Archive: Arts & Entertainment

FitzandStartz Productions launches its inaugural season in November 2016 with an original musical for all ages: Winter Tales, with book & lyrics by Rachel Lampert and music by Lesley Greene, the founders of the new company. Winter Tales runs for four performances only: Saturday, November 14 at 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM, and Saturday, November 21 at 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. All performances will be held at Kitchen Theatre Company.
 
Rebecca, who is "nine, almost ten - almost double digits," is a very bright child, a very capable child. She generally uses very good judgment. Well, most of the time. There was the time she decided to cut her own bangs. And the time she decided to re-color her room using her finger-paints. And, she once dressed up the cat in the flower girl's outfit she was supposed to wear to her Aunt Helen's wedding. But those things had happened a very long time ago.
 

Kitchen Theatre Company's 25th Anniversary Season continues with I AND YOU by Lauren Gunderson. Playwright Gunderson is intrigued by the contrast between what is on the surface and what lies underneath. She asks important questions about how we connect with others and what our legacy will be. And she boldly puts these questions and reflections into the hearts and minds of two unforgettable, offbeat teenage characters.

Caroline and Anthony have to complete an assignment for English class on the poem "Song of Myself" from Walt Whitman's epic Leaves of Grass. The push and pull between two young people from different backgrounds becomes a multi-layered conversation about Whitman's poetry and the meaning of their lives.
 

The East Shore Arts Council continues its Concerts in the Courtroom series with Pat Burke and Lora Pendleton with an afternoon of blues in the Lansing Town Hall on Sunday, November 1st at 3pm.

Lora Pendleton is a singer-songwriter and guitar player residing in Trumansburg, NY. Lora's songwriting is influenced by her love of old time country, folk, and folk rock creating a salad of sound that intrigues a wide variety of listeners.

The 2015 Fall Faculty Production features a cast of students and faculty and is directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Siouxsie Easter.

Aurora, New York— The Wells College Theatre and Dance Department is proud to present the Fall Faculty Production "A Midsummer Night's Dream," written by William Shakespeare and directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Siouxsie Easter. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" will be performed in Phipps Auditorium of Macmillan Hall on the Wells College campus on Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24. The house will open at 7:00 p.m. and the show will begin at 7:30.

Leonard Nimoy's Vincent visits the Hangar Theatre for three performances November 6th through November 8th, 2015. Author Leonard Nimoy, who passed away on February 27th of this year, dramatizes the passionate and turbulent life of Vincent van Gogh in this intimate one-man play adapted from hundreds of letters between Van Gogh and his closest ally, his brother, Theo. The play includes over 100 stunning high-resolution projections of Vincent's artwork on a large screen.

Originally performed by Mr. Nimoy himself, this production starring James Briggs, has been on tour for over two years. It is headed for an off-Broadway run in 2016. Briggs has over 100 performances of Vincent under his belt from Maine to Florida, and has also performed in many other productions in regional theaters such as The Sun Valley Repertory Company, The Asolo Theater, The Williamstown Theater Festival, and the Potomac Theater Project.

The Hangar Theatre has recruited popular local personalities and Hangar stars from their summer season to partake in the event. Four teams will compete on the Hangar stage in both a battle of charades and fundraising efforts for the theatre.  Breaking up the charades fun will be a halftime show directed by Hangar's Artistic Director Jen Waldman. Performing in the show will be recent Hangar alumni Sarah Dacey Charles, Shea Renne, Johnny Shea, and Bruce Warren who you may have seen on the Hangar stage this past summer. This year, the halftime show will be a musical tribute to Robert Moss, former Hangar Artistic Director 1982 - 1996. Mr. Moss was instrumental in the Hangar's artistic growth and the staff and board of trustees are looking forward to celebrating his accomplishments for the organization.
 

Joe Crookston's hometown celebration of art will light up the Hangar Theatre with music, movement, wine, and more. This October Jubilee will begin with an art reception featuring food and wine at 6:30pm, and will culminate in a musical exploration of beauty as Joe Crookston takes the stage with his transcendent folk music at 8 PM. Join in the sublime festivity on October 24 at the Hangar Theatre located at 801 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca, NY 14850 in Cass Park.

Whether it's the boundless folk strumming of Joe's slide guitar, or the mesmerizing acrobatic movement, this inspirational evening strives to leave the audience with a renewed sense of what is possible.

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Civic Ensemble presents On the Corner, which follows Julian, an African-American teenager, and Officer James, the white police officer who detains him, as they travel from the Wall Street slave market of 1690, to a Bronx high school in 1978.  When they disagree about the meaning of this history, their journey leads them to the heart of our divided America, and the possibility of a new future. Julian's family has sent him to Ithaca from the Bronx to keep him out of trouble. While in Ithaca, his mother passes away. This event sparks the action of the play as a chorus of four all-knowing travellers guides the Julian's journey through space and time and, ultimately, back home again.

On the Corner deepens the conversation started in Safety, Civic Ensemble's 2014 community-based play about community-police relations. While Safety sought to increase understanding between police and non-police community members, On the Corner investigates race, class, and the origin of race in the United States through the lens of the relationship between Julian and Officer James. "We see this relationship develop in a way it would be unlikely to do in real life. The chorus, and the time travel, provide an opportunity for us to imagine the possibilities without the constraints of space and time," co-playwright and co-director Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. says.

Kitchen Theatre Company continues its 25th Anniversary Season with the powerful and provocative The Mountaintop by Katori Hall. The 2010 Oliver Award winning play daringly re-imagines Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last night on Earth.
 
A weary and restless Dr. King returns to the Lorraine Motel after delivering his legendary "I've been to the mountaintop" speech at Mason Temple. He contemplates the events of the evening and what he will say the next day to further support the Memphis workers' demands. Desperate for a cup of coffee, he rings for room service. In playwright Katori Hall's vision of that night, a motel maid, Camae, arrives with not only coffee but unanticipated news of the future. Epic in its vision and intimate in its truth, The Mountaintop is a gripping story in which the larger-than-life icon confronts the meaning of his life and his destiny. Writer Hall explores Dr. King's humor, fear and expansive humanity.

"The play is a fiction, but filled with so much truth. Through Katori Hall's imagining, we are reminded of Dr. King's vision and how this extraordinary and ordinary man continues to affect the lives of so many and the destiny of his country," says KTC artistic director, Rachel Lampert.
 

Kitchen Theatre Company announced Thursday that an exhibition of new paintings by Kent Goetz, "LOOKING WITHIN: Finding Substance in the Shadows," will hang in the Judith Holliday Lobby Gallery at 417 West MLK/State Street through December 21, 2015. An opening reception is on Friday, October 2 from 5:30-7:00pm

A scene designer by profession for over 30 years, Goetz says, "I have been painting in order to create environments on stage that honor the intention of the playwright, support the natural power of the actor and engage the imagination of the audience. While I find great satisfaction collaborating with others to bring a play to life, I also find peace and gratification in the more solitary activity of studio painting. This past summer, rather than working in the theatre, I utilized the principles and techniques I have employed over the years as a scene designer into painting a series of canvases that could be enjoyed for their own beauty."

Tompkins County Public Library, in partnership with the American Association of University Women of Ithaca, will showcase a week-long book exhibit dedicated to titles about girls, their lives, achievements and potential.

On display from October 4 through October 11 in the Library's Youth Services Department, this inspiring display will feature a variety of titles appropriate for young readers and teens, including books by Beah E. Richards, Maya Ajmera, Jeannine Atkins and Malala Yousafzai.