Filmmaker Cara Consilvia discusses her new documentary, “For the Love of Friends,” which details Brent Nicholson Earle’s ten thousand mile run for AIDS.
Read MoreAvondale Estates resident, Cara Consilvio, is a female director and producer of opera, film, and theater. Consilvio produced and directed mini-documentaries for the NEA Opera Honors, NEA Jazz Masters videos, OPERA America, and the American Composers Orchestra. Her latest project is “For the Love of Friends,” a documentary chronicling activist Brent Nicholson Earle's 10,000-mile run around the country in 20 months to bring awareness to the AIDS epidemic. The documentary will be airing for the first time on Public Broadcast Stations on June 1st.
Read MoreAtlanta filmmaker Cara Consilvio chronicles Brent Nicholson Earle’s 1986 “The American Run for the End of AIDS” in the new documentary called For the Love of Friends, which begins airing on American Public Television June 1. It’s her feature film directing debut.
In a just world, Earle would be acknowledged more for the work he did as an AIDS activist. As a gay man living in New York when the crisis began in the ‘80s, it was not uncommon for him to have dozens of friends die in a single week. Looking for a way to do something to help, Earle came up with an unorthodox plan — he decided to make a 10,000-mile run around the country to raise funds and bring awareness to HIV/AIDS.
Read MoreON JANUARY 14, FORT WORTH OPERA unveiled the latest entry in the exploding genre of Zoom operas, Bernadette’s Cozy Book Nook, a forty-minute comic gem with a colorful score by artistic director Joe Illick and insightful libretto by Mark Campbell (streaming through Jan. 24). A book club of retirees meets over Zoom for the first time due to the pandemic, presided over by the opinionated, autocratic Bernadette—a latter-day Lady Billows, the doyenne behind Albert Herring’s May Festival committee.(…)
(…)It takes real skill to make a slice of life—especially one we’re all feeling trapped by—into compelling art, but Illick and Campbell succeed.
Read More“Based on the Executive Producer, Cara Consilvio’s own wedding at a summer camp, Camp Wedding is a wedding comedy that stumbles into a summer camp horror movie, but since the two genres are communicating exclusively via text, the tone doesn’t really get communicated. Had the bride and groom had done their research beforehand, or at very least, communicated face-to-face, they probably wouldn’t have chosen Camp Pocumtuck to play host to what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives.”
Read More“From selfish selfies to mystifying misunderstandings, the characters of Camp Wedding battle to survive some deadly digital dangers before they lose the power to stop them. As Emetaz and Consilvio discuss in this interview, Camp Wedding is a funny yet cautionary tale of electronic miscommunication run amok; one told on the big scale of a feature-length comedy.”
Read More“Director Cara Consilvio, making her debut with the company, approaches the production from the milieu of the early 20th century cabarets, emphasizing the earthy, lusty and gritty elements.”
Read More“Directed by Cara Consilvio, Piedmont Opera’s production of L’elisir d’amore was visually appealing, genuinely funny, and touching without being cartoonish, foolish, or embarrassingly sentimental. The pacing of the opera’s action exploited the expert comic timing of the production team and the cast, incorporating a whirlwind of physicality that rarely interfered with the science of singing.”
Read More“The first-act curtain rises on the entire cast in an exquisite frozen tableau, and that is the last time that there is stillness on the stage. As at harvest-time, there is constant movement, bustle and energy, choreographed skillfully by stage director Cara Consilvio.”
Read MoreBest Opera Production (Mixed Scale)
“Dialogues of the Carmelites”
Loyola Opera Theater
Cara Consilvio, Director
Carol Rausch, Conductor
St. George’s Episcopal Church
“One thing Cara Consilvio, our director, is trying to really dive into is the humanity of these characters. It's such a ridiculous, over-the-top plot - boy loves girl, girl doesn't love boy, boy drinks what he thinks is love potion in order to get girl to love boy, etc... But if we portray the realistic side of this story, such as the genuine love that Nemorino has for Adina, then the audience can come along for the ride and hopefully, find the story touching and entertaining, rather than just outrageous and ridiculous.”
Read MoreCara and Anchorage Opera General Director, Reed Smith in an Interview with Scott Rhode about “An American Dream.”
Read More“During the prequel — a brilliant selection of works — director Cara Consilvio had her characters play out the story of Angelica before she entered the convent: boy meets girl, they fall in love and so on until she’s locked away by her rich, noble family to atone for her sins.”
Read MoreBundy Museum Director of Development Janna Rudler sat down with Cara Consilvio and John Cockerill, the Stage Director and Music Director, respectively, of Tri Cities Opera's upcoming production, Suor Angelica.
Read MoreHosts: Cynthia Hennon Marino and Stacy Hennon Stone
Producer: Willis Kai Stone
“Director Cara Consilvio made the most of the available playing space in the Opera Center’s Savoca Hibbitt Hall: two ramps, two flat spaces, a bench and screen. The images projected onto the screen – war scenes and domestic scenes, images of the time by Scenic Designer Tialoc Lopez-Watermann — added to the drama without distraction.”
Read More“The staging by Cara Consilvio kept the cast, first appearing in fuchsia robes, constantly ascending and descending two movable stairs of different heights, with their tops sometimes used as podia. Though there were things going on all the time, and costumes changes often onstage, everything seemed quite organically designed. Video projections were used occasionally, but tellingly, to offer clues.”
Read More“If you are as worn-out and weary as I was with the recent election season and in need of an uplifting break, I would encourage you to spend a night (or afternoon) in the dark forest, where awaits a gingerbread house and characters who will restore your faith, if not in the political process, at least in humanity and music’s ability to soothe your soul and transport you back to a simpler time: your childhood.”
Read MoreCara’s interview with Al Nigrin, Executive Director and Curator of the NJ Film Festival, about her short film "C.I.T."
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