Archive: Arts & Entertainment

For the next phase of their 2014 community-based play, Safety, Civic Ensemble will host two Brainstorming sessions.  Every year, Civic Ensemble mounts a community-based play which is collaboratively written with community members and performed by a self-selected cast from the community. The topic of their next production is community-police relations and how these relationships can both help and hinder the cohesion of the community.

“Civic Ensemble is committed to creating an environment in which the community can examine different points of view without judgment," says Artistic Director Godfrey Simmons. "This project uses collaboratively created storytelling to address the divisions in our community with regard to policing and public safety.”

SMART TALK SMART TALK

Dr. Perse Nickety

THE SULLIVAN’S: I see this sign in front of a neighbor’s house every day. At the Center for English as a First Language, we like to ask patients who commit this error, “So who’s The Sullivan?” They look very confused at first, because they don’t realize what the sign really says.

The same patients may also see nothing wrong with “Apple’s For Sale”. Maybe they don’t observe what they read, or they zoned out when the purpose of apostrophes was (repeatedly) explained in school, or they’re just fatuous, like the poor dears who say “I feel badly about that” instead of the correct bad.

THE SULLIVAN’S says one person known as The Sullivan really wants you to know that he or she owns the place.

SULLIVAN’S sounds like an Irish bar owned by someone named Sullivan.

THE SULLIVANS’ proclaims ownership by more than one Sullivan, probably a family.

THE SULLIVAN FAMILY makes that very clear, but simple language is always better language, and we don’t need three words.

THE SULLIVANS uses just two words and announces that two or more Sullivans live there. See? It’s just a plural. No apostrophe necessary. Why make things more complicated, not to mention wrong?

SULLIVAN does the job most elegantly, in a single word. Do we need more? People are driving by; why give them more to read? Using superfluous words or even letters is too much like spelling the address number on the front of the house — “Four fifty nine” rather than a merciful 459.

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Emma Frisch, Ithaca resident, co-founder of PEAKS and former Program Director at Cornell Cooperative Extension, will be competing on Season 10 of the Food Network’s most exciting reality cooking competition 'Food Network Star'. Shot in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, this season kicks off with a one-hour premiere on Sunday, June 1st at 9pm ET/PT, and the winner will be named in the season finale on Sunday, August 10th at 9pm ET/PT.”

According to Food Network’s website, “The twelve new contenders are put to the test in a season filled with unique competitions challenging their kitchen and on-camera chops, to find out who has the talent and charisma to follow in Alton, Giada and Bobby’s footsteps and helm their own show. Exclusive web series Star Salvation also returns, giving one eliminated contestant the opportunity to rejoin the on-air competition, which culminates in an audience vote to determine who wins the ultimate prize - their own show on Food Network.

CSMA’s musical theater camp, Star Search, is gearing up for its 20th year.  As part of preparations for the 20th season, faculty and former participants will present an evening of information and exploration, where members of the public can come to observe, invent and ask questions about this unique musical theatre camp.  There will be performances and interactive demonstrations of choreography, music and stage combat.  The info session will take place in CSMA’s historic Third Floor Space, on May 28th from 7-8 PM.  Anyone is welcome to bring their questions and their creativity.

Star Search is an exceptional, immersive experience in musical theatre. Over the course of ten intensive days of musical theater exploration, kids will rehearse, produce and perform an original play. The instructors, Holly Adams, Doreen Alsen, and Elizabeth Livesay, work with young performers to help them discover their talents and embrace their originality.

Kitchen Theatre Company's experimental Kitchen Sink Series is bringing a new play by young playwright Louisa Hill to the Kitchen stage. 'The Lord Of The Underworld's Home For Unwed Mothers' is a modern re-telling of the Demeter and Persephone myth set in the 1960s and 1990s, exploring the politics of motherhood.

