Archive: Arts & Entertainment

I have long loved the song, 'Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby' but I didn't know anything about it until I looked it up a couple of weeks ago.  It was probably the grammar that got my attention, but I love the smoky melodies and sub-melodies woven into it.  I thought it was written to be sing by a woman, and thought it must have been written for Dinah Washington or possibly the Glenn Miller Band.  Diana Krall does a lovely, sultry version of it.  But it turns out that a lot of male singers have covered it, including Cab Calloway, Charlie Pride, Bing Crosby, and B.B. King, not to mention Tom, the cat in the old Tom and Jerry cartoons (actually sung by Ira Woods).  It turns out it was written by Louis Jordan and Billy Austin in 1944, when Jordan released it on the B-side of his 'G.I. Jive' single.

Jordan's recording is included on a wonderful, expanded version of the album, The Best of Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five.  It includes many old hits that you'll recognize like 'Choo Choo Ch'Boogie', first recorded by Jordan and his band in 1946, and 'Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin', which Jordan wrote with Joe Green and recorded that same year.  If you are looking for an album that will make you smile, this is the one.

Continuing its Mainstage Season, the Hangar Theatre presents The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted by Steven Canny and John Nicholson. This production will be directed by Mark Shanahan, who made his Hangar Theatre directing debut with last season's production of Other Desert Cities.  This family friendly show will run from July 16, until July 25, 2015.

In this adaption of the classic Sherlock Holmes tale, the story is told as a play within a play. Three actors play all the roles in the story, relying on costumes, props, and a little imagination to make the story come to life.  In this show, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson journey to the English country side to investigate the case of the Baskerville family.  A strange, unknown force is killing off the male heirs of the Baskervilles family one by one and it is up to Holmes and Watson to discover who, or what is responsible.
 

Civic Ensemble will present a staged reading of Incident at Vichy by Arthur Miller. The reading will take place at on July 27th at 7:00pm at the Kitchen Theatre Company.

Incident at Vichy is about a group of men detained by German officers during World War II upon suspicion of being Jewish. As the men begin to understand why they have been detained, they begin to react with fear and anger, yet none try to escape. Incident at Vichy offers a view of why the Nazis were able to perpetrate the Holocaust for so long due to denial and complicity.

CRS Barn Studio is delighted to announce its twenty-fifth season of high quality, entertaining music and dance events at the CRS Barn Studio, one of Ithaca's most attractive summer performance venues. Artistic directors Steven Stull and Jeanne Goddard will kick off the silver anniversary season with Songs for a Summer Night: An Evening of Arias and Duets, with performances Friday through Sunday, July 24, 25, and 26 at 7:30 PM.
The varied program includes operatic favorites from Handel, Mozart, and Rossini, and popular songs and duets from musical theatre. As always, performances will take place in a beautiful outdoor setting with spectacular views of Cayuga Lake. In case of rain, performances will move to the indoor stage.

Continuing its Mainstage Season, the Hangar Theatre's artistic director Jen Waldman will direct the musical Spring Awakening by Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik, June 25 until July 11, 2015. This rock musical, based on the play by Frank Wedekin features a young cast of performers who's vibrant and electrifying performances light up the stage. Join the cast, crew, and Hangar staff on opening night, Friday, June 26 at 8pm at the Hangar Theatre, located at 801 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca, NY 14850 near Cass Park. Spring Awakening is recommended for mature audiences.

Spring Awakening explores self-discovery and what it means to experience love and loss.  Set in a small 19th - century German town, Melchior (Robert Ariza), Wendla (Kelsey Lake), Moritz (Johnny Shea) and the rest of their classmates begin to experience changes that confuse and fascinate them, but coming from a society where "the birds and the bees" discussion is frowned upon, the students are confronted with the struggle of dealing with these changes without guidance.  The blended sound of both rock and roll and folk music heighten the stakes and make this show a theatrical experience like no other.

God of Carnage is a comedy of manners, without the manners that is especially relatable to those who are parents. Join the cast, crew, and Hangar staff on opening night, Friday, June 12 at 8pm at the Hangar Theatre, located at 801 Taughannock Blvd, Ithaca, NY 14850 in Cass Park.
God of Carnage is recommended for mature audiences.
 
This play tells the story of what happens when two sets of parents meet following an incident involving their 11 year olds sons on the playground. Their children's altercation involves one boy getting his tooth knocked out, their parents meet to discuss what had happened.  Conflicting personalities bring out the worst in these couples as they soon prove that they are just as bad as their children.

Writer/performer Alice Eve Cohen, whose solo play What I Thought I Knew closed the 2012-2013 Kitchen Theatre Company season, is back with another play to close another successful season at the Kitchen. Thin Walls is a one-woman play set in a century-old New York City residential hotel, once elegant but now crumbling. This darkly humorous and moving play interweaves stories of the building's long-term residents, its recent arrivals, and its ghosts. Audiences who loved What I Thought I Knew will love this one too! Thin Walls opens for previews on June 10, press opening is on June 13, and performances run through June 28.
 
Alice Eve Cohen is a writer and solo theatre artist. Her new book, The Year My Mother Came Back, was published by Algonquin Books in March. Her first memoir, What I Thought I Knew (Viking / Penguin) won the Elle magazine Grand Prize for Nonfiction, Oprah Magazine's 25 Best Books of Summer, and Salon's Best Books of the Year.

The Gallery@FOUND will feature painter Kari Ganoung Ruiz to the Gallery for the month of June.

Ruiz was raised at the edge of The Finger Lakes National Forest – which set the stage for her deep connection to the natural landscape. After earning a B.S. in Fine Art from Ashland University in Ohio, she returned to Central NY. She and her husband Diego Ruiz (Stereo Photographer and Stained Glass artist) now live in Union Springs on the north end of Cayuga Lake.

The material culture of history is as varied as the people who live in a community. Objects from cookware to coverlets, from paintings to petticoats all tell the story of the people who came before us. History museums collect many things that don't always seem obviously 'historical.'

But these artifacts reflect the myriad aspects of everyday life and teach us about how our predecessors lived, how they worked, what they wore, and what kind of people they were. This exhibit features some of the oldest things in our collections and represents the many different kinds of things that we preserve. In addition to the many common articles we will display, we will highlight one item from our Special Collections: discharge papers from the Revolutionary War signed by General George Washington.

The circus is coming to town.  The Cole Bros. Circus is coming to the Shops at Ithaca Mall June 4th and 5th.

'To The Max' is a show for both the young, and the young at heart, featuring the world's most celebrated Circus acts. Making their Cole Bros. debut this year, The Aguilar Family presents both breathtaking thrills, and poised and polished perfection on the high wire. The animal world is well represented by Nerger's Tenacious Tigers, Fassio's Clever Canines, and our enduring audience favorites, the Cole Bros. Circus Elephants. Lana & Company bring magic and mystery to the center ring, and our mercurial motorcycle maniacs tempt fate in the Globe of Death. Commander Christian ends the show with a 'Bang', as he flies fearlessly forward, blasted from the barrel of the World's Largest Cannon.

Something 'strange' is coming to the Sciencenter! Uncover the surprising science behind everyday stuff and get a glimpse of where materials research might take us when 'Strange Matter' materializes on May 23.

Guests of all ages can investigate the structure of materials and their intriguing and remarkable properties in this exhibition filled with hands-on technologies and interactive experiences. 'Strange Matter' captures advanced materials used in high-tech fields such as the space program and cardiac surgery and reveals them in more common places, from the shoes that you wear and the dishes you eat off of to the DVDs you watch and the bike or skateboard you ride.