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:
-
A.R.T. New Managing Director Billy Russo Theatre
Will Partner with A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus
By: - Apr 22nd, 2013The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) at Harvard University has announced today that William Russo will join the institution as its new Managing Director, effective this July. Russo, who currently serves as the Managing Director of New York Theatre Workshop, will partner with A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus to manage the $13 million non-profit theater.
-
Beowulf Disarming At A.R.T. Theatre
Grendel, His Mom and King Hrothgar Sing At Oberon
By: - Apr 17th, 2013Transforming the Oberon into a cabaret/21st century mead hall, this very lyrical if not poetic version of the retelling of the Old English epic poem uses song, silliness and a great band to tell a story that we all mostly skimmed when we were assigned it in school. Grendel, his mother and Beowulf sing, dance, strut and fight their way through a poem that has been told for at least 1000 years. Using raw and rowdy songplay and featuring original music that combines Weimar cabaret, 40’s jazz harmony, punk, electronica and Romantic Lieder, the instrumentation and voices are marvelous. It isn't your English teacher's version of the epic.
-
Operation Epsilon At Central Sq Theater Theatre
Science, Responsibility, Pride and Guilt Collide
By: - Apr 14th, 2013At the close of WWII, the Allies captured Germany’s top ten nuclear scientists and kept them at a lavish English estate, Farm Hall. They were under surveillance to learn what they knew about the American nuclear program and to gauge how close the Nazis were to making an atomic bomb. Playwright Alan Brody brilliantly sheds light on the ethical complexity of pursuing scientific discovery at the risk of fostering catastrophic consequences. Mixing in the notions of individual hubris and personal or collective responsibility, this is a serious and revealing drama that wrestle's with conscience and culpability. With a fine ensemble cast, it is an engrossing major theatrical event.
-
M Brilliant At Huntington's Calderwood Pavilion Theatre
Creative Take On Fritz Lang's Film Noir Classic
By: - Apr 10th, 2013Wonderfully conceived and stylistically creative, the world premiere of Ryan Landry's "M" is a unique theatrical event. Light and shadow, comedy and drama and silliness and seriousness are blended together in a surrealistic and at times totally quite poignant adaptation of uberdirector Fritz Lang's masterpiece "M." We are compelled to watch with both amused wonder and horror as Landry brings his unique imagination to a new adaptation of this dark film noir 1931 classic. This is theatre of the absurd with a point. It is a gothic visual and verbal journey that is dreamlike but unconditionally entertaining.
-
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark At LyricStage Company Theatre
Witty Take on Difficulties of Race, Stardom and the American Way
By: - Mar 31st, 2013A comedy about racism, Hollywood and secrets by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage that takes an irreverent look at racial stereotypes in both Hollywood and 20th Century America. The show is a seventy-year journey through the life of Vera Stark, an African-American maid who becomes an actress, and her strange relationship with a white Hollywood star. When both women land roles in a Southern epic, the story behind the cameras leaves Vera with a surprising and controversial legacy. This is theatre of thought and difficult history.
-
NYC Phone Booth Competition Missed Call Design
Free Design Work Is Just Crowdsourcing for Startups
By: - Mar 17th, 2013It is unfair that public artists, designers and architects do free work to get commissions. With some fanfare, several interesting hip judges and techno startups as point entities, another Competition has taken place with little to win for all of the effort that was put forth. Taken seriously, the results from a competition to replace the antiquated and often out of order call boxes would be an imaginative series of solutions. But instead it was only a minor creative conversation. And words are cheap. Here design is shown in fits and starts and undetermined consequences.
-
A Raisin In The Sun Brilliant At Huntington Theatre
Lorraine Hansberry’s Groundbreaking 1959 Classic Drama
By: - Mar 14th, 2013In a crowded apartment in Chicago’s South Side, each member of a struggling African-American family yearns for a different version of a better life. An impending large insurance payment seems to be the key. While American prejudice and racism set barriers and even roadblocks to life's journey, this is an moving portrait of resilient people whose dreams are constantly deferred. A must see theatrical event.
