Archive: Arts & Entertainment

After a nationwide search, the Hangar Theatre announces the appointment of Michael Barakiva as Artistic Director. His tenure will begin immediately as he transitions from Interim to full-time Artistic Director. Barakiva will be the Hangar's first full-time, in residence Artistic Director.

As the Interim Artistic Director, Barakiva directed Third and I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti for the Hangar's 2016 Season, which were both critical and popular successes.  Prior to this season, Barakiva had been a Hangar Directing Fellow in 2001 and a director for the Hangar School Tour in 2003.

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.

Synopsis: It's 1939, and the Depression has reduced the Carter Family Savoyard from a thriving theatrical company to a troupe of four singers. When a theater manager insists that they perform a full version of Pirates of Penzance, anyone and everyone is recruited to make it happen. Precious Nonsense is a backstage/onstage, tour de force for seven players, packed with mistaken identities, romantic entanglements on the boards and in the dressing rooms and a do-or-die determination that gender-bending role-playing. Fun for the whole family. (Ages 7+)

Storm Country is an immersive headphone play designed to accompany an exploratory journey through Ithaca's West End. Co-written by Ithaca artists Nick Salvato and Aoise Stratford, Storm Country plunges listeners into a soundscape of voices, music, and environments as they encounter the histories and ghosts of Ithaca's Cayuga Inlet and its surroundings.  The play kicks off the the Cherry Arts 2016-17 season beginning September 9th.

Storm Country marks the Ithaca area's first exploration of the 'headphone play:' an experimental theatrical genre, emergent over the last decade, in which combinations of voice, ambient sound, and movement guide audiences through a layered experience of a place. Innovating within this exciting form, Storm Country interweaves the geographical and historical truths of Ithaca's West End withTess of the Storm Country, an iconic fiction of this part of the city.

A concert of music by Pulitzer Prize winner Julia Wolfe and noted new music composer Michael Gordon, 8 P.M. on September 15 in Sage Chapel, will kick off a series of fall events at Cornell on "Technologies of Memory."

"We're thrilled to be hosting this concert," says Jonathan Boyarin, the Hendrix Director for the Cornell Jewish Studies Program. "Not only is the work of Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon some of the most compelling new music being created today, but much of it speaks to the difficult history of the twentieth century that 'Technologies of Memory' is meant to address."

Twenty-five stunning visual images go on display in Cornell's Malott Hall on Sept. 12, in "SymmetryScapes: An Exhibition of Mathematical Art." Artist Frank Farris created the display's aluminum prints, purchased by Cornell's math department, to celebrate the beauty and diversity of symmetry. The exhibit runs until Dec. 12, when it will move temporarily to the Sciencenter in Ithaca. Viewing hours are Mon.-Thurs. 8 am to 8 pm, Fri. 8 am to 4 pm, and Sun. 1-5 pm, on the fourth floor of Malott Hall. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

Farris, a mathematician at Santa Clara University, points out that symmetry seems to be a universal human experience: every known decorative culture produces some version of repeat patterns. "We all seem to take delight in seeing that one part of a pattern exactly matches another. Symmetry connects to the rhythms of our bodies and the cycles of the seasons, making it a sort of comfort food for our eyes."

Kitchen Theatre Company opens its 26th Main Stage Season with the regional premiere of Robert Askins' delightfully shocking Hand to God, directed by Rachel Lampert, September 4-September 25. Previews begin Sunday September 4 with Opening Night on Thursday September 8.
 
Nominated for 5 Tony Awards, Hand To God is irreverent, hilarious and profoundly truthful about the human condition and its relationship to death, religion, sexuality, and family dynamics. Kitchen Theatre Company's cast includes Karl Gregory* (Jason/Tyrone), Erica Steinhagen* (Margery), Aundre Seals (Pastor Greg), Montana Lampert Hoover* (Jessica), Michael Patrick Trimm (Timothy) - and some very rude puppets. (*Member, Actors' Equity Association)
 

Aurora, New York - The Wells College String Room Gallery is pleased to present Analog Futures, a group exhibition organized by guest curator Laura McGough. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 1, from 6 to 8 p.m., and will feature a performance entitled "Ritual for Hybrid Media" at 7:30 p.m. by exhibiting artist Jason Bernagozzi. This exhibition is free and open to the public and will be on view until October 14.

