Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Last week's New Roots Charter High School's production of 'The Shadow of Dracula posed the age-old question: when your fiance brings her mother to your house to meet you, how do you explain that your family is... well, vampires?

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The Story

Chicago first appeared on Broadway in 1975, with Gwen Verdon as Roxy and Bob Fosse directing. You may have seen the 1996 revival, or the 2002 movie. With its many great female roles, it’s perfect for a college musical theatre production—as long as the students can sing, dance, and act. They can.

The Production

You’ve got Megan Watt as cutely tough Roxy, and Rebecca Futterman as her long cold rival, both able to belt out a song and croon a ballad. You’ve got Jessica Bennett as Mama Morton, tough and tender matron of the cellblock that holds Roxy, Velma, and a half-dozen brilliant babes.

The Wells College Choral Ensembles will present their annual Fall Concert on Saturday, October 30 at 5:15 p.m. in Barler Recital Hall on the Wells campus in Aurora. This event is part of the college’s annual Family and Friends Weekend. The three singing groups – Women’s Ensemble, Men’s Ensemble, and the mixed voice Concert Choir – will present a wide variety of choral works from the sixteenth century to the present. Admission to the concert is free, and the public is cordially invited to attend this festive event.

The Kitchen Theatre Company continues its 20th Anniversary Season with the return of best-selling author David Sedaris’ hilarious, holiday theatrical treat. The Santaland Diaries is a decadent dose of irreverent holiday humor, based on Sedaris' real-life job as a Macy’s Elf. Broadcast annually on NPR, this popular seasonal standard has been adapted for the stage by Joe Mantello into a screamingly funny one-person play. The KTC is bringing back the ‘team’ from 2005, which stars Karl Gregory and direction by Jesse Bush. The Santaland Diaries begins with special Thanksgiving Weekend Previews on Saturday, November 27th and Sunday, November 28th and additional previews December 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Opening Night is December 4th, and The Santaland Diaries continues through December 19th, 2010. Adult language and situations.

SMART TALK
by Dr. Winton "Windy" Prolix



FOR THE PURPOSE OF: My fellow therapist Les Terse calls this a smoke phrase.  At the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, verbal smoking is using verbiage in the way a smoker becomes very busy lighting up while deciding what to say.

Alfred Kahn, who fought heroically but quixotically for clear language while part of the Carter administration, directed the Civil Aeronautics Board and staff to stop using for the purpose of and simply say and write to.  Dr. Kahn's memo may have failed, but he can sleep the sleep of the righteous.

The benighted souls who use for the purpose of may think using four words where one will do makes them seem smart instead of fatuous.  Or perhaps they formed a verbosity habit in school after being assigned to write too many essays at least so many words long.  Good teachers often impose a maximum word count to encourage simple, tight writing, which is good writing.

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The Hangar Theatre will be rocking as the next CabarETC performance, Tits Fisher with Kitten’s Kiss, takes the stage October 30 th and 31st.  The Hangar’s new CabarETC series features a fresh mix of New York talent and local favorites for a new entertainment experience.

Tits Fisher with Kitten's Kiss is an outrageous, ever-changing live show with one part Vaudeville, one part Vegas, a dash of dada, and all Rock & Roll!

The Wells College Department of Theatre and Dance is announced its original production of 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' will be presented on October 29 and 30 at 7:30p.m., in Phipps Auditorium of Macmillan Hall. This new adaptation by playwright David Dannenfelser presents Washington Irving’s famous spooky legend in classic radio play format.

As a “play within a play” set in a 1936 radio station, the production provides a look into the routine day of a cast of colorful voice actors and actresses as they perform “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” for their listeners’ enjoyment.

The Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) and its Museum of the Earth will be bringing a 380-million-year-old Fossil Dig Pit to the first ever USA Science and Engineering Festival held on the Mall in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, October 23 and Sunday, October 24.  Visitors to the Festival will have the chance to dig through 380-million-year-old shale from the Ithaca area hunting for fossils.

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The Lansing High School production of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's 'You Can't Take It With you' will be at the Lansing Middle School Auditorium tonight, Friday October 15, and tomorrow October 16 at 7pm.  Tickets are available at the door.


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SMART TALK
by Dr. Will S. Sert



FOREWARN: At the Institute for the Linguistically Impaired, patients are taught how to test for redundancies:  Do a term's opposites or alternatives make sense?

If "postwarn" is as silly as "postpone until earlier," then maybe the term should stand on its own, prefix-free.

For instance, some of our patients preplan their actions.  Why can't they plan anything?  Maybe we should call hindsight "postplanning."

After treatment in the Edwin Newman Clinic for Temporal Retentives, patients begin to listen better and clean up their language.  The sharp ones even see the absurdity in preregister, and apply elsewhere if a school asks them to preregister in advance.




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