-
Sensational Clybourne Park At SpeakEasy Theatre
A Brilliantly Scripted Play About Our Past and Present
By: - Mar 06th, 2013Clybourne Park won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and the 2012 Tony Award for Best Play. Filled with ironic humor, it is a brilliant drama about race, real estate and the volatile values of each. Inspired by Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, it transcribes racist American attitudes in two acts set 50 years apart. In the late 50s, a community is up in arms over the first black family to buy a house in their white neighborhood. Fifty years later, the neighborhood has changed around the same house, as now young white couples want to buy into the now predominantly black neighborhood. The social and emotional anxieties are mirror images. The writing and acting is sensational. This is great theatre.
-
Clever Stones In His Pockets At LyricStage Theatre
What It Means To Be Irish When Hollywood Invades
By: - Mar 04th, 2013A darkly clever play of what happens to a small village in County Kerry when a Hollywood crew shoots a "truly" Irish film using and in some cases abusing the locals who are hired as the extras. The story is carried on by verbally dueling very adroit two actors that transform themselves into fifteen characters by a turn of the head, a doffing of a cap or a twisting of the body. Actors Phil Tayler and Daniel Berger-Jones have strong nonstop performances.
-
The Glass Menagerie Brilliant At A.R.T. Theatre
Tennessee Williams' Eloquent Memory Play Is Transcendent
By: - Feb 13th, 2013Perhaps Tennessee Williams' best work, the Glass Menagerie is starkly presented as an emotionally painful memory play that features the struggling writer Tom and his disfunctional small family. Cherry Jones is note perfect as mother Amanda. Tom is edgily performed by Zachary Quinto. Celia Keenan-Bolger poignantly plays sister Laura going in and out of her shell. A theatrical old chestnut with a new taste and dramatic spice, this is an as good as it gets Glass Menagerie. It should not be missed.
-
Abolitionists' Words Framed Our History Word
American Antislavery Writings Edited By Jim Basker
By: - Jan 30th, 2013Part of the Library of America series, American Antislavery Writings edited by Jim Basker, speak the eloquent words of the Abolitionists that still echo today 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. It was a time of division, a time of turmoil but a moment of articulate condemnation of the sins of slavery. This very human American story is a major part of our nation's heritage.
-
Poignant Other Desert Cities At SpeakEasy Theatre
Penetrating Dark Secret of Conservative Family
By: - Jan 14th, 2013After a six year absence, the seemingly prodigal daughter returns to her conservative parents' home for Christmas in 2004. Brooke has been living and writing in New York, politically and culturally far from the isolated Palm Springs desert family home. Recently leaving rehab, her mother's sister Silda is now living belligerently with her parents. Brother TV producer Trip is there as well. It is at first an expected holiday character mix of a disfunctional family, but the drama becomes a whole lot more. This is a story of family, dignity and things that are not what they seem.
-
Invisible Man Resonates At Huntington Theatre
Ralph Ellison's Brilliant Story of Racism and Dignity
By: - Jan 09th, 2013This well-acted play is the journey of an idealistic young African-American man searching for identity and his place in the world in pre-Civil Rights America. Based on Ralph Ellison’s landmark American novel about race, power and ultimately personal freedom, it is presented as an eloquent theatrical experience.
-
Ada Louse Huxtable Dead At 91 Architecture
Eloquent Critic of Architecture and Built Environment
By: - Jan 08th, 2013Ada Louise Huxtable was the first architecture critic at the New York Times (1963) and the first architecture critic to win the Pulitzer Prize (1970). Her clearly stated analytical prose was always accessible and enlightening. She was a voice of reason and often a voice of conscience. Ms. Huxtable's thoughts and refined wisdom will be missed from our civic conversation. Reprinted here is a 2008 review of the last major compendium of her writings.
-
33 Variations At Lyric Stage Theatre
Spanning Obsessions, 200 Years And Painful Lives
By: - Jan 06th, 2013Separated by 200 years, a mother is coming to terms with her daughter as well as her health and a composer is coming to terms with his hearing and genius. These two share an obsession that transcends the boundaries of time. Moisés Kaufman play is focused on passion, parenthood and the moments of beauty that somehow transform life.
-
Pippin Spellbinding At American Rep Theatre
A Brilliant Re-Creation of Iconic Show
By: - Jan 04th, 2013From the first note of the overture to the final bow, this Diane Paulus directed revival of Pippin at A.R.T. is a magnetic effervescent theatrical treat. This is musical theatre as scrumptious life is a circus delight. Along with incredibly talented supporting players, Patina Miller, Andrea Martin and Matthew James Thomas bring athleticism, humor and just plain talent to a new interpretation of a now classic musical score and narrative. This is must-see before it goes to Broadway. There is Magic to do here.
