Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Former Genesis guitarist and prog legend Steve Hackett is returning with an exciting new show for 2017.  Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the classic Genesis album Wind and Wuthering, Hackett and his band will be performing several tracks from the album as well as fan favourites such as 'The Musical Box' as well as other Genesis numbers never performed before by Steve's band, such as 'Inside & Out' and 'Anyway'.

"I'm excited to bring my latest show involving a new set of Genesis and Hackett numbers to North America in 2017!" Hackett says.

The 90th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will feature some familiar local faces  – 23 high school dance students from the Armstrong School of Dance. The Armstrong dancers are from Ithaca, Freeville, Lansing, Spencer, and Southern Cayuga Central schools.

Director Karen Armstrong Gorsky said that dancers from her studio have been invited to perform with the Spirit of America Dance Stars, which are recruited from top dance schools throughout the U. S. The November 24 parade will be watched by more than 3.5 million people on the streets of Manhattan and more than 50 million people worldwide.

The mesmerizing Cirque Mechanics will perform their unique steam punk inspired circus show, Pedal Punk at The State Theatre of Ithaca on Sunday, October 23rd at 7:00pm.

Combining traditional circus disciplines with bicycles on a cycling inspired set, Pedal Punk describes their show as a rowdy circus where the mischief is on wheels.  Fun for all ages, Spectacle Magazine hailed Pedal Punk as "The greatest contribution to the American circus since Cirque du Soleil"!

The music of innovative jazz musician John Coltrane, with its experimental, improvisational sound and political and spiritual inspirations, serves as the soundtrack for Brooklyn-based dance company Urban Bush Women in Walking with 'Trane. The renowned troupe will present Walking with 'Trane on Tuesday, October 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Kiplinger Theatre at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, 430 College Ave., Ithaca. The dance performance is cosponsored by Cornell University's Department of Performing and Media Arts and the Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies program.

Kitchen Theatre Company's second show of the 2016/2017 season is Precious Nonsense by Rachel Lampert, directed by Sara Lampert Hoover, on stage October 16- November 8. The perfect antidote to today's dark political climate, Precious Nonsense is a sunny musical comedy packed with mistaken identities, romantic entanglements, and gender-bending role-playing. Fun for the whole family. (Ages 7+)

Set in 1938, PRECIOUS NONSENSE introduces us to a ramshackle touring company, the Carter Family Savoyards. The founders and guiding forces of the company are the bombastic RDC Carter, and his long-suffering but equally strong-willed wife Angelina. After years of touring, they long to retire and pass on the leadership of the company to their son Frederic, who has up to now shown no interest in anything except getting away from his parents and their touring life as soon as he can. The Carter Family Savoyards also includes endearing ingenue Josephine, stage manager and philosopher, Pete, and the enigmatic music director, Herbie. Desperate to run away and join the theatre is the star-struck Samuel and the mysterious Mack, who both arrive on the scene.

A fun mix of puppetry, black light, original music and captivating storytelling bring beloved Eric Carle classics to the State Theatre in 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, And Other Treasured Stories'.

The State Theatre of Ithaca, Tompkins Trust Company and CSP Management kicks off The 2016/2017 Family Series with the captivating black-light puppet show Brown Bear, Brown Bear and other Treasured Stories Sunday, October 9th at 1:00pm.

Triphammer Arts will present a fully staged studio performance of The Classical Style: An Opera (of Sorts), by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Steven Stucky and librettist Jeremy Denk on Sunday October 30 at 7:30pm at the CRS Barn Studio, 2622 North Triphammer Road, Ithaca. A reception will follow the performance.

The Classical Style was Stucky's last large-scale composition before his untimely death in 2016. The opera is inspired by musicologist and pianist Charles Rosen's 1971 book, The Classical Style, and thus follows composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven as they descend from heaven into a 21st century music climate. Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle lauded The Classical Style as an "exuberantly witty and often touching one-act opera." Richard Scheinin of the San Jose Mercury News declared it a "winning little opera" and further described it as "gorgeous to hear, and filled with laughs."

In 1975, Gregory Bright was wrongfully convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Bright served 27-and-a-half years of that sentence. On Saturday, Oct. 15, Bright will perform his one-man show, Never Fight a Shark in Water: The Wrongful Conviction of Gregory Bright, at 7:30 p.m. in the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts' Flexible Theatre.

Illiterate when he entered prison, Bright taught himself to read and write, and eventually studied law. Without the assistance of legal counsel, Bright appealed his case up to the State Supreme Court, at which point the Innocence Project New Orleans became involved. Bright was exonerated and gained his freedom.

Binghamton, NY - This October, stories about the 2006 and 2011 floods in Broome County will be shared in a staged reading of a new play produced by Civic Ensemble, an Ithaca-based theatre company focusing on community engagement in the arts. This documentary theatre piece, Living With Water: Stories of the Flood, is a part of the Living With Water Resiliency Summit, organized by Rust to Green Binghamton (R2GB). The play is comprised of the firsthand accounts of the flood by people who lived through it.

Over the past year, Cornell University researchers and students, Binghamton University professors, City officials, and staff from Cornell Cooperative Extension and Civic Ensemble have interviewed and conducted story circles with various populations throughout Broome County who were affected by the recent floods. This summit, organized to commemorate the fifth and tenth anniversaries of the floods, will be an opportunity for many people to come together, learn from past experiences, and begin to plan "rebuilding smarter," based on ongoing research in the area on flood resiliency. Civic Ensemble was engaged to create a play from this work, with Director of Civic Engagement Sarah K. Chalmers leading the story circles and script creation.

The Hangar theatre is hosting two unique cabaret style performances this October. Mind the Gap - a celebration of British soul singers, Dusty, Petula, Amy, and Adele, will make its world premiere October 7th and 8th. On October 14, celebrate Latino Heritage Month at the spectacular one-night engagement, The Latin and World Music of Sally Ramirez and Doug Robinson. All performances take place at 8pm at the Hangar Theatre.

The Hangar is hosting the world premiere cabaret style concert Mind the Gap. From the creators of Back to the Garden and Women of Woodstock (which also had its premiere at the Hangar), this show will highlight British soul singers, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, Amy Winehouse, and Adele. Mind the Gap celebrates the legacy, the nostalgia, and the incredible mark that these women have made in the music world. Accompanied by a rock band, the performers lead by Melissa Hammans (Smokey Joe's Café, Women of Woodstock), will provide an evening of entertainment that's not to be missed.

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Once again, the Rotary and Savage Clubs of Ithaca are teaming up with the Ithaca City School District for the 7th Annual Little Apple Fall Follies - LAFF. The two hour family-friendly talent showcase will be held at Ithaca High School's Kulp Auditorium beginning at 7:00pm on Saturday, October 1st.

Proceeds from LAFF will support the community grant programs of the Ithaca Rotary Club and the Savage Club, as well as the programming of the Ithaca City School District Fine Arts Department.