Mark Favermann
Bio:
Architecture, design, film and theatre critic/associate editor Mark Favermann, is an urban designer and public artist who over the past two decades has written extensively on art and design. A former Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, he was the first leader of the Boston Visual Artists Union (BVAU), the 1970's Boston activist artists organization, served as the former Director of Visual and Environmental Arts for the City of Boston and has been an adjunct professor at several universities. He was a columnist and/or editor for a large number of prominent publications. His own design work has included creating the award-winning marquee for the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, designing the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, creating the look for the 2000 NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis and the 1999 Ryder Cup as well as the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. For the past eight seasons, he has been a design consultant to the Boston Red Sox. His 2005 public art commission, The Birds of Audubon Circle, was nominated by the Boston Art Commission as one of the best pieces of public art in America. In the Fall of 2007, his Recognition Gateway sculpture was installed in South Brookline.
Recent Articles:
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Venus In Fur Hot At Huntington Theatre Theatre
Funny, Sexy, Clever and Provocative
By: - Jan 09th, 2014Based upon the classic erotic novella of Sado-Masochism, Venus In Fur is the story of an adapted play being cast by its playwright/director. Thomas is having a hard time finding the right actress for the female lead. After everyone has left for the day, an upset blonde actress loudly and profanely enters the studio and demands an audition. Vanda's tryout becomes an S/M dance incorporating various story lines twisting and turning. With wonderful performances and an enthralling narrative, this is a provocative evening of exceptional adult entertainment.
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Working At Lyric Stage Company Theatre
Dissidence to Pride Sings Work In America
By: - Jan 06th, 2014Working is a musical based upon Studs Terkel's great 1974 volume recording the voices of working men and women from every walk of life. It uses song and dance to portray their stories. Capturing their likes and dislikes, regrets and problems, as well as sadness and happinesses on the job, various distinguished Broadway composers have based their melodies and lyrics on Terkel's prose. This production goes beyond the book to update the work environment both generationally and attitudinally to the 21st Century's new workplace experience. Instead of celebrating work, unfortunately, though the music and performances are pleasant, the subject matter was just too big for the Lyric Stage Company's production.
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The Coolidge Appoints Katherine Tallman Film
New Executive Director at Landmark Theatre
By: - Dec 23rd, 2013The Board of the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation recently appointed Katherine Tallman as its new executive director. She replaces Denise Kasell who served in the post for the past five years. Founded in 1933, The Coolidge is New England's most vital and successful nonprofit film center exhibiting the best and most current independent films, revivals and film festivals.
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The Heart of Robin Hood At A.R.T. Theatre
Legend That Joyfully Swashbuckles With A Twist
By: - Dec 19th, 2013In this visually spectacular and action-packed interpretation of the English legend, Robin Hood and his band of merry men steal from the rich, but do not share with the indigent. As the wicked Prince John threatens England, it is Lady Marion who protects the poor and eventually converts the outlaw Robin Hood to hero. First seen at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2011, this smashing production is filled with adventure, romance, athletic fight choreography and humor. With an original score inspired by contemporary folk music, it is entertainment to savor.
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Becky’s New Car Drives Great At Lyric Stage Theatre
MidLife Road Testing A New Life Style
By: - Dec 02nd, 2013Though Becky's midlife isn't exactly unhappy, she needs something. But from her car dealership desk, she can't help but wonder what else is out there. And then she accidentally finds out. When a wealthy suitor presumes she is a widow, she finds herself leading a double life. It quickly accelerates out of control. With very real and yet fantasy characters and places, this play is a witty comedy of manners and expectations. Becky takes an unexpected ride from doldrums to adventure in an often clever and amusing way.
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Huntington's Cocktail Hour Stirs Family Strife Theatre
A.R. Gurney Recalls WASP Family Bad Manners and Memories
By: - Nov 22nd, 2013The evening ritual of the upper middle class cocktail hour is used as the vehicle to virtually shake not stir the superficial, unflappable demeanor of cold WASP parents. Set in his parents' elegant home, John announces that he has written a play about them, and their calm demeanor dissolves. As the martinis flow, so do the revelations and recriminations, in this personal comedy of manners about ties that unravel with a couple of wonderful characterizations and witty words.
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Kurt Vonnegut's Make Up Your Mind Theatre
World Premiere of Clever Comedy At SpeakEasy
By: - Nov 05th, 2013Kurt Vonnegut was an American original. This new play by Vonnegut and assembled by writer Nicky Silver touches a bit of ourselves. Like Vonnegut's other work it borders between farce and absurdism punctuated by wit, humor and at times empathy. With wonderful sets and terrific performances, this is about making and not making decisions, good, bad and life changing. Written in a time of self-help and lifestyle gurus and groupings, it questions the notion of "expert" therapy and the ramifications of not following strict adherence. Like all of Vonnegut's works, humor and humanity win out.