-
Tasty Gourmet Food Trucks Design
Though Around for Long Time, A Strong New Design Trend
By: - Dec 26th, 2012Starting in the 19th Century as Chuck Wagons on cattle drives, then becoming convenient lunch wagons in urban centers and a childhood memory as ice cream trucks, the growing and refined gastronomical convoy of Gourmet Food Trucks are now a provocative piece of the urban fabric. Their design and placement have many moving parts and add color, vitality and new sophisticated tastes to our lives.
-
Frank Lloyd Wright House Rescued Architecture
Preservationists Save Unique 1952 House From Demolition
By: - Dec 21st, 2012An anonymous benefactor purchased and saved a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in Phoenix that had been threatened with demolition. Wright designed the 1952 home for his son and daughter-in-law. Preservationists objected last summer when they learned a development company planned to demolish it in order to split the property. The house is the only Wright-designed residence that uses a circular spiral plan similar to Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York.
-
Our Town At Huntington Theatre Enthralling Theatre
Rethinking Thornton Wilder's American Masterpiece
By: - Dec 12th, 2012In 1901 Grover's Corners, George and Emily fall in love, marry, and live out their lives as one New England town becomes a microcosm of everyday life. Or maybe not? Cleverly conceived and directed by David Cromer, this is a wonderfully intimate yet contemporary staging of the Thornton Wilder American classic. In several ways, Our Town is everyone's town. Due to demand the show has been extended to January 26.
-
Architect Oscar Niemeyer Dies At 104 Architecture
Modernist Brazilian Pioneer Influenced 20th Century Design
By: - Dec 06th, 2012Oscar Niemeyer passed away just short of his 105th birthday on December 5, 2012. A Brazilian, he was one of the most prolific and influential architects of the 20th Century. Influenced by Le Corbusier, however Niemeyer championed the curve over the right angle. His portfolio included the major buildings of Brasilia, the planned new capital of Brazil, the United Nations complex in New York City and several significant museums and headquarters buildings.
-
Ching•lish Speaks Volumes At Lyric Stage Theatre
Brilliant Show of Manners & Mores in Contemporary China
By: - Dec 02nd, 2012One of Time Magazine’s 10 best plays of 2011, Ching•lish cleverly follows the journey of an American businessman as he tries to cash in on Chinese booming economic potential. This is a hilarious well-made comedy of mistranslation and manners by Tony Award-winning playwright, David Henry Hwang, author of M Butterfly. Using humor, sex and heartache, there is a poignancy to the profound isolation and terrible vulnerability of people who don't share a common culture or language.
-
The Unaesthetic American Cell Tower Design
Ma Bell's Children Are Philistines
By: - Nov 25th, 2012For the past decade and a half, the various American phone service entities have "created" rather inelegant cell towers to expand the best service to their customers. This has been a rather lazy engineering experience. Certainly enlisting designers and sculptors to the task would have brought better results. However, some European phone companies have brought flair and a public beauty.
-
Pinter's Betrayal At Huntington Theatre Company Theatre
Layered Relationships And Deceit Express Playwright's Best Work
By: - Nov 14th, 2012With its usual crafted quality, the Huntington presents Harold Pinter's most famous and perhaps most resolved play. Here, for seven years, Emma and Jerry engage in a passionate love affair, deceiving their spouses, each other and perhaps even themselves. Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter innovatively explores the complexities of love, guilt, and duplicity in this contemporary classic.
-
British Public Art Is For Sale Fine Arts
Local Governments Want to Raise Funds By Deaquisitioning
By: - Nov 09th, 2012It is a phrase that seems to have arisen with the latter half of the 20th Century: Is public art necessary? Monuments always seem to be appreciated. But they are memorials, usually homage to death or dying, heroic or victimized. The problem is that the less educated, the less aware do not understand art's utility. They look for functional value not aesthetic quality. Now the Philistine's are thick on the ground in the United Kingdom.
-
The Chosen At Lyric Stage Company Theatre
Spirituality Prescribed in a Secular Society
By: - Oct 27th, 2012Adapted by Chaim Potok & Aaron Posner from the novel by Chaim Potok, this drama is sometimes moving and provocative coming of age story that follows two boys from different cultural groups as their relationships with each other, their families, and their own spirituality evolve in 1940s Brooklyn. It is a story of acceptance and understanding.
<< Previous Next >>