Analog Futures features work by two generations of artists who emphasize the material and sculptural potential of media technology: Aldo Tambellini, Brandon Barr, Jason Bernagozzi and the collaborative partners known as LoVid. Beginning in the 1960s, Tambellini has played an influential role in video and new media art practice. His manipulated cathode ray tubes, known as "prepared" television sets, produced engrossing, abstracted visual alternatives to conventional televised content. Prefaced by documentation of this influential work, Analog Futures presents artworks that demonstrate the unique aesthetic vocabulary made possible by artists' purposeful exploitation of the inner workings of electronic media devices.

The Cherry Arts, Inc., Ithaca's newest professional, innovative theater arts organization, announced its 2016-2017 production season: a season comprised entirely of world and English language premieres.  The season reflects The Cherry Arts' commitment to work that is 'radially local, radically international, and seriously fresh.'

Beginning in September with Storm Country, an inventive 'headphone play' that guides audiences through an immersive experience of the true and fictional histories of Ithaca's West End, the season goes on to feature What Happens Next, a newly commissioned multimedia play from internationally-produced Cherry playwright Saviana Stanescu, as well as Winter Animals / Nothing to Do with Love, the English-language première of two beautiful one-act works by Argentine writer Santiago Loza. In December, the season features a brand-new adaptation of The Snow Queen, Hans Christian Andersen's strange and beautiful fairy tale, in a collaboration between The Cherry and Ithaca puppetry company PuppHitz.

The Cornell Department of English Creative Writing Program launches the Fall 2016 Barbara & David Zalaznick Reading Series on Thursday, September 1, 4:30pm, in Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium, Klarman Hall, with a celebration of the life and work of Goldwin Smith Professor of English Literature Emeritus James McConkey on the occasion of his 95th birthday.

James McConkey has been one of the most important and outstanding members of the literary and creative writing community at Cornell. After arriving in Ithaca in 1956, he became instrumentally involved with the new creative writing program and Epoch magazine, as well as the English department at large where he taught courses in modern fiction and nonfiction.

Photo by Ken FriedmanThe Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY will kick off its' fall season with Wrestling Jerusalem, an original piece, written and performed by Aaron Davidman. The play examines the political divisions that have affected, and continue to affect, Israeli-Palestinian society and the world at large.  Wrestling Jerusalem will run from September 7-10 with performances at 7:30 at the Hangar Theatre.  Post-show discussions will follow. The Hangar Theatre's fall season will also include Mind the Gap, The Latin and World Music of Sally Ramirez and Doug Robinson, and Burns Sisters Home for the Holiday Concert. Tickets are on sale now.

Wrestling Jerusalem follows one man's journey as he attempts to better understand the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and grapple with the numerous viewpoints and beliefs associated with it.

Triphammer Arts, Inc presents its annual choreographer's showcase, Moving Landscapes: An Evening of Dance and Music on Sunday, August 28, 2016 at 7:30 pm. Audiences will enjoy beautiful dance in a beautiful setting at the CRS Barn Studio, 2622 North Triphammer Road in Ithaca. Admission is free, with donations accepted at the door. The performance will take place rain or shine.

Moving Landscapes continues the Triphammer Arts/CRS Barn Studio tradition of bringing innovative dance and music partnerships to Ithaca audiences. Beginning with an outdoor prologue performed in the gardens, with a panoramic view of Cayuga Lake, the evening will include choreographed pieces in a variety of dance styles, as well as music-and-dance improvisations that engage audience members in a lively creative process. This is a rare opportunity to see choreographic work in all stages of development and to observe dance-making in action, in an informal setting with live music.

The Downtown Ithaca Alliance announced Thursday that multi-talented artist Saul Williams will perform in the CFCU Summer Concert Series lineup.

Williams, an American artist known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop, is headlining the Thursday, Sept. 8 on the Bernie Milton Pavilion stage.  Big Mean Sound Machine, a popular Ithaca-based funk band, is set as the opening act.  Performances will be held from 6 to 9 p.m.

Williams will be coming to Ithaca fresh off two popular music events - the Central Park Summerstage and Afropunk Festival. He is promoting his latest album Martyr Loser King, a multimedia project that engages the digital dialogue between the First and Third Worlds.