When Dee meets the daughter she was forced to give up 25 years ago, the reunion is less than ideal. To show her Death Metal enthusiast daughter, Corie, that she wasn't given up out of selfishness, Dee must return to her teenage memories of Catholic, middle-class life in the 1960s to explain how the choice was never hers to make. But the despondent Corie, whose turbulent childhood consisted of being shipped from one foster home to the next, has a secret of her own. A tale of love, loss, and some heavy metal, running for two nights only! May 16 and 17 at 4pm.

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Civic Ensemble continues work on their 2014 community-based play, Safety, which explores community police-relations. Every year, Civic Ensemble recruits a group of community members to develop, create, and perform an original play about a topic of importance to the community. The topic of the company's next production is community-police relations and how these relationships can both help and hinder our cohesion as a community.

The first step in this process is a series of story circles, individual interviews and an online survey available for both civilians and law enforcement. During a story circle the group will be given a prompt related to the topic of community-police relations and each individual will have a chance to share if they want to. This is a chance for civilians to share their experiences. Civic Ensemble has been conducting circles for the past six months at various locations in Ithaca. All participants can request that their stories remain anonymous.

The Ithaca Community Fine Arts Booster Group (FABG), an affiliate of the Ithaca Public Education Initiative (IPEI), has received funds from the Carol J. Buckley Scholarship for Students in the Arts Fund, administered by IPEI.  This grant supported Boynton and DeWitt Middle School students with spring music trip scholarships.

David Brown, Ithaca City School District (ICSD) Fine and Performing Arts Director, articulates the value of student music trips to festivals and competitions, “Music education happens in so many places.  It starts in the classroom and goes to the home where students practice and is enhanced by opportunities that teachers give students when they travel and perform for world renowned adjudicators.  We are so pleased to give students in ICSD the opportunities to travel to places and show their hard work and talents.  We are also so appreciative of the grants made available by the FABG and and IPEI.”


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It's the Princess and the Pea as you've never seen it before -- complete with a silent king, a domineering queen, and a princess named Fred. Running to Places’ “Once Upon a Mattress,” May 16 and 17 at the State Theatre of Ithaca, is the perfect show for families to enjoy together; it’s the hilarious musical that made Carol Burnett a star.

“Mattress” retells the familiar Hans Christian Anderson story with lots of comedy and plenty of romance. With King Sextimus (Will Westlake) under a curse of silence, Queen Aggravain (Bretana Turkon) has taken charge of the kingdom. She’s declared that no one can marry until the wedding of Prince Dauntless the Drab (Matthew Skrovan), but none of his prospective brides can pass the queen’s impossible tests. It seems poor pregnant Lady Larken (Maddie Vandenberg) will never be able to marry her love Sir Harry (Brendan Coyle) -- until Princess Winnifred the Woebegone (Cali Newman) provides a happy ending and an end to the curse.

Aurora, New York— The Wells College art department is proud to announce this year’s Senior Thesis Exhibition. The show consists of the culminating works of Wells’ senior visual art majors Julia LaCourse, Rachel Munford, Ashlyn Loomis and Ica Stolt, featuring works that range from paintings to photography, ceramics to wood sculpture, each piece promising to bend any preconceived notions of its craft. The public is invited to attend the opening reception in the String Room Gallery on Monday, May 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. where they will have the opportunity to meet and talk with the artists. The show will run through May 17, open by appointment.

Julia Lacourse of Massena, N.Y., works with oil on canvas, inspired by a semester spent studying oil painting in Italy. Influenced heavily by feminist theory, her work focuses on the imagined reactions of women who, viewed through the male gaze, are told to look and act a certain way. Stemming from commands given to women, such as “smile,” or “kiss me” or “don’t be a bitch,” the artist depicts facial features pulled and stretched by needle and thread.

Theatre Incognita, Ithaca's own ‘theater without walls’ is celebrating 5 years! So why not throw a party! At the Hangar! A two-play party with local actors whose ages range from 10 to 82!

As one-half of the party, Incognita is presenting a brand new, youth-driven production of Romeo and Juliet. Eleven teens (and kids) provide the fire of a younger generation, along with nine area stage veterans playing the older generation still in power.