Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Wake up your noggin, tinker with your thinker, and test your problem-solving skills at the Sciencenter's fall exhibition, 'Brain Teasers' opening Saturday, September 27.

Created and toured by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, 'Brain Teasers 2' offers an array of hands-on puzzles that encourage kids to think outside of the box, and perhaps even give them new appreciation of what their brains can do.

The Rotary and Savage Clubs of Ithaca are teaming up with the Ithaca City School District (ICSD)’s Fine and Performing Arts Program for the 5th Annual Little Apple Fall Follies – LAFF – scheduled for Saturday, September 27, 2014 at 7:00 p.m. at the Ithaca High School’s Kulp Auditorium.   This two hour show features a wide array of talented local performers.

Proceeds from the show will go to community grants for area youth arts programs and one third to the ICSD for fine and performing arts.
 The 5th Annual LAFF Show is the kickoff event of the Ithaca Apple Harvest Festival.

Back to the Garden, a musical tribute to folk-rock trailblazers Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Laura Nyro is returning to the Hangar Theatre on September 19 and 20 at 8pm.

The show is performed by three extraordinary talents -- show creator Melissa Hammans and vocalists Maddy Wyatt and Shaleah Adkisson.  They are accompanied by a live band, Back to the Garden features some of the most-loved songs by King, Mitchell, and Nyro, including "I feel the Earth Move", "Stony End" and "Big Yellow Taxi". Audience members who enjoyed the show at its sold-out engagement last fall will hear some familiar favorites this year, as well as several new songs: "Natural Woman", "One Fine Day" by Carol, and "Stoned Soul Picnic".

New college graduates with a passion for the arts and a degree in the field often find it is hard to land that first job. Theater is a highly competitive field, whether it is one's dream to be on-stage, backstage or in the administrative office. For many, the first step includes an internship. Six recent college graduates have joined Kitchen Theatre Company for season-long internships starting now and finishing in June 2015.

Kitchen Theatre Company's Resident Professional Intern Program is now in its ninth year. It started with two positions and has grown to six season-long intern positions. Interns come to the Kitchen with skills and training and use their time with us to gain additional skills and learn the workings of a professional company. The program began with support from Jerry Dietz of C.S.P. Management.  This support continues today with additional help from the Lane Family Fund at Community Foundation of Tompkins County as well as support from individual donors and friends.

Endicott, NY - The movie version of Into the Woods won't be out for months, but no need to wait: a powerful new production opens at the Cider Mill Playhouse (CMP) on September 18 and runs through October 12, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 pm.

With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine, this show pushes the envelope – and CMP director Kevin Crewel pushes the show itself, unafraid to explore the inner angst of the characters. Like the original Brothers Grimm stories, this production of Into the Woods proves that fairy tales tell deeper truths.

Civic Ensemble opens its second Annual Community-Based play, 'Safety' on Friday, September 19th. The topic of the play is community / police relations. 'Safety' has been developed over the course of 12 months with input from civilian community members and police officers.

Eleven members of the Ithaca community make up the cast of Safety: Blane Bent, Gabriela Borges, Larisa Camacho Lillie, Deborah Campbell, Rachel Cullenen, Ed Dvorak, Lisa Ellin, Rudy Gerson, Tin Ho, Danny Marte,  and Valerie Sykes. They range in ages from 16-70 and come from a variety of backgrounds.

The cast has been working together since early July to put the play together. The play is comprised of stories told by community members and interviews with law enforcement officers conducted between September 2013 and August 2014. Additionally, several Ithaca Police Department officers, including Chief John Barber, visited the cast to discuss police viewpoints on community and police. There will also be original writing and devised scenes included in the play.

Civic Ensemble is holding two weekends of performances; the first is at Lehman Alternatives Community School and the second is a mini-tour reaching both the Cornell and Ithaca College Campuses, the Latino Festival and Calvary Baptist Church. Partial proceeds from the final performance on Sunday, September 28 at Calvary Baptist Church at 6pm will go to South Side Community Center.

"Lincoln: the Constitution and the Civil War," a nationally traveling exhibition exploring Abraham Lincoln's struggle to meet the constitutional challenges of the Civil War, will open September 26 at the Tompkins County Public Library.

This 1,000 square foot, thematic exhibit offers an intriguing perspective of the challenges America's much-heralded 16th president faced during the Civil War and describes his use of the Constitution as a guide for tackling the major issues of the war—secession of Southern states, slavery and wartime civil liberties.

