist G. Stanley Hall. ‘Academic achievements have forced conservative minds to admit that women’s intellect is not inferior to that of man. From the available data it seems, however, that the more scholastic the education of women, the fewer children and less the ability to nurse children. Not intelligence but education by present manmade ways is related inversely to fecundity.’

A RARE PATTERN, a solo performance work by Harry Clark, was commissioned by Connecticutís Quinnipiac University as part of their annual Women and Creativity Conference. The premiere was given by Barbara Feldon and it has enjoyed multiple performances since by Hayley Mills and our superb actor this afternoon, Margot Kidder.
A RARE PATTERN, starts as our unnamed heroine enrolls in Vassar College in the 1920s and follows her life for
the next twenty years up to World War II. Our heroine experiences a mental collapse during her time at Vassar, an artistic and spiritual crisis, and is compelled to speak her mind solely using the thoughts and ideas of the leading female writers and thinkers of her day including such luminaries as: Hannah Arendt, Jane Austen, Nadia Boulanger, Willa Cather, Adelaide Crapsey, Emily Dickinson, Zelda Fitzgerald, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Corra May White Harris, Sarah Orne Jewett, Amy Lowell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Marianne Moore, Dorothy Parker, Mary Shaw, Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf.
Experience the journey of our heroine, her search for a life of meaning in her own words for ñ she too is a rare Pattern.
Thank you, Amy Lowell.

About the music
Music for soprano, cello and piano for this event is by Fanny Hensel, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, Lili and Nadia Boulanger.

Performers
Margot Kidder is a Canadian actress Margot Kidder spent her infant years living in a caboose.

Whilst at the University of British Columbia, she became involved with student drama, her first performance being a production of ‘Take Me Along’. She went professional with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Vancouver, and Kidder revelled in the diversity of the roles on offer.
Her first film appearance was in Norman Jewison’s 1969 media satire, ‘Gaily Gaily’, with Beau Bridges. Living full-time in the USA, she then worked with Gene Wilder on ‘Quackser Fortune Has A Cousin In The Bronx’. Unimpressed by the industry, she moved back to Canada to learn the art of directing, but returned with great success in Brian De Palma’s ‘Sisters’, in 1972.
Kidder shot to international fame with her portrayal of Lois Lane in the smash hit ‘Superman’ films, opposite Christopher Reeve.
However, after this pinnacle, her career suffered a rapid decline. Badly injured in an accident in the late 1980s, she stubbornly refused treatment, much to the detriment of her health.
Kidder has had a turbulent private life. She declared herself bankrupt in 1992.
Having been diagnosed with manic depression in 1988 and plagued by substance abuse, Kidder suffered a very public breakdown in 1996, and was found, ragged and gibbering, homeless under a pile of wood in suburban LA.
With her supporters rallying round, she managed to regain parts in television and theatre. Her trademark husky voice has appeared over such cartoons as ‘Captain Planet’ and ‘The Planeteers’.

Soprano, Jennifer Nagy, is active as a professional singer in the Phoenix metropolitan area. She has been a voice teacher at Chandler/Gilbert Community College since 1998 and has taught at Mesa Community College since 1991.

Ms. Nagy has had a wide variety of performing experience. Ms. Nagy has been a featured soprano soloist for works such as Handelís Messiah, Poulencís Gloria, Rutterís Requiem and Magnificat, and Mozartís Coronation Mass. She has also given full recital performances in Phoenix and Tucson, AZ, San Jose, CA, and Spokane, WA. She has made appearances with Arizona Opera since 1999; most recent roles include the Foreign Woman in The Consul and Frasquita in Carmen. She has appeared as a guest artist with the Coeur díAlene Symphony Orchestra, the Mesa Symphony, the Phoenix Bach Choir, and the Phoenix Symphony. Ms. Nagyís upcoming performances in 2007 include performing with the Flagstaff Symphony and the role of Mrs. Hayes in Arizona Operaís production of Susannah.

Ms. Nagy has won several honors throughout her singing career and education. In the summer of 1994, she was one of twelve chosen to participate in the National Association of Teachers of Singing 1994 Internship Program. In 1997, she won 1st place in the Amelia Rieman Opera Competition held in Tucson, AZ. In the summer of 1998, she was one of twelve chosen to participate in the Cleveland Art Song Festival, and in the fall of 1998, she was a Regional Finalist in Los Angeles at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Jennifer has appeared with great critical acclaim on four previous Portraits with Chamber Music PLUS Southwest including collaborations with Lynn Redgrave, Efrem and Stephanie Zimbalist, Hayley Mills and Michael Learned.