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Red Sox From Last To First Opinion
A Prose Poem for 2013 World Series Win
By: - Nov 02nd, 2013For 12 Seasons, his firm has been a design consultant to the Red Sox. He designed the now part of Boston and MLB history giant American flag unfurled at special times on the Green Monster for crying out loud! During that time, the team has won 3 World Series. Favermann has attended every Opening Day and each of the World Series. Last year was a disaster. The Old Town Team was in last place. No one gave the Sox a chance this year either. This 2013 Fall Classic win was the first at home since 1918 since Babe Ruth was a player. The surprising triumphant march to Major League Baseball dominance left Mark spouting poetry.
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A Thanks to Lou Reed Music
Punk Poet Rock Icon Dead at 71
By: - Oct 28th, 2013Personal remembrances of Rocker Lou Reed (1942-2013) whose influence on popular music and culture has been felt for over 40 years. Reed's trajectory was from pickup bands at Syracuse University to Andy Warhol's Factory parties to Boston's rock scene to the world.
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The Power of Duff Powerful at Calderwood Theatre
Playwright Stephen Belber Brings A New Voice to Theatre
By: - Oct 24th, 2013With often insightful humor and very human observations, Playwright Stephen Belber has added a new perspective to contemporary theatre. This very skillful play is set around the odd actions of burnt-out local TV newscaster Charlie Duff when he suddenly starts to offer a personal prayer at the end of his nightly broadcasts. Almost instantly he becomes a popular and controversial figure. But even as his prayers inspire millions, the anchorman wrestles with his own beliefs and his inability to sustain familial connections. This is a brilliant nearly mythic story with very personal concrete consequences.
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Edmund de Waal Ceramics At Gagosian Gallery Opinion
Porcelain Pots Panoply By Author of the Hare With Amber Eyes
By: - Oct 21st, 2013The author of the international bestseller The Hare with the Amber Eyes, ceramicist Edmund de Waal is a puzzle maker. Best known for his large scale installations of porcelain vessels exhibited in many major museums, much of his recent work has been concerned with ideas of collecting and collections. This reflects notions of how objects are kept together, lost, stolen and dispersed. His work comes out of a dialogue between minimalism, architecture and sound, and is informed by his passion for the written word. The issue of this Gagosian Gallery exhibition is what is it about? Is it a statement about de Waal regaining his family's lost wealth, or is it a commentary on consumerism? Just one of the many puzzles by de Waal in his literature and visual art.
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Water By The Spoonful Poignant At LyricStage Theatre
Forming A Family From Needy and Troubled Souls
By: - Oct 21st, 2013Water by the Spoonful is the beautifully written and performed Pulitzer Prize winning play by Quira Alegria Hudes. It is a visual and verbal montage of lives in crisis. Seemingly unrelated characters search for connection in a difficult world. They are looking for hope from their newly found family. Their troubled souls look for and try to find connection and redemption. This wonderful drama embraces great empathy and humor as well as a bit of hope.
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Calatrava's Costly Sculpture As Architecture Architecture
A Starchitect Whose Legacy Is Being Questioned
By: - Sep 26th, 2013In the last few decades, Spanish-born Santiago Calatrava (b.1951), a visionary architect, structural engineer and sculptor has risen to be a world renown star. His graceful, soaring and visually impressive bridges, transportation centers and cultural institutions are futuristically iconic. However, many of his prominent projects, though often quite startlingly beautiful, have been greatly criticized for functional flaws, detail mistakes, construction delays and huge cost overruns. His constant involvement in massive law suits is now diminishing his legacy.
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All The Way Powerful At American Rep Theatre
LBJ's Political and Personal Dilemmas Poetically Told
By: - Sep 20th, 2013Lyndon Johnson was one of our most provocative and contradictory presidents. A Southerner who tried to wipe out racial prejudice, a compromiser who only wanted to get his own way and a flawed individual who tried to make America a perfect union. All The Way is a Shakespearean drama that tells the story of the first year of LBJ's presidency with brilliant performances by Bryan Cranston as Johnson as well as by a host of supporting actors. It is a superb story of politics on the precipice and how compromise and cooperation by any means achieves political ends. It is a story set half a century ago that is a lesson for our own politically absurd times.
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Jungle Book Stunning At Huntington Theatre Theatre
A Visual and Musical Multigenerational Event
By: - Sep 19th, 2013Based upon Rudyard Kipling's early 20th Century children's classic, The Huntington Theatre Company's inaugeral show of the 2013-14 Season is a tour de force of music, visuals and performances. This production is a show for the whole family that will delight everyone's inner child as well as their outer adult. It is light and airy and full of beauty and vitality. This Jungle Book is a visual stunner with theatrical panache. And the character Mowgli is performed with such charisma that it is astounding. Director/Creator Mary Zimmerman's interpretation of this classic is magnificent and triumphant. Move over Lion King.
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Tribes Brilliantly Speaks At SpeakEasy Stage Theatre
An Eloquent Hearing and Listening Experience
By: - Sep 15th, 2013Tribes is a brilliantly written play by Nina Raine that had its world premiere in 2010 at London's Royal Court Theatre. It tells the story of an overtly intellectual British family with a son who is deaf and his two hearing siblings. The deaf son Billy was purposely raised without knowledge of sign language. After meeting Sylvia, a hearing woman born to deaf parents who is now slowly going deaf herself, his interaction with her reveals the prejudices, beliefs, and hierarchies of his family. Here, hearing and listening are illustrated to be quite different. This may be one of the best dramas of the 2013-2014 season anywhere.