Aurora, New York—Wells College’s String Room Gallery presents the exhibition 'Illusion,' a solo exhibition by Brooklyn-based photographer Julia Forrest on display from September 11 to October 8, 2014. The public is cordially invited to join the artist for a free opening reception on Thursday, September 11, from 6 to 8 pm.

Forrest’s photography is rooted in traditional Black and White darkroom processes, exploring the unique visual and spatial possibilities of images created solely in the lens. Describing her process as '[challenging] the notion of the landscape by referencing what makes a photograph,' Forrest depicts her female subjects enacting interventions on the pictorial logic of the photograph itself.

The 2014-15 Kitchen Theatre Company season opens with the world premiere of The House by Brian Parks. Downsizing-couple Martyn and Shanny have struck a For Sale By Owner deal with upsizing-couple, Lindsay and Fischer. What starts as a simple transaction, selling and buying a house, deliciously spirals into a hilarious, irreverent, uncensored, winner-takes-all free-for-all. Margarett Perry directs. Tyler M. Perry is the set and lighting designer. Lisa Boquist is costume designer and Lesley Greene the sound designer. Underwriters are Elissa Cogan and Barry Chester. Media sponsor is Cayuga Radio Group. Previews September 10-12, opening night is September 13. The play runs through September 28.

Downsizing couple, Martyn and Shanny, have struck a For Sale By Owner deal with upsizing couple, Lindsay and Fischer. The empty nesters are set to move to a condo, and the young couple is ready to move in and start a family. But a house full of everything a family accumulates is a lot to pack, so the new owners have given the sellers a few weeks to finish the job.

SMART TALK SMART TALK

by Dr. Tempus Fugit

 

YEAR ANNIVERSARY: Down the road in Los Libidos, Texas, a group of full-time moms meets monthly over coffee and baked goods. Living in a college town, they often compare fears about all the strangers in town. After all, these students come to Bedspring Tech from all over the world, you know. Not that they're prejudiced, or anything. Oh, no. Perish forbid. They love everybody, but…

 

You can’t be too careful, you know, so they agreed to form themselves into a neighborhood watch organization.

 

They came to our attention at the Center for English as a First Language, up here in Underbelly, because we heard I.M. Green, “The Voice of Bedspring Tech,” announce on KBUL that they were celebrating their third year anniversary of watchful vigilance.

 

Anniversary, of course, is related to annual, which means once a year. Your birthday is the anniversary of your birth. And you don’t say third year birthday, just third birthday. I hope. No need to sound dumb and stick year in there.

 

So let’s get it right: It’s the third anniversary for these guardians of peace, justice, and the American Way. Let’s hear it for the Mighty Muffin Power Rangers.

 

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SMART TALK SMART TALK

Dr. I. M. Sirius

ANXIOUS: At the Center for English as a First Language, we’ve interviewed many prospective patients, such as Senator James Corvid, who exclaimed, “Ah’m so anxious to learn from yew! Ah wont to sound smort.” Obviously, we signed him up immediately.

Instead, Mr. Corvid should have felt anxious about all the hard work ahead, because we found lots of other problems to treat, such as saying “I feel badly.”

First, he had to understand that anxiety feels bad. It’s what he feels from the cognitive dissonance of claiming to believe the teachings he hears from Rev. “Red” Johnson at The Complete and Total Faith Church of the Whole Entire World, while he spends the rest of the week opposing  medical care for the poor. The man does take a lot of Tums.

Of course, he should have said “I’m so eager to learn from you.” He shouldn’t ever say anxious when he means eager, or excited, or some other positive adjective.

Anxious and eager aren’t hard words. We’re constantly surprised at the multitudes who seem to think they’re synonyms.

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SMART TALK SMART TALK

by Dr. Molto Breve

REACHED A CRESCENDO/ROSE TO A CRESCENDO: Some of us therapists at the Center for English as a First Language are amateur musicians, and we want to scream when we hear some ignoramus say reached a crescendo or rose to a crescendo. Sometimes I do scream, and not just because I’m Italian-American.

It’s like saying that the moon has reached a wane, or set the thermostat to warmer, or speeded up to an acceleration.

Crescendo as a verb means get louder, and as a noun means a rise in volume. Sometimes a composer will ask for a crescendo from very soft to soft. It never means a particular level. It doesn’t even mean loud.

Crescendo always indicates only an increase in volume. It’s no more a point than is wane, warmer, or acceleration.

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