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One Man, Two Guvnors At Lyric Stage Theatre
British Comedy Based On 18th Century Italian One
By: - Sep 09th, 2013Last year, this show was a hit on Broadway after great runs in London and throughout the UK. Apparently, the energy and rhythm of the Broadway production and talented lead James Corden made this show a crowd pleaser. For his performance Cordon won a Tony. His physical humor is a hard act to follow. One Man, Two Govnors is billed as a celebration of British comedy. Rather than, as expected a laugh-out-loud mix of satire, songs and slapstick, this Lyric Stage Company production takes a rather long time to develop its form. However, there are a few standout performances that make it worth the price of admission.
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A.R.T. Wins 4 Tonys and Huntington Wins 1 Theatre
Boston Theatres Recognized for Artistic Achievement
By: - Jun 10th, 2013The 66th Annual Tony Award Ceremony took place on CBS on Sunday, June 9, 2013. One of the most prestigious and coveted honors in the entertainment industry, the Tonys recognize the best of theatrical and artistic achievement on stage in America. This year Boston theatres won five awards. A.R.T.'s Pippin won four and the Huntington Theatre Company won for the Best Regional theatre. Well-deserved on all counts.
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Rapture, Blister, Burn At Huntington Theatre
Midlife Female Angst Over What Could Have Been
By: - May 29th, 2013The not so simple issues of marriage, feminism and parenthood are stirfried together with who we are and what we have become in Gina Gionfriddo’s drama/comedy that was a finalist for a 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The story looks at more than a decade after grad school when Catherine pursued a career as a star feminist academic, while Gwen built a home with husband and children. Each friend covets the other's life. With comedic and at times tender insights and clever bantor, this new comedy investigates family, career, romance, and the decisions that define an unfulfilled life.
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2013 National Design Awards Announced Design
Cooper-Hewitt Museum Honors Design Achievement
By: - May 17th, 2013The National Design Awards program celebrates design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of design by educating the public and promoting excellence, innovation, and lasting achievement. This year's award-winners are from a variety of design disciplines.
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Pirates of Penzance Sings At American Rep Theatre
An Original Talented Take on Gilbert & Sullivan's Operetta
By: - May 17th, 2013Never expecting grandfather's version of the Pirates of Penzance at the American Repertory Theatre, this privateering musical crew gives a very different but rewarding production of the 19th Century English operetta gem. Set in an environment of a Tiki Bar married to a backyard lakeside pier with children's wading pools and and bamboo torches, ten performers go from badly dressed folksong singing beach goers to well-formed characters from the original production. Funny, lively and beautifully sung, this is a treat for the whole family.
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On The Town Brilliant At Lyric Stage Theatre
As Good As It Gets Of Classic Revival
By: - May 12th, 2013Sometimes there is a rare theatrical event that is brilliantly performed and directed, thoroughly entertaining and totally wonderful. The Lyric Stage Company's On The Town is one of these. It is the story of three young WWII American sailors with one day in New York City to see sights, meet a special girl, and literally have the time of their lives. Leonard Bernstein's score melds perfectly with the witty book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green to create a magical musical experience. Directed by an inspired Spiro Veloudos, this show revival is as good as it gets. It could transfer directly to Broadway with little or no changes. Run to get tickets. It is that brilliant.
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In The Heights Soars At SpeakEasy Stage Theatre
The Importance of Chasing Dreams & Finding Yourself
By: - May 11th, 2013Winner of four 2008 Tony Awards including Best Musical, In The Heights is a potent reminder of the importance of chasing one’s dreams while finding who you are and where you belong. Set in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood, this vital production with a distinctive Latin beat spices up traditional musical fare with hip hop, salsa and rap to tell the stories of the residents of this close-knit community. You will be dancing when you leave the theatre.
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The Genius of Everyday Things At MIT Design
Practical Simplicity Married to Functional Elegance
By: - May 03rd, 2013Hidden Heroes is a design exhibition that includes cases of objects, patent drawings, movies and advertising posters. Showcasing the importance of elegant design of seemingly simple but highly useful objects, this array of 36 classic items embodies ideals of modernism that are both relevant and popular. Here function literally follows form. In basic terms, this is the underlying story of the marriage of creativity, industry and invention.
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Huntington Theatre Co Gets 2013 Tony Theatre
Regional Tony Award Goes to Huntington for Body of Work
By: - Apr 30th, 2013One of the most prestigious and coveted honors in the entertainment industry, the Regional Theatre Tony Award is presented each year to honor a nonprofit professional regional theatre company in the United States that has displayed a continuous level of artistic achievement contributing to the growth of theatre nationally. It is awarded by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing based upon a recommendation by the American Theatre Critics Association. This year it was awarded to Boston's Huntington Theatre Company.
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